Keeping track of kids’ sports schedules, dentist appointments, work meetings and time with family can quickly become daunting. There is nothing worse than showing up for soccer practice at 6:00 only to discover the practice was at 5:00. Staying organized is key to a mom’s sanity and survival.
Manage your household
Google Calendar is one organizational tool that can be used online or on your phone to help with a busy schedule.
“Jesse and I both put our work schedules into the same online Google calendar for the month, and then it makes it easy to see when our schedules cross over and when we will need child care. We also put the girls’ events on there so we both know what times we need to block out as well,” Melissa Leimkuehler, Kansas City mother of two, says. ““It works great! Easy way to see who has what meetings, lessons, work, etc. You can color code it, too.”
Angee Simmons, Kearney mother of two, agrees that Google calendar has been an enormous help to her. “I can create a family calendar and share it with my husband and even Grandma and Grandpa. I can also send out invitations to games, school events, recitals, etc.,” she says. “So if I want to invite the whole family I can and it automatically shares location, time and any other notes I want to add.”
Another tech-savvy organizational tool is Cozi, available online or with an app on your phone. “I started using the Cozi Family Organizer app on my iPhone. It's easy to access from anywhere and each family member can be assigned a color, which makes it easy to see who's busy and who's not,” Simmons says. “It also offers other household organization tools like shopping and to-do lists, food and meal planning.”
Meal planning
Tracey Kracht, Liberty mother of two, uses eMeals to help her stay organized with meal planning. “The program emails me on Thursday with recipes and the shopping list for the next week’s meals. It works great,” Kracht says.
Finance management
To help manage her household, Kracht also relies on online banking. “Bill pay through my bank is fantastic. Only takes me about three minutes per month to pay all of my bills, and no need for stamps!” Kracht says. “I also like being able to put alerts on purchases on the credit card, so I’m notified if a purchase is over a certain amount.”
Jennifer Higgins is a mother, wife, teacher and free-lance writer from Kearney who loves to stay organized online and using apps on her phone.