February in our home opened and ended with sickness, so I’m hoping to bid goodbye to cold/flu season as the snow (slowly) melts from our lawn. I’m ignoring the fact that they’ve forecast snow for tomorrow…
As for goals, February was interesting. I didn’t maintain a constant five-dinner list as originally planned. I’m really glad I made the goal, though, because I had enough dinners available to make something every night without going into brain lock. I did keep a list of five activities, but found that my kids kept choosing the same thing over and over anyhow. The big hits this month were play dough and legos. Valentine’s Day was spent looking after sick children, so we did not make it to the nursing home. Hopefully next year! And Mike was the sole source of our science projects, so I still have plenty of inspiration from this post. Emma’s birthday party was a lot of fun for the entire family, and a bright point during the month. And, I got some adorable pictures of Lily on her half-birthday – including the one at the top of this post of Lily immensely pleased at having grabbed the camera strap, this eating sequence, and this very cute pose. And, I even got Emma’s approval on my dinosaur chart:
Goals for March:
- Try structuring our days a little more. This is actually a goal I made for March last year, but in the end I decided to focus on habits rather than structure. That has worked for the past year, and now I want to give a slightly more organized approach a try, and I want to engage Emma in the planning process. The end result might be a list of things we want to do that we plan out the afternoon before or a (very rough) timetable for the day – or we may return to the habits approach. It’s an experiment, and I’ll let you know how it goes. If anyone reading this has blogged about a similar attempt, please link up to your post in the comments as I’d love to hear how it goes. Target areas: peace and education.
- Create a home management binder. This is an idea I’ve seen on several blogs recently, and I think it could help organize our house. Here is a good description of the general idea. I’m using a three-ring binder. We’ll start with sections for meal planning, activity idea lists for the kids, a calendar, and our various structure experiments throughout the month. I’d love to hear if anyone reading this has created one of these! Target areas: health, peace, and education.
- Send out thank you cards for Emma’s birthday party. ASAP, as they are already overdue. Target area: gratitude.
- Make and send cards to a few family members. Target area: charity (meaning: loving, caring, and giving to others).
What are your goals for March? Have any advice on how I should approach mine? Please let me know!
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
It is a great picture! :)
.-= sunnymama´s last blog ..Mummy Milk Rocks t-shirt and bag GIVEAWAY =-.
This is not my blog, but it’s sort of how we’re approaching structure in our day: attaching important things
.-= Elisa | blissfulE´s last blog ..learning from Jonah =-.
These are great! And you’ve reminded me that I have some thank you cards of my own that are becoming overdue. I’m going to get cracking on those!
.-= Valerie @ Frugal Family Fun Blog´s last blog ..Welcoming Spring =-.
It sounds like your goal planning is certainly not in vain and paying off, even if you have not managed to set out to achieve ezactly what you had hoped. I think it is fantastic that you are making some progress in these areas.
I have started an activity list – for those dyas when nothing seems to spring to mind.
The Prima Princessa DVD sounds like something my little girl would love. Savvy had her first ballet lesson yesterday and had a ball. You have awesome give aways, I just don’t have a US mailing address :(
Your daddy science post was a great read. Taking things apart to see how they work is a great idea for hands on science.
.-= Elise´s last blog ..Tot School =-.
I so hope your home is full of good health this upcoming month and know exactly how you are feeling concerning this!
I’d been waiting for your goals post. I love reading them each month.
Thanks for the home management binder links.
First off, that top picture is adorable… seriously, I could nibble on those cheeks all day long (I hope that’s not weird, lol). I love reading these posts of yours, they help me reassess how things are going for us and work on refocusing my energy towards my goals instead of just… I don’t know, running around aimlessly I guess, since I feel like that’s what I’m doing a lot of the time. I do have a household notebook, and it’s a lifesaver. Everything is in it – menu plan; daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal housekeeping chores; important phone numbers; calendar; goals… lots of stuff! I have it out every day and can quite truthfully say I do not know what I would do without it. I highly recommend creating one. I’ve actually been meaning to write a blog post about it, it’s really such an important thing to me. Maybe now I will get around to it. Thanks for sharing another great post – I love how well thought out and organized your writing is!
We do most of our weekly planning on our white board… if we remember to do it at all. I hope that March will be a healthy month for everyone in your house!
.-= Natalie´s last blog ..Math Tuesday – Tangrams =-.
Target area: Peace. Oh so good :)
.-= Andrea @ The Train To Crazy´s last blog ..Why blogging doesn’t suck =-.
I’m so curious to see how the household binder works out for you. I find that more and more, all of the types of things that would go into such a binder are on-line or in my email – we use iCal as our family calendar, Abby’s schools send me notes and calendars as PDFs, our town’s family network does everything electronically… So whereas I like the idea of a household binder, I think I would need to figure out a more electronic version!
Playdough and Legos are our go-to activities if all else fails too. I love the household management folder idea. I will be really interested to see how you do that. Organization is always a goal on my neverending list too. I like the idea of making and sending some cards to family members also.
.-= adriana´s last blog ..French Zingo =-.
Love that photo. I have bought so many binders in hopes to make life easier for us and have things at our finger tips but so far they are all only a little done. one day I will be organized.
.-= Beverly´s last blog ..Please Spread the Word =-.
I just saw the greatest idea for a child’s thank you. You take a picture of the child playing with/wearing/reading their gift and print it out on your printer at home. Then they only have to write Thank you or their name and they feel more involved rather than mom doing it for them.
Great goals. My biggest goal for March is to lose about 5 pounds so my Summer clothes fit when we go to Florida in April!
.-= Jenny´s last blog ..Links I Like: 5th Edition =-.
The dino chart is great. I need to brush up on my drawing skills before I come visit. :-)