One day at a time. A day in the life of a stay-at-home mom!

My first day as a stay-at-home mom was quite like I anticipated. We had just moved to another house and I managed to sort through several boxes (while my Baby A reshuffled everything). Cooked a two course meal. Cleaned and tidied the house. I even snuck in for a shower (while my toddler slept) and wore my favorite home clothes to show the hubby what an awesome job I did! Five months later..the perfect first day has undergone massive changes and that's why the need to put this on paper. Mostly as a lesson to myself and to remember that the first day was the only day I managed to do ALL that.
The most important thing to accept when you decide to SAH is that everyday brings new challenges and learning (pretty much like your normal office job). But the Boss is very demanding and you cannot walk away or take a break. Take for instance the simple task of having a shower. Soap in eyes and shampoo on head. That's exactly the time Baby A would choose to wake up! So showers were a quick five minutes and sometimes a lucky chance. Somedays would start on a good note and suddenly zigzag to insanity (especially if a nap was missed or meal time was chaos). I'd find myself with a ton of chores, realise I am still in yesterday's clothes (eh!shower forgotten) and exhausted (while Baby A all clean and fed, played happily). I went back and forth to figure out how to get a grip on the situation. I decided to follow the APE method. It works very well for me and is very simple: ACCEPT that my day will be all over the place, PREPARE for the unexpected (an illness or tantrum or whatever), ENJOY a quiet moment (even if its just staring out of the window) and don't beat myself up if chores are unfinished. It gets better once you figure out how to entertain your toddler (mystery boxes in each room with items like empty bottles, clips, new diapers etc). You can even get them to help with the chores (don't expect too much😁). I'm lucky if I get ten minutes in the shower these days but I have learnt and I know there will be days like these all the time..what matters is that I keep learning and accepting. It's moments like these that make me love being a stay-at-home mom!