Last updated on August 12th, 2023 at 04:06 pm
I’ve been hesitant to put up this post, because haven’t enough stay-at-home-mom bloggers shared with us their experiences in motherhood?
But I realize you haven’t heard my version of the events. And maybe you’d like to peer in on my life as a mom, substitute teacher and blogger.
Keeping the house running
Let’s start by taking a peek at my primary focus: the home and family. The bulk of my work is contained in this category. I have daily household tasks such as meal preparation and washing dishes that are nonnegotiables. (We need to eat!)
Mornings kick off pretty fast around here. I wish I could say I wake up early to make my husband breakfast, but I don’t. There’s no great reason for this, other than I’m tired. (I love him!) He enjoys a toasted bagel with butter or cream cheese before heading out the door. I get up shortly after that and try to assemble a quick breakfast of either eggs or yogurt before giving my daughter her breakfast.
The rest of the day is a whirlwind of feeding and playing with my daughter and trying to balance household tasks and blogging reponsibilities while she naps.
I try to fit in one cleaning chore a day– except for Tuesdays, which is my administrative tasks day. Appointment scheduling, bill paying, letter writing, online ordering– Tuesday is the day to do it. Other days are marked by chores like: meal planning + grocery shopping, cleaning bathrooms, cleaning floors and laundry (3 days of this).
Having a weekly chore schedule has helped me immensely, and I’d definitely recommend it.
Having one “extra” (in addition to meals and dishes and general tidying) housetask per day gives me a clear, attainable goal for each day. I’ll be honest and reveal that even the one “cleaning” chore doesn’t always get done.
Here’s a guide to my chore schedule, and of course this is not written in permanent marker. If I don’t get the chore done, I hustle to accomplish it another day.
Weekly chore schedule:
Monday- Meal plan
Tuesday- Administrative tasks
Wednesday- Laundry 1
Thursday- Bathrooms, bed sheets or baby’s laundry
Friday- Floors mopped, vacuumed
Weekends are for catching up, another load of laundry, grocery shopping, etc.
As someone who wants to squeeze a thousand things into her waking hours and then gets sucker punched with overwhelm when she can’t complete them– the one cleaning goal per day has been just what I need.
Fitting in time for blogging
It’s not just the blog, it’s the myriad of tasks that accompany running this site that require my effort and attention.
There was the whole job of setting up the website, learning WordPress. For at least the first five months of my site’s existence, gaining technical knowledge surrounding this was an important piece of my workflow.
Now that I’ve learned the basics, the blog work can be distilled into two categories: creating and sharing.
Creating tasks: Outlining posts, writing posts, taking photos, editing photos, creating graphics, researching headlines, formatting and publishing posts
Sharing tasks: formatting the post or description for particular platforms, sharing on platforms like Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, creating reels or videos or pins for platforms
I keep a loose weekly schedule for blogging. (It’s loose, of course, because I balance it with being a mom, wife, and substitute teacher.)
I usually write two posts a week (aiming to publish on Tuesdays and Thursdays) and spend the other days working on sharing those posts on social media. Today just so happens to be a blog posting day.
My working-at-home schedule looks something like this:
- Morning routine- feed baby and myself, get bottles ready, tend to the dog’s needs, wash dishes, play with baby, etc.
- Naptime- Here I try to pack in as much as I can: housework, blogging, social media, and any other projects
- Play time and feeding for baby and I (lunch is whatever I can grab quickly!)
- If the afternoon is going well, I may finish any tasks from before that need to be completed or I just take a nap, too. It’s tiring out there.
- Make and eat dinner with the family
- Evening and bedtime routine
The schedule changes when I’m subbing, of course. I take sub jobs on any weekday and then whichever chore I missed that day, I try my best to double up and complete the next day along with the next day’s chore. Dinner on subbing days usually looks like takeout food of some sort– because mama’s worn through at that point.
I write about my experiences and tips for substitute teaching here on the blog, and may even write a post showing a day in the life on substitute teaching days, like how I juggle working and caring for my daughter and household on those days.
Diary of a happy and busy mom
My daily life is jam packed— I’m never bored, and I’m pretty much always tired. I consider it a blessing that I have so much I’m interested in and want to do. I’m hungry and relentless and that apparently makes me into a raging hobbyist. It’s quite possible I’m also easily distracted by all of my passion projects. It’s a fact that I’m overwhelmed, at times.
I’ve had to work on clarifying the expectations I have for myself as a mom and the smattering of other titles I bear. The refining process seems to be constant, as I learn more and shift priorities, and as I get stronger and more honest with myself.
But I’m so thankful for this particular season of life. I’m grateful to be in these roles.
If there happen to be any other substitute and homemaking mama friends out there, say hello in the comments! Until next time.
