so. tired. worn. out.

I am exhausted, mentally, physically, emotionally. I just cannot do one more thing for someone else. I haven't been sleeping well but I get up at 5:45 every morning for work. I get ready, eat breakfast and pack my lunch, then I get the kids up by 6:30. I get them dressed, give them breakfast and then it is out the door. Then I drop them off at the sitter and I go to work. I bust my butt for 8 hours and then come home, make dinner, try to keep the kids occupied and get some quality time in with them. Then it is dinner, baths and bedtime. After they are in bed, I try to keep up on housework, laundry, dishes and being thrifty. I can't do it all anymore. I am so burnt out. Thankfully I have 3 more days this week, then the weekend. I work on Monday and then I am off for a week. A whole glorious week. I am going to sit down one night and make a list of everything I want to accomplish during this week (besides enjoying time with my kiddos). I started a mental list earlier. Mostly it is stuff that will make my life easier while I am work a lot. I want to stay thrifty but I am finding it harder and harder to fit in things. I refuse to cut quality time with the kids so I am trying to fit in more during the weekend in the way of housework and thrifty stuff. UGH!

So where is Rodney you might ask. He is working 2nd shift but he does help. He picks up the house, we take turns mowing the lawn. Rodney does whatever I ask, I just have a hard time remembering to ask him. He does put away dishes when they are in the drainer drying and he will do dishes. It is really hard for him to help out at night without waking someone up so he doesn't help much, if at all, at night but he does do little things during the day before he leaves for work that make my life just a bit easier.

I know many people have it much worse than me. At least I have the option to work only part-time. Thankfully starting the week after vacation, I am only available 4 days a week. I think my stress and anxiety comes in part from adjusting to this new job. It is a whole different world from my previous department. We work 8 hour days. There is no calling you off if they are not busy. There is no days where you are available but not scheduled. You are scheduled every day you are available. Sure we might get done early but generally we work at least 6 of the 8 hours. I know that many people are without a job now and would love to work so I am definitely not complaining. I just need to figure out a better way to balance myself and find out what is the most important things and what isn't and how to do what I feel is important and skimp some of the not so important things.


My mental list of to do's for next week:

• price everything upstairs for the garage sale (this is a HUGE task! I was so organized with it for a while but then slacked off and now I have a bunch of stuff to price)
• get rid of the cans in the garage
• get a big container and grate 4-5 bars of soap so I have pre-grated soap next few times I need to make laundry detergent. This will cut about 20 minutes or so off my prep time for making the laundry detergent.
• go through and declutter the house.
• reorganize laundry room and kitchen cabinets
• sort kids clothes again and take out all long sleeve stuff
• household inventory for insurance
• stockpile inventory for insurance
• SLEEP, NAPS,
• weed garden
• clean garage and get ready for garage sale (garage sale is not for a month yet but I need to clean it well so I can just sweep, set up the tables, set out the stuff and rake in the cash. LOL

UGH! my vacation is a work-cation.

*******edit******

I think the kids (especially O) can sense my stress. As I was finishing type this post, O hugged me and said cuddle. So we sat on the couch and cuddled (all 3 of us) until their bedtime. So sweet!