Remove Stress from School Mornings!

By Melanie Moore of Only a Breath

Are your school mornings stressful? There are few things worse than rushing around the house, yelling at your kids, tripping over the dog, and then realizing on your way out of the house that you forgot to pack lunches.

Have you been there too?

Mornings set the tone of the entire day. When our mornings are stressful, it begins the day with a nervous tension that certainly isn’t helpful for young children heading off to school. Here are a few simple tips that will help you take back your mornings and replace stress with joy.

• Prepare in advance! Do everything you can the night before to help facilitate an easier morning. For example, make sure that homework is done as soon as possible after school, and that you have signed all papers necessary to return to school. On Sunday night, it is very helpful to lay out complete outfits for yourself and your children for the whole week. This simple step can make a huge difference on your morning.

• Wake before your children, and get a head start on your morning. Whether you use this extra time for your quiet time, to take a shower, or just take some time to enjoy a cup of coffee, the extra time will help you start your morning in a calm manner and gather your thoughts for the day ahead.

• Get your children involved! I have been amazed at how much time is saved when children have chores they are responsible for doing in the morning to help get ready for school. Whether it is making the bed, dressing themselves, or taking dishes to the sink, each small task makes a huge difference — and children love to be involved and have “jobs” to do!

• Pack lunches/car the night before — If possible, pack school lunches the night before. If food needs to be refrigerated, have it ready to go so that you just have to grab it and pack it in the lunchbox. Also, packing up the car the night before with backpacks, sports equipment, and any extra projects ensures that necessary items will not be forgotten in the morning rush.to do!

• Buy gas on the weekend — That little, yellow fuel light? You do NOT want to see that on Monday morning after already leaving the house late… Trust me, on that! I speak from experience!

Do you have any tips that will help improve mornings for our moms? We would love for you to comment below this post and share with our community of readers!

Let’s take back our mornings and start each day with happy attitudes!

Melanie writes at “Only A Breath” about life as a small-town, southern, girly-girl mommy of two rough and rowdy little boys. She is so thankful for a wonderful, hard-working husband who makes her laugh and is a wonderful daddy. She works full-time as an industrial software developer (“computer geek”) and offers practical tips and encouragement for moms who work outside the home. Her heart’s desire is to encourage others to celebrate life and cherish each breath of this journey.

Create a Calm Summer

Laura Rolands of My Attention Coach

Summer can be hectic in a way that differs from the school year.  Sure, you don’t have homework to worry about typically, but you probably have a different day care situation, new activities and probably some bored kids!

Schedule

Setting a schedule for the summer can really help keep things calm during the summer.  If your kids are older and will be staying home by themselves during the day, a schedule can help them stay on track so that the transition back to school in the fall is easier.  If your kids are younger and in day care or with a sitter, a schedule can give them some structure even when they are not with you.  Your day care or sitter may already have a schedule so it is a good idea to check with them as well.

If you are a work at home or stay at home mom, a schedule is probably even more critical.  I know with my own business that having the kids home for the summer creates new stress on our days.  A schedule can help both you and your kids stay on track towards family, school and work goals.  Fellow Families With Purpose contributor Susan Heid has a great article over at her site on Summer Morning Routines.  Check it out for even more ideas

Change Up Chores

I’m sure you already use a chore chart for your family.  It is easy to get into a rut with chores which can cause some consternation with the kids and be less helpful for you.  Rethink chores for the summer to ensure they are working for you and your kids.  Get their input on this process.  I’m not suggesting to hand the hen house over to the fox, but I do think that if you can decide on chores that your kids will enjoy and interesting.  For example, my kids had a blast last summer weeding an area of our yard that had become overgrown.  It took a lot of time and ENERGY in addition to being hugely useful to our family.  They had a blast and I think were pretending they were in the jungle.  (Trust me, it had gotten very overgrown!)  I am not sure when I would have ever tackled this project without the help and enthusiasm of the kids.

I would love to get some brainstorming going here about changing up chores.  How do you change chores in the summer?  Let’s share our ideas!

With a schedule and some productive chores, you can add calm to your summer.  Enjoy it!

Laura Rolands is the founder of LSR Coaching and Consulting, LLC. She is a coach whose passion is to support, lead and inspire independence and success for people who have either been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD or who are facing other attention-related challenges. Her clients include individuals with attention-related challenges and/or their parents. If you have any questions or more suggestions to add, please visit her website at www.MyAttentionCoach.com.

Summer Sanity Savers

By Jennifer Ascher of Organizing without Limits

Summer is here and the kids are home. I don’t know about you, but at times it feels like the summer  months are busier than the school year. To save my sanity and not have things fall completely apart here are a few things that I have found helpful for both myself and the kids.

Create a summer calendar:

Create and post a calendar with all 3 months on it. It is much easier to plan family activities when the entire summer schedule is laid out in front of you. Such as baseball games, summer camps, play dates etc.

Plan your menu and check the weather:

When it gets to be 100 degrees outside you simple don’t feel like cooking, but everybody still needs to eat. This is where menu planning and bulk cooking will be a life saver for you in the summer time. When doing your menu for the week besides checking your calendar for upcoming activities, check the weather. Plan a cooler day during the week to get some bulk cooking and baking done.  This way on those extra busy or hot days you will have meals and snacks ready and don’t end up at the drive thru or the grocery store every day.

Housework:

Let’s be honest here. When kids are home it is pretty much a given that you are going to have bigger messes. Don’t let that be an excuse for not getting the house cleaned. Make a daily, weekly and monthly cleaning list of things that need to get done and try to do them first thing in the morning to get them out of the way. Make sure to get the kids involved with house work. The quicker it gets done the more time you will have to enjoy the rest of your day.  By the way it’s OK to have days that you simple accept the messes and move on, just not every day.

Kids and summer:

The “lazy days of summer” are great. However kids thrive on routines and summer is no exception. Having a daily routine and structure will make it easier for them to transition in the fall for back to school. With the kids being home, use the extra time to teach them new chores and responsibilities. No school doesn’t mean that the learning stops! To help maintain academic skills make sure to schedule daily reading and “school work”. The work should be a review of skills learned over the past school year. If your child’s teacher didn’t send a summer packet home, you can pick up workbooks at the store or find things on the internet. To have less cranky kids maintain consistent bed time and awake time as much as possible.

Summers are meant for fun and relaxing and you don’t need a rigid schedule but you do need to have structure and routines. Otherwise instead of enjoying the time with your kids you will be nothing but a stressed out cranky mom and that does nobody any good.

Jennifer Ascher is a Professional Organizer and owner of Organizing Without Limits. It is her belief that organizing goes beyond pantries, closets or even time management.  It’s about taking control of your WHOLE LIFE.

Organizing Without Limits provides organizing solutions to transform your life and offers both hands-on and virtual organizing services. You can reach Jennifer at http://www.organizingwithoutlimits.com

Making the Most of Your Summer

Mandi Ehman of Organizing Your Way

When we think of summer, we often imagine lazy days spent by the pool side or a time to relax and just enjoy life, but any parent of young children will tell you that it’s not usually quite so picturesque. It takes a lot more work to create that picture-perfect afternoon at the pool then just showing up with kids in tow!

Here are five tips to help you make the most of your summer days so that you have more time and energy to enjoy it rather than running yourself ragged in the process:

1. Keep a written calendar.
Camps, special activities, family outings and vacations all compete for our time during the summer months. Add in church events, play dates and sports, and you can easily become overbooked and overwhelmed.

Keep a written calendar of every activity or event you have planned for the summer so that you can see when things start to get a little tight before it’s too late. My two favorite planning tools are the BusyBodyBook, which lets you divide your activities by person/subject in a vertical grid, and the Google calendar, where you can color code your appointments and events and also share your calendar with other people.

2. Keep a pool/park/play date bag packed and ready to go.
Rather than trying to throw everything you need into a bag as you head out the door, keep a bag packed with the basic essentials and ready to go all the time. No two families will have the exact same necessities list, but consider things like sunscreen, towels, swimsuits, a hair brush and ponytails, snacks, water bottles, diapers, changes of clothing, or whatever you need for your favorite destinations.

When you come home, make sure you bring the bag inside with you and restock any items that you’ve used up during your outing so that it will be ready the next time you hit the road!

3. Look for easy to prepare meals and snacks.
Instead of planning meals that involve a lot of preparation time and heat up your kitchen in the process, plan easy menus with a variety of crockpot meals, salads, sandwiches and grilling out. You may also want to spend a few hours one weekend stocking your freezer to make sure you have dinner on hand even on busy days, which is a huge time and money saver.

Keep easy, healthy snacks on hand too. Our favorites on a hot summer day include frozen grapes and blueberries and homemade smoothie popsicles.

4. Plan rainy day activities.
Plan ahead for the days when you’re stuck at home because of the weather or just because you need a chance to unwind and relax after a busy week. Studies show that boredom can be a valuable part of child development because it teaches kids to use their imagination and creativity, but too much boredom can backfire.

For older children, rainy day activities can be as simple as setting a box full of craft supplies on the kitchen table and letting them create their own project. Younger kids may need a little more guidance, and you can put together craft packs in envelopes or sandwich bags ahead of time and simply pull them out as needed. Create an “I’m Bored” jar full of ideas for lazy afternoons or rainy days at home. Include things like reading a chapter book together, baking cookies for the neighbors or building a blanket fort.

5. Remember that it’s okay to say no!
I don’t know about you, but there are so many things I want to pack into our summer – going to a baseball game as a family, picking strawberries, taking my girls fishing, going on vacation, visiting different museums, meeting up with old friends, going on our first camping trip, visiting family, and on and on – that it’s impossible to do it all.

Remember that it’s okay to leave some things for another season or another year, and you don’t have to accept every invitation or opportunity that comes your way. Stuffing too much into your summer can backfire and leave everyone exhausted and unappreciative, so take a step back and evaluate which things will really help create memories and bonds between you and your kids and politely decline the rest!

What’s on your agenda for summer?

Mandi Ehman is a work-at-home mom to four spunky little girls. She believes that organizing only lasts if you do it your way – to fit your needs, your preferences and your lifestyle – and she shares organizing and time management tips at Organizing Your Way.

My Top Four Reasons to Exercise

By: Laura Rolands of My Attention Coach

Spring is finally here!  The recent good weather in Michigan inspired me to write about getting more exercise for this month’s article.  Sure, you can exercise indoors and I have friends who run outside all year, but there is nothing like getting outside for some exercise in the fresh spring air.  It is so invigorating!

While I traditionally thought about exercise from the traditional “I need to lose a few pounds” perspective, I recently began reflect on other benefits.  Here are my top four.

ADHD Help

As physician and author, John Ratey, M.D. writes, increasing your exercise can help to increase the brain’s norepinephrine and dopamine neurotransmitter levels.  Increasing these neurotransmitters can help increase attention levels for both children and adults.  For me as an Attention and ADHD Coach, this reason alone gets me excited to start moving more!  Exercise is a great way to complement the many other things you can do to improve ADHD symptoms.  (see http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/print/3280.html for more information)

Family Time

There is nothing better than being outside and exercising with my family.  Whether we are riding bikes, playing soccer or going for a walk, we make great memories every time.  Your kids are more likely to get away from those video games if they have a fun alternative.  Find something they love to do and exercise will seem like less work.

General Health

Even if you do not have a goal of losing weight, building the habit of exercise is important for countless reasons.  The website www.letsmove.gov tells us that if kids get at least 60 minutes of exercise each day they are more likely to have a healthy weight in adulthood.  This is so much easier when we can get outside.  What is your child’s favorite way to get their 60 minutes?

Energy

Regular exercise can provide more energy even when you are not exercising.  In our busy world that asks so much of children, a natural way to increase their energy is an excellent benefit.  Sometimes it seems counter-intuitive though.  I often feel that I am too busy to exercise when work and life in general get so busy.  The great weather reminds me that I am too busy skip exercising!  I’m so grateful I can do more of it outside now.

The benefits are countless really.  I hope my top four reasons get you motivated to start moving as we move into Spring.  I’ll be looking for more ways to get my family moving.  Share your ideas and reasons with us here!  I would love to hear from you.

Laura Rolands is the founder of LSR Coaching and Consulting, LLC. She is a coach whose passion is to support, lead and inspire independence and success for people who have either been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD or who are facing other attention-related challenges. Her clients include individuals with attention-related challenges and/or their parents. If you have any questions or more suggestions to add, please visit her website at www.MyAttentionCoach.com .

Creating Bedtime Routines

One of the concerns that parents often ask me about is the trouble they have getting their kids to go to bed and stay in bed at night.

Nothing gets a parent more exhausted and worn out than night after night of no sleep. The truth is that when we think of the idea of going to sleep, it sounds like a tempting proposition: moms rarely feel that they get enough of it. They long for a good night of deep rest as a traveler in the desert longs for fresh water! But for our young kids, the idea of getting to sleep is not nearly as appealing. It means the fun has to stop and most kids will let you know of the disappointment via tantrums and crying.

Most children are ready to start a bedtime routine as early as 6 months. It’s important to know how much sleep is necessary and age appropriate so your expectations for your children can be realistic. Also, have you noticed if your child is a natural “night owl” or an “early riser”? Some children show a preference early on.

Peace mind only comes when we have a plan of action, realizing there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Here are some simple tips to consider:

1. Make the hour before bedtime quiet, peaceful and an opportunity to slow down. Make it fun! Include things that your child loves to do: read his favorite book or tell him his favorite story or play his favorite music. Make the idea of going to bed appealing!
2. Have a clear routine that your child understands: get a warm bath, put pajamas on, brush teeth, read story. Whatever is important to you and your child should be part of a consistent routine you follow most nights.
3. Take the opportunity of closeness that bedtime affords. Our children grow so fast and need less and less of our intervention at bedtime. Until very recently, our 8-year-old would ask us to lie down in bed with her after the lights went out. She has now asked us to let her go to sleep on her own. I can’t tell you how much I miss that little “snuggling” time but I knew it wasn’t going to last forever. I am glad I enjoyed while it lasted!

The bottom line is: rest when you can even if that means chores wait. Stick to the routine you’ve created and be consistent. It may take a little time, but in the end, it will pay off.

Sandra is the “soul” and “coach” behind the Soulful Parent. She has worked in Early Intervention, Special Education and has supported many families in the road to successful parenting. She became a PCI Certified Parent Coach® because she’s deeply passionate about changing the world, one family at a time. Sandra believes that life becomes a more enjoyable journey when you lead from your strengths! She can be contacted Sandra {at} thesoulfuparent(.)com and www.thesoulfulparent.com for more information about seminars, presentations and individual coaching services.

Different Ways of Keeping Track of Your Daily Routines

Half the battle of sticking with your daily routines is keeping track of them so that they are easily visible and referenced.  If they are buried in a drawer where you have to dig through a pile of paper to find them, chances are you will quickly abandon them.  Here are some quick and easy ways of keeping your daily routines visible and easily tracked.

Write or type them down on a separate schedule and simply post them either on your refrigerator with a magnetic clip or on a bulletin board.  Just be sure to post them where you will naturally see them every day such as in the family kitchen or in your office.  You can create your own schedule or use one of our free daily routine schedules.

Dry erase boards are a great way of writing out your personal routines as well as the kids’ routines.  Hanging in a central location or on the back of your kids’ bedroom doors, dry erase boards have the benefit of being easily updated or changed.

If you use a daily planner, use the notes section to write your daily routines.  Every night before going to bed, lay out your planner on the kitchen counter open to your daily routine page so that you can easily reference the routines in the morning.  Use the same practice at lunch time for your afternoon routines and in the evening for your evening routines.  You may want to write them in pencil in case you need to make changes.

Write your daily routines on index cards and either paperclip them to your family calendar or hang them on your refrigerator.

If you use a family organizer, simply add them as one of the pages and open your organizer to that page every morning, afternoon, and evening for quick reference.

If you use an electronic calendar such as Microsoft Outlook or Google Calendar, create recurring tasks with the details of your routines.  To keep your lists from becoming overcrowded and overwhelming, create one task that incorporates all of your morning, afternoon, and evening tasks by writing out the individual tasks in the subject line or in the notes section.  Similar to this example here:

Good luck!

Simple Questions Every Family Should Ask Themselves the Night Before

At first I was reluctant to write this post because on the surface it seems so simple and not very helpful.  But after forgetting to communicate with my oldest daughter for the past two weeks about a commitment I had and being forced to communicate via taped notes to the door,  I decided that maybe there was merit in writing about some simple but often overlooked questions every family should ask themselves prior to the start of a new day.  So here is my list of questions that I have now included in my daily routines.

Where am I going tomorrow and what does my family need to know about this?

Sometimes we get caught up in what our calendar says that we don’t take the time to think through the implications and the messages our family needs to hear.  Do I have a meeting that will require my daughter to let herself in the house or my husband to pick up the kids?  Taking the time to think through and ask the implications of the items on our planner will help tremendously in keeping the family in sync. 

What will me and my family need while I am gone?

Along with where we are going, there are often things we and our family will need while gone.  For example, if I am going to be late for a meeting I need to make sure my daughter has her key and that I have my planner.  Will I be sitting in a doctor’s office?  Then I should probably bring a long a good book to keep me busy. 

Where are my kids going tomorrow and what doe s the family need to know about this?

Is your child staying after school for a Brownie meeting?  Then making sure her sister knows she won’t be walking home with her would be a good idea.  Does one of my kids have an after school doctor appointment that will require me to pick the other kids up early from school?  Then this is something my kids need to know. 

What will my kids need for the next day?

Asking yourself and the kids this question will help you remember to write the permission slip, pack the Brownie vest, and include the lunch money.

What am I doing tomorrow, what do I need to do it, and what will my family need to know about this?

Okay, this is really three questions, but thought it made sense to combine it into one.  Is laundry on your do list the next day?  Then letting your husband know he needs to clean out his gym bag would be a helpful thing.  Are you picking up your son a new pair of sneakers?  Then checking to make sure you know what size he wears would be a helpful thing.

Good luck!

Conquering the Chaos Part III – Creating a Family Schedule that Works

Conquering the Chaos Part III – Creating a Family Schedule that Works

Congratulations on making it this far in our Conquering the Chaos series.  This is the final installment of our three part series and before getting into the details of making a family schedule let’s recap what we have done so far.

If you have followed along in Part I and Part II in our Conquering the Chaos series you should have the following things completed:

• An inventory of how and where your family spends their time
• A good understanding of the bottlenecks, habits, and patterns that are causing problems
• A list or understanding of things you want to change
• A list or understanding of the things working well
• What areas or activities are causing the most stress in your life as well as which areas are consuming the most time
• What areas of your life need more time
• What areas or buckets of your family life that are the most enjoyable
• A Family Life Vision – A well thought out articulated statement of how you want your family life to look and feel

We will use all of these things to create a solid family schedule, so if you haven’t already go back to Part I and Part II and work through them before continuing on with this segment.

Setting Anchor Points

To finalize your family schedule you need to begin by setting anchor points to your day.  These are the ideal start and end points to your day in which everything fits in between.  Using the family life vision you wrote in Part II as a guide, set an ideal start time of your day and an ideal ending time of your day.  For example, let’s say you would love to start your day no earlier than 6:00am and be in bed everything night with lights out by 10:00pm.  6:00am would be your start time and 10:00pm would be your end time and all the family life bucket activities need to fit within these two times.  These times are the anchors to your day and need to be realistic.  If you are unrealistic in setting these anchors then your family schedule will soon start to fail after implementation, so put some thought into them and be sure to keep in mind whether you are a morning person or a night owl. 

Establishing Priorities

Okay now that you have the anchor points to your day set, it is time to start establishing priorities.  This part may be difficult for a lot of people, but without it you will find yourself and family scattered and overwhelmed. 

Using the family life vision statement you created in Part II as well as questions you answered in the Family Life Bucket exercise, you need to go through all the family life buckets and sort them into three categories – High Priority, Medium Priority, and Low Priority.

High priority buckets are buckets in your life that mean the most to us or are “requirements of living”.  These are the things we do throughout our day that are either necessities for living like eating, showering, homework, or that are intrinsically important to our family.  These are the “must do’s” and “want to do’s” of your day.

The medium priority buckets in your life are the “should do’s” of your day.  These are the things that we may or may not enjoy doing, but have to be done to avoid negative consequences and to function normally in life.  For example, house cleaning for many people may fall into this category.  It isn’t something we must do to survive and isn’t necessarily something we enjoy doing, but if it isn’t done can result in unhealthy living conditions and distractions to the family life.  Other things that may fall into this category are things like laundry, bill paying, lawn work, or visits to the dentist. 

The low priority buckets of your life are things that are not critical to everyday living and you do if you have time or energy.   For some people this may be things like making beds, washing windows, or fixing a squeaky door hinge.   These are the buckets and activities that we will assign the least amount of time in our schedule. 

Creating a Family Schedule that Works

Now that you have all of your family activities and buckets prioritized it is time to put everything into a family schedule.

To do this you will need some type of blank weekly schedule and a pencil.  You can use our family schedule printable or create your own.  Just be sure to have one with all seven days and one in which you have room to write. 

To begin, start with your highest priority items and your anchor times and go through each day assigning a block of time for each high priority item.  Much of how you allocate time for each high priority activity will depend on the hard points in your schedule such as when school starts or when you need to be at work.  To avoid making this step too tedious, start by just blocking off chunks of time (see the weekend example in our printable) for each high priority item rather than trying to assign specific time slots.  Over time you can refine the schedule and make it more detailed by assigning specific time slots if you need them to help you stay on track.  Once you schedule in the high priority items, go through and fill in your schedule for the medium priority items and the low priority items.  When you are done you should have a schedule with time each week or day for each family life bucket on your list. 

Sticking to the Schedule

Now that you have your family schedule created here are some tips to help you stay on track.

• Post the schedule in a central location so that you MUST look at it every day.
• Add reviewing the family schedule to your daily routines.
• Work on anticipating disruptions and managing disruptions so that you can stay on track
• Don’t be afraid to change the schedule if you find something isn’t working. Most if not all families will have to make some changes to the schedule and this is okay!
• Use the family schedule as a guide and learn to be flexible when it comes to making changes and deviating from the schedule from time to time. Letting the kids stay up an hour later occasionally isn’t going to ruin the schedule just as long as you don’t let it become a habit.
• Practice delegating, deleting, and simplifying certain activities so that you can fit everything in at a comfortable pace.

Remember, there will be days where no amount of scheduling and planning will help.  On days like these, just accept the disruptions for the day while being careful not to use the bad days as an excuse to abandon the schedule.  

Good luck!

Conquering the Chaos Part II – Organizing Your Life into Buckets

Now that you have gone through Part I of our Conquering the Chaos segment and have a time inventory of a typical week, it’s time to begin to understand what all that means by sorting the activities and tasks that occupy your days into buckets, so you can more easily understand where you spend your time, where you want to spend more time, and things in your life that are just right.

Begin this exercise by printing off the life bucket printable and begin sorting all the tasks and activities from your family life inventory into one of the appropriate buckets:  School, Extra-Curricular, Household Cleaning, Laundry, Household Maintenance & Repairs, Lawn Work, Volunteer Commitments, Faith Commitments, Administrative, Meal Planning, Household Finances, Fun Stuff, Personal, Auto/Transportation, Family Commitments, and Other.

For example, let’s say you look at your family life inventory for Sunday and found you did the following things (click picture to enlarge):

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You would then go through this list and sort each of these items into the appropriate bucket making sure to include the time as well so that your bucket list looks something like this (click picture to enlarge):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Go through your family life inventory day by day and add each activity to the bucket list.  For tasks you do every day, for example making dinner, enter it once in the Meal Planning and Prep bucket with an average time from the week it took you to plan and make dinner. 

Once you have gone through your family life inventory and added everything to your bucket list, then go through and add anything you didn’t do the week you took your family life inventory but know you need to do.  For example, you may have done a family life inventory during a week in which you didn’t need to mow the lawn, but you know it is something that is typically done, so go ahead and add it to your bucket list along with a time estimate.  You want to have as complete a list as possible.

Understanding What It All Means

Now that you have your life divided into buckets, it is time to understand and analyze what it all means.  To do this, go through your bucket list and ask yourself these questions:

What buckets or activities are taking the most time?

On what buckets or activities should we be spending more of our time?

What buckets or activities are causing the most stress?

What buckets or activities are the most enjoyable?

What buckets or activities are the least enjoyable?

 

Starting With the End in Mind

Now that you have a good picture of what your current family life looks like, it is time to spend some time on what you WANT your family life to look.  This is a mental image or written expression of what you want your family life to look like most of the time.  The point of this exercise is to articulate how you want your family life to be by asking yourself these questions:

What things do I want to spend less time doing?

What things do I want to spend more time doing?

I want our family life to be less………?

I want our family life to be more…….?

I personally want to be more…..?

Here is an example to help better understand:

I want to stop rushing and having to yell at my kids to hurry up.  I want to have time to exercise a few days a week and to sit down in the evening and spend time reading to my kids, playing games with my kids, and enjoying my family rather than running around getting things done.

I want a clean house, but minimize the amount of time I spend cleaning.  I want to have all the clutter, toys, and stuff picked up every night before bed so that I don’t have to look at it in the morning.

I want to know in advance what I am making for dinner and I want the dinner to be healthy.  I want to spend a maximum of 90 minutes each day making and cleaning up after dinner.

I want to find more time on the weekends just spending time with my family rather than running to soccer games and sports events.  I want to find time to do the things we say we want to do, but never seem to find the time.

I want to stop paying bills late and want to spend a maximum of 60 minutes each week doing bills and financial work.

I want the kids to be in bed by 9 PM every night.

I want to be in bed by 10 PM every night and get up an hour before the kids every morning

I want to find more time for date nights with my husband and nights out with friends

I personally want to be less stressed, less worried, and more fulfilled.

Remember no family or family life is perfect.  We all have good days, bad days, and points in our lives where no amount of planning analyzing, or preparation can make better.  The point of this exercise is to articulate a vision and goal not make yourself perfect.  Sometimes things are out of our control but that shouldn’t be a reason to not try at all.

Once you get through this exercise save all your notes along with the notes from Conquering the Chaos – Part I for next month’s segment – Conquering the Chaos Part III – Creating a Family Schedule that Works. 

Good luck!

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