Lovely in Pink {Working Mommy Post}

LOVELY IN PINK

Hi there! My name is Becca and I blog at Lovely In Pink. I'm a wife, mom, stepmom, and believer that laughter is what makes the world go round. I work full-time outside of the home so when Melissa asked for working moms to help her with her Working Mom series, I knew I had to chime in. I've been working full-time outside of the home since my son was 20 months old (he'll be 6 in a few months) because not only did we need a 2nd income, I was going pretty stir-crazy being at home all day long.

I've learned in my 4+ years of being a work-outside-of-the-home mom and today I'm going to share some of my tried and true tips in my quest toward moving up in corporate America and most importantly, raising my family. I think all moms have the ability to influence and support each other so even if you're a stay-at-home mom or work-at-home mom, maybe some of these tips can be of use to you too. Regardless of who, if someone has ideas to make each day run more smoothly, I know I'm all ears.

1. Remember that you can't do it all. It took me a long time to realize this little gem of advice. I'd get frustrated at the thought of not being able to have dinner on the table by 6 but make things worse on myself by not having dinner planned in the first place. While we can't do it all, we can make things easier for ourselves. And meal planning is one of those things. (I wrote a Meal Planning 101 post right here.)

2. Plan ahead. When you have outfits picked out, bags put in the car, and breakfast ready the night before, things go much smoother come 5am. I find that when I don't get things ready to go the night before, I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off in the morning. Nothing is worse than being rushed at the crack of dawn. Rushed = cranky. And cranky leads to arguments and putting on two different colored shoes.

3. Straighten up for 15 minutes everyday. Rather than saving all your cleaning and laundry for the weekend, during your time off, spend 15 minutes each day picking up or doing a load of laundry. I set my oven timer for 15-20 minutes as soon as I get home from work. I go, go, go until that timer goes off and then, after I've gotten my chores done, I put on my PJs and start dinner. It's a little thing that goes a long way.

4. The weekends are your best friend. I love my weekends, don't you? Once I started working full-time, weekends became my saving grace. I cook for the week, grocery shop, do laundry, read, catch up on TV shows, and most importantly, we spend time together as a family. I soak up every minute of it because being with my family is my most favorite thing in this entire world.

5. It gets easier, I promise. My days are long. During the summer*, I get up at 5:30am, get myself and Caden dressed and leave the house at 6:30. I drive out of my way to take Caden to school and then another 30 minutes to work, getting there at 7:30. By that time, I'm already exhausted and during the summer, I'm more exhausted than normal. When it's 80 degrees by 7am, I get tired. You hear me? I get off work at 6pm and make the commute home ... right now, my handsome husband is able to help out more than he was able to before we started our landscape company so that's good. But usually, it's all me when it comes to getting Caden to and from school and I'm perfectly fine with that. (I'm so thankful that I work in a very flexible environment with amazing bosses and co-workers. I wouldn't be able to do it if it weren't for that.) Working full-time outside of the home was tough -- REALLY TOUGH -- at first but I guess, like anything else, the more you do it, the better you become.

I hope my tips can help you work-outside-of-the-home moms or any moms for that matter. We're all in this together. Because being a mom, whether you stay-at-home, work-at-home, or work-outside-of-the-home, is hard work. Make sure to visit Melissa's blog to read other posts from working moms. Thanks again, Melissa for hosting this for us!

If you have any sweet comments or questions for Becca please feel free to go to her blog by clicking here!  I love Becca's tip for straightening up 15-20 minutes each day.

*I work 4 10-hour days in the summer so I get Fridays off. It's fabulous.