How I Actually Manage Everything In My Life

I get asked all the time how I manage to keep up with everything in my life. Honestly, the question shocked me because I wasn’t sure what people meant. So I actually sat down and looked at all the things I “manage”:

• Work

• Kids

• Marriage

• Social media

• Self care

• Hobbies

• House care

When I looked at this list I thought, “Wow… that is a lot.” And from the outside, it can look like I’m juggling a million things. But the truth is:

I do none of this alone.

I couldn’t do any of it without my husband. We are a true partnership, and it hasn’t always been like that. It took a lot of communication, especially around cleaning. And before you assume anything, I was the one lacking there.

Before we had kids, there was a time when it was just the two of us. Newly married, living in Alaska, in a house way too big for us (thank you, military). We were young, just 19, and my husband did most of the cleaning. Dishes, laundry loading (which was supposed to be my job), shoveling snow, yard work, trash, sweeping… you name it.

Looking back, it’s wild how little I did. I had gone straight from my parents home into the military, so I wasn’t used to maintaining a household at all. It frustrated him, and it took time, communication, and a lot of patience from him for me to learn how to keep up with everything.

Now, ten years later, our housework is pretty evenly split. We each have things we absolutely hate, and the other one doesn’t mind. I hate dishes so he does them. He hates laundry so I do every load. It keeps balance in our home and sets a great example for our kids about teamwork.

Everything else we “manage” is shared too. We believe in keeping things equal so resentment never builds. There are things only one of us can do at certain times, and when that happens, we make up for it in another way.

For example, our son is breastfed, so most nighttime wake ups fall on me. But my husband always handles the kids bedtime routines and gets up with our daughter if she needs anything.

So no, I don’t think it’s fair to say I “manage” it all.

Some days, I don’t have time for hobbies, self care, or cleaning, and that’s okay.

But the priorities, my kids, my marriage, my work, those never lack because I’ve learned to put my energy where it matters most when I have it.

And that, truly, is how I manage it all.