My wonderful husband and his new venture

Sorry it's been a while. Life keeps moving and I barely have time to think about what is happening, let alone write about it.

Hard at work

New developments in the Kirkup household: Adam is now self-employed. We mentioned in the previous 'family' post that he handed in his notice a week before Christmas due to his company unexpectedly changing his role and shift patterns.

Adam began the search for full-time job search over the festive season. Such fun, obviously. It was almost exactly a year since he was last doing this. When we first moved to Chester in Jan/Feb 2014 he had applied for over 80 full-time positions in regular minimum wage admin/data entry posts. He also applied for higher earning jobs, retail jobs and some down right peculiar jobs. One of which involved bull semen. Moving on...

Adam has a degree in English and Creative Writing. His dissertation won an award for being the best in his year and he received a prize from a publisher. He did his final year of university with our new born baby waking us up every three hours. He is one of the most talented, generous and humble people I know. How was a girl meant to do anything other than fall hopelessly in love with him? (Oh and I forgot to mention he is a grade seven pianist, a tremendous guitar player and a singer).

Needless to say I'm his biggest fan. But that's not to say he's without fault. We have been married four years now - more about married life in another post.

Anyway, Adam began this same process in Jan 2015. Applying for some of the most boring, monotonous, talent-wasting vacancies I had even seen. It was devastating for me to watch. He was only doing it for us. Doing it so we could pay the rent, afford to eat and run a car. We got thinking about what the alternatives were and suddenly the self-employed option became more than a dream. Adam has often applied with actual excitement to be a copywriter, editor or content creator. And we just thought, why not give it a go? Adam booked himself on to a four day 'Exploring Enterprise Course'  with the Prince's Trust and began to formalise exactly what it was he would concentrate on. To start a business is time consuming, costly and risky. And it feels even riskier when you are responsible for two small people.

Amazingly whilst all this was happening I got talking to a lady in a coffee shop who works at the university here. I mentioned applying for a few things there but never hearing back. Turns out she had a vacancy in her department. I have now been in the role for two weeks. I work four days a week 8.00 - 4.30, which to me is just perfect. I am, annoyingly, a bit of a morning person and by finishing early I'm home for family dinner.This is the most I have ever worked, the biggest length of time spent away from my wee ones. I am feeling... I am feeling a lot of different things about it. A post on this coming soon.

So anyway, four weeks ago Adam (as Penfold Content - check him out!) landed his first paid job. Freelancing is not the most predictable of income sources. Once you do get the work there is then invoicing. Gone are the days of a set wage coming in at a scripted time. After invoicing someone for the glorious work you have laboured over they then have 30 days to pay. When you are just starting this can obviously result in cash flow problems and have fairly large consequences. Praise the Lord, we don't have any of these type of issues currently. My new four-day-a-week wage helps take the edge off a bit.

It is a little nerve-wracking starting a new business but it's has been a joy to watch Adam so motivated and creative in his new role. There will undoubtedly be times this year when I'm incredibly sad that we can't afford a holiday or any fancy clothes, but this is all normal for the first few years and I am in support of our new venture.

Sarah

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Has anyone gone self-employed recently? Or gone back to work with a shift pattern different to before?

Let us know in the comments below.

You can find Four for the Road on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest, or you can connect with Sarah on Google+

The List: What I'm learning about being a stay-at-home dad

For the last two weeks (and for the next month at least) I have been home with the kids four days a week. Though I'm used to solo parenting, four consecutive days is a new experience for me. Here's what I'm learning:

• I am no longer allowed to shower
• Any visions of my toddler helping with laundry and sweeping, though cute, are total fantasy
• I will be unable to wear any of these clothes tomorrow
• I now have to comb and style my daughter's hair
• I do not know how to do any hairstyles appropriate for a five-year-old girl
• The other dads and male carers at toddler group would probably appreciate another guy to talk to, but are all just as nervous and socially awkward as I am
• Allow at least an additional 40 minutes to your parents' evening appointment time
• Nap times of less than one hour lead to feelings of resentment towards your child
• Nap times of over two hours lead to feelings of extreme and inexplicable guilt
• There must be after-school snacks
• Seriously, just make sure there are after-school snacks
• There aren't enough cups of tea in a day
• This was a terrible fortnight to try and give up sugar

Most importantly I'm learning to slow down. To switch off the business/blogging/housework/worrying part of my brain and just enjoy the moment with my little ones. Because when you're out in the sunshine, with The Chap licking mud off a trowel and The Bookworm spraying the laundry with a garden hose - you don't get those moments back.

Adam

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Any other guys adjusting to stay-at-home status? (Or do you prefer 'primary parent'?) How are you finding it?

Let us know in the comments below, or you can connect with Adam on Google+

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'The List' is a Linky run by two blogs: Mums' Days and You Baby Me Mummy. You can find out more here.

Spring Makeover

It's a beautiful day outside. The back door is wide open, a cool breeze is blowing through, birds are singing, and our little chap is about to wake up from his nap.

Just enough time to let you know that Four For The Road is having a bit of a spring makeover. Within the next couple of weeks fourfortheroad.co.uk will look all shiny and new. We'll still be blogging about our little ones, and family life in Chester in the North West, as well as something new. (Ooh, mysterious!)

We were thrilled to be included in BritMums' round-up of World Book Day blogs. You can check out our post here.

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Does it feel like spring where you are? Have you been out enjoying the sunshine (if you can remember what that is)? Let us know below.

You can connect with Adam on Google+

World Book Day is a dangerous thing

Tomorrow is World Book Day. There's already been a bit of a hoo-ha in the Guardian about parents who make their own costumes.

Well, World Book Day was a day early at our daughter's school and - I confess - I am that parent.

It all started when she was two. Her nursery at the time told us World Book Day was coming up, and I promptly forgot all about.

The day rolled around. We arrived, harassed, slightly late, breakfast crumbs around the mouth. We walked in to find every other child was a princess, a pirate, a caterpillar, a bear.

For the Book Day group photograph they cobbled together a kimono and hat for her to wear, but I won't forget the moment I dropped her off that day. The disappointment. The sad, questioning eyes. And I vowed, never again.

And I've done okay so far. We've had Super Daisy, Spiderman and now Betty O'Barley.

If you aren't familiar with Betty, she is the heroine of the Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler book The Scarecrow's Wedding.

How hard can it be? I thought. I'll just sew the straw onto the dress. These thoughts would come back to mock me as I sat on the floor in our lounge desperately trying to re-attach handfuls of straw at midnight, and then again as I manically hoovered the whole house (the whole house!) this morning.

Still, it's a small price to pay, right?

In honour of the event I composed the following poem. Apologies to Julia Donaldson for its quality.

Our house is all covered in straw,

From the bed to the living room door;

I cleaned for an hour

Then jumped in the shower

And discovered a little bit more.

Thanks,

Adam

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Have any of you made costumes for World Book Day this year? Got any parenting horror stories about costumes that didn't work, or times you forgot altogether?

Let us know in the comments below. Or you can connect with Adam on Google+