Becoming a Work-From-Home Mom: Crafting My Day

Now that AA is 4 months old, I'm starting to slowly adapt to new life as a mom and, hopefully, becoming a work-from-home mom.  I could spend all day forever doing nothing but lounging around with that sweet, sweet baby.  But!  I also have a house to take care of and ambitions for a career in design and sewing that I'm not willing to give up, and I'm dedicated to finding a way to succeeding in all the areas of my life that are important to me.

My priorities must go in this order:  self, family, home, career.  With that in mind, my day-to-day is starting to come together according to those priorities.

First, my self and health:  because if I'm not well taken care of, I can't take care of anything else.  Happy mom is a happy family!

Second, our family:  that's Scott and AA.  I want to be present with them both at all the times I can be.  The most important thing to me during the day while Scott is at work is, and has to be, cherishing my son.  If I have the luxury of being at home all day with him, I have to take full advantage of that and never take a moment for granted.  I get to be there to witness him learning and growing every single day - that is a great, great blessing for all three of us.

Third, our home:  part of taking care of my family is providing a home that is inviting, comfortable and comforting, clean, and full of love.

Lastly, my career:  when the other three priorities are well taken care of during a day, I have time to pursue my other dreams.  This means I may or may not have time for working every single day at this point, and that's okay.

Here is what all that looks like for me on a practical level each day, depending on if AA is awake or asleep:

MY HEALTH [physical, mental, spiritual, emotional]

While AA is awake, I:

• Pray - I pray over Anderson every night when I put him to bed, and I have the Jesus Calling app on my phone to meditate on each morning during AA's first feeding.
• Exercise - we take walks about 3 times a week (pushing a 25 pound stroller is such great added resistance!), and since we spend the majority of our day laying on the floor anyway, it's the perfect time for me to stretch!
• Read - I'm sitting in a chair nursing a baby for about 2 hours total a day, so why not use that time to devour a bunch of books?
• Eat - I'm not preparing anything that complicated and time-consuming for any of my meals these days, so AA is perfectly content to play alone while I get my meals together and chow down.

While AA is asleep, I:

• Take care of my hygiene - I shower at night after AA is asleep, and I get up in the morning before he does to get ready for the day.
• Sleep - Duh.
• Watch TV - We've made the decision to try to limit AA to zero hours of screen time a day for as long as possible (we're aiming for 2 years old...maybe we'll make it to 1 year, haha), so any TV-watching I want to do must be done while he's asleep.  This means I've greatly reduced the amount of TV shows I watch, because there are just other things that are more important to me now.

OUR FAMILY [Scott and AA]

While AA is awake, I:

• Engage with him as much as I can.  And do a bunch of really stupid antics to see if I can get him to laugh.

While AA is asleep, I:

• Talk to my husband - Meaning have any adult-type, boring conversations we need to have (like talking about finances or the yardwork!).  We can talk about those things when AA is asleep; when he's awake, it's more fun to be talking and playing as a family!

OUR HOME [keeping it a happy place]

While AA is awake, I:

• Run errands - AA loves a good car trip, and Target fascinates the heck out of him.
• Do some chores - If I toss AA in my Moby wrap, he is perfectly happy being toted around the house while I dust and vacuum.
• Work in the kitchen - Give this kid a whisk, put on some music, and do some singing and dancing while you empty the dishwasher or cook dinner, and he is happy as a tiny, adorable clam.
• Do laundry - I toss a load in the washer in between naps and fold while he's awake.  He loves looking at different colors and feeling different fabrics, so that's a win/win!

While AA is asleep, I:

• Do all other household chores

MY CAREER [Dottie Adele and other sewing endeavors]

While AA is awake, I:

• Sew (a little) - AA can entertain himself for about 15-20 minutes at a time at this point, so if I have something I want to quickly finish up, I bring him in the sewing room with me and let him play while I sew.

While AA is asleep, I choose to:

• Sew (a lot)
• Internet things - blogging, e-mails, Etsy stuff, etc. can all wait until AA is asleep so I don't have to divide my attention.

 
So, that is what life looks like as of now!  I'm interested to see how it evolves and changes over the next couple months as he gets older and how things pan out for my own small business endeavors.  Oh, and yes:  my Etsy shop is now re-opened for business!