What works for you

Ali Edward's blog was one of the first blogs I began reading in late 2006 or early 2007. I started reading her column in a scrapbooking magazine and quickly became a regular reader of her blog. I really enjoyed this post from last week. Her focus was on working at home, but it had information that is applicable to so many families.

Here are my favorite lines from this in-depth post:

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?"
(from the poem The Summer Day by Mary Oliver)

“Being busy does not bring meaning to my life.” (From Tara Whitney's blog)

"I love being a working Mom. I love my family. I love my work. I love that I get to work from home. I especially love that my family is a big part of the things I create and the work I do." from Ali's blog post.

(Mine would be slightly different "I love being a working Mom. I love my family. I love my work. I love that I get to work at a university. I love my short commute.")

I learned a lot from Ali's post and and love how the internet allows us to share and connect. I do not feel the isolation that some mothers felt in the past because I can connect with other moms on Facebook, blogs, and in person. Yet, we have to be careful with the ability to more easily share and connect. We have to fight the urge to compare our lives to others in a way that makes us feel inferior. The Frugal Girl made a point of posting pictures of her messy office one day because blog readers had gotten the impression that her house was always clean. We all have our challenges, but you just may not know what is challenging in someone else's life.

I try to focus on what works for us. Meal planning works for us. They are simple dinners with some pre-packeaged ingredients, since we need to get dinner on the table quickly. Grocery shopping weekly works for us. Having a set system to divide up household chores and daycare drop-off and pick-up works for us. Routines during the week and quiet family time on the weekends works for us. Sometimes we get off track and some days are harder than others, but most days are good.