{finding balance}

Balance is something we are all looking for. How do I balance taking care of my family and my home and myself and manage a blog and handmade shop all at the same time?

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Let me put a HUGE DISCLAIMER on this by saying that I do not have it all together all the time. I am  not a perfect wife, mom, and homemaker, but for whatever reason everything came together yesterday. Everything that needed to get done, got done. And it was GREAT!!!! I figured it would be a good idea to blog this perfect day because I don't know that it will ever happen again and this is a monumental moment that I want to be able to look back on!  

Let me tell you what my biggest balance struggle is...this job is fun. So super fun in fact that I would much rather make pretty things and blog about them than do laundry and clean the toilets. I sometimes put my business before my family and that's not ok. The house becomes messy which makes me extra cranky and then I just fall into a funk and wonder how the heck that Proverbs 31 woman did it! Well, I think she did it by putting her family first and her business second and the Lord blessed her because of it.

This is what my perfect day looked like:

6:30 am: Woke up and layed in bed checking my email on my phone.

7 am: Got out of bed and got Carter ready for school {fed, dressed, backpack packed}

8am: Run. Brutal, but did it. I've been doing Couch to 5K and today I finished Day 1 of Week 7. I ran for 25 minutes. Holy cow that's a lot of running.

8:30ish am: Stretch. Coffee. Morning devos. A little computer time.

9-12p: Chores. Picked up the house, did the dishes, laundry, and spot cleaned a bit {Clorox wipes are my bff on light cleaning days, swept, & vacuumed} to get the house back to a state of "presentable should anyone stop by". Then I updated our calendar with all the week's activities and made the meal plan and grocery list for the week. I ate a light lunch so as to not mess up the calories burned while running.

12p: Got ready for the day (better late than never!).

1p: Went grocery shopping and came home really fast to put the cold stuff away. {I guess the day wasn't entirely perfect because I dropped a quart of milk in the checkout aisle. Milk everywhere. Bust. Super embarrassing.}

2p: Picked Carter up from school where he had a fabulous day and then we headed over to OT.

2-3p: Did a little homework at The Coffee Bean.

 

I told Carter I would get him a snack and he said he wanted cookies and milk, just like Santa. Well ok then. I had water so as to not cancel out the running.

3p-4p: Carter is at occupational therapy. I got to go shoe shopping! Love that!

4:15-5p: Cleaned out the swagger wagon (yep I drive a black Toyota Sienna). Finished putting away all of the non-cold groceries. Then the declutter/crafting bug hit, so I cleaned off all the random papers and junk from the fridge and made it pretty. I took pics so that little impromptu makeover will hit the blog next week.

5-5:30p: Made dinner. Tried out this burger recipe paired with this slaw recipe and both were GREAT!

5:30-6:30p: Dinner. I ate my burger on a bagel thin {again, so as to not cancel out the running}. Target didn't have broccoli slaw so I just got regular slaw and it was still fabulous.

 6:30-6:45p: Did the dishes. Husband left to go tutor {SAT prep. He's a smarty pants}.

6:45-7p: Helped Carter with the bath.

7:00-8p: Replied to all my emails while the kid played the Wii {he earned it with his fabulous day at school, and doing all his homework, and not complaining about dinner}. Carter to bed about 8p. Books, hugs, kisses, the whole bit.

8-10p: Drafting/scheduling posts for the week.

10p: BED. I even washed my makeup off.

I know that not every day will go as smoothly or be as productive. Here are the things I will take from today and keep in my back pocket...

1) Once Carter is off at school, it's me time. I will exercise, do my morning devotions, and make sure I have an idea of what I'll be eating so I don't eat junk and ruin the running. 

2) Take care of my home. Tidy, dishes, laundry, spot clean where needed (on Mondays I do light cleaning to erase the destruction of the weekend). We have a cleaning team that comes twice a month to do the deep cleaning. Yes, I know that some of you are saying that  I'm a stay at home mom, I have no business hiring a cleaning service, but I have to weigh the time against the money. Right now it makes more sense for me to pay a team of 3 ladies to bust out the cleaning in a fraction of the time it would take me. I now have several more hours to get work done.

3) Update the shared family calendar (we love Cozi) to organize all our weekly activities. Meal plan/grocery list. I can't stress how much it helps me to know what my family is having for dinner! It doesn't take long at all to plan out a few meals. I like to cook big (crock pot) so we have lots of leftovers.

4) Shower and get dressed. I feel so much better about my day and my productivity level when I put a little effort into my appearance. 

5) Get homework done as early as possible.

6) Cook a healthy meal for my family and do the dishes right away.

These are just a few things that made my day run smoothly. As you can tell, Monday is my "home day". I do very little Sew Chatty work on Mondays and keep the focus on making sure my home is ready to survive the week. The rest of the days, I am able to work for several hours while Carter is at school. That's typically when all the sewing and crafting happens. I take photos in the afternoon and generally do my blogging at night or during Carter's in home ABA sessions. I try to write several posts at once and schedule them throughout the week.

Well, that's it. That was my perfect day. Everything clicked and I finally found balance. I got my home organized and ready for the week and got a little work done, too. Great day.

What does your perfect day look like? Share your tips on balance in the comments!