Summertime plan - relaxation and time management

I've returned from a relaxing visit to my mother's house (where I grew up), and feel rejuvenated and ready to work. Okay, not really, but it was a fun time (especially relaxing when the kids were sleeping).... I know I'm not the only one who has also taken a vacation from blogging. Summer is just that time of disconnection, when people relax, lose touch with schedules, and get together with family. Even people without kids can feel it in the air. Society just slows down a bit, I think.

Unfortunately, while I've been enjoying the lazy days of summer, my work has... ahem... come to a complete stop. I really need to get back into production mode.

So.

Last weekI came up with a plan. I've never worked in an artful capacity with a weekly schedule, but I vow to give this a try.

The first thing I did was sit down with my mom (and business partner) and discuss the future of Those Greathouse Women. What direction do we want to go in? What are we itching to create, research, discover? What are our financial goals? Creative goals? Time management goals? What are my family commitments and what do I need to change in order to meet them? How does our business need to change in order to keep up with current trends and business practices? It sounds like a daunting task, but it was actually quite fun, and so much easier to work through with my mom rather than attack by myself.

I will elaborate in future posts about specific aspects of the plan, but in short, here is a sketch:

Mondays: work on new items
Tuesdays: computer time (blog, research, social networking, teams, forums, etc)
Wednesdays: sewing/working
Thursdays: photographing/editing, blogging
Fridays: I don't have a babysitter! HA!
Saturdays: sewing/working
Sundays: sewing/working

This accounts for about 5 hours per day, which is when my sitter comes to relieve me of the children (allowing me to ACTUALLY get work done), or when my husband is available to help with the kids (on the weekends). I still have to squeeze in shipping and other things during the evenings, but I'm trying to make time to spend with my husband so he doesn't feel like an Etsy widow every night!

Notice that I plan to blog TWICE a week! Well, we'll see, won't we?