Day 5 : Planning to Not Forget

It's Sunday night and because I'm a creature of habit, I'm in planning mode. I was an elementary school teacher for 7 years and this is my first year not teaching. So, for 7 years, every Sunday night I lesson planned. Now, being home, it's kinda hard to stop because I've learned that if I want to make sure I don't forget to do something, I must plan for it.

When you plan little, little gets done. You find yourself walking kids out to the bus thinking, "What did we even do today?" And the kids are thinking the same thing. 

At the same time, when you plan lots, lots of your plans get tossed aside. You have to go with the flow and accept when moving to the next task just isn't going to happen. Then, at the end of the day, you find yourself feeling like a failure because there are all of these things that didn't get done. 

I am finding the same holds true for being at home full time. When I don't plan to do anything, little gets done. I think, "Wow, what in the world did I do with our day?" When I put too many things on my to-do list, I'm frustrated and embarrassed by the time Lyle comes home because there are un-crossed items just dangling at the bottom of the list. 

So, the art of teaching or being home or probably most things in life is to manage the tension between too little and too much and being ok with a little bit of both sometimes. Some days are going to be days of too much and some are going to be days of too little. Others will be just right. And I just have to be ok with that.

{Wow, that sounds really non-committal, doesn't it?}

I guess what I am trying to say is that in this effort to not forget, I try to plan for certain things in the week so that in the event unplanned things happen, we can go with the flow. {I'm planning for plans to change!}  Like I know that we are going to eat. Something. Every day. So, I plan meals for the week. I write them down, make a list, shop, etc. I think about what meat needs to be refrigerated and which needs to be frozen. But I also think about which meals I can move around or postpone with no food lost if our plans change. I don't try to plan for a whole month - that's just too far out for us. Just a week at a time.

Another thing I try to plan are some activities for the boys. Our oldest child is knocking on the door of two years old and our youngest is six weeks, so it's not like I am planning preschool lessons. I'm more planning things to play when trains, blocks, and bouncy seats are not fun anymore. I keep a basket of activities for Judah - nothing fancy at all. This basket has Play-Doh, buttons, pipe cleaners, puzzles, foam stickers, etc. Little things that help build thinking and motor skills, but for him are just fun things. There's no agenda with these. We just play with them together and talk about what we are doing. For Ezra, I have high contrast books and colorful noise makers that we configure in various ways through the week so that he has interesting things to look at, follow with his eyes, and try to grab. His favorite activity is watching Judah play, so that's pretty easy to manage.

This week I am planning to do one or two fall/Halloween-ish activities with the boys. I'll keep you posted as we do them! 

Lastly, I do try to plan to do something productive at home, not child related. I don't even shoot for once a day with this. Just 2-3 things each week to keep our house from being condemned by the health department.

Some days, things happen according to plan. 

Some days, the plan goes out the window. 

Some days, there was no plan at all.

And some days, a friend calls with a better plan and we do that.

How do I plan to not forget?

I'm very fancy.

This is the plan{ish} for this week.
I was inspired by Marian Vischer's white board, but I didn't have one and didn't want to buy one.
BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT!
The fridge is white - just like a whiteboard!
Expo marker comes off easily.

This was a journal that I used to use to plan math groups.
Ripped those pages out.
Added sticky tabs and a gaffer's tape label.
Voila.

I use tabs for the kids to jot notes, questions for doctor visits, schedule tracking, words learned, etc.
Meals - master list of our go-to meals/meals we love and meal planning.
To-Do: self explanatory.
Miscellaneous: also self explanatory.

See. Told you I was fancy.

How do you make sure you're not forgetting things during your week? Are you a techie planner? Are you a colorful calendar planner? Are you a make-plans-in-your-head-and-hope-for-the-best planner? I'd love to know! 

I did take one picture today of a moment I hope to not soon forget...and hope to soon repeat.

An unselfish-selfie, if you will. {No one's doing themselves any favors by taking pictures of themselves after waking from a two and a half hour nap.}

Waking from a nap and snuggling with my two little ones.
Not forgetting this.

This is the fifth post in the series 31 Days of Not Forgetting. 

To see all posts in this series, click here and scroll to the bottom of the post.