Managing Overwhelm: Tips for Balancing Business and Life

[ragschef]

Okay I typed up a nice long reply but the internet was acting funny and I lost it. Basically I was suggesting setting a schedule for yourself. If a schedule can help your son, it can help you too. Schedule actual "office hours" to help with your business. Power hours or 15 minute time increments help really well. See if you can find one of those "Mom Calendar", gives you spaces every week to include everyone from the household and write their schedule in daily. That way, if it's on the calendar, it may help you keep track better.

Either that or find a way to put more hours in to the day![/QUOTE]


And when you find out how to do this, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!

 

[pamperedlinda]

Thanks everyone for all the great tips!

I went to the gym this morning, took a pilates class today...darn near as hard as the yoga I did on Tuesday! I have determined that I am NOT a limber person! Then ran errands and spent about an hour at Michael's - love that store.

I practiced saying the word "no" so I will be prepared the next time someone asks me to 'help out'. I am not going to give-up anything right now, but I do need to be more scheduled and less procrastinating.

DS is not going to like having his routine changed, but I guess he will get used to it. His homework really doesn't take that long to do and I'd be very happy to have it out of the way.

The dogs....Yes, I too thought that Border Collies were smart dogs. One is very smart, and the other is well lets call her 'emotional'. Thankfully they are extremely obedient dogs - when I'm with them that is. I talked to the vet about the invisible fence thing. According to her some dogs just don't care about the shock and just my luck Border Collies are one of them....hooray . DH is planning the fence and is going to look at pricing next week.

Thanks for all of your help.

Oh and for kspry.....Love your advice phrase! I've got lots of advice to givr that I'm not using either!

 

[janetupnorth]

Thanks everyone for all the great tips!

I went to the gym this morning, took a pilates class today...darn near as hard as the yoga I did on Tuesday! I have determined that I am NOT a limber person! Then ran errands and spent about an hour at Michael's - love that store.

I practiced saying the word "no" so I will be prepared the next time someone asks me to 'help out'. I am not going to give-up anything right now, but I do need to be more scheduled and less procrastinating.

DS is not going to like having his routine changed, but I guess he will get used to it. His homework really doesn't take that long to do and I'd be very happy to have it out of the way.

The dogs....Yes, I too thought that Border Collies were smart dogs. One is very smart, and the other is well lets call her 'emotional'. Thankfully they are extremely obedient dogs - when I'm with them that is. I talked to the vet about the invisible fence thing. According to her some dogs just don't care about the shock and just my luck Border Collies are one of them....hooray . DH is planning the fence and is going to look at pricing next week.

Thanks for all of your help.

Oh and for kspry.....Love your advice phrase! I've got lots of advice to givr that I'm not using either!

Yes, Linda - since I work at one of those "companies" we tried the electric fence too. It didn't work unless they WANTED to obey. Otherwise they'd take a deliberate run through. It's the Border Collie in them wanting to run.

It's either a fence or chain. Fence is preferred by most people.

They are SUCH gentle dogs though, aren't they????


Good luck getting better with your schedule. It is just a matter of stepping back and MAKING it work for you. Routines help. If I have a week with a ton of added stuff I get less productive sometimes and overwhelmed. If I scheduled all the extra stuff though, life is good.

 

[wadesgirl]

It's amazing the things they are learning in school----WAY earlier than when I was in school! My dd comes home with fractions, multiplying & dividing, social studies, science, & learning cursive.....and she's in 3rd grade. For some kids it works okay (I feel lucky), but others don't catch on so quick & it really hurts them.

I remember learning all that in 3rd grade. Hated cursive, still do! My neice is in 2nd grade and is mad at her teacher because instead of learning addition and then subtraction, they are learning them together. She will get most of her homework correct then a few she'll do the opposite thing and it makes her miss some! It was so cute to hear her complain about it!:yuck:

 

[janetupnorth]

Printing is K & 1st here, cursive is 2nd grade.Counting and counting in groups is K.
Adding and subtracting and counting money in 1st grade.Science already in K and 1st.
In K they raised ladybugs and studied them.
In 1st DD has already been doing weather.By the end of K, they are already reading with over 100 sight words and basic books.
By end of 1st they are already starting chapter books.Everything is about 1 year ahead of when I remember learning it.

 

[pamperedlinda]

....Everything is about 1 year ahead of when I remember learning it.

DS's teacher has been teaching for 16 years. She was telling me that what they are teaching Kindergarteners now is what she was originally teaching to 1st graders. Everything is much more fast-paced these days.....sadly!

 

[janetupnorth]

DS's teacher has been teaching for 16 years. She was telling me that what they are teaching Kindergarteners now is what she was originally teaching to 1st graders. Everything is much more fast-paced these days.....sadly!

Yeah, and I PURPOSELY kept DD on a slower pace - didn't push with anything at home, didn't send her to preschool...she is still the top of her class. I figured she'd be like mom and be in school most of her life, why rush it?Now, DS (age 4) bugged me so long and persistently to teach him to read that we started that. He has 1 1/2 years before kindergarten and is dying NOT being able to learn. He is going to drive me crazy! He already does 100 piece puzzles by himself!!! (Just started puzzles around December). We did a 1000 piece together in 2 nights recently and he did about 1/3 to 1/2 the work (partially because Mom could use some bifocals to see those small pieces!!!)

 

[reba515]

Thanks everyone for all the great tips!

I went to the gym this morning, took a pilates class today...darn near as hard as the yoga I did on Tuesday! I have determined that I am NOT a limber person! Then ran errands and spent about an hour at Michael's - love that store.

I practiced saying the word "no" so I will be prepared the next time someone asks me to 'help out'. I am not going to give-up anything right now, but I do need to be more scheduled and less procrastinating.

DS is not going to like having his routine changed, but I guess he will get used to it. His homework really doesn't take that long to do and I'd be very happy to have it out of the way.

The dogs....Yes, I too thought that Border Collies were smart dogs. One is very smart, and the other is well lets call her 'emotional'. Thankfully they are extremely obedient dogs - when I'm with them that is. I talked to the vet about the invisible fence thing. According to her some dogs just don't care about the shock and just my luck Border Collies are one of them....hooray . DH is planning the fence and is going to look at pricing next week.

Thanks for all of your help.

Oh and for kspry.....Love your advice phrase! I've got lots of advice to givr that I'm not using either!

funny you say this I just this morning had to say NO to someone and afterwards I felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. I just can't put anything more on my plate right now. But I felt so proud I was in the car talking to myself saying you did it !! you said NO !! lol
I am taking in all the advice everyone has given you because your days seem as hectic as mine (minus the cleaning lady )

p.s. DS is only in kindergarten , he may not mind the change as much as he would if he was older.

 

[priscilla]

funny you say this I just this morning had to say NO to someone and afterwards I felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. I just can't put anything more on my plate right now. But I felt so proud I was in the car talking to myself saying you did it !! you said NO !! lol
I am taking in all the advice everyone has given you because your days seem as hectic as mine (minus the cleaning lady )

Good job on saying no!

Robin

 

[heat123]

I need to take a nap Linda Just kidding - I know how you feel - I get that overwhelmed feeling too - and all 3 of my kids are in school full time! I still am waiting for the cleaning fairy to visit my house! I have one suggestion in regards to your son's homework. This is how I do it - the kids get home after school and get to have a snack and then they get right to homework! That way we don't have to do it after dinner - when it's more chaotic due to playing their instruments and taking showers. And also that way I know the homework is done and out of the way - when it's nice outside - we play at the school playground after school - come home and have a snack and get right to homework.

As far as clutter - if you figure anything out - let me know - this is one of my weaknesses!

I do the same thing with DD and she's been in school for 6 hours! But at least she gets her snack break then on to homework! I still can't get over that my Kindergarten daughter has homework every night plus reading assignments on top of that! Gone were the days of playtime in Kindergarten, from what I remember of it!

 

[heat123]

DS's teacher has been teaching for 16 years. She was telling me that what they are teaching Kindergarteners now is what she was originally teaching to 1st graders. Everything is much more fast-paced these days.....sadly!

Yep, our teacher has 21 years of 1st grade teaching exp. then swithced to K grade and said the exact same thing on Open house night!

 

[RebelChef]

They seem to be more than a year ahead than we were. I was proctoring a 9th grade math class at our school and it was the same thing I'd taken in college. The teacher saw my surprised look and said yep, same as we learned after high school. I know my kids are learning government already and they're only in 6th grade. I didn't have it until 12th. At this rate, we'll need master's degrees to help with homework. lol

 

[Teresa Lynn]

As soon as my kids hit 5th I began reciting the old saying .... "Just wait until your dad gets home"

 

[janetupnorth]

They seem to be more than a year ahead than we were. I was proctoring a 9th grade math class at our school and it was the same thing I'd taken in college. The teacher saw my surprised look and said yep, same as we learned after high school. I know my kids are learning government already and they're only in 6th grade. I didn't have it until 12th. At this rate, we'll need master's degrees to help with homework. lol

Yeah! I'm all set then. :blushing:

Except of the 5 levels of Calculus I took in college I remember, oh about 3 days worth.


We did have Calculus in HS and also had Government class at least by 7th grade I remember.


Either way, they are STILL ahead of us.


Teresa - too funny! DD is only in 1st grade and DH is already saying "go work on that with your mother". She already spells better than him!

ETA: DH is very smart just doesn't like school work and hated spelling!

 

[mama2emma]

Linda, you've heard this from many: no advice, but I just wanted to say that I'm right there with you. My dd is in kindergarten, too - they call it "half day" but it is really just 2.5 hours. Who can get anything done in 2.5 hours? I get to the grocery store and back, and my time is up! My girl has Down syndrome, so three days a week we're off to speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy right after lunch. Plus there are the usual kid things - dance class and Girl Scouts. Some days we're so tired by late afternoon that we just cuddle on the couch and watch a movie. Now if I could just get over the guilt of doing that...My two personal goals between now and the end of the school year are to 1) get a handle on what I do with those 2.5 hours when she's at school, and schedule my time so I can work on my PC business and get errands and chores done by balancing the time, and 2) train a good babysitter so I can still get that time when summer gets here!Hang in there. I keep telling myself it's going to get better...eventually she'll be in school for a full day!

 

[2pamperU]

Read so many replies I had to go back to the top to see who to reply to...

Linda, Everyone that has replied sounds like professionals to me... I'm just as stressed being a single mom with two children (one in K and one in 1st), 2-story house, and 2 dogs. We are almost in the same shoes, as far as trying to prioritize and make things fit in when they can. If they dont, dont stress!!

I have a very full plate myself... between MCLA (Marine Corps) meetings, VP of the kids' PTA at school, work 2 part time jobs AND PC, therapy, daycare 2 extra children 4 days a week, and I would HEART to get to the gym. Its hard to run a household and get bills paid.

The only advise I can give you (which someone else prob already has) I make lists every night of things I want to get done the next day, whether it be errands, cleaning, organizing, my personal business etc. At the end of the day, whatever I didnt get done, goes to the next day, or gets put off cause obviously it wasnt too important or wouldve been done first. I feel so accomplished when I get my list and set goals to get them done!!

BUT the most important thing you need to do is give yourself some "ME" time also. Oh yea, my Kindergarter loves to help with laundry, emptying the dishwasher, and the Swiffer (best invention EVER). I give her change to put in her jar and then every week she picks what she wants to spend it on... gets the kids to learn about responsiblity and motivation to help earn money to spend on useless crap!! LOL

Well I've rambled enough. Dont know if any of it will help but it helped me to vent!! LOL Have a great night!!