Working at Home with Kids

One of our favorite readers, Cheryl, wants to know how I schedule production with two little ones at home. 

It sure isn't easy!  I have two girls, one is 3 1/2 and the other is 2 months old.  As one might imagine, they (happily) take up a lot of my time.  Getting anything done on *my* schedule can be difficult.

Since so much of our day is sporadic and unplanned, I have to fit business in whenever I can.  Instead of saying, "This morning I have to make 3 kinds of lip balms and this afternoon I have to make footsie bars," I say, "Today, I hope to get this stuff done whenever I can."  And sometimes, I can't. 

I've found that setting daily and weekly goals helps tremendously.  Also, I try to set aside time especially for answering emails and doing the online parts of business that need to get done every day.  I can feed and dress the baby to make her happy, get the older child set up with breakfast, and then have a good 15 minutes to shoot off a few emails.

The most difficult thing is that I'm always interrupted.  It's rare that I start and finish something all in one sitting.  A few years ago this would have drove me crazy and I probably never would have completed anything.  I've had to learn to adapt and find different ways of working.

So far, while typing out this post, I have had to stop to feed the baby, stop to read a story, and pause countless times to answer questions.

To make matters more challenging, the things mom and I used to do together we now have to do apart.  My little family recently moved a couple of hours away so we've had to redesign how we get things done at Blissology. 

Mom works on the things that cannot be easily interrupted - soaps and lotions being the primary products. Meanwhile, I have products that I call "meltables."  These are ones that I can measure ingredients for, pause, melt and pour.  And if I get interrupted before pouring, it's okay - I can just re-melt them.  Lip balms, footsie bars, hard lotion bars, and shea butters are all on my list.  To balance it out, mom also does massage candles and oils.


The main thing is not getting discouraged and trying not to be in a hurry.  Having small children means that everything takes longer than you think it will.  Be patient, consistent, and work in small intervals whenever you can.

I Dream of Soap Rooms

Today I'm going to do my best to relax. I've usually already blogged, emailed, twittered, and various other things by this time of day. Today though is slower. I think everyone needs a little break now and then and hopefully today can be mine.

I'm a little worried that we won't be getting much business stuff done this week. We're hosting Turkey Day at our house and that means a lot of preparation and house cleaning. It also means we have to take all the supplies from the dining room to their proper place in the downstairs soap room. Lugging down big heavy buckets and baskets is not very fun.

It would be really excellent if we could make enough money this holiday season to pay for a water heater and a plumber. Just like that we could have a dedicated space for production. A girl can dream!

It WILL happen, it's just a matter of when. We have a nice little room downstairs with a plain concrete floor. It already houses a stove and it used to have a full-sized refrigerator/freezer but it stopped working. We'd have to install some simple shelves, but I wouldn't even care if they were just wood and cinder blocks at this point. The only thing stopping us from this point is that there's no water hookup there yet. And no sink. Both are easy to get, they just take some money. So that's what we need.

Until then, we just have to keep lugging these supplies up and down the stairs. And using the kitchen for double duty. When you see a stock pot here lined with a creamy looking sauce, don't eat it. It's probably soap.