Family

I wanted to share a guest post that I created for my sweet friend Lara from Less Cake {More Frosting} last week while she is recovering from surgery.  It's a stylish & practical family planner for those times when you need a little help around the house.

I know how crazy and scary this time can be for a family.  Back in March I had to have unplanned surgery and it boy, can that throw the family into chaos.  My husband and I headed off to the emergency room and left my fourteen year old in charge.  My husband wasn't able to get back to the house until the following day.  By that time, I had been admitted to the hospital and was getting prepared for surgery.  We didn't have time to line-up child care, to go grocery shopping, to make a list of all the important numbers that one would need to make sure our family continued to function in my absence.  I had wonderful friends that jumped in to help, but again… they don't have all the information like school information, health information and such in order to make sure our family stayed on track.

Now that's an extreme example, but think about it… wouldn't it be nice to have a central location to keep all of that kind of information handy? Not just for when you may need to be rushed off to surgery, but when you and your honey would like to go out of town and Grandma comes to help take care of the kiddos, or maybe you are headed out of town and Dad needs all this basic family information close at hand, or you are having another baby, so many times we need to make sure our family is organized well, and we usually we just don't' have time to do it properly.

To address this dilemma, I've created a fantastic tool for your family to use  just in case you find yourself in a situation where Mom is out of commission or you need to go out of town. It's a printable Family Planner with all of the information that another caregiver will need when taking care of your family.  All you need to do is print out these basic forms, fill them out, put them in a binder and you are set.

school schedule

First we have the school schedule page with all of the important school information Dad, Grandma or whom ever will be watching your kiddos will need to to make sure everyone stays on track for school while you are gone. School contact information, School start and end times, bus information.  All the basic information that we as Moms have stored in our heads.

An additional idea is to add a folder for each child behind this page to store homework or important notes that come home while you are gone.  You can also add more information, like when homework is due, when they have their specials {i.e. gym, music, library, ect.} and any other information that will help your kiddos have a positive school experience while you are not there managing the ship. I even added a Post-it pocket on the back of the previous sheet to place small items like lunch money and such that they will need while you are away.

child care

I know that when I had my surgery in March my little guy whet to a different friends home each day, and that schedule can be hard to keep up with.  Here is a handy form to fill out for your husband or caregiver, so that they know exactly what will be happening as far as child care is concerned each day.

enrichment activities

If you have kiddos these days, you know that with them comes all kinds of activities. Piano, soccer, dance, you name it… they are busy all the time.  Here is a handy sheet to help your temporary caregiver stay organized and know exactly where and when to go each day. You can print one out for each child and you are good to go!

medical information

Again, you can print one of these sheets for the whole crew or one for each kiddo.  Write down all of their important medical information just in case something happens while you are away. This way there won't be any panic if someone needs to see the Doctor while you are gone.  Not only that, you can list all of their allergies and medications as well.

I also added a Post-it pocket to this page as well to keep all of the kiddos insurance cards close at hand, just in case.

meal planning

Now we have a meal planning section to help your families caregiver take care of their food needs.  If your family is anything like mine, everyone has their likes and dislikes.  I don't cater to my kiddos, but I do know what really sends them over the edge and try to avoid it if possible.  This is especially a good idea when they may already have a higher stress level because Mom is gone.  It's better to take the food anxiety out of the equation. Plus, you can help your caregiver by planning everything out for them so they don't have to worry about meals if you have some time to prepare before hand.  Here is another section where I added the Post-it Pockets.  You can put cash or a pre-paid grocery card just in case they need to run to the store for anything.  You can also stack it with gift cards from your families favorite local restaurants for Grandma {or who ever is watching the kiddies} to take them for a special treat without having to dip into their budget.

Now all you have to do is print all of these forms to fill out, find a cute binder {I found my lovely chevron binder at Target} and place each sheet into the binder in a sheet protector.  You could even laminate each sheet and use dry-erase markers to fill everything out so that when things change it will be easy to update.  Add several sheets of notebook paper to the binder for other notes and you will have your family plan at hand.  Keep it up to date and even if you have a unexpected emergency like my family did, you are good to go!

I created these printables using Rhonna Designs Chevron Tool Kit, isn't it just delish?!  If you would like to print out the full sheets of prints to help decorate your binder like I did, you can visit Rhonna's site to purchase and download the kit to have access to all of these fun digital elements.

Here are all of the fun FREE printable planner pages for you to use…

Click on the arrow at the top right of each page and the download will automatically start. This printable if for WhipperBerry followers {please follow via Facebook, Twitter, Feeburner, Email, Pinterest or Instagram} and is for personal use only.

I pray that you only have to use this planner for when you go out of town for a fabulous trip to Hawaii, but at least you know you're covered for other things as well!