Thursday, February 19, 2009

Calling all type A mommies!

Help! I am in need of some mommy back-up here. I feel like I'm not nearly as productive as I'd like to be. Not that I expect to be accomplishing that much with 3 kids 5 and under, but I feel like my lack of organization is sort of ruining our lives lately. I'm not good at planning in advance. I'm sort of a fly by the seat of my pajamas kind of girl; Instead of running our lives on a schedule, I wait until I'm in the mood to do things like cleaning, paying bills, setting up play dates for the kids, etc. I feel like that has worked okay so far, but now that Emma's getting older and we're on the brink of signing up for more extracurricular activities and starting kindergarten, etc., I feel like I need to have more of a plan for how our lives go.

Do I need a momgenda? That word "momgenda" sort of freaks me out. I already wear sweatpants all the time and I'm about to start driving a minivan. If I'm consulting a momgenda too, then I might just not recognize myself anymore.

What's the answer to my momlemma?

3 comments:

Deanna said...

Well I'll share one thing- might be of help to someone. I am *terrible* about paying bills. I put it off or let them get lost under a stack of coupons I'll never use. I think of myself as more organized than that, but I'm really not. So my solution has been to put recurring payments in my electronic BillPay. I put in generic amounts for all our monthly bills. When the bill comes in, I edit the next payment to the correct amount. This has a bunch of advantages:
1) I can avoid the dreaded check-writing, frantic stamp hunt, extra trip to the post office because I can't afford the extra day it takes from the mailbox, and nail-biting "did it get there in time" parts of bill paying
2) I can do it as soon as the bill comes in but it doesn't pay until it's time
3) I don't have to think about the bills that have standard amounts
4) If I forget they get the generic payment and so there is always at least SOMETHING paid on the bill (thus they won't charge me fines or cut off my electricity).
**best for last** 5) I can look at the list of upcoming payments on the computer and see if anything is set to pay the generic amount. That way I'll know I've missed one and go hunt it down.

I might have gotten this from my sister. I'm interested to hear what others are doing!

Grace said...

I'm not a mommy but here's something- planners are very fun. don't be alone I have one too.

Robin said...

Well, I think you are the most organized, productive fly-by-the-seat-of-your pajamas mommy EVER. So I'm not sure you should change a thing. My opinion is, just do what works. If what you're doing (or not doing) works for you and your family, then go with it! If you're feeling stressed, change something. Or if you enjoy feeling more "together," change maybe just a little something and see what you think. Like maybe ALWAYS menu plan and grocery shop on the same day each week. Or write out what housecleaning means to you and decide if it's worth dedicating a day each week (or maybe once every 2 weeks) to cleaning up. One thing I want/need to do is devote one hour or two per week to paperwork. I tend to just put it off until Jeremy has thrown something away that I need. :)

RAK