Busy days mean that weeks merge into each other, apart from a possible Canal Day visit on Sunday I am determined to just relax this weekend before we go off on holiday on Monday.
Todays parcels were back up to normal levels and Deb did a sterling job as two piles of parcels nearly reached the ceiling when on the table. The postmans face at four towers of parcels and five sacks was very funny today. I hope to reduce his workload somewhat by sending some parcels via courier account on a daily basis. Now I have chosen my courier having had all the quotes in, I just need to do the maths which will tell me where the weight cut off point to send by courier is most cost effective - I could be some time with my non existant maths skills :)
The new website is being designed this week and next so that is all very exciting. I ordered some new stock for both websites today as well. I will be launching the new site before the design is applied as the template is fine and two testers checked out the payment processors and check out for me to today and all was ok there.
Some time ago Charlie finished the Galore Park sample chapter work for History and his maths too. New maths books on their way but am undecided about which way to go with History etc. Did buy a fab new timestables book in Waterstones in Oxford on Saturday afternoon and on the train home we spent the 20 minute journey doing the prime and factor number pages out loud. I love Andrew Bodie's workbooks, Charlie has the handwriting one and he likes that too as he demanded to learn cursive writing the other week so I duly purchased one of these.
He started swimming lessons last week after spending two years on the waiting list and the first lesson looked very promising, it was plainly obviously to see clear progress made during the lesson which was a relief as he usually really struggles in those situations of lots of children around him and all the instructors yelling at each group. But he seemed to manage fine. I will keep a close eye though.
We still haven't decided what, if anything to do to replace Scouts. Going out in the evenings to take him somewhere is just not that appealing to me as I am so exhausted by the end of the day that by the time I stop working and have eaten dinner all I want to do is collapse on the sofa. His 6.30 swimming lessons are a complete pain for that reason. We do have to leave here at 6pm though as otherwise we would never get a parking space which is crazy for a ten minute journey, but at least if we eat at 5 on the dot and then by the time we've cleared away and done a few chores I am not so tempted to go into the sitting room!
Definitely going to look into horse riding for him again as he has really missed it since moving here and was showing such promise and enjoyment at his old stables that it would be a shame to give it up.
I booked our holiday for next week today and he is now very,very excited. I am just looking forward to not packing parcels at all and sleeping. A lot.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Friday, September 05, 2008
Am feeling am bit bleugh today so this will be brief. Charlie jumped out of bed at 7 this morning and I dragged myself out at about 7.20 following another very disturbed night of not much sleep.
He did maths,timestables,GP History, science, english, DWN and verbal and non-verbal reasoning and had it all finished by 10am which was impressive. He was thrilled to get the rest of his day as free time. He listened to his iPod most of the day, mainly Abba I believe but some other stuff too and D saw him dancing around the room a few times when she was getting stock/boxes down :)
I am thanking my lucky stars for having found someone so competent. I say that now, perhaps I shouldn't as it could be a curse! Anyway she definitely feels up to being left alone on Wednesday to do it all so that is good news as I can get to the Autumn Fair. Will print the orders off for her before I leave and do any awkward orders on Tuesday night/very early Weds morning so it should be simple enough for her.
I was in heaven in the supermarket today as last night I downloaded a lists application for my iPhone and was able to do my shopping list on there last night and today. Walking round the supermarket and just touching the screen to tick each item off was soooooooo much easier than paper and pen. Everyone should have an iphone just for this application, I love it. Am also looking forward to using the iPhone as a remote for my iTunes.
Ex-husband managed to have me in tears over the whole maintenance stuff today, which is impressive considering we didn't even talk.
Anna came round for Charlie after school today and they spent a very happy few hours being together. I sorted out B&D's heating controls for them and B and I made plans for an MK shopping trip minus children and also plans for all of us to eat at the fantabulous Indian in the next village.
Very much looking forward to not doing any work at all this weekend. Given the lack of customers this month and dire lack of customers tonight, I think I will manage it. Trying desperately not to think of the £4.4k worth of bills that have to paid this month!
He did maths,timestables,GP History, science, english, DWN and verbal and non-verbal reasoning and had it all finished by 10am which was impressive. He was thrilled to get the rest of his day as free time. He listened to his iPod most of the day, mainly Abba I believe but some other stuff too and D saw him dancing around the room a few times when she was getting stock/boxes down :)
I am thanking my lucky stars for having found someone so competent. I say that now, perhaps I shouldn't as it could be a curse! Anyway she definitely feels up to being left alone on Wednesday to do it all so that is good news as I can get to the Autumn Fair. Will print the orders off for her before I leave and do any awkward orders on Tuesday night/very early Weds morning so it should be simple enough for her.
I was in heaven in the supermarket today as last night I downloaded a lists application for my iPhone and was able to do my shopping list on there last night and today. Walking round the supermarket and just touching the screen to tick each item off was soooooooo much easier than paper and pen. Everyone should have an iphone just for this application, I love it. Am also looking forward to using the iPhone as a remote for my iTunes.
Ex-husband managed to have me in tears over the whole maintenance stuff today, which is impressive considering we didn't even talk.
Anna came round for Charlie after school today and they spent a very happy few hours being together. I sorted out B&D's heating controls for them and B and I made plans for an MK shopping trip minus children and also plans for all of us to eat at the fantabulous Indian in the next village.
Very much looking forward to not doing any work at all this weekend. Given the lack of customers this month and dire lack of customers tonight, I think I will manage it. Trying desperately not to think of the £4.4k worth of bills that have to paid this month!
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Today went as the rest of the week has really, I still feel like I am battling against a tide of back logged jobs but actually I'm not really anymore. I am almost completely caught up on all the website stuff that needed doing, the filing and accounts are all up to date too. I think it is the number of back orders I have waiting that is the real problem. I have been waiting since July for one of my suppliers to send out the back ordered stock to me and about 80% of the customers are waiting for the same toy from this supplier. Very frustrating! I am still not convinced that allowing customers to buy out of stock stuff is the way to go.
After moving the rooms around a bit in order to enable packing,weighing and sacking to be done downstairs, the house is now nearly all sorted and those jobs caught up on. Still need curtains for my room and to get the pro's in to clean the hall and stairs carpet and paint the walls,skirting and handrail going up the stairs too. Charlie's room looks so much better with his new desk in there. I will get him the matching wardrobe soon so I can finally throw out his temporary one. Must also get someone to put up some small shelves for all his ornaments etc as they are taking over all the surfaces in his room.
Charlie did his usual maths, verbal reasoning, non verbal reasoning, times table, english, science and GP History today and once I reminded him he also did DWN. He says that he prefers the SL history as it's more informative and there is more reading so it might be that we use both once I have bought the next core.
He cooked dinner tonight, only a simple pasta with homemade cheese and tomatoe sauce but he did it all himself and got it all served up, cleared away and loaded dishwasher. We listened to a WDW podcast during dinner and are listening to the next one now, nice not to have the tv on sometimes. He also hoovered the entire house minus the stairs just now and did a great job.
I'm having a slight panic as maintenance is now 8 days late causing one direct debit to bounce, leaving rent and council tax unpaid and my bank account overdrawn when there is no overdraft facility on the account. I could swing for my ex husband sometimes. If the payment doesn't arrive tomorrow I will be forced to take some cash out of the business account so we can go food shopping. For a start I shouldn't have to do that, I am lucky that I can, but it's not the point. After 16 months now of the payment being late all the time I am getting to the end of my tether and am going to have do something now i.e go to Court. It astounds me that an intelligent grown man can blatantly flout a Court Order all the time. I am sick to death of getting the payment the month after its due! Grrrrr.
After moving the rooms around a bit in order to enable packing,weighing and sacking to be done downstairs, the house is now nearly all sorted and those jobs caught up on. Still need curtains for my room and to get the pro's in to clean the hall and stairs carpet and paint the walls,skirting and handrail going up the stairs too. Charlie's room looks so much better with his new desk in there. I will get him the matching wardrobe soon so I can finally throw out his temporary one. Must also get someone to put up some small shelves for all his ornaments etc as they are taking over all the surfaces in his room.
Charlie did his usual maths, verbal reasoning, non verbal reasoning, times table, english, science and GP History today and once I reminded him he also did DWN. He says that he prefers the SL history as it's more informative and there is more reading so it might be that we use both once I have bought the next core.
He cooked dinner tonight, only a simple pasta with homemade cheese and tomatoe sauce but he did it all himself and got it all served up, cleared away and loaded dishwasher. We listened to a WDW podcast during dinner and are listening to the next one now, nice not to have the tv on sometimes. He also hoovered the entire house minus the stairs just now and did a great job.
I'm having a slight panic as maintenance is now 8 days late causing one direct debit to bounce, leaving rent and council tax unpaid and my bank account overdrawn when there is no overdraft facility on the account. I could swing for my ex husband sometimes. If the payment doesn't arrive tomorrow I will be forced to take some cash out of the business account so we can go food shopping. For a start I shouldn't have to do that, I am lucky that I can, but it's not the point. After 16 months now of the payment being late all the time I am getting to the end of my tether and am going to have do something now i.e go to Court. It astounds me that an intelligent grown man can blatantly flout a Court Order all the time. I am sick to death of getting the payment the month after its due! Grrrrr.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Wednesday
I couldn't think of an apt word for today so it's just Wednesday. Managed a slight lie in this morning which was very welcome. Usual rushing around printing off orders and putting away the rest of the stock from yesterday, plus sorting a few customer issues. I have had an unusually high amount of chargebacks over the last few weeks so had to supply some evidence for those.
Got Charlie started with some verbal and non verbal reasoning and D arrived and made quick and excellent work of doing parcels and weighing and sacking them ready for RM. Despite today only being the second time she has had to pick the stock herself she managed it all without any assistance except for one thing. I am considering leaving her in charge on Monday so I can go to the trade fair then rather than Sunday. She is back in on Friday so will mull it over with her then.
I am enjoying have my iPhone a lot as it is very handy not having to be at the computer ALL the time to check orders and Amazon/eBay issues. Forwarding the mails to a brand new gmail account seems to have completely removed the Spam issues I had with the Blackberry.
After lunch Charlie finished off the rest of his work, English, maths, science and more Galore Park history. Must buy the text books soon actually. He was desperate to see Anna this afternoon but I knew she would come round only if she had recovered from her first day at a British school and didn't have too much homework, so it looks like she had plenty today as she didn't come round. He is really missing her, very sweet. They played a Nancy Drew pc game yesterday which they both enjoyed.
I have decided (I think) we are definitely going to go to Center Parcs this month if work allows it as the cost of hiring a car big enough to take everything we need for Devon for 7 nights, plus all the petrol would be too big. A nice four night break at CP at least means I won't be in the house for 5 days whilst the parcels are being done. Charlie is desperate to try kayaking and some other activity that I can't remember so it seems CP wins out. I will be in the Spa!
Got Charlie started with some verbal and non verbal reasoning and D arrived and made quick and excellent work of doing parcels and weighing and sacking them ready for RM. Despite today only being the second time she has had to pick the stock herself she managed it all without any assistance except for one thing. I am considering leaving her in charge on Monday so I can go to the trade fair then rather than Sunday. She is back in on Friday so will mull it over with her then.
I am enjoying have my iPhone a lot as it is very handy not having to be at the computer ALL the time to check orders and Amazon/eBay issues. Forwarding the mails to a brand new gmail account seems to have completely removed the Spam issues I had with the Blackberry.
After lunch Charlie finished off the rest of his work, English, maths, science and more Galore Park history. Must buy the text books soon actually. He was desperate to see Anna this afternoon but I knew she would come round only if she had recovered from her first day at a British school and didn't have too much homework, so it looks like she had plenty today as she didn't come round. He is really missing her, very sweet. They played a Nancy Drew pc game yesterday which they both enjoyed.
I have decided (I think) we are definitely going to go to Center Parcs this month if work allows it as the cost of hiring a car big enough to take everything we need for Devon for 7 nights, plus all the petrol would be too big. A nice four night break at CP at least means I won't be in the house for 5 days whilst the parcels are being done. Charlie is desperate to try kayaking and some other activity that I can't remember so it seems CP wins out. I will be in the Spa!
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Trying Tuesday
Charlie has been trying today, very,very,very trying, really out of character obnoxiously trying. No idea why but at least Tuesday is over now as he is in bed fast asleep.
This morning was taken up with parcels and dealing with obnoxious behaviour. Before it all kicked off Charlie did do some verbal reasoning but not much. He has a lot of catching up to do tomorrow!
After lunch he spent the afternoon at Anna's after she called round for him and finished off some essential work on Anara Toys and some on the new web site too which was a bit overdue. I have done some culling of product lines recently and once some other bits and pieces have sold off I won't be restocking those either. Once that is acheived the product lines will be nicely streamlined into mainly fast moving toys/dolls with the odd one or two slower moving lines. Turning over stock so quickly that needing to reorder several suppliers lines at least once a week if not twices feels very weird and reminds me of the first Christmas I did!
I went to retrieve Charlie from next door and stayed and chatted to Anna's mum for a while too, tried to sort out her net access for her pc but they only have an ethernet connection for it at the moment so directed her to the BT site to purchase a wireless adapter to go with their home hub. Anna has the laptop which is already wireless so she was happy anyway.
Charlie did dinner and tidied and cleaned kitchen and then was off to bed.
I am determined not to do any work tonight now. I've unpacked and checked off a big delivery and added the stock to the website and Amazon and placed a couple of orders and now that's it for a change.
This morning was taken up with parcels and dealing with obnoxious behaviour. Before it all kicked off Charlie did do some verbal reasoning but not much. He has a lot of catching up to do tomorrow!
After lunch he spent the afternoon at Anna's after she called round for him and finished off some essential work on Anara Toys and some on the new web site too which was a bit overdue. I have done some culling of product lines recently and once some other bits and pieces have sold off I won't be restocking those either. Once that is acheived the product lines will be nicely streamlined into mainly fast moving toys/dolls with the odd one or two slower moving lines. Turning over stock so quickly that needing to reorder several suppliers lines at least once a week if not twices feels very weird and reminds me of the first Christmas I did!
I went to retrieve Charlie from next door and stayed and chatted to Anna's mum for a while too, tried to sort out her net access for her pc but they only have an ethernet connection for it at the moment so directed her to the BT site to purchase a wireless adapter to go with their home hub. Anna has the laptop which is already wireless so she was happy anyway.
Charlie did dinner and tidied and cleaned kitchen and then was off to bed.
I am determined not to do any work tonight now. I've unpacked and checked off a big delivery and added the stock to the website and Amazon and placed a couple of orders and now that's it for a change.
Monday, September 01, 2008
Manic Monday
Another day, another pile of parcels but at least with help today. I think I managed to get away with only packing about 6 and D did the other 30. Even with her doing just over 3 hours today we only just managed to get them all done, weighed and sacked though in time for the postman.
Received a couple more courier quotes today, need to wait for the rest to arrive before making final decisions but that should be a big help if we make the switch for at least some of the parcels.
Charlie went next door this morning and I dragged him back at lunch but he also very helpfully cleaned my ensuite for me today. After the postman had been A & B came round for coffee and the kids went upstairs and played on the PS3 and B and I gossiped which was lovely. Then after dinner A came round whilst her mum had a mini driving lesson around the business park as she needs practice before taking her UK license test. Having to drive a manual is a big shock to her as it is all to all Americans I guess.
My iphone finally arrived today. Totally.In.Love and that is all I have to say on the subject!
Tomorrow Charlie will be spending most of the day with A again before she starts school on Wednesday so no work for him tomorrow again but back to it on Wednesday as we had got into a good "routine" with no fuss which is always excellent.
Received a couple more courier quotes today, need to wait for the rest to arrive before making final decisions but that should be a big help if we make the switch for at least some of the parcels.
Charlie went next door this morning and I dragged him back at lunch but he also very helpfully cleaned my ensuite for me today. After the postman had been A & B came round for coffee and the kids went upstairs and played on the PS3 and B and I gossiped which was lovely. Then after dinner A came round whilst her mum had a mini driving lesson around the business park as she needs practice before taking her UK license test. Having to drive a manual is a big shock to her as it is all to all Americans I guess.
My iphone finally arrived today. Totally.In.Love and that is all I have to say on the subject!
Tomorrow Charlie will be spending most of the day with A again before she starts school on Wednesday so no work for him tomorrow again but back to it on Wednesday as we had got into a good "routine" with no fuss which is always excellent.
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