Family Planning: Mischiefmakers Style

So, I have been called a Supermom for appearing to be so organized and together. However, it is all a facade. I do have tremendous amount of energy and try to do everything and follow the books and be all things to all people. However, I am woefully unorganized and always terribly late for everything. I think it is a consequence of 1. doing too much; 2. procrastinating by wasting time doing mindless stuff like hanging out on Facebook and online; and 3. underestimating my limits.

That being said, the madness can not continue any longer because I am falling behind and just need to get organized. I dug out my mom planning book I found at a discount store years ago, did some online research and threw in some common sense ideas and practices based on the way my household already runs and I think I'm ready to start getting organized.

Family Calendar: We used to have a family calendar that hung in our kitchen where we would enter all activities, events and due dates so that everyone would know what is going on in each others lives and I could keep TriniDaddy abreast of school activities. Unfortunately, we took that down when we painted our kitchen when we had put our house on the market. Now that it appears that we may be in our home at least for another 6 months, I'm going to put it back up so we can again use that wonderful tool. I think I will put a small white board on which to write a running to do list and shopping list items. Another good addition would be a small box to store coupons. In this recession, it's a good idea to use those and save a few pennies here and there.

Kitchen Outpost: I have lost two of the three car keys that came with our newest SUV. We are relying on the valet key. This is pitiful. I am going to buy one of these racks that you hang up your keys on and see if that helps. I hope to find at least one of the keys soon though. *sigh*

Morning Rush: Despite the fact that we live minutes from the boys' school, we never fail to arrive late at least twice each week. This dilemma should be easily solved by having a better and efficient system. Cboy wears uniforms and has enough shirts for each day of the week. These should be ironed and pressed and hung up for easy daily access. We should pick outfits out for Jboy too while we're at it and arrange them in the closet by day of the week. We need to make sure each night that the boys' belts, shoes, sweaters, bookbags and linen (on Mondays for Jboy) are in place THE NIGHT BEFORE. We lose so much precious time scrambling for those items in the morning.

Lunch Packing
For lunch, they eat the same thing, but I'm thinking of going grocery shopping with them every 2-3 months so they can help me pick out stuff their friends are eating that they would like, so long as they are fairly healthy. Allowing Cboy to eat fruit roll ups contributed to three cavities in six months. So bad! Nonetheless, I know they get bored eating the same stuff all the time. We usually give them peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cheese sticks, apple slices, yogurt, graham crackers, and Cboy gets some chips and sometimes cookies for after school snack. I think I may consider sending some hotfoods like soups, pasta or hotdogs and chicken and steak for Jboy. They both are quite picky eaters. Neither of them "do" milk either. Though Cboy drinks hot chocolate before bedtime most nights.

Mail Organization: I think I will try my best to immediately sort mail. The piles just add up each day and TriniDaddy comes in, picks out what he wants or thinks is important and leaves the rest there. The mail accumulates and then once a month I have to spend hours sorting through the mail. This system has got to stop! I will try to immediately, chuck away junk mail, put the shred-dable credit card offers in a basket I will leave in the dining room and then take upstairs mail that requires action, like bills.

Bill Payment System: Even though we use an online bill paying system, we still get some paper bills. Lately, I've been so overwhelmed that I have let some bill go past the grace period and I have paid VERY DEARLY in late fees! INSANE!! I'm thinking of using one of the magazine racks to put bills due on the 15th in one slot an bills due on the 30th in the next. I think I will keep some sort of roster in the third slot to list those online paperless bills and make it a point to spend the day or two before the deadlines to write checks and make electronic payments.

School Paper Shuffle: Each week, we get like a ream of paper from the kids' schools. Hot Lunch and Pizza sign up. Class photos and fundraiser information. Volunteer hours monthly bulletins. It is overwhelming and even more so that we have it coming from both kids now that they are in the same school. Then we have their crafts and arts projects that need to be displayed but shamefully now are assembling in a plastic bin in my office closet. On that front, I'm thinking I will immediately write deadlines on the calendar and then find a letter holder to put the action papers in the kitchen so I can have easy access to them in the morning and on their due date. As for the kids' art projects, I think I'm gonna hang a clothes line across the basement ceiling and hang them up there and on a monthly basis, rotate and purge the ones that aren't holding up and put the sentimental ones in the kids' stuff bin for later sorting.

Meals: I must admit that I am a horrible mom when it comes to feeding my family. I often succumb to them, allowing them to eat sugary snacks or chips after school which can easily ruin their appetite for dinner. Once in a while, I'll get them some horribly fried processed Happy Meals from McDonald's. Cboy eats the same thing every night almost: Macaroni and Cheese, Hotdogs or Peanut Butter and Honey sandwiches. Jboy would eat hot dogs, scrambled eggs and toast, rice and butter, cold cereal. They'll munch on grapes and every blue moon, Jboy would eat mashed yams. Occasionally, on the days they get Happy Meals, they eat the apple dippers that they come with but other than that, they get NO VEGETABLES (for the most part) WHATSOEVER! We give them multivitamins nightly to compensate, but I think this unbalanced diet can lower their immune system and is setting them up to have unhealthy eating patterns when they get older. Recently, I became encouraged by GG because she eats whatever I feed her and she has been great about eating Sweet potatoes, peas, spinach, avocado, bananas, baby carrots, pasta, rice, chicken, fish...everything. I think, no I will, make an earnest effort to serve a little bit more healthy variety and see what happens.

Okay, now that I have memorialized this plan on the blog, I'm going to pray on it and hopefully implement 100% of it and stick with it! God Help Me! YIKES!