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  • How to Balance the Work at Home Mom Life

    How to Balance the Work at Home Mom Life

    I never thought I’d be a working mom. Let alone a work at home mom. I knew I’d always find ways to make a little money to add to our finances on the side, but this life I’m living. I never imagined it. Here I am, though, trying to figure out how to balance it all.

    How to Balance the Work At Home Mom Life

    I get up at 5 AM these days just so I can get work done. Only usually, sometime between 5:30 and 6:30 I’ll find a small body tucking their toes under my legs, trying to share the space with my laptop. It’s like they have a 6th sense to when Mom gets up. No matter how softly I tiptoe or attempt gliding my stockinged feet across the cold hardwood floors they know I’m up. 

    I try to focus. Maybe if I cover them in a blanket they’ll go back to sleep for a little longer. 

    7AM rolls along, and I know I’m pushing it letting everyone else sleep more. We have 55 minutes to get up, get dressed, eat, make lunches, and double check backpacks before waiting for the bus. Thankfully the bus stops right in front of our house, so on cold mornings we hang out just inside the door. 

    There are days I feel bad for not walking them to school. After all, the bus ride around the corner takes longer than it does to walk. I remind myself the kids find joy riding the bus with their friends. So I resign myself to making sure I’m always at the door when they leave and when they get home. Because I’m Mom and that’s where I’m needed twice a day. 

    How to Balance the Work At Home Mom Life

    Do you know how incredibly hard it is to be “at work” with a 3-year-old stuffing RescueBots in your face begging you to play? For the rest of the day I feel torn. I need to work. I HAVE to work because I actually have clients and timelines. I also have schoolwork. It was a choice that to some may be something I could let go of, but it’s something for me I have to do. I also need to spend time with little prince. It’s a need for both of us. He’s my baby. In a few months he may be at school, making friends. I can’t waste this time we have together. 

    So I’m left wondering – usually around midnight – how do I do it all, and still find balance? I decide I can’t. So I let it go from my mind. I kiss my sweet babies and husband goodnight and head to bed for a little more sleep before doing it all again.

    Are you a working mom?

    Please share how you’ve found balance in your life!

    To find more inspiration on balancing parenting and work, check out these awesome blogs:

    Daily Momtivity
    The Buccio Clan
    Peaches and Pickles
    Simple at Home
    Sara B Nash
    Craft Create Calm
    Multitasking Mom
    LedyLiz
    Sweet Discord
    Smart Mom, Smart Ideas
    Misty Shaheen 
    Suzi Whitford
    Angela Coleman Sherman

  • Frequency and Quality {80 Bites Week 7}

    I know I missed the last two weeks of letting you in on my progress here. What a wonderful, but busy time of the year for everyone.
    This last week especially though, I have had a different perspective on my life, and the things that truly matter. This diet plan does matter to me.
    Why? Although I would love to be losing a lot of weight, what really matters to me, is being healthy. The 80 Bites plan teaches you in small steps how to eat right, and stay healthy through food.
    The program started with Quantity, then moved into Frequency. I learned how to listen to my body, and stop eating when I was full. I am still working on my frequency of eating. Maintaining 4 “meals” a day – Breakfast, lunch Mid-afternoon Snack (I call this my afterschool meal with the kids), and Dinner. In between those times if I feel inclined to eat something I brush my teeth, or find something productive to do instead.

    This last week started the Quality section with 80 Bites. The first week is what I have been looking forward to. A chart of how to balance my meals to get the appropriate nutrition. 
    Here is my condensed version:

    A handful of carrots may be healthier than a couple cookies – but it’s not balanced. Every meal should be balanced. 

    80 Bites has an easy to grasp, with fun graphics, building blocks for a balanced meal.  Now every time I grab something to eat, I run through the building blocks. What am I eating? A piece of bread? Where’s my protein, veggie/fruit, and drink?  And voila, I’ve sat down to a balanced meal.

    Now to figure out where my chocolate fits in…..

    How Many Bites did you take?
    80-90/day

    Feeling
    deprived?
    No. Especially now that I have the tools to balance my meals, I’m feeling more empowered

    Weight at beginning of diet?
    165

    Weight
    today?
    159.5  Yes I am losing weight, and peopple are noticing.

    Are you still motivated?
    Very much so. If it hadn’t become suddenly very cold, I’d be out running even more.  As it is, I’ve recomitted to my morning crunches with an ever growing baby lying on my legs.

  • Is too much computer time bad? Think About It!

    Is too much computer time bad? Think About It!

    Your hosts for this weekly meme are

    Today’s Topic:
    Is spending too much time on the computer bad?

    I think the obvious answer to this question is yes. Anything that is too much, is bad. 
    Too much sun is bad for you. Skin cancer, really painful sunburns, etc 
    Too much candy/sweets are bad for you.
    Too much sleep can be bad, or a signal that something is wrong with your body. 
    Individually though, these can all be good things as well. The sun provides a wonderful source of Vitamin D, has helped my jaundiced kids get better, and is a mood lifter for me and many others on depressing days.
    Candy is yummy, and a great treat or reward for accomplishing something. 
    Sleep is necessary, though most of us struggle to find that perfect balance. Without sleep we don’t function to the best of our abilities. Sleep lets our bodies relax, and take a breather. (speaking of sleep, I should probably get some!).
    So what about computers?  Too much time spent on the computer can be bad. That doesn’t make the computer bad, or any amount of time spent on it bad. As with all things, we need to moderate it. Evaluate your day.
    Let’s try a little exercise shall we? Take a 24 hour day. 12am to 12am. Break it down. How much time is spent sleeping?  For me it’s probably 7-8 hours, depending on when the kids get up, and when I go to bed. Now how much time is spent eating? Are you taking the time to prep meals for your family? Or are you making them fend for themselves while you check out what happened on facebook while you slept?  Are you enjoying a sit down dinner with the family, or are you pulling out the tv trays for your kids, while you check the nightly news on the computer?
    The rest of the day here depends on what your profession is. How much time are you at work?  How much time do you spend cleaning? If you have kids, how much time is spent playing with them, helping them with homework, doing what they want to do?  
    Now how much time is left, and how much time has been spent on the computer?  Are you spending too much time on the computer?

    If you can relate to this, you’ve spent too much time on the computer.

    I’ll be the first to admit, that there are some days, I have spent too much time on the computer. Things begin to get neglected, but I just can’t pull myself away from this online world we have created. I have to though. My kids need me, my husband needs me. My house needs me!  I can gladly say though, that I have never been guilty of the above picture! When I pin something, I make it eventually too. That’s a whole ‘nother topic though!  
    For the last almost week, I have been without internet. We moved into our rental house, while we look for a new home, and the internet has yet to be connected. I am finding so much joy in just sitting down with my kids, especially my little Princess R. Just holding them, and doing what they want to do. It’s not that I wasn’t doing this before, but I was always on the move before. Something always had to be done, including online things, that I just didn’t take the time to truly enjoy and relish in the spare moments I had with my kids. Living without internet has been a nice step back. 
    However, we just moved. I don’t know anyone in this very small town yet. I have wanted to shed some tears over many a topic. There’s a nice bunch of my mom friends scattered across the internet, that I missed, because I knew they could give me words of advice in a much needed time of emotional upheaval. I wanted to let some vents out, that I didn’t want to burden Mark with. You know guys, they want to fix everything, and sometimes we girls just need to be heard with no fixing involved. Plus I just felt bad complaining to Mark.  Get this, though! Since I couldn’t vent to my online friends, I did to Mark, and he was a good listener. So lack of internet/computer actually brought our marriage relationship closer too.  (I still missed my girlfriends though).
    Stay tuned later today for a guest post on some fun Summer Activities to get you off the computer and outside!
    Next week’s topic:
    Who would you choose to be shipwrecked on a desert island with?


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