The most used item in my home isn’t even a kitchen utensil. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a tad, but seriously it is used A LOT by my whole family!
This calendar is the thing I needed, and I didn’t even realize how helpful it would be until I got it and started using it. There was a very long season in my motherhood where my 3 children were each doing their own thing and needed to be in so many places (sometimes at once 🫠) that I needed a way to write it all down and be able to refer to it quickly. I also knew that I needed it to be bigger than a little refrigerator calendar. So, when I saw it on Amazon while looking for all my favorites; planners, colored pens and notebooks, I figured I could give it a try. And I have loved it ever since! It is used every single day by everyone in the house and is something I have continued to use to this day. Even when my mom comes over, she goes over and looks at it 😄
A couple of my favorite things about it is the size and that it can stick to my wall in the kitchen. It makes it so easy to glance at quickly and is accessible to everyone in the family. But I will say that my wall now has dry erase maker all around where the calendar is so I would suggest finding a way to not have that happen. I’ve thought about a picture frame that was big enough and then placing the calendar right onto the glass. It would keep the marker from going onto the wall AND it would look decorative.
Now, let’s talk about what I do with it because that is where the magic is.
Every Monday morning, I erase the week prior and get the dates on it for the current week (I don’t love that it starts on a Monday, but we make what we have work right 😉). Once I do that, I get my colored dry erase markers out and start putting everyone’s schedule for the week up in their coordinating color; my husband is green, my son is blue, my daughter is purple, I have red and anything that the whole family needs to be at we use black. This, honestly, is one of the best features of this calendar system for my family (besides the dinner menu that we’ll talk about next). Each person can give this calendar a quick glance every day and know their obligations, appointments, practices etc. And then when I’m done with that, I write the dinner menu for each night. This is a HUGE help for me (and my family that likes to know what’s for dinner) to be better prepared for dinner time. Every morning, I look to see what is for dinner that night and I thaw anything that needs to be thawed and/or I prep anything that can be prepped if/when I get a chance during the day.
This routine with the calendar has kept all of us better prepared for our days and our week! My children have learned to refer to this so they know what is coming and to be ready to leave at the time we need to in order to be on time. Putting some of the responsibility on them has been a game changer for my sanity because there were many years where there was A LOT going on!
Planning ahead, for even just the week, can make such a difference for how your week goes. When everyone knows what to expect, things are not all left up to you. Also, when you don’t have to stand at the refrigerator and repeat to yourself 100 times “what can I make for dinner tonight” you will feel a huge weight off your shoulders.
Such a simple thing that takes less than 10 minutes to do can set you up for a successful week.