I am just having too much fun joining link-ups and reading through other bloggers responses to the same writing prompt! It is so helpful to have a writing prompt and not have to think of something to be inspired to write about on a particular day. Today’s prompt is all about how we schedule/organize for a busy family.
I probably have nothing profound to say and probably no great words of advice on creating and organizing schedules for a busy family, but I will go ahead and share how I keep our family organized and running. If you missed my post earlier this week introducing myself and my family, that would be a great place to start to know what I am working with.
As with most people, I think we could describe our family as “busy”. We have three children ages 8, 6 and 4 and I am due in just 8 weeks with our fourth baby. My husband is a police officer and usually works evenings and weekends. I always say he’s never around during “normal people hours”. Ha. We also have a homestead, which is sometimes calm and routine, and sometimes unpredictably chaotic, like that time last week when our pig unexpectedly gave birth.
I guess if I could sum up what scheduling my life is like right now, I would have to describe it as unpredictable. The age of my kids still means we are very much in stage where someone is getting sick every other week, and bedtimes and daily routines still need to be guarded pretty carefully. We don’t have anyone who naps right now, but in just a few months we will be starting the whole nap time thing over again. As much as I would like to be the wonderfully prepared type A mom, I am learning in this season that I have to be flexible first and foremost. I struggle to let go of perfectionism and frustration in this area when my scheduling and events have to be cancelled due to illness or simply the inability to push myself and my kids too far.
Being married to a first responder also means that our schedule can be totally unpredictable. When Theo is home, he is *the most* active and involved husband and Dad, but when he is at work, he is not here or available at all (trust me, any emergency I am having at home does not trump the ones he is dealing with at work!). He is also on a specialized team that gets callouts so he is “on call” for that 24/7. Thankfully, he doesn’t get calls more than 3 times a month, but they are of course almost always in the middle of the night and usually last 6+ hours. See? Unpredictable.
And did I even mention all the animals that we need to take care of? Because there is that factor as well. Having animals is a huge privilege and also a very big responsibility and time commitment! And mostly the animals are calm and routine…until they aren’t. Then they are all hands on deck!!
So how exactly do I mange this wild and unpredictable schedule?
For planning our family calendar, I use a paper planner, a wall calendar, and also this large desk calendar that someone gave me as a Christmas gift. Dates and events go into all three things, and seeing it in all the spots helps me keep track of it. I am the chief of the calendar, and my husband usually only knows when something is happening on the day before or the day of. This is just something that works for both of us and there is no resentment either way. He’s very go with the flow and I’m very organized. He makes sure to tell me if he has anything coming up on the calendar so this works well for us. Like I said before, he’s a SUPER involved and amazing parent- but the calendar is not where he shines. He goes to work, he takes care of our homestead animals, and he shows up at any kid event that is on his days off.
On that note, since I work at school, I handle ALL the school stuff- any forms that need to signed, homeschooling days, communication with teachers, scheduling, events at school, etc. On the flip side, Theo handles 100% of our personal bills/finances and running our rental properties.
I have a separate teacher planner that I use for all my lesson planning, teacher communication and work related stuff. But sometimes those things overlap. Like every month when I have a staff meeting, this goes in both my teacher planner and my personal calendar because staff meeting affects both my professional/teaching life and also my personal life as I am gone for a few hours on a day that I’m normally home.
I meal plan consistently and especially during this pregnancy, I make sure to plan really simple meals for the really, really busy evenings and the evenings when Theo is working and I’m flying solo with the kids. Which is like 5/7 nights a week haha. Simple meals are things like grilled cheese, breakfast for dinner, tacos, stroganoff, pita pizzas, frozen chicken fingers with rice, pasta with some kind of simple sauce and chicken, spaghetti, etc. I love to cook and follow recipes, but this season I have not done much of that at all. Everyone is (mostly) healthy and thriving, so this just works for us.
One thing that we decided this year is that we would not sign our kids up for any activities outside of our school. If the activity is at school or sponsored by school and our child is interested in it, we will consider the weight of it and possibly say yes. But if it’s outside of our school, we just need to say no for this season. So, that means we are not doing YMCA, rec leagues, local park stuff or any types of sports or lessons. Our school does a fantastic job with offering electives and some after school sports, so we have started to be involved in that. Tera just started on the junior spirit squad (cheer) for our school. But it’s so much easier for me to streamline our schedule if I know we are just going to school, I’m only receiving emails from school, and we are more invested and involved in our school community than to be spread thin in like four different areas. I think this will change as our kids get older, but for now that was a decision that we had to make and we are all very happy with it.
Another thing that our family really wants to keep in mind that we want to prioritize more time together as a family, our church community, more time outside, and more time being able to live simply and not in a rush all the time. This is VERY counterintuitive for us, so we have to be incredibly intentional about saying no to things and not trying to have our kids in all the things all the time. Theo and I both played sports and value them, but at 8, 6 and 4 years old we really think that our kids will benefit more from hours playing outside, running around our house, and forming tight bonds with their siblings (if they don’t kill each other first let’s be real!). Again, I am sure that this will change as their ages change, but for now we are not in any rush to start the business of all.the.activities.
Sooo…I know that probably didn’t provide anyone with any great wisdom or takeaway, but maybe it can encourage someone who is in the same season/boat as me and who often feels like no matter how hard you are trying, you cannot seem to gain control of the schedule and calendar and the million places to be like everyone else seems to have. This is just a gentle reminder to slow down, pick your top five family priorities and focus on those. It’s ok to let the rest go!
Honestly didn’t know this was going to turn into a little pep talk for myself, but here we are! What are some of your scheduling and organizing tips to manage a busy family?