In support of the Quest of Balance (subtitle: Artis….)

We have something that is working pretty well for us as it relates to our eternal (and internal….lol….) quest for balance as two full-time career professionals with what I like to say…”big-jobs”……. I eluded to it in a previous post but wanted to share a bit more details…..as it’s working so well…..

For about a year or so, Artis  (our angel from Honduras..oh my are we ever lucky to have connected with her…) was coming to our house each Friday for housekeeping services……deep thorough cleaning with a solid crew, equipment, experience, etc…….But it just wasn’t enough. And……we really (really) appreciated and respected her services, appreciated her dependability, believed in her trustworthiness, liked her crew, her professionalism, etc…… i.e., all the good stuff…

So, right after Christmas, we asked Artis if she could come four times a week to our home to do all our laundry, all the picking-up, additional services, and….ta da….the daily cooking. And, I am SO pleased (and so grateful) to say that it is working wonderfully. Artis is quite a skilled Latino chef and…she’s game to try all my veggie recipes and does quite a nice job. On Mondays, she does loads and loads of laundry and she prepares our Monday meal…..fully and even to the point of setting the table. On Tuesdays, Artis completes any left-over laundry (and she folds and puts up everything) and prepares our Tuesday dinner, on Wed she picks-up and prepares the Wed dinner, Thursday we do leftovers, and on Friday, Artis and her cleaning crew comes for the weekly deep cleaning. All, I’m telling you what….this is the best. We have no major household chores to do……we don’t clean, we don’t do laundry, we don’t “do” bathrooms…..All our non-working time is spent with the girls, with each other, relaxing, etc. I fully appreciate how fortunate we are to be able to afford this but…..I also want to let you know that…in the end…..we don’t go out to dinner like we used to, we take our lunch to work (leftovers…..), we are eating so very healthily…and the reduction in stress in our household by not having to prepare the supper meal, not having to spend Saturday mornings doing loads of laundry, not having to deep-clean…..well, it is really well worth it for us and our lifestyle. I’d give up other amenities to keep our Artis’ services. We both love our careers, we love the activities we invest in outside our girls…..and for us, Artis’ services allow us to spend more quality time (yep, sounds trite but it’s true for us) with our daughters. It’s a good choice for us.

My take-home-point……this is working and our daily life is so.much.better and if you can afford even a bit of these kinds of services/resources and you are a two-professional careers family, I’d seriously consider taking advantage of additional resources.

Here’s to the eternal quest for as much “balance” as possible…..

Peace!

Cin

P.S. The whole idea for tapping into additional resources like we’re now doing is Kathy M.’s idea. Thanks, K. You get all the credit here…. :)