One Way to Keep Me From Losing My Mind

This simple little project came about just this morning.  You see, I might be losing my mind a little bit.  There are countless examples.  (Locking my keys in the car recently is one.)  But last night I had another moment.  As I was getting dinner ready, I was wondering why Adam wasn't home yet.  We eat dinner at promptly 5:30 each evening or else Archer and Lyla go ballistic.  They are often screaming at me to hurry up while I'm making dinner, so eating late isn't really an option.  But Adam wasn't home at 5:30 so we started dinner without him.  He usually calls if he's going to be late, but I hadn't gotten a call yet.  So then I tried to wrack my brain and recall if he'd told me he was going to be late.  I couldn't remember.  When he finally got home, he reminded me he was getting a massage and I did vaguely recall him telling me that earlier in the week.

So I decided I needed to have a better system for remembering what's going on in my life.  I find myself having to hold lots of random information in my working memory these days. (...which kid has pooped, when I last let Jazzy outside, which days we're going to storytime, what time we're meeting up for a playdate, etc.)  Adam suggested sharing his Google calendar with me.  Now, this may make me seem like an old lady, but I just can't wrap my head around an electronic calendar.  I suffered through using online calendars the last few years I taught and it worked out because I had a computer handy throughout most of the day.  But now I mainly look at my phone and it's just too small for me to be able to look at a monthly view.  I guess I'm just old fashioned and need a paper calendar.

But I needed something even more intentional to help me keep track of what's going on.  So I decided to get a large, dry erase calendar to hang up in our eat-in kitchen area.  The kids and I headed off to Micheal's in search of the perfect piece.  I definitely felt like a mom picking this up from Michael's today.  They had a few to choose from, but I like this one for its simplicity.  Plus, I thought the black would tie in with the other black features in our newly remodeled kitchen, like the cabinet hardware and the faucet.  I also picked up some fine line dry erase markers.  Luckily, the calendar was on sale for 50% off and I used a coupon on the markers.

After wrangling the large calendar and two toddlers through Michael's and back to the car, we headed home to hang it up.  We had a big open space right by our stairs that would be the perfect home for the new calendar.  Some hooks that housed our keys and Jazzy's leash used to hang in that spot.  But after painting the walls, we moved those hooks closer to the door leading to the garage.  We hung them higher there so the kids wouldn't mess with them.  Moving the hooks left a nice opening for the new calendar to hang.

In between serving snacks and kissing boo boos, I was able to get the calendar hung.  Adam would be very proud of me.  I used a level and tape measure to make sure it was hung just so.  I made sure to hang it high enough that Archer and Lyla can't reach it (yet), but also low enough so I can easily write on it.  It's pretty light, so I just used some nails.  I also added some sticky putty to the corners to help keep it from moving around as I write on it.  (This stuff comes in very handy!  I also use it to keep picture frames hanging straight.)

The calendar fills the space perfectly and is right in the heart of our home.  So now I can easily glance at it to see what's going on each day.  I plan to check in with Adam each Sunday to make sure I have everything jotted down for the week.  

And this will be super useful once Lyla and Archer start getting into different activities.  It's definitely not anything new or revolutionary, but it will certainly help this mom brain of mine better keep track of what's happening.  The trick will be remembering to write things down...