Are you ready?
Last year, I put a reminder in my Outlook Calendar to alert me when to start my countdown to December 25th. Instead of waiting until October to make my to-do lists, I thought we would benefit from a few extra weeks. My countdown has begun! I really can’t believe there are 99 days left!
This year, my focus is how to simplify our traditions and get the home organized. I also want to scale back on spending. Get the silly stuff out of the way, so we can focus on what is important to our family – spending time together and having fun.
A few ideas I’m tossing around:
- Do an adult grab bag for Mom’s side of the family, limited to a small dollar amount for the gift. My brother has been out of work for 9 months and my other brother is on a sabbatical of sorts. No need for anyone to stress about money and we can have fun with this one.
- Dad’s side of the family would never go for grab bag fun. Instead, we plan on scaling back the amount spent by giving well thought out, meaningful, family gifts.
- When we first got married, our finances were very tight. Dad and I gave each other a “house gift”. Instead of buying individual gifts, we agreed upon a home improvement purchase. One year we bought the materials for a solid oak mantelpiece and built it together. This was more meaningful to me than any store-bought gift. We are doing a “house gift” this year.
- Double the amount of shoeboxes we give this year to Operation Christmas Child. We enjoy this and have already started collecting goodies to fill the boxes.
I will post more in the 99 days to come about how we are saving and organizing.
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Witness one of the youngest computer antagonists in action!
First, Baby A displays her weapon of choice:
Next, watch as she swiftly advances on her target:
This is a reminder to never underestimate the destructive power of a five month old. This morning, Baby A was playing in bed next to me while I was working. She cannot crawl yet, so she uses the “rollie-pollie” method of getting around. Two rolls and she was within reaching distance of my laptop. In less than 20 seconds, she managed to turn off my wireless card and held down down the power button long enough to shut down the laptop. Thankfully, the document I was working on was saved to my network file server.
Sure, she may look cute now…but beware! Her undpredicatable nature and primitive dexterity prove to be a dangerous threat to technology. It’s rumored that there are more of these “tech terror tots” out there. In addition to the benefits of working at home, this is proof that there are dangers as well. Mom will be reporting on that shortly.
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I’ve been working from home since April 2006, and have had to come up with many creative ways to juggle work tasks, home maintenance, and kids. Web Worker Daily (Author Leo also has 6 kids!) wrote: 10 (MORE) TIPS ON DOING PRODUCTIVE WEB WORK WITH KIDS IN THE HOUSE and I found myself nodding in agreement with several of the tips, especially:
2. Team up with your spouse. It really helps to have a great, supportive spouse. My wife is a teacher, so she needs to do work herself, so we take turns working at the computer while the other keeps the kids at bay. Take the kids outside, or take them to a park, or read to them, while your spouse does some work. Then switch.
I am fortunate that Dad also works from home so we take turns as our schedules allow. He is self employed, so he has more flexibility and takes care of the daytime needs. I usually take a lunch break with the kids, and he uses that time to make calls and send e-mails. We also are big believers in working early and late, when the kids are in bed.
It’s not always easy working from home with kids, but with creativity and flexibility, it IS possible.
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