I sorted out my tax return - better late than never

After a few nights of sleeping well I feel like I went back to square one yesterday. I read a few chapters of my book as normal but when it was time to go to sleep I just wasn't tired. Then I had an idea for a blog post. Why does this ALWAYS happen when I'm trying to get to sleep? The old me would make a note of it on my phone so I wouldn't forget but the new me has my phone turned off at night now so I started worrying that I was going to forget my idea. After around 30 minutes I decided to turn my phone on and add my blog post idea to my list. Then I started to research a few ideas to go in the article. Then I checked my notifications and before I knew it, it was 3am! Ahhhh! I honestly think I need to go to bed with notepad and pen and lock my phone in another room. Extreme measures are needed!

Steve is working today and our morning didn't get off to the best start when Heidi fell off her bike not once but twice on the way to school. Honestly, that girl gets so distracted. The first time she turned around to chat and the second time she was watching some dogs play on the field. Luckily she didn't end up too muddy or hurt herself.

My mam lives half way between my house and school and had a day off today (she works as a unit manager in a care home). I usually try and pop in at least once a week for a coffee and a catch-up and we had a good hour putting the world to rights. I'm super close to my mam and when H,H and J were little she worked as a foster carer at home and I used to spend pretty much every day with her when Steve was working and I was on maternity leave back then.

Then it was back home for just after 10am to start my day's work. I cleaned the kitchen and popped some lamb and veg in the slow cooker for tonight and then looked for something else to do. I had set today aside to sort out my accounts for my tax return and I know I was procrastinating. I decided to try and install a new theme and layout on this blog but was hit with an error code which I basically think was the universe telling me to just crack on with my tax return. So that's what I did.

I started using Wave accountancy software in 2017 and I would highly recommend this programme to anyone who needs to issue invoices. It has made my life so much easier and I love having all of my invoices in one place. It's completely free to use too. I set about working through my monthly incomes and expenses, breaking only for a salad for lunch and had it all done and sent to my bookkeeper for her to submit my tax return online tonight. Phew! It's a weight off my mind that it's done for another year.

I had a spare 45 minutes before leaving for the school runs so decided to quickly write up this post featuring the Zog Trail at Kielder - got to try and get in early for that all important google ranking!

Steve is off again tomorrow but we're just staying at home, working and doing jobs. It's around 20 days until my next invoice is due to be paid and around the same length of time until Steve's payday and after an expensive December, we're feeling decidedly skint at the moment. Harry has an appointment to open his first proper current account at the bank tomorrow and we might take the kids swimming after school but I'll tell you more about that tomorrow.

- Sam x