Family Organizer Calendar

Last year, a friend of mine gave me a calendar made by www.leapyearpublishing.com. It was a "family" calendar, and on each month it contained a separate column for each member of the family (it had five blank columns).

We love it! It hangs on the side of the fridge, and we can all see at a glance, all four schedules and how they overlap and interact. I went to the website of the publisher today and couldn't find the 2009 version - I guess they've stopped making it.

Well! That didn't stop me ;-) I made one myself, and here's how:

1) Using Excel, I created a spread sheet with 33 rows and 7 columns.

2) Down the first column, starting on the third row, I numbered 1 through 31.

3) On the left side of the top row, I typed "Month:" and left the space after it blank (to create a perpetual template - after I printed it, I had Alyssa write the months at the top of each sheet in the blank space).

4) Across the second row, I entered column headers as follows:
Date, Day, Name1, Name2, Name3, Name4, Other.
(Under the "date" header are the numbers 1-31; under the "day" column are blank spaces to insert the days of the week).

5) I adjust the column widths and row heights so that the document would fill two pages when printed, and then printed using 8 1/2 x 11 card stock.

6) I printed 12 copies (24 sheets), and trimmed the bottom of the page 1's and taped them to the top of the page 2's.

7) I used a hole punch and three key rings to fasten them together at the top.

Now I have an 8 1/2 x 22 family calendar for 2009. It may not look quite as slick as last year's, but I know it will be a scheduling life saver.
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Heavy Rainfall Warning

You know how it is... when you have nothing to blog/talk about, there's always the weather ;-)

Today we have a heavy rainfall warning. We get those quite often where I live (the south coast of B.C., Canada). Yup, heavy rainfall.

This meant that my daughter had no choice (because Mommy is the Dry Clothes Warden) but to wear her rain boots and then change into her shoes when she got to class. It also means that The Boy (because he is Mr. Trippy) will change clothes several times today.

Last but not least, it meant that we were late for school today, because Mommy Warden thought she'd be clever and keep Mr. Trippy and Miss Too-Much-Of-A-Diva-To-Change-Her-Shoes out of the rain as long as possible, but messed up on the time. As a result, Miss Diva missed the second bell and needed a late slip from the office.

Oops. Baaaad Mommy...

3 Parties In 2 Days

Phew! Glad that's over. Don't get me wrong, we had loads of fun, but now I get to have a "down day" on Monday.

I told Alyssa we had NO plans for today. (It was yesterday when I told her that... as I write this, it's about 1:30 am on Monday.) She said "Really? Can't we make some plans?"

Uh, nope.

No park trips, play dates, parties, swimming lessons... nothing. Yippee!!! Now I have about 300 photos to edit and a few discs to burn (I love all things photography related, though, so that's a happy chore for me).

I don't know where the summer has gone!! I know we're only half way through, but I had this vision of summer being this vast expanse of free time. What was I thinking.

Off I go to get some sleep...

Pro-D Day and No Play Date!

My kids live a highly scheduled and structured life. My daughter is just one of those kids who thrives on doing STUFF, and her brother happily tags along.

Alyssa is a November baby, and I started her in Kindergarten when she was still four. She's in French Immersion, which she loves. in September '07, I fought the urge to enroll her in other activities other than school so that I wouldn't overwhelm her with her new 5 day a week schedule. However after a couple of weeks of "Mommy, why don't we have school every day? What are we going to do on Saturday and Sunday?" my credit card magically rose up out of my wallet and my fingers, seemingly possessed with minds of their own, were dialing the phone to the local parks and rec enrollment office.

So now, thank goodness, we still have swimming tomorrow even though there's no school. Yay!!!! (phew). Plus, I do get to sleep in a bit. I can`t lose sight of that ;-)