The next several weeks are going to be crazy-busy for me, but the up-side is that my boys are both thoroughly enjoying themselves because of it.

I signed Connor up for swimming lessons earlier this year, and unlike many learning situations, he’s taken to them like a *ahem* fish to water, lol. He’s also playing T-ball with the town Recreation Dept. He doesn’t enjoy it nearly as much as the swimming lessons, but with a little bribery (like kite-flying or roller skating afterwards), he’s a somewhat willing participant.

I have to admit, I’m seriously impressed with the town’s facilities and sports programs for kids. We have a huge complex of sports fields that are all interconnected by paved walkways, there are somewhat clean and non-stinky port-a-potty’s, a playground for younger kids, and several concession stands. Did I mention that this place is frickin’ huge? There must be a minimum of 20 different sports fields in this place! I was speaking to one of the t-ball coaches one day before practice, and he said if you walk throughout the complex and all the interconnecting paths, you’d have walked something like 2.6 miles! And that’s just this one particular recreation area…there are at least three others I know of, and that’s not all of them by a long stretch.The place where we do our swimming lessons is amazing, too. It’s a bunch of ponds connected by a through road, and each pond has a large grassy area with picnic tables and grills for cooking, a small beach, concession stand and restrooms, lifeguards, and roped off areas for the kids to swim in. The water is clean (there are even small fish swimming in the little inlets for the boys to try to catch!), and there’s plenty of shade for moms with babies. Just a warning…either make sure you bring plenty of money for the ice cream man, or that your kids know in advance that they’re not getting any ice cream, lol. My mother has come with us the past two days, and we’ve been having a ball.

That’s his swimming teacher. She’s got the patience of a saint!

Now to the important part of this post. Since Kyle was born, my life has gotten to be much more complicated. Not only because I now have two sons, but also because Connor is five now, and he’s got his own activities and schedule to keep. My mother said to me today…”I don’t know how you do all the packing and running around without losing your mind”.

There are a couple of things I do that make my life manageable so I only forget something if I happen to misplace an appointment card or don’t write something on the shopping list when I use the last of it or something silly like that.

First of all, I use Cozi.com. It’s a calendar, journal, to do list, and shopping list all in one place. You’re probably saying “big effing deal, I can do all that with Microsoft Outlook”, and normally I would agree. But…Cozi.com also has an Outlook toolbar add-on, so you can sync it with Outlook. It’s online so you can access it anywhere. And, they have iPhone and Android apps, a mobile website for Blackberries and Palms, the ability to have Cozi read you your shopping lists or appointments over your cell phone, and the ability to have Cozi send you a text message from your calendar, to do list or shopping list. Oh, and did I mention their sidebar gadget? In other words, this site rocks.

Unfortunately, I haven’t jumped on the cell-phone data usage bandwagon yet, so what I do is add all my appointments/to dos/shopping items to Cozi, then sync that with Outlook. I also use the iOutlook sidebar gadget just because I’m super-picky and like the way it looks better than the Cozi gadget.

So, here’s my answer. I worked out what things we do every day (dishes, laundry, meals, etc.), got us into a pretty good schedule for the daily stuff, sleeping and naps; make to-do lists as if my life depended on it, I prioritize, and I couldn’t live without my Outlook calendar.

Technorati Tags: activities, Family, Kids, summer fun, time management