Organization your Schedules

On to the new portion of this week organizing our schedules. The biggest problem I have with getting organized is it takes time, time I never feel like I have. So here is the plan we make time, we make a schedule and we stick to it. My original idea was to do this with sticky notes on a wall in the house...but the sticky notes kept falling off the wall before I could finish. So here is my thought you can do this using sticky notes or paper or even 4x5 note cards whatever works for you...you can even use excel for that matter. Make columns for each day the week. Now under each column put things like garbage day (I need to put that on there so I don't forget it) time your kids leave for school and need to be picked up. Next put all your church obligations wednesday night activities, meeting, prep time for you class, church on Sunday etc. Now put on all your family obligations, piano lessons gymnastics, soccer etc. Now how about listing all those other things we do in the week when we can fit it in like grocery shopping, and trips to the library. This should give you a good idea of your week right now. I need to see all these things visually and maybe you don't so if so skip that part. I put each item on a different sticky note so I could really see all the things I need to do.

This is front the S.H.E. book so I will give you there suggestions. Pick one day a week to be your free day, when you can do anything you want: have lunch with friends, read a novel, take a long country walk, learn karate...you get the picture hard for us with a toddler but still a down day from all the other insanity. The idea is to keep the day free from housework, elaborate cooking, and errands. It's to be your weekly reward for being so well organized that you can afford to take the day off without seeing the house fall apart (well we shall see about that) Next pick a day for moderate cleaning 2-4 hours spent on housework. A quiet day when you will do things like pay bills, balance the checkbook, clip grocery coupon (well it's a nice thought), write letters, and tie up loose ends. A grocery shopping day; a heavy cleaning day (4-6 hours of house work), a family day and Sunday which is free of cleaning.

Here is a sample basic week plan from the book
Monday-Free Day
Tuesday-Moderate Cleaning
Wednesday-Shop ads, Clip Coupons
Thursday-Grocery Shop, Errands
Friday-Heavy Cleaning
Saturday-Children, Family
Sunday-Church, FAmily, Free of Cleaning

The point in having a schedule is so we stop over booking our selves and stop trying to do everything. We are human and can not as I learned one day this week have three separate playdates at different times at my house, clean up from each playdate, makes meals for everyone, try to organize our basement, do some running for Jared oh and don't loose my mind or feel completely out of sorts because I didn't get anything done. On my schedule I'm putting a day for play dates...I can only do them once a week and if we can't do them this week then lets go for the following week. I also need to have time for my photography business which will probably be my quite day. Now the other thing I want to put out is that at least for me doing no house work isn't really an option I have a toddler hello. But I can take a day where I only pick up the necessity leaving time for me to do other things. I've learned in my house if I can pick up a room every day it doesn't take very long...it's just picking it up every day that seems to be the issue.

Now that you have a basic plan of attack for the week there is one little area you need to concur. So put on your drill sergeant hat for a minute it's time to talk about dinner. Every day around 4 I panic because I need to have dinner on the table in an hour but no one is going to like it or eat it so what's the point. My husband is not going to be at the dinner table with us and Megan is going to climb all over me to the point where eating should qualify for an Olympic sport. I will no sooner sit down to eat than someone will need something else and by the time I can sit down at last everyone else has eaten and long since left the table. So I get to sit there among the tipped over glass of milk and the food Megan flung at someone else and try to enjoy my dinner while the kids argue about something or other...yup I'm not sure why I dread dinner each night but I do. So here is your call to action we are going to make a meal plan. (Yes sir) We are going to make it the best darn plan ever (yes sir) and it's going to work (yes sir) Are you ready for this? YES SIR!

The menu plan should compliment your weekly plan. On days where you don't have lots of time it's simple and easy meals, on your free day left over and paper plates, and one big family feast a week on Sunday...here is the sample plan from the book this goes with there weekly plan

Monday-Leftovers/paper plate night
Tuesday-Chicken
Wednesday-Fish...ok that one will never fly in my house:)
Thursday-Casserole/crock pot
Friday-hamburgers/tacos/Spaghetti
Saturday-Cook's Choice
Sunday-Feast/Roast/Ham

You know what your family likes to eat and what they don't my family doesn't do casseroles or fish but there are lots of over things I can sub in I'm sure.....I'll let you know when I figure that one out. I'm considering starting a recipe box separated by the days of the week with the recipe on the front and the grocery list on the back so I could just pull one out the cards to make my grocery list and meal plan for the week...the problem is it will take time....or I might be able to use a computer program I have for this I'll let you know how it goes. My thought is if I enter in whatever recipes I use for the week one week at a time before I know it I'll have all the ones we need. But we shall see.

Well Ladies that is all I have for this week. I wish you luck and happy organization. If you have any questions on the any of this feel free to call me and we will talk about it.