Sometimes it's hard to juggle it all!

Talking to you as a woman with experience, I know it can be ridiculously hard to juggle your home responsibilities with your work responsibilities. 

I work 7:30-4:00 Monday through Friday with a half hour commute either way.  Essentially, I am up at 6:00 to leave by 7:00 and then don't return home until 4:30. 

Between 4:30 and 7:30, I try to get the house clean and tidy, cook a meal, clean up after cooking the meal (also eat said meal) wash laundry, if needed, and then collapse into the couch at 7:30 or so. 

It can be frazzling to keep up this pace day after day! 

My suggestion to you-  make it easier on yourself.  

I always lay my clothes out the night before.  Our tiny closet doesn't have a light and my hubby is still peacefully sleeping in the warm cozy bed (as I longingly wish I were still there, too!) when I get up in the morning, so I don't want to turn on the big, bright overhead light.  It's so much easier to lay your clothes out the night before.  That way, you pick them up, and head over to the powder room, and when you're all showered up and clean, your clothes are right there. 

Don't take yourself, your housecleaning, or your cooking too seriously.  Don't get me wrong- it's an important job.  But really, if you end up missing washing windows one week or just skip making a meal and as a result, hubby eat leftovers 2 days in a row...nothing terrible will happen. 

Take 20 minutes and make up a chart.  This has really helped our house.  I have a set list of tasks that I should be doing after work each day.  It makes sure that everything gets attention and I'm not running around like an idiot on Saturdays, trying to clean every room in the house.  I like checking off what I've completed, too.  I like lists and organization...I'm just not all that good at it naturally!  lol 

I've talked about meal planning before, and you're going to hear about it again.   For heaven's sakes, make out a menu so you know what you're cooking.  The last thing I want to do after I come home from the office is look around and see what I have on hand and try to figure out what I'm going to cook.  If I meal plan, I know that on Thursday (today!) I'm going to be making spicy shepherd's pie (recipe here) along with broccoli and bread/butter.  I'm going to open a can of peaches for dessert.  And voila.  Since I meal planned on Saturday, I know I have everything I need to make this delicious dish, and I know it will get eaten, because both hubby and I like it.  Probably too much.  I mean...it really is good.  lol 

Pray.  Don't forget about this.  God can help you through any situation, and even if it's mundane He wants to know about it.  Put your cares and burdens on Him.  He's listening and He cares!   

Ephesians 6:10
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

Those are the few little things I could come up with off the top of my head.  I hope one of those suggestions will help if you're in a similar situation.  

This weekend we are going camping, so I feel a bit like I'm running around like a chicken with its head chopped off.  Tonight I need to make sure that I pack my clothes and the kitchen stuff we'll need to be taking.  Hubby takes care of the tent/tarps/camp stove/pie irons, etc.  Oh!  I need to bring sheets for the airbed too.  See?  I told you I'm running around in a tizzy! 

I hope we'll all have a nice time together.  It's the hubs and I on one site, his twin bro, wife, and daughter on the next site, and his dad, step-mom, and two step-sisters on the next site.  I'm sure we'll all have a fun time together.  My in-laws are really super nice people.  :)

Till next time, God Bless you, my blogging friends.  Enjoy your weekend and stay safe!  

Summertime

We've been enjoying beautiful weather in Pennsylvania for the last week or so, and it's been amazing. Unfortunately, working full time has limited my ability to actually get out there and enjoy the gorgeous weather. What can you do?

The past few weeks, I've been really good about menu planning, and then actually following through and cooking the meals I've planned. All except today. Today was pretty much a wash out. I came home, had a tv dinner and fell asleep on the couch for an hour and a half. Yes. I was a slug. But that's okay. I'm convinced that if you are tired, and your body needs rest, take it. I slept poorly the night before and I'm fighting an ear infection, so I'm perfectly okay with my crappy tv dinner choice as well as my slug nap.

My friend/neighbor Kristin and I got together tonight and went for a nice walk. It was so nice to have someone to do something with! We must get together more often. Since we live next door to one another (actually we're in the same house, since it's a duplex) it's always like "Oh, I'll see them some other time" or something like that till we're both starved for conversation and company.

I think I need to find something to do after work once in awhile, as well. My life is rather boring and sometimes monotonous so it'd be nice to have a game plan to change things up once in awhile. The big problem with that is the anxiety that tells me I must go right home after work or else bad things could happen- namely car accidents. I'm still not really over that accident from a few years ago, I guess. Oh well. C'est la vie. I try to just trudge through whatever it is I'm dealing with. This too, shall pass.

How's your life going?

We've been pretty busy on the weekends. We went camping 2 weeks ago and had a wonderful time...with the exception of it being incredibly cold on Saturday night. So so so so so cold. I don't think I've ever been colder while sleeping. lol Other than that, it was quite a good time.

Last weekend, we went to my husband's company picnic and had quite a nice afternoon. We ran into some friends, enjoyed chatting with everyone, and rode a few rides at the amusement park where it was held. Hubby even won a nice prize- a Kindle! What a treat it has been downloading free books and enjoying them on this new toy.

This weekend, we are planning on taking our boat out to Bald Eagle State Park and enjoying a nice day there. We're planning on grilling up some hot dogs, trying our luck at fishing, and possibly enjoying the little beach area.

Do you like magazines? I subscribe to quite a few right now, but my favorites are Southern Lady and Family Life. Southern Lady is a beautiful magazine with lovely (and usually rather expensive-looking)recipes, beautiful southern scenery and so many pretty ads. I love looking through it.

Family Life, on the other hand, is a bare-bones publication put out by the Old Order Amish in Ontario, Canada. It's nothing but articles written by these folks, and ranges in topic from farming, caring for home and children, Christin living, and so forth. I always enjoy reading it, as well.

I also enjoy Ladies' Journal (another Amish publication) Keepers at Home (a Christian Women's magazine) Every Day Food (a free subscription I got...and I haven't found many recipes I want to try yet...) Redbook (my grandma sent me that subscription) and I just started receiving Martha Stewart Living today (another free subscription from...oh, I don't know, somewhere). Hubby just gets Pennsylvania Game News.

I hope that you are doing well, reader. I pray that you are healthy, happy, and fulfilled with wherever it is you are in your life right now. There is joy all around us. Look around and you'll see. Take care of yourself.

Till next time!

Mandy

PS- If anyone has experience with Blogger and could tell me why my post isn't showing up with the paragraphs I put in, please let me know. It takes my nice little paragraphs and smashes them into one big chunk of writing and I'm not sure why it would...or how to fix it. Thanks so much. :)