Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Fitting It All In



I’ve been wondering lately how I’m supposed to get everything done.  Are there really that many hours in the day?  Are you kidding me?  Between the blogging, social networking, marketing, getting traffic to my blog, posting to etsy, workshops, actually painting, raising my daughter, housework, cooking, and all the things I’ve left out, I just get overwhelmed.  So, I have devised a few strategies to help balance things.  I’ve had issues with being able to paint while Victoria is awake.  Then, by the time she goes to bed, I’m too exhausted to paint.  I came up with the plan to let her paint with me.  It helps keep her occupied, because she always wants to get into the paints while I’m painting.  This has taken a bit of the stress off that.  I don’t get to move as quickly, because I have to watch her constantly or the entire house will be covered in her paints, but it does help.  Also, as I grow tired of reading the internet, or posting, etc. I get up and do some dishes, sweep or put on a load of laundry.  It helps break up the computer work, and I almost welcome the housework.  The plan isn’t perfect yet, but I’m getting there.  Before you know it, I’ll have a well devised daily schedule.  I just have to keep working at it.  Instead of just throwing my hands up like I normally do, I will just push through and try to come up with a solution.  If you have any ideas on how to incorporate work and daily life, please feel free to share them with me.  I’m excited to hear other ideas on this topic.


10 comments:

  1. Hi, I came over from the flying Lessons facebook page. I am not sure how old your daughter is but now that my children are 7 and 8 it does get a bit easier to do stuff while they are awake. I did take a break from my creative biz/cyber life for about two years bc I felt overwhelmed. Now that I am getting back into it all I do feel I will be able to accomplish a bit more with the kids being older. Good luck with your schedule!

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  2. This is a great post! Great to find solutions - I had to laugh when you talked about how you were breaking up the computer work with housework and how you almost welcomed the housework. I was thinking EXACTLY the same thing yesterday as I was vacuuming and then later, doing the dishes. When we get everything under control (ha!) housework will become drudgery again, but for now it is a rather pleasant diversion!

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  3. Jacquie, I love your blog. You have expressed so perfectly what every Mother of a toddler goes through. There is no cookie cutter solution. Each of us has to find what works best in our situation. I think you are doing a great job at finding your way.

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  4. I have two under 4. Letting them paint while I paint would be insane. They sometimes help me make papers with monoprinting.

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  5. Jacquie, I did exactly what you are doing with my oldest when he was younger and it worked beautifully. You are doing the right thing. I also set up a "gallery" throughout the house. Now with the little one I have set up a small desk next to my writing space. There he has access to crayons, fun pens, pencils and paper. Not ready for paint yet. As he gets older I plan on using the same technique.

    So funny, I take housework breaks as well. We are all living these parallel lives.

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  6. Thanks everyone for your nice comments.

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  7. Hi Jacquie, Thank you for visiting my blog. Good luck with the Fabulous Faces class and I hope you're enjoying it. I'm in the same boat as you with all the tasks and sometimes I also feel overwhelmed. And I always get sidetracked with the dishes and the laundry!! I don't have kids though. It must be difficult with a child. What a great idea to to let your daughter paint with you! Re: a schedule, I have a weekly planner with a to do list. I don't always stick to it, but it keeps me on track. Someone said to me that I should keep a 9-5 work schedule as though I was working in a company, but I find that a bit hard to do. I hope you find the right balance that works for you! Wini xo

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  8. Hey Wini. Thanks for stopping by. I've given thought to the 9-5 schedule, but I have two problems with that. 1. I have a 3 year old at home and 2. There is waaaaaay more work than I could get done in just 8 hours.

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  9. HI Jacquie, wow I think you're the supermum of the group! Thankyou for this post though, it's great to see just how other Mum's are achieving things and managing their days. I've been admiring just how much you're getting through and implementing as the course progresses and wow you have a 3 year old too! You're involved in the comments and always achieving new goals, making your art, selling your art... Hats off to you lovely as I think that's amazing! I have 2 boys 1 & 3 and I am not getting through as nearly as much as you. Maybe you've had some practice I only first picked up a brush in march and I've just decided to focus on it as of July so it's all a bit new to me, and then this course, wow that's completely thrown any routine I had going as it's so involved. I'm loving every minute though and especially connection with lovely like minded people like yourself! Keep up the fantastic work, you're doing really really well!! Liza xxx PS. you must seriously be lying about your age (o"

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  10. Liza-what a lovely post. Thank you so much for all your kind words. Actually, I started painting last June. I really hadn't done that much with it. I took a couple of online workshops. I started painting after I lost my job due to our lovely economy. I've had such a hard time finding something else, that I thought recently, maybe I'm supposed to be paintng for a living. I decided to go ahead and move forward with it. I've mostly accomplished what I have due to no choice. Although, I would sooooo much rather be doing this than accounting!!! Good luck to you and hang in there. I was seriously wondering what I was thinking after this weekend. It was really rough with the show. I'm having a show this weekend too, so I'm starting to feel the pain!

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