Our House

I had a conversation with someone the other day that actually sparked this blog post. We were talking about our roles as wives, mothers and homemakers as well as professionals. We talked about the balancing act that we attempt on a daily basis between work, home and other commitments. Its a pretty regular conversation that women have-how to do it all.
I felt pretty good holding my own in this conversation. She was talking about how her husband doesn't do blah blah blah, and that doesn't he understand how hard she had it with the kids blah blah blah. She never gets to the gym anymore, does nothing but run around and the house is a mess. She wasn't looking forward to spending the weekend cleaning and running errands.
It was a little bit of a sucker punch because I was in the same place as this gal not too many months ago.
That's when I realized I made a few what I thought were minor changes, but have turned out to be huge.
The first thing was getting back on the treadmill and practicing yoga. Its amazing how much more energy I have from exercising. Add to it the fact that I don't have the constant back pain thanks to a consistent yoga practice. Since I am exercising more, its causing me to want to eat healthier. Eating healthier means that I am making other healthier choices. Its this continium. Add to it, the Little Man sees Mommy eating healthy and moving more so it helps him want to be healthy.
My other big thing that I started doing was doing a little around the house everyday. Keeping up with the laundry means that I am not going to spend the whole weekend doing laundry, and trying to not get angry and frustrated. My acquaintance was amazed when I told her that I pretty much clean the house everyday before I leave for work. Basically, it takes about 15 minutes to run the feather duster around the upper level and swifter the tile floors. I clean both bathrooms (wiping the counters down, swishing around toilet bowl cleaner and spraying down the shower)make the beds and empty the dishwasher. Some days I do it better than others, but the intent is there. Even the little man is getting in on it. He's working on making his bed and picking up his room-slow and steady progress.
Its Saturday morning, and I am not stressed out that I have to spend all weekend cleaning and grocery shopping and doing laundry and all this other stuff and not being able to enjoy my family. Instead, I have a load or two of laundry to do (not anything that NEEDS to get done) a few things to pick up at the store (dog treats for one)and a couple of errands to run-but nothing that is overwhelming. Instead, I get to spend today with my little man going to the March of Dimes party this morning and Young Naturalists. Tomorrow I am helping with the Little Man's Sunday school class (he is all excited about that) and have some PTO & church stuff to do. And I am planning on doing some scrapbooking (because I can!) We have to pick up our pictures from Harold's from our Valentine's Day photo shoot (I can't wait to see them-and share them too!)I have to make brunch for tomorrow (sausage and egg strata)for after church. Next week is a crazy week for us-Tuesday the Little Man has his concert from school, and there is a bunch of other stuff going on. I want to have a clue about dinners ahead of time so I (and the big man) aren't tring to scrounge something up at the last minute. Tonight we're having Italian sausage...mine with peppers and onions. The rest of the week I need to think about.
I am looking forward to having fun being mommy today and enjoying myself. I am trying to be less stressed out all the time, and it seems to be working. I'm still high strung but its not as bad as it was even a few weeks ago. I get to have fun and enjoy myself and my family. I like the fact that I am able to have people over and not be all freaked out by it. I like the fact that I am able to enjoy my weekend and not be stressed out by the fact that I have to clean all weekend and not get to have any fun. But now I can :)