A Very Frustrating Day

It’s raining again. Being a Wednesday, I’m back in school first thing this morning, listening to the readers in the younger class, which again I haven’t done for a few weeks due to being poorly. I love being in with this age group as every child is at a different level in their ability, but I don’t much enjoy sitting in the classroom with wet ankles- this is one morning where I wish I was just dropping my little girl off and heading straight back home!

Reading time finishes late this morning, and so by the time I’ve got back home and dried out a bit, it’s already getting on for 10 o’clock. With Tesco due very soon, I pop the washing up into soak, and grab a quick slice of toast for breakfast as I don’t want to have to leave it just to put shopping away! The doorbell wakes up sleepy second eldest daughter, who crawls downstairs to help bring the last of the shopping into the house, as she was feeling guilty listening to me doing all the work. I guess I should be grateful, and the fact that she felt bad is the second sign this week that perhaps my family are at long last beginning to appreciate me a bit… maybe.

However, no job in this house is ever as simple as it sounds. I was in the middle of doing the breakfast washing up when the shopping arrived, so that’s still only half done and needs to be finished once I’ve put the cold food away. Putting the cold food away though means clearing out the fridge- another job that is left over from my days of being poorly and no one staying on top of things in my absence. There are remains of dead grapes in their plastic boxes- only a few scrappy ones so why is the box still in there? There are a couple of carrots that have gone soft in amongst the decent newer ones, so why haven’t they been disposed of long since? Clearing out the fridge though takes time, and also shows up the fact that the drainage hole at the back is blocked, which explains why there was water on the floor under the fridge last night…

Eventually the shopping is mostly put away, the washing up finished and the washing machine loaded, but now it’s almost lunchtime. After my good start to the week and ‘Operation Tidy-Up’, I was hoping to be able to continue this morning and cleaning the bathrooms was next on my list of things to get done. However I also have an urgent order to get made up ready for posting first thing tomorrow morning, and if I now turn my attention to more housework I’ll end up letting my customer down.

It’s the same dilemma I often find myself in- if I concentrate on the housework my business gets neglected, or if I concentrate on the business my house suffers. I really don’t know how people with proper, big money-making businesses manage- maybe they all earn enough money to employ housekeepers, or maybe they don’t have five children and a husband all living at home- none of whom seem to know how to work a vacuum cleaner or even a dishcloth!! Whilst eating a quick lunch I come to the conclusion that on this occasion the customer is going to have to come first, if I can turn around a super quick order then they may well recommend me to friends and family, and their little granddaughter will get her birthday present on time.

It will also prove to me that one of my major aims for this year may well actually be possible- achieving a quicker turnaround time on my orders, meaning I can advertise myself as such, and thereby attract some of the customers who must surely be put off by having to wait three or four weeks just to receive their goods. In these days of virtual shopping, most people expect their purchases sent out the second they have checked out of any given online store. Any purchase that takes even as long as a week to arrive these days is seen as delayed, and we all frown about it and decide we’re never shopping at that particular place ever again. And indeed, with so much choice, we rarely do.

My customers do, on the whole, come to me because they like the ‘handmade’ side of my business, and generally they do accept that to buy such things takes longer than buying ‘off the shelf’. However, I often wonder just how many sales I miss out on, just because we live in a society where patience and waiting are becoming a thing of the past. If I can manage to get to the point where I can compromise, maybe only taking a week or two to get orders completed and sent out, I think I may boost my sales considerably.

Of course, in order to achieve this, I firstly need to get on top of all my outstanding orders- starting with the one I need to make up today. It’s a nice straightforward order for two bedding sets. Bedding sets aren’t terribly complicated, but do take a little while to finish, and with the way that time seems to be running away today I’m beginning to doubt whether I’ll actually be able to manage this relatively simple task.

After setting some more washing going I start by cutting out the fabric for the sets- fortunately I still have enough pieces of the filling ready cut, cutting wadding is a messy job as it tends to shed lots of tiny whiskers everywhere. Cutting done, and end of school time approaching, I just about manage to start sewing when my second daughter calls me into the living room- where she’s enjoying watching some telly. It seems our little trapped birdy friend from last week is still in the chimney somewhere, as she can hear him chirping weakly from behind the log burner!

With only ten minutes until I need to pick up my youngest, we make the decision to ignore his heart-breaking cries for now, and try to coax him out once more of us are home. Strangely enough, I now can’t settle back to my only-just-started sewing, so with time disappearing once more, I head off down to school. Once back, we wait for the other two girls to return home before trying to move the fire out again. I’m still not getting very far with my work, and now I realise that I’ve also got to get on with dinner- especially as there’s thawed meat in the fridge from yesterday! There’s noise from the chimney as we go to lift the fire away, however once again as soon as we have achieved that there’s nothing. Not a sound. My girls all spend the rest of the evening shut back in the room, with the windows open, but with no sign of the bird. I really hope that this time he did find his way out, as he can’t have long left to survive if he hasn’t.

My poor sewing once again has to take lowest priority- after a trapped bird, dinner, washing up… It’s not right for business, and it’s not how I want it to be, but there must be some way to work everything in together. Other than just keep battling through every day in the vague hope that one day I’ll finally be on top of the tidying, housework, sorting etc. and finally have some sort of routine where both sides of my life run along smoothly side by side. Perhaps the secret would have been to have a much more sorted life BEFORE starting a business? But then again… what fun would that be?!