Time Suck Management – Babies are Busy Creatures

When we discussed my foregoing the traditional 9-5 in favor of becoming a work at home mom to be with our daughter, honestly, I thought there would be a bit more “work” in that equation. I had the realistic expectation that this first year would be more about baby, not counting on any income I would be able to generate, and that as she “got easier” with age I’d be able to put more energy into my work. So far, all my secret expectations to be super productive and instantly grow this amazing business overnight, have been squashed under the very real truth that babies are major time sucks. At this point I’m lucky to get bathroom breaks.

It’s astounding how the minutes turn into hours and our day melts away under a barrage of household tasks, errands and baby needs. I wake up with a list of work goals (without which I’d be even less productive) and by the time Daddy comes home and we start dinner I too often find that list to be mostly untouched.

Time management has always been my strength and now, as a SAHM I’ve never needed those skills more. Here are my top tips to help fellow moms be productive, be with baby and stay sane while staying home.

1. Set Realistic Goals – REALLY
I set goals for myself that are very reasonable. Year one is primarily for baby care and enrichment. I want to build my Internet presence, grow my stock of wares, get into a few retail stores and throw my first in home jewelry show. I unfortunately also have a huge insane list of secret goals like “instantly make as much doing freelance as I did at my day job.” The key to goal setting is to stay motivated and to do that you need to stay realistic. Have a few pipe dream goals, but be sure to stay objective and not fall into the trap of getting down on yourself if they aren’t materializing. Be honest about how much time you will be able to devote to your goals and what is possible to accomplish in that time frame. Avoid getting hung up on the unrealistic. Put even simple tasks on your list so you can feel accomplished as the little check marks add up. Remember, any progress is still progress!

2. To Do List – 1. Make List
The “To Do” list is a simple and vital part of my day. Instead of trying to keep a ton of “need to get dones” in my head and remembering them only after I could have done them I immediately add anything I think of to do to my lists. I use a very simple iPhone app called DoBot ToDos which has the ability to have multiple lists saved and to also assign priorities. This way I have work, personal, baby and miscellaneous lists separate so I can tackle what fits in my day. I also use sub-lists for my various creative outlets, graphics, glass and writing, to track ideas and then as I write an article or finish a project I can check them off and never lose a great creative spark even if I can’t get to it right away. This is a great way to always have something queued up for the times I can’t bring my creative juices up to full speed.

3. Prioritize Priorities
It’s too easy to burn up your spare minutes filling them with bonus tasks you see need doing and “will only take a minute.” I like to keep my to-dos sorted by importance so when a nap or other baby-free moment presents itself I don’t waste those precious times on things that I can do packing her around. When sorting priorities I use a three step rating system: When does it NEED to be done, How many arms do I need, How much time will it take? I tackle the “must be done today” items first depending on how many arms I have free. By this I mean, if a task requires both arms it’s higher priority because it requires baby nap or playtime, which is limited, to accomplish. Any “one arm” tasks can wait until the baby is back to “pick me up” phase. If a task will take a significant amount of time I start it first thing so I can have extra day left to come back to it after interuptions.

4. Formulate a Battle Strategy
Ok, more of a “if this, then that” plan. While I’m tied down nursing or doing any baby activities that don’t require my full attention I start working out my “next move” so to speak so that once we are ready to move to the next activity I waste no time on wondering what I should do. This is also where having multiple lists comes in handy because I can tackle the list best suited to her mood. If she wakes up happy, I can jump on the “two arms” list while she contentedly plays on the floor, but if not I have my back up list of “one arm” tasks in arms reach.

5. Make Time to NOT Manage
All these tips help me get things done, whithout which I’d lose my mind, but it’s equaly important to have time to NOT get things done. To just be with baby and not worry about your lists or the time left in the day. If your like me, this is just as hard to accomplish as the rest of your busy day. If so, add it to your list or schedule an “Event Horizon” a time of day when once reached there’s no going back, your done with the busy work. Kick back and play with baby, relishing in every check mark you did make, and let tomorrow be a new step forward.

Tags: babie, plans, time management

Twilight Saga: New Moon Wolf Kibble Recipe

New Moon Wolf Kibble - A snack worthy of the Pack!

When the DVD of Twilight released I threw a screening party for my fellow fans and friends who hadn’t made it to the theater or wanted another taste. With the release of the sequel, Twilight Saga: New Moon, I wanted to keep the tradition alive but had a difficult time finding ideas for party food.

There are plenty of Twilight and Vampire snacks out there like these great “bitten” cupcakes my pal Jaimie brought. They are easy to make too! You just bake up some white or yellow cake cupcakes, cut out a cone shape and spoon in cherry pie filling, then top and decorate with a toothpick and left over filling.

However, I wanted a Team Jacob snack since New Moon is really more about introducing the wolf pack than vampire lore. I Googled and found a disappointing array of generic ideas like serving TrailMix or paw-print cakes. One idea was not bad, making cookies in the shape of dog biscuits. I didn’t have a dog-bone cookie cutter handy so I decided to whip up a batch of Dog Food instead. I dubbed the treat Wolf Kibble and served it in inexpensive plastic dog food dishes much to the surprise and laughs of my guests. Here’s the recipe:

New Moon Wolf Kibble
1 12oz Box Golden Grahams Cereal
2c Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1c Creamy Peanutt Butter
1 Stick Butter or Margarine
2-4c Powdered Sugar
Large Ziplock Bag

In a microwave safe bowl melt the chips, PB, and butter. I nuked it for 2 minutes on high and that seemed about right. In another large bowl pour in the cereal then pour chocolate mixture over it and stir until evenly covered. Pour into large Zilpock bag, add the powdered sugar and shake vigerously until the cereal mixture is evenly coated and resembles dog food. I recomend doing half the batch at a time so there is plenty of room in the bag to get your shake on. Chill for at least an hour then serve in dog food dishes.

And just for a fun beverage I made these American Red Cross blood donation sleeves to disguise my juice offerings. I suggest Ocean Spray Cranberry, Cran-Apple and Cran-Cherry for blood effect without food coloring or HFCS. You’ll notice the Donation Station number is another tongue-in-cheek Twilight reference. Here is a copy of the graphic if you’d like to use it for your own party:

Tags: New Moon, Party, Twilight

Chick with a Stick – Learning Crochet

I recently learned to crochet with less than $5 to start, a few YouTube videos and a great book from the library. I decided that I needed something productive to do while nursing, mainly because I was feeling too attached to my iPhone but also because I had an itch to make something. I hadn’t been getting much studio time so my creative juice ducts were starting to plug, rather than develop an bad case of artist mastitis I picked up a crochet hook.

Inspired by a buddy of mine, thank you knit goddess Marilyn, who knit a beautiful sweater for Kahlan, I chose to delve into the wonderful word of yarn. Since my goal was to craft while breastfeeding I chose crochet for the blunt hook and less pieces. I figure there’s less chance of damaging the munchkin this way. I was also drawn to the organic nature of the work, and admittedly I was entranced with Amigurumi, the Japanese art of crocheting little critters. Too cute!

I started with a $3 pack of cheapo plastic crochet hooks and $2 of clearance #4 sport weight yarn. Using the recommended G size hook I started working a test square of Single Crochet to learn the ropes. About five rows in I got itchy. This is easy, do I really need an entire square? Nope. Hence the love of crochet being organic, I jumped right into Half Double Crochet on the next row. So on and so forth I worked my way through all of the major stitches:
Chain, Slip Stitch, Single Crochet, Half Double Crochet, Double Crochet and finally Treble Crochet. This is what I ended up with at the end of two weeks of dabbling:

How did I learn? I’m a self starter by nature so I googled crochet and found a ton of great resources. Lion Brand Yarn has an excellent reference library as well as a series of YouTube tutorials that I found the simplest and straight forward for each stitch. I fell in love with The Chicks with Sticks Guide to Crochet, and miss it terribly now that it’s back at the library. That book was my primary resource and helped me cement my foundation stitches while loading me up with hip modern pattern inspiration. That being said, my first non-practice square creation ended up being this little blue tree spirit from the Hiyou Miyazaki film My Neighbor Totoro. He began as a practice piece for crochet in the round initially intended to be a ball for the cat. I kept going though and he started lengthening and forming until I recognized him. A bit of cross stitching detail finished him up and he now has new purpose as a baby toy!

For my next project, I’m going to crochet a belt out of hemp since those 30 missing pounds are making it really hard to keep my pants up…

Tags: Crafts, handmade, Totoro, Toys

Handmade Gifts – Can’t Buy Me Love

While anyone can buy a gift, and there are certainly plenty of things a new baby needs, there is a specialness to handmade items that just can’t be purchased. When someone chooses a gift it can be with little thought, but to make something takes a dedication of time that is priceless. Though we are grateful for everything we were given, these handmade pieces have a special place reserved in our baby memory box. They may even be passed on one day to our grandchildren and become heirlooom pieces for the next generation:
1. Crochet Cupcake hat from Uncle Alex.
2. Crochet baby gown made for Grama Diana by her Grama and now passed down five generations.
3. Knit button up sweater with matching booties from my buddy Marilyn.
4. Patchwork Baby Quilt from Matt at Bullseye and family.
5. Wood and Fabric wall art for the nursery from Uncle Alex and Katherine.

Tags: baby gifts, handmade