I'm kinda figuring this thing out!

This being gone all day AND keeping the house clean (not spotless) while not spending all weekend doing it. Weekends are for family stuff and being outside, I can't get on board with cleaning all weekend.

These are the little things I have been doing to get stuff done without designating a chunk of time to them!

The kitchen was/is my Monday chore. Not spending an hour doing it but while I am making dinner, or prepping dinner, waiting for coffee I try to spend every down minute doing something. I haven't deep cleaned the kitchen in weeks but there is nothing growing anything so it's good enough.
I am still using my Scheduled Cleaning but I don't get to it all.
Still a good guide for the few minutes I do have time!

Love this!

And I am in NO way saying I have gone from being a stay at home (or never home) mom to being a working out of the home mom pro in just a few weeks. BUT I do think the same organization that made things flow well before can work for the few hours I am home now.
Keeping our home orderly IS important to us, and home cooked meals are just as important to keep our kids healthy, and our budget healthy!

Speaking of budget, I haven't figured out how this is all going to work, there are obviously new expenses with me working, needed a couple things to wear, and gas is a bit more and daycare will be THE biggest adjustment. But I think since I started 2 1/2 weeks ago I have only been to Target 2 3 times, that will be a change in the right direction. My lunch hour is not nearly long enough to browse Target properly!

So right now, even though I may be working out of the home and it wasn't our ideal situation. I am going to do my best to embrace every single part of it! I don't want it to sound like I am complaining, I feel SO blessed to be given such an amazing opportunity.

And I know that what I will have to share coming up may not apply to everyone, but I hope to be sharing my NEW daily checklist, same checklist, just has different stuff on it. And that I will have some fun 4th of July stuff going on, hoping I still have a good hold (or better even) on time than I do now.
Some time management tips, how I am keeping my sanity and spend quality time with the fam.

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How we wrangle everything (right now)

With Baseball in full swing when I started I KNEW we would have to have everything prepped, together and where it was supposed to be. Even though it's May it still is super cold some evenings, so we go to the game in shorts and need sweatshirts and blankets by the 5th inning!

I grabbed these big baskets at Target (of course, right?) last year for our garage, thought they would be a good size to help keep that stuff organized, they weren't so we had 5 or 6 in our garage. They needed to be used for something and I think having a "Baseball Basket" was a necessity.

So in this thing

 I have

~A blanket

~Snacks that won't melt because the concession stand does not have anything I would want my kids to have after dinner but before bed, trust me I have spent hours in there selling corn nuts and sno-cones to little freezing kids.

~A Sweatshirt for everyone

~Couple of water bottles

And even though Baseball only lasts a few months, we have swimming lessons that will start soon too! Good thing I have more baskets! Sure we will need to have  

~Towels

~Snacks

~Extra hair tie for the girl

~More snacks (cause they are always STARVING after swimming)
~Sunscreen


How do you keep everything together, or ready on busy days? I am sure that with only 2 weeks as a working mom I have barely scratched the surface on things I need to wrangle and keep packed, and finding the easiest way to do that is my goal! Using something we already had was a solution for now, but if there is a better long term one I am all ears!



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April was full of changes

If you "like" my page on Facebook then you know starting next week everything here will be crazy, and different! I am joining the working outside the home world FULL TIME. And I left my night job, giving myself 1 week in between end of that and start of a new one.
I haven't done this in over 7 years and never the same schedule as the Mr.
I never thought I would go back to work full time, but the company hubby works for has been making some major changes and one of them was eliminating positions, his happened to be one of those so as of mid July he doesn't have a job. 
I thought I would be way more upset and stressed out about it but really I am just excited for him to get to spend some time with the kids over the summer and to start a new adventure doing whatever he finds that sounds interesting. Not the end of the world like I had imagined it being.

But the logistics of how our Monday-Fridays are going to work is where I am a little nervous!
I have my usual cleaning schedule but I won't BE HERE to do it! I am going to try to stick with it but do the majority in the mornings, and really try to get the kids to help with what they can.
Some of it is easier lately, eliminating some clutter, and I guess things won't get as dirty if we aren't here all day right? Please tell me that is true!
And my Daily Schedule will be a thing of the past. It will for sure need a make over. I'm trying out a new one this week to give me a start.
I have this week to prep for all the new changes. Here is what I need to do
~Get the house SUPER clean. Hope that makes it easier to keep a little clean as we all adjust.
~Get in a new Daily Routine/Schedule
~Meal Plan, crock pot will be my new best friend
~Work on bags, we will need a babysitter bag, T-ball bag, baseball bag and lunch for everyone. I see some new checklists in my future!
~Lots of fun things in the evenings before it gets too crazy.
~Plan my outfits for the week, I don't want to be late because I can't decide what to wear! Business casual is new to me, I've been in Mommy Casual mode for so long!
~Plan my snacks and my activity during the day, I haven't had a desk job in 7 years but last time I gained easily 15 lbs the first couple months. I am 8 tiny pounds away from my goal weight (but not all my fitness goals) and I don't want to undo everything.

I keep finding myself saying "this is going to be so hard" and I need a big fat reminder of this!

Because I can, and I know this change won't be forever, things will change again in less than 2 months when the kids are out of school and there is no baseball to plan for. Then it will be swimming lessons and horse riding and I don't want to wish any of these stressful but important days away. So I am embracing that stuff is not going to go by MY plan but it will go, some days things won't be perfect, some days they won't even resemble good and those are the days I won't remember in 3 months anyway! 

And April has some good things too like
~I barely had coffee at all, and when I did it was with a gift card or groupon. I am *hoping* I will not be tempted at 730 in the morning on the way to work EVERYDAY! To help with the temping
I am making my protein shakes a priority again! What is your fave shake recipe? I love my vanilla protein mix, frozen peaches, ice and peach Greek yogurt.. but in the morning I need coffee! Same vanilla protein mix, coffee, non fat milk and ice!

~We paid off $2800 off of our debt, and have almost 1 more card to cut up! I feel really optimistic right now about getting out of debt, if ever we needed a push to do this, hubby losing his job was the THING. Yes I got a job fairly easily, but that wasn't guaranteed and then what would have happened?

~I quit my night job, it was fun enough and helped a little but I was grumpy and over tired, I was not meant to be a parent with 3 hours of sleep.

~The sun is shining, our few little fruit plants look amazing (compared to last year) and our kids are happy, healthy and willing to go with the flow of life. That is enough for me right now.


So that's what's happened/happening here. I should have my new schedule for life as a working mama after a couple weeks, maybe those of you that thought I was a nutter for planning my at home day can relate more to one with 9 hours away from the house :)
And I am sure I will have a whole new catagory :Crock Pot Disasters haha.. give me a week and there should be 2 or more!



 

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