In an effort to continue to implement taking time for those fringe hours in my day I am brought back to my problem of feeling so stressed out while taking time for me. I think taking time for ourselves is great but it also can not come at the expense of those we love and we can not forget that as a parent we do not get to say no to our kids because they need us and the parent thing never gets turned off. At least for me I need to find a way to allow that time but to make my daily grind flow better so that I feel like when those fringe hours come along I am not saying no to some of the things that are most important to continue to maintain and that should be done most days so that "me" time can happen. Its more my way of eliminating the guilt that comes with taking time for me. You see if we identify where the guilt comes from and find a way to move past that then our "me" time is or at least should be less filled with guilt and more filled with joy. So in doing this I pinpointed one place that was a problem and looked to find a solution to this stress and Its amazing how making small changes can make such a big difference. In my journey to find ways to change up my day to make the things that were a stress to me better I realized that my kitchen was a BIG place of stress. First off its not my most favorite room in the house with its layout and decor. We have added some updates and did a facelift since buying our house but a complete makeover is really what would make me love this room. Before I had my kids I was not in this room near as much as I am now. With being in this room so much I find that it is the room that is always messy. Dishes everywhere and no room on countertops etc. I don't know how but no matter how much I would clean this room it was always a place of stress and it was ALWAYS a mess. Every night after the kids went to bed this would be the room that I just did not even want to look at. I would ignore it and then each morning I felt so frustrated with having a messy kitchen to start the day. I would not have what I needed to get things ready for my haley or myself. Dustin was struggling to find what he would need and the search for spoons was always the adventure of the day. This room just put me in a bad mood. Over the past weekend Dustin helped me get caught up with house work. We worked really hard together to get each room cleaned, wash done and tackled it while helping each other with the kids. We had fun and with each room we tackled a weight was lifted. With efforts to keep up with the room Dustin stopped using the dishwasher and was hand washing smaller amounts and putting them away as they dried. When I went to load the dishwasher Monday morning he said that he had just been hand washing and it seemed to be better. I let this digest and had a light bulb moment. Could not using the dishwasher fix my issue with the kitchen? So this week I have been dedicated to hand washing all our dishes. I do small cleanups throughout the day and maintain it as the day goes on. As things are dry I put them away. I have to say this small change has made for a huge difference. I am finding that each night I sit down feeling so much happier knowing that my kitchen is clean. Every night this week it has been that way and that is a HUGE difference from most nights its a mess and stays that way for days. Bottles are washed and ready for me to use, since its smaller batches of dishes its easier for me to quickly just wash and put away and takes me less time. Since I am doing the smaller batches throughout the day when it comes to dinner cleanup I am able to get that done so much quicker after the kids are asleep and I do not feel overwhelmed by a whole days worth of mess to clean up or a whole big dishwasher full of dishes to have to put away before even being able to clean up. It seems so weird to me that this could really be helping but it is. I am still excited for the day that we can do a full makeover of the kitchen to make this space more user friendly for our family but for now I am happy to have a system that for me seems to be working better and making for better mornings where the only thing I have to search for is my coffee cup to get my coffee, my counters are clean and all is right with the world or at least it is in my kitchen….. Heres to small changes, new systems and less stressful days. Be more, not do more. Simplification at its finest one step at a time…
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