Sick and tired …

Yes, yet again one of my children has a tummy bug … so I’ve been up all night and am far from bright-eyed and bushy-tailed today!  It seems like it’s one thing after another, and I have to admit I’m really sick and tired of it.  Just want to be able to concentrate on work for a little while.  I’m well aware that there are other people out there who are having it FAR tougher than we are, and I know that, in the grand scheme of things, we’re extremely lucky.  It’s just that this kind of low-grade under-the-weather-ness somehow takes the shine off life.  I guess I shouldn’t let it.  After all, I’m reading up on happiness!  Did you know that we all apparently have a happiness ’set point’ to which we return time and again, regardless of what happens to us?  So even if you win the lottery or lose a leg, within a couple of years you’ll be as happy (or unhappy!) as you always were!  Apparently, about 50% of our capacity for happiness is inherited or influenced by our first 5 years of life, a further 10% is affected by our circumstances … which leaves 40% that’s down to the attitudes and activities we choose.  According to positive psychologists, we really can make ourselves happier.  I’m working on it!

However, as part of my quest I think I might have to renounce our materialistic modern society and go and live in the Himalayas.  My latest bedtime book is by Matthieu Ricard - ‘Happiness: a guide to developing life’s most important skill’.  He’s A Buddhist monk who spends most of his time in a monastery or hermitage up in the mountains, and he makes it sound amazing.  Slightly ironic that I was reading it yesterday after a day braving the Oxford Street crowds to go Christmas shopping!

I somehow also managed to spend £150 on smart clothes yesterday, on the basis that I need to start going to a few more networking events and I don’t really think my normal slummy mummy attire would make the right impression!  Any excuse.  It’s just a shame that silk tops don’t count as valid business expenses.

Anyway, as far as business goes, I am making very - s - l - o - w - progress.  Just putting the finishing touches to a presentation that I am going to send out to potential partners, to see if I can get a suitable corporate sponsor or two.  More than anything else I need some help spreading the word about Mummo, so if anyone’s got any ideas as to how I can do it on a shoestring budget, please do let me know!

Back soon, hopefully in more of a Pollyanna mood …

Phew!

All I can say is that I’m breathing a huge sigh of relief that last week is over!  (And yes, I do realise we’re already nearly halfway through this week - scary!)  So much for all my plans of getting glammed up and swanning into London for the various Enterprise Week events … I was far too busy mopping up sick and wiping bottoms instead!  Both our little ones were struck down with yet another tummy bug, and the nanny was due to fly off to Prague at the weekend.  Much as I would have loved to, I didn’t really feel I could expect her to work, just in case it ruined her trip and she never forgave me and I got blacklisted as the worst employer ever, that kind of thing.  I am a great believer in karma.  So there I was back on mummy duty and loving every minute of it, as I’m sure you can imagine!  But every cloud has a silver lining and, if nothing else, it renewed my enthusiasm for work!

And I can still say that having just spent hours trying to send a simple email newsletter.  How big a deal can that be?  It seems it’s quite straightforward if you don’t mind it looking rubbish and not being personalised at all, but as soon as you want to mail merge fields and give it some kind of design presence, it all goes to pot.  Or at least mine did!  So if by any chance you’re reading this having received one, I’m sorry, it should’ve had your name in.  Oh well, next time …