Change

You're probably asking yourselves, "Where has Earthy Mom been?  Did she fall off the earth?"

I've been busy working.  That's right folks, I now have two part-time jobs.  No more staying home, blogging, facebooking, and/or gaming all day around house work.  I have to go to work now, everyday.  I love my new job.  The hours are almost perfect, because I work in a school.  I'm home shortly after the kids get home.  I have the same days off as the kids and summer too.  Of course this leaves me with significantly less time on my hands to do all the fun stuff from my stay at home days. 

I'm trying to re-evaluate life.

Before I had all the time in the world to take care of the home, the kids, and fun for me.  Now I'm prioritizing kids and home and then time with my hubby.  After school it's homework, dinner, and running kids to activities.  Both boys play soccer.  All three of them are in scouts.  So we run almost every night of the week.  My hubby and I like to relax on the couch together, after all the kids are in bed, watching some tv before bed.  I'm still trying to figure out when I can get my blogging and facebook time in.  (Lets not even mention, that since Irene our internet signal has been seriously lacking.)  I'm planning to blog some on the weekends (like now) and maybe even at my other job, when things are slow.  So we'll see how it all works out and fits into my new life.

I'm not gone, just busy.  I'm certainly not going to stop blogging, because I love it.  I love writing and sharing.  It helps me relax.  It makes me happy.  And as we all know a happy, relaxed mom is a better mom.

~Earthy Mom

Guilt

So I will start out this post with saying usually I try to keep my writing upbeat and motivational.  However I do write to express myself and my feelings.  Guilt is what I'm feeling now.

Here's a little of the back story to my guilt.
    I had a great job at the Post Office, delivering mail part time.  They pay was great and the hours were pretty good too.  My husband and I like to hike and letterbox and on one of those trips I fell and injured my shoulder.  Unfortunately my injury left me unable to perform my job consistently.  We made the decision for me to quit working, because my body's well being was more important than the money we would lose.  I don't regret the decision.  It's given me the opportunity to be home more with my children.  And that's a dream I never thought would come true.  My dad is recently recovering from an extended stay in the hospital.  And my parents have moved my 94 year old grandma in with them.  Needless to say my mom is a really busy lady.  Right now we are very tight on money.  I know that money doesn't buy happiness, but it does pay the bills.
    My husband has been looking for a second job, and yesterday he found one.  I feel so guilty that he will be working two jobs and missing out on family time, while I'm home with our family.  I wish that I could go out and work, but we run into a childcare issue.  Ladybug is old enough to watch the boys, but they don't always get along well.  (really what siblings do)  Not to mention every time talk of me working comes up, my poor mom nearly has a heart attack.  With the summer fast approaching, we have decided that I should continue to stay home (for now).
    I just doesn't feel right that I get to enjoy family time, while my husband is working so hard to support us all.  I wish I could enjoy how amazingly lucky I am, but right now I just feel guilty.

~Your Earthy Mom

School starts in only 17 days! Were did the summer go?

I guess this means it's time for us to start getting organized and back to a schedule.  The school lists have almost all come in, so next week there will be school supply shopping to do.  I need to clean and dust off our school shelves.  I am so happy we started this system several years ago, it has made keeping track of the kids school papers and homework so much easier.
I set up a small set of selves, one for each child, right next to our backpack and shoe cubby.  On each shelf I put a "in box" tray and a pencil box.  The tray is for any papers that come home for me and a place to keep homework that isn't due the next day.  Each child has their own pencil box with several pencils, box of crayons/collored pencils, erasers, glue stick, and a pair of scissors.  This cuts down on the time spent looking for these items for homework and arguments over who lost such-and-such item.  This year I've decided to cut out several bookmarks from heavy paper for everyone, so they aren't constanly looking for one/dragging their feet at bedtime.
I get very focussed on work so I really have to set up and stick to a schedule, or else the kids might noteat dinner till late.  I've been working on and tweeking our schedule from last year to work better this year.


6am - Make sure girls are getting up.
6-6:30am - Go for am walk
6:30-7am - Online time for business (posting, emails, etc.)
7:10am - Girls go out to school bus
7-8am - Wake up boys, get them ready for school, baby gets dropped off
8am - Take boys down to the bus stop
8:10-9am - Take care of baby and settle her down for a nap
9:15-10:15am - Make morning calls
11am-3pm - Open for appointments
12:30pm - Lunch time for baby
1:30pm - Nap time for baby
1:30-2:30pm - Afternoon calls
2:30pm - Girls come home from school, snack, start them on homework
3:30pm - Baby gets picked up and boys come home from school, snack
4pm - Start boys on homework and make sure dinner is in the oven.
5pm - Dinnertime
6-6:30pm - Evening calls
6:30-9pm - baths, reading, getting everyone to bed.
9-10:00pm - finish evening calls, check emails, finish up business or house work
10-11pm - Time for me and then bed.

Color Chart
Business
Daycare/babysitting
Family time
Me time

When I right it all down I have a pretty packed day.  With the kids, the baby I take care of during the day, and our business.  I make sure to put in some me time at the beginning and end of the day, to destress and relax.  I'm also lucky that I don't have to do this alone, my fiancee works our business with me and does more than his fair share of keeping our family running.