A Tale of 2 WAHMs

It can’t go without saying we are not super women. We don’t have the power to magically poof the laundry done with a blink of an eye. We don’t have x-ray vision to see what’s in the fridge to plan supper while doing other chores. We can’t fly our kids to school and back to beat the traffic. Even WAHMs are HUMAN.

That said, balancing work and home is a skill we all have to learn. As I sit here and type, my kitchen sink is full of dishes and there’s a pile of laundry waiting for me. We won’t even discuss what my desks looks like. I’m not caught up. I’m not even close to having an organized life. Is it better than it use to be? Oh you bet.

When I first started working from home, this place was a disaster. You were lucky to see my youngest (still in diapers at the time) with clothes on. If you could walk through the house without stepping on toys and clothes…..well that meant I had just power cleaned top to bottom within the last 10 mins. Supper was usually something as quick as possible. My kids got so sick of pizza and pasta it wasn’t funny. They were well taken care of, but the house sure wasn’t.

Looking around now you won’t find perfection. I’m still quite far from that. Some family members like to joke I’m no housekeeper (Ha ha real funny, thanks for stating the obvious!) . The house DOES look tons better than it use it. And it’s not just because my kids are older either. In fact, life has gotten more busy in the last several years. It seems we always have somewhere to be or something to get done (snacks for school, practices, appointments, PTO involvement, etc). The responsibilities I had 4 years ago are still here….we just added on to it.

So how did I improve? Well, that’s not something I can really answer. In fact, you probably won’t find any one set of tips that works for you. It all comes down to finding the organization, scheduling, and balance that works for you. I use a dry erase board and set work hours (and certain hours to clean the house too). I also plan my projects and set my sites on goals so I’m not just doing “busy work” every day.

I set habits that are my “norm” every day so I get closer to the goal……and that works for all areas of life too. For example, when I get up in the morning I fold clothes from the dryer while the kids are eating breakfast. I check my email first thing and get those all answered, then set off to make blog posts on Idea Queen. After school I start planning supper and clean the kitchen. In the evening I spend time with the kids going over homework or reading assignments. They are all habits -  I’ve gotten so I don’t think twice about them.

Now I must say you really don’t want to take my “tips” above, because things are far from perfect. Some days I feel spread too thin and feel like I didn’t put in enough time into anything. Other days certain areas slip quite a bit because I’m so focused on one chore/assignment/errand. There’s also other things that should be done on a daily basis that don’t get done (cleaning off the table for example - there’s almost always papers or mail sitting on it).

What it all comes down to is finding YOUR balance and what works for you. Finding balance isn’t going to happen over night. Heck I’m STILL working on finding it…..but I’m getting closer every day. 

Alright so I’m a dope. I spent quite a bit of time backing up files and playing with my “new” computer, only to decide to go back to the old one. Yes, here I sit on my OLD computer. I just couldn’t give it up! There’s really nothing THAT wrong with it, aside from a few little weird quirks that I’m more than use to.

You may be thinking, “if she didn’t need a new computer, why buy it?”. Well good question. I actually bought it off a friend’s relative because he was selling it super cheap. Oh it’s very used, and actually I found out it’s even older than my poor old ‘puter. But the thing is, this guy works on computers for a living so I knew it’s been in very good working condition. And it is too - with a whole lot of space (The hard drive is over 100 GB! For those of you who don’t have a clue what that means, let’s put it this way - my main drive on MY computer only has 15 GB!).

This is actually something that’s been bothering me for days. I really had a hard time deciding what computer to stick with. Bouncing back and forth isn’t doing me any bit of good. Also it was hard with the “new” computer to keep finding certain things that weren’t already on it. Things like Microsoft Office, Adobe reader, and a lot of other little things I use several times a day. Then of course there’s all my passwords missing, my bookmarks, and lots of personal settings that just drove me absolutely crazy.

I finally decided to come back to the old one because it’s what I’m use to. I cleaned it up a bit last night so it’s got at least 2 GB to run on (which that was the main reason I was switching, because mine was running out of space and I couldn’t download hardly anything). I also found some ways to move hard drive space to my main drive (what Windows runs on), but it’s so technical it scares the hell out of me lol. I found some programs to do it for me, but of course they aren’t free. Will have to put it on the “to buy” list so I don’t have to move to another computer any time soon.

On the plus side, all my files are backed up and I now have a back up computer. Or should I say the KIDS have a back up computer because we already had an extra lol.  If I can find room somewhere and get another monitor/mouse/keyboard, I may just hook “the beast” up and use it for certain things. We’ll shall see, but for now it’s going to just sit there because I’m too stuck on my old ‘puter!

At least for me this is true. It seems whenever I go off to “clean”, I end up with a bigger mess than when I started. I’ve just come to the conclusion that I make bigger messes when I set out to clean.

Take yesterday for example. I went to clean the kitchen, but then the bread machine caught my eye. For those of you with bread machines, I’m sure you can relate to what I’m talking about. As soon as I saw it, I HAD to make bread. Especially since I came across this yummy Jalapeneo Chedder Bread recipe. Mmmmmm. So of course, I HAVE to start the bread before I start cleaning - the bread takes much longer (3 hours to be exact, but when you just toss in the ingredients and go it doesn’t get much easier than that).

By the time I’m done starting the bread I took a look around the kitchen - it’s now more messy then it was a few minutes ago! ACK!

Case number two - my desk. I’ll admit I’m somewhat of a lazy person. My desk has come to be the dumping ground for important papers, mail, or anything else I want to take a second look at some time in the future. Or things I take away from the kids. Or remotes. Ok so basically anything that leaves my hands seconds before I plop down in my chair, which is usually where you find me. When I tell people “my desk ate it”, I’m not kidding. In order to get the desk to “spit it up”, it usually spews papers and other crap all over the floor. I was looking for something on it the other day, and “cleaning” as I went. Again, I found myself with a bigger mess than when I started.

So I’m thinking, maybe I shouldn’t clean. Maybe if I do nothing the house will get better all on it’s own. I can dream, right?

No we aren’t moving into a new home. I’m moving to a new computer. Which is very much like moving into a new home - exciting and irritating at the same time. It’s not actually a “new” computer, but it’s new (and HUGE) to me.
I think what I’m going to have to do is make a list of all the things I’ve forgotten to put on disk before unhooking the old computer. I spent several hours last night trying to think of all that needed be move, but I just knew I was forgetting things. Sure enough I’m finding them left and right.

I managed to get all my files from Outlook moved over, which made me VERY happy. That was one of my biggest fears, getting all those emails (and I have a LOT stored because I’m such a pack-rat that can’t throw away anything!). But they made the move just fine, folders and all. What did I forget? My address book and mail server information! ARG! I got the main email in (thankfully remembered the password!), but I know there’s others I didn’t get.

After getting the email “kinda” set up for now, I decided I needed to go download Firefox. Have to have it! I didn’t put it on disk of course, because you download it online. No biggie. But guess what I forgot? MY BOOKMARKS! This could be a problem……

I’m sure there will be lots more I find missing, but those are the big ones for now. It’s a good thing the old computer isn’t totally dead, or I could be in SERIOUS trouble. That’s actually why I went and got this computer, because I knew mine was on borrowed time.

I just don’t think we all realize how “personal” our computers really are to us!

Boy, I really do wish I was a fly today because I’d set place on my daughter’s shoulder and wouldn’t move till 4:00 this afternoon. Why? Because today was my little baby girl’s first day of Jr. High! What the heck? Where on Earth did the past 6 years go? Well, for that matter where the heck did the past 11 go?

Note to moms with little ones . . .
The days, months and years fly by TOO fast. Just when you think boy, I can’t wait till she’s out of those diapers or dang, I hope he learns to walk soon, before you know it, you’ll be sitting at home wondering how her first day at the Jr. High School went! Enjoy them now because it will be over before you know it.

I’m sure she’s doing fine and she’s probably having a great time being a “big girl” now. She’s getting to see all her friends she missed over the summer and she’s getting a whole new experience. So, why can’t mom enjoy it too??

Well I never thought they’d turn me into one. I’m not a “soccer mom”, but I AM a PTO mom. Crazy that they “let me in”. Of course I’m trying to get through doing as little work as possible, but darn my hand…. it keeps volunteering me for things.

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It’s that time of year again - back to school means back to coming up with healthy school lunch ideas. While school lunches seem to be getting better (at least in my neck of the woods), there’s still those days where we just know they won’t even touch it.

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Holy Cow! Not that I would EVER deny my children something such as soccer … but dang, I had no idea what I was getting into when I signed BOTH my children up to soccer! Seriously, it’s been running our lives for the past couple of weeks. If someone asks me to do something some evening, my instant reply is “Sorry we have soccer.” And 9 times out of 10, I’m right! LOL! And if I’m not, I don’t want to do anything anyhow because I look forward to the time at home! I remember getting my daughter’s schedule the other day and thinking wow, we have games almost every other day or so, then we’ll have practice in between … OMG I hadn’t gotten my son’s schedule yet!!! LOL! It’s absolutely crazy. I think all except for Friday nights I can count on something soccer related. They seem to have left Friday nights open for us.

Luckily, I do have hubby to help me … otherwise I’m not sure how I would have done it. If it hadn’t been for the insistent rain this evening, I would have been in one town with my daughter for her game and hubby would have been in another with my son and practice. We try really hard for the both of us to be at the games but it’s just not going to work out that way. We gave the kids a heads up that this was going to happen from time to time and they’re being very understanding (thank God! lol!)

:-O I now KNOW where the term Soccer Mom came from! :-O

It’s every work at home mom’s holiday - the first day of school! I’ve been waiting for this for weeks, like a kid at Christmas time. Sure we had a fun summer, but getting back to normal is oh-so-nice.

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In the beginning of my online journey I worked way too much. My work hours were “when I was awake”. Oh of course I took good care of my kids, and tending to them was my breaks. But I soon went into complete overload and literally made myself sick.

Now I feel like I’m not working too much, but rather way too little.

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