My busy life...

Many of you (those who know me) know that I have a very busy life. I never knew that being a "stay-at-home-mom" would be so exhausting, granted I have four minor children to take care of. It certainly is a balancing act. You have to figure out just how much of your precious resources (time, money, energy, etc.) you can afford, and try to keep the kids not only occupied but stimulated as well. It's very tempting to push all the children into the same activities... and for a while (when they are young) you can get away with it. But as they grow older, and obviously have different interests & talents, it just isn't feasible. You don't want to give the kids too much idle time... trust me on this one. It's true that kids need some "down time" for creativity and playtime, but all that changes as they get older. All that idle time turns into "electronic gadget" time. I want to provide a very balanced life, thus require that my children participate in some sort of sports activities, take music lessons, read daily, and do some chores.

I thought it would be interesting to see how my month (during summer break) looks like. As you see the calendar below for the month of July keep in mind that repeated entry (meaning if it's all week long) are just written once at the beginning of the week and color lined all the way through Thursday or Friday... whenever it ends. Different types of activities are all color coded, so we know at a glance what type of activities we need to do for that day. Our entire family relies on this calendar. The yellow highlights are my hubby's on-call days... that means I'm a single mom that day and must plan everything accordingly. We also have to cross out each day with black sharpies... otherwise we forget what day we are on. And as new events/appointments arise, we all have to make sure it's written on the calendar as soon as possible. Since I have to drive all the kids around to all their activities I have to make sure the schedule is workable. I make sure my laptop & my smartphone all are in sync with this master calendar. Now that I've explained my routine, take a look... boy, am I exhausted!