Planning for September

As a planner, I can't help but to spend endless hours trying to figure out the best way to prepare for the Midwifery program I'm starting int the fall. There are two areas that need to be considered. The first one is how to best prepare academically and second how to best prepare my family.

For the academic part I was fortunate enough to meet some very helpful midwifery students through a Facebook group called McMaster Midwifery students. They were kind to share with me the syllabus of most of the courses I will need to take in first semester. This will allow me to become familiar with what is going to be expected of me and hopefully the first week of classes won't be such a shock. I still remember the chaos of my first week of practical nursing. Feeling totally overwhelmed and crying in the bathroom between classes questioning my ability to do it. Becoming familiar with all the different courses' expectations and curriculum will be very reassuring. It will be of great advantage to have time to look at the courses outline in a calm manner  without the anxiety of first week. I also plan to get a kick start with Anatomy & Physiology by watching online lectures, youtube videos and reading the A&P book I already have from the nursing program. It's my plan to start making notes and organize resource so that when I start the course it will be less time consuming to find the information I need.

On the family front it is not so clear what I should do to prepare. I do have a few things in mind though. As the panner and control freak I am, of course I had to make a list. At the moment it looks like this:

• Clear and clean garage of clutter. Buy shelves and storage bins for kids helmets, balls, rollerblades....
• Get rid of junk.
• Sort out through the kids toys and give away anything that has not been played in the last year and won't be used by the  other kids.
• Organize the kids closets and set up a system of boxes to easily switch between summer and winter wardrobes.
• Get rid of junk.
• Organize basement.
• Make menu cards for 16 weeks, including list of ingredients necessary for all dishes.
• Buy another freezer and cook as many meals it will fit.
• Get rid of junk.
• Make a list of kids lunch ideas.
• Fix all little DIY things that need to be done in the house, which usually get to my nerves but never get done.
• Organize plan B and C for childcare when the kids are sick or other inconveniences.
• Get rid of junk.
• Implement a chores' list for the kids to help around the house. (I'm not very good at this and usually the kids get way with not doing much. THIS WILL HAVE TO CHANGE!!)
• Organize as many carpooling as possible for the kids extra curriculum activities.
• Buy as many WagJag coupons as possible for Made-It-Clean. I plan to have someone come once a week and help with the heavier cleaning such as bathrooms.
• Encourage my oldest son to get his driver's licence so he can help with the other kids driving around.
• Did I say get rid of junk??

I have 12 weeks to accomplish all that. I will also be going away twice this summer, to Virginia Beach to attend my girl's finals dance competition and to New York with my husband to celebrate a late 20th year anniversary (It was actually in 2010 or should I be celebrating an early 25th year anniversary?), but we were only able to get away now. We will also be hosting friends from Holland who will be staying with us for a week and ohhh, how could I have forgotten that, two weeks camping. So, if I don't get started soon, in between cocktail sips, dips in the pool and all that travel I might actually not have enough time to accomplish my list. Three months seems like a long time but I know it will fly by.

Planning for the Fall

As a planer, I can't help but to spend endless hours trying to figure out the best way to prepare for the Midwifery program I'm starting int the fall. There are two areas that need to be considered. The first one is how to best prepare academically and second how to best prepare my family.

For the academic part I was fortunate enough to meet some very helpful midwifery students through a Facebook group called McMaster Midwifery students. They were kind to share with me the syllabus of most of the courses I will need to take in first semester. This will allow me to become familiar with what is going to be expected from me and hopefully the first week of classes won't be such a chock. I remember my first week of practical nursing chaos. Feeling total overwhelm and crying in the bathroom between classes questioning my ability to do it. Becoming familiar with all the different courses expectations and curriculum will be very reassuring. It will be of great advantage to have time to look at the course outlines in a calm manner and have time to be familiar with the curriculum without the anxiety of first week. I also plan to get a kick start with Anatomy & Physiology by watching online lectures, youtube videos and reading the A&P book I already have from the nursing program. It's my plan to start making notes and organize resource so that when I start the course it will be less time consuming to find the information I need.

On the family front it is not so clear what I should do to prepare. I do have a few things in mind though. As the panner and control freak I am, of course I had to make a list. At the moment it looks like this:

•   Clear and clean garage of clutter. Buy shelves and storage bins for kids helmets, balls, rollerblades....

•   Get rid of junk.

•   Sort out through the kids toys and give away anything that has not been played in the last year and won't be used by other kids.

•   Organize the kids clothes' closets and set up a system of boxes to easily switch between summer and winter wardrobes.

•   Get rid of junk.

•   Organize basement.

•   Make menu cards for 16 weeks, including list of ingredients necessary for all dishes.

•   Buy another freezer and cook as many meals it will fit.

•   Get rid of junk.

•   Make a list of kids lunch ideas.

•   Fix all little DIY things that need to be done in the house, which usually get to my nerves but never get done.

•   Organize plan B and C for childcare when they are sick or other inconveniences.

•   Get rid of junk.

•   Implement a chores' list for the kids to help around the house. (I'm not very good at this and usually the kids get way with not much done. THIS WILL HAVE TO CHANGE!!)

•   Organize as many carpooling as possible for the kids extra curriculum activities.

•   Buy as many WagJag coupons as possible for Made-It-Clean. I plan to have someone come once a week and help with the heavier cleaning such as bathrooms.

•   Did I say get rid of junk??

I have 12 weeks to accomplish all that. I will also be going away twice this summer, to Virginia Beach to attend my girl's finals dance competition and to New York with my husband to celebrate a late 20th year anniversary (It was actually in 2010 or should I be celebrating an early 25th anniversary?), but we were only able to get away now. We will also be hosting friends from Holland who will be staying with us for a week and ohhh, how could I have forgotten that, two weeks camping. So, if I don't get started soon I might actually not have enough time to accomplish my list. Three months seems like a long time but I know it will fly by.