After six years of being home with my babies, I am finally back to work full time.  As you can imagine, making this decision was not an easy one for me.  Aside from just knowing that I would miss the flexibility that being a stay at home mom afforded me.  I also worried about being able to balance home and work efficiently and with ease.  As a self proclaimed perfectionist, I like for things to go just so.  Something that is much harder to accomplish, when you work for someone else outside of the home.  I’d love to say that I immediately found the solutions to make things run smoothly, but if I am honest, it is still very much a work in progress.

Here are a few things that seem to be helping us keep all the balls in the air, or at the very least stop them from rolling under the couch.

ALONE WE CAN DO SO LITTLE; TOGETHER WE CAN DO SO MUCH. — HELEN KELLER

1.  Enlisting Everyone In The Struggle.  I will be the first to admit that being at home gave me the luxury of being picky.  This allowed me  to create a “Mom Will Do It” culture, and Mom did. It’s not like I did not know that I would regret it.   I did and I do. But, now that I don’t have many free hours in the day.  I have had to solicit the help of everyone in the household.  And, as much as I hate to admit that in this case delegating seems to be working, and is taking a lot of pressure of me. Check Out This Fun Money Chore System we’ve implemented (originally found on The Chic Site Blog.  
2. Putting Everyone on The Same “Calendar”.  Thankfully, my girls are not in a lot of after school extra curricular activities, so I am not running them too many places.  But, we do have doctors appointments, dentist appointments, hair and nail salon appointments that all must be worked into the schedule.  Not to mention weekends with the grandparents, etc.  The Family Calendar strategically placed on the fridge in the kitchen keeps everyone abreast of what is going on.   For things that absolutely can not be forgotten, hubby and I share a Google Calendar.
3. Having An Interested Partner.  I say interested partner because unfortunately I am privy to way too many situations where even though you have a partner, they tend to not be interested.  What I mean by this is that, they need to be just as committed to the success of the systems you put in place, as you are.
4. Technology Is Your Friend.  If you have been following the blog for a while you know I set my sail by technology.  I use it as much as I can to make my life easier.  Since I can’t just pop up at the school during the day anymore, I have to find a way to make my presence felt.  This is where all the new fun and useful teacher apps come into play.
5. Planning Ahead.  I honestly think this is the key to success on pretty much every front.  Even though you can not anticipate exactly what is to come.  You can plan for things that remain the same.  I try to prep my meals, plan out my outfits and the kid’s outfits for the week and stick to a regular schedule, when it comes to Laundry and Other Housekeeping tasks.  This makes my life just a bit easier.

What do you do to strike a balance between home life and work life?  What are your fail safes, I would love to hear all about it in our comments section below.