Week 32 ???????? ?? ??

Monday

It was the last day my mom was visiting. She brought Olivia to daycare. At 10, I had a meeting with Helena Bright , and during that time, she did some gardening. Helena and I looked at the new landing pages and the plan. We finalized decisions on the flow and on what mailing tool to convert to. It’s nice to have a person to bounce ideas off with and talk about practical execution plans.

During the meeting, Victor and Lars came home. It was the third week of onboarding, and Victor was there for 15 minutes, crying the entire time ??. I wonder how long it’ll actually take.

After our meeting, we all had a bite to eat. My mom packed up her things, and I walked her to the station. It was nice to have some alone time, even though we had been together all weekend.

I had made a to-do list and tried to follow it relentlessly. But obviously, I did sway from it. Zdeněk Pa?ek asked if I was up for a meeting, and oh yes, I was indeed. He’s on a trip in Norway and called in from a coffee shop in Trondheim. We made a rather long agenda and started discussing it. We talked about the launch of the new website, what was missing, how to test it, the new landing pages and site behavior, new ideas, and priorities. I love our meetings because although a bit chaotic, we get a lot done quickly. I can’t believe we’re almost done, and then all the fun website things can start ??????.

I worked a bit more and then took over with Victor while Lars picked up Olivia. They had mentioned that it could be confusing for Victor to return to pick up his big sister. Whatever works… We started cooking while we waited, and he was eating kidney beans and chewing on a fresh carrot. At the dinner table, he really enjoyed the fish.

Fast forward to 20:30, both kids were sleeping, and we got to solve some more riddles in the Christmas calendar mystery Lars gave me for my birthday in November ??????. We solved from 12-15 ??, then we decided to go to bed.

Tuesday

Biked directly from Olivia’s daycare to a cafe across from Fields. I uploaded a few jobs to the job board while I waited for Giorgia Meton to arrive. She is my old SoMe assistant, and today I consider her a friend. She is about to move to Aarhus, and we caught up one last time before the big move. It was nice to hear about what’s been going on in her life and, in general, catching up. Good thing she is planning on returning to Cph after her studies ??. We don’t want to lose her, but they can borrow her amazing company for a while. I’m proud of her for making such a bold move in the quest to live out her full potential. I wish more people would dare to do that.

Then I went to Fields and did some shopping. I managed to find a dress that has some power to moderate UX Nordic Conference in. Last time, I wore black, and on a black stage, it looked like I was a floating head and arms ????. It was hard to find something decent last year because of my big baby bump.

I sat down at Espresso House to get some more work done and waited for Anna MacMurdo to arrive. It’s pretty crazy to me that UX’ers with 19 years of experience still struggle to find jobs. We’ve met several times over the years, but this was the first time we had quality time together, and it was nice to get to know her better.

I went upstairs and had an informal meeting with the club manager at SATS . I stopped teaching at Fitness World just as they were taken over by Pure Gym. I know it’s a bit silly, but things like, now we, the Danish staff, won’t get a Christmas present because nobody else gets that. Stuff like that, and the cold atmosphere I’ve seen take over at several gyms. I think it’s time for me to try out new waters. The gym itself was amazing, with a stage for the instructors and a dedicated yoga room. I sent off an open application straight away.

I found a corner and worked some more. I’m trying to figure out how I can get the contributors who can’t attend our planning meetings to still feel included and that they have a voice. I made a survey, and hopefully, we can action a lot of things from that one. I filled out a survey for my “course” with Trine Ravnkilde , and it was fun to see the questions they asked me. I booked a first meeting with her and then took off to pick up Olivia. She was crying when I arrived. A lot of the other kids had been picked up, and she was one of the last ones there. There were 30 minutes till closing time, so I didn’t even feel like I was that late.

Today, Victor had spent 25 minutes at daycare, but tomorrow he’s going to stay for lunch. They technically only have until the end of the week. No way that’s going to happen without overstepping a lot of Victor’s boundaries. I think it’s okay to push him, but there is a limit. So Lars will probably have to spend another week on this. It also took 4 weeks with Olivia. Crazy that it usually takes kids 2 weeks.

After dinner, we got both kids to fall asleep fairly quickly. I went into the sunroom to work a bit. @mariah had made some great comments on my landing page, and I wanted to review and edit my copy. Suddenly, I could hear Victor screaming, and Lars calling on the phone. Victor woke up Olivia, and now we were back to square one ??.

It took around one hour to get them back to sleep again, but YAY. Now we’re off to bed.

Wednesday

The kids woke up at 5 ????. Lars took on both kids on the couch with the TV playing. He and Victor fell asleep. Olivia played with her toys and had a good time. We got up at 7:50, and I focused on getting Olivia dressed while Lars got ready with Victor on his arm. We had to deliver our car to the mechanic between 8-8:30. Thankfully, it’s super close by.

Victor and I chilled until Lars got back. I had a message from a member who couldn’t get the discount code to work while buying a review of her LinkedIn profile. So I went to Stripe to figure out what was going wrong. Fixed it fairly quickly, and YAY, I had my first paying client.

Lars took Victor to daycare, then he had a meeting with the “new” pedagogue who will take over with Victor. In the meantime, I called a lawyer to get guidance on our situation with our renovation project. Basically, we’re in a tough spot because our contract doesn’t mention anything about what happens when they go over time or leave us high and dry for months. But he did give me some advice on what we could do to get our “contractor” to cover the costs of the carpenter who is fixing the things we need. Lars had called me while I was talking, and I got ready while trying to call him back.

Today marks our 3rd wedding anniversary, and the daycare had given us one hour. We biked to a cafe nearby and had paninis in the sun. Like last year, we reflected and wrote down the best things from the past year, our largest challenges, and what we looked forward to in the upcoming year, what we had given each other that year, and what we had done. It’s both nice to do these reflections together and to write them down so we can read them the year after.

We biked together to the daycare, and Lars went upstairs to pick up Victor. He was sad, tired, and exhausted, but clearly glad to see us. We biked home together. While Victor took a nap, I got to do my review of Maria Marinovic 's LinkedIn profile. I love doing these, and good thing because I only recorded my screen and not my audio (damn you, QuickTime), but obviously, I didn’t know at this point. So I was super ecstatic to have made my first sale after announcing it a week ago ????.

I did some more work, and suddenly it was time to pick up our car. Lars drove over and then picked up Olivia. We had an early dinner, mmmm pasta, and then we decided to go for ice cream and buy some flowers at Uganda is. We biked there, and while in line, we were standing right next to Alva and her family. Alva is part of my mother’s group. So we had our ice cream together, and it was nice to have some adult company ??.

Olivia started pulling the small citrus fruits off the trees for sale, so we had to lure her to the bike with Peppa Pig ?? oinch.

Back at home, I played with Victor while Lars took Olivia for a night walk. We called my mom, and she was with her sister, so we got to catch up. That was nice. While we talked, Victor walked around the house with my help to maintain his balance.

When Lars got back, I went out and did Maria’s review again. Luckily, this time around it felt easier because I had already drawn a lot of conclusions on her material.

Then Lars and I got to hang out a bit on the couch before getting ready for bed ??????

Thursday

Today was a mellow day. I had nothing on my calendar but a heavy to-do list ??.

Every time Victor was napping, Lars would come out and we’d deal with things together. I had to apply for maternity support, and we needed to figure out why I was blocked from it. After a call to the government and my bookkeeper, we figured it out, and I was able to send in my application.

For a few years, I’ve owned the domain queenofux.com . I’ve never done anything with it, and with an upcoming bill and no ambitions to do anything with it, I downscaled my subscription. I ditched the hosting and now only pay for the domain. ???? One day I’ll do something epic there. ??

I finally sat down and created an account on ConvertKit [archive] , but damn, I’m so confused by the whole way email marketing is set up. I tried to unblock Hugo Sant'Ana , but I’m not even sure we’re barking up the same tree ??.

I’ve received so many messages lately on LinkedIn, and if you’re reading along and I haven’t gotten back to you, please ping me again. It feels like shoveling snow while it’s snowing ????????.

When I have a very long to-do list, I easily get a bit overwhelmed and can lose my sense of priorities because others affect me with their sense of urgency. So it was great to have Lars come out and talk through it. I honestly mostly spoke at him, and he suggested that I get a rubber duck ??????.

Maria Marinovic gave me some super feedback on my review of her LinkedIn profile. I was so touched by it, and it really made me feel good about offering my services. It was super rewarding, and I hope she’ll let me use some of it as a testimonial on my website (She said yes ??) ??.

"I had the pleasure of working with Helena for a detailed review of my professional profile. Her feedback was incredibly thorough, uncovering details I had overlooked. Helena’s experienced perspective in the job market I am targeting was invaluable. Thanks to her insights, I feel much more confident in how I present myself. I’m excited to implement her suggestions and look forward to seeking her expertise again when I start applying for roles." - Maria Marinovic

We’ve been working on the new website for ages, and today Lars and I took it for a spin. I found a lot of small errors, but we also found some larger ones ??.

Speaking of errors, I had created a discount code for the steering committee of Ladies that UX Aarhus to join me for the UX Meet & Greet at Vipps MobilePay with Peter Gregersen . I’m insanely excited to host the first of hopefully many events in Aarhus or, in general, just outside of Cph. I’ll meet up with Martyna Wieczkiewicz before the event, Bailey Doolittle will assist me at the event, and then we’ll join the Ladies that UX ladies afterward for a drink before I head back home to Amager ??.

Now that I mentioned Bailey, they visited us today for dinner. It was so lovely to cook some food together and hang out with the kids. While Lars was tucking in Victor, Olivia took a bath. She poured water around and just had an excellent time. We went for a walk with Olivia and just discussed what was going on in our lives. We’ve known each other for many years now, and I’m proud to have such a badass human being as my friend.

Bailey left while I was stuck breastfeeding Victor, who wouldn’t sleep. We gave up and took him in where we had ice cream and watched “What We Do in the Shadows.” Then it was bedtime ??.

Friday

I woke up to a message on my phone, from an old startup friend who wanted to know “what’s up.” My first thought was, "Wow, that looks semi-real and semi-like spam." Later on LinkedIn, I saw he had written me a more explanatory text, so I called him. Brian Gjerstrup is working on helping ideas arising at universities become a reality, and one of the companies needs UX help. We had a great chat where I suggested some directions, things to be aware of, and not to use the title Interaction Designer.

It was a short day because I was going to a Friday bar at 15:00, which meant I had to leave at 14:00. I wrote and helped edit the newsletter and other smaller practical things. I went through the website to find errors. Hopefully, we can launch the new site soon.

I biked to Noho where TheMarketingGuy.dk and Danske Bank were organizing a Friday bar for entrepreneurs. I got to meet new people and catch up with some old friends: Arthur De Roey , Saxo Merrild , Isabella Merrild Agdestein , and Andreas Aabo .

It was really nice to get out of the house and socialize like the good old days, and by 18:30, I was back at home to spend a bit of time with the kids before they went to bed.

At 21:55, I picked up my mom from the train station and walked back home.

Saturday

Victor and I slept in while the others went to the bakery to buy freshly baked bread and juice. We had a breakfast feast and then played until it was time for Victor's first nap. Around 11, we had some early lunch and Olivia was put down for a nap. I made some delicious club sandwiches and rye bread hapser for the kids. At 13:00, we started getting ready to go to the circus!

I have looked forward to this for ages. Unfortunately, it overlapped with Olivia’s nap, and she wasn’t in the best mood when we left.

The show was great, and we saw many different acts. Victor was waving his arms and legs in excitement, and Olivia was crawling around on the seats. Luckily for us, almost an entire section was empty, so we had plenty of room for the kids to move around.

Victor ended up falling asleep on my chest despite all the noise. Olivia was having a great time and would come around from time to time to get a hapser.

That evening we had a roast with vegetables and sauce. We got the kids tucked in and played a game of Sequence. By game two, both kids started waking up, and then the chaos began. Victor would fall asleep and wake up within minutes. Olivia was screaming and being very difficult to calm down. My mom went for a walk with her, which brought peace to the house so Victor could fall asleep. At 1:15, everyone could finally go to sleep.

Sunday

The rain was pounding down most of the morning. As a wedding anniversary gift, my mom cleaned our oven #lifewin, and I cleaned the cabinet where our cleaning supplies live. While both kids were napping, my mom and I talked about how to sew sleeves onto a dress. Victor woke up and went with us to the city center, where we bought materials. We dropped off my mom at the train station and went back home.

That evening we had pizza delivered and just had quality time as a family. ??