Remember the days before kids? We curled up on the couch in the evening with our handsome hubby’s, talking for hours-hours-about future plans and dreams. We would watch a few shows, maybe take a long hot bath before crawling under fresh sheets for a good night’s rest, only to get up, go to work, have adult conversations and repeat the process all over again, wondering when the adventures of motherhood would begin.
Well my friends–the adventures in mothering have arrived on top of working and we’re all throwing snarky glances at kid-less women in your office space. Relax mom, say a quick prayer and let’s get down to business. Let’s dish on how to take the frazzled feeling out of your day.
I know, I know–you’re already skimming this post looking for great, amazing tips to tame the frazzled feeling. I recently went back into the workforce. By day I’m a chauffeuring, loving, laundry cleaning, writer mom to three kids and by night I work for the local news in production. Let’s just say working part time is just as daunting as a full time job.
Here’s a few tips I’ve learned to make my work load just a bit easier and help teach the kids teamwork through responsibilities.
Harness Technology
Apps like Intuition+: Mom’s Personal Assistant are free and keeps life right at your finger tips. This app features:
Super easy task entry and organization. Add, check off and delete with simple gestures
Mom-focused articles and tips to keep you informed and simplify your hectic life
A Personal Assistant sidekick to help and inspire you
Grocery items library — easily find items and add your own
Sync Intuition with your Google calendar
Keep it Old School
As much as I like using Apps on my phone I like to be able to look at the week or month in advance, so in addition to APPS, I have a Do It All (17 Month) Planner. This tool alone saves my sanity, keeps me hopping to appointments and on top of my family’s schedule. Love that it has a section for each person.
Make it Team Work
I am so over trying to be the mom who keeps a clean house with happy kids. The idea flew the nest when I realized I needed more than one of me to keep up with my family. Since I cannot clone myself I opted for a better route–chores. Flying through my home, I noted “zones” that were a hot mess. With each zone, I thought about the ages and capabilities of each child and then executed a plan that would tame the madness, teach responsibility & team work, while making my to-do list a bit less daunting. Here are three areas my family is taming.
The Bathroom
Each child is to clean the sink out with cleaning wipes after brushing teeth. (love this one. I hate toothpaste in the sink. Each child is required to clean out the sink after they brush. Big win all the way around. 🙂 ).
Each child is to use their towel for a week — Instead of using 3 towels per child per night, they are down to ONE towel. If it doesn’t get hung up the consequence of a weird smelling cold towel reminds them for the next bathing appointment.
Each child can place laundry to hamper
Laundry
In order to prevent 25 loads devouring the couch in my basement, I bought a laundry basket for each person in the family. Once the clothes have been washed, dried and fluffed, the laundry is then tossed into the correct basket including one just for towels and washrags. Each week the kids fold their own laundry and put it away. This alone has been my biggest sanity saving victory! My children are 5, 7, and 14. They are old enough to sort and fold clothes (keep in mind it will not be how gracefully you fold your laundry). This teaches them they it’s not a good idea to throw the “I was too lazy to put my clean clothes away so I’ll just through them in the hamper” because they will be sorting, folding and putting away their own clothes. 🙂
Prep Time
Anything and everything you can do ahead of time–DO IT. I’m the girl who thinks about her outfit at the last minute–this is a bad idea when one has to go to work in the evenings and one hasn’t even thought about getting out of jammies until 30 minutes before work. Let’s just say it adds to the stress.
The night before, everyone (including myself) sets out clothes, backpacks, keys, purse, etc where it needs to be. The next morning, it becomes a finely executed line of people living my home in sync for that days’s agenda. Mama is happy and so are my on time, looking good, well prepared bambinos.
Pray
We know the word of God is living and sharper than any two-edged sword, so why for Pete’s sake do we forget to pray? Not only am I teaching my children how to pray, I also pray over the needs of my kids each week. If I notice my child sassing me more or another child not sleeping as well, I pray. I will take the time to walk throughout the house (physically and sometimes in my mind on the way to work) to pray over my child’s room. This includes their things, their attitude and asking God to give me the words of what it is I need to pray for.
Prayer allows God to intercede and tame the spirit of chaos and hostility while inviting the holy spirit to enter and dwell in every part of my home.
These tips may seem simple but how often do we take simplicity and put it into practice? If you know a mom who needs to tame the frazzled feelings, share this post!
Heather is a speaker/blogger known as “The Real Mom.” Her mantra for ministry is Real Life, Real Moms, Real Faith, Real Grace. You can find her at on her blog: Falling to Peace(s): Thoughts on grace, letting go, & imperfection. She is the author of Mama Needs a Time Out. Be sure to check out the Better Together Conference. Heather will be speaking about letting God “peace” together your life and tips for for teen moms and for moms of teen moms.
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