It was at the start of this year, during the school summer break, that I realized just how crazy things had become. I was dreading Josephs return to school because I knew exactly how my life was going to be again, just tired 24/7 with even less QUALITY time to spend as a family. Since having another baby in May life had certainly changed!
To give you a honest look at 24 hours in my life (this is majority of my days) I sleep over night around 6-7 hours and the rest of the time I am constantly ‘working’ whether that be on business things/blog/vlogs or house/mum/wife duties. These days I have to schedule coffee dates with friends because otherwise I just wouldn’t see anyone! As it is each friend I may only see 1-2 times a month if I'm lucky. It just seems between my commitments and theirs it's hard. In most cases when we do catch up we have children with us trying to give them a play date. I cant actually remember the last time I caught up with a friend without any children ! So as much as it's super catching up with friends I'm still ‘working’ as I attend to my kids during that time. I do try and take some time by myself when I can … but when you see me sneaking out of the house for a coffee at a favorite cafe you will most likely still see me on my phone or laptop doing some form of work lol, but at least I feel somewhat relaxed. It’s the same at night once everyone is in bed (well suppose to be in bed … Joseph still comes out every 30 minutes asking for drinks, toilet etc as any child does!) Its one of my favorite times as I can sit down on my computer, watch a show, have a coffee but of coarse I'm still actually working at the same time for another 4-5 hours on business/blog/vlogs. A break during the evening will usually consist of me taking a phone call from my night owl friend Stacey during which one of us (if not both of us ) are sneaking out to get a coffee through McCafe drive through for 10 minutes. Stacey has 4 year old twins, a 1 year old and now a newborn baby, so we take this time to just chat and digest what has been of what is usually a hectic day. On the days when I can schedule some sort of ‘family time’ with my husband and kids it is so wonderful. Even if it's as simple as taking Joseph out to the shops for a look and a baby cappuccino at Gloria Jeans or playing with Isabella and her Care Bears in the play tent. That small amount of time not doing 'work things' is wonderful and I value that so much. We have a great time together, but unfortunately when I return reality checks in and everything else 'work' has piled up it can be overwhelming... the house duties, cooking, business work, vlogs/blogs ... the list goes on ! You always feel like your running but getting no where ! It's at this point that any family time I have again feels like 'work', because I can not stop worring about all the things I feel like I need to get back to doing!
When Joseph started school I thought I would have more time to 'catch up', but the thing is you feel like you have less ! You drop them off in the morning, go home to get some of the house done, attend to any younger children and spend time, perhaps try and fit in some work if your working from home and then before you know it its time to go back to the school to pick them up ! Which in my case can take 1.5hours. For me I get to the school atleast 30 minutes earlier than bell time to beat traffic and get a park. Then its pickup time, catching up with the things I need to know about school with teachers and other parents, then home time. Atleast in that time parked at the school I can do a little bit of work online with my phone and laptop to still be productive. Once we get home its unpacking the school bag, catching up with Joseph, showers, dinner preparation, homework, reader and bedtime …. All whilst of coarse attending to Isabella & still trying to work where I can. I am lucky enough to have my husband at that time helping out too where he can. Usually looking after one child whilst I manage the others needs (of coarse I realize most mothers have to do this alone and I take my hat off to them on managing it all - my sister a single mother of 5 just to name one!)
Before having Isabella last year my routines were going amazing, it was just afterwards I couldn’t keep up with what I had in place. From May until the last day of school for Joseph it became living day by day trying to get it all done lol Those summer holidays were certainly an awakening too! The quality time we could spend together as a family previously during holidays was no longer the same. The millions of ideas I had for us to go out and do things together just never happened. Im not even sure where those 8 weeks went! Isabella had been a true wonderful blessing, but of coarse there were new things like working around her nap times, feeding and baby attention. I couldn't keep up with the house work, meals were becoming last minute throw together's, work was not consistent, poor Joseph had to learn a lot of patience whilst his sister had a lot of my time with her needs and 'quality family time' was next to none. I was still trying to ‘do it all’ when it just wasn’t possible, everything was suffering in parts.
So this is where I am now. Joseph went back to school and just a couple of weeks before he started I knew I needed to make some changes if I were to somewhat survive the year. After reading the 4 hour work week by Tim Ferris & watching some favorite You Tubers, I had at least a game plan on where to start for a more simple life and more quality family time together. I started the challenge of attacking those problems that I saw were unnecessarily taking up my time and soon I started to feel the pressure lifted off my shoulders. My first attack was that of house duties and where I seemed to be lingering the most - The Kitchen! 2017 was starting to feel better already ...
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