How Do You Do It

So, the question I get often is, “How do you do it?” How do I organize six kid's schedules, meals, and activities and stay so organized? The truth is, I really don't feel organized. Truth be told, I have a hard time remembering that on Tuesdays and and Thursdays Andy takes Cody and Trevor to school, so Dylan comes with me to take Gabby and Lucy and then I head back to Roseville to take Dylan to school. How many times am I going to schedule a work meeting in Sacramento (thinking I'll be out that way after I take the girls to school) only to reschedule becasue I forgot I have to come back to Roseville??? 

The good thing is both Andy and I are pretty darn picky, compulsive and crazy about staying on top of laundry, dishes, and cleaning, so that part is easy. We keep Clorox wipes in just about every room… kitchen, both bathrooms, laundry room etc. so we can easily do a quick wipe down of anything. The same goes with DREFT laundry spray… it is in both bathrooms and laundry room to make sure every clothing item gets sprayed before it hits the wash. We do at least one load of laundry a day to stay on top of it, getting it in the wash before anyone leaves for school and it is usually folded and put away before noon.  I have to give Andy all the credit for this. I maybe fold laundry twice a week.

I have been obsessed with our online calendar lately. We have an online calendar for the girl’s schedule that we share with Jorge. Andy has his, I have mine and we have one joint one, Andy and I have access to all of them.  Then, at the beginning of the month, I update our dry erase calendar in the kitchen. And it’s color-coded. No Joke.  The girl's schedule is in purple (school activities and their schedule with us and Jorge). The boy’s school schedule is in blue. My work schedule is in green, and family activities are in brown. Its crazy and I am compulsive about it, I completely admit it.

Everyday we set out that nights PJ’s and the next day’s clothes.  We also prep each child’s cup, the four younger ones like juice in the morning, Lucy likes milk with Ovaltine and Gabs likes just milk. After their one cup, they get water the rest of the day.

I also try to plan out our meals for the week. Along with breakfast items. I then plan out on what days I need to do something in advance… like make muffins for tomorrows breakfast.  Or, these past two weeks, I have been making all muffins on Sunday morning (to cut back on clean up) and then freezing some for later in the week.

Going off that menu, I set aside some time on Sunday morning to see what I can prep ahead of time. For instance this week I am making a chicken sausage and apple casserole dish. So, on Sunday morning I diced the carrots, celery, and onion and cut up the sausage. I placed them all in Ziploc bags along with the apple I will need. I could of even measured out the dry ingredients for the biscuits if I thought about it. On Wednesday we are having soup.  Again, I diced the onions, carrots, and celery and put the sausage all in Ziploc bags. So Wednesday morning I will dump everything into a crock-pot.

For lunches, I pre-packed the snack items, crackers; pretzels and a sweet treat in Ziploc bags and put into a storage container in the pantry. I also make all the sandwiches for the week and put into a storage container and then in the fridge.  In the mornings, I line up lunchboxes, water bottles and grab what I need for each one and have them packed in under 5 minutes.

We also have some other tricks that keep us running smoothly and our children helping out!

We have a large calendar in the hallway and Cody’s school days are in blue since he asks NON STOP “Do I have school when I wake up?” We have a white board, and on the one side we have “MORNING DUTIES” where I have everything they need to do in the morning from wake up to leaving for school: eat, brush teeth, get dressed, make beds, brush hair, get lunches and backpacks out. (Yes, they are responsible for making sure their lunches gets in their backpack).

 

On the other side are their chores. Right now each child has ONE chore a day and it rotates each week. They are: feed dogs in the morning, feed the dogs at night, get the cups out of the fridge each morning, trash in bathrooms, help with dog poop (this is everyone’s favorite chore to talk about), and to help set the table at night. They all know their chores and usually once everyone is up from naps, we make sure they get done for the day. We do not give an allowance for this. We feel this is something they need to do to help our family run smoothly.

And last but not least…. The biggest trick we have is every night, after the kids are tucked quietly into bed, Andy and I grab a drink… usually milk and Baileys (cuz we're hardcore like that) and either sit on the couch or our bathroom floor and talk about the day. We talk about what worked, what didn’t work and what we can do better tomorrow. I think we wake up thinking and hoping that today will be the best day ever, but knowing we will fumble and make mistakes along the way, but it’s important to learn from them, so tomorrow can be even better.