Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Getting organized as a WAHM (work at home mom)

It's been a long time since I posted here and I sure do miss blogging!  Magnolia is now 3 months old, she went from being this teeny little infant who only slept, ate and cried; who now interacts, smiles, plays and is much more entertaining.   Its amazing to watch her grow and change each day, but I am starting to feel a little frazzled with our daily routine, or lack of one.   Because we don't have a routine, I think it makes it harder to get things done; for instance, I really miss blogging and I always have lots to say, but no time to write!  Maybe working toward a schedule will help me find time for blogging and keeping my posts shorter and more to the point will help me to be able to post weekly,  along with scheduling time to do other things during the day.  Right now, I struggle with trying to get my contract work in, have quality time with Magnolia, getting my craft on, social media networking, blogging and other daily chores like cooking and cleaning.  With all this to do each day, you can see how easy it is to become overwhelmed, plus being a new mom isn't an easy task in and of itself.  My goal; to get into a routine that allows some flexibility but also specifies time for my crafts, networking, blogging, working and of course spending quality time with Magnolia.  I have always had visions of having an online calender like outlook, plotting my weekly routine and implelmenting it, even before having a baby this is what I wanted to do, but never accomplished doing.  However, I am going to make a real effort this time and hopefully it will pay off and I can change my day into a routine that works for both Magnolia and I.



Here is how I plan on doing this:

1.  Get Magnolia into a routine.  Now that she is 3 months old, its time to work toward a routine for Magnolia so that she can establish better sleeping patterns that work for us as a family.  I know having a routine at this age is debatable depending on your parenting style, but right now we just want a loose routine that is somewhat predictable from day to day regarding nap times (not so much feeding times, she eats when she is hungry and that works fine for us).  Fortunately, she has already created somewhat of a routine herself from day to day and the more I pay attention to this and predict her needs before they happen, the happier she is during the day.  I just need to make it consistent for a while to establish these nap and bedtime patterns.  (this is my plan anyway)  Also I want to allow for some flexibility in the routine too, I want my child to be able to 'go with the flow' and if I have an appointment that conflicts with nap time, for her to be able to adjust accordingly without being completely thrown off.  I realize this might be easier said than done; but a loose routine is what we are hoping to start with right now.   After figuring out her routine, schedule my other daily and weekly needs accordingly.  Which leads me to #2...

2.  Find and create an online calender to write my daily schedule out.  I am looking for something that will include a place to add links for recipes, preferably with visual images attached to the recipes for easy reference like pinterest pins or food network recipes, post status updates to facebook or twitter, attach to my blog or link to it somehow, and of course and easy to use calender with a quick way to post a daily agenda.   This might be a 'dream calender' (or the next million dollar idea?), but for now I am using cozi.com, a family planning website that my husband and I have been using for a grocery list for a while.  They have places to post recipes and a calender that is quick and easy to use, a to do list, shopping list and more, but it's not ideal for me.  Does anyone know of such a calender or social media organization tool with a really good way to organize ideas, lists, daily routine; etc?

3.  STICK TO THIS SCHEDULE FOR 1 WEEK!  This might be hard, but I need to do this, and stick to it for 1 week.  I mean, really stick to it this time, and maybe I can create a habit of a routine that actually works for me.

For now, I'd like to hear how other SAHM and WAHM's schedule their daily routine and if anyone knows of any great online calenders with access to social media sites please post in comments?!

3 comments:

  1. Good luck with this. If you find something that works for you, please let us know. I too struggle with organization, especially when it comes to working from home.

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  2. I start the day when the kids wake up, neither Joe or Anne do well when I wake them up so I try hard to make sure I leave enough time in the morning for them to wake up on their own. Breakfast usually takes place about 30 minutes after they get up.

    After breakfast we "play" in our rooms, they play I do daily house work, make beds, pick up dirty clothes, and pick up their rooms somewhat (Fridays I CLEAN their rooms so they are nice for the weekend)

    Next its usually lunch time, I try to cook dinner as I cook lunch well they watch TV or play. My kids like an early lunch we usually eat around 11.

    I try to do the dishes after lunch and vacuum then the 3 of us play till Anne takes her afternoon nap around 1. When Anne is taking a nap Joe and I go outside if its nice or play "bigger kid" games just the 2 of us for about 45-1hr. If Anne is still sleeping I have Joe play by himself and I do paper work/phone calls or craft.

    After Anne gets up from her nap all I do is feed them dinner give baths and get ready for bed. Why this process takes 3+ hours I don't know :) but that is usually all I do between 4-7:30. At about 7:30 we say prayers read a story have a glass of milk and the goal is bedtime at 8.

    I call it a good on track day if everything happens within an hr of when I want it too.

    Good Luck

    Just remember when you read this that my kids are older :) Anne's bed time was closer to 10:30 when she was 3 mo, and don't think this is the way it always works this is my goal :) I think we do it 4 or so days a week and we usually have one disaster day and a couple close tries :) I don't know what I am going to do next year when joe goes to preschool we might have to start practicing that schedule now!

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  3. Mary, thats an awesome schedule! I need to get M into a routine like that!!! Ok, having faith it can be done and giving it a shot today!

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