Getting it all done

I often wonder how other people do it – get everything done in the day and still have time to breathe.  I know that I have it better than some working parents out there.  I work fulltime, M-F, 7-3:30.  No nights, no weekends, no bringing my work home with me.  We’re lucky too because right now Pat is on the same schedule as me.  Given his line of work, this may not always be the case so we are enjoying the time while we have it.  But honestly, even with two good schedules, it’s hard and it’s exhausting.  As Pat put it once, during the week we are mostly in survival mode.  We get through the work day, come home, make dinner, play with Evie, give her a bath, put her to bed and try and get some stuff done around the house.  People tell me that I need to let stuff go and just accept that things will sometimes be messy.

  I try to do this, but it’s not in my nature to be able to relax when there are 101 things that need to be done.  I prefer to dive in, get it all done and then relax.  The problem is that I can never get it all done and I can never seem to get ahead, which leaves little time for relaxing.  I love the weekends when we can go out of town to see my parents because we aren’t home and I don’t have to think about all of the things to get done around the house.  I do the best that I can to keep a clean and tidy house.  It’s something that is important to me and it is something that I’d like to instill in my children.  I want them to know that it’s ok to make a mess sometimes, but it’s also equally important to clean up after oneself.  Evelyn helps me pick up her toys and we sing the Barney Clean Up song.  The other day I caught her singing the song while picking up her tea set without any prompting from me.  I was so proud of her!  Obviously I don’t not expect her to do it all the time at this point, but I hope that I can teach her to be helpful.  Right now, she will put her own dirty clothes in the hamper and if she spills something, she helps to clean it up.  She knows that her shoes belong on the mat by the door and how to put her books back on the bookshelf.  Does she do this all the time?  No.  But she’s learning.  Hopefully by the time that Evie and this new baby are older, they will be great helpers!  But until that happens to falls to me.  And that leads me back to my original question – how do people do it?  I’m tired just thinking about it all…