The Stories of our Lives

This is our family blog. We use it to share glimpses of our family life, everyday anecdotes and reflexions, and we archive the kids' growth. In Québec, Canada.

Orléane Orléane is now...
10 months!

Xavier Xavier is now...
2.4 years!

...and there's also their parents. Émilie writes most posts (including the children's) and handles the design, while François makes sure all the blog clockwork is running smoothly. To contact us: EMAIL.

Everything Orléane

All about Xavier

Random thoughts and conversation crumbs

Émilie reads

Browse the ARCHIVES
Français | English

Kids vs. efficiency

When I was a young professional, after I finished school and before I became a mom, I had huge amounts of free time. Long evenings and entire weekends at my complete disposal.

I have no idea what I did with all this free time.

I had some personal projects to realize, but not legions of them. I would put off many of them until later. I was doing so-so at house keeping; my house was clean enough for company, but just barely so. Frank and I avoided the kitchen often enough by eating out, or getting take out we would eat in front of the t.v. in the basement. Long story short, we were sort of lazy.

Now that Xavier, then Orléane, are born, my available time is greatly reduced. Strangely, though, I have become more efficient in cleaning and cooking. I use my free time to work on small projects. I avoid putting things off. I still watch a little t.v. during fall-winter, but not that many movies. We eat at the dinner table, and the kitchen is the brains of our home.

I recently developed some tricks to keep the house in order. (It helps that I’m on maternity leave and Xavier is spending a couple days a week at daycare, but oh well… cleanliness is even more necessary these days, with a baby crawling on the floor and two kids in diapers.) It’s nothing amazing, but it helps me a lot for keeping on top of things. I even end up doing more than I used too!

What’s crucial is finding a method that works for you, but I’ll share my little tips in tomorrow’s article, in case they might be right for you, too.

To be continued…


3 Responses to “Kids vs. efficiency”

  1. Tal Says:    

    Heh. You just described us perfectly. The selfish couple with no kids…sorry! Can’t wait to hear the tips though, after spending 5 hours too many cleaning the apartment from top to bottom. Really makes you think that staying on top of things may actually be easier!

  2. Émilie Says:    

    Well as I said, it’s nothing grand, and the free time from maternity leave helps, but if people can use some of it, great! It’ll appear automatically tomorrow.

    We’re totally calling back the maid - whose services we had received as a baby gift for a few weeks after Orly was born - when I start working again, though. Heh. At least for part of the cleaning, because I’d rather spend that time with my kids.

  3. Gexxx Says:    

    Jai hate parce que jai besoin daide;)

Leave a Reply