We have been struggling in our house. I run a small online business, plus teach at a local co-op. This is on top of the kids activities, doctor appointment, sports, and helping my family. So I'm stretched pretty thin balancing between the 4 kids and my husband. To say life has been a bit stressful is pretty obvious.
I was not sure what to expect from this class. After all, what could this particular mom be able to teach me? But I logged in to the very user friendly interface. I'm glad that I kept a notebook handy for notes.....ok it was the Pages feature on my phone. But they were excellent reminders for me to remember.
Balancing Diapers and Deadlines is roughly an 8-session course, that has several sub-courses. This allows you to fit it into your schedule. As you are learning more about time management and working from home, you do not need to worry about finding an hour to sit down and read a lesson. Instead it takes roughly 10-15 minutes to read and really start pondering over her words of wisdom. Then you can work on implementing any suggestions that she may have made. Lisa Tanner is writing from experience. She has written down all that she has experienced and learned while starting her own freelance writing business. The tips she is giving have been proven to work.
One of my first favorite points was about flexibility. Not only do I work from home, and now in the classroom 1 day a week, but I do it all with 4 kids with special needs. Flexibility is not something they thrive on. I try to keep a rigid schedule, since most kids do well with that, but lately that has been horrible. I am truly floundering trying to keep it rigid. I need to make adjustments in a more announced manner for them. This includes even on dinner nights, because Brayden expects to be served what is on the posted meal plan....lol. But that reminder about flexibility has me even thinking ahead about meals. I try to now keep a substitute meal in the freezer, one that he likes, that takes roughly 15 minutes to prepare....just in case. That has helped me out a few times recently when I have been in a bind .... you know the days I forget to turn on the crockpot (Ugh...like no one else has ever done that one!).
I will admit I was struggling with trying to figure out our schedule so that we can accomplish what we need to do each day, but was feeling like there was no flexibility left in our lives. Balancing Diapers and Deadlines reminded me that there can be flexibility in life and that we can accomplish all that we need to do. But we need to do our best to work together. That is the key.... working together and communication between everyone in the household.
Several of the lessons had hyperlinks to other resources that Lisa Tanner has written on the subjects in that lesson. It really was nice to have all the information tied nice and neat into almost a book style approach to learning how to get a better handle on our current crazy life.
There are also Action Steps and suggestions for you to do to make taking these steps easier.
I challenged myself to take on and make a plan. I tackled the meal plan part easily. That’s something I have to keep track of closely. But some days it is harder when I have a bunch of running to do on top of each kid having their own activities. Her suggestion to even make my weekly meal plan is awesome. We are working on our annual meal plan with some adjustments, because they all have their favorite meals. But even Lisa has included what her family annual plan is, so that gave the kids some reminders that we do not need to eat the same 3-4 meals all the time!
Lisa has a daily family meeting with her family. We have a crazy morning schedule, so a family meeting is not feasible, I have tried. So I started printing a schedule for the day so that the kids knew exactly what to expect. I kept it posted on the fridge next to the weekly meal plan. This felt overwhelming when I first started. But I created a template in Microsoft Word, so I can print it daily in case I need to make any adjustments. The kids have no excuse for not knowing what is going on then.
I was resistant to one of her suggestions about having a Mason jar system of reward/punishment. I really thought that this might be just one more thing for me to keep track of. But as the kids continue to not be cooperative and many time choose to “forget” to do their chores, I’m going to be instituting her suggestion with the girls first. I think we’ll do Pom-poms or beans. I think colored/glitter Pom-poms though will be enticing for the girls. I’ll update you in a couple months how this goes.
It’s baby steps as I go through this course. The disorganization that I have found us in, did not happen overnight. So our journey back to smooth sailing will take a little bit of time too. But with the suggestions that I’m already implementing and the more I am continuing to learn from the course, Balancing Diapers and Deadlines, I can see the storm settling down soon! I have been very grateful to have the opportunity to read the wisdom from Lisa Tanner about how to save myself some stress.
Several members of the Homeschool Review Crew were given the opportunity to read Balancing Diapers and Deadlines. Visit the link below to see what they thought of this program and how it helped them.
I was not sure what to expect from this class. After all, what could this particular mom be able to teach me? But I logged in to the very user friendly interface. I'm glad that I kept a notebook handy for notes.....ok it was the Pages feature on my phone. But they were excellent reminders for me to remember.
Balancing Diapers and Deadlines is roughly an 8-session course, that has several sub-courses. This allows you to fit it into your schedule. As you are learning more about time management and working from home, you do not need to worry about finding an hour to sit down and read a lesson. Instead it takes roughly 10-15 minutes to read and really start pondering over her words of wisdom. Then you can work on implementing any suggestions that she may have made. Lisa Tanner is writing from experience. She has written down all that she has experienced and learned while starting her own freelance writing business. The tips she is giving have been proven to work.
One of my first favorite points was about flexibility. Not only do I work from home, and now in the classroom 1 day a week, but I do it all with 4 kids with special needs. Flexibility is not something they thrive on. I try to keep a rigid schedule, since most kids do well with that, but lately that has been horrible. I am truly floundering trying to keep it rigid. I need to make adjustments in a more announced manner for them. This includes even on dinner nights, because Brayden expects to be served what is on the posted meal plan....lol. But that reminder about flexibility has me even thinking ahead about meals. I try to now keep a substitute meal in the freezer, one that he likes, that takes roughly 15 minutes to prepare....just in case. That has helped me out a few times recently when I have been in a bind .... you know the days I forget to turn on the crockpot (Ugh...like no one else has ever done that one!).
I will admit I was struggling with trying to figure out our schedule so that we can accomplish what we need to do each day, but was feeling like there was no flexibility left in our lives. Balancing Diapers and Deadlines reminded me that there can be flexibility in life and that we can accomplish all that we need to do. But we need to do our best to work together. That is the key.... working together and communication between everyone in the household.
Several of the lessons had hyperlinks to other resources that Lisa Tanner has written on the subjects in that lesson. It really was nice to have all the information tied nice and neat into almost a book style approach to learning how to get a better handle on our current crazy life.
There are also Action Steps and suggestions for you to do to make taking these steps easier.
I challenged myself to take on and make a plan. I tackled the meal plan part easily. That’s something I have to keep track of closely. But some days it is harder when I have a bunch of running to do on top of each kid having their own activities. Her suggestion to even make my weekly meal plan is awesome. We are working on our annual meal plan with some adjustments, because they all have their favorite meals. But even Lisa has included what her family annual plan is, so that gave the kids some reminders that we do not need to eat the same 3-4 meals all the time!
Lisa has a daily family meeting with her family. We have a crazy morning schedule, so a family meeting is not feasible, I have tried. So I started printing a schedule for the day so that the kids knew exactly what to expect. I kept it posted on the fridge next to the weekly meal plan. This felt overwhelming when I first started. But I created a template in Microsoft Word, so I can print it daily in case I need to make any adjustments. The kids have no excuse for not knowing what is going on then.
I was resistant to one of her suggestions about having a Mason jar system of reward/punishment. I really thought that this might be just one more thing for me to keep track of. But as the kids continue to not be cooperative and many time choose to “forget” to do their chores, I’m going to be instituting her suggestion with the girls first. I think we’ll do Pom-poms or beans. I think colored/glitter Pom-poms though will be enticing for the girls. I’ll update you in a couple months how this goes.
It’s baby steps as I go through this course. The disorganization that I have found us in, did not happen overnight. So our journey back to smooth sailing will take a little bit of time too. But with the suggestions that I’m already implementing and the more I am continuing to learn from the course, Balancing Diapers and Deadlines, I can see the storm settling down soon! I have been very grateful to have the opportunity to read the wisdom from Lisa Tanner about how to save myself some stress.
Several members of the Homeschool Review Crew were given the opportunity to read Balancing Diapers and Deadlines. Visit the link below to see what they thought of this program and how it helped them.
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