How Did I Do It?

Today was one of THOSE days.  Long, exhausting, and still didn't have enough hours in it.  I am not sure how I did all this 6 years ago.  Check out the videos on YouTube for MommytheMaid and you will see that my house was always nice looking even with a toddler under foot.  When Troy was born, my house was still clean, the laundry hampers mostly empty, and the kitchen full of delicious and nutritious dinners and snacks at all times.  Athena was 3 and Troy was a fairly easy baby...as long as he was held and nursed every other hour.  I type this post with Persephone grabbing at my arms and Athena in the shower asking which shampoo to use.  Troy is busy to convince me that playing with his DS is the same as reading a book...and Persephone just loaded her diaper and part of my pant leg.

A day in the life of Mommy the Maid.  

Most days I feel as though I haven't accomplished anything.  I keep my goals small.  Every day I try to get the following things done:

Dishes

One load of laundry (wash, dry, and put away)

One Activity with the children

One thing for myself (even if it is just a sneaky candy bar in my closet while the kids have screen time)

At least a few minutes to spend with Steven

One more small chore around the house 

On days where we have appointments, bills to pay, or errands to run, a lot of these things slip through the cracks.  When Troy was a baby I managed to keep up on the house, run to the store, feed the children homemade food, go to my knitting group, take the kids to a play date, help Alex with her homework, sew for a few hours, and spend time with my husband.  How did I do this?

Today felt productive and I am beat.  However, I only accomplished the following:

6 hour shift at work

Picked up some items for the baby from my friend

grocery shopping

Dinner (mostly frozen but I assuaged my guilt by adding a few veggies and grapes)

Folded a load of laundry and started another

assembled and put away the cloth diapers 

two kids showered and ready for the first day of school tomorrow 

swept the kitchen floor

unloaded the dishwasher

I guess the 6 hour work shift really takes a chunk out of the day.  However, without it, there wouldn't be water or electricity to do the laundry nor food to make for dinner.  So I guess I have done a lot.  I just wish that I could do more.  My house is a mess, dinners are less than nutritious, and I have a citation from the city because I missed some of the weeds on the side of my house.  If I still had that 6 hour chunk in my day, the rest of that list would have been completed before lunch time.  Maybe even some time to work on the scrapbooks.

 Where is this "balance" people speak of?

It doesn't help that both Steven and I work in the restaurant industry and work opposite schedules.  I serve pancakes in the morning and he cooks dinner for hungry golfers.  Persephone demands to be held all the time and nurses often, so when one of us is home with her there isn't a great opportunity to grab the weed whacker and trim the grass and weeds along my fence.  Since it is my neighbors complaining, they shouldn't mind hearing the weed whacker sometime in the middle of the night.

Perhaps it is also the fact that I have more children.  When Troy was a baby, Athena was in preschool.  There wasn't a lot of school related tasks during the day.  Now I have a 1st grader and a 4th grader to help out with homework that is far more complicated than I can handle.  Common Core math anyone?  I also refuse to allow screens to baby sit my kids all day.  Don't get me wrong, I am a typical overly exhausted mom and I do allow my children more screen time that I should, but I still prefer to play games, go on a walk, or bake a cake.  Catering to two kiddos with the baby might be a part of my house remaining a mess.

Another factor is my age.  I know I am only 34, but that is almost a decade older than my "prime" Mommy the Maid years.  Perhaps I require more sleep and my body just doesn't  handle it.  I don't like that excuse.  I really don't I would rather admit that my weight causes me to slow down more than my age.  

I hope that when Persephone gets a little older, it will be easier. Here is to hoping!