I haven’t been a stay-at-home-mom in a long time. Maybe since I had three under three? I honestly can’t remember. Probably because those days were long and hard and full of absolutely no sleep which is rough on a memory I guess.

And I’m not officially a stay-at-home-mom now either but every Tuesday I am. And even though it’s only one day, I’ll take it.

Tuesday is the day that Gray is home from preschool, Parker has a half day and I have no kid-help so it’s just me and them. Because my schedule has always been so chaotic running between two jobs or last year when we didn’t live in our own house, I’ve never been on a good daily schedule. But Tuesday has broken this! Now every Tuesday I do ALL of our laundry, I straighten and organize and purge and deep clean and generally catch up from where I’ve fallen so far behind. BUT I balance that with lots and lots of play time.

Now, I’ve only had two Tuesday’s so far on my new schedule so I’m hoping in the next couple of weeks the bigger cleaning things will be more caught up… and I’m finding that working from home keeps the house a whole lot cleaner because every time I get out of my desk chair I do some kind of pick up. Are any of you like that? Every time I stand up to get a drink or a snack or go potty I clean up the sink or make a bed that someone forgot or change a load of laundry or put a toy away. It’s making our nighttime pick-up SO much easier! Anyway, as I get more caught up I’m hoping I have even more playtime!

Because honestly, at the end of the day, while having the laundry done was awesome, I loved every second I spent with my kids a thousand times more. For the first time in a LONG time I’m looking at my Pinterest boards for fun art projects and I’m making lists of parks to explore and I’m just being a better MOM. And it’s just one day! But that feeling is spreading, slowly, throughout my entire week. I’m finding myself more patient with the kids, enjoying the small moments with them more, chilling the heck out and just laughing more. Chris even noticed last night how much Gray and I were wrestling around, something Gray used to only reserve for Daddy, and I think it’s because I’m more fun now! I’m not constantly picking up and barking orders now that my time at home isn’t so limited. I’m just relaxed and so much happier.

If two weeks at home, working for myself, can make me feel this good I can’t wait to see how I’m feeling in a year!

Gray and I put blue tape all over the floors as a track and this photo cracks me up because I was taking photos of him playing when he tooted! He looked up and started laughing! HA! Toots happen at our house ALL THE TIME!