Balancing Diapers and Deadlines - A Course Review

Lisa Tanner is a writer, blogger, and work at home mom of eight children. She is a free lance writer and home schools her children. You can find her at Lisa Tanner Writing.

Balancing Diapers and Deadlines is one of the helpful courses she has created to share her knowledge of how to get things done. Based on her experience of running a business, while raising and homeschooling her children, she shares effective strategies to be productive and accomplish goals.

As a Homeschool Review Crew participant, I had the opportunity to take and review Lisa's course Diapers and Deadlines. For myself, with only young adults and a teen student still at home, our homeschooling responsibilities are coming to a close. I certainly don't have the needs of young ones to take into consideration anymore. However, the prospect of learning some time management skills from someone who manages to accomplish as much as Lisa, was enough for me to enthusiastically join in, on this one.

What Lisa has put together in this course is impressive! It is practical and encouraging. If your babies are grown, don't let the diapers in the title discourage you; this course is useful for anyone working from home. We can all use tools to help maintain balance in our work and home responsibilities, no matter the ages of family members. Presented in eight units beginning with an introduction and the basics, each unit includes 4-8 lessons within.

The Unit titles are:

Welcome to Balancing Diapers and Deadlines

Building Your Foundation with the Basics

Minimize Your Decisions

Minimize Your Decisions: The Annual Meal Plan

Sustainable Growth

Growing a Business with Your Kids Around

Boost Your Productivity

Closing Thoughts

In the study units, Lisa introduces overall concepts like; getting your family on board with your business, building a foundation and minimizing decisions. She describes how a concept applies to productivity and gives suggestions to address and complete tasks with examples of how an idea has worked for her family. She provides very doable action steps to use in your own situation. The lessons are sprinkled with sufficient reminders to be flexible and creative in applying them in your family.

"Planned fun helps with motivation." -
Lisa Tanner

If you have been homeschooling and/or working from home for a while, you might feel the pull, as I did at first glance, to quickly move through or even skip the units with titles that suggest lessons on the basics. After reading through a few lessons from the beginning, I began applying a few of the helpful action steps that followed. As a result, I started to evaluate some of my basic routines and my current situation in a new light. I am now in the process of returning to some routines that have fallen by the wayside and am completely overhauling others, most notably; meal planning.


One simple and basic I'm returning to was prompted by Lisa's 15 Minute Quick Clean. A time limited pick up/clean up is something I used when my children were small, to get them to participate. Reading her creative adaptation to the same idea sparked the renewal of this technique for myself. Along with the wonderful reminder to enjoy the process, put some music on! Why do I forget this? Might as well have a little fun and dance while cleaning up, even if (or now that kids are big) especially when, I'm cleaning by myself!

An example of a bigger overhaul in my routines, prompted by Lisa's course, falls under the concept of minimizing decisions. I see how we all get bogged down with too many daily decisions and how making as many as possible in advance can increase ones productivity tremendously. I'm on board with this and appreciate the suggestions Lisa gives about where to make decisions in advance.

The place I currently most want to minimize daily decision making, in my own life, is in the area of meal planning. Lisa understandably, gives meal planning it's own unit. The process of determining what's for breakfast, lunch and dinner on a daily basis, takes it's toll and frequently results in less than optimal nutrition for my family. I have done weekly meal planning off and on over the years. It is a task I don't enjoy and am truly overwhelmed by.

Just beginning, still overwhelmed
but, determined to give meal
planning another try.

Balancing Diapers and Deadlines provided the motivation, so with printable pages provided through the course, I'm diving back in. Lisa's example of a yearly plan, quite frankly, seemed crazy and impossible at first but, as I read through the lessons in the unit and printed out some of her examples, the idea started to fall into place. Having themed dinner ideas makes sense to me. It still allows for some flexibility and creativity while providing the needed structure to get it done and minimize daily decision making - leaving energy for productivity in other areas.

My current challenge is actually preparing for and adjusting to the many transitions our family is undergoing, finding focus for my own endeavors as we move into a new season of life. While we have our routines in this phase, the rhythms are changing which can make productivity a challenge. Lisa created this course to give info to moms and help them accomplish their goals while still caring for their families. She offers down to earth practical advice and suggestions for the necessary day to day basics that need to be accomplished for the healthy effective functioning of a family.

At first glance through the early units some of the lessons seemed too basic but as I progressed through the units, I also found myself returning to those basics. I reflected on and re-evaluated my current routines and how they are addressing the needs of family members and my own needs as I pursue a new and developing list of my own goals.

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Working In Work - for Working It In Wednesday

Two parent families, living on one income, are not the norm in our local community. A family of five, like ours, living on one income in the Chicago-land area can severely limit a family's financial resources. My husband and I made the choice for me to be an at home mom long before we even considered homeschooling. Once we headed down that road, a second parent income became less likely. I have heard comments from other moms about what a luxury it is to be with one's children on a daily basis. Others say they couldn't do it. Sometimes, I reply that it is a sacrifice we have made more that a luxury.

As parents, I think we all have the inclination to provide as much as possible for our children, both the needs and the wants. The clothes, toys or technology they want, the very best education and opportunities are a constant consideration and temptation. Our own desires, plus the pressure of seeing what is available to others can be a serious distraction from our own determined goals and priorities. The choice to live on only my husband's income has limited our our ability to give into every request. I have come to view that limitation as a blessing. By the fact of our financial limitations, we have had to teach our children more about setting goals, the value of resources, work and earning some of their own money.

Being home schooled has provided my children with the opportunity to do their academic subjects, pursue extra curriculum interests plus take on small jobs in our community to earn their own money. Being available during daytime hours has made small local jobs more accessible and doable. For example, a small weekly newspaper is provided free to residents. At one time it was delivered door to door by local teens. That newspaper delivery job was our oldest son's first job. It was the vehicle that taught him how a job well done can lead to more lucrative opportunities. He was asked by his newspaper costumers to do small jobs of yard work, snow shoveling and dog walking in the neighborhood.

Unfortunately, the delivery service was ended by the newspaper just about the time our oldest son was ready to hand the job down, to his younger brother. Fortunately, that was after our younger son had at least been able to assist with that weekly endeavor. The small jobs of babysitting, dog walking, pet care and yard work that came from connections made in the neighborhood, while delivering newspapers, were still options for each of them to do.

The skills they have acquired pursuing extracurricular activities have also provided them with opportunities to work. Our second son assists with training and coaching of younger baseball players on a travel team. Our daughter coaches at a gym teaching basic gymnastic skills to little ones.

If we had been a two income family, it may have been easier to simply hand our children the extras they wanted, but they have learned so much because we weren't able to or didn't. That wonderful new baseball bat, pair of shoes or outfit isn't nearly as desirable if it has to be purchased with one's own hard earned money. The ability to work in opportunities for actual paid work, for each of our home schooled children has been one of the benefits of choosing a one income, homeschooling family lifestyle. My Work It In Wednesday Homeschool Encouragement is the recognition that more opportunities for our young people to contribute increases their financial resources and their understanding of work.

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