Friday, January 21, 2011

The Straits of my Synapses

Lately I've been tripping over all sorts of information that should not be strewn about, but should be neatly tucked into my brain. Instead I find that things I need to know are scattered about like forgotten toys--and these little tidbits of information pop up or disappear viciously at unexpected moments, so that I break my ankle.

My mind used to be like a well put together wooden floor, tightly fitted, well-sealed, maybe easily dented, but still pretty resilient. Enter Ellie. Now my mind is like a smashed graham cracker--crumby and strewn about.

Example: A couple weeks ago Kenzie came strolling up to the door at 10:40. I pick her up from kindergarten at 11:10, so imagine my confusion. "What are you doing home?" I asked her, racking my brain for some reason as to why Sallie would pick her up early. Sallie called out from her van, "It's early day."  Ohhhh. Thanks Sallie for saving me.

I have other more embarrassing stories, but I'll just let you make those up in your head.  I wrote about this before, but it's become so bad, I am starting to feel like I should start saying "like" more often, and wear a vacant, smiley expression on purpose. So I need some systems for coping with everyday life. Systems to help me remember what I should be doing and when. Systems to stop those "Oh no!" (or sometimes that "Oh *&%!") moments, that seem to be happening to me more and more.

Here are some things that are helping me deal with the craziness that is 3 children:
1. Have an always stocked diaper bag. I keep my diaper bag in the van and every time I leave my house to get in the van, I grab some diapers, just in case. My leaving routine involves filling a water bottle, grabbing snacks, and grabbing diapers.
2. I've started putting things that I need to return/take to others in the van. I don't put them on a shelf, I don't keep them by the door, I put them in the van. That way if I'm driving by I can drop it off.

I have a feeling I need to schedule out each day down to the hour, but I'm not sure how to do that without driving myself batty. And I probably need to re-evaluate and cut something out. Ellie is in so cleaning is out?

What are some of your tips for organization/getting things done? How do you keep a graham-cracker brain from crumbling?
Gratuitous baby picture. She's cute, but she's killed my synapses.

4 comments:

Alisha said...

I started meal planning for the week, it's helped me a ton! And I keep track of things that I need to do by putting them in my google calendar, that way they pop up and remind me to do things. :)
I don't have a brain anymore, maybe I'll hire someone to be my brain for me...

Sherrie said...

Good luck! I'm still working on that very thing. I do use my old fashioned calendar, the one with large squares for each day and it's on the wall in between my bedroom and the kitchen and the garage so that I pass it often. If I don't write things down, they're useless to me. Oh, and I use post it's alot. Yeah, really I'm no help.

Anonymous said...

I use Microsoft Works Calendar. I write everything on it and then I set reminders. I've also started setting reminders on my phone. Usually one to two hours in advance of some important event, my phone will sound like Five Alarm Siren.

I have to set a reminder for every Thursday. Because if I don't, I will forget that it's Early Out day for the kiddos. I started doing this because one time I was seriously 45 minutes late picking up my kids from school. *Sigh*

Em Russ said...

can't help you, really, because my brain is complete mush!