Let’s Look-Things We Outsource Without Regret!

Hey Friends! I know I’m sharing this post a week late but I have been sick and DOWN FOR THE COUNT for a week! I didn’t know what day it was, didn’t turn my computer on, nor did I get out of bed. Whew! I’m so thankful to be on the road to recovery! I had my post almost finished but needed to go in and proofread one more time last Tuesday before clicking “publish”. Well, Tuesday’s the day I went down. 🙁 Again, I’m so thankful to be feeling better and be back here with you. I’m BACK with another year of Let’s Look with Shay. She shared this last week but this is my take on the things I out source without any regrets!

I’m SO SO SO very thankful for my jobs. I get to blog and share things on social media with all of my online friends {who many have turned REAL life friends}. I also get to work with many, many clients planning amazing vacations for their families. I love doing both of those things plus the flexibility it allows me to also get dinner started at noon, chaperone a third grade field trip, run a kid to an appointment, etc. is absolutely AMAZING. I’m so thankful for all of that BUT sometimes working from home with super flexible occupations means I’m often tasked with all the typical stay-at-home mom roles {chef, laundry person, organizer, carpool driver, house keeper, grocery shopper, etc.} plus the responsibilities that come along with those two jobs makes for realistically not enough hours in my day. Over time I’ve learned that in order to keep things afloat I have to outsource things to keep our house running smoothly. Here’s my list…

#1 GROCERY DELIVERY-I’ve shared often how this is one thing that saves me so much time AND money. I sit down usually on Sundays {or whenever works for my schedule} to meal plan for the week and I order groceries to be delivered. Gone are the days where I’m heading to the grocery store to spend an hour-ish shopping for ALL the food we’ll need for the week. I remember pushing that double wide shopping cart through the grocery store with kids hanging all over the sides. Grocery delivery is SO much easier!

#2 RIDES-With one mom and one dad who often travels/works many days in the office about forty-five minutes away, made me have to outsource rides for the kids a long time ago. I couldn’t physically get all four kids where they need to be at the right time. Now that my kids are starting to drive {WAAAHHH} this is much easier, but I still have to carpool rides with other parents or pay a driver to often get everyone to their designated practice or event at the same time.

#3 YARD MAINTENANCE-I asked Tab for some ideas on things I outsource and he got really technical with some things he outsources too. Years ago, Tab would spend hours of every weekend doing the yard work. He actually loves yard work but there came a time when we both realized he was missing precious family time hours every weekend having to spend time doing the yard. Sidenote…there was a time in our first house/pre-kids that Tab loved yard work so much one of our neighbors paid him to do his yard too!

#4 POOL-It took us approximately two months with a pool to realize we don’t have this skill. In our second home we had a funky back yard with a cool pool and two REALLY cool trees {that dropped leaves in that pool practically every day. we often joked they were the two trees in the whole world that always had leaves yet dropped leaves on the daily.}.

#5 HOUSE CLEANING-Have you guys seen those cleaning schedules were you clean for maybe 30 minutes to an hour everyday but then by the end of the week you’ve cleaned everything? Except the stuff you cleaned the first day of the week is dirty again at this point, right? When I had three littles at home, it REALLY bothered me that I didn’t have time to have everything super clean at one time. I asked Tab multiple times about having a cleaner come in every once in a while to help and he put it off. UNTIL…I went on a girl’s trip with the women in my family and Tab stayed at home with baby Bowen {two months old, Nixon {two years old}, and Ebby Lee {three years old}. It was the first time he’d been solo parenting all three for an extended time. He did great but the first thing he said when I got home was, “You can get a house keeper”. hahahaha! Now that I’m working during the day it’s different. My kids are all in school so I do have time they’re away and I could clean but I use that time to work.

#6 DRY CLEANING/IRONING-When we were first married, we had an iron constantly set up in our guest bedroom and we ironed everything. We didn’t have the extra money nor did we want to spend any money on dry cleaning. Nowadays we don’t have time to iron so we send it to the cleaners. I’m happy to not ruin anything trying to do it myself as well!

#7 SLOW COOKER-This one might make you laugh, but I do feel like on nights I cook dinner in the slow cooker I’m outsourcing dinner a bit.

Okay, friends! That wraps up my list! What about YOU?? What are some things YOU outsource without regrets?!

Hope to see you next back here on Friday!

XO