Getting Organized

So, the other day after a barbie shoe had been lost, take-out had been eaten (again) and swim lessons had been missed, P and I decided to kick things up a notch. I uttered a favorite phrase of mine.....'let's get organized!' And off we went...

We started by walking the house and making note of the toy-lined playroom floor and unmade beds. Then we sat down for a chat. First, I told little miss P that we can not live in clutter canyon and that we need desperately to get back on a schedule. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I work and P spends most of the day at preschool, so we really only have two days to try and squeeze in fun, quality time, and home chores.

I grabbed a sheet of paper and divided it into 4 sections: Things P wants to do, Things mom wants to do, Things we both want to do together, and Things we don't like to do, but need to do. Here's how it turned out:

Things P wants to do:
*Play dolls
*Browse at Target (not any store, mind you, Target)
*Watch a movie

Things mom wants to do:
*Go to Starbucks

Things we want to do together
*Outings/dates to the Discovery Museum, library, etc.
*Playdates with friends
*Crafts, baking, stories at home
*Singing and dancing

Things we need to do, but may not want to do
*Grocery shop
*Prepare 3 healthy meals a day
*Clean up after ourselves throughout the day (no major labor, we're talking making beds in the a.m., taking care of dishes after each meal, putting away toys after playing with them)
*Swimming lessons (this is not a hard sell, just time-consuming)

What I loved most about this discussion was P's participation. She sat and listenend attentively, made great contributions to the talk, and seemed to really 'get it.' Once we finished, I let her go and play while I then scheduled out the tasks into the two days, keeping in mind a mix of activities and a host of other considerations. (I will now be getting up an hour earlier.) I'm really excited for Thursday to roll around to give it a try!