Issue #5: The mental load is real. Let's lighten it.

How I stopped the endless scavenger hunt every time I left the house.

Andrew built this entryway for us! Cabinet is from Ikea, shiplap is Home Depot, and homemade shelf. There are even more shoes inside. 😅

Every time I leave the house, I feel like my brain is running a full mental marathon.

Where are Keira's booties?
Do we have the carrier in the car?
Are there enough diapers?
Wait, where are my socks?
Does Keira have a sweater?
She needs a hat too!
Ugh, I forgot my water bottle.

And the classic: Where’s my phone?*

*I swear if I didn't have an Apple Watch, I'd never know where my phone is. I’m always pinging it, lol.

For a while, I used to be the one to put Keira in the car while shouting a laundry list of commands to Andrew like I was running a boot camp. But we finally figured out that this did not work. Andrew didn’t know where anything was (and honestly, I barely did either).

So, we switched things up. Andrew takes Keira straight to the car, and I go into sprint mode around the house grabbing everything we need. It’s still a lot of mental gymnastics on my end, but it’s less shouty.

Okay, better… but not quite there yet.

I was still juggling too much in my head, and it was exhausting. So, I decided I was done playing scavenger hunt every time we left the house. It was time to fix this.