Turned the Page

from MamaManifesto.com

Turned the page on my John Lennon calendar today and found that for the month of May I will be treated to this picture every time I sit at my desk.  He makes my day simply richer by being able to feast my eyes on Beatles-era sweet-tart quality (which I know to be completely posed, but that's OK with me).

The beginning of the month, even a couple of days in, is a nice time to set some new goals for moving forward with my bigger goal of fitting more better stuff into the day.  I've seen several potentially helpful ways to set this up, including:

• Setting up goals for the week (MoneySavingMom.com)
• Having a weekly chore list (iHeartOrganizing.blogspot.com)
• Creating a family control journal (Flylady.net)

I especially like the idea of setting up goals for the week -- taking half an hour over the weekend to plan what I have to do and what I can fit in the small spaces between wife-and-mother obligations.  This is especially important since I'm trying to prepare a piece for my writing group anthology, manage our group membership & accounting tasks, and work on my novel (more on that another time) while ALSO purging and moving the remainder of our belongings out of the 3400 square foot house into the 1470 square foot house without measurably increasing the chaos in our household.

As we're approaching the end of the school year and managing a big move at the same time, I'd like to have a clear eye on my obligations for a bigger chunk of time, to make it easier to break them down week by week.  So here are my goals for May:

Household

• Stay on top of the laundry by doing a load a day, including folding & putting away
• Plan meals for the week, using my calendar, every Sunday
• Do a Flylady-style "home blessing" (much nicer term than clean the house!) once a week
• Pack all the closets and move the surviving decorative items out of the big house before the furniture is moved

Parenting

• Arrange a playdate for my daughter with a friend she's been trying to connect with all year
• Make sure I spend at least 20 minutes of fun time each day with my kids in addition to herding them through all their daily obligations
• Start a new Junie B. Jones book with my six year old

Writing

• Write at least two blog posts per week, including two wardrobe remixes in the month of May
• Spend at least an hour every other day on my novel
• Draft and revise my contribution to the Write On, Mamas! anthology
• Send all invitations to people interested in participating in Write On, Mamas! before May 10th

Stay tuned for the first week of June when I recap my successes and failures for May!  What are your goals and projects for May?