Balancing Life

I love being a wife and mother, but whew! These last few months I have had much harder time balancing everything...most days I feel like I'm just swimming...

-housework

-bills

-laundry

-marriage with Phil

-errands

-working out

-motherhood with Ella

-cooking

-friends

-hair clients, St. George/SLC

-personal devotions

-yard work

-down time... wait.. what is that?!?!

(not necessarily in order of importance)

A few weeks ago I sat down and created a schedule so I could have some sort of routine and goals. Then life happened.....Here is just a rough draft of what i created... i still am fine tuning it.. like now one of my friend's and I are working out 2 mornings a week...

	MONDAY		TUESDAY		WEDNESDAY		THURSDAY		FRIDAY
	-ella	-mom	-ella	-mom	-ella	-mom	-ella	-mom	-ella	-mom
08:00:00 AM	Wake up		wake up		Wake up		Wake up		Wake up
08:30:00 AM				Laundry					Chill in mom and dad's bed
09:00:00 AM	Eat Breakfast		Eat Breakfast		Eat Breakfast		Eat Breakfast		Eat Breakfast
09:30:00 AM	Nap	Devotions	Nap	Devotions	Nap	Devotions	Nap	Devotions	Nap
10:00:00 AM	Nap	Nap	Nap	Nap	Nap	Nap	Nap	Nap	Nap
10:30:00 AM	Nap	Get Ready	Nap	Get Ready	Nap	Get Ready	Nap	Get Ready	Nap	CROCK POT!
11:00:00 AM	Free Play	CROK POT!	Free Play	Laundry	Sing and Dance		Craft Time
11:30:00 AM	Alone Play	Fix lunch	Alone Play	Fix Lunch	Alone Play		Alone Play
12:00:00 PM	Park/Lunch	Park/Lunch	Park/Lunch	Park/Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch
12:30:00 PM						Errands
01:00:00 PM
01:30:00 PM
02:00:00 PM	Nap	Clean Kitchen	Nap	Laundry	Nap	Clean Master	Nap	Dust/Vacuum	Nap
02:30:00 PM	Nap	Paper work	Nap	Clean Baths	Nap		Nap	Organize	Nap
03:00:00 PM	Nap	mail cards	Nap	Laundry	Nap	Email	Nap		Nap
03:30:00 PM	Nap		Nap		Nap	Paperwork	Nap		Nap
04:00:00 PM	Milk/Snack. Reading		Milk/Snack Reading		Milk/Snack Alone Read		Milk/Snack Reading		Milk/Snack
04:30:00 PM	Alone Play	Make Dinner	Alone Play	Make Dinner	Go Outside		Go Outside
05:00:00 PM	Play w/ Dad		Play w/ Dad	Laundry	Play w/ Dad	Make Dinner	Play w/ Dad	Make Dinner
05:30:00 PM				Laundry
06:00:00 PM	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner	Dinner
06:30:00 PM	Family Time		Clean up dinner		Mom time	Phil church	Family Time
07:00:00 PM	Bath		Small Group	Small Group	Bath				Bath
07:30:00 PM	Bed				Bed		Bed		Bed
08:00:00 PM
08:30:00 PM
09:00:00 PM			Bed
09:30:00 PM
10:00:00 PM
MEALS	Monday	Crock pot	Tuesday	Pre-made	Wednesday	Homestyle	Thursday	Ethnic	Friday	Crock pot
craft time	color	paint	cook	puzzles	mirror
outside time	swing	walk	bike ride	sand/water table		catch ball	water play	park
family time	dance	walk	shower	bike ride	drive	play room	Hide & seek	park	fort building
daddy time

So.... I am wondering what my friend's are doing to keep on top of everything.

What systems do YOU have in place?

Please share!

Do you have a daily routine? Great meal planning tips? One day for laundry or a little every day? Mail filing system? I cannot stand my kitchen living room being cluttered... anytime... so most of the time the clutter ends up in our room... not so good

I did a few searches on trusty ol' google... and came up with a few cool ideas...

Here is a cool site on organizing mail and bills, 'wearenotmartha' had a few good ideas that i'm going to put in place... first things first... buy a cute organizer :)

Another neat meal planning site that I came across that seems to be published by Iowa State University got back to the basics... I liked their ideas for budget friendly entertaining. Also The focus on healthy meals

I haven't spent too much time looking at this site about setting up a cleaning routine.. but a site called 'household management 101' HAS to have some good ideas for me!

One more site i want o spend more time looking at and get some organizing ideas, Organized Home