It has been 7 weeks since we parted ways with our helper (looking for a new one, help!) and to be honest, I haven’t fully adjusted to my new duties yet.

Work has come to a halt and I must say that being a full-time homemaker has its sweet perks and pains.

For one, I am physically tired, more than ever! Haha.

Every morning I wake up and think, “Oh, I can write while Mia is in school and when she naps, or when she’s asleep at night!”

Who am I kidding?!

There are always meals to prepare, dishes to wash, trash to throw, bathroom to scrub, dirty socks to bleach, and I can go on and on and fill half of this page! 

Not that I’m complaining. 🙂 

I mean, I do enjoy learning new recipes and applying home hacks I see online to clean and organize our humble abode.

But after a long day of childcare, pretend play, and household chores, I’ll be dead tired and I’ll be the first to fall asleep after our bedtime story!

Makes me wonder how work-at-home moms (WAHMs) without nannies do it. If you are one, I salute your concentration and multi-tasking skills!

It’s very challenging to finish tasks, meet deadlines, answer emails, and return calls with a kid around.

And it’s certainly no joke to switch from work-mode to play-mode and back to work-mode again several times a day.

When Ate F was still here, I would lock doors and ask not to be disturbed for a few hours a day.  It was the only way I could get things done. Work is work and a support system is really necessary even when you’re just at home.

So now that I no longer have that, I can rarely sit at my desk. It feels like I’m in laptop rehab. Hahaha.

Oh, I hope it won’t take too long before I get into the groove of this.

You see, up until Mia was 2 years old, I was on a home-based work arrangement. When she turned 3, I started this blog and did part-time this and part-time that. Now that she’s 4 and we don’t have house help, I am new to being a full-time mom.

If you’re a stay-at-home mom (SAHM) managing two or more kids by yourself, respect for all that you do!

I only have one but I can’t seem to fit housekeeping and parenting in a day.

And truth be told, I feel like I’m always failing on one.

Sometimes it’s the greasy pots. Other times it’s the bits of corn and carrots under the dining table. Those take a back seat when I choose to bring Mia to the playground in the afternoons. At times, it’s also her. She gets more screen time than I want her to have when I need to finish mopping our floors. Today, it’s the dusty windows, as I really want to finish this post.

Is it just me not getting a good grip of things yet? Or perhaps we can’t really have everything done in 24 hours? Something’s always gotta give?  Our sleeping hours? Our writings? Our laundry? 🙂

I have to admit, the tablet is of great help to me during the day. It keeps Mia occupied while I cook or while I take a bath. Yay, I get to take a bath! Hooray.

It also helps that she can already do most things by herself.  All the training and set routines are finally paying off.

In the morning, she chooses what she wants to wear, gets dressed, eats breakfast, and drinks her vitamins, before I take her to school.

Of course I remind, supervise, and help a little. Especially in the feeding part. But her growing independence is right on time.

On snack times, she puts dirty plates in the sink and unfinished food back in the ref without being asked. (This one – she learned in school. I was surprised when she applied it at home.)

Then after dinner, she pees, wipes, flushes, cleans herself up (hands, face, feet), brushes her teeth, and changes to a new set of clothes while I finish up in the kitchen.

I couldn’t be more thankful!

But of course it doesn’t mean that she does all these at an ideal pace. In fact, it’s in a walk-in-the-park-smell-the-flowers pace. Hashtag PatiencePlsRainOnMe. LOL.

Also, it doesn’t mean she no longer seeks my attention every 10 or 15 minutes when we’re at home. Or that it’s easier to get her to take a nap or to sleep at night. Those things remain the same. They still take forever. This includes mealtimes. I’m lucky if we finish in 45 minutes. It’s an achievement when we’re done in 30! 🙂

Anyway, these are probably shallow woes to some. 

But I’m somehow glad that being in different setups puts me in the shoes of different moms. I get to understand and appreciate more of each group.

Who knows, when the time is right, perhaps when the formative years are done, I can work full-time outside the home again.

In the mean time, I’m cherishing all the little things. All the sweet moments that I’ll miss when she’s bigger and doesn’t need me around as much anymore.

The chores may be overwhelming but Adele is keeping me sane. It’s mighty liberating to cry out, HELLO from the other SAAAAAAAAYYYYD no matter how I sound.hahaha Give it a try. 😉

Cheers to CHANGE and all the learning it brings.