Saturday, March 19, 2011

Spring's coming...

This is what we awoke to this past Monday!  As I prepared to take a photo of my snow-laden crabapple tree, a small flock of Robins alighted there!  What fun!  I did feel sorry for them though.  Fortunately for them, the snow didn't even last the day.
We are all doing fine here~ a few sweet friends have contacted me recently to check and be sure all is ok since I haven't posted here recently.  I am fine, just busy!  My ankle is healing nicely~ I'm back to swimming, using an elliptical machine and riding my bike on a trainer.  I *think* I'm going to get to take my triathlon bike outside for a ride tomorrow.  That will be so fun!  I was grateful that I could workout as much as I have since I didn't want to loose the (small amount of) running endurance that I had built up after recovering from my hip surgery last fall.  Nonetheless, exercising indoors by myself is not nearly as fun as being outside with my family.  I can hardly wait for my first real outdoor run with Tom and the children!

In spite of the small bouts of snow, spring is really arriving here!  Check out my daylillies!  LOVE seeing green again!
The children and I planted five of our large raised bed gardens with sugar snap peas yesterday.  Hannah, Abbie and I are busy planning some garden renovations for this spring.  The herb garden is coming back to life as well... chives are emerging, etc.  Yay!
I have become a big fan of Google Calendar the past few months.  This free service allows you to create (and selectively share) as many calendars as you like!  I have created separate calendars for:

  • Family events/appointments
  • Tom's work schedule
  • Home maintenance tasks
  • A perpetual gardening calendar (telling me when to start different seeds, set out seedlings, prune fruit trees, etc~ all set to repeat each year for me!)
  • Birthdays/Anniversaries
  • Menu Planning
  • Training Schedule (training planned out for triathlons that I have signed up for, plus a half-marathon that I hope to be able to run later this year)
  • Tasks: I actually use this as a checklist of when our bills are due~ utilities, mortgage, etc.  As soon as a bill arrives in my inbox or in the mail I enter the pertinent info on the date it is due as a "task."  That way, when Tom is paid every two weeks, I just look to see what is due during the next two weeks, pay those items and then check them off of my list.  Sweet!
Google calendar allows you to "turn off" or "turn on" calendars at will.  This is so helpful!  Most days I only have the "birthdays/anniversaries," "family events and appointments," "menu planning," and "Tom's work schedule," and my "training" calendars "showing."  I like to turn on my gardening calendar and my tasks calendar (our bills) individually.  Make sense?

If you were more organized than me (and more committed to regular blogging), you could pre-plan your blog posts in it's own calendar as well!  Cool, huh?  

In addition, Google Calendar can be accessed on your iPad, iPhone or Android so you can take your schedule with you when you are out.

Google calendar is seriously a busy mom's right hand helper!

Do you use Google Calendar?  I'd love to hear how you use it~ I'm always looking for new ways to organize and be more efficient!


5 comments:

  1. I love love love the first picture. How beautiful of the chrystaled tree with so many robins in it! Glad you are doing better. Spring brings hope! Don't push yourself too hard.

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  2. I adore the photo of the tree with the robins. Beautiful!!! I use Google calendar to keep track of my schedule, our appointments, and my husband's schedule. I also love that Blackberry has a "Google Sync" app that will sync my Google and Blackberry calendars. Love that!!

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  3. I'm so glad you're still up and moving about:-) I always think of you and look to see if you've updated your blog.

    I haven't even peeked outside at our garden. The girls have been busy out there so who knows what it looks like :-/ hee hee

    I've only had eyes for baby and kiddos lately. Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll be up for a tour of our property to see what green is growing outside :-)

    I'm glad to hear you are doing well and just busy.

    ~Cinnamon

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  4. Hello Susan, so nice to hear from you again. Just when I start to wonder how you've been there's a little pop up on my mail that you have posted. Hooray when I see your name. That first photo is gorgeous and magical. How do you get so lucky to get such beautiful outdoor pictures, your always there at the right time aren't you. My husband loved the photo also. I'm so glad to hear you've been able to work out some and are feeling better and healing fast. How exciting the warm weather is finally coming and you can enjoy the outdoors with your family. It is so funny to hear about your google calendar, you do need something like that for your kids and hubby. It does sound cool. Hope you have a good week and we hear from you SOON. Take care.

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  5. Thanks everybody for such encouragement! You are a wonderful group of friends!

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