Self-employed goals

I don't find it difficult to set goals for my performance review in my paid job.  There is a process by which these are set and someone evaluates whether I've met them and about 8000 pieces of paperwork are created for this purpose.

I've got goals for my at home job as well, though only my family can assess whether they are being met and we tend to make decisions and responses about that together (without any paperwork).  My main goal relates to the health of my family.  As the weather turns markedly colder, I'm glad we've been supplementing with cod liver oil each day.  My dad has horrific memories of being made to drink this stuff, but a) the version we get from John Appleton's doesn't taste so bad and b) the vitamins A and D which it contains are totally worth any icky taste.  As the sniffles and snuffles announced themselves right on cue with the storm last night, I pulled out the zinc mixture and made it up with 'pink ink'.  Other people may note that 'pink ink' is Barker's blackcurrant syrup, but we find pink ink an entirely better name for it.  I privately think of it as the bribe bottle, as it only comes out when I want to get lotions and potions down the throats of my children.  I'm doling out a bit of ezxtra vitamin C as well, in the form of lypospheric vitamin C, though we call it gooey vitamin C.  If you've had some, you will know why.  Fionn has only had one or two puffs on his inhaler all year, and Brighid has had about half or even one third of the illness she had in the same time period last autumn, so I'm encouraged to carry on.

Monday 30 April
Breakfast: porridge/cornflakes/beetroot, fish & avocado salad
Lunch: kids had their usual kids lunch food from home.  Adults had beetroot and feta salad.  I added chopped brasil nuts to it because of the selenium and because it adds a bit more caloric energy to the salad.
Tea: pumpkin soup from yesterday's big pot, with quinoa and spinach added to it and crumpets served with it.  I also fried some sage leaves in butter and then added them to the pot.  Sage leaves fried in butter are very very excellent tasting and as I was the cook, I could choose to dip a piece of crumpet in the butter remaining after the sage was taken out. 

Yes, I'm detailing what we have for meals each day, still.  It's not hard to find derisive comments about 'mommy bloggers' and my kind of content is exactly what they scorn or parody.  But unlike other forms of address, nobody is compelled to read my blog, and I feel at liberty to write whatever works for me, knowing that others can dip in and out of my writing as they choose.  I want to keep up the food diary for at least a month, knowing that this helps keep me on track for producing home made food in preference to stopping for bought sausage rolls, pizzas, fish and chips, and gingerbread men, thereby ruining our stretched budget and lowering the quality of our food.  I've enjoyed blogging enough to write fairly regularly for almost five years and I think my writing reflects my personality: prone to obsessions but not to following fashions.

Earlier this month I decided to take up the Me Made May '12 challenge, which is all about wearing home made clothing each day for a month.  It seemed a good idea because I have loved reading the blogs and looking at the photos of others who have participated in similar challenges in the past.  Andrea of The New Vintage Wardrobe has been a particular inspiration to me.  While I hesitate to share pictures of myself online, it is also true that seeing larger, ordinary women in clothes they have sewn themselves is important validation that we are all normal, and don't need to hide ourselves in a cupboard until we reach a state of accepted thin-ness.  Maybe it is time I took my turn.  Much as I have enjoyed reading blogs of big busted women such as George's fullerfigurefullerbust, I do have a day job and personal boundaries on just how much the world will see, so it is just fully clothed pictures I'm thinking of.

Today, being the last day in April, I wore my currently favourite dress and cardigan, as if I stick to this home made challenge, I won't be wearing them again for a while.  I also bought zips, some thread and a lamp so I can finish sewing the projects I started in the weekend and have a bit more to wear for the next month.  Currently a week seems a long time for this project, but I do always have the fallback option that my bag (I hate the term 'handbag' for irrational reasons) is home made, and I do use that every week day and sometimes in the weekend.



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