A Spring in my Step for April
| Published: 24th April 2008 09:42 |
I'm Lauretta - a 30-something mum to two year old Luis and six month old Nadja. I'm a journalist and have lived in Petts Wood for the last 6 years. I'm married to Jamie - a great husband and father - and we now work together in offering you this site. Oh, and we've just started to offer local businesses speed networking events. My 'mum blog' as I call it, shares the stresses, strains (and the joys) of family life...
April 29
We had our final May Fayre Committee meeting last night and with so much still to do - and it's only 6 days away it's scary. We're low on volunteers at the moment - people to help out just for half an hour to serve refreshments, so I think we might end up grabbing people on the day. The whole event this year has been really well organised. It has taken months of preparation - even when a local hairdresser came in at the last minute to arrange to do hair makeovers - we have juggled lots of balls in making the event even bigger and better. Let's hope the weather holds up for the bank holiday. Now, we've just got to get our own stall sorted out and what competitions we're going to offer - trust us to leave that one until the last minute!
April 26
Today is the hottest day of the year so we were not going to waste it. I suggested we all head off to walk into Orpington - to get some exercise but Jamie's idea of heading out to the country to escape the crowds was a good one. We went all over - Well Hill Farm where we picked up home-made ice-cream and where Luis rode his bike, then on to Eynsford for a couple of hours while he played in the stream with his fishing net and Nadja just starred at the stream in amazement. Finally, we arrived in Shoreham where we had some lunch in a tearoom. I wish every day was like that!
April 24
The weather seems to be getting better these past few days which is a godsend as there's not a lot to do indoors with the kids. We've been to soft play in Orpington a couple of times but I really think they should have something more local - a kids indoor play area would be ideal. I keep saying to my husband "If we won the lottery I'd buy a triple size shop and turn it into a play centre for children" I bet it would be really popular and it would be great to sink my teeth into a big project like that - not that I'm looking for things to do - I haven't got time but then again if we won the lottery time wouldn't matter would it?! I haven't got much of a chance at winning though - I don't even play the game!
April 22
Well, it's our 3rd networking event tonight and we've certainly received a lot of interest so we're raring to go. It's been a bit of a juggling act with the kids this past week but I think we've managed really well, taking it in turns to look after them as the other works. In fact, we've been quite militant in our approach to working around each other so I think we'll be adopting this approach once mum comes back from holiday and helps with childcare.
April 17
I attended a new business networking event today. It's actually complimentary to the Speed Networking which I run, as it focuses on building relationships with people over lunch, whereas Cut to the Chase is a brief introduction to other people - and then it's up to everyone that attends to follow-up on the calls / emails. The lady who runs it is attending Cut to the Chase next week to give a short inspirational speech about Networking Effectively.
April 10
A friend of mine has started to make baby casts to see if it's something she'd like to do as a job. She's done one for Nadja - a black and white picture with Nadja's hand and foot impressions in a lovely presentation case. It really is beautiful and I would recommend this to anyone wanting to give a unique (and timeless!) present to the parents of a newborn. You can see what Nadja's looks like below. Vicki who does the casts can be emailed at Vicki vicki_gallagher1@hotmail.co.uk
