To sleep, or not to sleep; to eat or not to eat? That is the question that plagues many of us moms, including me. Being a stay at home mom, responsible for all in addition to trying to making an income one way or another from home, it’s hard to take care of yourself the way you should (and deserve) without feeling guilty about it. Baby is down for a nap (finally) and the others are at school. What should you do? Take a nap on the couch or tackle the breakfast dishes, start another load of laundry, vacuum, dust, etc.?

If you’re like me, there is always a never ending list of chores that need to be done. Combine that list of chores with the responsibility of taking care of a new baby that doesn’t sleep through the night and other siblings that have the “mommmmmmmy” call on speed dial, it’s hard to take out time for yourself. Facing the choice of a much needed nap at the moment myself, instead I’m working and trying to juggle chores and I know I’m going to pay for it later when it’s time to make dinner and get the older one ready for softball practice.

This is where an attempt at time management needs to come in desperately. Slowly, but surely I will get it more together. To start, just like me, you need to admit that you are not in fact Super Woman and cannot do it all on your own. Therefore, chores have been assigned and I even made a cute chore chart with colorful stickers to go with it. My daughter gets excited when she gets to put up a new one each day. Second, admitting that you cannot do nearly as much without sleep so when baby is down for a nap after a night of feedings and diaper changes, lie down, forget the guilt and take off to dreamland too. More sleep means more energy to power through what you didn’t get done.

Most importantly, you need to eat. I am horrible at this. It’s not that I’m starving myself on purpose or trying to lose weight. Dieting is the LAST thing on my mind at the moment. Finding time to get a bite to eat (especially a healthy one) is easy to forget when you have so much going on all at once. Not to mention the cup of coffee that always seems to be by my side that I never get to finish. Coffee is filling, at least temporarily so food always gets put off once the hunger signals quite down.  To work past this, I now keep plenty of great tasting yogurt in the house (Yoplait is awesome), baby carrots, granola bars and other quick, easy and healthy foods that I can munch on throughout the day. The day is much easier to tackle when you pin point the problems, make a plan and take action. Now, it’s time for that nap…