January for me is all about finding the right balance between a month of non-stop work and trying not to miss my kids like crazy.

Whilst working on building my exciting little business, I work in television as a sports producer. This means that when major sporting events are on, for example the Australian Open tennis and the Spring Racing Carnival, I don’t have ‘normal’ working hours and generally have to spend a fair bit of time away from my wonderful little family.

Luckily for us, my husband takes his holidays to coincide with this and the kids get to stay at home and spend some quality time hanging out with him.

Before I had children, when I only had to worry about me, myself and I, I didn’t realise what the juggling act was like for a working mum with small children. Before I had children, I always thought that a working mum had heaps of time to look after their children, make sure they are fed and watered and were able to work normal working hours like all normal working people.

We have two children under 3 and without opting to put them in childcare (not that we have anything against it!) and pairing it with unsociable working hours for both my husband and I, it has been a bit of a juggle with our schedules to ensure that at least one of us is home.
In saying that, I struggled a lot this time around with finding time for me. As a breastfeeding mother, I found it hard to get out of the house without the children – or at least one in particular who was attached to my chest nearly 24/7 – and that was difficult and not something that I had experienced with our first born.

So now, we have started buying lottery tickets and regularly talk about all of the things we would do if we happened to win the big one….

“We would never work again would we?” “We would buy that mansion in Brighton and the holiday house down on the Peninsula wouldn’t we?”

Ummm, yes we probably would. But on the other hand, I love my profession. I love the people I work with and the new people I meet in the environment of live sport where you don’t know what the outcome will be when you sit down to start work. I love that I still get to be creative and that that I feel I can push myself to regularly do things that I haven’t done before. And in saying all of that, as much as I absolutely adore my kids with every inch of my being, I love that I get that me time that I haven’t had for the last 9 months and that at the end of every day (when it works out!) I get to go home and snuggle my kids before they go to bed.

And that my friends, is part of the journey to finding the right balance that includes taking time for you…and now more than ever, I think is a very important part of making sure our whole household is harmonious and most importantly, extremely happy!

It was only a few years ago and I can’t quite remember what Christmas was like without kids (there’s a good chance my sleep deprived brain thanks to an 8 month old who has decided he wants to party at 2am every single morning has something to do with that!)

But to be honest, now that we have children, I look forward to it more every year. This year especially is going to be a good one for us. Our 2.5 year old is at the age where Santa can be used as a bribe for good behaviour and boy that’s a handy one to have up our sleeve!

It all started with the decoration of our Christmas tree at the start of the month. Our tree is conveniently measured at 1 metre so an angel can be delicately placed on top by the said 2.5 year old, although when the moment came I don’t think the word delicately was part of her vocabulary. Generally I am pretty pedantic when it comes to decorations but I don’t mind one bit looking at our tree this year knowing how excited she was to do it all by herself. In the whole month so far we have only had one small mishap, which may or may not have involved the tree falling over on her party loving little brother, so overall I am marking it down as a success.

To continue in the theme of how much I am loving Christmas this year, our visit to Santa was also a huge success. It was a very pleasant surprise considering my expectations were very low due to our attempt being on the way home from high intensity swimming training…and by high intensity I mean more arm digging, bubble blowing, big kicking then you can poke a stick at. And it was all topped off with our daughter’s one wish for Christmas….a cup with a straw…hell yes it is!!

Because I am so unbelievably happy with our Santa visit this year, you can take a peek at the photo in the About Us section.

Please note, we don’t have a photo from last year. I don’t want you all to think our children are this well behaved all the time. Last year we lined up at a major shopping centre for 30 minutes full of excitement only to lose the plot when we came face to face with the man himself. And here I was looking at all the other children crying while we were waiting in line thinking that will never happen to me…how wrong could a person be!

Amongst tree decorating and Santa visits, I have also been busy launching my online boutique called Oh My Golly Gosh. It’s been in the pipeline for a while and I decided to bite the bullet and get it up and running while I have been on maternity leave. Because I’ll have lots of time kicking back at home with two young children right???

Well it is finally here and I hope you enjoy shopping the collections as much as I have enjoyed selecting them. What has made it even more enjoyable is dealing with the lovely small businesses who in most cases are mothers as well and taking a plunge to do something they have always wanted to do. These brands will always have my support and I can’t wait to provide a ‘one stop shop’ so you know that by purchasing through our store, you are also supporting Australian designed clothing and accessories.

From my family to yours, I hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas and I am really looking forward to what 2016 will bring!

Ange at OMGG. x

I thought it would be suitable to include a pic of our little Christmas tree and after taking the picture, realised there are two small duplo characters that have magically appeared on the bottom branches in the last few days. Thank you ‘extremely excited about Christmas’ 2.5 year old. You always make me smile!