Creating Harmony: Mastering Work-Life Balance for Stay-at-Home Moms

Because I believe when we all do better , we all do better . Let's dive in . Hello , my beautiful friend , by the time this episode airs , we're going to be smack dab in the middle of summer And I thought it was time to give you a summer update . Let you know how it's going On .

May 25th , episode 133 dropped and it was titled 11 sanity saving tips to do as a work from home mom this summer . I wish I could go back to Jenny in May . I was optimistic and full of hope .

Summer has notoriously always been so hard for me to manage And I went into the summer with a plan and I was determined to make it work , to achieve work life balance , friend . I'm now in the middle of summer and I'm like SOS , send help , abandon ship . This isn't working . Well , some things are working and some things aren't .

So I thought I would go through that list of 11 things that I shared and share what is really working and what is absolutely not working for me this summer . Let's dive into this episode .

You know I pride myself on keeping it real And I'm going to share with you which of the tips I shared that are not working whatsoever and which ones are really , really working . Number one prioritize and schedule family time . I feel like we could be doing that better . We are scheduling and prioritizing family time .

I would like to see us do like a weekly pool day , which we haven't been doing . Sundays we definitely spend together as a family . Number two take advantage of camps and activities . Done this , scheduled the kids for all the camps , and it's great because it's getting them out of the house , which is giving me more time to work .

But what I did not anticipate or plan on or even think about was what that actually looks like , and I'm just going to give you an example . Like , for example , tomorrow schedule .

Tomorrow morning , kylie has cheer from 8.30 to 10 and it's 30 minutes away , so it's just far enough away that I stay there and wait for her to be done and then we drive home together , okay . Then Jamie Lynn has a dentist appointment at 9 . Then she has to be taken to summer school at 9.55 . That normally gets done around 11-ish .

My son has summer camp from 12 to 3.15 . My daughter needs to go to the temple at 1pm . Then both my girls have activities at 7pm . Do you see the problem here ? Oh , my gosh , i'm spending so much time in the car driving these kids around . Right now I'm recording this podcast episode in the car .

It's extremely windy , like the wind was so strong today it blew my trash can over . You can probably hear it in the background , but my daughter , her singing group , has a two hour practice and the place is 45 minutes away . So I'm like I can't come out here and then by the time I get home I'm going to have to turn around and come back .

So I bring my work with me and I've been working from my car . On one hand , i'm really glad that I scheduled things for my kids to do . On the other hand , i just didn't realize what that actually looked like and how much time it actually be spending in the car . And yes , my husband is home .

Sometimes He does travel a lot And when he does travel and he's not here like last week he wasn't here I was in a world of hurt because I have doubled and tripled scheduled myself with these kids . So I'm glad that they're out of the house , i'm glad that they are doing activities At the same time . I am so busy and no two days look the same .

And some of these suggestions that I gave in May I'm just like who was I in May when I made this list ? Like number three have a bedtime and a wake up time . That sounds simple enough , right ? Like go to bed the same time every night and wake up the same time every morning . Huh , that is the biggest load of crock I ever said .

I don't think we've had the same bedtime or wake-up time at all this summer , and part of the reason why is because of all the activities . Literally , it's summer and I have to ask you because I asked on Instagram in the summer , do you tend to wake up at the same time you do as the rest of the year , like during the school year ? do you sleep in ?

In the past , i feel like we have slept in , but this summer , no , my kids have activities in the morning . Like I'm talking early morning . Like some days , kylie has to be at cheer at 7 . And that's 7 am .

By the way , another time , jamie Lynn had a video music video that she was shooting , and she had to be in another city by 6 am , so we have been getting up quite early . No two days are the same , and we have been going to bed late too , because they stay up late as well .

So I know , in theory , it'd be great to have the same bedtime and the same wake-up time every day , but that has just not been the case for me , and I'm not going to lie or even pretend like it is , because it's not . Number four I shared was create a morning routine . Now , each morning looks different .

I do have somewhat of a morning routine and I do try to go to the gym first thing in the morning , and that has been really helpful for me . I need all the energy I can get . Are you kidding me right now ? And if you want more energy , working out gives you more energy . I know it sounds like it's counterintuitive .

I know it sounds like well , i'm too tired to work out . Well , that's exactly why you should work out , because it's going to give you more energy . So I do feel like I do . Even though I'm waking up different times every day , i do feel like I am following a same morning routine pattern . Number five was another one that I'm like .

Who was I when I made this list ? I said give your kids a summer checklist . Here's the thing I did this last summer . It worked beautifully , especially with my youngest son , who loves checklists and is very responsible and checks off all the boxes and did all the things . I have not given my kids a summer checklist .

I have no excuses , i just haven't done it . And would things run more smoothly if I did ? Probably Would I be able to delegate more things off my plate and have the kids help around more of the house ? Probably , but I'm not going to say that I'm doing something if I'm not doing it .

With that being said , i have done that in past summers and it did work , but it's not working this summer for me And at the end of the day , that's on me , that's on me . Number six was set working hours , and I have been trying And I do believe it's great to set working hours .

When you are your best , you know , throughout the day you have different levels of energy , different levels of focus and concentration , all of the things , and , like this week , my son has camp from 12 to 3 . So 12 to 3 , that's three hours right there that I've been getting to work . Those are not my best hours , those are not my peak hours .

I normally feel like I have a hormonal crash in the middle of the afternoon . I normally feel really tired . I don't feel my most creative in the middle of the afternoon , but this week those are my working hours . This is also my working hours , 4.30 to 6.30 . I'm in the car waiting for my kid , so it's not ideal .

I am still setting working hours , but it literally is different every single day . I think the key here is to just plan And plan okay , when can I get work done ? And then stick to it , even if that's not the ideal hours for you . Sometimes we've got to do what we've got to do .

Tip number seven was be all in When you're working , be all in on work , and when you're moming , be all in on moming . Right , don't try to do the two things at the same time , because you're going to end up feeling like a failure at both , and I can definitely attest to this . And it also goes with number eight of blocking out all distractions

. Now I told you I put my phone on . Do not disturb , i will tell you . Just a couple of days ago I had a full , complete meltdown And I called my husband and I said I can't do this . I think I even just sent a text . Let me see if I'll read it to you . I'll read it to you . Shall I read the meltdown ? Hold please .

Okay , i remember now I had to go back . It was last Thursday . My husband had been gone all week long , so I was at the end of my rope , to be fair . But I texted my husband and I said I cannot work in this environment . I'm so dramatic . I cannot work in this environment . Can you just see it ?

I'm going to start leaving every day for at least a couple hours a day so I can get something done . Then I wrote him like a novel And I'm going to read it to you because I want to know if you've ever felt like this way before . I want to know if you can hear how frustrated I was When I wrote this . I think I was close to tears .

So I said I want to work out some kind of schedule where I can leave and get work done for at least two to four hours a day , monday through Friday . I also want to make plans as a family for fun . We don't have very many summers left with Jamie and Kylie , but we all need to get on the same page .

I tried to explain to Stratton that I have to get work done . Please don't interrupt me . It's really hard for me to get refocused And if you interrupt me it's going to take me way longer to get my work done And I don't want to be working all day .

But he still came downstairs saying I'm bored Throwing balls against the walls and being super loud and distracting . There has to be a better way . There has to be a better way to be successful in both being a mom and as a business owner , and right now I feel like I'm failing at both .

That's the text that I sent my husband when I was like at my breaking point , like I can't do this , this isn't working . I can't do this . And I don't know about you .

I don't know if you've ever felt this way before , if maybe you're in it with me right now , maybe it's summer right now , when you're listening to this in real time And you are in it and you're trying to work from home and you're trying to be a good mom and just not working .

That's exactly how I felt last week And it has gone smoother this week , but last week I was like I can't do this anymore And I don't want to feel Like I'm failing at business and I don't want to feel like I'm failing as a mother , and So I told my husband That it's too distracting to be at the house and it really is , and number eight on my list is

block out all Distractions . And yes , i can silence my cell phone . Yes , i can put it on . Do not disturb .

I can also have a conversation with my 10 year old son and Ask him and beg him to please let me get my work done , but that doesn't mean that he's not going to come in and interrupt me 27 times in an hour , and that's when it gets really tricky . And so something that I told my husband that I need is I actually need to get out of the house .

I need to get out of the house . I can work in my car . I can go up in the mountains . There's a picnic bench . I have a spot . Do you have a spot ? I have a couple of spots . I'll even go to a Starbucks and put in noise-canceling headphones if I need to .

I honestly don't know how anybody works from a Starbucks , because if you have ADHD , like I do , i hear every single individual conversation Simultaneously and I'm so distracted by everything that's going on around me . But at least I know I'm not gonna get Interrupted over and over and over again . So I told my husband I just need to get out of the house .

I just need to get out of the house so I can get work done , and that means Working in my car , and right now it just started raining . There's probably a whole bunch of background noise on this episode , but the episode's getting recorded from my car and that's where I am right now in life . Number nine on my list was choose a dedicated workspace .

Again , that's something that's not working for me . I have an ADHD brain . I don't necessarily even enjoy working from the same place every single day , so I have been choosing different workspaces . I've been going in the basement some days . I've been going up to my husband's office some days I'm working from my car right now .

Like I See what I was thinking when I said choose a workspace Like this is where I do my work , but honestly , that has not been working for me , and what's been working for me more is changing it up every day and that Actually is working better for my ADHD brain as well . Number ten on my original list was track your time .

That's something that I am doing still , and I think even more so now because I have way less time than I thought I would have . So , for example , today I knew my son was going to be a camp from 12 to 3 and I was like I have three hours To get crap done right now . What's the most important things that I can get done right now ?

because after three hours is up It's not like I can just stay hyper focused and continue on . I have to go pick him up . So I have been tracking my time . Tip number 11 for sanity saving tips to do as a work from home mom in the summer is Probably the best tip out of the bunch . This has definitely been working for me .

And tip number 11 was mega batch content creation , and I'm going to change this to mega batch . Everything that you can summer is crazy . What can you mega batch ? How can you work smarter , not harder , and actually get ahead of schedule ? So in a couple weeks , preston's entire family is coming to our house . It's gonna be absolutely insane .

There's gonna be over 30 of us inside our house for a few days and then for a few days We're gonna go up to our cabin in Bear Lake and I know it's gonna be crazy .

And you know what I do not want to be doing during this time when I am hosting and I'm not just hosting family in town at both of my houses , but we're doing a birth , we're doing two birthday parties , we're doing a baby blessing like it's a lot . It's a lot of things .

Do you know what I 100% , absolutely do not even want to have to worry about when the family is in town for those 10 days work ? So right now I am mega batching , like a mad woman , to get ahead of schedule . And one thing that I want to get ahead of schedule on is this podcast , and I'll be honest , i've been mega batching podcast episodes .

This is the third podcast that I have recorded today And I know that I want to be three weeks ahead of schedule So when the family comes I don't have to worry about it . I'm good . I want to have majority of the things that I need to do done For the entire time that they are here and even the week after that they leave .

So I'm putting in the work now so that when they can come I don't have to worry about it . It's already done . And just for the record , when they do come , i'm not like going off the grid and not going to work in my business at all for those 10 days . I am just doing what I can do today to make it easier for when they come .

I am putting in the work today so that I don't have to worry about it when they're here And I can really enjoy being with them and be present and not have to be worried about what am I in a post tomorrow or what should I podcast about ? That stuff's going to be done .

That is the number one thing from my original list of 11 sanity saving things that you can do as a work from home mom this summer . That's the number one thing that is really working for me Mega batching and mega batching , not just content creation , but mega batching everything , anything and everything that you can .

When you do get a window of opportunity to work , even if it's sporadic , even if it's from your car , your getting the most out of that time . Some of the other things that I put on the list I'm sorry , i don't know who I was in May . That girl , she was optimistic .

The girl who said wake up the same time every day , go to bed the same time every day , work in the same place every day , give your kids a checklist That girl yeah , she gone , she gone . This is , this is the girl that is presently going through the situation , and I wish I could say that you just follow the planet , it's all going to work out .

But that's not how it is for me . Anyways , it's like here's , here's the things that you could do that could help . But , god speed , because summer is hard , can we just be real for a minute ? At least it is for me , at least it is for me .

I find like when my kids are at school , i have so much more time to work And it's more structured and it's more scheduled , and no two days have looked the same , at least for me , this summer . I'm just doing the best that I can , so I want to leave you with this . I think about this parenting hack . Mean that I've seen it's parenting hack .

Just kidding , there are no hacks . Everything is hard . These kids do not listen . This is your life now . God speed , i'm like how to save your sanity in the summer as a work from home , mom . Just kidding , just kidding , it's all hard , god speed , but I'll . jokes aside , just do the best you can , mama . Just do the best that you can .

Okay , it's fine time to enjoy your family this summer and find time to enjoy your business this summer .

And it may not go as according to plan . It's going to be okay And in a blink of an eye , the summer is going to be over And , like I told my husband , like we really do need to prioritize our kids this summer , because I don't have a lot of summers left with my kids . You want to be sad for a minute ?

You want to be sad for a minute , mama , think about it . You really only have 18 summers with your kids , that's it , that's it . And then they're grown and it goes by so fast . So don't blink . Okay , you can do this , you and I , we are going to .

And I said in the other podcast like I don't want to just survive this summer and all these things are like survival guide for moms And I'm like I want to thrive this summer .

Right now , in this moment , i feel like I'm surviving And I really do wish for you and I that we can thrive in the summer and that we can make some amazing memories with our children , with our families , and we can also move the needle in our business . So if you find yourself ever getting frustrated , i just want you to know you're not alone .

Do the best that you can . You can do this , i can do this , we can do this , we got this . And , mama , if you have advice , what has been working for you this summer , working from home , girl , you better slide into my DMs on Instagram and let me know . Okay , hook a sister up , help a sister out , sos What is working for you ?

I hope that this podcast has helped you . If anything , i hope it's entertained you , okay , and I love you so much And I will see you inside another episode .