Being a BJD Mom Mom

I started off in this hobby as a college student, who then became engaged, then a wife, and now a mom. It has been a wonderful journey through life and it’s been great having my BJD hobby as a constant. Before I had my daughter I did wonder how my time would be spent. Obviously being a mother comes first over BJDs, but would I get time to do my hobby I love so much?

Is being in the hobby that important?

I think that having time to do things for yourself is very important. Whether you are a mom or not. Self-care comes in many different forms and I feel like getting to do things that you find joy in can help relieve everyday stress.

Raising kids can be very stressful. There are days where I have to take deep breaths and try my best to not pull my hair out when my child has made a mess for the 20th time. Being a wife is stressful. I want to be a good partner and help in anyway I can.

I am pretty sure that I am not alone in this and others may have other things they stress over. Whether it’s collecting BJDs, drawing, photography, writing, playing games, or just sitting down with a nice cup of tea, we all must find something that we like and let our selves be free in it.

But how do you find the time?

Organization apps,creating schedules, and desk calendars oh my!

If you were to look into my room you would immediately see my desk calendar that I have hanging on the wall with multicolored writing on it. You could close my door and see a big white board with magnets and more writing. On my phone and computer I have bookmarked apps/sites where I map out my ideas, goals, and checklists.

I honestly never used to be an organized person, even through college. Honestly I have to thank my husband for a lot of my current organization tools I use. He has shown me great apps and how to put systems into place that will help keep me organized and make me more efficient with my time.

Apps/sites that I use…

Since I am also a working mom it is important that I can have a place to quickly jot down ideas, organize my thoughts, or create new goals. The following apps can be accessed on my phone, computer, and tablet.

• Trello- I actually have several lists created here and I like that you can add files to your lists like images, videos, and website links.

• GoogleTask- This is a great tool for immediate things that need to be taken care of. I put things that can usually be checked off quickly such as chores or events for the week.

• OneDrive- Great for when you need to store files and share them with others. I have folders specifically with my YouTube things in it including my image format that I use for my thumbnails, music, and pictures/videos.

The good ol fashioned organizational tools

Because I am a very visual person I like to have something that can give me a daily reminder for important things. Call me old fashioned but I also like to physically write things down sometimes too!

I use a large desk calendar that I have mounted on my wall. I have made a goal to have a YouTube video out every Friday so on my calendar I have every Friday boxed off in Blue and I jot down an idea of what video I would like to have out. I also circle dates in red for certain goals usually pertaining to my day job. Writing down things I look forward to on the calendar is a favorite thing to do too. I will write down fun events with friends and family in green. You will see large black X’s on the days that have already passed.

Behind my door is a large magnetic white board. I have spilt the board in half and on one side I will write quick important reminders for my day job, and on the other side I write goals/reminders for my BJD stuff. Since it’s magnetic I also like to put up hand written notes. Once I reach my goals I will erase it off the board and then write a new one.

Working during Mom time hours

Something that REALLY helps is figuring out my times to do mom things and times to do things for myself. Since it is currently the summer I am with my daughter all day unless I give her to the grandparents for a get together day.

The teacher in me cannot leave her with a phone or tablet all day so we work a school type schedule. She is up crazy early everyday which means I have to make a full schedule and it looks something like this. The time frames I have put in bold are times where I can double dip and try to write an article, work on a YouTube video, or do day job stuff.

7:00am Morning routine (brush teeth, bathroom, get dressed)

8:00am Breakfast

9:00am Homework/learning time

11:30am Nap time

1:00pm Lunch time

2:00pm TV/phone time/music time (she needs to earn it by doing her work in the morning)

2:30pm Free play (she gets to play whatever toys she wants to play with)

3:30pm Outside time (if weather permits, if not we will do another activity together)

4:00pm Free Play

5:00pm Dinner

6:00pm Bath time/ Story time

7:00~8:00pm Bedtime

Not everything goes according to schedule all the time and let’s face it, I am human and I have skipped parts of the daily schedule before because I am too tired or want to take a nap with her too. Once school starts again it will change again and I will basically be doing the block schedule from 4:00pm to the end of the day.

Having my day mapped out like this in schedule helps me stay sane and lets me know that I will have time eventually to do things I want to do. I often also will stay up at night to do more things I want to do. Even though I stay up late I will try not to go to bed crazy late and work hard to go to bed no later than 12am.

My husband aka the MVP

My husband is a very hard worker in both his day job and in being a dad. He is also an amazing partner and when he is done with work he always asks how he can help. I even asked him if he could help put our daughter to sleep on certain days so I can do things for myself in the evenings earlier.

Without me asking he also helps around the house with chores and will help make meals too. I cannot stress how blessed and lucky I am to have this man in my life. He has always been very supportive of me and what I like to do. My hubby is very important to me and I love him very much.

You can do it!

Scheduling, goal creating, and managing your time I think can help anyone. For some it may not free up a lot of time at first as you learn your own groove and what works best for you, but it might be a good start for anyone that may feel like they don’t have time to do the things they love. To my fellow parents that are also in the BJD hobby I just hope this helps you know that you are not alone in trying to figure out your day. Just because you are a parent doesn’t mean you have to give up on all the things you love, it just means you have to work with what you can and get creative!

Are you a also a parent and in the BJD hobby? Tell me about your experiences in the comments section down below!