DISCLOSURE: I am a member of the Outshine summer campaign and am helping spread the word about Outshine® Fruit Bars. As a team member and work from home mom, I receive product and incentives in exchange for participating in brand-related activities and compensation. #SnackBrighter
Working from home as a blogger/writer can be a tricky dance to swing… I’ve written about this cold truth before. It’s all flexible and freakishly-satisfying when you’ve got a sitter in the house and can check off accomplished deadlines while typing in your PJs, but the first time that sitter is unavailable… you quickly realize you’ve got a heck of a dilemma to solve. (Especially when you’ve got clients waiting on you! Crap.)
What to do? Here’s how I handle it when pulling the emergency cord is the only option:
Play outside! The days have been HOT here in Southern California, so we’ve been starting our days outside more often, before the heat really kicks in to melt us all. Take your dolls! Turn on the hose! Please don’t pull all the roses off their stems! A good part about this is that I can perch myself on our patio table and plunk out my duties as I peek at my girls.
Movie time! I know, I know… plopping our kids in front of the TV isn’t exactly optimal when it comes to developing their brains, I know this to be fact and resist the temptation as much as I can. But, sometimes us work-at-home moms must do what we need to do and be done with it (and then keep tabs on ourselves to not make it a habit to the point where it gets damaging for anyone’s development). I usually use ‘movie time’ as a double-wham for ‘resting time’ right after lunch (since they played outside all morning and are now totally exhausted). An hour-long show or movie usually does the trick for us. And as we all know, every hour accounted for counts towards knocking out those deadlines!
Take a treat! Once we hit afternoon, all of us start unraveling. They get bored from being trapped at home because of Mommy’s deadline. Why don’t you draw some more! Or play with one of your puzzles! I’m working so we can make money and have more fun, girls! I get burnt-out from being on an adrenaline rush all morning, trying to get 1000 things done in a time period when only 10 things should be attempted. The day’s half over and I haven’t finished anything I’ve needed to turn in today!?!? All of us seem to hit a wall of wit’s end around 1:30pm like clockwork. Time for something sweet: Our frozen Outshine Fruit Bars are a delicious option to keep me snacking bright through the most rough part of my day. (They keep me girls happy too.)
And, Outshine has recently made improvements to eight of its most popular flavors — grape, strawberry, pineapple, mango, peach, pomegranate, raspberry and tangerine — has added an average of 77% more real fruit or fruit juice and has reduced sugar by an average of 11%. Each bar is made free of any GMO ingredients and features fruit or fruit juice as the first ingredient. (Not mention, they kind of give me a zing-of-zen to keep plugging along too…) I only start semi-panicking when I realize that we’re almost out of them…
Pick a stick! When we finally start nearing the end of the day, I’ve learned to bump up my game in an effort to keep my kids occupied for just one more hour. How? By making them draw sticks with instructions for tasks they must complete before the oven bell timer rings. Keep all the fruit bar sticks handy, moms! Some of our sticks have fun to-do’s (change your doll’s clothing) and some have productive to-do’s to help me with my chores (line up your shoes inside your closet, kid). This trick compliments of a fabulous mom that I stumbled across online by the name of Lauri Eastwood….
And then… the day is done. (Thank you.) And I frantically text my sitter to make sure she’s still planning to come tomorrow…
Get more details at OutshineSnacks.com; the official work from home snack and personal secret to keeping me energized to stay creative these hot, last days of summer…
[…] Outshine has made improvements to eight of its most popular Fruit Bar flavors by adding an average of 77% more real fruit or fruit juice and reducing sugar by an average of 11% (talk about snacking brighter), so I’m totally cool with it. (You KNOW I’m cool with it…) […]