Thank you Carrie for sharing ...
“How do you do it all?”
Oh, gosh I hate that question. I never
really know how to answer it. Should I give the person, usually female,
often of the stay-at-home variety, a run-down of what I’ve done since I woke up
that morning? Should I shrug it off and pretend like what I accomplish is
super easy for me? Should I confess about the piles of laundry, mountains
of dirty dishes and stack of ungraded papers I have waiting for me?
Usually I just ask my daughter, Bay if she has to pee. Bay ALWAYS
has to pee and by the time I return to the conversation how I “do it all” long
forgotten.
Let me back up a bit. Hi, I’m Carrie.
I’ve been married for 8 years to my husband, Matt who works as a Worship
& Creative Arts minister. We have two kids, Jay will be 6 in June and
Bay just turned four. I work full time as an elementary school teacher
and I just earned my master’s degree (Masters of Education, Focus on Technology
in case you were wondering. You probably weren’t wondering, though).
As a family we’re serious bikers, pedal bikes, that is, of both the road
and mountain variety. With my husband being on staff, we’re obviously
very involved at our church. I serve in the “visual arts” department one
out of every two to three Sundays, which requires me to serve one evening that
week, too. Both kids play tee-ball on the same team, mercifully.
Matt’s their coach. They also attend the same preschool. I
like to sew and alter a lot of mine and the kids clothes. Matt and I are
both Twittics for Broadway Indy, which means we see and promote via Twitter all
of their shows. Matt enjoys acting and just finished his yearly community
theater show and he’s also going to be a co-director of a week of camp this
summer. I also speak at conferences when I get a chance. I have three
speaking engagements in the next two months.
I’m also guilty of competing in competitive
birthday partying.
Needless to say, we’re busy--hence the “How do
you do it all??” question that I frequently get asked. There’s really no
way to explain how exactly we as a family manage to accomplish everything that
we do. We just sort of do it. I read somewhere once that you can’t
“do it all, you just have to do the next thing.” That’s what we do
everyday. We just do the next thing, whatever it may be--and when you’re
a Dilley, there’s ALWAYS a “next thing!!”
I do have a couple of tricks I’d like to share
with you that make all that we do possible. These are by no means
recommendations, they’re simply things that work for us at this stage of our
family’s life.
Really Short Hair
- I have really, really short hair. I don’t have time for long hair--I don’t have time to wash it, dry it, fix it, anything. My hair needs to be able to look “fine” with a minimal amount of effort each and every day. Between washing, drying and fixing, it gets maybe 6 minutes per day. My daughter also has really short hair, which is also helpful. I actually don’t “buzz” my son for a lot of reasons, one of which is that he can go 6 weeks between haircuts like I can. Matt’s hair is his own problem.
We have a lot of underwear
- I can probably go three full weeks without doing any laundry at all--and I have. Frequently. I know, I know. You’re supposed to wash, dry and put away one load every day. Some people do this per person--plus towels! Not us. The way I figure things, to wash, dry and put away a load every day would probably take at least 20 minutes. 20 x 7 = 140 minutes weekly. That’s over 2 hours. I spend about 2 hours doing a TON of laundry every two or three weeks.
We eat the same things over & over again
- We eat really simple meals that don’t have a lot of ingredients and don’t take a long time to make/clean up. One of our favorites is to dump a bunch of boneless/skinless chicken breasts in a crockpot and cover them with salsa. You just let it cook all day, shred the chicken, and serve with tortilla chips & cheese. Surprisingly, we don’t eat any prepackaged meals--this is due mostly to a food sensitivity one of my kiddos has, and also due to the fact that we find them to lack nutritional value. We eat as many whole foods as possible, but we’re not 100% organic. I try to subscribe to the idea of the “dirty dozen & the clean 15.” Eating the same things over & over again also makes grocery shopping easier and less time consuming, too.
Intentional business
- Yes, we are super, super busy. There are more weeks than I care for that have every night filled with something, however, each activity is carefully chosen. We save what little time we have for the thing that matter the most. We try to make sure all of the activities are worthwhile things that we want to do and we try to spend as much time with the people we love as possible.
Really supportive spouse
- Matt and I got married really young and I got really lucky. I look at most 22 year olds now and think “I cannot believe I woke up one morning and MARRIED at 22 year old.” 22 year olds don’t know anything yet. I had no way of knowing Matt would be so good with the kids or that he’d be able to pack lunches, get kids ready for preschool, give baths, unload a dishwasher, wash dishes, make “salsa chicken” or do any of the other things he does that most guys don’t. Seriously. Back off, ladies. He’s taken.
Simple Faith
- I cannot stress enough how our faith in God enables our very breath. Without Him we are nothing, incapable of even the slightest movement forward, let alone the never-ending task list that awaits each day.
In closing, I don’t do it all by any means. No one does because it’s not possible. Focus on the things that matter, be intentional with your time and you’ll be just fine.
You have grown into a fine young woman. You also had a find mentor, your mother. In my day I did my "thing" but although most of the time it doesn't seem like it, I have slowed down a LOT. I wouldn't want to try to keep up with either one of you. lol
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