For the L.O.V.E. of Lists

I LOVE lists. I love checking things off of lists. I love the feeling of accomplishment that comes from lists.

I find that organizational tools such as lists, goals written down, menu plans, and calendars are my friend, BUT they are only my friend if I use them correctly.

There are a lot of "Life Binder" ideas out there, but those ideas just do not work for me. I am organized in my own sort of way and I become overwhelmed when I have a huge binder with a lot of different sections.

Therefore, I decided to show and tell you some ways that I stay organized and stay sane. People often ask me how I stay on top of things with this being my first year of homeschooling. I will give a little peek here today.

First and foremost, I use this blog as a reminder. I use it to write my lists for the week, I use it to keep my thoughts organized and I use it to stay on top of Menu Planning.

Lots, of people use printed out menu plans, but with all the paper that comes and goes through this house, it just isn't possible to keep a tab on where it is (I tried putting it on the refrigerator and the boys would jump and rip it off. I have tried multiple things, just none have worked for me.). Therefore, putting my menu up on here and just jumping on in the morning to see what is planned for dinner works for me. My husband also likes that he can just jump online to look at what we're having for dinner. It makes the Davis' home go smoother!

Another tool my husband and some of my friends use, but I have not gotten into (I'm not too good at technological things! :)) is Google Calendars. My husband uses it and it keeps him on top of things so it must be a good tool! To learn more about it click here.

The next tool I use it the "chore chart". It isn't necessarily a chore chart for any one person in the family, it is just a chart that states what we should do every day during the day. We try and do a quick clean and do of everyone of the things on the list but the day that we focus on a certain area has a box. Some categories have a box every day, these are things that we need to do every day such as make our bed, brush our teeth, and dinner/clean up. This helps are day go much more smoothly.

I also LOVE my planner. Every year when the school year starts, I buy a new planner. For our home the new year begins with each school year, more than with each calendar year. You cannot see it in this picture but every night before I go to bed, I tentatively schedule every hour of my day. Now days that I follow the schedule to a T, I would be telling a fib if I said I did not feel better, BUT I always try to be open to God's gentle interruptions (I am NO where close to being good at it yet!). I just feel when I follow this schedule somewhat there is not a lot of wasted time. I am distracted very easy but one thing that helps is I'm not a big "phone talker". If you catch me on a good day I am, but it is just too hard to focus on a conversation when boys are circling you with guns, screaming "you're next mom". This also limits me computer time. I love to jump on and read blogs, but there just isn't enough time for it some days. I try to use my schedule as a reward for myself. I find that if I do things in a timely manner and correctly, I let myself jump on the computer the remaining time. When the next hour starts, I start too. This is just a little trick that works for me.

The final tool I use is my family wall calendar. This isn't a very exciting tool. We have a wall calendar hanging in the kitchen so if someone calls and wants to schedule something we can take a quick look at whether we already have something planned for that time. Now we have the rule in our home (and we try to adhere to it!) that before we schedule or commit to something, we always talk to each other. It doesn't always work, but we have found time and time again that one of us had an idea for a Saturday and the other had a totally different idea or committed the family to something else. This calendar is very handy during the Holiday season. We both have large families that live near us. Therefore, we have a TON of plans. I am starting to have anxiety attacks just thinking of the events coming up.

These organizational tools really work for me especially when times get hectic around our home. I hope that they can be of use to you during your busy holiday season!