But I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want to do with this site and I think I’m finally ready to do more. I get a lot of searches for “organized mother” so there are a lot of people out there wanting to get more organized. I’m going to still talk about my journey to get organized, as well as point out resources and information as I find them.

I hope you’ll join me. And if you have any questions at all, a topic you’d like me to cover, or just a comment, please feel free to leave a note on any post or email me. Thanks for sticking around!

image: morguefile

The problem? He could go for hours and hours because there’s so! much! to do! And frankly, the crying and gnashing of teeth has been pretty hard on me lately. I only have so much fight in me. And struggling every single night at bedtime has taken its toll. I’m afraid we’re forming bad habits and we’ll have to start all over when we get home.

But when you’re staying with someone else, you have to make a few concessions. While I’d let him cry a little more at home, here I have to worry about it bothering my mom and dad. They say it doesn’t bother them, but would you want to sit and listen to your grandchild cry?

And he’s getting more willful. He fights everything right now, testing his boundaries. Crying when he doesn’t get what he wants. I don’t want to give in, yet I’m having a hard time distracting him from what’s making him upset. He can be so single-minded. I don’t have ANY idea where he gets it (*snort*).

Next week we’ll be back at home and I really hope we can get back into a good routine. One that incorporates the good parts of our time away with the structure we get when we’re home. I will have to find a way to build in much more outdoor time. We don’t have a yard where the kiddo can just run around. Here, at my parents’, we can just go out of the front or back doors. Back at home it requires more coordination.

If you don’t have a house with a yard, how do you build in lots of outdoor play time for your kids? I need to figure that one out.

image: sxc.hu

Not really. The idea behind this concept isn’t that you don’t check your email. It’s this: don’t check your email first thing. Go ahead and plan your day first. Figure out what items you need to work on. Is today a meal planning day? Laundry? Light cleaning? Deep cleaning? If you do outside work (but from home), what projects do you need to make progress on today in addition to household chores?

There’s so much to do, isn’t there?

If you plan your day before you open your email, you have an idea of what you need to do. And if some emergencies come up in those must-read emails, you can adjust. But if you already have your day planned out, you might not get sucked into a bunch of time-wasting emails. Instead, you can glance through, decide what you need to deal with today, mark the ones that can wait until tomorrow, and then get busy.

You’re immediately more in control of your day. (As much as any of us can be with kids around, right?) When I look at what I have scheduled that day, I know how much time I have to peruse blogs or emails. I don’t get behind by reading a bunch of emails and then realizing I had an appointment, or that I let time get away and I’m suddenly rushing to get everything done.

Give it a try. First thing in the morning, look at your calendar. Plan what you need to do that day. Then open your email and see if your priorities need to change. Then close the email and get to work.

Does checking email in the morning help you plan your day? Or do you immediately feel like you’re behind?

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I guess I’ve only had a couple of “I’m posting because I have to” posts – and that’s not too bad.

Tomorrow’s going to have to be a catch-up day. Still need to do some cleaning to make up for the holiday. I did the bare minimum in the kitchen and it sorely needs my attention.

Hoo boy, it’s going to be a crazy week. Our place is tiny, as I’ve mentioned numerous times. So we have to clear out the dining room and see if we can bring up the bigger dining table from downstairs. And I just realized that I don’t even have a tablecloth to cover the old, scratched surface of the table (it was my parents’ table when they got married, and it has two leaves to expand the table quite nicely).

And I need to clean. And vacuum. And make up a menu. And cook. And hubby may have to work Wednesday and even Thursday. We’re not sure yet.

I’m going to work ahead as much as I can. I’ll cook the sweet potatoes a day ahead and just reheat them. I could probably do the same with the mashed potatoes (but I love them fresh). I’ll be heating the dressing in the crock pot, so that’s not a huge deal. Tonight I have a chicken carcass in the crock pot to make broth, which I’ll use in the dressing and gravy.

Rather than make rolls, we’re just going to get some heat and serve. I need to do that tomorrow. And figure out where we’ll get enough chairs. And get some more milk. We have plenty of butter.

Whew. This is why I’ve never had Thanksgiving meal at my place. Did I mention I need to clean? Looks like the next several nights will be filled with rearranging, deep cleaning the bathroom and kitchen, and trying to see if any of our friends have some chairs we can borrow.

It’s going to be a long, crazy week. But it will be so nice to have the family together. We haven’t done that in a while.

I’ll try not to stress too much. No one expects it to be perfect. They’ve all been over so they know our house is crazy. And crowded. But I think we can do it. Hubby helps, so at least it doesn’t all fall on my head. He’ll be right in there with me.

How’s your week shaping up?

All I’ve accomplished today is print out a few pages from Organizing Your Way’s Home Management Notebook printables and fill a few of them out to stick in our family binder.

I’m especially liking the basic medical info and weekly menu plan (without assigned days).

Oh, and I cleaned off part of my desk, too. Here’s to managing my time a little better tomorrow!

I have tried to keep things at a particular time, but my son isn’t always tired at naptime. What do you do then? Do you put them down when they’re obviously not tired? In this house, that would entail much wailing, screaming and bouncing in the bed. Yet one hour (or two) later, and there’s a little boy asking to go to bed and nap. I prefer the boy who’s ready to lie down.

I wonder sometimes if this unschedule keeps us flexible or just makes it hard to get things done.

But since it seems I can’t manage to be consistent, an unschedule it will be. Tell me, how do you set a schedule and stick to it? I just can’t seem to make it happen.

There always seems to be so much to do before a trip. Fortunately, I don’t have to take a lot of toiletries and things like that. But I do need enough diapers until we can buy more, milk for on the planes and in the airport, and the car seat.

It feels a little overwhelming. I’m trying to combat that by making a checklist of things I’ll need. And try not to over pack. I worry about keeping my son entertained on the plane. He’s at that point where he’s getting pretty willful. And I don’t know how he’ll do with being confined to my lap.

Not to mention getting through security while trying to keep him from running away. *sigh*

See? Overwhelmed.

But, like I said, the checklist helps. I can tick things off of the list while I’m packing. And then, I can use the same list to pack for the return trip, which should help minimize leaving something behind.

So wish me luck! And lots of friendly people.

While my other calendar works okay, I’m hoping the separate spaces for kid & other items will help me plan my writing and other things a bit better.

By the way, I got it in purple. It’s pretty. Will post pics and more details soon.

I tend to wait to do a variety of things after the kid goes to bed. And that can be tough when he’s not feeling well and goes to bed much later than usual. I’m working on it.