The PERFECT Planner

I am not a shopper.  I get very little joy from buying new clothes, shoes, jewelry, accessories but the things I am a sucker for are things like journals, notebooks, pens and planners.  I could spend hours and lots of money in a stationery store.  For me there's nothing like starting a new planner or writing on the first page of a new journal.  So when I stumbled upon erincondren.com it was love at first sight!  This company sells, amongst many other things, personalized notebooks and planners.  I have been trying to find the perfect planner  so when I saw the 2012 Life Planner, I really wanted it (I know it is February and I probably should have had something for the beginning of the year but hey, better late than never!)  I was so excited to place the order... it cost me an arm and a leg for shipping but my hubby agreed to let me splurge a bit (Thanks Babe!) 

And then I had to wait for the package to arrive.  I am not the most patient person so I obsessively checked the Fedex tracking site until it landed!

I knew the package would be delivered on Thursday and in my perfect world this is how it would go:  

The package would arrive and my lovely, well behaved children would be busy with their school work, Marcus would be napping, I would whisk the package away from the Fed ex guy (thanking him of course)  sit down with my freshly made caramel latte, put my feet up and enjoy ripping open the package.   I would spend the next ten minutes exploring my beautiful new Erin Condren 2012 Life Planner and another 30 minutes filling in all of our appointment, birthdays, soccer practices, ballet lessons...you get the picture...

This my friends is what really happened.  It was Thursday,  so that meant my father in law was over to  give music lessons to the kids.  One child who will remain unnamed had decided that today was not a good day for music lessons and then proceeded to go to their room and slam the door.  The next child was called for their lesson.   I went to deal with the door slamming stubborn child while leaving the third child to keep an eye on Marcus who was now 20 minutes late for his nap but needed to have a diaper change.  In the midst of the disciplinary session I hear "Mommy! There are 3 people at the door!" being shouted through the house.  I wondering how big this life planner is that it takes 3 people to deliver it...I know my life is busy but the planner does need to fit in my purse! I leave a "now crying, not so stubborn, sorry he slammed the door" child in room to think about his behaviour.  As I walk briskly through the kitchen towards the front door I notice that the child who was supposed to be keeping an eye on Marcus had dumped a cup full of flour on the counter and was now proceeding to sweep it everywhere with a pastry brush (did I mention I was making cookies in the midst of this all?)  Marcus was at the door, ready to greet the three people with a sagging diaper, now 30 minutes past his naptime.  My father in law has thankfully made it to the door ahead of me and  nicely let them know I would be right with them.  As I get to the door there is one Fed Ex guy and 2 ladies carrying oversized purses... yes, Jehovah's Witnesses.  Anyway I deal with the Fed ex guy first.  I have to pay customs duty for the package (it has now cost me the other arm and leg) so I ask him to excuse me while I go and get my purse.  I need to pay with a card as I never have cash... the Fed ex guy needs to borrow my phone to call in the payment... is he serious?  Has he ever tried to find a cordless phone in the middle of a chaotic household...especially one that is not ringing?!  Back to the kitchen, child with pastry brush is still sweeping away, locate phone, payment is authorized, sign the slip, accept the package.  The 2 nice ladies are still on the step  and want to give me a booklet titled "The Happy Family" or "Raising a Happy Family" or something like that... They must have seen I looked a bit frazzled! I  tell them thank you but that I probably won't read it so I won't take it.  They then ask me if I homeschool... I felt like saying "No I run a circus, can't you tell." But I didn't, we had a quick chat about homeschooling and they were on their way.  I close the door try to restore some order to the chaos, get Marcus to nap, clean up the flour, and then I crack open the box and take a peek.  My Life Planner... it looks perfect...

And opening it in the midst of chaos was a perfect reminder to me that although I may find a perfect planner,  life will still be chaotic and unexpected at times but if we keep our eyes on the Master Planner HE will give us peace!  HE  is the Perfect Planner so I pray that as I use my new planner I will remember to rely on God and trust in the perfect plans he has for me.

Psalm 119:133 The steps of a man are established by the LORD, And He delights in his way.

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 

Isaiah 26:3  You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. 

Pin it!

In a previous post I mentioned that  I use Pinterest to keep track of recipes I want to try. Some of you may have been wondering what I was talking about. I thought I would share with you what, in my opinion, is one of the best sites to hit the internet!!

First this post should come with a warning:

Beware!! Pinterest, while a useful tool has been known to take 5 minutes of your time and turn it into 30 minutes without you knowing. Proceed with caution! I will not be held responsible if all of the extra minutes of your day are wasted spent on Pinterest!

In all seriousness, like anything else on the internet, Pinterest does have the potential to be come a procrastination tool. I though have found its benefits towards making me more organized do outweigh this potential for me... If you do join I would encourage you to set limits for yourself if wasting time on the internet is an issue for you.

So with all that out of the way just what is Pinterest?

Just think of it as a virtual bulletin board.  As you find useful tips, ideas, beautiful pictures, wish list items, books to read (the list is endless) on the internet you can "rip them out" and "pin them up" on your bulletin board.

You can have several boards... here is a snap shot of some of mine:

This makes it easy to keep track of the ideas you find in a logical way. It is essentially creating a visual bookmark as clicking on the picture takes you back to the website it came from. I like it more than using bookmarks as I am a visual person.  I would bookmark things and then never go back to them or remember what the bookmark was for.
 
You can follow other users boards. The application can search your mail, facebook and twitter contacts to see who is already on Pinterest making it simple to find boards to follow. You can repin someone else's pin.   There is even an application for iTouch, iPhone and iPad.   I am loving Pinterest... when I need an activity for the kids or a new meal idea I can quickly go and find something that I have pinned.  So what are you waiting for?? Go join  and have fun pinning!!

How Do you Do it? Plan your meals

"What's for dinner?"

I have a love/ hate relationship with that question.  I love it when I have an answer and I hate it when I don't! I especially hate it when it is being asked in a tired, whiny voice after a long, busy day... and I don't have an answer!

I learned a while ago the value of having a meal plan but what that plan looks like has evolved (and is still evolving) through the many changes of our family. I will explain what I am currently doing striving to do but before that I want to share some things I have learned about meal planning (and any form of organizing for that matter).

1. Each family is unique so another family's meal plan or system of planning, while inspiring, may not work for your family and it may even be a source of frustration. There are lots of great meal planning websites and  blog posts about meal planning both free and paid.  They may promise to make your life easier and have great suggestions but you have to know what will work for you.   If you are just starting out, look for a plan that you like, implement it and then tweak it to meet your needs.  Don't abandon something that is working just because you come across someone else who does it differently.

2. Your meal plan doesn't have to look pretty.  Maybe this isn't an issue for you, but for me I would spend way too much time creating charts and lists and making them pretty,  use them for a week and then find something else that seemed better (see point one :)  Now I focus on functionality first and then if there is time I make it pretty.

3. Any plan you choose takes discipline to follow.  I am still learning this one!

So here is what works for me right now:

Step 1
I have a meal planning binder (sorry no pictures here of a pretty, organized binder :)

In the binder there is:

• a list of meals that our family likes.  I asked everyone to tell me what they like and I created this master list that is my "go to" list. 
• a calendar
• scrap paper
• recipes 

Step 2
Before grocery shopping I gather my binder and computer (I use iCal for my schedule).  I look at the schedule for the upcoming week and figure out what meals we will be having (if I have time I plan two to three weeks at a time).  I use my "go to" recipes for the most part  but if I have time I scan the internet for interesting recipes.  I have started using Pinterest and I have a recipe board to make it easier to collect recipes I want to try.

Step 3
I have a meal calendar in iCal where I plop in the meals for the week.  I have dinner as a recurring event and just update the entry on each day.  I have a email reminder set so I get an email each evening telling me what is for dinner the next day.  This helps me to remember if there is anything that takes extra preparation (i.e. crock pot, defrost meat etc.)

Step 4
I take out all the recipes in the binder that I intend to use for the week and print out any new recipes and then put them in order in the front of the binder.

Step 5
I use these recipes to make my grocery list.

Once I have shopped I am always one step away from dinner!

When it is time to make dinner, I pull out the recipe and put it in the front cover of the binder (I have a clear view binder)  This keeps the recipe clean while I cook. When I am done the recipe gets filed back in the recipe section of the binder.  If it is a new recipe I only keep it if it gets at least 4 thumbs up (out of 6 possible votes).

Sometimes the week doesn't go as planned. With this format, I can always switch things around if I need to.

How do you tackle dinner?  Any tips you want to share?

This is part 2 in the series How do you do it? 
You can read the previous posts here:
Intro post
Part 1

A typical day... wait..is there such a thing?!

I often get asked what a typical day looks like for us, or how I manage to homeschool 3 kids with a baby in tow. Even though no two days are alike, now 6 weeks into school  we have developed somewhat of a routine for each day. 

On a good morning  I start the day around 5:30 ( I'm still working on that!)  I spend that time having Quiet time and getting myself ready for the day.

Once the kids are up (around 7am) we start the day with Quiet Time. The kids do this with Joe and they use the Word of Life Quiet Time. Eli and Eden are on the Gopher level and Micaiah has an Challenger level Quiet time which is required for membership and levels at Olympian Club which he attends each Friday evening at our church.

Next comes breakfast and chores. Each child is responsible for making their bed and then have one or two additional chores for the day. This is all laid out on a chart so the can easily see what to do each day. The chores include feeding the rabbit, emptying trash cans, helping with meal prep, tidying the bathroom and helping with the laundry.

We aim to have all of that done in time to begin school at 9am.  We have gotten better at this over the past few weeks!

Our school time begins with circle time where we open with prayer and then recite our school verse, motto and cheer.  Here is a little look at them doing that earlier this week...

Circle time continues with our morning board. I'll explain more about that in another post.  We usually end this time with a little exercise time (jumping jacks, dancing, a jog around the yard) to help them get some wiggles out before we get to our workboxes.

By now it is about 9:45 and Marcus has usually gone in for his nap.  He is a great napper and will usually not get up until around lunch time making life easier for me in the classroom.  I am trying not to get too used to that because as he gets older I know that schedule will change!  But even the days that his schedule is off, he is happy to sit in his bouncer or in my lap as I work with the other kids. 

Micaiah and Eli start their workboxes.  The first few are filled with things they can do independantly or with little assistance.  I use that time to work one on one with Eden.  Working through her workboxes usually take about 30 minutes and I make her last couple activities ones she can do on her own so I can move on to work with Eli.  We stop for a fruit break once Eden has finished her "work with mommy" time.  When we start up again, Micaiah continues to work independantly, Eden gets back to her remaining work boxes or finds something else to play with on her own and I have concentrated time with Eli.  I usually spend about  45 minutes with Eli and then he is free to play with Eden or on his own until lunch. 

By now it is about 12 and I move on to work with Micaiah for about an hour.  We have lunch between 1 and 1:30 and then the kids go in for a rest time (a time when they are expected to read or lie quietly on their beds.)   If Micaiah and I have anything to finish from the morning he skips the rest time and we do it then.  Otherwise I use that time to play with and read to Marcus, do chores, get dinner ready, check emails and read blogs or whatever else I can fit in to my 30- 60 minutes of peace.  The length of rest time is determined by what afternoon activities we have so each day varies.  On afternoons that we are home we try to fit in science or catch up on any of our history curriclum we have missed othewise the kids do puzzles, play a game, watch a dvd etc, play on the computer, play outside etc.

The kids look forward to Daddy coming home and shortly after it its bath time, dinner time, read aloud/ evening devotions and then bedtime for the kids (my hallelujah moment!!)  And then we get ready to start all over the next day!

So there you have it...  a simplistic look at our day... in reality many a curveball is thrown in there and I am learning to go with the flow and not get too bent out of shape when my schedule doesn't go as planned!

Can Google organize my life?

The hardest part of homeschooling last year was planning... lesson plans, scheduling, getting everything done.   My strength has always been organizing things but it falls apart when it comes to maintenance.   I tried several different systems that I either came up with myself or "stole" from other homeschool moms.  Nothing stuck, nothing made life easier for me.  When I started using workboxes it made me be more organized but by the end of the school year which also correlated with the end of my pregnancy I couldn't keep up with filling the boxes each night and that fell apart as well.  So,  much thought has gone into what I can do differently this year.  Now with four little ones to manage, it is important for me to get this under control.

There are some lessons I learned as I look back over the year which I hope will help me as I gear up for this school year:

1.  First and foremost, I MUST commit each day to God and allow Him to direct my path.  There is a direct correlation between whether or not I spend time with my heavenly Father each morning and how much yelling I do during the day.  When I get up early, before the kids and spend time in His word, God gives me the strength and patience to deal with what comes my way.  I have come to realize that  the kids are pretty consistent, but it is my attitude towards them that can make or break the day.
These last few months I have made the excuse of lack of sleep to stay in bed a little longer... and I do know that God understands when I have been up all night with the baby... but how many times do I use that as an excuse and miss out on a blessing God may have had for me. 

2.  KISS- Keep it simple Sistah!- as much as I love to create elaborate systems of how something is going to work, it only works if I can then use it consistently. At this stage of my life the less I have to do to keep a system going, the better.  It also works for the kids if the routine is uncomplicated and easy for them to learn and follow.

3. The schedule is there as a guide and is not written in stone.   Last year I had a pretty strict schedule when we started but because I hadn't planned for it to be flexible, I felt like a failure each day that we didn't stick to it exactly.  As a result that schedule went out the window about 2 weeks after we started and for us the pendulum swung completely to the other side.  This also left me feeling like a failure because I had to think on my feet all day.  Things came together a bit with the introduction of workboxes in January.  They forced me to be more organized but still without the right balance of schedule and flexibility, I was constantly fighting against feeling inadequate as a homeschooling mom.  I also didn't keep it simple with the workboxes and I began to find the planning and filling of them monotonous.  Through it all I learned that for us, having a schedule  is better than the absence of one, but the BEST one is a flexible one.

4. My children, especially the oldest,  love routine.  They thrive when they know what is coming.  I, on the other hand like things to change up and I had been trying to manage their day based on my preference.  It occurred to me late in the year that it is okay with them if we do math the same time every day and even though I may get bored of that, they won't.  I had tried to make each day different but I now see the value in having a big part of the day the same.


So what does this look like for this year and what does Google have to do with it?   I am using Google Calendars!  Did you know that you can create many different calendars that can be viewed all together?  They are colour coded and you can view or hide which ever calendars you want.

I had been using a Google calendar for our appointments and day to day events but at some point this summer it occurred to me that I could use one calendar for each child and plug my lesson plans in there for each.  I would then have a snapshot each day of what each child should accomplish which I could view by day, week or month.  It would also be a record of what we did each day if I needed to go back and refer to anything. Using the things I learned that I listed above, I created a daily routine for each child and although I assigned a time to each(since that is the only way to add it to the calendar,) only the order needs to be followed.  For example, Micaiah's calendar has math from 10:50 to 11:30 and then reading from 11:30 to 11:50.  He will do those things in that order, but we will not be a stickler for time.  If there is something he doesn't get to for that day because he took more time than we alloted somewhere else, that's okay, we will catch up another day.  This way everyone knows what is coming.  I will probably still use schedule strips for Eli and Eden so they can have a visual, but Micaiah will have access to his Google calendar and will be able to monitor where he should be.

Because I can view all the calendars at the same time I will easily see when there are conflicts or appoinments that will get in the way of school time. 

I have even added a calendar for meals that I have been using for my meal planning.  I print that calendar out each week and stick it on the fridge so that anyone who wants to know what's for breakfast, lunch or dinner on any given day can see it.  Again,  I can view it with all the other calendars so I can see which days I don't have time to cook a big meal or if we will be out of the house at lunch time.

Here's a snapshot of what a day looks like.  It may look like a lot on one calendar but I can hide as many or as few as I want at any time.  I like being able to see everything at the same time...

click on it to make larger

I am really praying this works for me.  It seems simple enough to use and maintain and with God's guidance each day I feel confident that it can work!

Organizing Books

I know this is a Works for Me WEDNESDAY post and it is now Thursday but hey... that's what my life is like right now :) Always playing catch up. With 3 and 3/4 kids I feel like I play catch up with the dishes, the laundry, school prep... just about everything. SO when I find something that works for me I get really excited. We have books... lots of books... from board books to chapter books cause that's the stages we are at right now. The kids have a book shelf which they share but it wasn't working out so well...mainly because we couldn't keep it organized. KaiKai always did a great job tidying it up but it seemed like 5 minutes later it would be a mess again. Buttercup has also recently taken to filling a shopping bag with books and taking them all over the house... putting them back neatly is always a little challenging for her... hence the chaos on the bookshelf. One evening this week as I went to tidy it... yet again I started to realise how many books we had that we hadn't read, or hadn't read for a long time... only because they were usually buried under other books. I decide that I had had enough of the chaos. I remembered reading on a few blogs (don't remember which ones) how they only put out a few books for their kids each week and rotated them. I sorted the books according to age appropriateness/ reading level etc. and took out 10 books for each child. I got 3 baskets and labeled them and put in the books for the week. Each Sunday I will switch out some or all of the books so that they always have something fresh to read. The rest are stored in a convenient place and will now have a chance to be read!! Not an earth shattering idea, but it WORKS FOR ME (and that makes me happy:)!



If you want to see what is working for others check out We are THAT Family where Kristin host the Works for Me Wednesday blog carnival each week.

Tackle it Tuesday (on Wednesday... hey better late then never!): Gettin' Organized

There are 3 weeks left of school for the boys... that means 3 weeks left of life as I know it... 3 weeks until our homeschooling adventure begins! I am planning to start a modified school day routine for the summer just to get the kids used to "doing school at home" before we start in earnest in September. I am looking forward to filling our days with some fun activities, lots of swimming and some academics... to reinforce what they learned this year, and prepare them for the new material that we will cover. SOOOO... I have a lot to do to get organized. The school room is coming together, my supply box is getting fuller, my brain is swirling with tons of ideas I have been picking up on numerous blogs. I am getting EXCITED!! BUT I am getting nervous as well... I have so many things I keep asking myself like "HOW in the world am I going to get everything done? am I going to remember everything?" I have never been a terribly organised person... I write lists then lose the paper, I start a planner and abandon it a few months (or weeks... okay days later), I can never seem to get the hang of using a planner.. and I have tried them all... pda, Franklin planner, google calendar, mom agenda... my most successful attempt is the wall calendar I have hanging on the wall in the kitchen and I have done a fairly good job at keeping up with that. Anyway, today I was reading this blog and came across the concept of a daily docket... which looks like it just may work for me. I created my own docket based on the one Carisa designed... it is a work in progress but I TACKLED it! I also created a menu planning page and a grocery list as well (I usually scramble around 10 minutes before I have to go to the store to pull some sort of list together and then have to go back to the store 10 times before the next shopping day). Here they are... NOW i just have to use them! I'll report back soon on how they are working for me.

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