Organising

Welcome to the May edition of the Simply Living Blog Carnival - Daily Lives cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children, Laura at Authentic Parenting, Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy, and Joella at Fine and Fair. This month, we write about what we do to keep the little things from overwhelming us. Please check out the links to posts by our other participants at the end of this post.

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In the days when I was a paid employee I was highly organised at work.  It was a skill that I was proud of, I knew I was good at it and it helped me get prompted.  However those skills always seemed to remain at work, at home I was the opposite it was almost as if I had used up all my organising capacity at work and there was none left for home.  I would forget people's birthdays, pay bills late, shop on a different day each week, run out of food constantly and so on, it didn't matter what tools I used to try to remember they didn't really work for long if at all.  When I stopped working I thought that I might become more organised at home and slowly over the years I have become so, until recently when I realised that I am almost, if not, at the level of organisation I had at work.

I have tried many tools including a wall calendar, my phone, pieces of paper and a diary on my computer for lots of different reasons none of these worked so for this year have gone back to a paper diary and am loving it.  I have written all the birthdays, reminders to renew insurance and dates for annual payments in it.  Each double page has a week to view on one page and a lined notebook on the other, I use this to record things going on that we might want to do such as plays, events, festivals, guided nature walks and the like when I find out about them, what I need to be doing in my garden as I am following the biodynamic method this year and possible trips away for camping, visiting family or holidays.

At the beginning of each week I start planning the next one, when I have an outline plan of what we are going to do, I then start to plan my meals based around the contents of a veg box I have delivered and what we are going to be doing in that week.  All my food shopping is based on a meal plan for seven days of lunches and evening meals, I don't decide which meal for which day but I do have some really quick to make meals in case we are late home any evenings.

Writing all this down makes me realise how highly organised I sound which I am but it has also meant that I am actually much more efficient.  I am managing to fit in gardening on at least three or four occasions in most weeks.  I have more time for sewing, knitting and reading all of which I really enjoy.  But most important of all I have more time to do things with the children, be it reading to them, making things together or just talking.

By looking ahead and thinking about future weeks I hope that, weather permitting, we are able to have more camping trips this year as I have planned them in my diary and talked to friends or family who want to join us this is something I have talked about doing for the last couple of years but could only fit the odd hastily put together trips as I left it until the last minute.

Having all my plans together in one small book which I can fit in my bag has been the making of my organising and freeing up time a side effect I did not expect!

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Thank you for visiting the Simply Living Blog Carnival cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children, Laura at Authentic Parenting, Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy, and Joella at Fine and Fair. Read about how others are incorporating stress relieving actions into their daily day lives. We hope you will join us next month!

• Keeping Stress at Bay From Day to Day - Laura at Authentic Parenting sums up some of the things she does to avoid being overwhelmed.
• How I Stay Sane! - ANonyMous @ Radical Ramblings discusses the coping mechanisms she has to stay sane when her life is chaotic and often stressful.
• Organising - sustainablemum talks about how spending time planning ahead has given her more time for life!
• Simple Menu Planning for New Moms - No longer a lady of leisure, new mom Mercedes at Project Procrastinot has had to rethink her cooking style in order to maximize her time in the kitchen.
• Happy Homes/Peaceful Homes - According to Lisa at Squishable Baby, It's the things that bring us closer together as a family - that keep our home Peaceful.
• Keeping It Simple - At Living Peacefully with Children, Mandy focuses on keeping things simple so that she can spend her time enjoying her family.