A question that I have been asked on more than one occasion by family and friends. How do I find the time to raise a family, work, volunteer and blog these amazing playgrounds and adventures? To be honest, I don't!
Some days are crazy and filled with multiple outings to keep a 3.5 year old entertained and busy enough to try to get her to nap in the afternoon (so mommy and baby can nap too). This means nothing gets done except the outings (and maybe a few photos depending where we go). Other days mommy needs a break so we stay at home and BARELY make an effort to go outside to the vegetable garden let alone tackle the clothing monster in the basement we call 'the laundry pile' because let's face it, mommy is tired and needs a break from 'adulting'. Weekends then consist of catching up on blog posts and scheduling things to ensure content is posting on social media all week long.......and that means my loving husband is entertaining the kids.
With the arrival of the new baby this summer work has been put on the back burner until maternity leave ends next year, and I've taken a step back volunteering to spend more time with both kids at home. Soo....that leaves me with just blogging and raising kids this year which means you, dear reader, get the benefit of my almost undivided attention and time spent blogging. Hahaha if only the house work and chores could wait! But alas they cannot and do not just 'do' themselves.
This is one reason for the lack in 'new' posts this year even though I have more 'free' time (also because of the loss of my SD card from my backlog of photos but that's another story). When I'm not entertaining the kiddos, I am now trying to organize and clean things in the house that have been neglected from when I was working full time. You know, the projects that would never get done like 'oh I should clean out the bathroom medicine cabinet of expired items' and 'wow my office sure is full of random paper and toys and such'. I've been fortunate to have family every once in a while lend a helpful hand so I could focus just on the daily household tasks like laundry and dishes, but that can't last forever and sometimes I need an extra pair of hands, or two, or three to get caught up and help with these 'extra projects' to make me feel like I have at least one room I can relax in after the kids are asleep.
This brings me to doing what any busy person in my shoes would do. I hired help! Sarah and her team at Simplify Life are amazing! I do not know what I would do without them because they do the things that I need done each week so I can take the time and focus on what is important to me.....spending time with the kids and blogging during the day! This past week I asked the team to focus on tidying our office so I could abandon my temporary laptop setup on the kitchen table and get back to a quiet room with a door that closes. If you scroll through the photos you'll see what they were dealing with in the 'before' pictures and then the amazing job they did in the 'after' pictures. Queue angelic choir..... Amazing!!!!! | Other things the Simplify Life team have done for me; laundry, dishes, dinner prep, organization, dusting, and more....... |

What is one of your parenting secrets?