I opened iCal this morning to make my daily list of chores. A while ago, I decided that I needed to put my housewifely chores on the calendar and then check them off. Watching the kids and keeping the house from collapsing is a job and I need to treat it like a job. Some days, I get no writing done, because the kids are home and stuff needs to happen. A print out of the daily calendar with chores that have been crossed out makes me feel less like a loser. Look! I did stuff! Lots of stuff!
One of the chores on iCal this morning is to make the yearly calendar. I know that the kids start school this week, but I'm not sure if it's a half day or a full day. When are the Jewish holidays? Do the boys have the same Spring breaks? (Please, oh please, make them have the same Spring breaks.) I'm not sure of any of that. I have to plug in the dates.
After school activities need to be tackled next. When does CCD start? Did I sign up Ian for that art class? How am I going to get Jonah to soccer practice and Ian to the Y for swimming at the same time?
Mysteries that still need to be solved.
I am rather shocked that it is September. It feels like the summer slipped by with very little of requisite activities that mark summer. We never even drove down to the Jersey shore. Maybe we can squeeze it in this weekend, though I think it's too late. I can smell Fall. And the smell of dead leaves means Medieval Fairs, Octoberfests, and other outdoor drinking/meat on a stick events.
As I get the kids ready for school, I keep getting flashbacks of Jonah's first day of Kindergarten eight years ago and all the other Back to Schools after that. The new shirts from their grandmother. The Lands End backpacks and fresh smelling lunch boxes. The corny pictures on the front porch. If I really stopped to think about how old we're all getting, my heart would break, so I keep rushing around and making my calendars and arranging plans for beach and fair and making my writing plans and, maybe, that way I won't notice that Ian grew a foot over the summer and Jonah is starting 8th grade.
Apt. 11d 
I always liked to go to the Jersey Shore after labor day- no bored life-guards who blow their whistle for “going to far” just so they have something to do or to feel important, fewer crowds, a much less intense sun, but still warm and usually nice, warm water. I recommend it if you can squeeze it in.
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I need to do the yearly calendar thing, plus plan college visits. Whee! It does go by quickly. I can’t believe I have a kid graduating from high school this year. I’ll break down if I think about it too much.
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Ditto what Matt said about the beach. Plus you’ll escape the hordes of “bennies” who were stacked up on the Parkway north yesterday. Just be careful not to rile the locals – my pals in Monmouth County were counting down to the arrival of “local summer” yesterday afternoon.
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I’ve been in full on calendar mode for a while now. It all started when Apple deactivated Mobile Me in favor of iCloud (which I can’t run on my older desktop computer, which I don’t want to give up because it runs some legacy software and has two video cards to support my two humongous video screens). I was in a terrible dither trying to keep track of my calendar (which also has to be shared with a spouse who travels a lot, has security firewall issues, and with babysitters & grandparents who help with the children).
Eventually I came up with an iCal/google/busysync solution that works, keeping the calendar accessible to everyone one (and, even better, editable by other people so that I don’t become the queen of calendar, with the job of entering everyone else’s activities).
I also have a to-do list, but was frustrated with iCals ’cause I can’t sync it and I can’t maintain lists that other people can access (it doesn’t sync through google, though there might be an iCloud solution). Solution, wunderlist, which alows me to keep lists on computer, iphone, ipad (and, I can assign tasks to other people, and use it for a shopping list, so that when different people pick up groceries on the way home we don’t end up with 5 gallons of milk and no eggs).
(Yes, this is me in September, dealing with change by focusing on details. School starts tomorrow for us. It’s the first year of middle school with two kids with extensive sports schedules, and grandparents who are finally going on long expected travel, combined with someone who organizes very very poorly).
(OK, for the part you might be able to use: busysync & wunderlist)
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PS: I sometimes put things on lists after I’ve done them ’cause it makes me feel better.
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May I also suggest http://rodaxsoft.com? A buddy is the CEO of this company.
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I have tried many electronic calendaring approaches in our house; they all fail utterly because no one updates anything but me. The only thing the entire family can be counted on to reliably update is the old-fashioned paper calendar hanging by the dishwasher. This, unfortunately, is our system of record. I spend countless hours trying to keep my Outlook calendar synchronized with the stupid paper one. Good thing I’m not bitter. ;-<
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I find that, even with paper and virtual calendars, my family still turns to me for corroboration on what’s happening when and where.
Why use a calendar system when you have a walking, talking, texting calendar?
For my own part, I update the paper calendar in the kitchen but I do all of my own calendar and to-do list work in Google Calendar. At least my sister and dad are there, sharing their calendars, too!
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oh, for the calendar days (and we’d always have Wednesday nights off because no one dared schedule anything on CCD night!). it was just 5-6 years ago I was blogging about driving middle-schoolers around and now one’s finishing at USC this year and the other’s on a gap year in Israel.
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Kris, you’ve got me thinking. I love the idea of forced mid-week idleness, to take a breath. I may declare Wednesdays “sanity break” – and therefore off limits.
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bj, you need to adopt workflowy — which is awesome. You can make lists, you can share them with others, and you can all cross off tasks as they get done. AND it sends you an email every day letting you know which of your lists have been updated and how. (Lately I’ve been scaring people with my efficiency).
I once got so sick of my husband calling me and asking “where do I need to be” and “when do I need to be there” and so forth, that I once intentionally sent him to the really wrong place! Our son was performing in some Greek play at junior high and I had made the toga, made sure he knew his lines, gotten him to all the rehearsals and all I was asking was that my husband show up for the spaghetti dinner and the Greek play since I had to teach a seminar. He calls me from the road and starts in with “where do I need to go?” and I was just so mad! Where else would you go for the junior high school spaghetti dinner if not the school? So I told him it was at the fire station, and he actually showed up at the fire station and made an ass of himself asking where he should sit for the Greek play. He eventually figured out he needed to go to the school and much hilarity ensued for all. And since then he still asks me where he needs to go and when — but not nearly so often . .
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“I once got so sick of my husband calling me and asking “where do I need to be” and “when do I need to be there” and so forth, that I once intentionally sent him to the really wrong place! ”
Yes. In my house, though, I don’t have to do it intentionally because it’s guaranteed that I’ll do it by accident. The latest was sending my daughter to the wrong gym (20 miles away) for a basketball game (fortunately, the right one *wasn’t* in the opposite direction). Before that it was arriving 1/2 hour late for son’s “graduation” dinner from cooking school.
They still ask and expect me to be in charge, but they now know that means inheriting my generalized flakiness.
Workflowy looks interesting. Will test whether it works well enough on the mobile devices I need to use.
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My husband and I was married for 9 months. Back in April, I asked for a divorce. I told him that I didn’t love him. I was trying to find a way to make him mad at me. A week before our divorce was final, I told him that I didn’t want to lose him and that I really did love him. But i find out with me threatening him with the divorce that he has loose interests in me,i was confuse why i make the suggestion because i really love him and i was thinking everyday not knowing what to do so I heard about this therapist oniha of the winexbackspell@gmail.com through a good family friend. I went straight out and tried to find the way to make my relationship the strongest type,i told the winexbackspell@gmail.com all my problems and he told me to cast a spell that will make him love me more and more forever,which I bought and act according to what he said,after everything
with the preparation. Then I found the spell working,he starting acting normal more than before,he always look at my eyes and always say their is sexy beauty in my eyes,he always look at me and always say,i need you always my love,this words which he say makes me look alive and feel like a woman,and i am so grateful being with him always. I am so thankful to have finally found true love into my life and soul,it was all i ever dream of. I realized that I was not only lying to my husband. He has show me the way and let me do the right thing to fix what I have done.
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