A Day In My Life - The Calendar Saga

This is an excerpt from an email I sent to a busy mom friend of mine. I promised to tell her my calendar sob story, but I have decided to also share it with you. I wonder if Gretchen Rubin has a chapter on Life Maintenance in the Happiness Project because now that my closets are clean, my calendars are a mess!

Calendar Saga. A Day In My Life. Ready. Set. Go.

So for the last 5 years Joe has been trying to get me into the 21st century and use the computer. I still write everything down on a gigantic calendar and then put the minor things on a mini calendar I can carry in my purse (when it is there and sometimes it isn't).... but THIS YEAR, I finally adapted to using the computer calendar. Easy for him because he can download our entire life onto his iPhone with a click. BUT I am still managing this mini calendar which doesn't have the space for everything and it's starting to get confusing and I'm missing things and I have to reschedule 4 different (or was it 5?) appointments the last 4 weeks. This was after I went to Hallmark to buy a "bigger" mini calendar in hopes that if I had more writing space it would help. 3 doctor appointments, and a dental appt... it was 4 appts. THEN, LAST WEEK, I do my volunteer time with the drum club only to discover when I get home that it wasn't even my turn that day and I really needed to go to Winco!!!! SO I beg my husband to buy me an iPad and of course, we can't afford one. He says, "Go to the office store and get a bigger monthly calendar that fits in your purse. I promise to use your old fashioned calendar and update my iPhone with YOUR old fashioned calendar." Okay. So I go to the office store, spend 45 minutes with 2 distracted children, looking at all my options.....and I buy a planner along with gummy worms and chewing gum thank you gifts for my distracted children... that DOES NOT fit in my purse.

I go home.

THEN, I spend time taking things out of the planner that I don't need. Eventually, I begin fishing out coupons and receipts and business cards that I want to keep from their various homes in my drawers, baskets, envelopes and wallets so that I can consider if they will have a home in my new, snazzy, red planner. I ponder the content of my piles. I sort. I restack. I toss things. I decide to keep my Colorado drivers license. 2 hours later, when I finally get down to entering drum club gigs and speech tournaments, orthodontist appointments and scout events to my calendar, I realize I bought one without NUMBERS. Yes, my friend, I had to WRITE THE NUMBERS IN!!!!..... all 12 months.....

......and now.... I need a bigger purse.

What does a day in YOUR life look like?