Family and House Work

We are getting hit hard with snow AGAIN! We had about 4 inches when I woke up at 6:30 this morning, and it is still coming down hard at 3 in the afternoon. They say it will stop tomorrow morning leaving us with a good foot!

My weekend was good. I had the grandkids on Friday night. They were both sick with colds, so we just took it easy and enjoyed each other.

On Sunday, My mother in love came and we all had KFC, along with cake and cupcakes for dessert. We played a game of Phase 10..........NEVER "skip" your mother in law! Yeesh! I got a look that would kill! She is serious about her cards, but it did not help her, as she lost COMPLETELY! Her and Sweetheart both! OK, so I lost too, even though I had an incredible partner in TJ. Our son beat us all!Emerson enjoyed watching us for most of the game. She led Charlotte around the house the rest of the time. She did color Grandma a picture for the frig....They LOVED Sassy. TJ thought she was a toy at first and was shocked to see she was real. Emerson said, "niiiiice" and stroked her gently. Sassy was fine with them too! She has continued to be a joy to everyone here. She has her spot where she naps during the day....on the kitchen chair.But her favorite place is still on my lap. Here she is waiting for me to sit down....she looks like she wants to say, "I'm waiting.....you can sit down now."Once I do, she works her claws in my lap (softly, so it does not hurt), gets her motor going and curls up against me.Our school days are moving along. Anya, the neighbor girl I home school, is doing phenomenal! Charlotte is also doing exceptionally well this quarter. Zach has had some frustration, but I think moving his schedule around to make math his last subject instead of his first has helped greatly. He did a beautiful job today. I have to remind him to "sit on your butt" during handwriting, or he is very sloppy. Today after several reminders to sit on his butt, his workbook asked him to write a word that starts with "b". What did he write???I have felt the need to get my own schedules back in order. Since Sweetheart has been home they have all fell to the wayside. It makes me feel "out of control". I pulled out my Home Management Binder.....I love that thing. An extended family member once said that only an idiot would need to have a book to tell you when and what to clean. Well. I am that idiot. I am not a cleanie by nature....I need order, but have no natural skills to get it. The binder does it for me. However, the binder is a 2 inch think, very heavy, tool that is awkward to cart around....I decided to pull all my housekeeping pages out and make a smaller binder. I had a 1/2 inch binder and made a new cover. Now this is much easier than the heavy, bulky, binder, that I still keep handy, as it hold some valuable pages that I use often. This is my DAILY binder. It holds daily/weekly/and monthly chores.
I put a zipper pocket in it to hold pens and paper.

The first page is my "theme" verse...... And my schedules are in order after that.
I am happy to have these schedules back in place. Now I can quilt without guilt!!! And hey!!! ALL this laundry got done today!

Home Management In A Box

In the, almost, 30 years that I have been a homemaker, I have tried and tested every home management system out there! Since I am not a naturally organized person, but love a clean home, I need one! I have had a flipper file, a list notebook, a daily poda type sheet that was printed out every night, and my home management binder. All of these seem to have their own strengths and weaknesses. We are all different and we all need to work within our own strengths. I remember back in the 80's using the flipper file, which I had learned about from reading the Messies Manual. I LOVED it!! It was a photo album with the clear slots that flipped up over the next one. You would use index cards to create a home management routine and place these in the slots. Home Management in a box is along the same lines....only you use a box.I love my binder....don't get me wrong...but since the hutch was removed from the kitchen/eating area, I have had no place to put it, and since Charlotte (my daughter) has begun to aid in the dailies, the box will be easier for her to use. I have kept the binder on my counter on an easel. Not my ideal, as I want my counters to be clear. And lets be honest...not everyone is a binder fan. While reading More Hours In My Day, by Emilie Barnes, I was reminded of my flipper file. It was written back in 1982 (though was revised in 2008), and let me tell you, ladies, the tried and true methods of homemaking come from older books. I decided to create my Home Management in a Box...my term for basically putting my homemaking routines, menu planning, dailies, monthlies, and bi-yearly, homemaking tasks in a box. Not a new system, but an old, tried and true one, none the less. My binder will still be available, as there are things you can not put in a 4x6 box, however, I can put the binder behind a cupboard door, pulling it out if needed, and clear the bulk. This also allows Charlotte to access weekly cards and complete jobs.
I know....the stickers are gawdy, but my Zachary helped decorate it. I plan to get a red box when I find one. Like I said, I got a 4x6 index card file box...very cheap at Walmart. 4x6 colored index cards....3.99 for like 1000 of them at Office Depot....and some dividers. I got 1-31 and then turned them over to write with a thin line black sharpie on the tab. I pulled numbers 1-5 and then labeled the backs of the remaining tabs,
Daily
Monday thru Sunday
Menu
Spring
Fall
Since I only used a total of 16 tabbed dividers, I placed the remaining tabs in the back along with extra cards for future sections I plan to add. I color coded the different categories and began to fill out my routines and tasks.
My salmon colored daily card tells me what needs to be done daily. You already know your daily routines and will not need to look at this often, however, it is good to write it all out incase someone else (like a 12 year old daughter) needs to complete a few of them. (my dailycard is still under construction and will include more tasks...just don't over tax the card!)
My dailies (or weekly cards) are yellow. Each day has a list of duties to be done, or checked on that day. Also the laundry for the day is detailed. For example, everyone here has their own laundry day, including their bedding. Towels and mom and dad's laundry are done more often.

Those jobs that need to be done once a month are put on green cards and filed under 1-5, depending on what week of the month they will be completed. These are deep cleaning jobs. By the end of the month every room in the house will have been deep cleaned.
Spring and Fall are when I choose to do those things that only need to be done once or twice a year. My blue cards are still gathering the information....The menu section holds 14-21 different meal plans. They are all written out on a white card and filed behind the menu tab.So how does the box work? Very simply. The only task on Sunday is to set up your box for the week. There is no weekly cleaning or laundry set up for Sunday. Enjoy the Lord's Day with your family. At some point on Sunday, sit down with your box and make sure you are set for the coming week. This means pulling the monthly card. Let's start tomorrow....Monday, the second week of the month. I pull that card.......and place it in the front of the box. How will I work that out in my schedule? Let's take the deep clean of the laundry room for example...I have the laundry room on my Saturday weekly list. My monthly deep clean of that room will be done on that day along with the regular cleaning. Makes it quick and easy! The kitchen is a bigger job, but it is on 3 different weekly cards, so I can spread that out. In the Spring and Fall, pull that card during a week where you have NO other plans. A week that is set just for cleaning. Make sure you have all the kids join you on these tasks. Clear as mud?, Ok. Menu....go through your 14-21 menus and choose what you will eat. Place that card behind the day. Meat loaf on Monday? Monday morning, when you look in your box under Monday, you will know to pull and prep anything for that evening meal. This also keeps you from preparing the same ol 7-10 meals all the time. Monday night, I will take the menu card and put it back in the menu section. Then I will move the Monday tab and card to the back of it's section just behind Sunday, leaving the Tuesday tab and cards ready and waiting for the next day. My daily card moves with the days of the week. Tuesday I will check the green monthly card which is right up front to see what deep cleaning can be done that day.
Let's say Tuesday, you have a doctors appointment and you end up going out to lunch with a friend. You come home and realize your dailies did not get done and now you are too wiped out to do it. Do you move your Tuesday card to Wednesday? NO! Put the entire tab and card to the back as if you did it. Do not stockpile unfinished work. Eventually, you will end up making that work a priority when you see next Tuesday the dust that built up in the master bedroom. You will make sure you get it done before going out to lunch or heading out for your appointment! That is the beauty of the system. It works for you, you do not work for it!
If you set up this system for yourself, do not limit it to the sections I showed you. Add others...important phone numbers (you can get the alphabet tabs), food take out information, Emergency section, etc. The sky is the limit. Design it to suit your household. I plan to add an inspirational section and also a Scripture section. I will write out a scripture card once a week and it will move through out the week with my dailies. That way I will have memorized 52 scriptures by the end of the year! The kids will love this.
If you have any ideas for other sections please feel free to leave them in the comments! Let me know if you create a Home Management Box and share it on your own blog.

Catching Up Again

It has been a few days since I posted, but I have been busy and productive. A boring kind of busy, as nothing exciting has been going on, but that is just fine by me! I have made a complete mess of my sewing area, which means I have been sewing!I can not show you what I have been working on as it is a surprise, but it is not on my 2009 Quilting list! I threw myself off before I even got started! Well, it is worth it and I just uglied up my pretty list and wrote it in with ink! "Hold Your Plans Loosely" ...who said that??? Oh yeah, Copperswife, who is blogging again by the way!! She took a little break, but is back with her Menu plan and I think we will be seeing more of her! I have my pom poms out, doing hurkies!!! I always learn so much from her!

I got back on my regular schedule yesterday. We went back to school...we will take Thursday off, but the schedule maintains my children's focus and well being. School went great and I got back to my cleaning schedule. Today, Tuesday, I will be working in my bedroom and master bathroom, along with the other rooms upstairs. Laundry will consist of bedding, so that makes it an easy day.I am looking forward to putting my new flannel sheets on my bed...snowflakes. I have had enough of snowflakes for the year, but these will do!By the way, that snow is all gone! We got 2 days of rain and it melted pretty quickly. I think we had close to 18 inches on the ground!

Well it has not been all work and no play around here...I went fabric shopping with my gift certificate and got some wonderful new fabrics in my favorite colors....These will go nicely with the Harvest Sky I am going to do, and also in the new project I have been working on.

I found my needles....I love Clover Gold Eye 12 quilting needles and was told they were being discontinued. I think the Clover 12's are discontinued, but the gold eyes are different. I found them online and ordered 5 packages...that should get me through next year!I also got a wonderful package in the mail. Linda sent me these gorgeous napkins and coasters. They are just beautiful. Pale pink and brown...one of my all time favorite color combos!8 napkins and 8 coasters! Thank you so much Linda!! Linda was my first bloggy friend and remains a constant in my life. She is always there if I need her and even if I don't. I can always count on a laugh when I talk to her! I think she "gets" me, but doesn't quite know what to do with that!!!

We had some good time with the grandkids also. Bud and Rachel went out to dinner Sunday night and we babysat. Emerson slept a good chunk of the time, but when she was awake, she was so much fun. She loves to talk to Paw Paw.TJ played with the kids and then took turns cuddling with Grandma and Paw Paw while watching Polar Express.I stopped at their house yesterday and he was so excited to go to Grandma's house. That was not in my plan, but I held my plans loosely and brought him home for a couple of hours. We had a blast!!! He played downstairs with "Kunkle Kyle" and the kids and then sat at the table watching Grandma and Paw Paw play Yahtzee. He was so sweet. I am blessed that they live so close to me. My son keeps talking about moving to some state...I think Tennessee, or Texas...I am sure it is a T state. I just keep praying they will stay here longer. I think I was born to be a Grandma. It is my heart. Here is a pic of the plaque I got for Christmas from TJ and Emerson.It says:

"Grandma"

You have ears that always listen,

arms that always hold,

love that's never ending,

and a heart of purest gold

So sweet, and there is nothing in there about a soft belly or arms that flap in the wind!! I better keep it that way and go get on my treadmill to start my day!!!

Be blessed!

Home Management

There are only 3 more weeks until Christmas!! Yikes! I have alot to do. Really I only have 8 or 9 days to finish the gifts that have to be mailed out. I am behind, but I do work well under pressure. I also want to get something made for the Whirl Into Winter giveaway coming up. You can click on the little snowflake on my sidebar to get the details. How are your Christmas preparations coming? I have got some shopping done. This will be much simpler this year and that is fine. I have not hit the stores, but Rachel has called me with some deals and grabbed them for me and I have done some Amazon shopping. If you are going to shop Amazon, go through the link on Copperswife's sidebar. It costs you NOTHING and she will get a percentage toward her heritage library. Amazon does not tell her who you are or any information about you.

Well we got another 4 inches dumped on us yesterday! It looked like a snow globe out there for most of the afternoon.Our new schedule seems to be working out ok. Mr. Zachary may need to do his math before chores, but all in all he is doing well.

I got out my Home Management Binder. I had been doing my housework "by heart" and not really looking at the focus lists. Things were not getting done as they should.This weeks focus is the front rooms of the house. The living room, dining room, and entryway. I had done a really nice deep clean of the dining room before Thanksgiving, so I was ahead of the game. The kids took some jobs....wiping switch plates clean, dusting legs of tables and chairs, straightening the coat closet, and organizing the DVD's that are stored in the cabinet in the entryway.Since I had a head start on the dining room, I worked a little on the laundry room. Next week is the focus week for this room, and it will get some deep attention, but it needed a little TLC now. This is what happens when you do your housework "by heart"....there will be a day when I have no children at home that "by heart" will be good enough. That is not now.Just a little time and a garbage bag, and Voila!!!! Not deep cleaned, but well organized and ready for next weeks meeting with the cleaning rag! I always keep a laundry basket in here for kitchen towels and cloth napkins. All my laundry is back on schedule. I am terrible with laundry! I washed my rug by the back door and was shocked to find it had totally fell apart. I should not have been surprised. The rug by the back door is always an older rug from another area in the house that has been replaced for a fresher rug. Kinda like the kid who always gets the hand me downs. I decided to get a new rug for this area. Basically, there were no rugs to hand down this time!Dark rugs by a heavily used door are great! They hide the dirt well.
Tuesday we worked in the bedrooms. All the linens get changed here on Tuesdays. I put these pillow cases on my pillows and am trying to remember who made them. I think it was my mom. Still not certain. Maybe my Grandma made them and my Aunt Pete gave them to me...I am sure they will know. Speaking of Aunt Pete....she sent the kids a wonderful package in the mail. She is always great about sending holiday cards to the kids. They all love getting mail. In the package was a box of 6 different card games. It has been very quiet here in the afternoons as they play their new games. They thank you Aunt Pete, but I really thank you!!!!! I have been faithful to my commitment in Eating 2 Live. The scale is not moving as fast as I would like it to, but the inches are coming off. Sweetheart can see the loss, which is good. My sister and mom both mentioned it. It is hard to tell when you still have so far to go. My clothes really tell it. They are very loose and I am almost ready to go down a size. It is all worth it! It is not about being thin, it is about being fit and healthy.Ooooo....I almost forgot. I ordered my "after Christmas" book. Every year I kick back and read a good book after the holidays. This year I hope to read two. This is one of them. If she can handle 18, I should be able to do fine with 3 at home, right???