Since I’m approaching my three-month mark for my part-time job, I  thought I’d share a kind of progress report on how we’re all faring.

Work Update

Work continues to go well, though I’m learning what I can realistically achieve in two days with a more realistic part-time mindset instead of the full-time one I previously had.  I certainly am NEVER without something to do, which is good, since I like being busy.  However, I do not like busy just for busy’s sake, and fortunately that is NOT the case in my job.  I feel like I am well-connected to the overall goals and am developing marketing strategies to help support those goals (while still completing every other marketing task that falls under those strategies too).  Overall, I feel like I am making important contributions that are making a difference. Did I mention my days go by very quickly?!

Preparation is KEY

Part of making my mornings and evenings run smoothly entails being organized and using time wisely, as I mentioned in transition back to work.  Sometimes things do NOT go according to plan, as is commonplace in parenting.  Today, for example, I thought my alarm didn’t go off because I woke up 20 minutes late, when in fact it DID go off, but someone turned the volume dial WAAAY down, so I couldn’t hear it. I also FAILED on my own “getting ready the night before” tip on Monday morning, when I realized I had a car seat in the trunk, and not properly installed in the backseat.  I was a little upset and frustrated, but I figured out how to install it, and only ended up being a few minutes late for work. Summer weekends are BUSY, and I’ve been exhausted after very fun and full days, making it easier to just go to bed verses taking 10 minutes to prep everything.

Lesson: Take your own advice!  If you don’t plan in advance, you just have to suck it up and make it work.

Work mode to Mom mode

After taking in the wonderful comments on my work mode to mom mode post, I have slowly become better at being more relaxed during my mom mode time.  Tonight was a pretty good example of our standard evening – heated up leftovers for dinner, had to reprimand the kids for chucking baby carrots, clean-up, do dishes, let kids play, give daughter a time-out for playing with a wire hanger, bath time, watched So You Think You Can Dance with the kids, then stories and bed.  Now it’s finally my time to sort laundry, do some cleaning, blog and relax.  AHH!!!

Some lessons learned:

  • Don’t always wear dry-clean only work clothes, or try to change out of them before eating dinner.  Today my machine washable dress pants were hit with baby carrot and applesauce.
  • TV / Shows on Netflix help buy time when I need to get dinner ready, or just some peace!
  • Every night does not need to be “perfect,” so I try to take it as it comes and get through the mis-behaving and savor the sweet moments with my kids.

Parents – what do you do to make your weeknights easier?  I’d love to read your comments.