How do you find the time?

[Nik2WIN]

OK am really loving the TMX and making all sorts of things with it that I would never have dreamed of but the house is really suffering ....

How on earth do you find the time to do all this cooking AND keep a house and do all the other stuff (another hobby of mine is sewing - nope, not done a thing since TMX came on the scene)

I know I went away last weekend and am still catching up housework wise from that but I don't work outside the home.  I am bloody knackered because I'm woken by one or another child up to three times a night but apart from that I ought to be able to do a bit of cooking and keep house surely.  Goodness knows how I'm going to cope when its time to start working in the garden again (another hobby .... )

Nik

[meganjane]

Oh Nik, when you have little children, there is very little time for much else.

You just can't do everything. I don't do much gardening and sometimes my house looks like a cyclone has gone through and I don't have any young children!

I used to sew as well, but that has become a thing of the past, only mending and altering done now.

I don't really have any advice because my time management skills are appalling. I try to be in my workshop making my products for a few hours a day, but it just doesn't happen. I spend many, many hours on my computer...

I find I actually talk and write about food more often than I actually cook it

[judydawn]

Ideally I think we all need a houskeeper and a gardener  as we all would prefer to be in the kitchen with our TMX's or, as MJ says, on the computer talking about food. I can understand it must be hard with young children but a bit easier when there are just the 2 of you - the house certainly stays cleaner a lot longer.  Visitors are a good thing I find as it then forces you to do a bit of neglected housework but as we get older, that becomes less important anyway. Enjoying what we are doing is what it is all about and life certainly isn't boring.

[Meagan]

Nik check out the flylady link in my sig, when I am 'flying' it is great and makes a huge difference. Ask away if you have any questions

[virginiaqda]

Ok heres what you do..
Go to www.flylady.net take baby steps and you are away.
 Don't expect it to happen all at once. It took me 1.5 yrs to finally sort everything out but I couldn't be happier. I work 8 - 8pm 7 days a week with 3 children and my house was a pigsty. I am not ashamed to say it, it was. Now I am company ready every day.
I hope it all works out for you.

[amgrantham81]

It is a balance thing.
For me I was cooking everything from scratch pre thermomix so bringing it into my kitchen reduced my time in the kitchen significantly. However you cant tell that by the state of my house at the moment. 
I too use Flylady. But not a lot of it, I have picked the bits that do work for me, and I ignore the rest.

I have 4 children, 3 boys 6,4 and 8 months and one girl about to be 2. So they tend to keep me pretty busy as well. 

Just find the balance that works for you. If cooking everything from scratch isn't working due to the time, prioritise those that are most important to you and make healthy choices in buying prepackaged things. So for instance you dont need to make bread everyday, you can buy bread from the supermarket and just make sure you choose one without the bad additives (normally the cheap ones are fine).  For us we cant eat vinegar, and so the buying bread is not an option, so I make it.

Make sure you make it work for your family and don't let yourself feel guilty for not managing it all. We can only do what we can do. :-)

[cookie1]

I'm at the stage of life that as long as the house looks tidy, the beds are made and dishes done I'm right. I can then spend my time cooking or on here. Ironing gets done once a week, washing is no trouble as you just put it out and Monday is my cleaning day. If I had young children I think I would have to lock the computer away.

[amgrantham81]

You've got that last sentance the wrong way round Cookie, It should read:

If I had a computor I would need to lock the children away.

Disclaimer: this is said very tongue in cheek, I wouldn't lock my kids away so I could use the computer.

[Nik2WIN]

Thanks for all the support guys (girls??).  I've been using flylady for years and have loads of support from the flylady camp - there's a couple of forums here in the UK that give support.  We all know each other really well so tell it how it is!!  We also had a really great flymeet in November last year.

The trouble is I like making everything from scratch!!  I'm going to have to work out how much of what I like I can do ....  I did a load of bread making yesterday which should keep us going to at least Tuesday (its mostly in the freezer).

I did have all three children sleep through the night last night and if that keeps up I might actually be able to go to bed later (and may even have a little more energy during the day!)

Thanks again 

Nik

[obbie]

another fly lady here.
just do what works for you.

[meganjane]

OMG, I couldn't bear the Flylady! The emails drove me crazy! Maybe it's changed....

[Nik2WIN]

OMG, I couldn't bear the Flylady! The emails drove me crazy! Maybe it's changed....

They go straight in my spam filter 

But I try to adhere to the principles - although if I did a load of washing a day we'd soon be drowning in dirty laundry 

Nik

[Meagan]

OMG, I couldn't bear the Flylady! The emails drove me crazy! Maybe it's changed....

You can get a daily digest now MJ which is one email a day.

[amgrantham81]

OMG, I couldn't bear the Flylady! The emails drove me crazy! Maybe it's changed....

I haven't got the emails in forever, however still use some of her principes. It doesn't need to be an all or nothing thing.  She is also on facebook now and I get the messages there, far less of them there though.
I don't shine my sink, but do use the routines as a basis, 4 small kids means mine needs to be adjusted.

[amgrantham81]

The trouble is I like making everything from scratch!!  I'm going to have to work out how much of what I like I can do ....  I did a load of bread making yesterday which should keep us going to at least Tuesday (its mostly in the freezer).

I did have all three children sleep through the night last night and if that keeps up I might actually be able to go to bed later (and may even have a little more energy during the day!)

Thanks again 

Nik

Life does get much better with a full nights sleep or two a week.  (Says me who was woken by 3/4 children twice each last night and dragged out of bed at 6am, YAWN!!).

You will need to just add cooking into your routines and see how it fits, work out what is actually feasable to do by scratch for the week and do that, or like you did with the bread do a few bulk lots fo things and freeze.

Oh and try and lose the guilt about not managing to do it all.  3 kids is a lot of work, and even not working outside the home can create a lot of work too. For instance if you worked 5 days a week and the kids wer in daycare then the house would be left empty for many hours a week and therefore less mess would be created. Staying home creates lots of mess on its own.

Best of luck at finding the balance. :-)

.
Amy
(Who is trying hard to find the balance herself).