These last few months have been a whirlwind of activity - you can probably tell from all my posts lately.
Even though it has been hectic - it has been good, we are all working towards awesomeness :).
One of the struggles I have had though is keeping up with everything. I am having a hard time juggling work with home, my studies with the girl's studies, cooking with cleaning, and of course "Me" time with "Everybody Else" time.
We were gone for the weekend and so on our way home I was going through the TO DO's for this week and starting to get stressed about it all. I have been prioritizing more lately but it seems that the things that are lower on the list never get moved up - they have to get finished (or started) at sometime. I have been on a quest to simplify and make certain tasks a little easier and so a thought came to me. I struggle because I am always having to reorganize, clean-up, move stuff around. and what I really need to do it designate spaces for certain tasks and not allow other tasks to go into those spaces.
Example: Homeschooling, we do not have a designated space. One girl prefers the kitchen table the other girl has no preference and will do her work anywhere (or not do her work anywhere). But the problem is that when we are getting ready to use the kitchen for its intended use, we are having to spend ample time cleaning up all the school stuff. The kitchen has always been the mail drop off, charging of various devices zone also.
By the time everything is cleaned up a little bit of frustration has now set in and the time spent in the kitchen is less than productive.
Solution: I got up this morning and cleared space in the den for the girls to do their school work in there. A central location that can be seen from the other rooms yet enclosed enough that school can be contained to that area. The kitchen is for cooking - period. I cleared off the buffet in the kitchen that was the host of the various mail baskets and charging cords and put my crock pot, mixer, blender and food processor there. I am more likely to use them if I am not having to lug them out of a closet each time. All work stuff is in the den where they are working while I am working and we can discuss and help without me running to different rooms each time.
I am also working on the designation of time. Certain tasks need to be done at certain times and then when that time is up than I need to not think about it anymore. The thoughts of house cleaning invade my study time and vise versa, I need to focus on the matter at hand and not on all the other stuff I am trying to do. This includes the "Me" time - I'll let you know how that goes. I am notorious for staking out some me time and then spending it thinking about what I need to get done.
Let's see how this works out!
