Back to School, Holmes Style

It’s hard to believe, but I’ve been back at work for six months now. You may recall my one-month-in post, where I wrote about feeling utterly exhausted and completely overwhelmed. As I predicted, things did get easier – much easier in fact.

I’m not sure anyone could have prepared me for the transition back to work. Assuming the role of full-time employee plus full-time mom, all on very little sleep, was like jumping into the deep end of an ice-cold pool. It was a shock, but I had no choice other than to get my feet under me and tread water as fast as I could!

We have settled into a comfortable routine and things generally happen in the same order Monday-Friday. Mike and I share household and childcare duties and I think that’s a key part of a successful routine (since we are both working full-time). It enables us to get out the door (relatively) on time in the mornings, and gives us the opportunity to relax after L.J. goes to bed.

A few things have helped us find balance between work and family life:

• 30 Minutes – Every night, we take the half hour after L.J. goes to bed to get things done around the house. Each day varies a bit, but the end result is that we spend significantly less time doing household chores on the weekend.
• Meal Planning – We plan meals a week at a time so “What’s for dinner?” is never a conundrum (or time drain). We also usually have several “in a hurry” meal ingredients on hand in case we need to make a swap.
• Amazon Prime + Costco – Between these two, we are able to easily (and cheaply!) take care of most of our household basics, which means we aren’t trying to find time to run to Target several times a month.

Did you catch the big theme in the above list? Time. It is a precious commodity these days and our goal is to create efficiencies where possible so that we can spend more time with L.J. Limited time with him is still the biggest challenge I face as a working mom and the hardest one for me to accept emotionally.

But it is what it is and we do the best that we can. One thing that helps is working hard to carry on my family’s long-standing tradition of doing a family activity each weekend. Sometimes it’s as simple as a walk down to the park on a sunny afternoon – but I hope that over the years they will be the source of as many good memories for L.J. as they were for me. We also focus on family meal time for dinner each night, which I know will be increasingly important as L.J. gets older. (Right now we mainly focus on keeping food off the floor…)

This all sounds relatively sunny and bright – but “back to school” means new challenges for us despite not having a school-age child. Mike’s busy season is officially underway, which means a lot more work hours for him and a lot more solo-parenting for me.

I’m glad we’ve had six months to get our feet under us before his busy season started, but I am a little apprehensive at what awaits us in the months ahead. Q4 is typically also my busy season at work – so things could get interesting!

P.S. – That sums up how Mike and I are adjusting, but how’s L.J. doing? He seems to really enjoy his school! His face lights up when he sees his teacher and he seems happy to be there. Mike and I are very pleased with the school we chose – the teachers are wonderful and caring and we like the smaller, family-centered environment. The fact that many new babies are siblings or referrals provides peace of mind, too!