Life As a Mom: Finding Time to "Do It All"

Okay, so I still haven't found THAT much time, but this is the way I have found to help keep me focused, and feel like I have actually accomplished things during the day.  I don't get burned out cleaning all day, and I don't waste time when I sit down to work on the computer.

My day starts much earlier, but my "schedule" starts at 8 after I have dropped Big Sister off at school.  It looks like this:
8:00 - Household Chores
9:00 - Blog/Computer work for Sunla Designs
10:00 - Crafting work for Lila's Bowtique
11:00 - Household Chores
12:00 -  Lunch and Blog/Computer work for Sunla Designs
1:00 - Crafting work for Lila's Bowtique
2:00 - Catchup before I pick up Big Sister from school


The rest of my day is filled with homework, piano practice, Girl Scouts, and dinner.  The hour-long shifts keep me focused and working as quickly as I can to get a lot done in that little window of time.  If I tell myself "I have all day to get that done" it usually takes all day!

You may be asking why I haven't scheduled time for Baby Brother or errands and such.  It's because I take care of those things as they come up, and resume my schedule based on what time it is.  For instance, on Monday I go grocery shopping as soon as I drop off Big Sister.  It is usually after 9 by they time I get the groceries put away, so I skip the Household chores at 8:00 and start right onto my Blog/Computer work.  I adjust for this by scheduling less cleaning on Monday, and the grocery shopping is actually part of my Monday chores.

At 2:00 it is time to catchup on whatever I didn't get done that must be finished before Big Sister comes home.  usually that means packing orders to drop off at the post office, checking my email one last time, or prepping dinner.