Checking In

I've been MIA for a while as I try to get back into the rhythm of full-time teaching and full-time parenting.  It's always a struggle to find the balance between work and home life, but I'm really trying to make sure my work obligations don't overwhelm the peace of my home.  Trying to leave my school at a decent hour, trying not to bring work home, trying to leave work worries at work, trying to keep our home organized and happy and fun while also realizing my time at home is limited to non-work hours. 

Some goals:

• streamlining and simplifying our meals - realizing that it's better for me to keep each meal simple rather than creating a 3 or 4 course feast.  Also, figuring out ways to cook once but eat twice - leftovers transformed into new, quick meals.
• committing to our laundry system to keep that laundry beast from overwhelming us!  one load of laundry a day - washed, dried, AND put away.  Putting away is the hard part for me... I'll try my best to not let the clean, dry laundry pile up until it's so daunting.
• keeping a family calendar system.  i've always been good about keeping a personal calendar - i have a little datebook that i keep in my purse that keeps me organized and sane - but we're at a point within our family that it's now important for ALL of the adults to know everyone's schedule.  The kids now have sports practice, dance class, mom has evening meetings and obligations, dad has on-call nights and work commitments.  we all need to be on the same page to keep the ship sailing.  
• getting a decent night's sleep each night!  this is SO IMPORTANT and often falls by the wayside.  by the time the kids go to sleep, i always want some solid me-time which i end up overfilling with reading, writing, surfing the internet, etc.  time for me to realize that i have to limit my time and instead go to bed at an earlier hour because i'll end up having so much more energy the next day!

speaking of which...good night!

Comments

[charleen chan]

Know what you mean Robin. I find it hard enough without a full time job. Self preservation is keep too keeping it all together for me (i.e. sleep) It is so hard when you want "me-time."