School has been back in session long enough now that the shiny-new-backpack phase has officially worn off.
We're in the thick of it.
School. Work. Practices. Appointments. Dinner. Homework. Laundry. Whatever random form somebody needs signed by tomorrow even though I'm pretty sure it has been in a backpack for two days.
You know. September. 😂
And I actually like routines.
I'm pretty Type A. I like a plan. I like knowing what's happening. I meal prep most weeks. I use a calendar. I make lists. I genuinely feel better when there's some kind of structure holding everything together.
But I've also learned there is a very fine line between creating routines that make my life easier...and creating seventeen new systems I now have to maintain.
I don't need another freaking routine.
I need the ones I already have to actually help.
So this year I've been paying more attention to the little things that remove decisions, make the week easier to see, and keep everything that matters, including the things that matter to me, from getting completely buried.
None of this is revolutionary.
That's actually kind of the point.
I make some decisions before Monday gets here.
Meal prep has been part of my routine for a long time, and not because I particularly enjoy spending part of my weekend chopping things into little containers and cooking multiple meals at once.
It's because I really don't enjoy standing in the kitchen on a Wednesday after school pick-up asking myself: What the hell are we eating tonight?
Future Chrissy is considerably less pleasant when she's hungry, tired and everyone else is also asking what's for dinner...or determined to eat more snacks 😂
So I try to make some of those decisions ahead of time.
We've started doing the same thing with the boys' school lunches. Instead of waking up every morning and figuring out whether they're eating school lunch or need a cold lunch packed, we look at the school menu for the week and decide ahead of time.
That's it. It's not a groundbreaking family system. It's just one less decision at 6:45 in the morning.
And I've started realizing how much I appreciate anything that gives me one less decision when the day is already moving.
Everybody needs to know what the heck we're doing.
We have a calendar hanging in a central spot in our kitchen where everybody can see it.
Practices. Appointments. School stuff. Whatever else we've managed to commit ourselves to.
Callen is old enough now that he can look at it and see what's coming up instead of everything living exclusively inside Mom's brain. Which I highly recommend, because I have enough tabs open up there already!
Have I looked at those fancy digital family calendars? Yes.
Have I purchased one? No.
It's currently living on the very long “maybe someday I'll look into that” list.
For now, the calendar on the wall works.
And that's another thing I'm trying to get better about: if the simple thing works, I'm allowed to keep using the simple thing.
I don't need to upgrade it into a more elaborate system just because one exists.
If my workouts aren't on the calendar, apparently they don't exist.
Working out matters to me. I know I feel better when I'm doing it consistently. I'm stronger. My brain feels better. I have more energy.
And yet, somehow, if I leave workouts in the category of I'll fit it in when I have time...
Guess what gets moved when the week gets full?
Exactly.
So they go on the calendar too.
Not because every workout happens exactly when I planned it. It absolutely does not.
But putting it there is my way of deciding that my time gets a spot on the schedule before everybody else's stuff fills every available square.
The things that take care of us don't have to wait until everything else is done.
Because everything else is never actually done.
I stopped expecting one day to hold all the housework.
There is nothing I want to do less on a free Saturday than spend the entire day cleaning everything I didn't get to during the week.
So we've been breaking household chores up instead.
A little here. A little there. Certain things on certain days.
Is my house always perfectly clean because of this? Absolutely not. 😂
There are four people living here. Two of them are children. I'm pretty sure they produce crumbs recreationally. Let's not forget the two golden retrievers on top of it all.
But breaking things up means I don't constantly feel like I'm staring down one giant reset.
And more importantly, we're not giving an entire weekend day to maintaining the house when we'd rather actually live in it.
I'm trying really hard not to optimize every little thing.
This might actually be the biggest (and often hardest) one for me.
Because I like systems. Give me a spreadsheet, calendar, checklist or new organizational idea and I am interested, fully invested to optimize it.
But there comes a point where managing all the systems becomes yet another job.
I don't need a 14-step morning routine. I don't need an elaborate evening routine. I don't need to perfectly optimize every hour of our week.
Sometimes dinner isn't prepped. Sometimes the workout gets moved. Sometimes the laundry sits in the dryer and gets rebounded 4 different times. Sometimes we eat takeout. Sometimes I realize the calendar is missing something that absolutely should have been on there and we are scrambling out the door.
The systems are supposed to support our life.
Our life isn't supposed to revolve around maintaining the systems.
And I think I'm finally getting better at knowing the difference.
The goal isn't to fit more in.
The reason I want dinner figured out before Wednesday isn't so I can squeeze another task into Wednesday.
The reason I spread out the chores isn't so I can fill Saturday with something else productive.
The reason I want everyone to see the calendar isn't so I can become the world's most efficient household manager.
I want some breathing room.
I want to finish work and not immediately start mentally solving the next seventeen things.
I want to do the workout I said I was going to do.
I want to sit down sometimes to read my latest book or binge something on Netflix.
I want to take the shower I was already going to take and spend an extra minute exfoliating then using my favorite Body Creme afterward without immediately opening the door because somebody needs something.
I want there to be parts of my day that still feel like mine.
That's really what all of these little systems are for.
Not doing more. Not becoming better at juggling everything.
Just removing a little friction from the life we're already living.
And if you've found something ridiculously simple that makes your household run a little easier? Tell me.
Seriously!
Because I may be Type A, but I am absolutely willing to steal your best idea 😂
— Chrissy
A small Simply Stated note
This is a lot of what we mean when we talk about making the moments already in your day feel a little more like yours.
We're not here to give you another self-care checklist.
Sometimes it's the seven-minute shower. The Body Crème you actually use instead of saving. Something that smells really good in the car while you're driving everybody everywhere. Or the 90 seconds behind the bathroom door before you're available to the general public again 😜
Small things count.
And you don't need to find another hour in your day for them to count.
