Managing at home.

Many people have asked if I have time to get anything done during the day. The surprising answer is yes, I do.

I have 2 newborns that need to be fed. A toddler who not only needs food and drink, but attention and playtime. And feeding and caring for myself. Time management has become a must, as well as the ability to juggle and multi-task. Its not as intense as it may sound, at least not anymore. I've adjusted to being constantly busy, and I'm ok with it now.

The 2 hours before Derrick goes to work are spent getting the kids fed and dressed for the day, as well as Derrick getting himself ready. This has helped me have an easier time during the day. We are lucky that Derrick doesn't start work till almost 11am, we can still sleep till a normal hour and I have help getting the kids going.

Laundry - one day I put a load in the wash, and dry it. On day 2 I fold it. On day 3 I wash and dry another load. On day 4 I fold it. This process has kept us in clean clothes, but I'm never really "caught up". That's ok with me. The nice thing is that folding laundry becomes quality time spent with Evelyn. She loves to "help" me with laundry, her task is to take all the socks and put them in my sock bag for matching later. If the boys happen to be napping, I try to throw an extra load in the wash or fold tomorrows load. This process may change when we transition to cloth diapers as I will probably find myself doing extra loads of just diaper washes.

Dishes - on day 1 I load the dishes in the dishwasher, day 2 I put more dishes in and run it. Day 3 they all get put away. Then I repeat on day 4. Again, I'm never totally caught up, but I'm staying on top of it. Evelyn likes to help here too, usually she plays on one side of the sink, while I'm using the other side to load the dishes.

These 2 tasks alone take me about an hour total to complete. Of course there are days it takes a little longer if its a folding day with dishes to be done, but it isn't too bad.

I usually try to complete one other task during the day. That could be vacuuming, dusting, cleaning Evelyn's room, or organizing something, whatever needs to be done. If I get one task done besides laundry/dishes I feel like I've accomplished a ton that day.

As for my personal health and hygiene, I just wait for Derrick to get home and then I disappear into the bathroom. I eat in between chores or eat on the run most times.

I never try to do more than one outing in a day. If I have to go to Target, that is the days outing. This will carry into the summer, if we went to the store than that's it. If we went to the park, than that's it. If we are out too long, then that days chores get put off till tomorrow, I play catch up when I have time to do extra (or ask Derrick to do one of my chores).

As I'm wondering room to room during the day, I always make sure to grab an item or 2 (or 6 haha) and take it with me. If I go from living room to kitchen, I may grab Evelyn's snack trash, dishes or anything else that needs to go there. If I'm going upstairs I take an arm load up with me. This has become second nature now, I never travel around the house empty handed. This just keeps things "tidy" but my house is never really clean.

I usually let Evelyn do her thing. Especially since we're cooped up in the house till spring. After an hour or two we play "pick up" for 10 minutes so she can destroy the place again.

I don't know how this is all going to change as the boys get older and demand more of my time, guess I'll tackle that as it happens.

The house is less than organized, it's not really clean, but it is picked up and not trashed. I can say that for one more day my kids are happy healthy and alive, I can't expect much more than that.