i have many people say to me that i must be very organized to run a home with 9 children, manage 2 businesses (ok...they manage me) and have the ministry opportunities that i do in my home.

let me just say....i am not.

i may have order to my life.  i may have  a routine in our home, but i am not organized.  ok. well, maybe a little. because i wouldn't be able to do some of these things if i didn't have some of the tools in place that i do.  i will try to share about them as time goes on, but this is one that i have found to be really good!

i saw this in some magazine.  i thought it might be worth a shot.  it has worked pretty well.

this is what i do:  every person has their own stickie color.  i have a master calendar i have put on the inside of  my back door.  the back door is great, because it is metal...it holds magnet things (that my refrigerator doesn't) like lunch menus, permission slips, birthday invites, etc.

on the stickies, it put the event and time and who (for those who don't do color coding at my house)....there are some days--as you can see--that we have several stickies all in a row.  that is what i love about it.  each person has their own space to write out what they need for that day and event.  if it needs to be changed--say like a dr appointment  that moved--then i just move the sticky to that day. since school has started there are many days with looooonnnnngggg rows of stickies.  (this picture was taken in June when things were trying to wind down)

you do have to have a large space to get all the days on and room for all the stickies, but i love this...it works!  i have also bolted a white board onto my back door.  this was an earlier attempt to organize that didn't last...but it works for messages and doodles (as you can tell)..i have since cleaned it and now it is just plain ole white.

if you try it or have another great organizing tip, let me know!  i am always looking for new and improved ways of managing my ever changing household.