advice

Summertime as a WAHM

When it gets hot, I always hear the lyrics.

Summer, summer, summer time.

Ooo, summer time. Got to sit back and unwind.

Yeah, Will Smith has a classic right there, but I am still trying to get to the sit back and unwind part.

Usually, this week, we’d be on the road for our 5 to 7 week pilgrimage back home. This year is different. As you all know or can imagine, it is difficult being an adult in the same place where you were once a child. Detroit is home for us, but it’s not home. We don’t live there anymore and we don’t see ourselves going back. Our families are there and so we sacrifice many weeks there so that the kids can bond with their extended family. Fortunately, there is high level of involvement from both sides of our families and I always feel tugged and pulled. Sometimes intentionally, most of the times, unintentionally.

If I feel like this just imagine what my perceptive, insightful children notice/discern between their relatives? So, we are hanging in Baltimore for the summer and although I am excited, I’m a little stumped. I’ve always sorta kicked back and gotten some R & R while our families love on the kids. Now, I have to adjust.

But look at what my husband and I piled on our plates because we were thinking out of habit and all of these things need to be done by the end of the summer:

• 2 1/2 books at about 50-60% each (we both are writing and I am looking for a multi-book deal while he wants to have at 50% of his book written before he submits it to a reviewer)
• Internet talk show, which I am looking to grow to a 25 live participants, 50 live listeners and 150 downloads by the end of the month (you guys can read tomorrow’s post and see how you can help with that)
• Rites of passage program for my daughter (you’ve been asking, so I am going to post about it this week. Scouts honor.)
• Business ministry work at church (I am developing a curriculum based on my first book teaching people how to start a business and build capacity. Start small, think and act big…another article, another article)
• Did I mention I want to enjoy the kids over the summer? UGGH! I hate that this part comes last, but I needed to vent a little.

As you know, the summer drains the brain. I’m sorry the proper term is summer learning loss does occur and I struggle as a homeschooler/WAHM/overachieving perfectionist on when to shut it down, when to lighten up, when to get over myself . What do I do to balance out the fact that I really have a full-time job schedule now that school is “out” and I have the kids here without a real summer plan?

1. I have a sitter come to the house ALL DAY on Monday (from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.). Since my laptop is slow/needs RAM (ooh, how much we rely on speed from our technology, along with efficiency/convenience/design…YUCK!), I lock myself in the office on the G5 and I crank it out. I have two assistants, one of whom is a super-cool Virtual Assistant over at InTouch and I still feel like I’m not getting in the time I need, so I
2. Call my housekeeper and get her back on an every two week schedule. I don’t know how other women do it, but I am so thankful that I have choices and I choose writing, reading, praying, sharing to cleaning, ironing, laundry-ing any day of the week. Love cooking and so do the kids, but the shopping for the food. (Gotta look to see when PeaPod is going to be available in my neighborhood). Now, the kids have regular chores and I am going to get better about putting systems in place (oooh, I am going to save the chore and allowance system review for another time), but it seems like it’s never enough. I love fresh flowers on the dining room table, color coded household management files complete with an index and labeled clear boxes for all of our school crafts and other small items. But I will settle for stuff off of the floor, clutter in a box that’s stashed in the closet and strategic placed plug-ins to cover up the diaper smell. My, my, my…my standards are nonexistent, huh. For the kids,
3. I have a ton of great websites that I go to full of word searches, arts and crafts, mini-projects that they can do away from me. My faves are:

• Education World (strictly for the teacher/parent, tons of fun activities/variety of topics)
• Enchanted Learning (some of this is free/the bulk is for subscriber but it was worth the $20)
• Discovery School (great for all grades, focus on science/math)
• Emints (separated by grade level, then theme. this site as a teacher resource is comprehensive, updated links)
• FunBrain (focus is on grades K-8)
• CNN Student News (love this site. great table talk with the teens who don’t like to talk

Of course, the part of me needing to get over myself is true, so we had some fun this week.

© 2007 DahGurl.