Week 28 ???????

Monday

Today was my first day back after 9 months of maternity leave. To be honest, I’m not a big fan of small babies. I think men are luckier to get their leave when the child is more developed and capable. Our son can eat by himself, crawl, and even walk if you hold his hands. This is such a contrast to when we had to carry him everywhere and do everything for him.

I started off by setting up my temporary office outside since our renovation project is 6 months overdue. We’ve never used our first floor, which is where our tiny office will be, so I set up tables in the garden and looked in my CPHUX boxes to get an overview. I sat down and did a brain dump of all the things I needed to do. Then I categorized them and made small notes.

At 11, I wanted to go to the gym, but then Christina Bruun wrote me and asked if she could pop by for 5 minutes. Haha, she was there for 1.5-2 hours, but it was great to catch up. I talked through my brain dump, and she introduced me to a cool event idea.

While we were talking, I started feeling a bit nauseous, and it turned out I’d gotten food poisoning.

Later in the day, Trine Ravnkilde called me and gave me some great advice on how to create a signature course for UX job seekers. My plan is to do a collaboration with her and get advice on how to do this the best way possible.

It’s weird to realize that in the past 2.5 years, I haven’t actually worked dedicatedly on CPHUX. I’ve done my best, but my main task has been to create and nurture two amazing small human beings. #winninginlife #lifegoal

After the call, I had to go to bed because I was completely wiped out by the food poisoning. So much for my first day back...

In the evening, we had a carpenter swing by to look at our renovation project and give us an offer to finish it since our “real contractor” is completely unreliable and we’ve had enough. The project started on the 25th of September 2023. It’s not okay to delay like this when we have two small children. I wish there was a Trustpilot for the building industry!

Tuesday

It was my mother’s birthday, so Olivia and I made a video call where we sang to her with flags and wished her a lovely day.

I dropped Olivia off at daycare, which was a bit sad because she clearly didn’t want to go that morning.

The workday started with wrapping and finding/requesting addresses for some very late Christmas presents. I know, I know, but around Christmas, I got so overwhelmed because my own expectations were that I could do business as usual with a tiny baby. That didn’t match reality, and I ended up accepting that I couldn’t do my usual Christmas tradition of sending out cards to all our event speakers, partners, clients, etc. I did manage to make presents for my awesome contributors, but delivering them was another thing entirely.

Now I have a stack of presents waiting to be mailed off to people outside of Copenhagen.

I got in touch with Peter Gregersen about doing a UX Meet & Greet at Vipps MobilePay , which I’m very excited about. Not only will it be the first in both Aarhus and Copenhagen, but we had one planned with them ages ago which Covid put a stop to.

Thankfully, Covid didn’t do more damage than it did, and besides some side effects, I feel like we’re kind of back to normal again.

I looked at the event schedule for our upcoming fall season, and I’m stoked about the things we already have plans to do.

For the first time since before I had Victor, I went to the gym. I did a sweet upper body workout, and it was nice to see that I haven’t lost all my strength yet. I’ve just gotten some rounder curves.

Later that day, Agne Baranauskaite popped by. She was a main contributor to the UX job market report in 2022. Honestly, without her, we probably wouldn’t have managed to publish it.

I gave her her present, which she appreciated, and we got to catch up on life, professional life, CPHUX, and loads more. Being from Lithuania, she brought me local and Lithuanian treats. It was really great to hang out with her again.

Wednesday

I started my day with a meeting with Helena Bright . It’s nice to be able to have these meetings on an ongoing basis. We catch up on her marketing/SoMe focus and tasks to ensure that we are always doing our best.

Lars got a call from Olivia’s daycare that she wasn’t feeling great, so I hurried over to pick her up. Back at home, I picked up Victor and went over to visit my mother’s group. It is probably one of the last times we are all gathered in that format. It’s sad because we’ve grown so close, and it’s great to see all the boys hang out.

Wednesday marked a special day for our family. Today our contractor had promised us they’d be done with our renovation project that started back in late September 2023.

But no one had shown up that week to do any work, and we were sure our contractor would make up some excuse to postpone like he’s done so many times before.

And of course, he did. I made a video recording going through all the things that were missing, not done properly, or not what we had agreed. I sent it his way and asked for his objections. We didn’t hear anything from him for the rest of the day.

Olivia was in a weird mood, so I didn’t get much done that day.

Thursday

Victor’s health nurse visited us for the last time that morning. He’s now 74 cm long, weighs 9.3 kg, and is motorically advanced. We’re so proud of him.

Olivia wasn’t on her A-game, so we decided to keep her home for the day.

I did manage to sneak away and work for some time. I logged into e-Boks, which I never appreciate because most of the time I need to do boring tasks. It was so bad that I had to call up my bookkeeper. But in the end, I think we got on top of everything. There is very little blue energy in me, so finance things bore me senseless.

We had a lovely lunch, and afterward, I walked Olivia so she could get her lunch nap. I wish that was in my schedule.

I did a bit of garden work while waiting for Lee Richardson to drop by to pick up his late Christmas present.

He had to go back for a Danish exam, but it was nice to catch up and hear about the Master’s degree he’s been accepted to.

Once Olivia woke up, we got ready and headed to Bones (an American-inspired restaurant) because it’s the 4th of July, and on that day their specialty is all-you-can-eat spareribs.

We sat just across from the kids' playroom, and we managed to eat only what we needed. This is something we are practicing so we can be healthy role models for our children and their eating habits.

While we were away, a new carpenter had come and started finishing up on our top floor. We have decided to hire another guy and then send the bill to our contractor. We’re done with his nonsense.

He finally replied, and we now have a fierce conversation going on about what happened and what should happen next.

I usually never get mad, but I’m fuming, and angry is too light a word to describe how I’m feeling.

I got the chance to peek at the booklet I received from Trine Ravnkilde about how to make online courses while walking Olivia. I had to exchange with Lars and then I could sit down and fill in the worksheets. It’s nice to reconnect with my why, my who, and my how. I’m really proud of the mission I’m on to:

Help job-seeking UX professionals strengthen their job materials and strategies so they can land their dream job.

I love the beautiful humans in my community. They are my tribe. Job seekers are often in pain, and if I can be their rock to lean on, be their boatwoman to guide them through the foggy waters safely to land, then I’m a happy woman. It’s nice to feel that energy because there’s a lot of work ahead of me. Good thing I have amazing people all around me.

Friday

Olivia was well again, so to daycare we went. I drove over a bump, and my phone fell out of my pocket and smashed into the road. To be honest, the backside was super broken because I’m a bit clumsy and dropped my phone a lot, but the front screen had been intact. Now a small crack is over the camera, so my face recognition barely works.

I went to the gym, yay, twice a week. On my way there, I felt a bit lonely. Usually, Victor would be there with me, but now it’s just me. So I called up Sasha Bondareva , who had sent me a text earlier in the week that I hadn’t gotten around to replying to. Funny enough, she wrote while I was in the gym last time. We had a good chat about job situations, my podcast, and her potential idea of doing some cool episodes interviewing people who got jobs she applied to and trying to figure out what they did that she didn’t. I love the way her mind works, and I think that would be an interesting conversation.

I was doing a lower body workout, and I managed to both underestimate and overestimate my strength in different exercises.

I had a chat with the gym manager about teaching there, but first Lars and I need to figure out when that could work for us. Monday at

5 pm isn’t optimal for our life right now.

After a nice shower, I had a sandwich in the courtyard while saying hi to Lars. He’s decided to change his job, and he has just told one-third of his team. So we talked about how that conversation went.

Then I went into the library and started working.

I got a lot of things done, but I’ll mention a few.

I created the first of three events for our upcoming UX meet & greet with Vipps and MobilePay. It’s funny because we had one in the books, and then Covid became a serious thing and we decided to cancel. So yay, now we’re here. I published the physical one in Copenhagen, but I’m excited for us to do one in Aarhus and online. It’ll be our first-ever event in Aarhus, and I’m so excited for this to happen.

I wrote a section in the CPHUX Member newsletter and informed people that I’m now officially back from my maternity leave.

In the newsletter, I tried something new. I made a form where people can submit a question for me. It’s completely open, to see what’s on people’s minds. So far, I’ve only gotten one question, but I hope more will come in before the deadline Sunday night.

I picked up Olivia from daycare and went home to start cooking dinner. Sofia Stylianou was joining us for dinner, and it was so lovely to catch up with her. We talked about her life, the challenges she’s facing, and her considerations about Cyprus vs. Denmark. I also ranted a lot about our contractors and life in general. She really liked her present.

Saturday

This has been one of the hardest and most emotional days of my motherhood. Both Lars and I slept poorly because the kids woke us up all the time.

The entire day, I felt like my nervous system was an open wound. Every time one of my kids whined or cried, I felt like snapping. I hope I’ll never hit my kids, but today I felt like hitting them several times in anger and frustration.

Ironically, they weren’t that whiny, but when your energy is super low, it doesn’t take much to get triggered.

We were invited to a family gathering in Kalundborg, which took us just shy of 2 hours by car to get to.

The kids were pacified with videos, and I got to talk a bit with Lars.

It was nice to see Lars' family again and try to catch up, but having kids makes your attention split in half. One half is listening to the conversation, the other half is looking after your child.

The kids slept more or less the entire way home, and that was awesome.

I got to unwind a bit on the phone with my mom, which felt like a mental hug.

Life can be hard, and it’s good to know who you can lean on and then reach out.

Sunday

We didn’t have a great night, so Lars and I took turns sleeping that morning. Our good friends from Germany were coming later that day, so we needed to clean up, vacuum the floors, and do some grocery shopping. Our friends came, and we got to meet their baby boy Julius, who is age-wise between Olivia and Victor. I met them back when I lived in Vancouver, where we hosted them for 14 days. Later, they returned as our friends and stayed with us again. Over the years, we have met each other several times in different places. They were on their way to Sweden/Norway but stayed two days with us.

We just hung out and enjoyed each other’s company. Now that was a great Sunday.