motherhood

Ep 063: Life Hacks for Moms of Littles

August 15, 2018

I'm allie

I'm here to shake things up and challenge the status quo of motherhood. Let's throw out the old rulebook and create a new narrative where moms are living their dream lives unapologetically.

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Feel like you need a total revamp?

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I get it, daily routines can be overwhelming. But you? You're seeking life ownership. Dive into this beloved guide and tap into easy self-reflection, without overtaxing your brain.

Motherhood is chaotic, no matter which way you slice it. We could all use a helping hand from someone a few steps ahead of us. I’ve been a mom for nine years now. I had all four of my kids within five years and I rocked the stay-at-home mom thing for about seven years before I started my business from home and added that to the mix. If you are a mama who is “in the thick of it,” I have come up with these little tips and tricks that might make day-to-day life easier for you.

Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, whatever your circumstances are, just know that I’m here to lighten your load, give you a breath of fresh air and without actually being there, give you a hug, a little squeeze and say that we’re all in this together. I hope that this episode does just that – lightens your load and makes you feel a little more hopeful and inspires you.

 

 

 

In This Episode, Allie Discusses:

  • How keeping the big picture as the focus will relieve you from sweating the small stuff.

  • Tips for running errands with little ones.

  • Ways to include your kids in housework and habits you can form to lighten your load when it comes to chores around your house.

  • The value of finding value in the things you accomplish everyday so you don’t feel defeated by not accomplishing it all.

  • Practical ways to prepare the night before so you can make the next day easier on you and your kids.

Mentioned in this Episode:

 

 

 


Mom life. We are surrounded with the message that it’s the tired life. The no-time-for-myself life. The hard life. And while it is hard and full of lots of servitude, the idea that motherhood means a joyless life is something I am passionate about putting a stop to. I’m on a mission to help you stop counting down the minutes till bedtime, at least most days. I want you to stop cleaning up after your kid’s childhood and start being present for it. Start enjoying it. I believe in John 10:10 “that we are called to abundant life” and I know mothers are not excluded from that promise. Join me in conversations about simplicity, minimalism and lots of other good stuff that leads to a life of less for the sake of enjoying more in your motherhood. I’m Allie Casazza and this is                   The Purpose Show.

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Hey, beautiful friends! Thank you so much for listening to my show today!

Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, whatever your circumstances are today, just know that before I hit record, I said a little prayer for you specifically. I’m here to lighten your load, give you a breath of fresh air and without actually being there, give you a hug, a little squeeze and say that we’re all in this together. I hope that this episode does just that – lightens your load and makes you feel a little more hopeful and inspires you.

So, I’m really excited! I know I say that every time but I am really excited to do this episode. I actually took this content from something that I wrote years ago and I sent it out in an email, actually in a two-part email series to my email list, which if you’re not on my email list, go to show notes and sign up for it.

I really treat my list well. There’s extra special content that I send to those who are on my email list that is not sent to anyone else a lot of the time. It’s really a great place to be if you want more encouragement, tips and tricks from me and stuff like that, to be the first to know whenever something new is going on.

So anyway, this is life hacks for moms of littles. I’m talking about if you have kids under 5, especially if you have multiple kids. Maybe you had your kids close together like I did and you’re in the thick of that, little baby/toddler/pregnancy season.

I’ve been a mom (at the time of this recording) for nine years now. I had all four of my kids within five years and I rocked the stay-at-home mom thing for about seven years before I started my business from home and added that to the mix.

It’s weird to give advice like I know what I’m doing. But recently I was talking with a mom friend who had just had her second baby earlier this year and she was describing the chaos, figuring things out that I had learned a long time ago. And as she was talking, it got me thinking that, like in Titus  in the Bible, that we moms that are a few steps ahead of other moms, we should lend a hand and help, especially in the season that you’re in if you’re in that little kid season.

Granted my kids are still really young. Bella’s nine, but Emmett’s only three and as you guys probably know we are adopting, so I’ll be out and in that season for a while in my life still. But as soon as your kids get a little older, things get busier in a different way and more difficult in a different way, but they’re not chaotic in that same way as when you’re in the thick of having little ones.

So, we moms who are a few steps ahead, we need to help out and lend a hand. And it doesn’t make me a know it all or conceited or “holier than thou” that I’m offering this advice. I just want to lend a hand, lift you up and let you know I’ve been there. I’ve picked up a few tips and tricks that helped me in my journey and maybe they can help you too.

A lot of these things are super basic and obvious. If you’re not in that season, if you maybe have one little one and you haven’t had a second yet, maybe your season is just a little bit lighter or different than mine was, or maybe you just have it more together than I do and this is all really idiotic and of course you would do this and who would not do it that way – that’s fine.

But I know that motherhood is chaotic, no matter which way you slice it. We could all use a helping hand from someone a few steps ahead of us. I know that there’s somebody out there who is “in the thick of it” and so in the thick of it that she can’t even hear her own self think and isn’t thinking clearly. So, you come up with these little tips and tricks that might make the day-to-day life for her easier.

So, if you’re a mom with little ones, here are a few things I figured out in the throes of tiny human-hood.

Let’s first talk about running errands. I’d say that this is probably one of the biggest frustrations, it was one of the biggest frustrations for me and daily mom life. It still is pretty chaotic, but when the kids were super small, or I also had really small toddlers and a baby, just timing things with nap times, snack times, mealtimes, having to wear the baby while I had one toddler in the cart and the others next to me trying to run around, it was crazy. One kid is whining while another one has to go poop, the other is pooping in his diaper, there’s another one crying for a snack and yet another is lost somewhere in the store because they think it’s hilarious to hide in the clothes. And it’s like Seinfeld status, “Serenity Now!” It’s a lot.

So, here are some of my tips for running errands with lots of little kids. Bring lollipops or something long-lasting that you’re okay with your kids having. For me it was lollipops. I didn’t care how health conscious I was. It all went out the window during errands. When you have to get everything on your Target or Costco list and you’ve got a herd of tiny cave people to bring along with you, lollipops are Godsends. They last a long time. We always had a rule – don’t bite them. My kids were not allowed to bite them. First of all, that’s terrible for their teeth. Even more terrible than sucking on sugar. And second of all, I want them to last. So, I was like, “Okay guys, I’ll give you a lollipop while we go in here and everyone has to stay where they’re supposed to stay and you just can’t bite it.”

And it just kept them busy. Afterwards maybe they had a little bit of a sugar rush, but I was done with my errands. So, who cares?

My next tip is be a crazy person about who stands where when you’re running errands. I’m talking about when you’re running errands with a cart. So, for me, Bella always walked right by my side and held onto the side of the cart. Leland walked on the left side and also held onto the cart and that was a rule. You have to hold onto the cart, one hand on the cart at all times and if my kids ever let go, I would be like, “Oh! Hold onto the cart!” Hudson would sit in the seat part of the cart and Emmett would be in the Ergo on me. I’d be wearing him.

And the rule was nobody moves from their assigned locations. You’ve got your lollipop. That’s your treat. That’s your reward for following the rules. Let’s follow the rules then. And it just had to be that way or I wouldn’t have gotten a thing done.

And the kids knew if they moved from where they’re supposed to be, they would lose their sucker. Don’t mess with the shopping cart locations, people. Right? That was my mantra.

Next tip is go fast, girl. I organized my shopping list before I left and that way I got my list in order of the store’s layout. Once you get familiar with the stores where you live, you kind of know, “Okay, I know at my Target when I walk in the clothing and all of the non-essential stuff, like non-food stuff is to the left. If I need Q-tips and all that, that’s straight ahead.” I would organize the list in order so that I wasn’t grabbing bananas, then grabbing Q-tips, going all the way over to the clothing section getting some socks for the kids and then realizing that I still needed to go back and get cotton balls, which was right by the Q-tips where I already was. You just don’t have space for that. When you got a bunch of littles you’ve got to get going. So, organize the list by my store’s layout, at least close to it, by sections.

Even if you don’t know the store’s layout, you could make your list like, okay, all toiletry items here, all personal clothing items, if you need socks or panties or whatever. If your kid needs to potty train, you need to get him underwear. All that kind of stuff goes in one section. Any food type items go in the other section. Organize it by layout and it makes it a breeze to just move down the aisle, grabbing what you need in each section and then reaching checkout before for the lollipops are gone. That’s the goal.

It didn’t always work out that way, but when I planned ahead and I was organized, it usually did.

Next tip for running errands is to go first thing in the morning. This is the time of day that you are not at your best self typically, but your kids are, and that’s what really matters. For me it was 4:1 and it mattered more where they were at than where I was at.

So, I would grab an extra large cup of coffee and a water bottle and we would head out as early as I could get everyone dressed, fed and out of the house. I would end up running my errands when the stores opened, like in between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. The stores were quieter, less people and the kids were in great moods. They were excited to get out of the house.

This also kind of forced me (this is like a bonus perk) into getting myself dressed, and getting everyone dressed early and starting my day instead of lingering. Not really putting a bra on, having a third cup of coffee, just kind of lying low, maybe folding some laundry. It got me to go, go, go. It’s time to run errands. And that was always a perk for me. Then I had energy and momentum and I’d have a really productive day.

My next tip for running errands with little ones is to save technology for the checkout line. My kids always would start to get antsy at the end of a shopping trip and I found that when I hold off on letting them watch videos on my phone until we’re actually in the checkout line, it’s a lot easier because unloading your cart full of stuff while you’re wearing a baby is already hard enough. But knowing that the other three kids are happily crowded together at the front of the cart watching funny cat videos would allow me to quickly unload, check out and do what I needed to do quickly without much interruption.

Maybe I’d have to play referee a little bit and they’d start to bicker over “I can’t see the screen,” and I’d have to be like, “Hey guys, tilt the screen.” But that’s a lot easier than like, “Oh my gosh, get over here!” Especially if this shopping trip was a little bit longer than normal, and the sugar had set in earlier that I wanted from their little lollipop treat. This helped a lot.

My last tip for running errands with little ones is park near the cart corral. I still do this, but when my kids were really little, it was super important. Leland would like hyper-focus and just walk right into an oncoming van. No problem. Hudson wanders. I need to be able to get everyone straight out of their car seats and into the cart and that really helped me. That’s a really basic one. That was like a game changer.

Okay. Next series of tips for moms of littles: housework. First of all, clear the dishes, wipe the table and sweep underneath it after every single meal, no exceptions, just do it.

If the baby’s fussing, just let him sit for a second and quickly get these things done. Make happy noises, pick him up, put him in a sling and just get it done. No matter what. If you just have a few anchor things like this where no matter what’s going on, you clear the dishes (that means get them off the table or counter, rinse them, put them in the dishwasher) wipe the table down and sweep underneath it after every single meal and snack without exception, that’s amazing.

Your baby might have to fuss for just a second, you might have to do it with one hand, or maybe you have a slightly older kid (4 or 5-year-old) that can make happy faces at the baby while you get it done. But if you have a couple of things that are non-negotiables, clear the dishes, wipe the table, sweep underneath it after every single meal and snack, no exceptions, this is going to keep the basic area of your house clean.

It’s an area we use a lot where you’re constantly making meals and constantly sitting down for a snack. You need that area to be clean and it’s going to “domino effect” the way you handle the rest of your house. So that was something that I learned and it really helped me.

Next tip under housework is teach your kids to pick up after everything that they do. After a little while you might want to throw yourself in front of a bus because you’ve been repeating yourself so many times a day, but it’ll be a habit for them and a lot less work for you. And unless you do throw yourself in front of a bus, it’s a win, win. So, every single thing.

I still have to remind my kids sometimes but typically that’s why the house is pretty much picked up all the time. It’s pretty rare (I don’t know if you’ve ever had this happen), but I’ll occasionally see my kids playing with something and then literally just set it down on the ground and walk away. And it’s like, are you kidding me right now? But usually that’s not what happens. 85% of the time my kids pick up after they do something because it’s just a habit. I instilled it in them at a young age so much that it’s just how we live.

Kids are going to be kids and it’s not going to be perfect. But teach your kids to pick up after everything they do. Be incredibly consistent about it. You don’t have to yell. You don’t have to get upset, but it’s hard not to when you’re repeating yourself so much. But if you just say like, “Hey, what do we do after we play with Legos? What do we do after we make a puzzle?” Just encourage them to pick up. You might have to help them if your kids are really little, but however little they are, if they’re little enough to play with something, they’re little enough to pick it up and put it where it goes. So, teach your kids to pick up after everything they do. It’s going to become a habit and that’s going to help you so much as time goes on.

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Do you feel like you are barely getting through your days friend? Does motherhood feel more like a hurricane of chaos that you are just surviving rather than the awesome, joy-filled season that you want it to be?

Well, motherhood is hard. I am not going to lie to you about that. While it is servitude and giving to your family from yourself, it doesn’t have to be something that we are waiting to be over.  Something that we are counting down the minutes till naptime, or bedtime, or waiting for the next day to start. If you are wanting to sort through the clutter in your mind, your heart, your home calendar, your health, routines, and relationships, I created Unburdened just for you!

It is a guide that will help you go from drowning in the sea of stress and overwhelm, to owning your time and living the best version of your motherhood. So you can live abundantly while intentionally focusing on those who matter most.

Unburdened is the overwhelmed beginner’s guide to a simpler motherhood.

In Unburdened, I will walk you through how to stop over-complicating, procrastinating, and just start making positive changes now. How to declutter, just a little bit – not super deep into it, because you can’t handle that when you are this overwhelmed – but a surface declutter that will get you real results in your house so you can clean up less.

How to declutter toxic relationships in your life and set some good boundaries. How to simplify cleaning, get healthy and feel better – finally!

How to simplify your calendar. How to start owning your time and not just managing it as life happens to you.

How to stop just setting goals and letting them sit there. Start actually defining where you want to go and getting there through reverse engineering and goal-setting.

How to create a cleaning routine that works for you and your life.

This course is a mini-course. It is small. It is straightforward. But it is everything for the mom who feels like she needs a total overhaul, but is too overwhelmed to start.

It will help you simplify the things that have you stuck and leave survival mode behind for good.

Is this resonating with you? Sound like you? Does this sound like something that would really help you right now? Go to bit.ly/getunburdened.

I really poured my heart into this little course. I created it for the mom who is really wanting to simplify, declutter, and pursue a life of less, but she is so burdened and overwhelmed with the mess of life. It’s not just her house. She wants to simplify at the surface of all the different things in her life so she can focus on her family more. So then she can focus more on really, truly purging her entire house.

If this sounds like you, I encourage you to check it out. You are probably the person I created it for. I want you in there. I want it to help you.

Check it out.  bit.ly/getunburdened

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Next tip under housework. Start the day on a productive note, and it’ll keep you going that way. So, like what I was saying about the days where I would get up and just get everyone dressed and go right out and run errands. Even if it wasn’t an errands day, I would try to find a way to mimic that effect when I was at home.

Maybe right when you wake up, make your bed, start a load of laundry, feed the baby and have your coffee. I promise that you’ll feel like you’ve got it all together. It really does only take a few extra minutes and it’s not a big deal. Even if you’re breastfeeding and you wake up and you pull your baby into bed with you and nurse and doze a little bit, and that’s really the start of your day. That’s okay. I just mean when you’re getting up, start on a productive note. Go put the dryer on fluff mode and make your bed.

If you just make your bed, there’s so many benefits to starting the day making your bed. Even if you have a kid who naps in your bed in the middle of the day and you’re like this is going to get messed up in a few hours. It’s not about having things be clean, it’s about you gaining some productive momentum for your day.

So, when I learned that running errands first thing in the morning was giving me this energetic momentum and I was really productive on those days instead of lingering and hanging out at home, I wanted to find a way to mimic that when I didn’t have errands to run and this is what made that happen. Getting up, making my bed or doing something like that. It just gives you that positive, productive momentum that you need for the rest of your day. Start your day by accomplishing something, even if it’s small. It makes all the difference.

Okay, next tip. It takes 27 days to form a habit. So be intentional and form a good one. Choose one thing that you wish you had a habit of doing every day. You might have to spend a little time thinking about this. Maybe it’s like we said, making your bed in the morning or running the dishwasher every night. Whatever you choose, make it something that’s going to make your life a little bit easier. Write yourself a reminder or set an alarm on your phone. Make sure that your attention at one point every single day is on this task. Do it for 27 days and it will become a habit. A habit is something that you do by nature that you don’t really have to think about.

So, let’s have some examples. Let’s say you decide that every single night you’re going to run your dishwasher because it will make you load all the dishes and go to bed with a clean kitchen and in the morning that could be your productive task. So, let’s say you decide every single night I’m going to clean the kitchen and run the dishwasher. Every single morning I’m going to make my bed, and then unload the dishwasher while I feed the kids breakfast. That’s a great habit. That’s actually like a series of habits. Awesome.

So, what you’re going to do is find a way that you’re going to see a reminder. Is it going to be an alarm that goes off on your phone? Is it going to be a note on your bathroom mirror? Is it going to be all the above? What is it going to be that’s going to remind yourself? Set that intention and make it happen every day for about a month and it will become a habit.

What a gift to yourself to pick somebody that’s going to lighten your load and help your life be a little bit easier and you’re intentionally making it a habit. This is kind of a life hack, but not really. It’s just simple to make new habits and change your life. It really doesn’t have to be more complicated than that.

Okay, so the next tip is keep the kitchen sink clean and the house will feel clean. I got this idea from The Fly Lady back in the day when I was in the thick of having babies. When I keep the sink free of dishes and food, I normally end up treating the rest of the house the same way at least as much as I can with kids. You know with kids, it’s naturally going to be a little messy, but clean as you go.

Keep your sink clear. Don’t let the dishes pile up there and you will feel great about your house and be ready for company to come over. And that’s a really good feeling too, especially when things are so busy with little kids.

Okay. So, let’s go into the next part of this, which is tips on feeling good about what it is you’re doing.

This is mainly directed at stay-at-home moms, but really any moms. I found there was a season of my life when my kids were really young where I felt unproductive and like I didn’t matter. And I think that’s common with moms, which is crazy because it matters so much. If you feel defeated all the time you’re going to lose your drive to do what you need to do. And if you’re like me, you might even start to struggle with depression a little bit.

So, I found that when I feel good about what I do every day, when I’m reminded of my purpose and I feel accomplished more days than not, then I do motherhood really well. How I feel affects everything. So, here’s some tips on feeling good about what you do when you’re in the thick of having little kids, as a mom.

Number one, make a list of only five things that need to get done each day. What this does is it keeps you from setting unrealistic expectations for your day and for yourself, and it keeps you focused on what really needs to get done rather than what would be nice to have done. So, your goal should be to tackle important tasks and feel accomplished at the end of the day, not make a giant to do list and feel defeated when bedtime rolls around, you’ve only crossed off one thing.

Having a longer list doesn’t mean you’ll get more done. It just means that’s how much you’ll feel that you failed, even if you actually did get stuff done that day.

My next tip is hit restart anytime of the day that you need to. Sometimes you just have a totally crap day and no matter what you do or how prepared you were the night before, things just don’t go as planned. Your house is a mess and you feel like you haven’t sat down all day. It just happens sometimes. You feel like you got dragged nine blocks by a semi and it’s only 9:00 AM. We’ve all been there.

And so, when this happens to me, it’s so helpful to pause, to mentally hit the reset button and give myself a fresh start to the day. It’s kind of like that fresh day syndrome, like when you go to sleep and then we wake up, it’s like fresh day syndrome. It’s a fresh day so this day can be different than yesterday. We don’t have to wait for the sun to set and rise again to get that.

Maybe it’s your big cleaning day and you needed to tackle your chore list, but your baby woke up with a fever. Maybe you were going to work on a project after the kids went to bed, but your husband came home after a horrible day and really needs to sit and connect with you. Reevaluate. Move your priorities around. Hit a mental restart button. I’ve done this in the morning, in the afternoon, even at night. Sometimes you just need the day to start over right now. So, go ahead. You decide that. It’s a mentality issue. Not a sunrise/sunset issue.

My next tip is get the kids dressed from head to toe. So, most days I get myself at least somewhat put together, but more so now than when my kids were little. Back then, my idea of being put together was a little bit of makeup, maybe some concealer and mascara just to make myself feel a little brightened up, a sports bra and workout clothes. And that was me getting put together. I feel good when I’m dressed. You feel icky when you’re sweaty and braless all day.

But when I get my kids totally dressed it helps me feel really, really on it. So, after breakfast, which is usually around like 7:30 or 8:00 in our house, I’ll have the older kids dress themselves and I’ll get the younger two changed out of their pajamas. Then I have everyone brush their teeth and I do everyone’s hair. When they’re put together, I feel put together. It might just be me. But see if this helps you.

But it was a really simple thing that helped me out a ton. Even now, if we have a Pajama Day or something, it’s fine. We’re living life here. It’s not supposed to be perfect all the time. But I do just feel like, I don’t know, it just affects the rest of the day. It carries over into everything else and it almost makes me feel a little disoriented and lazy.

But if the kids are dressed from head to toe right after breakfast, it feels like I accomplished something. Again, seeing a pattern here? I feel put together. It’s just a really simple thing that helped me a lot.

Okay. Another thing I want to tell you is smile at the stares. I used to think that I was a little paranoid, but now I know that people are actually very rude sometimes. They would stare, mouths gaping, at how many kids I have and how close they were in age. They would ask my age. What? Ask if I was their babysitter. Ask if they were all mine. They make rude comments on my lifestyle choices. I’ve had people make comments about “Well I guess it’s fine to have a lot of kids if the government’s paying for your food.” And I have never been on food stamps. I wasn’t doing that. I was just trying to pick out some lemons.

People assume things, they’re very rude. They’re obsessed with what’s going on with me while I walked through Target. And I really don’t get it. But it’s rude regardless, people say the rudest things. I’ve learned that just smiling back at the stares and having a kind response just puts an end to it. It usually lets them know that I really don’t care, I’m good, I’ve got this and it’s kind of like killing them with kindness.

Just smile if you’ve got a lot of kids in a row. I totally get it. There’s so many fun benefits to having your family planned that way. People just think it’s weird. They don’t get it. And so just smile. Just smile. It’s okay.

My next tip is let the little things go. This is a weakness of mine that I try to keep the big picture at the front of my mind. In the end, will it really matter that Hudson brought his juice in the living room and spilled it on the rug even though he knows the rule is keep it in the kitchen? I don’t have to yell and freak out. I can administer consequences and be a parent, but I don’t have to lose it. I can let the little things go. When all is said and done will it really matter that someone had a stomach flu explosion all over the new couch? Everything is fixable and none of that stuff really matters in the end. So, I try to take a deep breath and let it go and keep my perspective.

My last tip under this category of feeling good about what you do is schedule yourself some breathers. If I know that I’m going to get the little ones down for naps at the same time and I have Netflix ready at the same time for the older kids, then I can get lost in a novel for an hour in the middle of the day. That’s pretty amazing. I’m going to feel so much better than if I caught up on chores, did cleaning and stuff during that time.

If I know that at the end of the week I’ve got date night or some me time scheduled out, then I really am more on top of things that week. I’m excited. I have something to look forward to. A light at the end of the tunnel.

Taking care of yourself is so important and it’s got to be a non-negotiable for you. I always say that you can’t give to your family if your well is empty and this is so true. 

Okay. Last section that we’re going to talk about in this episode for Life Hacks for Moms of Littles is what about if you have somewhere to be in the morning, in the sense of having a lot of people to get ready? I don’t know why, but most events for moms are so early in the morning.

Most moms’ groups start at 9:00 a.m. Are you serious? Like, why? It’s so hard and it was so hard. Not really now because the kids can do a lot themselves, but it was so hard to get myself fully ready and four tiny children fed, dressed and presentable, and out of the door by 8:40, especially when they were small, but sometimes that’s what I would have to do when I had somewhere that I needed to be.

There were a few things that helped me get out of the house without screaming at them or canceling the event altogether. That’s a win in my book and I’m going to go over them with you. So, tips for when you have somewhere to be in the morning and you’ve got little kids.

First of all, pack everything the night before. It’s annoying. It’s going to require some planning and effort at the end of a long day. But just do it. It’s so worth it. When I would pack for the next morning, the night before, I never regretted it. I would get diapers and pull-ups (or spare undies depending on what was going on with my kids’ ages), baby wipes, peanut butter & jellies made (if I know we’re going to be out during lunchtime), snacks, sippy cups filled, apples sliced, shoes by the door, and supplies like the park blanket, lawn chairs, whatever, in the car. This would shave like 45 minutes off of a chaotic morning because everything, for some reason, takes longer in the morning. I think it’s because you’ve got so much else to do.

So, if you just take all the stuff. I would ask myself, “What can I do tonight that doesn’t have to wait till tomorrow morning? Laying out everybody’s outfits. Laying out my own outfit. Showering so I’m not doing that in the morning. Everything I could get done the night before, I would just summon the extra energy as hard as it was and get it done the night before so that in the morning it was less chaotic.

That leads me to my next point, which is I lay out everyone’s outfits, including mine the night before. It’s another morning saver. There’ve been so many mornings when I’m rushing around looking for something to wear that ends up being dirty, or I wasn’t able to find someone’s other shoe. I save my time and my sanity and yelling. I spare my kids from mean mommy coming out when I have everything prepared the night before.

Next tip for this is pack some snacks for you. I used to always forget about myself. I’d have plenty of snacks for the kids and then 11:00 AM would roll around and I’d be leading Bible study or mom’s group and need to stop to run an errand before we headed home, and I would be famished and not feeling well because I didn’t frigging eat. So that’s a huge one. Pack some snacks for yourself.

Don’t forget to bring a giant bottle of water. Take care of yourself. It’s so funny how we have to be reminded that, but I know someone listening to this is like, “Oh my gosh, me too!”

So, I know this stuff might be super obvious to some of you, but I also know that when I was overwhelmed with three kids under 3 and then I threw in another one and four kids under 5, I wasn’t thinking too clearly. I wish I would’ve come across an episode like this. So, I hope this helps someone out.

_______________________________________________________________

This was an episode of The Purpose Show. Did you know there is an exclusive community created solely for the purpose of continuing discussions surrounding The Purpose Show episodes? And to get you to actually take action and make positive changes on the things that you learn here? Go be a part of it. To join go to facebook.com/groups/purposefulmamas.

Thank you so much for tuning in. If you are ready to uplevel and really take action on the things I talk about on my show, and get step-by-step help from me, head to alliecasazza.com. There are free downloads, courses, classes, and ways to learn more about what the next step might look like for you and to focus on whatever you might need help with in whatever season you are in right now.  

I am always rooting for you, friend!

See ya next time!

Hey mama! Just a quick note, this post may contain affiliate links.

 

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