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3 of the five are now in public school. The older twins are in first grade and the boy is in kindergarten. I used to take pride in how organized I was but I must admit school papers is proving to be a challenge.

How do you manage all the papers that come home from school?

Here’s what comes home to us:

• Homework for the week
• Worksheets they completed at school
• Extra credit work
• Flyers about school programs
• Forms to sign
• Art projects
• School Newsletters
• Classroom newsletters
• Sign up sheets for volunteering, supplies
• Special project instructions
• Award tickets
• School calendars
• Meal calendars
• Invitations

On top of this we get emails from the school, calls from the school and emails from the teachers.

I should mention I work full time so I only have the evenings and weekends to manage this. At the moment we are using gmail, google calendars and of course an incoming basket to manage the piles of paper to be sorted through for what we should keep or toss.

I would love to hear your ideas on how to improve our school paper organization. I am hoping to have a system down before the two little ones start school in a couple of years!

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About Us

We have five children  including 2 sets of twins.. Currently ages 7,7,5,2,2. That’s 2 fraternal twin girls, a single boy, followed by 2 identical twin girls. Life After 5 – kids that is, has definitely changed.

It’s a Saturday afternoon and I’m wanting a sports watch with a timer asap. I pick up my phone to place an order with Amazon and noticed there’s not only same day shipping but 2 hour delivery. I quickly checked if they delivered in my area and almost danced for joy when it said yes. I downloaded the Amazon Prime Now app and start browsing.

I found the watch I wanted but the price was less than needed to get 2 hour shipping. Just then I remembered my laundry. I went to the laundry room to move the clothes to the dryer and saw we were almost out of detergent – on laundry weekend! I returned to my phone and checked to see if Amazon Prime Now could deliver detergent in the two hour window. Of course they could!

I then turned to my husband and asked what else he may need before we could get to the store? Hairspray – check. Shampoo – check!

I really wanted that watch and detergent so I checked out. I did notice there was a driver tip but decided to go ahead anyway. At check out it said delivery within one hour was not available so I confirmed I wanted the 6 to 8 pm delivery time. I also said it was ok to leave the delivery unattended at the door.

I forgot about it when the kids started to ask for dinner. Hubby wanted to go out so we left. On the way home, I remembered I placed the order. When we pulled into the driveway I saw the package by the front door. It was delivered by 8 pm.

I opened my treasures, put on my new watch, started the laundry, and handed my husband his shampoo and hairspray. That was way faster than me remembering to pick up supplies which would likely take another 2 days.

Amazon Prime Now with 2 Hour delivery saved the day!

Pros:

• 2 hour delivery
• Delivery in my area

Cons:

• Delivery Fee
• Limited selection for now
• Requires separate app

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About Us

We have five children  including 2 sets of twins. Currently ages 7,7,5,2,2. That’s 2 fraternal twin girls, a single boy, followed by 2 identical twin girls. Life After 5 – kids that is, has definitely changed.

For minor infractions, the kids go on a short time out. I squeeze in a math drill by making them count to 100. When they’re done – time out is over

Bonus 100 and 1 seconds of mommy time!

A cheap way to label your kids stuff is with good old fashioned clear tape. Simply stick on, write your kid’s name with a sharpie pen, and stick another piece of tape on top to keep the name from washing off.

To  make the name stand out, use clear tape for shipping boxes. Apply the shipping tape first because it’s wide, stick on a white address label, write your kid’s name with a sharpie, and apply another piece of clear tape on top.

Keep your kids secure by placing labels INSIDE their backpacks, jackets, shoes and lunch bags. Write your phone number along with their name.

Something I’ll be trying this year is to create a QR code that is scannable with instructions to scan it to find the kids name. This requires some work on the part of the person that found the item, but the kid’s name is not visible from far away.

My mommy brain has trouble remembering even as recent as 5 seconds ago. Even when I think I was actively listening, I can’t recall the simplest things sometimes. Evernote to the rescue!

I create a note with driving directions to any new destination and set up a reminder before the event so that i have the directions ready at that time. This helps when GPS goes out on me. This way I’m not scrambling to get directions right before the event – but rather when I first add it to my calendar.

it’s also a good reminder to add a note about the event or venue so I can use it for future reference, or to add to my journal of where I’ve been.

I was very excited to hear about the Cozi app. The promise of shared calendars, a family journal, even shared shopping lists was a dream come true. I gave it a try and coerced my husband into installing the app too. 

The novelty wore off after a few weeks. Maintaining another calendar on top of my gmail calendar was a pain. My husband never seemed to get the updates and it was a hassle for him to manage notifications from yet another app. Journals seemed like a good idea, but in all honesty I hardly did it. 

Shared lists? I can already do that with Evernote by sharing individual notes or notebooks. I didn’t find that to be unique with Cozi, but I liked the templates they provided on the sites. 

Mostly – it felt like I was actually complicating where I kept my notes, and my schedules. I’m already a premium Evernote user and love that I can email any tidbit I want to remember into Evernote. Adding separate calendars in gmail for me, my husband, our caregiver schedule and school schedule took care of the need to see it all in one place. My laptop and Android phone allows me to view all the calendars, or only my own. 

Cozi is a great idea for families. It just wasn’t enough to make me give up my gmail calendar and Evernote. 

No more lost caps! These containers are perfect for collecting breastmilk. The caps snap on and snaps off to accomodate newborn nipples. 

I have also found them useful for pre-measuring formula on the go. They hold up to 2 scoops of formula. It makes it very easy to make bottles with one hand.

For on the go bottles, I fill the bottles with water and pack the formula in snappies. When I need a bottle, I open the bottle with water already in it, snap the snappies bottle open and pour into the baby bottle, then shake. All with one hand!

http://www.snappiescontainers.com/product/snappies.aspx?id=1

I’m a mommy to five little munchkins. I have 2 sets of twin girls and one boy. The first set of twins are fraternal. 17 months later they were  followed by my one and only boy. Three years afterwards, he was followed by identical twin girls. The first set of twins and second set of twins are 5 years apart.

I work full time as an internet software product manager. I also use software and technology to manage our household. I look for ways to stretch our family’s budget  so we can choose what to spend more on. I SELECTIVELY  recycle, buy organic and use non-toxic products in our home.

I often get asked questions about mommyhood and figured I might as well share what I learned along the way with this blog. I hope you find it helpful; if not then at least something you can relate to or entertain you. And so it begins…