Busier Than Ever!

I like to keep my boys active.  They play baseball, do karate, and my oldest is currently in CCD.


Before this wasn't a bad thing, they were in the same karate class, and whatever other sport they chose, I would be sure to have them either in the same group or at least on the same day.  But now they are older. 


The current spread of their ages has me in a million places at once!  My oldest just moved up in age class in karate, which means that now instead of 30 minutes in my day, I'm there for an hour and a half!  And baseball is the same thing....we have t-ball for one and U7 for the other.  This means 2 different coaches, 2 different practices, 2 different games, 2 different parks and MANY days! 

View from the app on my phone.

Thank goodness for my Cozi calendar!  I can have everyone's activities with the time and places in all one place.  I have my calendar on my computer and especially on my phone.  This way when my memory fails, my Cozi doesn't!

Cozi also has a "To Do" list and a "Shopping" tab.  This way I can keep my lists in one helpful place.  My favorite part is when I mark something off of my To Do list or shopping list, it actually crosses the item out with a line.  That's the very reason why I love lists so much...the gratification of the crossing out!


Do you use Cozi calendar?  If so, what's your favorite part?




Alexis

Off Track

I'm off kilter.  Between my husband being home, Back to School Night at school, and The Nag's 5th birthday, I haven't been myself!  I'm all off track.  I can't get into my routine.  

My house looks like a tornado blew through.  

I haven't assembled the party favors for The Nag's party on Saturday.

All I want to do is sleep, but my alarm keeps waking me up to go to work....UGH!

I keep making plans without checking the family calendar...and I'm over scheduling!

What is my problem???  I hope I get back to normal soon.

Alexis

Can I Really Work and Blog??

*disclaimer:  all you "seasoned" bloggers, this is old news to you...this is for the other "newbies" out there!

School hasn't even officially started yet (at least not with students) and I'm already stressed about how to maintain my new obsession while trying to educate children!  Not to mention that Blogger, Facebook, and Twitter are blocked at my school.  I can only use my iPhone for so long...it's just too small.  What's a girl to do when trying to grow a following and reach the world?


After voicing my concerns to Smarty Pants Mama and my sister, they gave me advice on the vast world of social networking and how to "do it all." 


Since I can't blog while at work (and I LOVE making lists), I plan out my posts for the week.  I found blogging calendar form at Living Locurto.  It's cute and useful!  I print a few at a time because I like to see the future.


Then I designate one night to pushing out 3-4 posts.  The night changes depending on after school activities, what's good on TV, and whether or not my husband is home.  How do I do that?  One way is to create posts using a word document and then posting them to the blog later.  But my preferred way is by writing the posts on my platform and scheduling when the post will be live.  This has saved me A LOT of time!

This was going well for me while I was home.  I could tweet and share on Facebook all day in between activities with my kids.  This way all of my followers could see my new posts.  But now that I'm back at work all day, how would anyone know that I wrote a new post?

That's where Smarty Pants Mama came in.  She let me in on a little secret.  (I don't think it's a secret to the rest of you, but for me it was HUGE!)  Since I use TweetDeck while tweeting, I can schedule my tweets as well!  WOO HOO!  I love to plan ahead... It's especially useful for my Sundays when I'm usually away from the computer all day.
If you choose to do this on TweetDeck, keep in mind that the time is military time.

I know I have a lot more to learn, but hey, it's only been 2 months...

Do you have any more planning or time saving techniques when blogging? Please share!
 
Alexis