Your Monthly Reset: Simple Steps to Plan Ahead for Your Family

Free downloads, rhythms resources, meal planning sheet, and more!!

The start of a new month could bring on all sorts of feelings and emotions:

Excitement, overwhelm, dread, hope or a combo of emotions! It has been all of those for me through various seasons.

Currently, the end of one month & start of another is my favorite! I think it’s the turning of the page to new hope, a fresh start, and fun filled calendar that gets me excited. 

I contribute a lot of that to the systems that I have created and put in place to help me finish one month strong & start the next. If you’ve known or followed me for long, you know rhythms are my secret sauce. They have been pivotal in creating a home environment that has a little more peace and order!

I’m not sure if I’ve ever shared (all in one place) how I end/start a new month, so lets go! I also want to note that there are resources in here that I’ve NEVER shared publicly (and some I’ve only offered to my coaching clients!) All FREE for you!

Before we get into the “what” or the “how”, I wanted to start with WHY (because everything starts with why!)

✿Why taking time to plan out your month matters:

It helps give a big picture for the month.

It helps you plan ahead and in turn reduce stress.

It helps you know when to save energy and when to use it (planning times for rest!)

It can help reduce that “last minute errand”/ trip to the store over and over.

It helps give your brain peace of mind.

It is all for the flourishing of your family!!!

✿Who can plan for the month?

Anyone!!! Especially the “cruise ship director” of the home (which is typically the mom). In our family, I do most of the planning, and then we have a family planning meeting each week so we are all on the same page.

✿When does this “planning time” need to happen?

I got this question several times on my instagram question box, so I thought I’d address it. The brain does some tricky things to keep us “stuck” (aka telling us it will take 5 hours to plan the month)! Getting started is for sure the hardest part, but once you tell yourself “I can create time to plan”, then you just START!

I’ll share a little bit of perspective here. Now that I’ve been doing this for awhile, I’ve settled into some good routines. I start earlier than I used to, but there are no rules and honestly planning anytime in the month is better than no planning at all. I usually start the third-ish week of the previous month, little by little as I have margin. Then depending on when the first day actually falls, the weekend before that I’ll get the bulk done.

Remember that you are building a habit, and habits take time to build and see the results from. Whatever you do, don’t wait until you “feel motivated” (or you’ll never start)- just pick a day/ time and start!

✿Where does this planning happen?

This is the fun part! Find a place (at your dining table, kitchen island, at the coffee shop, etc) and get all of your stuff out! For me that is my calendar, my planner, meal planning sheet + go to recipes, rhythms checklist. Then make the atmosphere that delights you! Make a fun drink, light a candle, turn on a playlist - whatever helps you create a fun experience!

NOW LETS GET TO THE HOW!!!!

Before we get to planning the next month, it’s really a beautiful practice to evaluate the previous month.

✿Evaluating the end of the month : 

1. Take some time to look back at the calendar & the photos in your camera roll! Reflecting often stirs up gratitude (even if there were hard times). 

2. Ask yourself - "What worked this month? What didn't work?" This doesn't have to take long, but can be very beneficial moving forward. Sometimes I journal this in my planner, or sometimes I “voice memo” myself while on a walk. ex- maybe with your current sports season, you don't need to make a time consuming meal on Monday nights, so you decide to crock pot instead. It doesn’t have to be a big “ah ha” moment!

3. I LOVE to do the “month book” subscription ition through chatbooks. I purchase it for the year, and then I don’t have any excuses month after month to fill the books! I very quickly + imperfectly chose 30-60 photos that will remind me of the memories from that month. Just as a side note, they don't have to be from your instagram account. They can be from your camera roll! This is one of my kids favorite things to look through!

4. Look at your meal calendar & jot some notes! What did you make that was new that everyone loved?! What needs to go off the rotation for a bit? capture that! 

Now that you’ve been intentional about last month, lets start with the new month.

✿Planning the month systems

1. The family calendar! A few years ago, I invested in this acrylic wall calendar that I hung in our laundry room/ “command center”. Every month I write everything on it so everyone in the family can see what the month holds! Events, games, appts, meetings, birthdays, all of it! Everyone does this differently (I’ve heard so much about skylight!), but the point is to have something visible for all!

2. Meal plan- If you've been around awhile, you know I typically plan out the whole month of meals at once. I write it on one sheet & hang it by the family calendar. I don't execute the plan perfectly, but coming up with a plan in advance helps the weeknight dinner dread. We also "theme nights"'ie one pot Monday, taco Tuesday, etc- making it an easier decision for “what Mexican food are we making Tuesday, instead of “Waht are we making Tuesday”.  Here’s a link to my meal printable! If you are wondering “what themes should I do?” or “what should I make for dinner this week?” - Here’s a list of meals by theme that are family tested!

3. Monthly rhythms! This one is the hardest to explain via text, but hear me out on this! Three years ago one of my best friends (Lesley!) and I had this idea in the new year to come up with a list of “to do’s” that we do each month, that are specific to that month. Example from my September: batch make homemade spaghetti sauce, birthday gift for mom + sister, fall decorations put out, order Ever Joy birthday cake. It takes the guess work out of “what should I even be thinking ahead of this month?”! Sitting down to think about this ONE time could serve your family for yearssss to come. Mine is stored in a google doc with those cute little check mark boxes next to it. I printed it and keep it in my family binder and I get so much joy checking the items off each month. I’ve tweaked it year by year, but it has helped me remain sane in a very full season. I also write this short list on the family calendar and it helps give a visual for what I need that month (see below under “notes).

Here’s a “view only” link to *a portion of* my personal seasonal rhythms list. Use it as inspo to create your own with google docs!!

4. Monthly subscriptions- I set aside time to fill my cart for my monthly subscriptions. For me, that’s my monthly wellness order with Young Living, my kids Yoto cards, and my Nuuly clothing rental. If I think of something mid-month that I’m out of, or something I want to look for - I jot it down in my planner so I don’t forget!

5. Think of any appointments you can schedule ahead of time + get that done! Example- we go to the family chiropractor once a week, and they have an online system to set up appointments. So instead of every single week getting online and picking a date, I do it at least a month at a time. We’ve found a day/time that works consistently for us, so it becomes a no brainer. Also, I will get online and order my girls “hot lunch” at school for the month, which again takes so much less time than doing it each week. Think about what YOUR weekly/monthly schedule is like, and see what you can simplify by planning ahead.

6. Keeping all of your monthly planning to dos on a list that you can check off every month really is the key to building it out into a rhythm! Even after doing this for years, I still look at (and check off!) my list month after month. We think “I can remember it all”, but your brain is not meant to be a storage unit! Writing it down takes it out of trying to hold it all in your head, and releases it! This is what mine looks like below.

Here is where you can find this template link on canva! You’ll need to create a free account with canva to use it (and maybe watch some videos to learn how to work with it) - but I left all my personal examples in here for you! I truly pray this is a great start for you to create or establish rhythms around setting your family up for the month!

Stick around below to see how the Lord has been moving + stirring my heart through preparing all of this! THANK YOU for being here!!!!! I would love nothing more than for you to “subscribe” and get all future articles straight to your inbox.

If we’ve never met - hi, I’m Wynne! The past few years I have created many resources for families to help them develop rhythms in their life. I did this with one goal- to help equip families with tools so they could flourish! I had experienced so much peace and order in my own home + life since implementing these tools, and out of that I started working with clients 1:1! That propelled me to become certified as a Christian life coach, and also co-found an online community (Rhythms that Stick) that specifically for helped women and families with rhythms. Our podcast is still online, and is full of so many good nuggets.

These templates I shared above have been one of my favorite things I’ve ever created. When I was selling them and talking about them online, they truly had such an impact for others. I’ve always been a dreamer and I also had big dreams of taking the course I created for my 1:1 clients “to the masses”. For whatever reason, that didn’t happen and the Lord had other plans. In December 2024, we closed the doors of our coaching community and soon after that I took a 6 month hiatus from social media. Since I’ve been back online (August), I’ve really wrested with what I was “supposed to do” with everything that I created! But every time I sat down to start talking about it again, or find a way to sell or promote it -it just didn’t feel right. I have come so far in my own healing journey, that I can’t “force” myself to do something that doesn’t feel right in my body.

Then as I was working on this article, so much came up for me. Here’s a glimpse of what I sent to my bestie about it all….

everything I’m writing is basically what I dreamed of for years to create and sell for hundreds of dollars. and I'm going to put it up 100% FREE. it feels like such a letting go of one dream to make space for something else (that I'm not even sure what that is yet). it feels like I'm "giving away" something so precious to me. but I deeply desire to give it with a grateful heart. I've been in online business for so long that it's a total reworking of my brain to not think of all the ways I could gain from this. but I also feel like I NEED to do this to just get it out . I’m going to sleep on it and see how I feel tomorrow.

“Tomorrow” brought so much clarity and joy as I woke up and spent time journaling through all these thoughts. As I’m writing, the Lord reminded me of a scripture in the Bible (John 15) about “pruning”. All of a sudden there was so much clarity! (I love how the Holy Spirit works!). This has been a season of pruning. Sometimes there are GOOD THINGS that need to be removed, and sometimes good things need to be pruned so that they can produce more fruit. The clarity and language the scripture provided gives me courage to put this out in to the world!

I have no idea whats next for me, or what fruit my life or work will produce, but I know what to do now: Remain in Christ. I’m so hopeful and excited for what’s to come, even if I have no idea what that is! Thanks for being here. Until next time.

I love to chat, connect and would love to build a community here on Substack. Always feel free to leave a comment below!

John 15: 2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3 You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.