How Do We Do It?

I hear, all too frequently, "I don't know how you do it." Well folks, the key to raising 5 kids is being organized.

Please note: We. Are. Not. Organized.

We do keep a schedule though. Scratch that. I keep a schedule. And I make the family live by it. For several years now we have lived, succeeded, and failed, by the schedule. If ever we are where we are supposed to be, it is because it was on the schedule. And probably because a cell phone alarm was set to remind us. And maybe because someone I was nagging everyone. If we forgot a kid and left them standing at the stadium without a ride, it was because someone forgot to look at the schedule.  

Here is how our whole schedule thing works-

• Everyone in the family has an assigned dry-erase marker color. 
• The schedule is created on Sunday, when Mom gets around to it. 
• If you want something on the schedule, it must be given to Mom or Dad in writing by Sunday. (It can be on a post-it note, placed in Mom's planner, or texted. Absolutely NO verbal submissions- because really...we aren't actually paying attention when we're in traffic and they're rambling on about 55 different topics per minute.)
• Anything added after Sunday is added at your own risk. If you forgot you need a cheesecake for the Great Winter Guard Cheesecake Bake-Off of 2012 and it gets added to the schedule the night before, you will get a verbal smackdown. Just put on your big girl/boy panties and suck it up. (My son will read this and point out to me that boy's don't wear panties. It's my blog, Son. My blog.)

One of the very first items I purchased after the fire for our hotel room was a giant whiteboard. I simply could not fathom how to manage our lives without the visual schedule we were accustomed to. The big, ugly board has been a staple in our lives, but...it does not fit with our new decor. No way am I putting that hideous thing in my brand new old home.

So, I went off to the craft store and made a beeline to the custom framing department. I explained what I wanted: something that matched one of my paint chips, a rustic frame, about yay big. The friendly workers promptly quoted me a price and I nearly peed myself.

I headed right on over to the pre-assembled frames and set about finding an affordable solution.

Here is how I made my prettified version of the family schedule aka 'the board':

I started with a mat board that was an excellent match to one of my wall colors, a nice frame, and a big yardstick thing. That's a technical term right there- yardstick thing.

I took a quick trip to the automotive store to buy this cute tape that I call automotive tape. Because you know...it's tape, for your auto. The Big Guy informed me that this is in fact, PIN STRIPING. I stand corrected. (eyeroll)

Use the giant yardstick thing to make your marks and then apply your auto tape pin striping. Plop the whole thing in a frame and...

Voila!

I now have a prettified family schedule that is dry-erase-marker-friendly. 

Chaos, as we know it, can now be organized, by color, down to the hour on a board that coordinates with our new decor. 

That's how we do it, folks. 

I also want to say here...in my mind, all of my photographs are beautiful, rich, and vibrant. I really believed that when we moved back into our home and there were actual lights (not work lighting) that I would be able to take fabulous photographs for this blog. Nope. Turns out you actually need some photography skills too. Blast. Photoshop does help, but the Big Guy's computer has never met Photoshop and my computer is still awaiting it's new power jack which is stalled somewhere on the East coast. Double blast.