Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Giving In

So I admitted defeat.

I can't keep up on my own.



One of the amazing things I realized when I made the transition to stay-at-home-mom life is that my house is messier than when I was trying to do a full time job as well. Messier. I am having a harder time keeping up.

Now, when you think about it, this makes sense. I stay home, I have two little girls home, and Adam works from home. We are all home. We are all eating three meals a day at home. We work here, we play here, we truly live here. All day. All the time. The house doesn't stay clean because it is just always in use.

We've gotten better about the evening clean up thing (sort of). I've done a cleaning schedule (that I mostly stick to). But Madison is starting to phase our her nap, Reagan is hit or miss on when she falls asleep and wakes, and I'm trying to do more and more writing. Which takes time.

All that boils down to me getting horribly, horribly behind. And frustrated. And tired. Sure, my kids sleep at night, but trying to cram everything I need to do into the three hours between Madison's bedtime and my bedtime means that I stay up way too late.

Last week I was exhausted trying to wrangle the girls at the pool, so we could get home, so we could clean up, and I was just frustrated. And tired. And not a fun mom.

So I gave in and admitted that I just can't do it all right now.

There is a sweet high school girl who volunteers in the church nursery. She's mentioned that she babysits, but it's never quite worked out with her schedule during the school year.

I took and shot and emailed her about working as a mother's helper. Sometimes she'd come to the pool with us, sometimes she'd babysit while I ran a quick errand or two, sometimes she'd play with the girls while I got some laundry or cleaning or writing done. But for a few hours a week I'd have an extra set of hands to get caught up and maybe even tackle a few projects that have been backing up.

It actually worked out.

We settled on two afternoons a week - after nap time.

Today was her first day. I picked her up at 2:30.

It. Was. Awesome.

We had a massive thunderstorm, so the pool was closed and outside wasn't an option, but she happily played with the girls for two hours while I caught up on some cleaning. I cleaned the bedrooms, which is normally an impossible task, while watching Downton Abbey on my Kindle.

The girls had a great time with someone who was completely focused on playing with them. Win.

I was able to be productive. Win.

Oh, and a very sweet high school girl got some spending money. Win.

Tomorrow she'll come to the pool with us, and will have the task of keeping Reagan corralled in the kiddie pool while Madison has her lesson. If she can do that, I'll know I found an actual heaven sent angel.

Will five hours a week really make a difference? Will I get addicted? What do you think - am I giving up by giving in?
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Real Time Web Analytics