This is on the inside of my binder... please pardon the less than stellar script. I find the words edifying, though, and also am sharing the picture by way of a plug for library book sales. The prints are ones I got in an ooooollllld museum exhibition book at a $1/bag sale. I've cut out several of my favorites to use for projects such as this, combining beauty and function.
The binder has daily routines with specific focuses for each day (Monday: Bigger Kitchen Tasks, Tuesday: Bathroom Tasks, etc.). During the days I stuck with it last week, it helped me stay on track so very, very much. Even if I am interrupted (ha! I'm a mother. what do I mean if?), it is easy to stay mentally focused and resume my plans for the day.
The book has prayer journal pages, monthly calendars from her useful site, a folder for phone calls that need to be made and bills paid, a grocery list section (I browsed several online templates for grocery lists but ended up settling for just plain notebook paper; it works better for me), and a weekly meal planner.
(not the neatest meal plan ever, nope! It was a busy week and I made it in a rush)
This document serves as a reminder to me that Everyone Has Their Own Needs. Like the grocery list templates, I looked at many excellent meal planning templates online trying to find one that would fit our family. Finally I realized that I could just make a simple version of the one I hand wrote all of last year ('til the Striderling was born and was hospitalized.... meal planning obviously was a low priority for a very long time).... it worked beautifully for us. It will probably continue to work until the kiddos are old enough to be eating independently.
Because of Strider's night shift job, he's not up for breakfast, so I get it on my own. For the main meal, I don't do well if I say "Monday, we're going to have x and Tuesday we'll have y," because if I do that, invariably events happen on Monday to make y the better meal after all. So I try to plan out all the main meals and side dishes for the week and decide as the week goes when we'll have what. We eat our main mean around 3 pm, before Strider leaves for work. I fix lunch, pack his work lunch, feed the Striderling, and then take a nap before cleaning the kitchen. It's a good routine.
The extra cooking part of the planner is for things like bread/cookies/freezer meals that I will want to try and do outside of normal meal prep time.
So, if you find a template that works well for you, that's great! The most important thing, though, is that whatever you have works. It doesn't have to be pretty or fancy or fit exactly the image seen in SuperMom binders. It needs to simplify your life and help you be a better manager of your time.... that's it.
/end pep talk aimed mostly at me!
"For the main meal, I don't do well if I say "Monday, we're going to have x and Tuesday we'll have y," because if I do that, invariably events happen on Monday to make y the better meal after all. So I try to plan out all the main meals and side dishes for the week and decide as the week goes when we'll have what."
ReplyDeleteThat's the way things usually happen around here too, and I do the same thing.
That's how we usually do the meals, too!
ReplyDeleteNow that Pearl is "older", it's helped me immensely to set rules for her that also apply to me. For example, she doesn't get play time/fun time/nursing time until she's done some cleaning. Some of the time that means me supervising her cleaning up toddler messes. But if I'm consistent about it, usually it means that she needs to "help" me do my housework. Yesterday we spent a lot of time cleaning up her toys, books, and puzzles. But because we did that yesterday, this morning it meant we tackled the laundry, a little bit of vacuuming, and changing the sheets on the bed.
And this works for our family because I have a lot more self-control when it comes to setting her limits than I do with my own!