Calendar

Do you remember day planners? My mom had one and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I got one as a teen and LOVED it. I thought it was the best thing ever to color code everything. (I'll admit it, I was totally a nerd! Oh, I guess I still am.) The only problem was that I didn't have all that much to keep track of in those days (which means it must have been before my junior year of high school when I started getting really busy). Even when my oldest kids were little, there was very little to keep track of on a calendar. Now, though, my days are very full with all our family's activities, and unless I keep very careful track, we miss important things. It turned out that being a nerd and loving planners has come in handy.

If you are a parent, you know how important routine is to a child. They thrive on knowing what to expect, and what is expected of them in any given situation. Calendaring for my family has solved so many issues, from Adam knowing what is happening that day to the constant question from the kids: "What are we having for dinner tonight?" What was most surprising to me as I began calendaring for the family, is how much it changed for me. It has helped me stay on track in all the areas of my life.

This is our family calendar, hanging on my pantry door. I found a planner printable I liked on Pinterest and tweaked it in Photoshop to be what our family needed, then printed a 16x20 of it and framed it. I learned the hard way that the frame has to have glass, and not plexi glass, in order for it to work long-term with dry erase markers. I buy the ultra fine point Expo markers that have 8 colors, and store them lid down, like this:

Each person in our family is assigned a color, including the dog, and then anything that pertains to more than one of us, or the whole family, is in black. The colors correspond with the (Google) calendar on my phone. Not every color translates, which is annoying. But on my phone pink=yellow and black=navy. I know what they mean, so it works. Each Sunday afternoon or evening, I erase the weekly calendar and the week's menu and write in the coming week's information. I know this would be a sticking point for some people, but because of my love for planners, color-coding, and organization in general, I just love writing in the calendar and look forward to it every week. If you're not a weirdo like me, setting a reminder in your phone can also work! As I fill in the calendar, I quickly become aware of any conflicts in the schedule, or the need to rearrange a carpool, and take care of that immediately before moving on.

That reminds me of the most important part of this whole system: adding things to the calendar the instant I hear about them. I absolutely cannot wait until I get home, or I'm done with the dishes, or I have checked with someone to write it down, because then I will forget and it won't be on the calendar. So when I make an appointment, I put it into my phone as I make it. Someone suggests a play date, and I put it into my phone right then. The kids run into the house with a birthday invitation, and I stop right then and put it on the calendar. Having my phone give me automatic reminders is super helpful, so that if I forget to transfer something to the dry erase calendar, at least I have it somewhere!

So, how do you calendar for your family? What makes it successful for you?