Starting to get the hang of it...?

This whole staying-home thing has been a huge blessing in many ways.  I get to spend more time with the kids, I get to do things for me, I get to do fun things and plan activities and meals for the kids, I get to be a much less-stressed version of myself.  However, going from working-mom to staying-home-summer-mom to full-time-stay-at-home-mom has been a huge adjustment.  I think it took one "semester" (I talk in teacher terms!) to really figure things out.  I'm definitely still working on it, but I feel like I'm making adjustments now to help better our day-to-day lives and make things run more smoothly.  Here are some things I've done.

Cut it out!
First of all, I know I have mentioned before that I signed up for waaaaaay too much last fall.  Here are most of the things that list includes:

• Room mom for Taylor's class
• Room mom for Parker's class
• Workout group leader at church
• Cleaning team for church
• Welcome team at church
• Soccer mom for Sydney's team
• Volunteering in Sydney's class one day a week
• Babysitting one day (only 2 hours) a week at church (for a small group)
• Hosting our small group at our house

So, during Christmas break, I decided that I'm going to eliminate as much as I can.  In a way, it makes me feel terrible that I'm not willing/able to do all these volunteer activities.  But, something's gotta give.  Here's what I'm eliminating:

• Room mom for Taylor's class
• Room mom for Parker's class
• Workout group leader at church
• Cleaning team for church
• Welcome team at church
• Soccer mom for Sydney's team
• Volunteering in Sydney's class one day a week
• Babysitting one day (only 2 hours) a week at church (for a small group)
• Hosting our small group at our house

I can't stop being room mom mid-year, and the workout group relies on me, plus it benefits me as well.  I'm still going to volunteer in Sydney's class when the teacher needs me or I have a free chance to go.  Everything else has either ended and I won't do again, or it will be ending shortly.  

Ahhhh, some weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

Now, I am picking up a couple of things, so now my list looks like this:

• Room mom for Taylor's class
• Room mom for Parker's class
• Workout group leader at church
• Leading a Biggest Loser Challenge at church- through mid-March
• Helping the room mom in Sydney's class
• Starting up our small group again... this time, it'll be held at church!

The latest additions are things that aren't too much pressure, they just take time when I need to take care of something for it.

I want money! Lots and lots of money...:

Another obviously huge adjustment has been not getting a paycheck.  We haven't had to pay for daycare, which is nice, but doesn't make up for my salary.  I was lucky to have been paid all summer, through August 31st (which helped pay the September bills).  October and November were weird months with our playroom construction, as we were pulling money from savings to pay the contractors.  December was kind of weird from Christmas.  So, January has really been the start of normalcy for budgeting.

We started doing the envelope system (by Dave Ramsey).  Now, I've never taken Dave's course, so I know we're not doing the specifics correctly.  But, we budget each week for different categories and spend from the categorized envelopes.  We don't even carry cash around- I have a "cash back" credit card that I use for everything, and we deduct from the envelopes how much was spent in each area.  Then we pay the credit card off each month.  It has been a wonderful thing for us.  It really helps keep me focused on what we actually need, and makes me question other things we may not need.  

Ironically, we are more financially stable now than we were with 2 paychecks.  Probably because I have the time to check things out every day and keep track of spending.  We're paying off bills (even a mortgage!), actually tithing, and are still able to save what we want to each month.  Whew.  A big relief to have this straightened out and actually working out.

I've also been able to make a little money here and there- babysitting at church gave me some, I've been taking surveys online and participating in some online focus groups (some have paid me as much as $150!), selling stuff on eBay, and doing some website testing.  Nothing crazy, but it's nice to get a little extra cash here and there!

We have also traded in some skymiles and hotel rewards points, since Stephen has such an abundance of both, for gift cards!  A $100 American Express gift card took up a fairly small fraction of the total skymiles he has.  We don't want to blow all his miles in case we want to take a trip, but we may try to get a few of these cards every so often to use instead of using the money from our envelopes.  

Social Life:

Another goal for me for this "semester" is to focus more on friends/family.  I'm great at saying "yeah, let's plan that!" and then never planning it.  To be fair, last fall, I didn't have much free time.  My 4 hours of free time while Parker was at school twice a week were taken up either by volunteering in Sydney's class or by babysitting at church.  I felt the pressure to keep up with cleaning the house, cooking dinners, getting everything I need at the grocery store (it's pathetic, I have to go about 3 times a week), etc.  

So far, this year, I'm doing so much better!  In the first 23 days of January, I have/will have planned/attended these things:

• Bass Pro Shop with friends
• Neighbor play date 1
• Girls' night out
• Neighbor play date 2
• Neighbor craft day
• Lunch with my mom
• INK with friends
• Birthday party 1
• Dinner with friends in Oconee County
• Lunch with former work friend
• Visiting my sister/BIL/nieces
• Joining the local Mom's club and meeting up for breakfast
• Birthday party 2
• Baby shower
• Another girls' night out
• A couple of church events

The following few weeks already have birthdays and play dates on the calendar.  So far, so good with this goal!

The house...:

Something I really struggled with last fall was keeping tabs on cleaning the house.  Let's be real here- I could literally clean the house every single day, and it would be dirty the next morning.  It was making me a little batty because I felt like a failure since the house was never regularly clean.   It shouldn't be that difficult to put things where they should go by the end of the day... to sweep up the mess after every meal... to take the dishes OUT of the dishwasher when they're clean... right?  But, those daily things, on top of the vacuuming/mopping/dusting/windexing/409-ing/laundry/ironing was causing stress.  I read all those blogs about how "good moms have dirty homes because their kids are having fun"... I find that to be a crap excuse to not cleaning.  I think it's important to have a clean, organized home.  I was just struggling with how to get it all done.

So... I have figured this whole thing out.  To find out how, click here and pay $99.99 and I'll tell you.  hehehe  Ok, here goes.  Last fall, I made a spreadsheet of everything that needs to be cleaned in this house, and categorized them by how often they needed to be cleaned.  Then, I would write the date of last cleaning in, so I could keep up with when it should be done next.  Good in theory, but it didn't "notify" me when I needed to do it again.  So things slipped through and wouldn't be done as often as it should.

Warning: my inner nerdiness is about to rear its nerdy head.

I spent the few days between Christmas and New Year's cleaning.  We were stuck inside, Parker was sick, it was cold and rainy... so, I cleaned.  I did EVERYTHING on that darn spreadsheet.  Everything.  I was "caught up".  Everything had a last date of around 1/1.  

Let me backtrack to say that when we had a maid service come, they would come once every 2 weeks.  I decided that our house was fine before with that spacing, so that's what I went back to for most things.  

I made a new spreadsheet, and, this time, I organized it by weeks of the month.  I put in what is to be done each week, and most things repeat every 2 weeks.  There are the "monthly" tasks that are thrown in when needed, the "every 3 months" tasks thrown in, "every 6 months" and so on.  I did this for the whole year, with all the tasks split out so that everything is covered when it is needed to be cleaned.

Here is page 1 (of 2) of January's sheet:

Once I'm done with all the tasks for the week (which are separated into categories, so I can do all the dusting/windexing/409-ing at once and all the vacuuming/mopping at once), then I am done!  I told myself I wouldn't start on the next week's stuff early, because that would throw everything off.

Now, things like sweeping the kitchen, wiping the counters and table, or spot cleaning are done as needed.  (which... come on now... is daily!)  But at least I'm not overwhelmed anymore on what is needed to be done.  I'm going to print the monthly sheets off as the new month approaches, and continue on!  I think this is going to be THE way to go.  #winning

I am also trying to be more productive with goals.  I made monthly goals, like painting the trim in certain rooms (if you recall, I'm trying to paint all the doors/trim in our house by the end of May), finishing certain books, washing the windows in our house, starting an online piano program, etc.  Random stuff.  Before, I would make long lists and never know where to start.  Now, I've broken them up into realistically achievable monthly goals.  For example, for January, my goals were to finish the 6th Harry Potter book, watch the movie, start the piano program, and tackle 3 rooms (painting trim/doors/washing windows): dining room, laundry room, Sydney's room.  Not too difficult, right?  I gave a whole week for each room to accomplish everything.  I made this monthly calendar to keep up with when to do those goals:

I also make daily lists of things to do, and I told myself I wouldn't go to bed without completing all tasks.  Welllll... I haven't been quite as good about that, but that's okay. :)  I get most things done, and it's keeping me on top of things I need to be doing!

I told you my inner-nerdiness was coming out, right?  And I will outwardly profess my nerdiness because this makes me SO excited!  I have a plan to follow!  And I think it's going to work!  It hasn't been the least bit overwhelming.

I think that is all I have to bore you with.  Life is good.  Some days are hard without being in a routine.  Some days Parker and I use way too much technology.  Other days I'm running Parker all over the place for specific non-kid errands.  But, when I look at the big picture, things are going wonderfully.  I wouldn't change my new position for anything... especially now that I have a slight idea of what to do.