Broken Needles and Talking Rocks

My 4 seasons swap is turning out to be beautiful. Double cross hatching is not for the faint of heart. It is grueling and many times I have thought, "I would be done by now if I had done single cross hatch." Now the process is not the problem. I LOVE to hand quilt so the extra stitches are not the issue. I am not sure exactly what the problem is. Here is a picture of what happens... To give you an idea of the sizing here, if you measure from the outer line to the inner line of one of these squares, it measures 1 inch. I start with a straight needle, it ends up bent in a matter of 1/2 an hour and within a 45 minute span it is broken off into the quilt. It is one of two problems. I am hand quilting on Kona Cotton for the first time or it is the batting. My Hobbs is no longer carried at Joann's so I grabbed their version of it. I am use to quilting through "butter", so this is awful. My stitches are not as close, though I am keeping them even, which in my mind is the most important thing. I will trudge on through this and should have it done and in the post by the weekend.

Now onto my talking stones. Finn did a post recently about her love of stones. I could not believe how many people love rocks!! My grandson, TJ is infatuated with them. When he comes to Grandma's house, we always take a walk and he "rock hunts". There are lots of stops as he announces "Biggy rock!!" which is "bigger rock". The bigger, the better for TJ. Well I enjoy a rock as much as the next person, but I prefer the ones that talk. I have several, so I will share. I found this rock in a box of my oldest son's things. Finders, keepers...These next talking rocks are "fake" but are blended into a fountain full of real rocks. This is also a fake "rock"...it is really just glass shaped like a stone, but I carried this in my pocket for some time when I was needing an attitude adjustment. And this one is my favorite. Anyone who has been to my house in the last 10 years, has seen this rock on my sink in the bathroom. It is a real stone

Tackle It Tuesday & Love Mail

It is that time again. Thank you for all the lovely comments on my Home Management Binder. I envy those of you who do not need one because of your excellence in organization. In describing the Proverbs 31 woman, the Bible tells of her having servants (maidens). Well my HMB is a servant for me, along with my bread machine, dishwasher, vacuum cleaner, etc. How many servants do you need? As long as the binder remains your servant and not your master, it can be a very big help. So onto my Tackle (which by the way, I would not need to do if I was so organized!!)

In my kitchen I have alot of cupboard space. More than I require. What happens when you have more space than you need? You fill it with junk! Heaven forbid you have an empty cupboard. I have 3 upper cupboard doors to the right of my kitchen sink. These, when all open, expose one large cupboard.In the door to the left, I store my dishes. The middle door is for my bread plates, lotions and medicine bin (kept on the top shelf), which also required some attention. The door to the right should hold light bulbs and odds and ends (another word for organized junk). This is what it looked like before. Here are the after photos. Still some junk, but clean, organized junk. To see more Tackle It Tuesday's go here.

Yesterday was a big mail day. I received some special dvd's I had been waiting for. They were to take 7-10 days and took over 3 weeks. I must need to build some patience!

Another package arrived and I was so excited when I saw it was from Margaret in Spain! I remember her telling me she had sent a "little something" my way. First I must tell you a little story...Picture this...I am at my Grandma's funeral. It is sad and I am not particularly comfortable. I pulled this out of my purse. It is a gorgeous tissue holder that Margaret made me back when I was her stitchery swap partner. It matches a lovely bag she made me with the same tea pot of flowers stitched on it that you will see at the top of my sidebar. Anyway, I am holding this beautiful tissue holder stuffed with Spanish tissues...I know I can be strange. Just holding that made things so much better for me. Then a cousin and his wife needed a tissue. Now there was a box of tissues at the end of our row of seats, but I said, "Here, you can have a tissue from Spain." Their grief was exchanged with a questioning look. I began to explain and pretty soon I had several people wanting a tissue from Spain. Now I kinda panicked, because I did not want to use them ALL! For crying out loud, there where boxes of tissues in that funeral home. But I knew the odd comfort I received from the tissues from Spain so I did share...I still have a few left.

Now back to the package..inside were more tissues from Spain!! See, if you give, then you will receive back 3-10 fold...I think it was about 3 fold for me, as my heart still wanted to hang on to my Spanish tissues! These are TOO CUTE!!! Front and back.

Now I certainly do not want to pass these out, but I do learn a lesson...Little Zachary has had such a terrible cold. Yesterday he was miserable. The kid will NOT blow his nose, so when he said "I bet one of those chicken Kleenex would help my nose." I could not resist. It actually DID make him feel better. ;)
So there is MORE...This beauty was included. I was told by Margaret it is functional, as all the ladies in Spain carry them in their purses. By last night, I could whip this thing open and have it waving in a split second...the wonderful zip noise included! Good-bye hot flashes! Isn't it GORGEOUS!! Here is a close up of the painted flowers and the wood cut out of the fan blades. Also in the package was this...I am told it is a liner for my rolls...I thought "how pretty...wonder what the snaps in odd places are for?"....

Hmmmm...I will snap them together to see what happens.....Oh My!!! Is that incredible, or what??? Thank You SOOOO much Margaret! You are such a lovely friend and I thank God everyday for you!

A friend loveth at all times. Proverbs 17:17

My Home Management Binder

Updated: January 11, 2008
April 5, 2009: TO SEE "HOME MANAGEMENT IN A BOX" CLICK HERE.

Resources....Some beautiful, free pages for your own binder can be found by clicking here.

Today I want to share with you MY HOME MANAGEMENT BINDER.

The cover of my binder, which I have shared before, is one I designed myself. Everyone with a HMB or Control Journal, or whatever you want to call it, should design their own cover. It's contents are totally designed to meet your needs, so your cover should reflect that also. My binder is a 2" vinyl 3 ring binder and it has a clear slot on the front to slip a cover page into. All the pages are in page protectors. It sits on my counter on an easel, in easy reach.When you open my binder, you will find a mesh holder containing post-it notes, pens and pencils.

The first section is:

Next is my Calendar. It is a monthly calendar. I won't bore you.

Next I have a section labeled Inspiration and Key Notes. Here I have things that inspire me and pages of notes from others that I want to keep. I have the Prairie Muffin Manifesto, and A Wife's 10 Commandments. (Please...he has his own commandments too).

Next are my Routines. I rarely look at this section because...well, they are routine.

Next is the heart of my binder. My daily list. Now I am going to show you every day. Don't gasp...though I have dust and vacuum the majority of the house on 3 different days, some of those days I just use a feather duster...others it is furniture polish and a deep dusting. The list just tells me "today is the day to make sure this is done." If things are not dusty on Wednesday, I will not dust. Simple. Most days things need some attention. First under this section are the children's chores...then my daily sheets.

Next is Menu Planning and Grocery Shopping. I forgot a pic but it looks just like the other section title pages. Here I keep a master grocery list, blank paper for planning menus, and a list of meal ideas in case my menopausal mind goes blank!

The next section is Here is a monthly plan of all those jobs which need monthly attention, listed on my daily sheets as "Zone missions". Plus a list of "project ideas" (not shown) such as Tackle It Tuesday ideas. If I need a Tackle I can look in this section. I try to take my projects from the category of that day. For example if it is appliances, I try to pick a project in the kitchen. You get the idea. This all needs to be focused around what is best for you and your schedule. Another example is the Refrigerator. On Thursday my daily sheet tells me to clean out the frig, but the Focus Cleaning chart tells me to do it on the 4th Thursday of the month. On a regular Thursday, I will sort through for old food, wipe any obvious spills, etc. On the 4th Thursday, everything comes out, the entire frig gets wiped down and stuff put back.So I don't have to flip all over the place every day, I go through on Sunday and stick a post-it with that day's focus cleaning and project (if any...not everyday has a project) on each day for that week.

Here is where I am updating this post (1-11-08). The above Focus Cleaning was just not to my liking so I have changed this part of my binder. I am leaving it incase it works for you. I have broken my monthly cleaning into sections of my home over a 5 week period. The first and fifth weeks are short weeks most of the time so those are lighter weeks. I will still use the post it's to assign rooms on different days. For example, to deep clean the Family room during the 3rd week of the month, I would schedule that on a day I am normally doing my weekly family room cleaning.

I am going to work on my Seasonal section next. I will update again when I complete it.

The next section is empty as I am still putting it together. Another section I want to add, is Seasonal Cleaning. I am still compiling that list. It will be a quarterly list so 4 pages in that section. I am kind of waiting for Copperswife.com to add her homemaking section to her website. (She has the first part up!!)

In the very back, I keep a notebook for journaling and throw take out menus in the back sleeve.

So that is my Home Management Binder and how it works for me. It is a combo of Messies Manual, Flylady, and Keeping The Home's system. I have been using this or a similar system on and off since the mid 80's. With it I am able to move through my life without chaos and in order. Without it who knows what will happen each day! I am off to plan my Tackle It Tuesday!

Blessings, Bren