Watch and Balance

I will admit that I'm not the best at answering questions left to me through comments on my blog.

I try and respond to questions I get through comments by clicking "reply" on the comment, but if you don't have your blog set up to go to your email then I can't email you.

And if you don't have an email but you do have a blog I feel weird going to your blog and leaving a response to your question in your comments, it just seems so random. Maybe I'm weird (yes, yes I am)

My friend Lindsay did the most perfect post about how to setup your email account so that people can email you through your comment. If you haven't done this yet, DO IT!

Read it here.

That will help me with responding to questions that are left in the comments sections.

I don't get that many questions, but I do want to get better at responding to them. Here are two questions I've received recently:

Lauren asked me where the oversized watch I'm wearing in this picture is from.

That watch is a Fossil watch and is one of my new favorite accessories to wear. I love it so much.

Jill asked: How many hours do I work? And how do I balance family/work?

I work 20 hours a week. I feel like I have talked a lot recently about balancing family and work and I will probably talk about it for the rest of my life. Balancing family and work is very hard, but is doable. I honestly never thought it would be doable and never thought I would be able to leave my baby, but the fact that I do it 20 hours a week and enjoy working is a testament to the fact that I am able to do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

I probably will never feel like I have everything balanced but something that has helped me is ROUTINE ROUTINE ROUTINE.

I work till 5:00 two days a week - Monday and Tuesday. So before the week begins I make sure that I have dinner either figured out or most times I have it ready to go for those nights. Whether it is a crock pot meal, or a casserole in the freezer or fridge where it can be popped into the oven easily, dinner is ready. I don't want to spend time in the evening figuring out dinner.

Also before the week begins I make sure our house is tidied up. Very rarely do I have time to do a good deep clean, but I make sure it is picked up. When my house is crazy messy I feel like it makes my life more chaotic.

Most nights I try and lay everything out that we need for the morning (my purse, our lunches, etc) so then it is ready to go, and then in the morning we do the same exact routine (on Mon, Tues, and Wed), and that helps things also. I make sure I am about of bed by 6:15 even if Luke has to drag me out by my feet.

One thing that helps me keep everything balanced is just committing it all to the Lord. It is impossible to do all these things without His help, so I know He helps me through it all.

I have weeks where I feel on top of my game and like I'm super woman and then I have other weeks where I feel like I'm the most disorganized person ever and I am a failure to my husband and son. But I don't entertain those thoughts for too long. I just pick up and start over.

And lastly, I make sure and try everything. I don't want to miss out on something because I felt like I couldn't handle it. I set boundaries for my life but I also try everything so that I can get a feel for it in my life and figure out if it is something I can balance or something I need to say no to. I tried going to a bible study on Monday nights for a little bit but then I realized it was just too hard to be away from Eli for that night after I was away from him all day, there was another study on Sunday nights that I was able to join so now I do that.

Balancing work/family/church/scentsy/friends/blogging/household chore/etc can be hard. There are times where I feel like I have too much on my plate, but I know that this is just a season. I want to live life and not sit back and complain about how busy I am. I enjoy every single one of those aspects of my life (minus the house cleaning, I hate that and will gladly give it up) so it's just figuring out how to mash them all together in a way that honors the Lord and my family. I'm trying everyday!

I feel like I always have thoughts and future posts stirring around in my head about this topic so I'm sure I will have more to say about it soon.

If you have any other questions for me feel free to ask!