The Christmas in July sale is officially over at Mama Made Them. Now I just need to get everything made in before I go on vacation in a few days.
Yesterday I was feeling the crunch of time and the weight of my orders, when my son asked me if we could go to the pool. I said, no, we have too much to do, but I’m planning on a pool trip tomorrow. Today we were going to the farmer’s market (he loves going to the farmers market because we can see our farmer friends). He pouted.
But as I went down to the basement, sweating behind my dust mask, I fell prey to the siren song of summer: “just relax, don’t work so hard, play!” So I cut out a sheep for a puzzle, but set it down, went back upstairs and said, “we’ll go for an hour.”
And that hour was lovely. Then we went to the market, and came home to cook up a feast.
But I never made it back to work in the evening as I had planned.
But I don’t regret skipping out to go for a swim on an oppressive day in July.
But I need to find a way to get back to work in the evening on busy days. Because despite the peace and tranquility of the days when my business was not requiring as much work, I prefer the peace and tranquility of not worrying how I’m going to pay the electric bill. I prefer having a car. I prefer having money in the bank.
Working from home as a single homeschooling parent is a constant balancing act. I had to laugh at this article on Simple Homeschool last week. It is about homeschooling and working from home, and how it is the hardest part of her homeschooling. Her solution was to work less.
I was disappointed with the article, because it seemed to sell her kids short. And it didn’t really address the issue of balancing work that you have to do with the work of your home life. It just said work less. Which is a great solution: if your husband already has a job, if you aren’t in need of all the money (and more) that you can bring in, if you want to work less.
But if you really would benefit from working MORE, it didn’t offer any solutions.
When I get back from vacation in August, it’s going to be time for me to put my nose to the grindstone preparing for Christmas. And I’m going to come back to this issue of balance again and again. And I’m going to blog about it here.
If you are curious about how I “get it all done” (as I hear people wonder frequently) or about things kids can do while you are working or about productivity strategies for working parents, I’ll be talking about all that. If you have specific questions, just post them below.
Mama Made Them 
I have the same issues of trying to get stuff done and raise the kids.. but we don’t homeschool anymore.. My 3 oldest are in public school (my oldest is starting high school this year! ahhh!!) and I have the 2, soon to be 3 little ones at home with me.. my husband moved out this January so it’s just been me with the kids. Thankfully he pays child support so I’m able to pay my rent and still stay home with the kids.. Hoping to continue that until the new youngest starts school then get a part time job. I do work from home doing etsy and the farmers market during the summer months.. I’m also thankful my kids seem to preoccupy themselves a lot so I’m able to get sewing done.. but the hard thing for me is feeling like I’m missing time with them when I’m sewing and whatnot.. It makes me sad we don’t or can’t go out and do more stuff together.. but I still have to get stuff done and clean the house and make them dinner every night! Things were a lot easier when there was someone else around to help with some of the little things! oh well.. I started following you recently and enjoy reading all that you’ve posted so far 🙂 this one just hit home!