A long time ago, my mother gave me a plaque that said, "Keeping house while your kids are at home is like scooping snow in a blizzard." As a full time teacher and mother of two kids, ages 5 and 11, all I could do when I read the plaque was laugh. My only other option was to cry, and I couldn’t do that because my daughter had torn up all the Kleenex to make beds for her Beanie Babies.

But your situation, as a work at home mom, is harder than mine was. When I went to work, I escaped the distractions at home and focused on my role as a teacher. When I left teaching to work at home, the challenge of being everything at once – business woman, mom, wife, and housekeeper – nearly drove me crazy, even though my kids were almost grown by then.

Thankfully, the organizational skills needed to survive as a teacher and parent were a lifesaver for me as I made the transition to working at home. But I wondered how young work at home moms coped without the on-the-job training I’d learned through twenty-five years of experience. "It’s about time," I thought more than once, "for someone to write a time management column for work at home moms."
And then, while waiting for a Southwest flight to a writers’ conference, I met Jill Hart. She was going to the writers’ conference, too, and was waiting for the same flight. So we sat together on the plane and Jill described her CWAH website. I asked if she needed a columnist. She said yes. And "It’s About Time" was born.

The purpose of this column is to help you, a work at home mom, scoop your way out of the blizzard that storms through your house and threatens to bury you, your family and your home business. And since the hardest part of digging your way out of any storm is deciding what drift to attack first, that’s what we’re going to talk about this month – where to start.

As a teacher, with twenty-five little munchkins adept at creating drifts of paper blizzards, I didn’t start by attacking the papers. I started by writing lists. And I did the same thing at home where my daughter, queen of Kleenex, created drifts of Beanie Babie bedding at an alarming rate.

My husband Hiram used to think that writing a to-do list was cheating. He thought any self-respecting adult should be able to remember what to do rather than consult a list. (This trait, I believe, is related to the male sex linked never-ask-for-directions gene that won’t be discovered until some male scientist adds it to his list and consults the human genome map for directions.)

My hubby’s attitude changed when he realized that while he was trying to remember what he needed to do, I’d completed my list. Now he makes lists, too, and gets a lot more done. And as we both discovered, writing a list is very freeing. Once a list is written, there’s no more worry about forgetting, no more self-reminders, no more feelings of dread about what will happen if you forget.
Instead, you know where to begin scooping and you can get through a whole lot of drifts, especially if you follow these simple steps:

* Since writing every little thing on little scraps of paper creates a new paper blizzard, which you don’t want, use a pad of paper stuck on your refrigerator along with a calendar that hangs near your phone instead.

* As soon as you know about them, write all family and business appointments, meetings, and special events on the calendar. I like Mom’s Family Calendar (available at amazon.com) but any calendar with large daily boxes will do. If you’re a computer whiz, you can use the Microsoft Office calendar the same way.

* Every week, write your menu plans on the calendar as you prepare your grocery list.

* Every morning, take the notepad off the refrigerator and write a to-do list. Include housekeeping chores, business projects, and time to spend with your kids. Check the calendar and add anything written there to your list.

* As you write the items down, pray over them. Ask God to show you how to prioritize them.

* Once your list is complete, number the items, starting with the ones that must be done today and ending with the ones that can wait. This process gives you a place to start and makes the list less overwhelming.

* When you think your list is complete, offer it up to God. Ask Him to help you finish what needs doing. And always ask for a flexible heart that submits your agenda to His will.
Once you’ve completed these steps, start working your way through the list. Cross items off as you complete them. And when, despite your best intentions and hard work, life interrupts and you can’t complete the list, don’t get frustrated or mad. Realize that God is interrupting your day and reminding you that your ways are not His ways, and that He is answering your prayer by teaching you to submit your agenda to His.

So that’s how you start scooping your way out of your work at home blizzard. Practice this method for the next month and see if helps. But don’t get married to the method. Next month, you’ll bump up a step and learn to make your planner your best friend. For now though, use the calendar and make lists, submit your will to God’s agenda and see if the blizzards in your home and your soul subside just a little. If they do, rejoice! You’re making progress.

About the Author:
Jolene Philo is a freelance writer and speaker who lives in Boone, Iowa. She shares her house and her home office with her husband Hiram, daughter Anne, and dachshund Abby. You can learn more about her at her website, www.jolenephilo.com.