I was recently inspired by a blogging buddy of mine, Alyssa Avant.? She wrote a post called More Time to be a Mom (be sure to check it out).

This has always been a huge issue with me running 2 home based businesses.? With everything that needs to be done around the house, meals, driving to school, work, and everything in between – there is not much time for me to really enjoy spending quality time with my children.

It amazes me how quickly time goes by.? My oldest will be 5 soon and starting Kindergarten in the fall.? It feels like yesterday that he took his first steps.? I look back and wish that I could re-live some of those moments and not have to worry about time rushing things along.

I always longed to be a mother ever since I was a little girl and now that I am one, I feel like I am not enjoying it as much as I could be.? I wish I didn’t have to work sometimes so I could focus more on my children, but that isn’t reality.? I have to do what I need to do in order to help support my family especially with today’s economy.? I often forget that I am extremely blessed to be working from home and am able to make my own schedule.? So many moms have to go out and work and have no choice but to put their children in daycare.? I have several friends in this situation.

So, how can we have balance in our lives as mothers?? How can we give more time to our children?? Alyssa (in her blog post) mentioned adjusting your schedule to make the most of your time within a week.?? It may SEEM like you don’t have time, but really, we MAKE time.? I am going to be working on adjusting my time schedule in order to fit in the 4 people that matter most to me (my husband and my 3 children).

Here is a list of things I would like to do in order to help me have more time to be a mom.

• Be more willing to stop what I am doing to give my time to my children
• Say “No” if I need to – to extra work, activities, etc
• Organize a weekly work schedule and stick to it
• Limit my blog posting (not sure yet on this, because I run 4 blogs)
• Get more rest by going to bed earlier (I have been staying up till midnight working each night)
• Spend time each evening with family to talk about our day, play games, etc.
• Start having a weekly meal plan

I would love to hear your ideas on how you fit in quality family time in the midst of a busy life, no matter if you are a stay at home mom, work at home mom, or even a work outside of the home mom.? What do you think of my list?? What else do you think I should add?

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Don’t forget to check out my new giveaway for Socket Lockits.

I made some changes to the giveaway rules so it is much easier to enter!

Only a few signed up so there is a good chance to win!

photo credit: ddqhu