Balanced Challenge: Day 2

Today is day two (for me) of the Balanced Challenge by Tricia Goyer. Today's questions are: What can you do or change to make working from home actually work for you? Creating an office space? Cleaning up that office space? Looking into finding a babysitter for a few hours a day? Take the first steps in making the change, then take a photo of your progress and post it on your blog. Well, this is a little awkward. I don't actually work from home. I decided to read the book and participate in the challenge anyway because I feel nearly everything still applies to me as a mom who works outside the home. After all, I still have work that I do at home. I teach full day kindergarten in a public school. I plan lessons and research more effective ways to teach and impact the little lives I am in charge of teaching.  I have an office space, but it is currently more like a dumping ground. It is so bad that I actually put a baby gate up so Wyatt cannot get in there and knock all my piles over. ::blush:: I currently have my laptop set up in the living room so I can research teaching methods in between playing with and taking care of Wyatt.  My eventual plan is to move my office space to a nook off of our kitchen. To do that I need to move the furniture out of that room to the basement. But before I can move the furniture to the basement I need to clean up the basement and paint the basement floor (or at least throw down some carpet scraps).  I feel a little bit like "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie."  I am currently in Florida and not remotely close to my office so I cannot add any photos today. I will have to come back and update later!
The biggest challenge I have is finding enough energy at the end of the long school day to play with Wyatt, clean the house, cook dinner, etc. before I fall asleep!  I have been trying to use the FlyLady system for years, but never seem to do all of her little jobs each day. I also got the Clean Enough ebook in a book bundle a while ago. And yesterday checking everyone else's answers to today's challenge I found Amy at Gospel Homemaking and her To-Do lists.  I had tried in the past to take FlyLady's ideas and put them into a daily or weekly rotating to-do list, but I got bogged down with the list changing every week and month.  Amy has basically done this for me! All I have to do is go to her website and print off the weekly to-do list and I am ready to go. I am going to try this when I get home to see if it is more effective for me. 
To keep up with dinner I subscribe to eMeals. They email me a menu each week along with the shopping list for feeding four people 7 dinners. There are always leftovers for me to take to school for lunch the following day so basically I just need to add breakfast and snack items to the list emailed to me weekly and my shopping is done! Unfortunately, we have fallen a bit off the wagon and have just been eating out lately because it is easier. But really, this isn't difficult. I just need to go to the store and do it. 
Get Balanced!
This post is part of the Balanced challenge with Tricia Goyer—and you can join, too!