Mother's Helper

About a month ago my husband suggested that we get a Mother's Helper for the Summer to give me a hand with a few things at home. Half the time I feel like I'm spinning my wheels and when I look around the house and it looks like the house threw up on itself with all the papers and stuff that I need to throw away, give away, or put away.

It's huge that my husband suggested a Mother's Helper. Usually he's the guy that says, "Two college educated people should be able to maintain a house."  Uhh, yeah, but when you throw kids in the mix and all of their activities, sometimes it looks like the house threw up on itself.

We've been gone so much the last few months for awesome things (Maui, College Reunion weekend, Beach wedding for friends) that I feel like I'm still playing catch up. I had unpacked all of our stuff from Maui right away, but since then I haven't been able to get in the groove to keep up with the house cleaning. With Summer here, you would think that I have all of my routines set, but the kids have had funky bedtimes which results into funky wake up times, throw in the gym, playdates, mini vacations, and our schedule is off, off, off.  So I'm trying to play catch up.

Yesterday was our first try at having a Mother's Helper. It's my usual babysitter and she's great with the kids. As soon as we got home from the gym she was already waiting for us in the driveway. We walked in the door and she took over the kids so that I could shower.  Then I holed up in my bedroom trying to menu plan our dinners for the next month and planned on hitting the grocery store.  However, within minutes of starting to menu plan the skies opened up and we had torrential downpour which resulted with spotty internet connection and me not wanting to head out in the rain.

I finally found recipes that I wanted to try and imported them in my Plant to Eat account. But it took a lot of time to find recipes that I liked and to type in recipes from my own cookbook.  I know that once I get the time to do it I'll have a treasure trove of recipes that I can pull up with a couple of clicks.  I also started planning another vacay for the summer and by the time I was done with that call, I headed out to the grocery store for a very short trip, where I got a few things, but not everything.

I had planned a bunch of other things to do when I knew that I would have some help once a week. But priorities took over and I had to reconfigure my time.  I need to get my act together or it won't be worth the time and money I'm spending to have  Mother's Helper once a week.  The upside was that while I was getting some of this done, my kids were having a blast and not sitting in front of the tv. They were in great hands and while I felt guilty about not spending time with them, I felt good that while I was trying to get things done they weren't sitting on the couch with their eyes glazing over.

I'm still learning this juggling act called "Motherhood."  I've asked before about what you do to try to get things done.  What do you do to avoid spinning your wheels and getting things done?  I feel like my self-diagnosed ADD prevents me from staying focused and motivated. Fortunately, I have a flexible husband and great kids and we make it work!