Time to Organize the Chaos

While we were dating, my husband dubbed me an "extreme free spirit." In fact, he believes me to be so much so that the inscription on my engagement ring reads exactly that, "Extreme Free Spirit." I am one of the most free-spirited people he knows. I make no qualms about cart-wheeling through wild flowers, and, truth be told, I quite love dancing barefoot in the rain. Now, I don't necessarily do that during a thunder and lightning storm, but I have run out in those before. I have seen too much crap in my short 37 years on this planet to make me want to maintain some crazed schedule of insanity where everyone in my life, myself included, is over-scheduled and every piece of life has written "play by play" directions attached. There are finer things to do, in my opinion. Those things include chasing butterflies, blowing bubbles, spinning in circles with your arms open wide until you collapse, and laying on the side of your favorite hill on a sunny day staring at the sky and talking about nothing in particular with the one who makes your heart skip a beat and do a little dance every morning when you wake up next to them.

Now, all that being said, we have 6 children. Let's count that out, shall we? S-I-X. Six kids means six potentially different kid schedules. In fact, five of them are currently in school; four different schools. Well, technically five different schools, but two of them ride the same bus as their schools are next to one another and the school district had an intelligent thought that led them to the decision to have the schools that are next to each other like that have the same buses and start five minutes apart or so. Gee, how about that? Anyway, their schedules, plus my husband's work schedule and my own schedule (yes, I actually have things that I do, believe it or not) can make for some utter chaos. Somehow, I have to keep track of who is coming and going. There has only been one really effective way for me to do that. I keep a planner. Yep, a weekly scheduler type thing, spiral bound which maintains appointments, to-do notes and the like. I have a calendar on my computer which I love very much and I always write all of the school-related closings onto that one. We have a calendar that hangs in our kitchen that may contain the occasional appointment written down, but nothing compares to the little spiral bound calendar that I carry with me everywhere. Basically, if it isn't written in there, it doesn't exist.

Gods forbid I don't have that calendar with me too. I end up scheduling appointments on top of one another. Been there, done that. I then have to go back and re-schedule. Ugh! What a pain that is too. So, whilst I seriously despise planning my life and everything in it, I do actually recognize that there needs to be some kind of balance and semblance of a schedule.

So, what planner works for me? It can't be any old planner. I've had those in the past. They do not work for me in the least bit. I used to get Llewellyn's Witches' Datebook. I do so love that one. I have that wall calendar in my house, so it made sense to carry that one. Plus, it has recipes. For me that is a major added bonus. And, there is always something to read. There is a ton of good reading material contained inside that datebook. I switched over to 7th House's Seasons of the Witch datebook a few years ago when I started taking their Seasons in Avalon course. Frankly, they are quite correct that is almost essential that you have some sort of one of their calendars as specific Power casting days (days where it might be better to cast for something than on another day) may come up in the lessons. The datebook is incredibly comprehensive. While I miss the recipes, because, unfortunately, Llewellyn doesn't include the recipes that appear in their datebook into their standard wall calendar, the information I do gain from the other is fantastic.

I have been feeling a bit out of sorts because I haven't had my planner for 2013. Typically I order it in before the end of the prior year, but this year I waited. Thankfully, guess what showed up in my mailbox on Saturday? Yup. So, life is good as I fill in the appointments and absolutely necessary things I must take action on in a reasonable amount of time.

While I don't necessarily put the "trivial" things in there or the normal day-to-day stuff, I do quite hope that I can fill it with all sorts of Rites and Ceremonies that people are needing done. I have one wedding scheduled for this year. I am looking forward to scheduling more weddings, baby blessings/naming ceremonies, Blessingways, and the like. I also look forward to scheduling my Sacred Pregnancy classes for the mamas-to-be out there once phase 1 of my training is complete in February. HOORAY!

I can now go check this off of my list, as I challenged myself to blog once a week, and made sure I wrote blogging onto my to-do list for the day so it got done. Amidst appointments and such today, there wasn't much time for anything else.

Until next week, world (unless my muse hits me with something I must write about prior to that), have a great one!