Finding balance amidst the whirlwind

Lots of words, no pictures...sorry!

Tax season is crazy for me/us.  This year I came across a great opportunity to work from home for TaxHawk, an online tax preparation software company.  They paid me for training at the end of 2011, and I was essentially able to pick my hours.  Seriously, I love my job!

Business is picking up with Custom Security & Sound, our alarm company, and we are busy preparing for summer sales teams.  That means I have a lot to do with getting us licensed and keeping up with all of the accounting and Randy is busy with everything else.  Plus he's in the last 5 months of his MBA program.

And I'm still running my own accounting & tax preparation business, KC Business Solutions.  So far I haven't been super busy, but it's always busy trying to get accounting clients' year-end accounting done and send out my ads before I start preparing taxes.  The next week or so should kick things off with a bang, though.

So, yeah, I have 3 part-time jobs.  Oh, and I'm a mom!  My homemaking skills have slacked off a bit, and my nap-taking has increased because of my early morning to late night work hours.  Take-out, frozen meals, and Randy making dinner are not uncommon.  I call it good it I manage to make dinner once in a week.  Two times in a week?  I'm a superstar!

My house was slowly falling into shambles.  I knew that my bathrooms would have to be cleaned again before April 15th, so I had to come up with a game plan.  I wanted to have a family council so that we could reinforce good bedtime habits for the girls that had been slipping.  As I was planning what I wanted to discuss, my sister shared what she had done with her two boys...and it clicked!

We copied her plan--with a few minor changes for our family--and have had a successful week.  So what's the plan?

1.  I re-made a list of their daily responsibilities, and changed it up a bit.  Instead of doing homework right after school (Gasp!), we now do it before bed.  At 7pm every night, we do chores, homework & then get ready for bed.  This helps the girls to be in bed or really close to being ready when I have to start work at 8pm. They can then read quietly in their beds until 8:30, when it's light's out time.

2.  Sydney and Jenna each are given 4 chores each week.  They will alternate between the same set of 4 every time, so it's pretty evenly split.  We change every Monday.  When we do chores, I typically don't have then do all of the chores that night, but choose the two most important ones for them to do.

Here was this week:
Jenna--Sweep, bathrooms (wipe down, mirrors, scrub toilets), dishes (unload dishwasher), garbage (gather & change bags)
Sydney--Laundry (gather, fold & put away), vacuum (one room each night), help with dinner, dust

So far, it has worked really well.  While our house isn't perfectly clean and isn't always completely picked up at night, it is far better than it has been in a quite a while...even before I was working like crazy.

Anyway, so that's our life in a nutshell.  I'm still seeking balance in the whole sleep department.  (My first shift starts at 6am, and my second shift ends at 10pm, and it takes me a while to wind down for bed.)  I figure we're almost a month into tax season, so only a little over 3 more to go...right?  After that we'll be in for the crazy summer sales season!  Goodbye forever.  ;)

Bryn's first pigtails & haircut

I was able to put Bryn's hair in pigtails for our Chipman cousin Christmas dinner.

She looked darling...except that by the time we got there she had managed to rub & pull the bows out & loosen her piggy tails.  Oh, well, it was cute while it lasted.

I've never been a fan of scraggly baby hair.

Randy said her hair was quickly becoming a mullet.

And so I cut it.  I trimmed in front, too, to even it out a bit on her forehead.  I think it looks a million times better.

Christmas 2011

We had a really nice Christmas this year.  We were able to help our children focus on serving our Savior in honor of His birth.

The month of December wasn't even that hectic, which was nice, since Randy spent 9 days away from us for work.

We were able to have dinner with my cousins early in the month, and then his cousins a few days before Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, we gathered at Ray & Teri's with the Jolley's, as well.  We ate Navajo Tacos, then had the kids act out the Nativity while Uncle Ray read from the scriptures.  Randy used Facetime to let Grandpa and Grandma watch and enjoy with us.  

Trent and Sydney as Joseph and Mary

Mykel, Kara & Jenna were angels.

Tyler, Ethan, Ryan & Andrew were shepherds.

I hope they were feeling the reverence of us celebrating this sacred occasion.

The whole crew.  It looks like Kyle was a shepherd, too.  Of course, Bryn and Matthew were just observing the festivities.  We just wish we could have made the cousin ensemble complete with cousin Zoilo.

Cousins in their new Christmas Eve pj's

Our girls

We didn't get a picture of Bryn on Christmas morning because we let her keep sleeping, but I'd say we had a really happy Christmas with plenty of wonderful gifts.

We finished our Christmas day off by going to church and then having dinner at David and Jenny's with Ray & Teri, as well as David's parents and one of his brothers.  It was the perfect end to our season.