Life of Lizdom: Practicality

Here it is- part 4 of the 5 part series on "how I do it all!" Ha! I've discussed our weekly schedule, our list of activities, my philosophies. Today, I'm going to share some of the practical things we do that help it all get done. Routine When I say routine, I don't mean that we have a checklist of activities to get us to a certain point. I don't mean that the clock dictates our lives. I know that works for some families. I'm also not at the end of the spectrum. While we did raise our babies in a "baby led" way, I don't believe that it would work for our family to continuously follow the demands of our kids. My kids don't get to set their own bedtime or choose to eat breakfast or 2 a.m. What I mean by routine is that we do set our schedules so that we are home in the evenings. For the most part, we don't make evening plans or commitments that will keep our kids out and about well past midnight. We will have special occassion evenings. Teagan, being older, does stay up later once a week to join me at Music Team. But we've turned down invitations for various gatherings and such because it would keep our kids up too late. If they don't get at least 10 hours of sleep each night, the next day will be a cranky one! We also do the best we can to maintain daycare's schedule at home. Naptime is naptime. We eat our meals around the same time each day. For our family, having that consistency is really important. Partnership This is a big one. I don't do any of this alone. My number one partner is Jeff. He does laundry. We take turns doing dishes. He handles a lot of the transportation to and from school and daycare. He is committed to this family. He is here and present with us and he takes his role in our family very seriously. He disciplines the kids. He does bath times and bedtimes and breakfast times and so on. He takes Teagan on dates- out for ice cream or to the comic book shop. He takes Zach out for an afternoon- to visit Pop Pop or go to Fry's (electronics store). He works full time and overtime. He has his own interests and hobbies and friends. He's perfectly content to sit at home and hang out with me every night. I like his friends and his friends like me. It doesn't mean that everything is perfect all the time. It doesn't mean that I couldn't do this job on my own if I had to. But it does mean that I have a partner. I have someone I can lean on, talk to, count on, depend on, and trust. The Mom Binder This is a new addition to my life and I'm loving it. I picked up a lsnazzy laptop bag on clearance at Target and can now carry my Mom Binder, my church music binder, and my purse stuff at once. My binder keeps my paperwork and notes close by and organized. I can keep track of bills and invoices and blog ideas and activities and sign ups and party invitations and so on. Uhhh... Huh. I don't know what to call this. My lack of fashion sense or desire to have one. I like basic pieces that I can wear week after week for a long time. I'm not one to shop often or even regularly. Sometimes, I wish I had a more feminine wardrobe and style. But then I get back to realizing how much easier life is when I can throw my clothes together with the kids' clothes and Jeff's clothes... everything can be washed in cold and thrown into the dryer. Nothing is dry cleaned or ironed. Simple, basic, wash and go. Same for my hair. Wash and go. Make up- I don't wear any. I don't have beauty routines. From what I observe in others, I think I save a lot of time because I'm not taking 20 minutes to get dressed and 15 minutes to do my hair and 15 minutes to put on make up. I'm saving time because I'm not dropping clothes off at the dry cleaner or picking things up or ironing. *** None of this is stuff I'm advocating as must-do for any other family or mom or woman. This is what works for us, for our family. Coming soon... The Big Secret (feel free to give a guess!!)!