"Getting organized" and/or mentioning the word "schedule" is almost painful to someone like me who thrives on creativity and living life in the moment. However, I am now a recent convert to this new idea of planning things out. It has saved my mommy sanity in so many ways. I never realized how important getting organized was in keeping the family happy and healthy until I decided something had to change about a month ago. I am a full time mom with two boys in elementary and a ten month old baby and recently Ive been struggling with waking up and looking forward to my day or even my life. I had no real direction for myself except for keeping the baby alive. Over time that is just not enough for someone like me and I couldn't figure out how to keep my spirits up. Its hard to say this but I felt like my spirit and zest for life were being drained. Why wasn't just being a mom good enough to keep me happy? Its because I am many different roles and without nurturing all of them I was not getting the balance that I needed. On the flip side of that without my amazing husband and children I wouldn't be as happy either but I needed to start making time for more areas in my life and to do that I needed to get some schedules going. 

While I was planning how I was going to make some changes around the house I got to thinking about some of my habits and noticed I did really well and felt good with a daily to-do list and it dawned on me that my free spirited self really needed to get organized so that I didn't feel so chaotic and lost all the time. So if I was going to get organized and stick to it I had to make it easy, simple, functional, and pretty. lol! Then I spent the afternoon putting together a "Comand Center" which consisted of a Large Calendar, a weekly to-do list and a two week menu planner (Plus a huge cute chalkboard). The weekly to-do list is very important because when you only make up daily to-do list you try to get it all done in a day instead of delegating things to be done throughout the week (again, for balance). Getting burned out is not good for anyone. I try and only give myself three to five tasks a day because I need to be spending time with my family and playing with my daughter. But If I accomplish those few things in that day it makes a huge difference in my mood and outlook on life.

I highly recommend either getting a big calendar so there is room enough for you to write all the activities down on. Or you can print your own big calendar at your local printshop for only $3-$4. Thats what I did. 

To make a simple and fast frame for your calendar just find one of those old looking framed fake paintings without the glass and spray paint the whole thing a fun bold color. Then you can add two clips, or clothes pins with some gorilla glue to hold up your calendar.