This week I can’t share any photos because while we were on vacation my memory card reader gave out. All my photos are stuck on the camera until the new card reader I ordered arrives (including Peter’s monthly photo for four months old).
In the mean time, I’ve been working on a little bit of a different kind of organizing, but I already feel like it’s helping. I recently read the book Simplicity Parenting and now my husband is reading a little each night out loud so I am hearing it again.
One of the key concepts in the book is a family rhythm. The author focuses on how it will help children feel secure, know what to expect, and have an easier time with transitioning from one activity to the next. He also acknowledges that having a family rhythm helps parents too. I think this is really going to combat the overwhelm I’ve been feeling lately.
So far, here are a few of the things I’ve come up with. (When I first wrote this I put in the times and days but then I thought maybe this is a little too much information about our comings and goings for the internet, so I pulled them out. Please excuse the awkwardness of the Xs, I’m not sure how else to write it.)
Each day we:
- Eat breakfast at X
- Have a snack around X and lunch around X
- Meet with other families, go out for a walk, go to the park or do a chore for the day from X to X
- Take a nap/have quiet time from X to X
- Eat dinner around X and clean up together
- Read for at least 15 minutes after dinner
- Go to bed by X
Each week we:
- Pick up our CSA share on X
- Do laundry on X
- Have the apartment cleaned at the beginning of the weekend (so we can enjoy the weekend without worrying about chores!)
- Go to the farmer’s market on X, and usually enjoy a meal at a farm-to-table restaurant after
Weekly meals:
We have soaked oatmeal for breakfast every morning with cinnamon, soaked and dried walnuts, cream and whatever fruit we got in our CSA or some blueberries from the freezer. On Sundays we make a special breakfast, like pastured bacon and fried eggs or blueberry pancakes with sprouted flour.
I used to have a type of dish I made each night of the week, with pizza on Friday being the most consistent. I fell out of doing that in the last several months, but really want to start again. I’m not sure yet, but I was thinking:
- Monday: beef (meatloaf, hamburgers)
- Tuesday: soup (hot or cold)
- Wednesday: veggies (grilled, roasted, raw)
- Thursday: eggs (frittata)
- Friday: pizza (with whatever veggies are in the fridge)
- Saturday: seafood
- Sunday: slow cooker
Does anyone else do this? What are your categories?
Blogging:
Lastly, I’m still trying to figure out how this blog fits into the picture. As you can tell, I have been on a little hiatus. I really enjoy writing and connecting with others that I would never otherwise get to learn from (and I love to hear in person from friends and family who lurk!), but I find that it usually takes me 1-2 hours to put most posts together. Not to mention the time I spend reading others’ blogs. I definitely can’t do that daily since this is just a hobby (I earned a mere $15 in my first year from associate links). I’d love to hear from others about how you get your posts completed and how much time you spend each day or week blogging.
Don’t forget to check out everyone’s progress on their 52 Weeks of Organizing.
I think there is a time and season for everything. Concentrate on the baby and getting organized and stay off the computer!
Choose a couple of blog challenges or just this one (that is what I have done) and then I have the time to do everything I need to do.
I am at my daughter’s house now visiting, one more week and then back to the real world. Good luck!
Beautifully put. Thank you so much!
I don’t really make money on my blog either, right now I’m doing it for fun even though there may come a time when I will want to kick it up a notch. I would say that I spend about 20 – 30 minutes putting together a post. Typically I either get into work early or stay late to write, for some reason I seem to do better if I’m in my ‘professional’ mode versus my mom mode. Other than that I may spend between 30 – 60 minutes on the computer at night but I’m sitting with my husband while he’s watching TV and we’re chit chatting so I don’t feel like I’m taking a lot of time away from him.
What I’ve found helpful sometimes is to have writing sessions. If I can set aside a couple of hours I can hammer out posts and schedule them. Being in the writing moment seems to help me write faster and then I’m not stressing about getting something up.
I would agree with Ally’s Grandma, the kids grow up way to quick so don’t sacrifice time if it’s not what you really want to do.
Thanks for all your input Liz. I really liked hearing how you find time for your blogging. A writing session is a good idea too. I tried doing something like that in the past but whenever I had a post set to “scheduled” I would keep coming back to it and editing it before it published which defeated the point. Whoops!
I am trying to balance the same thing. I feel like things have gotten out of “sync” in my home and life, and something needs to be changed. Usually when I feel this way, my job tends to get the “slack”, but this time around I feel like it is my home life/blog life. I have lived in my apt for 3mos, and I still have tons of boxes to sort, things to purge and things to put where they belong. I feel like I read and sporadically post on my blog, but commenting fails.
I am def implanting a schedule for my life, and I hope it works!
Hope you have a great week!!!
Thanks and good luck with your schedule! We’re doing pretty well with ours so far and feeling really great about it.