Work-life Balance Rule #2: When plans fail, change them!

A little over a month ago I posted about having a plan when it came to balancing a full day of work, then Bebe's after-school activities, and normal household chores.

Well, about a month AFTER writing that post, I realized--This plan is NOT going to work!

My nights are crammed enough, but when you add in losing an hour or more a few nights a week, they're even more crammed! I found myself feeling perpetually stressed and overwhelmed, and it just snowballed. BIG TIME.

And Religious Education hasn't even started yet!

Monday's choir rehearsals are fine. D brings Dois to daycare so that I don't have to juggle two drop-offs, and then I'm at work early enough to leave and pick up both kids before heading to church.

Wednesday night Religious Education classes haven't even started yet, and I'm already worrying about them for a few reasons:

1. They start at 6:30. We're usually walking in the door at 6. I'm going to have 10-15 minutes to hand Dois off to a babysitter and by the time we get home, he'll be asleep for the night. So I'll be missing my baby. :(
2. I didn't think about the cost of RE. We paid an $80 deposit for the year and they've already cashed the check. Twice a month the group meets, and our options are to either have D take off or have a babysitter come and watch Dois. Either way, it means that 2x/month we have to "pay" for religious education.
3. How are Bebe and I going to EAT on such a tight schedule??

I'm feeling so uncertain about what to do. Dropping it sounds like the easiest choice, but D is upset because I should've realized these things BEFORE. It was me who was so insistent on her being enrolled in RE this year. It's just that I didn't want her to think because she made her sacraments that now she's "all done." And honestly, in the business of our lives, I don't think we've taught her enough about our faith and the church. I need help with that, and that help is RE.

Thursday's plan for gymnastics has not worked out. She was able to do one make-up class at 6:30pm the first week, but ever since then, the 6:30 class has been full, meaning she had to make up her class at 5:30pm instead. Last week D had the afternoon off from work, so he was able to pick her up from after school and bring her and I picked her up. This week, though, we're both working.  We scrambled out of the house quickly this morning so he could bring Bebe to the Y and I could bring Dois to daycare. But even in all our rushing, I'm still not getting out of working until 4:40. I have 50 minutes to pick up both kids, give Bebe a snack, and get her to the gym. Oh and did I mention my commute is 20 minutes? I'm exhausted just thinking about it!

Saturday's plan for swimming lessons has gone smoothly, but because it's throwing off gymnastics so badly, we've decided to not sign Bebe up for the coming session. The plan is once the holidays are over, we'll enroll her in a January session that happens immediately after gymnastics (so she'll go from the gym to swim). It's not ideal, but it will sure work a lot of energy out of her!

So starting next week we're down to just obligations on Monday and Saturday (until RE starts up the first week in November, that will be every-other-Wednesday).

I have to say that Bebe has been WONDERFUL about completing her homework at afterschool. We've only had a few evenings where she's had to sit down and fix something or finish something once she got home. And that has been a HUGE thing for us. Eliminating an hour of homework time at home has allowed us to spend more quality time together at night!