The holidays are a time of warmth and tradition.  Family come together, neighborhoods glow, and homes bustle with preparations.  We all know this special magic doesn’t happen on its own.  In fact, many of us find ourselves trying to fulfill ever-increasing expectations with very limited resources.  So how do you savor the spirit of the season while cutting back on the stress?  Believe it or not, it doesn’t have to mean starting your shopping in July.  Regardless of where you are in your preparations, these strategies can help you save time and money – and provide you with holiday peace of mind.

Step 1: Get It Together

Halloween comes and goes, and seemingly overnight the stores transform into holiday-centric spending traps.  Confroted with a surge of shrink-wrapped cheer, we often reach for our wallets.  The same temptations hit our calendars.  Holiday parties, school events and religious activities get scheduled and before we know it, our entire season is booked.  This year, take control!

Establish a Game Plan: Most parents wouldn’t dream of going on a family vacation without a rough itinerary and basic budget.  Yet during the most hectic and costly time of year, we tend to jump in without a road map.  Essential to your holiday plan is a detailed family calendar, a comprehensive gift list and an itemized budget.  [You can find free MeckMom printables for each of these here].

Schedule a Preseason Family Meeting: Make sure your family is in the loop by sharing information about the basic holiday budget as well as your overall goals for the season.  Give each family member a chance to request his or her favorite traditions.  If making a gingerbread house is important to your 5-year-old, schedule it on your calendar.  If ice skating is your 12-year-old’s favorite activity, find time for it.  If no one votes for attending the company party or the school’s holiday shop, drop those events from the calendar.

Do an Inventory: Before you wander through the toy aisles, look through your kids’ toy collections.  Take stock of what they need, and purge what they can do without.  If you have time, make an inventory of your holiday decorations and note gaps you need to fill before you hit the craft store.  If you’re in a rush, at least force yourself to open and quickly look through every box.  Actually seeing how much you already have will help prevent you from overspending.

*Don’t stop here, there are more great tips in the next two steps…

Holiday How-To: Part 2

Holiday How-To: Part 3

This post is an excerpt from an article published by Organize Magazine, Nov/Dec 2007, Volume 03, pg 68-73, written by Maria Eckersley, photos by Poul Ober, styling by Kendra Smoot.

Functional Family Calendar

Hung conveniently on the fridge or kitchen wall, a large monthly calendar is a great way to keep your family in the loop.  The dilema, of course, is that it’s impossible to use away from home.  If an electronic version is out of your budget, try this little trick.  Rather than buying a large wall-size calendar, opt for a slightly smaller notebook-size version.  When it needs to function as a family calendar, use magnetic clips to hold it open and display it on the fridge.  When you’re on the go, simply pop off the clips and toss it in your purse.

Kid-Friendly Planners

Be in sneakers for P.E. class, library books, or musical instruments, helping your kids get off to school with the right equipment can be a huge hassle.  Help them mangae their own daily activites by creating a simple weekly chart.  These help your kids keep track of what’s going on at school, what’s for lunch, and any extra-curricular activites.  Plans for homemade velcro versions are available online (see this post).  Stick the planners on the fridge or pantry door so your kids will be able to check them each morning before school.

Activity Information Binder

The first few weeks of school often result in a sea of important information like sport schedules, class directories, and school calendars, often buried in piles on the kitchen counter.  Keep track of everything by making an Activity Information Binder.  Use a simple three-ring binder and add three dividers for each of your school-age children: one for calendars, one for directories, and one for micellaneous activity information.  next time you need a number or a litte information about your children’s schedules, you’ll know just where to look.

Weekly Family Meetings

Nothing can simplify the scheduling struggle as efficiently as a weekly family meeting.  Held at a regular time and place, family meetings can be critical in your back-to-school survival.  Encourage each member of the family to bring his or her weekly planner and take a few minutes to update the family calendar.  In particular, the first back-to-school family meeting should include the following topics for discussion: clothing and school supply budgets, morning routine plans, homework rules, allowance structure, and TV/cell phone/computer limits.

*This post is an excerpt from an article published by Organize Magazine, Sept/Oct 2007, Volume 02, pg 42-49, written by Maria Eckersley, photos by Lanola Kathleen Stone.

Here’s a sampling of a few of the ways I use my iPhone on any given day…

• Alarm Clock: I have it set to wake me at different times on different days – it even has a built in snooze
• Weather: The first thing I check when I wake up is the forecast.  That way I know – before I even get out of bed – what kind of clothes the kids will need that day.
• Calendar: Before my feet hit the floor, I check the calendar so I know my plan for the day.  The iPhone allows you to have multiple calendars so I can check out a specific color-coded category (like school, church, home, etc.) or view them all together.
• Reminders: The calendar also has built-in reminder functions, so if Emily has to bring the snack to Kindergarten, or Jack needs to send in money for pictures, an alarm will sound and I’ll be reminded before the backpacks are packed.
• Grocery Lists: If I notice at breakfast that we’re running low on syrup, I just open up my grocery manager program called Shopper.  With a quick tap I can add it to my grocery list and check it off next time I head out to the store.
• Podcasts & Audiobooks: In an ideal world, I would have loads of time to read.  In my real world, my hands are never free long enough to make that happen.  I use the podcast and audiobook tools to help me catch up on current events or listen to the latest bestseller while I’m doing the laundry or cleaning the kitchen.
• Email: Sitting at my computer is another thing I can’t seem to find enough time for (hence the lack of posts lately).  With my iPhone’s quick and easy email access I can check my mail while I’m in the pick-up line at school or waiting for my son to finish soccer.
• Camera: My son got his first tooth today and I’m sure that his out-of-state grandparents would want to know about it.  Rather than track down my camera, hook it up, and attach the picture to an email;  I just grab my phone, snap a picture and send it off.
• Homework Help: One of my favorite iPhone applications is called iFlipr.  It’s a simple flashcard program that you can customize to your own needs.  I created flashcards to help my kids learn multiplication, spelling words, sight words, and geography facts.  I always have my phone with me so it’s easy to squeeze in study time no matter where we are.
• Video & TV Shows: I hate to say it, but TV can be a great babysitter and a portable TV can be even better.  For example, yesterday my 5 year-old was at ballet practice and my two older kids were sitting with me in the waiting area.  I needed my hands free to feed the baby, so I gave them my phone and let them watch an episode of Disney’s Phineus and Ferb (downloaded from iTunes for $2).  They were happy, I was happy, and the 45 minute ballet class flew by.
• Voice Recorder: New ideas, to-dos, and reminders don’t usually come to us when we’re sitting down with a pen and paper.  They hit us at random times throughout the day.  I’ve never been good at writing things down, so I find the voice recorder application invaluable.  If I have a new blog idea I just open the voice recorder app and describe it.  If my little daughter says something funny and I want to remember it later, I record it.  If my friend has a great recipe I want to try…well you get the idea.  It’s a quick and easy way to capture and organize all the random thoughts that swirl around my head.

I could list tons more, like the built-in GPS, the awesome music options, the visual voicemail, the fun texting tool – but it would take me far too long to type it all.  I’ll just say this, if you’re in the market for a new phone, it’s worth your time to check the iPhone out.  You can buy a new 8GB iPhone 3G for just under $200.   If you’re not in the market for a new phone or can’t switch to the AT&T network, you might want to consider picking up the iPod touch.  It has all the features I just described without the built-in phone. Here’s a link to the Apple store so you can check out more iPhone details.

If you ask me, the iPhone is a fabulous tool for Moms.  It’s incredibly easy to use, fun to customize (thanks to the thousands of applications available), and loaded with features to make your life easier.  It’s tough to ask for more than that.  Just thought I’d pass it on.

If you’ve got an iPhone and have found an application that you love I hope you’ll share it with the rest of us in the comments area.  I’d love to know which apps you’ve tried.  Thanks!

Essentially, the elements of the Mom Game Plan are the same.It’s still a table that breaks down my weekly jobs into smaller, more manageable daily tasks.  However, in this version, I increased the size of the chart to full page-size to make it easier to read and harder to ignore.  I also laminated it so that I could use a dry erase marker to keep track of my progress and make changes where needed.  As jobs are completed throughout the week, I use my marker to check things off the list.

Like most homes, the messes in my house can be a bit unpredictable.  Thankfully, with this chart, I can adjust my plan as needed. If the bathrooms are a disaster on Tuesday and I can’t put them off until their regular day then I use the marker to shift things around.

Another benefit is that it’s great for tracking my progress.  It’s really helpful to be able to look back at the end of the week and see what I need to work on.If I’ve only got two checks in the exercise column, then I know I need to push myself a little harder in that area next week.

I’m sure it won’t work forever, no great Mom time-saver does, but for now it seems like a step in the right direction.Just thought I’d pass it on.

If you’ve got suggestions for tackling the never-ending jobs of motherhood, please feel free post them.  I’d love to share your success with my readers.

Click here to download the free Mom Game Plan printable.

I can’t say that I’ve ever followed it exactly. In fact there are many weeks that I fail across the board. But this simple schedule at least gives me a goal to shoot for in a few of the key areas. My chart is divided into 4 sections areas: Exercise, Cleaning, Scripture Study, Dinner. Here’s what I’ve got listed:

Monday:
Treadmill, Kid Laundry & Living Room, Daily Reading, Soup/Sandwich

Tuesday:
Volleyball, Bedrooms & Linens, Ensign/Gen. Conf., Chicken

Wednesday:
Treadmill, Kitchen & Mopping, Daily Reading, Pasta

Thursday:
Weights, Grocery Shopping & Organizing, Sunday School Lesson, Breakfast Dinner

Friday:
Treadmill, Bathrooms & Adult Laundry, Daily Reading, Pizza

Saturday:
Run Outside, Car/Basement/Outdoor, YW Lesson Prep, Beef or Pork

Sunday:
Day Off, Bills & School Prep, Relief Society Lesson, OPEN

It’s a pretty basic plan, but it makes a huge difference for me. Plus, having these basic decisions made ahead of time (like having some idea of what I’m going to make for dinner) allows me to juggle the other 700 decisions we mom’s have to make on any given day. Just thought I’d pass it on.