The Secret That Makes You Think I Have My Shit Together

It always shocks me when a friend says, “I don’t know how you do it! I only have 2 kids and I can’t keep up!”

My first reaction is always, “Umm… I fake it. A Lot.” and we laugh.

Then I catch my breath and wipe the tears away. There is one thing and one thing only that keeps me on task; My calendar.

I am not kidding.

The Hubz and I have 6 kids between us. Four of them go home to their “other parent” regularly. The girls go to their Dad’s every other week, for a week and then come home for a week. The boys go home to their Mom’s every few days, for a few days and then come Home again for a few days and so on. For the youngest 2, this is HOME.

Both Ex’s live an estimated 8 miles from us, in 2 different towns. The schools are under the same district, once you enter 7th grade. Until then, each town has their own separate elementary school.

Confused? Me too; on the daily.

Okay, summed up in it’s simplest form, it looks like this:

5 school aged kids + 3 houses + 3 Schools with 2 different start times + 2 school districts + multiple sports across 2 counties + appointments + added extras + 1 toddler = 1 SAHM with a spinning head and a lot of miles on her car. 

Still with me? Good, because I’m about to let you in on my little secret of how my calendar is my daily live saver.

Everyone has a smartphone these days. And in those little hand held computers is a calendar app. that comes with the damn thing. You can even chose a different one if you want. Your choice. Doesn’t matter.

What does matter is that you create a system that works for you.  THAT’S THE SECERT. Mine is a system of color. Everything in my calendar fits into a certain color category. I have six.

6 Categories = 6 colors

Pink = MOM (Originally, this was my work schedule.)

Orange = SPORTS (all sports. practice, games.)

Green = APPOINTMENTS (Doctors, Dentist, Vet, Car, etc.)

Purple = EXTRAS (birthday parties, field trips, etc.)

Yellow = Unusual or of high importance (i.e.: No school, out of town work, funerals)

Blue = “Heavy kid week”

I enter EVERYTHING into my phone calendar. EVERY. THING.

I also have a Large Desk Calendar that hangs in our kitchen. It mirrors my phone calendar. I write on it with a black pen and highlight the shit out of it to coordinate it with my phone. If the Hubz adds something to the wall calendar, I can easily add it in my phone.  The real beauty in this is you can see it from across the room. It doesn’t matter if you can’t read the details, you know the category. That means, between bites of food, you can say, “Babe, there’s an appointment tomorrow..”

Added in to this equation, are alarms/notifications for appointments, etc.

That’s it.

It’s actually super lame, but it works for us. Give it a go! You might impress your friends when you start showing up!

Oh, and sunglasses. I wear sunglasses to hide my tired ass eyes.