A working Mom is a special breed. We are all things to all people – Mom, wife,
employee, boss, taxi driver, housekeeper, chef, you name it, we do it! But because of all of the roles we play
(sometimes multiple roles at once, like working from home when your kid is
sick) we have a lot to get done and last time I checked a day was only 24 hours
long. So I have come up with some
strategies that work for me to keep my workweek somewhat tolerable ;) Below are my tips on how to stay sane as a
working Mom.
1 – Wake up 30 minutes earlier than you normally do and WORK
OUT! This is my favorite time of day to
work out for a few reasons. One reason is
that I am the only one up in the house, so that means no interruptions from
little ones or furry ones. Another is
that I love the feeling of leaving for work, facing my day knowing my workout
is already over and done with! Plus it
gives me the added boost of energy I need to get through the day. Besides, who has the energy to work out after
working all day, cooking dinner, cleaning the kitchen, giving baths, bedtime
routines, etc etc???
2 – Shower in the morning (obvious for #1 above). I used to be a shower at night kind of gal
just so I could get that extra 10 minutes of sleep in the morning. But I found it took me longer to get fully
awake and focused without the shower helping me to feel fresh and awake!
3- Make lunches for kids and yourself (and hubby and whoever
else) the night before a workday. This
will obviously help shave some time off the morning rush (or as I like to call
it – laps around the house). But it will
also help you make wise food decisions as you will have more time to think about
it. Can’t tell you how many times I have
thrown something “junky” into the kids’ lunch just because I was rushed and
didn’t have time to cut up fruit. Which leads
me to…
4- “Pre” make lunch/snack foods ahead of time. I usually carve out an hour or so on the
weekends to pre make weekday food. Hubby
grills up the chicken for our lunches which I then chop up and put into
pre-measured baggies ready to toss into our lunches. I also chop up all of the veggies, fruit etc
and put them into Tupperware so all I need to do when putting lunches together
is decide which veggies and fruit I want to use. I like to use homemade dressing (so much
better for you) so I also make up a double batch of that, if I am running
low.
5 – Make freezer meals!!
I am really lucky because hubby cooks dinner a lot of evenings because
he gets home before I do. But…there are
many nights where he works late, or has obligations in the evening so I am
responsible for dinner. There is nothing
worse than starting to cook dinner at 6pm on a “school night” because that
means a late dinner, and late bath, and late bedtime and so on. So…about once a month I gather a bunch of
crock pot/oven recipes and I make up freezer meals. Basically you prep the meal all the way up
until actual cooking time, then toss it all into a gallon size zip lock
baggie. Take a sharpie and write the
cooking instructions on the baggie and throw them in the freezer. The key here is to take out the meal of your
choice the night before and let it defrost in the fridge so it is ready to
throw in the crock pot before you leave for work (another lifesaver) OR put in
the oven when you get home, depending on the recipe.
6- Use your lunch hour to run errands. This is HUGE for me. I do not have the time after work to run
errands, and my weekends are already crazy as it is, so I utilize my lunch hour
as errand time. I do everything from
shopping for birthday party presents, to picking up needed grocery items. Thankfully my office has a refrigerator, but you
can always pack a cooler with ice and leave it in the air-conditioned office. Whatever you have to do to make it work.
7 – Do one chore every weekday after work. Do you know the helpless feeling of spending
your entire Saturday cleaning the house?
I do and I hate it!! So what I do
is break up my chores and do one of them every night after work. For example: Mondays I clean the floors,
Tuesdays the bathrooms, Wednesdays I dust…etc.
This way each chore takes me less than 10 minutes (except the floors, we
have all wood and tile so it takes a while to sweep/mop) and I have a clean
house and my Saturdays back J
I hope these tips help you better navigate through the work week, as they have become a saving grace for me.
To your health!
~F2
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