"I can honestly say that I have lived through that juggling act for years. Here are a few thoughts I'd like to share from my experiences. Some of these things you may already know. First, have everyone put their next day's clothes in one area the night before - especially you. Keep all shoes and outerwear in one area (we didn't have a closet so I used totes). Have one tote/laundry basket with lid for each room. Use them for a ten-minute pickup. (I like totes because in an emergency clean-up they can be closed and stacked in a corner neatly). The totes can be quickly sorted by family members while you are cooking or before they want to play a video game. My kids folded laundry while they watched movies.  

Regarding food, there are numerous helps for that section of life, so I won't waste your time. But I will say that I always take out a portion of dinner (before serving it) and use it for my husband's lunch or toss in the freezer. You could also do the same for desserts (take two pieces out and freeze), then use for a friend with coffee. 

I made lists, lots of lists. I also used a 3 ring binder I wrote up that had daily, weekly, monthly schedules and cleaning duties. (They have many pre-made lists all over the web now). There were few duties I did daily: obviously dishes, laundry I would put in the machines at night and switch over in morning, and made sure all floors were cleared of stuff before everyone went to bed. I also cleaned tables daily - messy tables makes any house look bad. When I got frustrated with two teens' worth of stuff throughout the house, I would take everything I saw and build a pile of it on the floor. Next I would tell them they had ten minutes to put it all away or it was going into the garbage. Trust me. When they saw their shoes, iPods, books, hoodies, etc., they cleaned it up fast. As for the chore lists, keep them on the fridge and tell each person to pick something from it and do it for you.

Words of advice: You MUST have family members do their share, even if at first you have to tell them or show them 5 times. At least once a month, hand everyone a bag and tell them to empty a drawer, pile of junk, something, but they must fill the bag with garbage. Do it weekly if you can with older kids. We always clean out fridge on garbage night and de-junk then so we don't have piles around house for days.

You MUST take time each week for yourself. The same time each week, either an exercise class at night or coffee and a newspaper early Sunday morning. You may go to church on the weekends. If so please keep in mind that church activities are not always beneficial for time for yourself.  Very often they are demanding and stressful, and rarely relaxing. So if you do that twice a week and you're the one everyone else expects to get them ready and going, then that doesn't count as relaxing. Any person old enough to dress himself should get himself ready for church. Too many mothers are overtaxed by performance pressures for church. Have them get their clothes out the night before, plan your meal for something easy (sauce-and-just-boil-the-pasta type thing, leftovers, pizza, crockpot dish, etc.).  Personally I think that potluck meals at churches should be cooked and served by the men. Women don't need the burden, plus we put extra pressure on ourselves to perform...but that's a different topic all together.

Count your hours, include your traveling time. Are you putting in more than 10 hrs. a day? Think about what can go. I gave up canning and things like that as I got older. Cleaning the floors and dusting could be done by others once a week; just spot clean the messes as needed.

I may shock some people but there is something to be said about working smarter, not harder. Determine how much you are worth per hour.  If 20 hours of doing something is not financially beneficial, emotional rewarding or building up your home for the future, stop doing it. 

Write a business plan or use your mission statement you created for your family to homeschool. Go back to your basics, look at a calendar, or keep a diary of everything you do for 4 weeks and then go over it with your husband. Match it up with your business plan for the next five or ten years. If each thing that affects your life isn't helping toward those goals, then you and your husband need to reassess what you are doing. How many tiny things are you doing for others outside of your home that you don't even remember at the end of the week? Extra cooking? Extra errands? Twenty minutes late leaving somewhere due to talking to 5 more people? None of these are bad things and we all do them but they are time stealers, and at the end of the month you may have lost hours that we aren't even aware of. 

Do you ask for help? Who does all of the driving for activities? Homeschoolers here car pool and rotate monthly for things. Same for church activities.  Do you really need to be at every function you are invited too?

Write a diary of every single thing you do for a month, with whom and for how long.  You and your husband will learn new things about yourselves. I worked for my husband as well. He got so used to my being his assistant that he didn't think twice about interrupting a math lesson that it took me 15 minutes to get the kids focused on, then I had to start over. HA!

One last thing---- always, always have a savings for you. Whether its opening a Christmas club at a bank that you can't touch for 9 months or something. I make deposits as little as two dollars in it. You can even mail it to your bank or drop off in night box. One thing I learned recently I wished I had done was take $25 a week or month and bought a savings bond. My children would have been very well off by now. They double in ten years plus accrued interest - and I know I've spent more than that on pizzas.

Anyway, I'm off to work, by the way my children are in college now and we survived just fine, as I'm sure you will." ~ Tina