Striking mums Tricks and Catching up!

Anyone watching my twitter feed or blog this morning will see that I've been desperately trying to catch up with a flurry of blogposts that I've not been able to write this week as Miss T has been poorly. So this morning has already seen J's review of Kirby Triple Deluxe, and then a little teaser post about a special guest post we've got coming up next week, then it was a special mention for Children in Need again this year. You may remember from last year that J is a big Pudsey fan!  And the final post to squeeze in this morning is one that's been sat in drafts all week but I haven't got around to uploading it...It is this week's Striking Mums post.

Despite the title of this weeks striking mums being about trick or treat, I was relieved to see it wasn't actually about Halloween. (We do our best to avoid all things Halloween at this time of year).

This weeks prompt questions from Kate are all about tricks...

1. How do you outwit people or circumstances who prevent you getting the life you want?

I'm struggling to answer the first two questions here so I'm going to pass. 

2. What clever parenting tricks do you pull off regularly?

Pass. 

3. What is your top time-saving trick?

Just don't procrastinate. Although I'm always on the go and there are always things to be done - I can be really bad at procrastinating when it comes to something important that I want to do properly and well. I end up putting it off for ages. So for me it would be just to get on with things and not be such a perfectionist at times. 

4. What is your top housework trick?

I don't have time for housework. Whereas some people might have a certain day or time set aside each week for housework, I don't. So it needs to be somehow squeezed in and the only way I can get it done is with a 'one and done' approach. My previous boss at work adopted the 'one and done' approach for emails and dealt with each the very first time she read it so it could be dealt with and deleted. So I try to do the same with jobs around the house. If something needs doing it has to be done there and then otherwise it doesn't get done.

So I suppose my trick is to just do little bits and pieces as and when you can to try to stay on top of the housework. 

Sometimes I use a messy situation as an opportunity to get a bit of housework done. For example, Miss T had a potty spill the other morning. Instead of just cleaning up the spillage, I used the opportunity to mop the whole room. 

5. Have you ever carried out a practical joke? How did it go?

I'm sure I must have done at some point but nothing obvious comes to mind. 

We did give a Christmas secret Santa gift a few years ago that was intended as a joke but the recipient didn't realise. We meet up with a group of friends each month and in our November meet up we'd got onto talking about those cake slice servers that look like a shoe. In conclusion we all had a giggle about how overpriced they were and wondered why anyone would buy one. 

When we were doing our secret Santa shopping for that particular friend, we happened to spot one of these shoe slice things (and it wasn't at a huge over inflated price) so we thought it would be a good joke to get it as the gift. 

The recipient opened it, politely tried to look pleased and said thank you but inside I'm sure everyone was thinking "we only discussed just how silly this item was last month and now someone has been stupid enough to buy it as a secret Santa!". I really wanted to tell them all it was intended as a joke because of the discussion we'd had but because it was a secret Santa I couldn't say anything! (If that person is reading this at least they will know now).

6. If there was a trick of the light what would you like to see?

I have the northern lights on my bucket list of things to do. I would also love to learn more about astronomy and look at things through my (rather neglected) telescope. 

7. Have you ever been tricked and how did that feel?

I can't think of anything obvious that comes to mind but I suppose buying something and then finding it is not quite what you expected. I remember buying D some Pokemon figures online and thought I got a real bargain to get so many for £15. When they turned up they were seriously tiny and not the normal size for Pokemon figures. They'd even charged loads for postage when the whole lot were so tiny they fitted into a normal small envelope through the letterbox. I felt liked I'd been tricked but D loved them anyway so I suppose it didn't matter. 

8. If you designed your own coat of arms what colours, images and words would you include in it?

Ooh I like this question. I think we'd have a bee theme running through it with bees and the yellow and black colour scheme to tie in with our surname of 'BEESley'.  Yellow was also my mums favourite colour so yellow objects remind me of her. I was thrilled when D's new Kenwood Kmix turned up and was bright yellow. I couldn't help but think how much my mum would have loved the colour and how proud she would have been of D for his special achievement.

Our kitchen is a black and white colour scheme, and with the splash of yellow from the Kmix, I suppose it is now bee-themed colour too!

My favourite flower is the forget-me-not so they'd be included. Forget-me-nots are sometimes thought to be like weeds growing in gaps in walls and pavements but I think they are so dainty at the same time and I love how sometimes you can find them unexpectedly pink or purple coloured (is it because of the soil acidity or something?). I've loved them right from when I was just 4 or 5 years old and I still love them now. 

I always joke with my family about how I'll be remembered by them for saying 'mind my dust' whenever I'm sweeping the kitchen floor (several times a day), I'm forever telling everyone to 'mind my dust' so that they don't walk through the middle of all the crumbs and dust. So perhaps they should be the words on my coat of arms. 

Seriously though, I think I'd like some inspirational or motivational quote on there. Not quite sure what but I do remember seeing the quote 'it's never too late to be who you want to be' and I thought that was a good one. 

There would also have to be something to reflect how special my family are to me.

An apology for any typos in this post as I'm rushing to finish it in time to get Miss T to the doctor!