I was thinking for a while about writing something along the lines of encouraging fellow working women. I do love my job and home, but sometimes it is like walking on a trapeze trying to balance everything. And I do not even have children. I am not sure what I would do once we have a family, maybe I will become a SAHM. I do not know that now.
Anyway, the point is at this season of my life I am doing both and there are days when I have struggled to keep it all together. After coming from work, I would look into the fridge and spend 15 minutes figuring out what to make. And that saps up most of my energy. I cannot stomach the idea of having frozen, ready to eat store bought food at the end of a work day. I have to have a traditional Indian meal.
And let me tell you dear friends, that is no joke. It takes quite a bit of preparation and the cleaning up after that is not pretty. Recently, I developed a wheat allergy and so I can only have rice/corn products. That has added to the challenge of cooking quite a bit. Hubby likes to have wheat included in the menu once in a while and I end up cooking several different things a day. And all this cooking and cleaning makes me too exhausted to do anything else.
All this to give you a background. I for one, am a Christian who do not believe that all women who have a career are apostate sinners and pro-abortion feminists.
Now to answer the question. How to manage both? Yesterday I came across this post by Shalee. She has done a great job laying out some pertinent guidelines. I encourage y'all to go and read it. Since she has touched on all the aspects I could think of, I thought I would just add a few practical things that I do to keep me on track.
I have still not achieved perfection. And I have no hopes of ever doing that. And that is okay.
Anyway, the point is at this season of my life I am doing both and there are days when I have struggled to keep it all together. After coming from work, I would look into the fridge and spend 15 minutes figuring out what to make. And that saps up most of my energy. I cannot stomach the idea of having frozen, ready to eat store bought food at the end of a work day. I have to have a traditional Indian meal.
And let me tell you dear friends, that is no joke. It takes quite a bit of preparation and the cleaning up after that is not pretty. Recently, I developed a wheat allergy and so I can only have rice/corn products. That has added to the challenge of cooking quite a bit. Hubby likes to have wheat included in the menu once in a while and I end up cooking several different things a day. And all this cooking and cleaning makes me too exhausted to do anything else.
All this to give you a background. I for one, am a Christian who do not believe that all women who have a career are apostate sinners and pro-abortion feminists.
Now to answer the question. How to manage both? Yesterday I came across this post by Shalee. She has done a great job laying out some pertinent guidelines. I encourage y'all to go and read it. Since she has touched on all the aspects I could think of, I thought I would just add a few practical things that I do to keep me on track.
- I now have a two week menu list which I prepare during lunch hour at work. For me, it is a great help since I can save the 15 minute staring into the fridge. This helps me to include a balanced diet for both of us without making the same things day after day. Also, this way I do not have to find out at the last minute that I am out of something.
- And then we eat out 3 times a week :D
- I get groceries done on a weekday on my way back from work
- The night we eat out is usually not dine out but take home. Those days I get caught up with cleaning since there is no kitchen to clean. It is one of my failings/good points depending on the way you look at it. Whatever else is not clean, a dirty kitchen depresses me no end. So I make sure that is clean at the end of the night.
- I read in all these blogs about everyone doing laundry daily or every other day. I only do it on Saturday. That works fine for us. And once the clothes are done, I dump all the dry clothes into our bed. That way I can make sure that all the clothes are folded and put away before we sleep. Otherwise, we might start wearing from the laundry basket itself!
- My husband is the official veggie cutter in the family. Since hubby is a vegetarian, we do a lot of veggie cutting in the house. He does such a good job that I do not interfere with it. We get caught up with each others day during this time and we love this time together.
- In a new effort to be efficient, I am going to try something different for one week. Since I already know what I am going to cook for the week, I am planning on cutting all the required veggies at one shot during the weekend (when we are watching TV or something). That way my weekday workload will be drastically reduced.
- If for some reason I have not gotten caught up with the cleaning, we hire someone to do the entire cleaning of the house. It is totally worth it for us. And it is not all that often we do that.
I have still not achieved perfection. And I have no hopes of ever doing that. And that is okay.
7 comments:
Great ideas! Thank you for sharing them. I think it essential to have a plan in place in regards to homemaking...but you know that I love planning! It is not meant to be restrictive and without flexibility, but it is a tool to save time, give focus and to lower stress. It also shows how much priority you have given your role as wife and homemaker.
P.S. The new picture on your blog is so calming! Love the new look. My blog is sadly neglected these days. :(
Hey, thanks for your comment today! Ah, palm trees...
I work from home ~ I'm as area admin for a private ISP. I usedd to attempt preparing a new supper each day and realized it was completely stressing me out. I thought about it and decided to prepare meals 3x a week and have left overs 3x a week, leaving one supper for **out**! It has been such a relief. Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday are my cooking days. Saturday we eat out. Our evenings are much more calm and enjoyable now, for this simple change alone.
I found your blog through AnnaS's.
Blessings...
For lunches ~
I'm not big into leftovers so only make enough for a couple meals...
I boil eggs for egg salad sandwiches and the mixture keeps well for a couple days. Tuna fish can be made ahead and kept for a couple days too. I usually have lunchmeat and cheese at the ready too.Because I make my husband's lunch the night before, I put the egg salad or tuna fish in a small tupperware so the bread doesn't get soggy. The bread and lettuce goes together in a baggie.
Our hydrator is kept full with fresh fruit and there are always bananas on the counter.
I make up a large salad once a week and put it in a tupperware type container with paper towels over the vegies to help them stay fresh. Romaine, scallion, carrot slivers. It's easy to add tomatoes, cheese and nuts when you're ready to eat. Sometimes we'll have a salad with tuna fish mixture on the side.
We're not real big on processed or junk foods but we do indulge from time to time.
One thing my daughter enjoys is to just grab a box of Kung Pao noodles (purchased at Trader Joes, I try to keep a steady supply in the cupboard) on her way to work as well as a piece or two of fruit. She doesn't always want to fuss with making a sandwich. She's an energetic lifeguard and swim instructor and is *always* on the *go*! :o)
I'm a former caterer and one thing I continue to do is make each dish attractive with food placement and appearance. Sitting down to a lunch at work, when the meal is lovely, goes far. :o)
Hope this helps.
Well, as you know I don't think working women are terrible family-neglecting feminists, either. What worries me is precisely what you mentioned: the tremendous difficulty of balancing. It's HARD.
I totally understand you on the convenience food issue, too. In our first two days in our new apartment, we didn't have time to cook (nor any pots to cook in!!), so we had to buy some frozen food to defrost in the microwave. It has been a while since I ate something like this, and it was disgusting!
Thank you for showing that with some planning and organization we working women can still provide well for our homes and husbands!!
This was such a good reminder for me to get back in the habit of making weekly menus. It makes things so much easier. Since I started working from home it is so much easier to start dinner during the day if I have a plan. Otherwise we just eat out everynight. Hope your weekend is going well.
Annie the planner, were you always so in the college too, I seriously doubt that :) Karthik..
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