Schedule revisited
Back in January, the babes and I came up with a new daily schedule and posted it on the fridge. The schedule worked really well . . . .until we moved at the beginning of March . . . and then it all went to pot. By the time we got all settled, it was May, and DH went on two business trips. Then it was June and I was busy planning a birthday party. Then it was July and we were gone for the whole month. After 5 months of complete disorder, I was ready to get back on schedule. But it wasn’t as simple as just using the old schedule. We made a few changes in the schedule and then made a whole new schedule board. The old one was fine, but it didn’t allow for changes, and it certainly isn’t going to match the command center setup. Sooo, of course, I had to make a new one.
I found an old picture frame at Goodwill and sponged the frame itself with yellow paint. I didn’t bother to prime the frame, so I did a quick coat of polyurethane. I’m pretty sure that’s not what polyurethane is for, but it worked! We glued fabric onto the cardboard backing to provide a nice background for the schedule. Then, the fun began, trying to find a permanent marker whose color matched the color scheme AND would show up on the glass. I settled on purple for the lines and a dark blue for the words. I had a small stroke of genius and drew the lines and wrote the headings on the underside of the glass. That way, when I want to change something, I don’t end up erasing the lines. (Erasing entails using a damp paper towel and a wee bit of elbow grease.) The frame had more space than I needed for the actual schedule, so I included a section at the bottom for “Things to do today”.
A close up of the painting detail, since you can’t really see much in the terrible picture above. The house is so dark, with the kitchen having very little natural light, it’s nigh unto impossible to get a decent shot!
This is actually the second week of doing the new schedule, but I can say that it went MUCH better yesterday (the first day that the schedule was posted). Even though not everyone in our family knows how to read yet, there’s something about having a tangible schedule to look at and refer to that really helped us stay on track. It wasn’t perfect, but I’m already feeling more organized in the day.
Next up, a menu planning board.
Total time: 1 hour
Total cost: $3
Learning each and every day 
Frugal!