Making mornings smoother with an evening routine

Those of you who read the last post in this series might have anticipated today’s topic? What better way to prepare for a stress free morning than with a little evening preparation!

Each evening I make an effort to complete the following items:

Prepare lunch
Choose everyone’s clothing
Put together a reminder list for the morning
Pack Sweetpea’s preschool bag
Load the dishwasher
Lay out or write down (on the reminder list) breakfast ideas
Identify wake up plan

I find that the best time to pack lunches is as I’m cleaning up after dinner. I believe this elegant and effective idea came to me via Meagan Francis on twitter. If we have enough food for a meal later in the week, I package it accordingly, and the remainder is portioned into lunch sized containers and put either in the refrigerator or the freezer. If we have a lot of food already in the fridge, it’s nice to have some things stashed in the freezer for later!

Both girls like to choose their clothing (already!) and given the option would change their minds multiple times each morning. To reduce this frustrating time suck, we choose outfits ahead of time and I have them get dressed at daycare. Somehow they never have outfit attitude with the daycare provider like they do for mama. I pack clothes in the daycare bag and put it in the car the night before. I also carry an extra pair of shoes in the car for each child – I don’t want to admit the number of times one of them has arrived without footwear…

I am a list mama, and if I need to remember something – especially in the morning – it needs to be written down. An added bonus of this strategy is that it helps me decompress and empty my brain at the end of the day, which makes it easier to relax and unwind. The last thing I want is for my mind to be racing when I finally get to lie down at night. This list goes under my car keys on the kitchen counter.

Sweetpea started preschool this fall, and her class made special bags for transporting to and from school each day. Anything that needs taken to school gets packed into that bag, and projects or notes to parents come home in the bag each day. I empty the contents and reload as necessary. This bag gets put into the car the night before so it doesn't get left behind.

It’s funny how a pile of dishes in the sink when I wake up bothers me – the thought of them sitting there all day, waiting for me to return home is what gets me. Somehow I don’t mind them at all when my bed is singing its siren song at the end of the day. To keep myself from being tempted to waste precious time in the morning, I rinse and load anything that is dishwasher safe and call it “good enough”.

As with lunch, a little prep for breakfast is a big help. I try and have two options available to give the girls a choice in the morning. They love to be in control of their breakfast (are you noticing a pattern here?!) and I like to be able to give at least the impression that I’m being flexible and giving the girls their way!

Wake up plan – this is the topic for the next blog post in this series – for now suffice it to say that I spend time thinking about how I’m going to get the girls up and at ‘em each morning. They like some predictability, but we also like to mix it up from time to time.

Do you have an evening routine? What tasks do you complete each evening in order to smooth out your mornings?

No More Morning Mania! Tips for more peaceful mornings...

Going back to work has brought crazy back to our mornings. I hate it when my failure to plan causes melt downs, stress and widespread grouchiness. It's so much nicer to savor the mornings at a leisurely pace than to rush through them sprinting to the car in a desperate attempt to be on time.

This is the first in a series on making mornings more peaceful -regardless of what your day might hold, I hope you'll find some ideas that get it started in a positive way, and in turn share what works for you!

First things First: Have a plan, write it down, review/revise it as needed, and STICK TO IT! For me, that means a morning and evening routine and a wake up time that allows me time to reflect and get prepared before the rest of the family wakes up. A plan also allows me to be realistic about what I can get done before leaving the house, and a minimum list of accomplishments that, once complete, mean the day will get off to a good (enough) start. It's amazing what I think I can do the next morning when I'm wilting from exhaustion and just want to go to bed...my routine keeps me honest and provides a bit of a reality check.

Do you have a morning and/or evening routine? How often do you revise it?

Survive Before 5 {Review}

For most of us, providing a healthy home cooked menu for our family means planning and preparation at some point. I have batch cooked and meal planned complimentary menu items in order to minimize prep work and share ingredients, but Trisha at Once a Month Mom takes meal planning to the next level. Her site provides recipe cards, grocery lists, and detailed instructions for a big day freezer cooking event each month and she recently added a whole foods option to the menu selections!

Just as exciting, she has a new ebook out - Survive Before 5: Toddler Meals for your Busy Days. Survive Before 5 provides recipes for healthy breakfasts, lunches and snacks - those pesky meals that aren't covered in the once a month menus on her website! In addition, you will find a sample calendar for organizing these meals and serving size recommendations. There are detailed plans for preparing your freezer meals as well as recipe cards, labels, and a grocery list that can be tailored to the number of children needing to be fed. One of my favorite features of the book is that each recipe includes toddler tasks. What a great way to get your little ones involved, excited, and learning. So much of our kitchen routine is method based, and that is what makes this cookbook so valuable - the methods and tips shared in these recipes can be extended to your own family favorites, making your time in the kitchen even more efficient and enjoyable.


Survive Before 5 is a great deal at $7.99, but for the rest of this month you can purchase it for $5.99 using the code OAMM599

Renewal

It has been a very long time since I've written in this space...and yet all along I was blogging in my mind - composing posts to myself in the car, while working on homework assignments or in between classes I was teaching. These past months have flown by as each day was jam packed with things that had to be done. Now I'm working on my final project of my last teaching certification program, and the teacher I was substituting for is back from materity leave. In the next month I need to refresh my memory on the details of physics and chemistry for two certification tests I take at the end of April, and then - whew! I'm sure there will be many other things taking up my time at that point, but I'm sure hoping that some of those things are items of my ever growing wish list of things to get to *at some point*.

With mother nature showing us peaks of spring here in the midwest, the flowers just starting to peek through the ground and the seed catalogs coming in earnest, this time of year always seems like the right time to do my yearly planning. I do some daydreaming about goals and the like at the start of the year, but this is when I do my serious editing and reworking. As usual, at the top of my list is being present and attending to my family before all else. In order to make the home management tasks less of a burden, I've been on a relentless quest to eliminate the unnecessary "things" in our house - little by little as I find pockets of time. We have made many a trip to the resale shop and to our local charity donation station. There is much more to do.

How do you organize your time and do your best to make time for what is most important? I've written before that what works best for me is being very clear as to what those *most important* things are...and with that, I'm going to try and share a link to my daily sheet planning page. It's a sheet I created from excel, based loosely off of SimpleMom's planner, but adjusted to meet my needs. If you're looking for a planner and can't quite find what you need, maybe you can create your personalized sheet from excel too! My next scheme for keeping everything in one place is to print a bunch of these off and have them bound at my local office supply store - a DIY planner with extra pages for all of those someday plans as well.

Anyway, it's great to see you all again - thanks for sticking with me through my "vacation" of sorts. What have you been up to?! :)

Feeling Buried? Why yes, I am!

At the beginning of last year, I had just transitioned to stay at home mom thanks to our plant closure. I absolutely loved those first few months of time off - the "career transition program" I wanted to enroll in wasn't available until March, and I was free to focus completely on my family and my home. What a blessing that truly was, even though in the back of my mind I was a bit frustrated by the uncertainty of where I was going.

Fast forward to the latter part of last year, as I'm substitute teaching somewhat regularly and preparing to begin my last quarter of the teaching licensure program I started in March. Things are busy but manageable, and our little family is thriving on our new "routine", which included frequent trips to the library and YMCA, as well as gymnastics class one morning a week for Sweetpea.

I took a sub job at the start of December that quickly turned long term - all of a sudden I was working full time again, yikes! It took some serious readjusting to get us all back on an early morning schedule, and to introduce Sugar Plum to the daycare routine she had never really had to get on board with. Then came my schedule for this final quarter...somehow I managed to overlook the fact that I'm taking five classes. So far I'm managing to keep my head above water, but I've gotten very protective of my free time.

I'm trying my best to soak in the bits of time we cobble together as a family, to remember that this is our reality but for a short time, and that this opportunity to teach is a blessing. And I really am enjoying it, which definitely helps. So I'll be pretty scarce around here until April or so, though I hope to get a chance to stop in and say hi now and then. If you'd like to chat, look me up on twitter, where I manage to type one handed while I'm nursing Sugar Plum most nights. ;)

What are you up to these days?

On Vacation...see you in August!

We are having a wonderful summer, full of sun, some sand, and relaxing evenings catching fireflies and eating watermelon. I do, however, want to be able to savor that slower pace this summer, and instead I find myself more often than not feeling a bit more buried than Sweetpea is in this picture.


Classes are eating up quite a bit of my "free" time, and so I'm going to take a bloggy break. My plan right now is to return more or less by mid August.

Take care, and I can't wait to hear what you've been up to when I return! :)

This juggling act - finding balance in life

Since we've added quite a bit to our proverbial plates this week, I thought this was an appropriate post to republish while I'm "unplugged" at the hospital this week. I'd love your insight into the whole "balance" (or in my opinion "priorities") subject and what you give up in order to get more of what you want...

*Originally published October 28, 2008*


I read a quote from Katie Couric recently that I'll have to paraphrase, because I can't find it again {blushing}.

She was saying that she spends most of her time feeling guilty either because she doesn't spend enough time with her family, or because she feels she's shirking her job. Inevitably, as moms, we all have to just do the best that we can.

I can definitely relate, and, as usual, I agree with and appreciate her point of view.

Regardless of whether you work outside the home or not, I think it's safe to say that as moms, we are all working on our own juggling act. I definitely don't put in the extra free hours that I used to at work, and I took a different position where I wouldn't have to travel regularly. I wish I were spending my days with my daughter, and I have a short term goal to go part time.

I have plenty of mommy guilt, but I make a point to be fully present with my daughter when we are together. We work hard to create quality time as a family, rather than each doing our own thing. We watch virtually no television. We list out the activities we want to enjoy and try to plan in advance.

And basically, we do the best that we can.

What tips do you have for achieving balance in your life? What have you given up in order to spend more time enjoying the things you hold most dear?

To Do, To Do, so much to do!!

In an effort not to bore you, I'm going to stick to the main points on my to do list this week...but I've been wanting to join in this little activity Lisa hosts each week for awhile now. As crazy as this week is, I could make lists of my lists! I'm off to BlogHer on Thursday morning and EmDee is working second shift, so Sweetpea and I are fending for ourselves each night. My aunt is in town and so of course we need to get together with her tonight. I had a dinner party I wanted to go to tomorrow night, but I can't find daycare - it's just as well as I still need to pack!

• Defrost spaghetti casserole for EmDee to eat while Sweetpea and I are traveling
• Make list of conference agenda – details I want to make sure not to miss, people I want to make sure to meet!
• Finish packing list and determine if anything needs purchased
• PACK!!
• Visit Sweetpea’s GaSue and my grandparents before we leave
• Wish Grandma, Mom and GaSue luck at the golf tournament in my famous grandma’s honor this week
• Write up posts for Thursday and Friday (if possible) to publish while I’m away
• Determine where my carpool is picking me up on Thursday morning
• Pick up my fabulous roomie at the airport and proceed to party like BlogStars and network my little bootie off!
• Show off my little Sweetpea and the fancy duds she’ll be modeling while we’re away
  
  

Keeping it healthy when time is short

Last week's menu went pretty much according to plan, except for our stir fry and rangoons - we should get to those this week instead. This is another week of EmDee working late nearly every night, so I'm trying to keep it simple again. Here's what we're planning:

Monday: Spaghetti and garlic bread
Tuesday: Leftover burritos from last week
Wednesday: crock pot chicken roasted asparagus and stuffed smashed potatoes
Thursday: Beef stir fry and baked rangoons
Friday: Chicken empanadas and rice

What's on your menu? This week on OrgJunkie, Laura shares her strategy for choosing new recipes. Her criteria ensures recipes are perfect for relaxed or hectic weeks, and I love that concept. I tend to revert to tried and true favorites or meals that I've at least partially prepped and frozen when we are busy. When choosing new meals to try I go for quick and/or simple recipes that come recommended from a site I've had success with before - allrecipes, foodnetwork, orgjunkie, or Sandra's recipe blog to name a few.


How do you prepare for hectic weeks? How do you decide which new recipes to try? How often do you include new recipes in with the tried and true?

Overwhelmed by the mail?

Are there certain sites you find yourself heading to when you need ideas for something specific? I have several standbys, and one of my favorites for organizational needs (or chaos management, if you prefer) is Mommy Track'd. Amy, founder of Mommy Track'd has graciously agreed to share one of the survival guides from her site for this week's Thursday tip.

One of my biggest clutter challenges can be found in the mailbox...I tend to put the mail on the counter with the intention of "dealing with it later". Like tomorrow, "later" never seems to come - or when it does come that stack has gotten pretty intimidating. I chose this specific survival guide, "Overwhelmed by the Mail?" because at least for me, the answer is a resounding yes!

Do you have a sense of dread when you open your mailbox? Not just because of bills, but also because of everything else that’s in there with the bills. Mail is like a weed, if you don’t keep it in check, it will spread out and eventually take over any and all empty tables, countertops, and chairs you’ve got. The consequences can be more than just clutter, too. The National Association of Professional Organizers estimates that 25% of Americans pay their bills late because they can’t find them. To make things even more difficult, postal workers delivered nearly 101 billion pieces of bulk mail in 2005, a 12 percent increase from two years ago. It was the first year that bulk mail exceeded first-class mail. Strange to think there was actually a time when we waited excitedly for the mail to come, hoping for a letter or magazine. Fortunately, there are ways to stop fearing, and maybe even start anticipating, the mail again.

Alicia on “Recycling the Junk” “When you first glance at the pile of mail you get on a daily basis, it already looks imposing. If you do a quick sorting of the pile, though, you can weed out the junk that makes up a majority of the mail. Keep a recycling bin next to where you keep your mail, and immediately toss all the unwanted catalogs, fliers, subscription offers, sweepstakes entry forms, charity solicitations, credit offers, advertising supplements, and whatever else they can dram up. You can be environmentally conscious, while also shrinking your mail pile.”

Sarah on “Opting Out” “One of the easier ways to get a handle on your mail pile is to reduce the amount of mail you get in the first place. A good way to remove your name from several national mailing lists at once by signing up for the Direct Marketing Association's Mail Preference Service. This Web site provides instructions on how to register (a $1 processing fee is charged). This service is only for national, not local, mail and only for residential, not business, addresses and is good for five years.”

Here are a few simple steps to getting your countertops free of mail piles.

#1. Create a Sorting System
The best way to organize your mail is by getting an organizer. Start by getting a mail holder with three compartments. Make compartment #1 for bills, #2 for correspondence and #3 for things that need action (e.g. forms to mail back, coupons you want to use later in the week). It’s amazing how manageable the mail suddenly becomes when it’s broken down into its contents.

#2. Make “Sorting Time”
Pick a time every day (before you leave for work in the am or before you turn on the TV at night) and take a few short minutes to sort the mail into the compartments we mentioned above. Once you’ve done that, pick a day each week (same day/time) to go through and pay the bills, answer any correspondence, put invitations into calendar, and whatever action-oriented things you need to do. That way you can start with a clean slate the following week.

#3. Magazines/Catalogs
Magazines and catalogs take up an enormous amount of space in your mail. No matter how much you may like getting all of them, there comes a time when you need to recognize whether you really need all of them. If there is a magazine you get but never have time to read, cancel your subscription. If there’s a catalog you used to like but haven’t ordered from for a while, contact them and request to be off their mailing list. You can always re-subscribe, but why waste money, and paper, on things you always throw out.

This survival guide was written by Sarah Welch and Alicia Rockmore , co-founders of Buttoned Up, inc. Buttoned Up, Inc. is a company dedicated to helping stretched and stressed women get themselves organized (along with everybody else they’re responsible for too!). Please send ideas and questions to us at: yourlife@getbuttonedup.com or visit us at http://www.getbuttonedup.com/

For more survival guides, free downloads, message boards and more, visit Mommy Track'd!

Do you have any other mail conquering tips? What are you working on this week to better organize your home or life?

Organizing Tip Thursday - creating your own personalized planner pages

Interested in printing your own planner pages, or not quite finding a planner that fits your needs? There are several great free downloads available out there that you might like – my favorites being the various planning pages available from Amy at MomAdvice and the variety of planning related downloads available at SimpleMom.

I love Simplemom’s daily docket, but I wanted something a bit different. If you’re looking to customize your own planner pages, excel is an easy way to create them! Here is a picture of the page I created – again it’s loosely based on the daily docket:

Here is quick tutorial if you’re interested.

1. Come up with a basic design that you want to create and roughly sketch it out on a piece of paper.
2. Open excel and start copying the sections of your planner pages into the cells, in the general area where you want each of them to appear. You can adjust the width of columns by holding your cursor on the line between a column, click and dragging your cursor either direction with your mouse.
3. In order to create boxes or lines under your cells, go to “Format” then “Cells” and click on the “borders” tab. From there you can choose the location and thickness of the line you want.
4. If you want to add some shapes to your planner like the little suns I have, go to “Insert” and click on “Picture” then choose “Autoshapes”. That should open a toolbar that will allow you to choose lines or basic shapes to paste anywhere on your sheet.
5. If you want certain sections to be wider than others, you can merge cells. Highlight the cells you want to merge and click on “Format” then “Cells” and choose the “Alignment” tab. There is a “Merge” option that you can check to merge the cells you have highlighted.
6. To check the layout of your page, click on “File” and “Print Preview”.
7. If your page is too big or too small, you can adjust the width of your columns to better fit the page.

The nice thing about printing your own pages, besides that you can tailor them to your needs, is that you can print them half size, double sided, and/or put them in plastic covers and reuse them with a dry erase marker!

I hope this was helpful rather than confusing. Let me know if you have any questions and I can try to answer them. Feel free to use my planner page if you'd like. Can anyone help me attach it as a pdf file instead of an image? For some reason that seems above my ability to figure out today. Happy Planning!

Now it's your turn - please link up your organizing ideas and help a mama out! Also, this week's Finding Freedom Friday at Phoebe's blog Cents to get debt free is on organization, check it out!

Organizing Tip Thursday - keeping it together

I had the chance to try out several products as a part of my organizing series. Many of them were unique and helpful. A few had me saying, "where was this when Sweetpea was born?! The cellkeeper is one of those products. Not to say this product isn't for everyone, but oh I could have used this during those "if I only had 2 more hands" new mom moments!

The cellkeeper is a combination personal electronics holder and wallet that can be clipped onto a strap to wear cross shoulder or around your waist. It can also be clipped onto a diaper bag or purse, gym bag or briefcase, keeping your favorite electronic device and necessary personal information and documents in a compact and specific location. Worn cross shoulder or at your waist it will keep your valuables safe while you work out, sightsee or enjoy time with your family at the park.


I hated carrying a purse and a diaper bag, but I struggled to move necessary items around from bag to bag - the only thing worse than feeling like a pack mule was showing up at the store and not having a credit card! I'm so glad that I have this handy little carrier to move from bag to bag with me now, and when our new little one comes along it is going to become even more valuable!


Because it helps me stay organized and a little more sane, I thought it would be good product to highlight for organizing tip Thursday. Cellkeepers retail for $29.99 and right now you can get free shipping. For more information on the specific designs available or to purchase a cellkeeper, visit their website! Please join us and share your organizing tips!

Organizing Tip Thursday - Join the fun!

I mentioned last week that I hoped you would join me this Thursday and share your organizing tips. I have a few tricks I've picked up along the way but much to learn, I hope we can help each other be efficient and organized. If you're interested in posting an organizing tip on your blog, please link up below! Whether or not you link up I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

This week EmDee is working nights and things just get hectic when he's not on a normal shift. One thing that helps me keep things working reasonably smoothly is my morning and evening list. These lists include the minimum things that I need to do each morning and evening to ensure we're ready to go and/or to make the next day run smoothly. I first read about this on Flylady.

My morning list looks like this:
-Shower & get dressed
-Eat breakfast, sit Sweetpea's breakfast out
-Take diaper bag and lunch to car
-Feed and water the dog
-Get Sweetpea up and dressed

My evening list looks like this:
-Clean up after dinner
-Put Sweetpea to bed
-Make lunch for next day
-Sit out tomorrow's clothes for me and Sweetpea
-Relax before bed

When I'm running late or feeling stressed I go to my lists - I'm definitely a list person! What works for you when you're feeling overwhelmed or trying to single parent? I'd love to hear your tips!

Organizing Tip Thursday - Great advice from a fellow working mom!

Welcome to Organizing Tip Thursday! Next week I'd love for you to join me in a little Mr. Linky fun - with the hopes that there is enough interest to keep it going weekly. I have a lot still to share from my organizing research and product reviews, and so much to learn from all of you! (The fact that my month long organizing series is now stretching into March should be proof of that, but who is counting, right?!)

So this week I am excited to share with you some great tips from a fellow "work outside the home mom" I met while soliciting information on organizing. Laura has a husband, two little boys and four pets under her roof, so she has a lot going on. She's totally speaking my language when she says: I hate it when people ask "how I do it", because the answer is pretty much "just the best I can"!

Here are Laura's favorite organizing tools and services:

1. Gallon size zip lock bags. These are great for organizing and storing food, sure, but they also work for crayon storage, packing for trips to keep outfits together, toiletries for trips, lining for my pocketbook since I carry juice pouches around on the weekends, and as a hat for when it rains and the umbrella is by my office door instead of in my car.

2. A "passport" hard drive. I have two, and I back up my personal photos on one at home, bring it to work for safekeeping, take the one from work home, and go back and forth. That way I have photos in both places if I need them, and because I do marketing and take a lot of photos at work for my job, I have work photos at home (handy when working from home). I also back up my music and all of my kids school documents on them. Which leads me to -

3. A scanner. Forget having lots of little pieces of paper with every PTA event on a different piece. I scan all of that stuff and calendar it on my Outlook calendar, so all of my PTA, Room Mom, and Dentist appointments are on my work calendar. I also scan the class directories and the school annual calendars. It is so much easier to find it in my documents than it is to find it in a huge pile of clutter.

4. Dream Dinners, Super Suppers, A Girlfriend's Kitchen, etc. I love the whole meal preparation industry. I bought a freezer just so I can keep it stocked. I find that fewer foods are thrown away because I actually thaw and cook the food, versus the "good intentions" of going to the grocery store, buying ingredients, and then getting too busy to make the dish. That used to happen a lot to me, and so the "crisper" in my fridge is now called "the rotter."

5. The Charger Station. We use one of these for our cameras, phones, camera/phone combo thingy, ipods, bluetooth, and anything else that has to charge. We also put our keys on it. I used to spend lots of time looking for the keys or the charger, and having and using one of those stations has been a time saver.

6. Flylady I use the routines I learned on this website to get rid of big clutter in the spots where it collects (like my dining room table).

7. Clear plastic storage bins with airtight lids: Like the Ziploc bags, I use them for everything. A makeshift cooler. The "goodwill" basket. Christmas decoration storage. The place to pile sweaters in the bottom of my closet.

Aren't some of these suggestions genius in their simplicity? One extra note, we talked a bit about Flylady, because most people love her methods or hate them...Laura suggests getting the digest version of the newsletter so you don't get inundated with emails.

Ready...Set...Let's get planning! The first step to organizing - keeping it all in one place.

When you're thinking of getting organized, what is one of the first things that comes to mind? Oh yeah. Well besides that...finding a planner, right? :)

Are you in search of the perfect planner? Just in case you are, I thought I'd review a few of the ones I've come across in my organizational series. Speaking of that series, I'd like to apologize that it's running about a month late - obviously I need some remedial organizational assistance!

One of the most important aspects of finding a planner is finding one that you like and fits your needs well enough that you will stick with it. Another key is finding a planner that has everything you need so you can keep all your information in one spot - no flipping through several planners or notebooks trying to remember where you wrote that key piece of information. That said, I'm going to violate the second principle just a bit...if you have a business or side project that you need to keep organized, it may work best for you to separate your "home life" from your side projects or business, as long as you are conscientious about keeping everything in its place so you know where it is.

The Busy Body Book
This planner has a unique grid format that allows you to track and coordinate five different schedules at once. Each page contains a week, with weekends having just as much space as weekdays. The opposite page has a blank and lined section for to do lists, notes, doodles, etc. The possibilities are endless - track family member's schedules, school subjects, business or home projects, meal plans, and more. This planner is one that is especially well suited for either home management or business planning, and I could easily see myself keeping one for work and one for home. The planner includes 2 large pockets, a bookmark, contact pages, shopping lists and a planning calendar. There are several stylish cover designs to choose from, and at $17.95 this planner is very affordable!

The Busy Body line of products also includes a magnetic fridge pad with seven tracking columns and a lined note section. The days are also unassigned, so you can use them whenever you like and the pad is tailorable to any month or year. There is also a seven column wall calendar available, great for displaying and coordinating family schedules, chores, meal plans, etc.

BusyBodyBook products are available at Amazon.com, giggle.com, and several other online and specialty stores.

Mom Essentials
This planner is great for moms on the go - small enough to fit in a purse and with a built in elastic closure you can keep it together wherever you are. This planner includes

• a week at a glance tear out calendar section
  
• a space for contacts
  
• to do lists
• a meal planning section that includes space for both take out and menu planning (menu ideas side by side with a grocery list)
  
• a notes section
• a pocket for any miscellaneous items you need to keep safe

In addition, there are a variety of funny post it notes for added reminders or leaving notes for others.

Mom Organizer
This stylish wall calendar comes with a large space for the details of each day, reminder stickers, a chore chart, and space for emergency and contact information. A storage pocket helps keep important documents handy. For added fun, you'll find a list of unusual holidays such as national popcorn day and international talk like a pirate day listed on the inside cover.

My Daily Bubble
This planner uses the power of bubble maps to help you gain control over your to do lists and creatively map out your life. One side of each page is a lined list of items, the other side is a bubble map. This planner is great for brainstorming about projects and coordinating schedules. Planner pages are attached like a Rolodex, so you can add, subtract, or rearrange easily. The Bubble Planner site has some great tutorials on using bubble maps and goal setting, as well as inspirational videos and tutorials.

The Daily Seed WholeBook
This book is like a planner and a life coach rolled into one. Arranged seasonally, each book contains planning pages and worksheets for a quarter of a year. Designed to help mom's take a balanced look at each aspect of life, these pages include space for a morning and evening ritual, self care and relationships, visions/goals for the future and more. The introduction includes information on how to get the most from this book, and how to coordinate the "have to-s" with your values and goals to create a life you are passionate about.

Sarah Pinto Weekly Planner
If you're looking for a simple, stylish and green planner that will fit in your purse, this planner is for you! Each week is divided into two pages, with a space for appointments and to do lists for each day, as well as a note section for each week. These planners are printed on high quality recycled paper using soy based ink, and are made in the USA. A portion of the proceeds for each of the beautiful "Tapestry" planners goes to California Pacific Medical Center Pediatric Cardiology.

What kind of planner do you use? What do you like/dislike about it? I'd love to hear what's working for you, and what you'd like to see that you haven't found yet!

I'm back - hoping we've paid our sick dues for awhile

After the second round of stomach flu in as many weeks, I'm not really feeling like myself. We're dealing with some stressful developments in the problem solvin house, and between that and the sheer exhaustion of being sick and taking care of my sick family, I'm worn out.

I'm hoping you'll provide me with some inspiration for things to write about this week? I'm coming up short on my own. Do you have any questions for the problem solvin mom? If so I'd love to hear them now.

Here's what's on our menu this week:

Monday: Taco salads
Tuesday: creamy beef and rice
Wednesday: tomato soup and grilled cheese
Thursday: leftovers
Friday: bacon egg and cheese sandwiches with hashbrowns

The pursuit of work/life balance: evaluating, organizing, and planning our way to a life we love!

The first step in achieving work/life balance is identifying your goals - what is it that you want when you say “balance”? As I’ve mentioned before, much of the balance comes in prioritizing the various aspects of our lives, and therefore finding that balance is an active, purposeful pursuit.

Instead of specific resolutions this year, we defined the core values most important to our family, and my goal is to live those values. Once you come up with the short list, how does that translate into what you want your days to look like? I came up with the idea for this series knowing that I would need a plan to achieve my goal for the year. It's one thing to create an ideal for yourself, to visualize what that ideal might look and feel like, and it's quite another to create a specific plan and execute it. A lot of the "getting there" is organizational - I needed help, and I thought you might be interested in learning along with me!

As part of my research, I met Jackie McKay* of Deliberate Wellness. One tool that Jackie uses with her clients is the Circle of Life. The Circle of Life is a tool developed by the Coaches Training Institute to help evaluate your satisfaction with various aspects of your life. I love that it's simple and flexible!

To try this exercise yourself, draw a circle and divide it into "slices". Assign the sections various titles, whether they be tasks that fill your day, goals you have, etc. Evaluate on a scale of 1 - 10 how satisfied you are with each section. Once you're finished, you might want to go into each section and assign it an ideal value. How big is the gap between reality and your ideal? How balanced are the various sections? Now that you've identified the gaps, you can better address them and begin creating a life that is fulfilling and less stressful.

This is the first in a series of posts this month on getting organized and meeting goals. I imagine it will be a mix of life coaching, organizing and planning, and some handy tools that I find along the way. I'd love to hear some of your challenges in this area, and any tips or solutions you might have! I'll try and incorporate any feedback into the series as we go along.

*Jackie McKay is a results oriented coach for mom entrepreneurs and working moms who are struggling to manage time, increase personal and professsional wealth and create a balance between business and family. She left the corporate world 8 years ago to become an entrepreneur in the wellness industry. She also practices Bowen Therapy, Massage Therapy and teaches Stott Pilates.

Happy New Year!

Photo by FreeWine

Wishing you all many blessings in the coming year! Did you have a late night celebrating? Did you go to bed early to celebrate like we did? {blushing} What are you planning for the coming year?

I've wrote yesterday about what resolutions I'll be working on this year. You can read about my strategy for keeping us motivated today on Sprout for Parents!

I have some other exciting things planned for PSMom - for the month of January we'll be featuring products and strategies for organizing your life and finding that mythical work/life balance. As I've written before, balance is all about mindfully choosing what we make time for. That said, it's difficult to stay on track. We'll talk with some pros on how to identify where we are spending our time and how we might want to refocus. We'll review (and give away!) some tools for organizing our clutter, data, photos, plans and dreams. Does that sound like something that interests you? I hope you'll stay tuned and learn with me!

One other resolution related feature for this month that I'm super excited about? Talking with RedBook love expert and author Tina Tessina about her latest book Money Sex & Kids. One of the items on my top 5 list this year is "honor each other". In that vein, I can't wait to gain her insight into strengthening my relationship with EmDee.

Looking for some tools to help identify the things you want to work on this year? Here are a few resources I'm loving right now:

Finding your Family Mission Statement (Simplemom)
Finding your Zingers (Millionaire Mommy Next Door)
Writing your personal commandments (The Happiness Project)
100 blogs that will inspire you to be a better person (Massage Therapy Careers)

What are you planning for 2009? I'd love to hear your resolutions and goals!

The mom who has it all - a myth?

photo by basykes

I followed a link to a blog last week that was about having it all - a fast paced career, family, friends, a lucrative home based business as a hobby...I'm sure it was all supposed to inspire me, but it left me thinking of the Wizard of Oz, "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!"

As a working mom I read a lot of articles about work/life balance and how families make it work when both parents have a career (be it at home or outside the home). Often times it's with a lot of give and take from each family member, and many times with help from others. It is a delicate balance to strike, full of making choices about what is most important and prioritizing.

Peddling the "I have it all and you can too" facade is demoralizing and unfair - we each have enough self conscious moments as it is, without trying to measure up to an unrealistic ideal. What does "HAVING IT ALL" mean anyway? What is the cost to each individual endeavor if we try to do too much?

What does "IT" for you? For me, that was the key - identifying what was most important in my life, and prioritizing those things above all the other things, big and little, that can fill up my time if I'm not careful. I really like SimpleMom's post on this subject. Staying centered, focusing on what is most precious, and not over committing really helps me. I try and regularly re-evaluate things, especially if I'm getting worn out or stressed.

I'd love to hear your tips and suggestions for finding balance in life. Stay at home mom, work at home mom or work outside the home mom (or dad for that matter!) what works for you? What do you think about the idea of having it all?

This Juggling Act - Finding balance in life

Photo by I'mClaude

I read a quote from Katie Couric recently that I'll have to paraphrase, because I can't find it again {blushing}.

She was saying that she spends most of her time feeling guilty either because she doesn't spend enough time with her family, or because she feels she's shirking her job. Inevitably, as moms, we all have to just do the best that we can.

I can definitely relate, and, as usual, I agree with and appreciate her point of view.

Regardless of whether you work outside the home or not, I think it's safe to say that as moms, we are all working on our own juggling act. I definitely don't put in the extra free hours that I used to at work, and I took a different position where I wouldn't have to travel regularly. I wish I were spending my days with my daughter, and I have a short term goal to go part time.

I have plenty of mommy guilt, but I make a point to be fully present with my daughter when we are together. We work hard to create quality time as a family, rather than each doing our own thing. We watch virtually no television. We list out the activities we want to enjoy and try to plan in advance.

And basically, we do the best that we can.

What tips do you have for achieving balance in your life? What have you given up in order to spend more time enjoying the things you hold most dear?