Tips Archives - Page 6 of 6 - The Sweet and The Salty

I have always strived for balance. Balance when I worked outside the home, balance now that I stay home, balance in my marriage, balance in being a mom, balance in my faith, balance in relationships, balance in hobbies and passions, and the list goes on and on. In my quest for balance I have often turned to the internet to read blogs from other women to see how they are achieving (or not achieving) this balance that I am desperately seeking.

During this perpetual search I came across the blog Modern Mrs. Darcy by Anne Bogel. (Love the tag line: a jane austen girl in a twitter world.) I was instantly intrigued by the creative blog name and tagline and delved right into reading post after post dealing with issues from marriage, motherhood, breastfeeding, good books, church, and even her son’s bout with cancer.

I was intrigued by her take on many issues and began to see that instead of balancing it all, she talked about blending it all. I was curious about this concept of blending and when I saw that she had a new ebook on the topic coming out, I jumped at the opportunity to review it. I was so curious about the benefits she mentioned of “blending” versus “balancing”.

I am so glad that I read “Work Shift.” It is a quick, fast paced read packed with practical solutions to the dilemmas so many of us face in trying to find a way to make work, family, and living our passions come together in the way that we desire and that makes sense.

The first half of the book is an excellent look at the historical journey our culture has taken as it relates to the dynamics of work and family. Anne’s writing is intriguing and much like her blog, this section of the book is fast paced and offers powerful insight into the changes our society has seen throughout history to where we are at today.

At first I was skeptical about this section, wanting to jump to the latter half of the book that contains the practicals of blending it all, however I am so glad I didn’t read ahead. The first half of the book helped me to really rethink how I viewed work and family life and why I thought that they needed to be so separate. This alone for me was worth the read.

However there is so much more to the book. The second half contains practical ways to make this blending work in various situations and scenarios. I really love how the author included so many different examples of different seasons and scenarios of life (single no kids, single with kids, married no kids, pregnant, already have children, even a scenario of a family with two kids with Autism.)

Different women are highlighted and share how they have gone about blending work and family. This ranges from women working from home, outside the home, part-time, working in their pre-baby field, working in a new field of interest for them, working non-traditional hours, all the while having time for the important matters in life. This section is extremely practical and I believe everyone will be able to glean insight to aid in moving towards blending family and work together.

I highly recommend this book! I believe that it is a compelling read in today’s fast paced society which pushes us to seek the impossibility of balance amongst the many demands on today’s families. The concept of blending was impactful to me and I believe it will be for you to.

I am excited Anne Bogel has graciously offered one copy of the ebook as a give away to a reader here! To enter the giveaway simply leave a comment on this post.

If you would like to purchase the book you can do so here.

The last day to enter for the giveaway is Monday October 1st and the winner will be announced Tuesday October 2nd. I will choose a winner by random number generator and contact them by email.

I was provided a copy of the ebook “Work Shift” in exchange for my review, however all opinions are 100% my own.

(This post contains my referral link. Read disclosure here.)

Being organized was a skill I always thought people were born with. It was a skill I envied in the people who had it and a skill I mourned that I didn’t have. To me organized people seemed so calm where I seemed to always be living in a state of chaos. I couldn’t find things I needed when I needed them. I couldn’t remember for the life of me where I had just put that paper I needed even though I knew I put it somewhere specific so I could find it when I needed it. I spent a lot of my free time looking for things and quite a bit of money buying new stuff that I knew I had but couldn’t find only to come across it a week later.

I had lived this unorganized way all along but shortly after Hubby and I got married I decided that I really wanted our home to be a place where we could relax, where we could escape the cares of the world, a place where we could de-stress. In the current state it was in with my complete lack of organization skills it was anything but those things. I took to the internet and came across a book called Making Your Home a Haven: strategies for the Domestically Challenged. This was the perfect book for me. I wanted my home to be a haven and I was definitely domestically challenged. I began employing the strategies in the book, particularly decluttering. I got rid of things, put items in labeled bins, got our paperwork in order, and got our home into pretty good shape.

The problem is I didn’t stick with it. I still felt that I hadn’t been given the organizing gene and that it was too much work to upkeep. So the piles came back, the paperwork got lost, the clutter accumulated again. And I was okay with it. I thought, hey I tried, being organized just isn’t for me.

Fast forward a few years and now I’m a mom. And not just a mom, but a mom to a medically fragile child with extreme special needs. I nearly drowned. I was so overwhelmed. I was constantly on the go to Drs appointments, up all hours of the night, pumping milk and feeding all the time. I had so much to keep track of and I couldn’t find anything when I needed it. There was a never ending stream of paperwork coming into the house and even more needing to go out. I felt so out of control and the disorganization around me was suffocating.

It was too much and I knew that if I was going to not only survive but get to a point where I could thrive in my new role, I needed to take a long and hard look at what I had control over to change. And it came down to working on being organized and giving up the notion that it wasn’t for me. I needed to understand that it was a skill that may not come easily to me but like any other skill if I worked at it I could become good at it.

So out of a place of complete desperation I delved into learning how to be organized. Along the way I discovered that I loved being organized. I loved creating systems to simplify my life so that I could enjoy more of what matters and not waste so much time in chaos. As I got more areas of my life organized I began to feel like I had some breathing room. I stopped being such a ball of stress and began relaxing more into my new role.

Being organized has really changed my life. Part of the by-product of being a mom to a child with special needs was an intense craving for peace and order in my life. This craving was for internal peace and order as well as external peace and order. There are many things that I have done to satisfy this craving but one of the most important ones has been becoming and staying organized.

In future posts I will be sharing more in depth how I transitioned from disorganized to more organized and tips that I have come across along the way. I am definitely not an expert on organization and still have seasons where I have to work really hard to maintain this skill. However I have come a long way and I look forward to sharing helpful tips in the area of organization and also learning new ones from you!

What about you? Was there a time in your life when you realized you needed to learn a new skill you thought you couldn’t and found it was worth the effort it took?

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