Husband is fond of a very popular blog called The Art of Manliness. It's an awesome site, honestly. It bugs me that there's no female version of it; Husband and I tried searching for one once and were led to a blog that described PERFECTLY why there isn't. If you're interested, you could read it here, I suppose. Incidentally, I ended up subscribing to that blog anyways; they've got some awesome stuff, including the list of books, and free reading journal that I've recently become fascinated with. ANYWAYS. On AoM, they list sites, ideas, products, etc that a classic man should involve in his life. Husband scrolled through one evening and found an article by which I was intrigued. And so both Husband and I embarked on employing our own routines.
The night we read that article, I also decided the time had arrived for me to start keeping a planner. You know, like a real control freak.
I got this binder for 3.88 at Walmart.
I'd looked for "real" daytimer starters, but those run around $40. That's a lot of money, and we like to be frugal around here. So I grabbed this binder, a package of filler paper in the appropriate size, and took my stuff home to work on personalizing it. My mom, years ago, kept a planner/organizer of sorts, but she hasn't used it in years, so she offered up the remnants of hers for my scavenging. The most fun about this has been making the Amy model. You will not find a planner like this anywhere in the world, and I love it. I can keep personalizing and messing with it and it'll never compromise the goal, because it's all basically original, if a bit odd looking. But hey, I'm odd, so we fit together.
The very first page boasts my need for coffee, and then my zip-loc pouch of stickers, hole re-enforcers, and postage stamps. I'm usually the one that makes out the checks and mails them for our bills, so I'm also the Stamp Guardian.
This is just one example of the personalizations I made; on each tab divider I have a different quote/meme/whatever that I just happen to like. This is a good reminder to me; I tend to react emotionally, and then pay the penalty for that reaction later.
This is just an example of my weekly planner sheets. For confidentiality's sake I'm showing you a week I haven't done anything on. Normally my weekly stuff contains Husband's school schedule, any appointments, and even Blog Tuesdays that never seem to fall on a Tuesday because I'm a lazy slacker.
Yeah, this. Because this is also why Blog Tuesday never happens on a Tuesday. J is a busy boy. Even today is not one of our best days, but this particular entry and its distraction are keeping me sane, and keeping him alive.
Again, for confidentiality's sake, I'm showing you a month in the future that doesn't have appointments and such on it. For each month I wrote the name and then some symbol of it. For September, I did a book. October has a pumpkin, November has a cornucopia, and then December, my other favorite month, has this pretty snowflake and a sticker Christmas wreath. Stickers make me happy and I'm not ashamed to confess that I raided G's unused sticker collection for these.
We started collecting coins; it's something we can do as a family that will have value for future generations, and is fun to do now. We're doing states and national parks, as well as antique coins when the history is fascinating to us. For instance, Husband and I share a love of Nazi Germany history. Don't ask why; we're quirky. Husband found a deutschmark with Hitler's face on it and we snatched it up for pretty cheap. And now we have Nazi money in our safe. Aren't we fun?
This is what I was talking about when I mentioned my free reading journal. Love this thing. It has space for a bunch of things, but since it's a PDF you can print what you want of it. I have the cover and intro pages, and then 4 pages for lists of books I want to read, 2 for abandoned books, 11 for detailed descriptions of books I've read, with ratings and other such info, and then 4 pages of recommended reading, based on award-winning books. I LOVE IT. That cardboard divider on the left has Post-Its superglued on the front, with labels as to what each is to be used, but since it uses our real names I'm not showing that.
I stole my mom's business card pages, but I'm using the second one for pictures, so I don't have to make my checkbook fat anymore. Plus it lets me display them ALL, instead of just a select few.
And now, my dear friends, I shall detail my morning and evening routines for you. The article Husband and I read talked about how it gave structure and order to the day, that no matter what chaos happens in the middle, you can always count on settling everything down when you stick to your routines. Now, timing is much easier for men to settle if they determine to wake up at the same time every day, and have a schedule by which to organize their day. But mommies to sporadically sleeping 2-month-olds can't stick to timing, because who knows when the crap we'll be up for the day? Once E is older, I might set a wake up time a bit earlier than E or J wakes up, for some Mommy Time in the morning (something I deeply enjoyed before I got pregnant with E), but for now, timing is in the wind.
Once E is settled (diaper changed, dressed, fed, content to sit for a bit on her own, or possibly even snoozing again), I do my hygiene necessities, such as brushing my teeth, doing my hair, destinking myself with deodorant and body spray. Then I get dressed in workout clothes and put on a few essential oils that will help me start my day with J well (Stress Away and Joy are two of my norms). J's breakfast and drink come next, because he expects those almost as soon as he gets up for the day. When he's done with that, I put E in the Tula, J in the stroller, and we go for a 2 mile walk. As soon as we get home, we go potty, and then I take J and E outside to play for a bit on the swingset. J is an active type and I find that if he is allowed a chance to get some energy out, he is a better behaved boy for the rest of the day, so I let him go monkey, and I put E in the disk swing we have and push her around. Sometimes she falls asleep in that, sometimes she needs to eat again. We stay outside for as close to an hour as I can finagle, depending on J's behavior and E's needs. When we come inside, I change into my clothes for the day, make sure everyone's settled doing something or napping, and do whatever I have on my to-do list. I try to keep a running to-do list because as long as there's something written down with an empty box to check next to it, I have motivation to get it done. Between to-do list items and the kids' needs, I can easily tick the day away. At night, after E's had her bath around 7:35 and been fed, I put her down for bed. J goes to bed around 8:30, after he's cleaned his room starting at 8. Once both kids are down, I shower, brush my teeth and reapply destinkifier. I set out my workout clothes for the next day, and then review my to-do list and schedule for the following day. My goal is to add devotions to that, and then I go to sleep.
The day I started employing routines, I found myself feeling more accomplished, and actually being more productive from the get-go. It feels good to get myself into the mindframe of "ok, let's get this and this and this and this done" and then to actually do it. I've been limiting myself to 30 minutes of FB time a day, to cut down on mindless screen time, but I do want to start enforcing Blog Tuesdays again, and even planning out my entries. We'll see how that goes; I've stuck to this daytimer far longer than I've ever done one before. My birthday is in just over 2 months, and I'll be 30; I think this will be my decade. I feel better about myself. I can't wait to drag you along with my better decade. <3
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