This was an interesting month. I hit a major wall this month, and I'm pretty sure it had to do with staying up late with my husband to watch the end of one of the old seasons of a TV series we used to watch, like years ago. (learning again, that when I'm tired, especially when I sleep past that magic time that day makes the day go smoothly, I'm sooo less effective as a parent and things fall apart around here!) We enjoyed ourselves, but I'm going to try not to get sucked into the next season, see if I can avoid some grisly Jack Bauer torture scenes.
Here is what I learned this month:
1 - I've decided there are three critical times of day for me that affect the outcome of my whole entire day. When I'm behind on one of these, things really snowball in a bad way. One is the time I get up, the next is when I exercise, and the last is what time we have dinner.
2 - It is hard to get organized when I'm unorganized. :)
3 - Some organization needs a simple framework. I planned out activities and dates with my husband and kids for the whole year. At first, it was a bit daunting to sit down and know where to start. First I filled in all the set dates, like days off school. I tried to decide how many bigger activities my time and budget would allow (for example, after looking into cultural events-- ahhh....there were so many great ones! I want to expose the kids to so many wonderful things! But one trip to the theater is a big chunk of money!). Then, for better or worse, I decided on one big activity a month, a date with one child per month, two dates with my husband, etc. I planned in one story time at the library per month, instead of weekly, in order to give us time to explore and play close to home. I planned which days of the week I'd dedicate to which activities, with the kids and around the house. I decided I'd dedicate the weeks of the month's according to my priorities-- so my weekend to go out with my husband comes before my weekend doing something with the kids/as a family. This helped give structure to my plan. I made a list of activities for the year, keeping in mind our overall goals with our motto Learn, Do, Be. For example, I thought January would be the perfect month to practice our restaurant skills. I scheduled a trip to the lake in August, when the water is warmest. A trip to the homeless shelter in November. None of these have to be set in stone, but this way I can be more purposeful about how we spend time together, and I can see a visual reminder of something we should be doing!
4 - Starting something is half the battle. This was true for the things I planned, and also for quality time this month. Spending time together has been the best part of my project, but I had a really hard time forcing myself to put down the laundry or dishes or whatever it was this month in order to have our quality time together. Once I started doing something with the kids, though, it became enjoyable and easier, helping me push through a tempting rough patch. (and getting out really helps me when I'm challenged this way because I'm not distracted by all my to-do's! I made a new schedule for myself, filling it in, again, with a rough framework of have-to's and priorities and then filling in the gaps.
5 - Teamwork! I was drawing a major blank on planning our family home evenings for the year. So, imagine this, I asked my husband and he had a great idea. Why not -- Learn, Do, Be? So the first week of each month will be learning something religious, second week will be secular (from our list of things we want them to learn before leaving home), third week we'll actually put them into practice, primarily by "doing" things for others, and the last week we'll focus on the "be" part. Just having a framework really helped the planning to breeze by!
6- Simplifying can reduce my stress and protect my wallet, while making me more relaxed and fun to be around, giving those golden moments of happy unplanned times as a parent.
7 - Organization doesn't have to be fancy-- it just has to work for me. I love this woman's approach to organization. This is what I'm going to do-- I have a binder and a notebook (on her blog, see "Around the House" and then "Life Binder," neither one fancy)!
8 - Sometimes I have to accept that some days are just going to be crazy! No matter what I do! I need to cultivate a sense of humor about these times so I can laugh rather than cry. And talk to other moms who are going through the same thing. So I can see that these days aren't forever. And some things really are funny. (one of the things I loved about I Didn't Plan to Be a Witch (Eyre) was her funny re-countings of some of their crazy times-- and I know that her children turned out great! Wow was it nice to feel like I'm not alone, and some of these things really are funny.)
Doing this planning was a bit onerous, but once I got the hang of it, it was kind of fun! I feel invigorated and excited for next month! Now that I have the hard part behind me, things should go a bit smoother.
New goals for next month and a six month recap coming up!
How do you help yourself get organized? I'm kind of loving yearly planning right now, I did it for scouts and it was awesome. One big planning session, then sit back and enjoy my work with minor tweaks here and there. And often I can use the same plan the next year.
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