School, Autumn and a new chapter!

Well that is it, I now have 3 children at school and none at home!!  Bless my gorgeous little girls, they are doing brilliantly and I'm really proud of them.  We changed schools last year so that our girls could go into different classes giving them chance to make their own friends and  become their own person rather than hide behind each other.  This week is weird because mum and dad are here so our first week is not normal yet..  The school run has been good so far, we leave by 815am and walk just over a mile to get there for 845am.  It's a fun walk if its sunny but not quite so much if it's raining like it was today!!!!  It has been pouring with rain accompanied by 60mph winds!  Fun, it was so chilly in the house today I even had to turn the heating on, welcome Autumn!  The girls are still only going to school till 12 this week then 1pm next week and finally they go to full time finishing at 315pm by the 19th...I have so much on my mind till then I am beginning to feel overwhelmed!!

Firstly, our summer was awesome so different for the last 2 years.  No breakdown for me and no illness for Dad, phew!  We did a bit of camping, went to France, met friends and managed to get to the park a few times.  We had 6 weeks and even though day to day it felt long the whole thing really did go soooo quickly.  I promise I will post pictures soon but they are on my parents computer at the minute so need to get them on here first.  Kids had a blast all summer and Bill was off for nearly 3 weeks which was so wonderful.   Now I have to face reality!

I have so much I want to get done and feel I need to get done and have absolutely NO idea where or how to start.  I can't even get motivated to get running again.  I did my 10k at the end of July and knocked 8 mins off my last time which I was thrilled about but have barely run over the summer and am dreading going for my first run in the morning (6am!).   I think I may have to write a list on here so that I can maybe check things off as I go along, please be aware it is a nightmare of a list and will be all over the place!!!!  Any suggestions on how to do it, or if anyone fancies helping, I can pay you in cake!!  Oh all this below is once we have the got the girls birthday over this weekend.  Mum, dad and I spent the morning getting supplies for it and so far I think I am getting there.

Ok here goes my list!!!!!

1. Clean, 7 years of proper cleaning needs to be caught up with.  I've put this at the top but so much of can't actually be done until I've done so many of the other things on my list
2. Phoenix - I've got my Christmas stock and supplements that need to be sorted.  I have great plans but still no time at the minute and I'm really looking forward to getting my teeth into it. 
3. Put up new shelving unit which will lead into tidying the conservatory/office/phoenix space.  I look in my conservatory and just want to be ill.  It is such a mess, you can't see my desk for kids stuff that just hasn't quite made it to it's home and paperwork...where does it all come from???  This also leads to making more room in my understairs cupboard as my phoenix baskets get to go in the shelving, which then leads to me being able to put my Kenwood mixer, my slow cooker and my breadmaker in prime positions in said cupboard.  Currently, the breadmaker is stuck in a cupboard, the mixer is taking up lots of kitchen counter space as is the slow cooker, and this one is also covered with paperwork.  Any US readers, please bare in mind that my kitchen is tiny, if there is more than one person in it you can't move!!! 
4. Run, more!
5. Pray more!
6. Making weekly menu plan and then actually sticking to it.  I find meal planning one the hardest jobs I do as a mother/wife..  I need to get my weight under control, see point 7.  I've started to do this today and have made my first planned meal.  I have all the food I need for it all as I shopped online and it got delivered today!  Cooking for 4 adults and 3 kids though is a challenge as my fridge is feeling a little tight!
7. Blogging more consistently. This is fairly low on the list however much it changes but I miss it.  I spent a couple of hours checking out my old posts the other day and wow, did it bring back some memories.  Some harder than others but the pictures were awesome.  I want carry on doing that!
8. Catch up with neglected friends.  The summer played havoc with friends, we didn't see anyone really for 6 weeks and although this was great for our family, I've missed them.
9. Touch up paintwork, esp white wood work. It is all starting to look messy from where we have all knocked it!
10. Garden, we've done alot with it over the summer but it is now time to put it to bed for the winter, today's weather wasn't really conducive to that, let's hope we get some better weather soon.

Well there we go, I said it was long and that I had no idea where to start!  Sorry for such a long and rather boring post but as most of you know it is so lovely putting your heart and head on paper, as such!  I plan to come back to this post and strikethrough as I go along...wish me luck!!!!

Anyway, finish the week off and see in the girls 5th birthday, that is the plan so far.
xxxx