The Journal...

For many years now, I have had a planner. You know, the zipper type, with the calendar and stuff in it. I got it at Franklin Quest, which was bought out some time ago and is now Franklin Covey. That's how long I have had it. Anyhow, I hardly use it anymore ~ the pages have gotten really expensive to buy and it just didn't have everything in it that I wanted. On another blog that I occasionally follow, she blogged (and included a little video) about how she created her own. I really liked the idea, because you can tailor it to your own specific wants/needs. I have been searching for *free* printable pages that I could use to make my own. I did find some, but they weren't quite what I wanted. Soooo, I played around with the word processor to make my own. I absolutely *LOVE* my final product!

Here's how I did it, in case you want to make your own...

I started out with a 3 ring binder. I just happened to have one with 1/2" rings, so it's thin. If I add any more pages, though, I will have to go with the 1"! Then, I got tabbed page dividers to make the different sections in my journal.

The first section I have is my To Do list. I didn't find a free printable one that I liked, so I made my own. I have a master list, for those things that need to be done, but not necessarily today, just in the near future. I also have a page for daily lists, where I can write the date and then what it is that needs to be done that day. I designed it so that I have 9 per page, and then I printed it front and back.

Next is my Calendar. For this section, I found a two page calendar to print up on DonnaYoung.org, and used that. (See Sites To See for a link). The calendar is two full 8 1/2 x 11 pages, and I printed it front and back, but so that when the binder lies flat the whole month is visible. I guess the best way to describe it is that the first half of one month is printed on the back of the page with the last half of the previous month. I also found a birthday and anniversary reminder page to print up off OrganizedHome.com. This I put in front of my calendar section, so that I can remember to send cards. I am absolutely horrible at this, so maybe this will help!

After that, I have my Menus. I love to meal plan. My grandmother meal planned, and I always thought that was such a neat idea. It helps with daily planning and budgeting, too. It's nice to not have that daily "What should I make for dinner" dilemma. That only works, of course, if I have made my plans! Anyhow... The weekly menu plan I printed off DonnaYoung.org as well. It works for me. The columns are big enough that I could plan all three meals for each day of the week, but I mainly plan dinner, and sometimes lunches. I printed this back to back as well. I also created a "Favorite Recipes" list, so that I can remember all my family's favorite meals, and where to find them. It is a simple sheet, it just has columns for the recipe name, source (where I can find it again) and page number.

Next up is a section for shopping lists. I created this page to suit my needs after looking at several different ideas on different websites. Mine has 3 columns, and I have headings for the stores that I shop the most, since I can't buy everything I need at one store. Each column has sections for the 3 stores I shop at most frequently, and then there are 3 columns so that I can get the most use out of one page. And again, I printed these front and back, so I have 6 weeks worth of lists on one page.

The next section I have is a Price Book. The one I use I made myself, but I did fashion it after one I saw on OrganizedHome.com. It has 6 columns ~ date, store, item, size, price, unit price. As I search for the best deals, this is helpful to know where I saw something and for what price. I find that I am always jotting down something to see if I can find it for a better price elsewhere, so this will be really handy.

Then, I have my address section. Even though I have my contacts on my computer, I guess I am old school and want it on paper too. I made my address pages, because even though I found free printable pages online, they included lines for information that I don't use or need. For this section, I printed up 10 pages, front and back. The page itself is generic, I added what letter the page is for after printing.

My last few sections are for housekeeping. I have one for Chores where I keep my daily task list, and then I have a master list of what the girls need to do each day ~ daily chores and weekly chores. I also have a section to keep household hints. In this I keep pages detailing different uses for baking soda or vinegar, or things that I come across online that I want to try. My last section is for event planning. The pages I use for this I got off DonnaYoung.org. I simply write what the event is (I am currently planning the birthday party for my youngest) and then all the information I need, such as the date, who to invite, the theme, the menu, etc.

I am very excited to use my new journal. I have no doubt that it will become invaluable to me. This was so easy to put together, too!

My Housekeeping Project

Ahhh.... housekeeping. Probably my greatest downfall. Oh how I wish that my house was neat and tidy, so that at any given moment a guest could drop by and I would not be embarrassed to invite them in. Clutter is everywhere, and with 5 people running around our house, it seems to grow exponentially. I would love to walk into my bedroom and not see a pile of laundry sitting in a basket, waiting to be folded. So, I have decided that it is time to get a handle on this thing. One of the things that I want to teach my girls is how to organize and properly run a household, since they will be doing it one day. My current method is to do what has to be done, in no apparent order. Sometimes things don't get done that need to be, because other tasks seemed more important or because I needed to be supervising schoolwork and couldn't be in the other room folding laundry, or I remembered errands that needed to be done, and so forth.

I decided to begin my project at the library. I figured that there should be lots of books on the subject. How to organize and run a household should be a subject that there would be a wealth of information on. Well, as it turns out, there are lots of books on how to clean everything, but I know how to clean, I just want to know how to organize. I want to make up a schedule of when things should be done. Like do I do laundry on one day a week, or do I do one load per day? What is the most efficient way to do things? I checked out a half-dozen books anyway, thinking that there was probably some good information in each one, even if they didn't have exactly what I was looking for. I also put another half-dozen on hold.

I also created a spreadsheet to figure out what chores should be done on a daily basis and a weekly basis. I know, this is a bit nerdy, but this helps me to see what needs to be done and then figure out how to get it done.

And finally, I created a Household Journal of sorts. I found a website with free printable pages, and have five categories so far. I have a section for To Do lists, Calendar, Menu (for meal planning), Shopping Lists, and Event Planning (for things such as birthday parties). I printed up these pages and put them in a 3 ring binder with dividers.

My plan of attack is this: I will make a master chore list, and from there I will make individual chore lists for each of the kids. I will keep the master lists in my journal, so that if I find something that is not on my list, I can easily add it. I will also make sure that referring to my journal each morning is added to my morning routine. I am also going to make myself a schedule of sorts, to help me get everything done each day.

Stay tuned...

My mother always told me that my ability ~ or lack thereof ~ to communicate is the greatest indicator of my intelligence. My ability to properly use the English language and express myself eloquently would convey to the world my level of intelligence.

So, I have a little pet peeve. It's when people can't use proper grammar, or don't have basic math skills. Like those who don't use your/you're, there/their/they're, or to/too correctly. Or, what about apostrophes? Apostrophe s shows ownership, while just s makes a word plural. And sales clerks? Most can't make change with out the register telling them how much to give back. And forget about having your change counted back to you properly ~ you'll get it in one fistful.

I wonder sometimes why people don't have these basic skills. Basic knowledge they should have learned in school. Kids are graduating without knowing how to communicate properly in our own language, and without basic arithmetic skills. This is a scary trend.

I don't blame the teachers. They do what they can with what they have. They are overworked and underpaid. But, the product they are turning out is by and large not equipped to be the next generation of leadership for our society.

When it came time for my oldest to begin school, I enrolled her in kindergarten. I was excited for her to begin this new journey of making new friends, having new experiences, and gaining all the new knowledge that going to school entailed. She had had two years of preschool and I felt she was ready to hit the ground running, so to speak. Turns out, she was way advanced compared to all her other class mates, and the advantage that she had was gone by the end of first grade. She had gone from being advanced to being average. Not only that, but she began to exhibit undesirable behaviors. She came home almost every day upset about something, and she would keep all her frustrations bottled up and unleash them when she got home on her unsuspecting sisters. Now, I could have accepted that. I could have kept her in school and let her be average, tolerated all the undesirable behaviors, let her continue to bottle up her frustrations, and enroll my two younger daughters when the time came. But, I did not want that for them. I was also not too keen on having other people teach her values and morals, especially when they may not align with the values and morals my husband and I have.

As a parent we have to look at what the future holds, or what we think it may hold, and equip our children as best as we can so that they may be productive members of society ~ not those who expect to be taken care of. For us, this means homeschooling. As a parent, I feel that this is going to give my daughters the best chance to succeed. Do I think that all children who go to public school will not be productive members of society? No. I am sure that there are exceptional public schools out there. However, by homeschooling, we are ensuring that they will be properly educated. They will know how to use their/there/they're properly. But most importantly, we are not shipping them off, day after day, to have other people shape their character. We are taking the ultimate responsibility in their upbringing, and I feel that they will be better for it.

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday ~ the beginning of Lent. 40 days and 40 nights. Not usually the most popular season, as it is full of fasting, abstaining, etc. Our priest, Fr. Paul, gave an interesting insight last year as to what it means to 'give up something for lent'. Most people will give up something, like, say, chocolate, and then on Easter Sunday, have chocolate again to their heart's content and chalk it up as a successful Lenten season. But was it really? Fr. Paul would say no. Rather, he would say that the thing that you give up needs to be something that will make you a better person, that will help you be more Christ-like. And 40 days and 40 nights is enough time to change bad habits into good ones.

We lead a personal finance course, Financial Peace University (by Dave Ramsey), at our church. We meet once a week for 13 weeks, and cover basics such as getting out of debt and budgeting, and other topics such as mortgages, retirement and college planning, etc. Now, Dave has written books with all the same information in them as is in the class. One would argue that just reading the books should be sufficient ~ no extra knowledge is gained by attending class. But there is one major thing that this helps people with ~ changing habits. When people are exposed to this information week after week, they begin to really hear and understand what Financial Peace is all about, and begin to change habits. They begin to budget, they begin to understand why it is so necessary to financial health to be rid of debt, and they begin to make changes in their habits to make this new way of financial living a reality. The class is 13 weeks long because habits don't change overnight, and that much time is needed to form new habits.

I view Lent in much the same way. We are given a time to reflect on and abstain - or *fast* - from certain bad habits. Is a successful Lenten season one where you ate fish every Friday and abstained from desserts? Not really, unless your new habits carry on after Lent is over. See, if your goal is better eating habits, and you continue to eat fish once a week and abstain from sweets, your overall health has improved, and thus you are a better person because you are taking better care of the body that God gave you. Lent is a time to make changes in your behavior to make you a better person for Christ, and to carry on those changes even after Lent is over.

Yesterday, while doing schoolwork, my girls and I had a discussion about the meaning of Lent. Hannah said that some kids in her Religious Ed class said that on Fridays during Lent they have to take their lunch because the school does not serve fish. I told her that Lent is not really about just eating fish on Friday. She gave me a puzzled look. To her, that is what Lent was. And, I have to say, it was for me, too, for a long time ~ until last year. I do not like to eat fish. I cannot stand the fishy taste and almost never make it unless it is during Lent. For years, our standard Friday dinner was fried fish and homemade macaroni and cheese. But, I explained, Lent is about changing your behavior to be more Christ-like. After a bit more explaining, light bulbs began to go off. Oh.... Okay... So Hannah is going to do all her school assignments completely (she has a bad habit of not completing every section or skipping a subject entirely) and she will not lie (we'll see on that one!). Hayleigh (who is always up for a good debate) is going to stop arguing with me. Hope is undecided at this point, although a cease fire (so to speak) with her sisters was in the lead. And the interesting thing... they all came up with these ideas themselves. They all see - no matter how young - how they can be more Christ-like.

I have not really decided what my focus will be this Lenten season, although I think that I will probably focus on running a better household ~ there's always room for improvement!

What will you do with your 40 days and 40 nights?

February 16, 2010

Well, we've had a very busy few weeks. We have been getting lots of school work done - buckling down now that the holidays are over. Classes at our co-op have started up again. Hannah is taking a gym class, Hope is taking Weather Watchers, and Hayleigh is learning sign language. Wednesdays are our busiest days by far. We go to the co-op, meet my mom for lunch, go to the library, and run other errands and sometimes stop off for a visit with my Grandma Bigler.

Our frog is doing well, but he has created a hole that he stays in pretty much all the time. We have to drop his crickets into the hole for him to eat, because he doesn't come out to get them. Maybe once the weather warms up he will. We may give the tadpole thing another try this spring. Still not sure on that one.

We started some seedlings and they have been growing very well. I bought a plant light so they are getting lots of the kind of light they need, so I think that I will be starting more very soon.

Not a very exciting update, but an update none the less. We will be going on a field trip to the Denver Mint in a few weeks, so I will post about that. They do not allow cameras, though, so no pics to publish.

January 7, 2010

Well, thanks to my sister in law, I am getting better about posting to this! (Thanks, Jen!) Guess I just needed a little motivation!

Nothing much is happening here... a quiet start to the New Year! We are slowly getting back into the school routine. We registered for classes at our co-op today. I was surprised that we were able to get classes that the girls wanted because I forgot to call for a registration appointment and we did not register until day 3 of registration, and that usually means that all the good classes are full by then. In a way, I was kind of hoping that there would not be any classes so we could have a rest from that, but when I suggested that to Hannah, she broke into tears and stomped into her room (ahhh, 11 year old drama) so I figured that would not happen unless there were no classes.

This year I am striving to become more organized... that is my goal for 2010. I am going to do it in steps, instead of trying to overhaul everything at once. Maybe if I attack it that way, I will be more successful.

The first step I am taking is to become more organized in meal planning and preparation. I absolutely hate it when my husband comes home from work and wonders what is for dinner, and I have absolutely no idea because I got so wrapped up in school or chores that I completely lose track of time. I would love to find a software program that would help with that... I have an ancient recipe program that my mom gave to me years ago, but all it does is store recipes. I guess that I will just have to figure out my own system.

I intend to use my crock pot more often, like several times each week. I have checked out several crock pot books from the library and borrowed some from a friend, and received one as a gift at Christmas - but my favorite so far is 'Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook' - I borrowed that one from a friend. That one I will have to go buy. The main problem I come across is that most recipes that are out there for slow cookers use canned condensed soups as ingredients. Not only can't I eat them because of my allergies, but after all that I have read on how processed foods are prepared and what goes in to them, I would not want to, either.

So, now I am off to our church to pick up the materials I ordered for our new Financial Peace University class that begins tonight ( #7!). I also have to make copies of the syllabus for this class and then make up our class roster. I was going to do that this morning, but received another registration, so I figured I would do it this afternoon so if any more come in last minute I can include them. Then it's dinner time and off to class!