militarymoms

As a busy homeschooling, freelance-writing mom, I don’t often have big chunks of free time.  Lately, I’ve been using little chunks of spare time - during piano lessons, for example - to think about and plan for fall.  Many moms I know are doing the same thing.

When you’re a military mom, planning ahead can sometimes seem like an exercise in futility.  You can’t predict TDYs.  I plan anyway, knowing that I might need to change things later on.

Here are some of the things I like to plan for:

• Homeschooling.  Right now I’m choosing textbooks and course topics.  This is the time when homeschool suppliers are at conferences, where I can see the books, and when they offer discounts.  August is not the best time to order books, trust me.  We’ve chosen all our subjects except my son’s foreign language, and we’re narrowing down math textbook choices.
• Activities.  I just worked out our Irish dance/piano lesson schedule for fall.  Whew.  Now I know how many afternoons will be filled with lessons and chauffeur duties.  Next up: Girl Scout planning.
• Trips.  I’m a travel writer, and I get a lot of my material for future articles from my own travels.  I tend to plan trips in stages - where to stay and how we’ll get there come first.  Right now we don’t have a fall trip on the books.  We do plan to visit our friends in Indiana for a week - we do this every year - but that trip doesn’t require planning.  Everything is ritualized - what we do, what we eat - so it’s no trouble to throw the trip together at the last minute.
• Work.  Freelancers don’t sit around in their PJs and eat bonbons, trust me.  I have a weekly work schedule and I try hard to stick to it.  (It’s Tuesday, which means I write my newsletter.  Yesterday was wine column day.)  I am picking up a new blogging assignment soon, and I have to work that into my schedule.
• Special Events.  My son’s Eagle Scout project falls into this category.  He has to do the planning and the work, but I certainly have to be there as an adult supervisor, so I must plan, too.

Taking the time to plan now really helps me stay sane.  Like many military moms, I have to handle all the activities myself, just in case my husband isn’t here or gets stuck at work.  Planning ahead makes all the difference.

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