Keeping Track of Them ... *AND* Me Too!

“Honey, do you know when I need to be at the Petersen’s? I just scheduled the Johnson’s on Tuesday.”
“Mama, after my soccer game on Saturday, I need to go to Johnny’s birthday party!”
“Mom, I want to go spend my birthday money but Kris says I can’t cause he is going to Spanish class. Tell him Spanish is canceled.”

For some reason, my family believes I am a walking calendar. The person who can see it done. They never ask about scheduling conflicts, they rarely ask if it can be done, they just assume if I am told or its dropped off on my desk it will magically get done.

In case anyone is wondering ….. I work 2 part-time jobs. One, running my husband’s company, scheduling his projects and maintaining the books. Thank fully, he has a full time job and this is just side work. The other for Google, which I should be starting in a few weeks. I attend college classes twice a week for 4 hours a night plus have 8-10 hours of homework during the week. I homeschool 3 kids … 2 who are in the “learning to read stage.” Kris has scouts, soccer practice, a soccer game, and Spanish class each week. Zac has scouts, soccer practice, and a soccer game. Ben has scouts. We have doctor appointments, dentist appointments, field trips, homeschool co-op days, and community service days. I volunteer as a homeschool mentor, am president for a local homeschool support group, and write on several blogs. Did I mention that hubby, Kris, and I all have volunteer commitments at church, too?

If you are not tired in reading the list …. I am. The question is, How do you get all of the schedules to correlate so that a parent is always there to chauffeur a child, projects completed on time and somehow find a little down time? There is a method to this madness but instead of sharing my schedule and scheduling tips, I thought I would share my SECRET WEAPON!

Okay …. Now please leave a comment below with your guess on what the SECRET WEAPON is below and I will get back to you sometime and let you know if you are right or not. Hope you all have a great week! : -)


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Not funny?? Okay fine! I will share with you! It’s the MomAgenda. http://www.momagenda.com/products.cfm?cID=8&pID=21 Yes, its another day runner but this one is made for moms! I am not sure what I ever did without it. Okay … I do know but I don’t want to remember!! You can go to the website to take a look at samples of this and to buy it. Other places like Amazon carry it as well.

Description: Each 2 page spread equals a week. The days are at the top of the grid. There is 2 mini-monthly calendars and an inspirational quote. Then there is a big section (row) about ¼ of the page called my week. That’s for all your appts. Then there are smaller areas under the label “kids.” There are 4 spots. The last little spot (half of a kids section size) labeled dinner. You can meal plan here too! Each day has lines for you to write your appointments on. There are a ton of neat features about this book but one of the best is that it lasts for 18 months. No more post-it notes everywhere for the appointments that roll over into next year. There are party and vacation planning sections. Notes and more! Plus each section is a different color of paper. It makes my girly heart smile! In a house full of boys, I need a little something for me!

How I Use It: My kids each have their own section as does my husband. Husband is the last one.

The Weekly Section: In black ink, I write in all the standing appointments. Make sure you note the times. Classes, sports, scouts, games, church … these all don’t move. Also in black are dentist appointments, doctor’s visits, and hubby’s business projects. In blue, I add in the things that are scheduled but moveable or cancelable. Field trips, birthday parties, play dates, things of that sort. Whichever parent is driving … gets an appointment logged in for them as well for the same event. Things that I would like to do or are tentative go into the book in pencil. There are special blackout days in my book. That’s where I write just one appointment under my things to do and then scribble out everything that is beneath that for the day. This means there is a family event happening, everyone is attending, and no…. we can’t do anything else that day! In the column where you write in hubby and kids names … under where it says my week … I list my homework assignments due that week. In colored ink, I write in my other to do things on the days I plan to get them done. So … looking at my book for this week. I have written in green on Tuesday library and a delivery is due, Thursday is grocery shopping, and Friday I am off to Sam’s Club, the carwash, and Old Navy. I also have back to school shopping to do on either Saturday or Sunday. Its written overlapping the two days. That means hubby wants to go with us for shopping. I write notes in the border using >, *, ~, and other icons and then write my notes in the border around my week. You will often see my grocery list, things to purchase on sale, directions, or questions to ask the doctor.

The Monthly Section: I plan out my homeschool plans here very vaguely as there are days when I think a spontaneous trip to the lake for a nature walk is more fun than spelling. Bad Mama …. I know!!! So …. I make my plans in pencil. And map out more of my goals than actual lesson plans. So for August you will see MUS– K27, Z19, B4 at the end of week 2. What does that mean? Am I playing bingo with myself? Nope … that says that by the end of this week I want Kris to be in lesson 27 in his math (Math U See Gamma), Zac to be in lesson 19 (Math U See Primer) and Ben to be in lesson 4 (Math U See Primer). I know MUS is the name of their math program no need to spell it all out. You will also see things like 14C3 11CB or something similar at the start of each of our school weeks (and probably a lot of erasing marks too! That is the week number and core level that I am working with the boys in. (YES! I have my own language!! Do not try to read my book without the instruction manual to go with it!) I work on a month at a time planning … you never know when life will get in the way.

Dinner plans: I try to keep a master list of what’s in my freezer. It never works as hubby is bound to take something out and not mark it off the list. I need a smart freezer that will tell me what is in it and what I need to buy …. But that is me in my fantasy land. I look at the weekly adds, see what I have in the freezer to go with it and then make my plans for the week. Then I write in the menu and wala! Dinner is planned for the week. I try to do a majority of the cooking once a week (its frees up a lot of time!) and Friday night is left over night. Whatever is in the fridge is dinner! : -)

My book is always open and on my desk. If I leave the house, it goes with me. For some reason, only moms can see this magical book as my husband and sons have never seen it! I am the walking calendar. They think I keep it all straight in my head. Shhh!!! No one tell them my secret. Now … it can be your secret too!!

has agreed to sponsor us in a contest so that one of you Multi-Tasking Moms can also own a fabulous momAgenda Desktop Planner!


*click above for more color choices*

All you have to do to enter is, put our button on your sidebar,

<a href="http://multi-taskingmoms.blogspot.com/" target="_blank" title="Multi-Tasking Moms"><img border="0" alt="Multi-Tasking Moms" width="151" src="http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb137/M-TMoms/MTMButton-01.gif?t=1185695771" height="98" /></a>

blog about this contest and please link to momAgenda in your post
then, come back here and sign Mr. Linky.
We will randomly choose a winner on Friday, August 17, 2007.
Sunday, August 19, 2007!

Good Luck Moms!!!