Balancing life as a busy at-home mom is an interesting juggling act. Between managing a household, planning meals, getting the kids to where they need to be, and being a wife, there’s not a lot of time left over. Add in working from home, and possibly even homeschooling, you’ve probably got more on your plate than time to do it all in.  I know I do.

Jennifer Tankersley from ListPlanIt.com with her family

In this week’s podcast episode, I had a fun chat with Jennifer Tankersley, a busy work at home mom to three kids, ages 5, 7, and 9, on how we can be better organized as busy at-home moms. 

Jennifer is not only a busy mom and wife, but she is also running an online business from home.

Jennifer’s website, ListPlanIt.com, shares planning and organizational tips for professional organizers and moms a like, and she has over 500 lists and worksheets for her members to use to be better organized in all areas of their lives.

In our interview, Jennifer and I talked about:

• How she turned her natural talents as a planner into an online business
• Ideas on how to plan your time and manage multiple schedules and priorities
• How you can to save time and energy with menu planning and shopping lists
• An idea for budgetting on a 26 week schedule
• Overcoming the guilt and anxiety of not having a perfectly “clean” house
• Goal setting and defining success as an work-at-home mom
• Ideas on how to manage your plans and lists, and keep it all organized

Jennifer gave us a great glimpse into how she manages life as a busy work-at-home mom with three kids in school, and I shared a few tips on how I manage life, business, and the household as a work-at-home, homeschooling mom.  I hope that you enjoy meeting Jennifer and learning from her as much as I did chatting with her.

To listen in, simply click the play button below. To download the recording to your computer, right click on download link below and choose ‘Save Target As’.

Organization and Planning Tips for Busy At-Home Moms [ 1:11:50 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Enjoy!

…Shannon

P.S. Be sure to check out Jennifer’s site for more orgnaization and planning tips. Her blog has some great information.

P.S.S. Prefer to read the transcript? Download the Transcript. It’s free and loaded with great tips!

Last week another mom and I were discussing routines and kids, and the subject of dining out versus cooking in came up. While she wanted to cut down on how much they were dining out, to help with their budget, she just didn’t know what to cook that everyone in her family would like. 

Up until then I really hadn’t understood why there was a need for menu services like Dine Without Whine , Menu Planning Central or Menus 4 Moms. But I think I’m finally getting it. In our busy-ness and media-oriented-ness, we, as a culture, seem to have lost that tradition of cooking, and eating meals together as a family.  As a family who cooks and eats together often, I was oblivious to this, until just recently, but apparently these menu planning services aren’t.

Just for kicks and to see what it was all about I’m trying the Healthy Menu Mailer. I like the menu suggestions, but my favorite part, a part I haven’t done yet with my own menus, is the grocery lists. This is a fantastic, time-saving feature.  It lists all the foods needed, by grocery aisle category, so it can just be printed and taken to the grocery store. That is worth the $7.95 price tag in my book.

If you’re struggling with ideas of what to cook, it is worth taking a look at one of the menu services – but first look at the sample menus to see if it’s the type of foods your family likes.  For example, I first looked at Dine Without Whine, but found I wanted something that better matched our food preferences.  Many of the menu planning services offer a free or 1 cent trial period as well, which is also a good way to figure out whether the service will work for your family’s tastes.

Later this week I’ll share more about how we handle family meal time. Until then, enjoy your week!