The Value of a Calendar

Speaking of calendars...I am aware that the calendar now says October. And my last post was in September. I have been seriously lax on this blog. I apologize. Life has been jam packed lately. Some days I feel like I'm on a treadmill and someone keeps turning the speed up.

Anyway....Calendars. I have several. Four to be exact. There is the pretty Thomas Kinkade one hanging on the wall in the laundry room. It's my annual Christmas present from Kearsdad and the girls. Every year I ask for a new one. The pictures in it are so pretty. Really, it's just a substitute for the Thomas Kinkade print I would like to have hanging in my house. But the prints run around $250 for a little one, and upwards of $1000 for the really big ones I'd like. So I have the calendar. It just hangs there. Sometimes I remember to write stuff on it, but usually I forget. I have even been known (although this is terribly embarrassing to admit) to write stuff on it AFTER the fact. I have no idea why I do that. So there it hangs.

Secondly, I have the little "pocket calendar" in my purse. It's the free one I get from the Orthodontist office. This is key. See, I forget orthodontist appointments ALL the time. Really. I can't count how many appointments we have missed. Every time we go, I faithfully pull out that little calendar and write in the next appointment. Then I put the calendar back in my purse. There it stays. There are other things written on that calendar too. But I don't know what they are.

Third is my pretty Colorado planner calendar. I bought it last year while we were in Colorado Springs, at the gift shop in the Garden of the Gods Welcome Center. It is beautiful. It's a weekly planner, so it has 52 pages and 52 beautiful pictures of Colorado scenery. See, I bought it for the pictures. The other reason I bought it was to have something to use in staff meetings to keep up with student events. I take it to staff meeting every week. Sometimes I write stuff in it. Mostly, I just admire the pretty pictures.

Finally, I have the calendar on my computer. The one in my Outlook folder, attached to my email. This is the one Kearsdad wants me to use. He is always telling me how this calendar would make my life so much easier. He is probably right. This little electronic calendar has little windows that pop up everytime I open my email and remind me of what I am to do that day. Or, at least, the reminder window would pop up IF I put information into the calendar. As it is, nothing happens when I open my email except that my email downloads. Nothing happens because I never put anything in the calendar. Thing is...I use my email every day. Several times a day. Just think, I could have little reminder windows popping up throughout the day telling me what to do next. Where to go. What time to get there. It would be amazing. If I used it.

Prime example...Today, I hurried the girls through the morning...piano lesson, school work, lunch...hurrying because we had to leave by 12:30 to be at the church at 1:00 for the girl's art class. This class, through our homeschool group, meets twice a month. 2nd and 4th Tuesdays. We arrived at the church and the girls walked up to the door of the portable in which their class meets. Door was locked. Lights were off. Hmm....I started wondering...but we didn't have art class LAST week. I checked. I even looked in my lesson plan book (where I DO actually write things down). No class last week so it must be this week, right? Wrong.

We walked into the "office" where Junebug, SUG and BB were working (at least I think they were working). "What is today's date?" I asked. October 7 was the answer from the people who were looking at the calendars in front of them. Yeah, that's what happens when you look at the calendar, you know the date. "So, today isn't the 2nd Tuesday, is it?" Nope...it's the FIRST Tuesday. "But I don't understand. We didn't have class last week either!" Umm...that would be because September had 5, yes FIVE Tuesdays. That tidbit of information came from SUG, who was, again, looking at the calendar on the wall by her desk.

So, we are back home. With some extra free time today. That's why I have time to update my blog. I could use the extra time to enter information into the calendar on my Outlook. Maybe. Maybe later. Maybe tomorrow...