good decisions are rare

my decisions around here don't stick very often. and if i had to look back over the years (only the married ones - to look back further than that would only worsen the statistics), i could probably count on 1 hand the decisions i've made that became permanently ingrained into our lives. those are the good ones. one of them has definitely proven its worth over and over again and that's the weekly plan sheets that i print each week and put on the fridge. there are 2 weeks up at a time. they show anything the kids and i are doing throughout the week that has a time-frame associated with it. they show holidays, birthdays, the doc's call shifts and when he is off and any other meetings he has to attend, the meal plan for the week, and the chores assigned to each kid for the week. before i was pregnant with the bossy one (the last) i was working mary kay full time. i would be asked a million questions a day about if i was going anywhere, what was for dinner, what stores we were visiting while we ran errands, etc. at a mary kay conference that i attended, one of the speakers talked about organizing your home life, so that you could in turn have a clearer head to run your business with. the weekly schedules and meal plans were her idea. i implemented it over 3 years ago and it has been going strong ever since. everyone loves to look at the sheet and see what is going on the next day and what we're eating. it saved tons in grocery bill because i started buying only the food i needed for the meals that week, instead of buying whatever looked yummy in the store or what was on sale. (ok sales aren't bad, but i'm a sucker for them, and if something is on sale i would just buy it even if i didn't need it)

the other decision that has been heaven-sent, is the very recent switch to a 4-day school schedule. i know i already posted the success of the first week. but now after 2 weeks of it, i'm amazed that everyone has stuck to the daily schedule both weeks and that everyone actually likes it! luigi got all is work done by 1pm thursday and has been 'off' ever since. it's truly miraculous. and, of course, the pessimist that i am, i don't expect it to last. i expect him to go right back to his lazy rebellious self tomorrow. but for now, i'll be happy that i found a system that got him back on track for 2 whole weeks! (we'll address the sneaking into the master bedroom watching non-kid movies while we're not home later)