Making Stuff Happen!

In 5 short days I will be returning to my full time job and completing my year-long maternity leave.  I'm feeling so conflicted about this (as do most moms who are on the verge of returning back to their old grind after an extended time off)!
Our family is going to be going through so many changes with my return to work.  Going from a stay-at-home mom - colouring non-stop and watching the Disney channel, buying my groceries in the middle of the day, and avoiding traffic at all costs - to waking up at 5am, getting the kids to our new dayhome, dealing with rush hour traffic and downtown parking...oiy!  The best I can do is hope that we survive and prepare myself as much as I can.
It's ironic that with going back to work, I will be bringing in less money than being on maternity leave.  I will now have to start paying for a dayhome ($1,500 a month!), parking, more gas, etc.  Yes, it's not cheap to go back to work but it's something I have to do.
To prepare myself and my family, I need to focus on 3 major areas.  My first focus is my budget.  As I mentioned with all my new expenses I will be bringing in less money per month so I need to address this and make some changes.  I started off with a budget sheet and wrote down all my income versus expenses.  You can find a great free printable at Sissy Print to record everything you need to track.  I then found an excellent free printable for some cash budget envelopes  at Today's Nest, which I really like because, for myself, when dealing with cash I'm less likely to go over budget (I guess it's a visual thing)!

With that in order and all organized I then looked to another aspect of going back to work that will make things easier if I plan ahead...dinner time.  I absolutely hate that feeling of getting home at 5:30pm, everyone is starving and we have no idea what to make for dinner!  Meal planning...it saves you so much time and money (less implusive pizza buying and daily trips to the grocery store).  I started pinning supper ideas a while ago and then, with the help of another awesome free printable from Design Finch I can write down what we are going to have for dinner for a month at a time AND include a weekly shopping list!  I don't know how I would survive without this!

The third thing I needed to focus on is cleaning and home organization.  Design Finch has some awesome free printables for this, as does Blooming Homestead.  Spending a few moments to write down your to-do list will really pay off in the end.  You can find tons of different ideas on Pinterest that allow you to do small things, daily, to keep on top of the mess.  Check out this one, for example, from Organizing Made Fun, which shows you how to keep your home sparkling, while cleaning for only 15-20 minutes every day.

For me these were the main things that I wanted to focus on to make the transition a bit easier.  It's still going to be tough leaving my girls every day and I'm not looking forward to getting back into the grind.  I'm hoping that everything goes smoothly and choosing to be positive about it!  I am thankful that I have so many things to look forward too over the next year, which really makes going back a lot easier as well!

If you have any tips you'd like to share about being more organized and preparing to go back to work after a long period off, I'd LOVE to hear them!! :)