If you haven’t already seen my blog about balancing my time, then start here.
Despite the fact that we are in the midst of the busiest time of the year for us, I’m feeling pretty good about our schedule and my stress level.
What’s working?
Communication
My husband and I have continued to keep up communication about our schedules and where transportation is needed. His work schedule has changed recently, leading to more of the transportation falling to me, but for the most part things are good. Several times, he’s offered to go pick up kids if he notices that I’m in the middle of something as that time approaches.
Advanced Planning
With the change in work schedules, I’m having to take over more of the cooking and meal planning. Saturday morning, I try to plan the meals for the week and figure out the best time to shop. On Sundays or Monday mornings, I’m planning out our week and looking at the schedule for potential problems.
Boundaries
Sundays are now days where we avoid scheduling activities and events. Since we already have obligations every day of the week, Sunday is my day. It’s the day to do whatever I think will put me in a position to tackle the next week. While this might include cleaning, organizing, or planning, I’m trying to prioritize relaxation and quality time with family and friends.
Single Focus Relaxation
This includes cross stitching with Lofi music and watching documentaries without doing anything else. Since documentaries make me feel like I’m being productive by learning about something, I don’t feel the need to do anything else. If I start to get fidgety, then I find a fidget toy.
What Could Use Improvement?
I’m still struggling to look at my planner daily. Some of this is finding a routine that will put it in front of me each day.
The guilt of saying no. I know that if we overschedule ourselves, we’ll all suffer, but that doesn’t make it any easier. I’m working on shifting my view by telling myself that adding too many social events or another activity or two isn’t worth the process of recovering from burnout. Perhaps this is the guilt that seems inherent in parenting. You know, that part of you as a parent that wants to give your kids everything they desire. The few activities that we decide to opt out of aren’t going to limit their opportunities or ruin their lives, but they will preserve our energy and allow us to give our all to the activities we choose.