4.03.2013

2 Week Status Update

Well!  Today marks the official two week mark of Vacuuming in Pearls and my new life as a home maker (homemaker? home-maker? Anybody know the standard way to spell it?), and I thought it would be prudent to do a sort of status update on how things are going and how well I'm doing with my self-imposed guidelines.

(P.S. This post was previously scheduled to go up at the normal 10 a.m., but Baby J has had a bit of a sleeping issue lately, growth spurts or teething most likely, and I was preoccupied.  I'm sure you'll all forgive me!)


Everyone keeps asking me "What's it like to be a stay home mom now?" and I am not really sure how to respond.  It sounds weird, but it doesn't feel different to me.  I don't feel like I'm all the sudden in this whole new world and I had to make this huge adjustment or anything.  Logically, I know that I actually did, but somehow it feels like I've simply been doing this forever.  Not "forever" in the whiney, I'm sick of this way, but in the comfort of longevity kind of way.  I like to think this must mean that I am on the right path, that I have finally found something fulfilling to do with my days.

Understand that I do not, in any way, mean that other parents are not fulfilled if they do not choose to be stay-homers!  I simply did not have the kind of passion for my line of work when I was working for the corporate world that breeds fulfillment in your career.  Many, many others do have work and home lives that complete them just as they are!

That all being said, I'm sure everyone is mainly curious to see how I'm fairing with following my "Guidelines to a Stay-Homer's Sanity."  The answer is, never perfect, but, generally, pretty good!  I am glad to report that I have had no symptoms of the "Domestic Dumps" I outlined in my post yesterday.  My schedule, posted the day before, has been incredibly helpful!

I will fully admit I don't follow it to the letter, day in and day out, but I do adhere to it's basic structure and it has been helping to slowly but surely tame the chaos that was my house.  Dishes and laundry especially remain my old foes.  No matter how hard you work at getting rid of them, they just keep coming right back!  The good news is, by making sure I do the unloading/reloading consistently, my counters have been blissfully dish-free.  Laundry is seeing success also, though to a lesser degree.  My defense will be that we have some serious projects to do in there to make it a clean, efficient place!  (All the cool DIY-ness will be shared once it starts happening!)

I feel like I've been doing a pretty bang up job sticking to my other guidelines as well.  This past Saturday, Mr. J and I dropped Baby off with Grandma and went to do a few quick shopping errands.  Since he was taken care of, we took the opportunity to have a bit of a mini-date. *gasp!*  Thai food and my husband all to myself = success in my books!  

This is what our street should look like by now, but no.
I only feel like I'm lagging a bit in two areas.  The first and most significant is keeping myself active.  It's Minnesota and it hasn't gotten the memo that it's SPRING, so there's still several feet of snow hanging around, which nixes the opportunity to get out with the stroller and go for the jogs I've been dreaming of and I've only fit my "quick workout" in the morning schedule in about a third of the time. 

The second is the TV blackouts until after Baby J goes to bed for the evening.  Before anyone jumps up and says "A HA! I told you so!," it's not me turning it on.  Mr. J likes to have a bit of tube time when he comes home between milkings and since our "playroom" is also the living room, the TV is a bit unavoidable.

Goals for the next few weeks:  

  • Get that work out in!  Even if it's just 15 minutes, it's something right?
  • Add a few more things to the cleaning schedule as the daily tasks become easier to complete quickly (like making the bed daily as opposed to once in awhile, etc.)
  • Make some play dates/mommy dates!  While we've been out and about lately, it's always great to connect with other mommy friends!



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