Working mom issues

Every once in a while I would like to write about things that affect me as a working mom. I am not home throughout the day, so everything household related has to be squeezed in the evening hours or weekends.

Many evenings, I leave work, pick up my son from daycare, come home, cook, have dinner, play, ...

You get the idea. 

Then, come the weekend, all major cleaning and shopping has to be done, so that we can enjoy the weekend as a family.

There is always this internal struggle going on, whether I should take care of one or two tasks each day, or whether I should take a couple of hours on Saturday mornings and get a major cleaning done.

The same is true for cooking. Having a meal plan has made life a lot easier, as I know that I should have all the necessary ingredients on hand. I also know in the morning to leave out any necessary meat from the freezer for thawing. And while I have a moment at work, I think about the order in which I should prepare our meal. At night, after dinner I check if we have enough leftovers to make lunches for us, or if the next morning I will have to make sandwiches.

Taking a second to think about what will come a few hours from now, can really help in creating a smooth chain of events.

Sunday morning for example, I got up early, and combined the tasks of walking our dog with my trip to pick up the Sunday newspaper. Instead of walking the dog, and then taking the car to pick up a paper, I used the time and went on a longer walk, which both I and the dog enjoyed.

image found here

This me-time can be used to plan the day, and any tasks that need to be completed that day. Taking a little bit of time each morning to plan for what's coming up that day or week just seems to be the way to get things done a little more efficient.

Looks like this post will be more like a collection of thoughts and impressions and I don't think I have a principal idea to share with you. Maybe, I just want to explain to myself with all this talk that I should make a little more of an effort to combine tasks, in order to become efficient with my time.