Have you noticed days or weeks blending together? Are there times when you wonder where the month went? Have you just gotten used to one season and another has already started? You are not alone. I know I have been there. And I know other moms have, too.

Here are a few ideas to help you notice the passage of time, to fully appreciate each season as it happens, and to make sure you are remembering to take care of yourself along the way.

First suggestion: Keep a personal diary, planner, or calendar. This will, literally, keep you tracking what happens most days. There are times when I feel as though I am getting nothing accomplished in a day. When I feel like this I take a day with my planner on the dining room table and just write down 90% of what I do. Honestly, I run out of space in those half hour spaces, so it’s not even the most accurate way to keep track, but it works great to remind me that I honestly am getting stuff done. Even if it’s just keeping kids fed, educated, and the house from falling into chaos.

Second suggestion: Decorate for the 4 seasons. For a bit of cash you can have a few seasonal pieces in the main rooms of your house. In our dining room it’s mostly changing the table cloth from pumpkins or falling leaves for autumn to holly or just a jolly red for winter. I have 2 summer table cloths, and look forward to buying a couple for this coming spring. The front door has 4 wreaths for throughout the year. That’s not expensive or difficult. The living room has a few pieces for each season, then we go all out for Halloween and Christmas. This does not have to be expensive. These decorations have been slowly accumulated for nearly a decade and put away so we do not have to buy new the next year. When my first daughter was a toddler we bought construction paper and jute twine, cut out leaves of different colors and glued matching leaves together on either side of the twine to create a simple swag for the mantle for autumn. That winter we got a bare evergreen looking wreath, wrapped jute twine around it, tied it in a bow at the base, and added a dollar store set of jingle bells to hang in the middle. We still use it on the front door 6 years later! No one (sane) will be mad if you pick up a wreath hook and a press board sign that says Let It Snow! for your front door. It does not have to cost much. If you already have a ton of craft supplies and some patience, it could cost nothing.

Third suggestion: Decorate for the smaller holidays such as St. Valentines Day, St. Patrick’s day, Memorial Day, etc. It’s amazing how you can change the theme of a room for $10 at a dollar store. Harking back to the home made autumn swag for the mantle, we cut out pink, red, and white hearts to put onto another length of jute twine for St. Valentine’s Day. We did the same thing with green paper shamrocks for St. Patrick’s day. Yes, it was a bit of work doing this with a toddler’s help, but it was so worth it. The next year, as expendable income increased, it was a few things from the dollar store. She was thrilled to get to help pick out $10 of decorations and get to help decide where they should go when we got home. I was thrilled to have the house change in little ways that honored the passage of time and helped me not feel as though I was in a time loop month after month.

Fourth suggestion: Keep a large calendar where you can write what went on in the family at least a couple times a week. Yes, calendars are not just to tell you what is going to happen. They are great for reminding you and your family about what has happened. Good or bad, stuff has happened in the last few weeks. Acknowledging it is a great way to keep yourself a bit more grounded in the present as you look at both the past and future events of your household. So write down that you all piled on the couch and watched a favorite anime after dinner on a random Tuesday. Remind yourself that you and the kids had fun leaf stomping while on a walk. It will also make for a great keepsake in the coming years. (In fact, if you have the energy, you could have a calendar per kid, and document what they get up to in real time. This would make for a great moving out gift or wedding present for each child.) And the crazy thing is, you may begin to look for little things to do to write down. (Make sure it’s things you and the family actually like!) Do you like to bake together? When’s the last time you all went on a walk, played tag in the yard, or cranked the tunes for the quarterly deep clean of the living room? Perhaps it’s time to put some fun into your week and remember to document it with a one sentence notation on the big calendar. And then maybe add it to your daily planner or journal as a warm memory for when you look over the month or year.

Fifth suggestion: Create or join a weekly happening for you. Most of our tasks and errands are for somebody else or the family in general. Pick something for yourself that happens weekly. I meet up with a sister every weekend at a local cafe. We usually bring our kids, so it’s fun for them, too. But it’s necessary for my sister and me. Your weekly thing could be a run with a friend, meeting up with someone you enjoy to both go grocery shopping at the same time, a book club, Bible study (or your religious equivalent), a weekly batch cooking party where you all bake/boil/fry up the meat for the week and gab, or an hour at a coffee shop with a friend or by yourself just to disappear for a bit. If necessary put the kids in a baby jogger for the walk or run, hire a sitter, pick a location with childcare, ask a relative to watch the kids or arrange your away time for when your other half will be home. Mom guilt can get in the way, here, but it’s good to remember that your first name is not actually Mom. You are a person, too, and deserve, and need, time to be yourself.

Sixth suggestion: Set reminders for daily tasks and needs. This is not to torture yourself hourly with Must Do’s. These would be things like a happy jingle reminding you that it’s time to feed yourself some lunch because you tend to forget to feed yourself while getting the kids fed. These would be things such as a gentle reminder to take a few deep breaths and stretch because that last hour before bedtime is…interesting, and you don’t want to lose your cool because you got too physically/emotionally tense. These would be a mantra or thought that you want to keep in mind, so you set a couple reminders around the times of day that you think they would be really helpful. None of these are set in stone. If it doesn’t serve you, or you find yourself stressing right before it’s supposed to go off, then it’s not working for you. It may be the notification sound. It may be a mind set thing. It may be a negative connotation with one of the words you chose. I have experienced all 3 of these. If the issue is fixable, great. If the whole idea of having tasks hovering over your day stresses you out, this may not be a suggestion for you. However, there are ways you can get around this. There are fun apps you can use that would gamify your self care. I personally use one, and have a few gentle reminders set on my phone that have stood the test of time. A sticky note on your bathroom mirror, the background and lock screen on your phone, a bracelet or other accessory, or certain art pieces placed around your home could also work to remind you to say your mantra, a prayer, eat at regular times, to take a few deep breaths and drink some water, and/or to put on your headphones for a dance party tidy session at certain times of the day.

All of these suggestions are just that, a suggestion. No bossing here. Just another mom, a big sister, a friend, letting you know that there are some options for helping you not get lost in the weeds of motherhood and actually see time passing, in a good way. You can adopt one, none, or all of these ideas. You may tweak them to work for you and your life. If you usually forget breakfast, not lunch, then obviously setting an alarm for lunch would be silly. If you found these helpful, please let us know in the comments which tip(s) you will be trying, and perhaps, if you think a friend of yours could benefit from this list of ideas, then send it to her. If you have more tips and tricks on this subject, please, share them in the comments. We moms need to stick together, and sharing the ways we stay sane and happy is one way we help each other.