Things That Are Saving My Sanity

Friends, we’ve had some big changes at our house recently! After taking several years off from teaching to stay home with my kiddos, I’m back in the classroom again! I started substitute teaching at our local elementary school this year, and it has been such a wonderful experience. It is so nice to put on clothes that aren’t covered in paint splatters and sawdust and go to work in a place that isn’t a construction zone! Don’t get me wrong, I love doing our house projects. But it was sometimes hard to not be able to separate my work life and my home life. Between caring for our three young kiddos while fixing up our house, I was living in my work zone! I’m so grateful for those years staying home with my sweet babies, but I knew it was time for me to go back to teaching. Teaching has always been a passion of mine, and I had missed being in the classroom. I am so happy to be back!

Going into this school year, I knew that I was going to have to make some adjustments to our daily routine. I heard it said once that “Women can have it all, we just can’t have it all at the same time.” I think it was Oprah who said that, although I can’t remember for sure. I firmly believe that women can do anything, but we can’t do everything. There are only 24 hours in a day, and my days were already packed full going into this year. So, I made some adjustments that have made me ridiculously happy and found several things that have literally saved my sanity!

1. Caffeine

Friends, caffeine is my life line. It flows through my veins and makes me a functional human in the mornings. It’s no secret that I’m not a morning person. My favorite time of day is from 10:00 p.m. – 3:00 a.m. That’s when my brain wakes up and I do my best work! Unfortunately, I’ve yet to find an elementary school that runs on those hours, so I’ve discovered a serious love of coffee. Specifically, cold brew coffee. I used to fill my travel coffee mug halfway up with milk and a tremendous amount of chocolate syrup before pouring in my hot coffee, because I didn’t like the taste of black coffee. But I’ve discovered the most amazing and delicious cold brew coffee that doesn’t actually taste like coffee (it has natural flavors added to it), and it has a tremendous amount of caffeine for those early mornings! My favorite cold brew coffee is the Stok brand in both the “lightly sweetened” and “chocolate” flavors. Here in Ohio I often find them at Kroger and Meijer, and I stock up! I’m not kidding when I say that cold brew coffee is my reason for getting out of bed in the morning. It’s amazing!

2. Meal Prep

Some people really enjoy the process of cooking. To them, it is an art form, a way to show their family how much they love them, and a relaxing way to spend an evening. I am not one of those people! I love my family too much to make them eat my cooking. I’m not very good at cooking, and more importantly, I don’t enjoy it. But yet, we have to eat. There are many creative solutions that we’ve tried over the years, including buying part of a cow from a farmer, shopping at Costco for their fresh pre-made meals (by the meat and deli area), and of course, stocking up on frozen pizzas. But friends, I have recently discovered the thing that has literally changed my life. There is a woman here in NW Ohio who runs an incredibly successful business doing meal prep, and I am forever grateful to her! She has a brilliant business where she plans ten freezer meals and does all the shopping and prep work. Once a month I attend her class and assemble all the meals. The class lasts about two hours, and at the end I take home my ten meals and freeze them. I love it because I don’t have to research recipes, do the grocery shopping, or spend each evening cooking after a busy day in the classroom. I simply pull a thawed meal out and pop it in the oven. It is amazing! The meals are delicious and we always have left overs.

Update: Exciting news for my local readers! Tammy from “Simplicity 1” is signing up new customers for her meal prep classes! Hooray! The last time I talked with her the monthly class schedule was full, but she just told me she has room for more! You can find her Facebook page here for more information. I’m telling you friends, her meal prep class is worth every penny. In fact, we’ve saved money on our overall grocery budget since I started attending her classes! She is amazing and the meals are delicious!

3. Cleaning Lady

The other change I’ve made recently that has made me ridiculously happy is that I’ve hired someone to come and help me clean. I told my husband for years that if I could just find someone to clean the bathrooms I’d be so thrilled! Cleaning bathrooms is one of my least favorite chores. I was over the moon to find someone to come mop our stone floors and clean our two and a half bathrooms. Just having help in those specific areas has been incredible! Friends, when I walk in the door after an especially long and exhausting day of teaching to find sparkly clean bathrooms and a shining kitchen floor, I am so grateful! It’s like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

4. Sensory Friendly Clothing

So, this may seem random, but if you’ve ever dealt with a child who has issues with seams on their socks or tags on their shirts, you know the battle I’ve been facing. One of my children in particular is very sensitive to these kinds of clothing issues and getting dressed every morning was an all out battle. There were tears and epic melt downs every single day. It was awful for everyone involved. I would have to plan at least a half hour each morning just to get this one child dressed, and then I still had to get myself and the other two kiddos ready and out the door. There were so many mornings where I was rushing into the school precariously balancing my cold brew coffee and fighting back frustration because the morning routine had gone so badly and I was running late again. After one particularly difficult morning struggling to get my child ready I couldn’t hold back the tears, and I cried as I walked into the school building. Friends, let me tell you why I love the women I work with. They took such good care of me, literally wiping my tears away and giving me fantastic advice on sensory friendly clothing. I ordered my child seamless socks from Bombas and seamless underwear from SmartKnit, and the result is nothing short of a miracle! My child now gets dressed and ready independently in the morning and is often the first one waiting by the door to leave each day! It is such a fantastic way to start each day, and now I’m on time or even *gasp* early for work! I’m telling you, those clothes are worth every penny!

5. Saturday Night Blogging

Writing this blog is one of my favorite things, and I did not want to have to stop just because I went back to work. So, I decided to take one evening each weekend and dedicate it to writing. It’s not easy to do, but it is so worth it! There is something about the act of writing that is therapeutic for me, no matter what the subject is about. I love the whole process, from thinking up ideas for posts and turning my thoughts over in my head all week long, to actually sitting down and typing it all out. It’s good for my soul. Often, I sit down to write late on a Saturday night after everyone else is asleep. I have to have something posted by midnight in order for my newsletter to be mailed out Sunday morning, so often I’ll post one quick sentence. “Check back in the morning for the full post!” Then I write late into the night, savoring the silence of my (rarely) quiet house. Sometimes I doze on the couch, waking up every few minutes to type another paragraph before resting my eyes again. On Sunday morning when I wake up I edit, and edit, and edit some more until I’m finally ready to share it on social media. So, sometimes if you read my posts first thing on Sunday morning, you might not be getting my final draft! Oh well, it’s the best I can do. There is something so beautiful to me about the act of writing. There is a discipline to writing as well as an art, and it fills my soul in a way that very few other things can! I’m so grateful to you for reading my blog! You mean the world to me!

It’s another late Saturday night as I type this, and I can barely keep my eyes open, but I’m so glad I got to share some of the things that have been saving my life and my sanity recently! Do you have anything to add? I’d love to hear what is making your life amazing and saving your sanity!

Have a beautiful day!
Sandy

To read more of my thoughts about balance, life, and giving yourself grace, check out these other posts!
Giving Yourself Grace
Finding What Refuels Your Soul
Finding the Time
Having a Clean-ish House

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