Sep. 12, 2009 - Project: Christmas

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2 hours a week for 12 weeks -

Preparing for a relational, homemade Christmas -

Remembering Jesus!

 

My tasks this coming week are:

• Review my reasons and plans.  I will check last year’s notes as well as my notes taken from Restoring the Heart, Mind and Soul of Christmas worksheets.    Done!

 

• Consider my budget – for gifts and for decorations

 

• Write my gift giving list

 

• Consider service plans    Done!  We generally help out at the Salvation Army and their food hampers for the needy and will do this again.  Would like to help with a local ‘shoebox’ project if that gets off the ground.  Will also be involved in the Combined Churches Christmas Carol evening.

 

• Decide on a devotional/study plan for this year      Done! We will continue to read stories and discuss them.  This has been a joy the last few years.

 

• Find a pattern for a new decoration to make this year     Done!  I have a half finished nativity scene quilt, I would love to get it finished.

 

• Plan a date and invite list for Christmas Party

 

• Plan for a family photo

 

On my Project List these tasks take over 2 weeks, so I am well and truly on track.  I want to get my gift list finished this coming week, and then next week I’ll have just a few more things to sort out.  What are you going to do this week for Project Christmas?

 

 

I was going to set up a linky thingo but am having code difficulties.  So until then, if you are going to try and do Project Christmas, 2 hours a week, focusing on heart and home then please leave a comment (and your blog address if you are blogging about it)

Sep. 12, 2009 - Preparing for Sunday

Sunday – it can be a day of rest, or it can be a day of stress.  Here are some of the changes I’ve made to help Sunday be a true day of rest, even though we may be ‘busy’ with people.

• We used to clean house on Monday – I thought this was necessary, to clean up after a day of rest.  But now we clean up in preparation for Sunday on Saturday, and all we do on Monday is put a few extra things away. 

• Prepare Clothes – this means clothes need to be chosen, and ironed.  Shoes need to be found (how they get lost one week to the next I don’t know!) and bags need to be ready.  My goal is for each of the children to be responsible for their own clothes.  Daniel is quite ready for this so Jessica helps him, and Nomi helps me with Peter’s clothes.

• Plan for Food
  • Breakfast – we generally have a traditional cooked breakfast before Church.  Pete does half on the BBQ and I do the other half inside.  I need to ensure we have the right food.
  • Plan for Sunday lunch – if we are just our family then lunch is usually left overs or something that each person can help themselves to.  If we have guests for lunch then we usually have a cheese and veggie platter so I make sure I know what is in my pantry and what I may need to grab from the store before coming home from Church
  • I try to have a pot of soup in the fridge for Sunday night.  If we have a homecooked meal then we tend to sit around the table, if we grab something from the pantry dinner time tends to be in front of the news or DVD.  Though we do this Friday or Saturday to do it on Sunday disrupts a good start to the week so I do all that I can to have a meal prepared ahead of time.

• My friend, who has younger children, also gets her nappy bag, or Mummy Bag, ready on Saturday, often already in the car.

• We also check Church rosters so we have no Sunday morning surprises.

Probably the biggest change has come from within.   If Sunday is to be a day of rest – I need to make it so.  This means I need to prepare as much as I can but then I need to stop and let go.  Things don’t have to be perfect, my house doesn’t have to be perfect, but I need to be welcoming – both my house and my heart need to be welcoming.

The real challenge is – I can be welcoming to my friends, the people we meet at church, but what if we are just us – just the family – can I be welcoming to them too?

Jun. 3, 2009 - Hospitality - Be prepared for impromptu invites

I met my friend in the grocery shop after church on Sunday – we were both doing a quick shop on our way home from our different church services.  I was buying food for some lunch guests that I had invited home - an impromptu invite.  She commented that she never did that, though she would like to and that she noticed that I did it all the time.  Our conversation reminded me of how I got myself into that habit.

• I would menu plan to have people over.  I would have one section on my menu plan where I would note a meal that I could serve should we invite guests (this then converted to my shopping list so I had the food on hand.)
• I would have meat in the freezer so if Pete invited someone for dinner (evening meal) then I could quickly defrost something.  Sometimes I would have a frozen meal ready to defrost that would serve more than just our family.
• I would plan a nice Sunday lunch, something that could be prepared either Saturday (like a quiche or soup) or plan something that could be quickly thrown together (like a cheese platter and veggie sticks, or toasted sandwiches) and if we didn’t have folk over we would eat it for lunch and dinner ourselves.

There has always been an understanding, a trust between Peter and myself, that if the other invited someone home for a meal, then it would be okay.  Peter knows that I’ll rise to the occasion and I know that he will if I issue an invite.  Part of being able to do this, as the cook, is to be prepared – mentally and physically, knowing that you can handle the food side of the invitation.

Jun. 1, 2009 - Toy Organisation

May. 16, 2009 - Please don't do this to me! Grocery shop woes...

I walked into my grocery store this week and the staff were busy changing shelves and reorganising the whole store!!  Nightmare.  Well, I am sure it is a nightmare for the staff – some actually look quite frazzled but to be honest it was more me I was thinking about!  I have a system for my grocery shopping and the girls and I have whittled my weekly shop down to about 20-25minutes (that’s in and out!) and now its all going to be messed up!!

My System

I have my grocery list typed up in a template following the layout of the store.  I use a Excel (spreadsheet) so each column becomes a shopping isle.  I initially used the signs at the top of each isle to help me work out my template but over the years I’ve personalised it by making special note of the place the items I regularly buy are within that isle.  It makes shopping very quick.

Change!

So in my effort to be flexible and work with change I didn’t spit the dummy and give up shopping for a few weeks …. But rather took Nomi and Daniel in there yesterday and wrote up a new list.  It is a bit pre-emptory actually as they haven’t finished but I need to do a big shop tomorrow so I needed some guidelines.  We walked each isle making notes as we went along.  I came home and typed up a new template.

Shopping

The other part of my system is divide and conquer!  Once I’ve written my shopping list (filled in the template) I tear up my shopping list, column by column (or shop isle by isle) and give my daughters the isles where they can make good decisions (Jess can do the whole shop, Nomi is in training) and keep several isles for myself. They each take a shopping trolley, their list and off they go.  When I take both girls this means we each walk only a 1/3 of the shop – which means we can be done in 20 minutes!  I go early in the morning (6.00ish) before the crowds and we get through the checkout real quick.

May. 16, 2009 - Yes, I hoard information

When the internet first came into our home I would print off screeds and screeds of articles to read offline.  Not only did I prefer to read off computer but you never knew when you might want to refer back to that article.  Well, I have learnt to bookmark and to Google these days. 

Then there’s been the idea of being a paperless society – we do our bookwork on the computer, my to-do list, my calendar – in theory it sounds great and a paperless society sounds achievable.  In reality I have more paper around me than ever before!   I am learning to contain my paper in systems – I have a few and they are slowly coming together to control this very paper-ful household.

At the moment we are sifting through years of buying craft and homemaking magazines.  I can’t quite bring myself just to ditch them – what if there is an amazing project or idea that I may just never see some place else.  Though I am the stage where I am going to sort through all the magazines and divide into three piles “Homespun” and “Better Homes and Garden” and everything else.  I am going to keep the Homespun, and create a tear-file from BHG.  The rest are good-bye!  That in itself is a big step.

Recipe books – ahhh the bane of my life – I get so tempted with recipe books.  I don’t even use them!  I don’t make the time to be fancy in the kitchen any more (that was for the days when I had two kids and no homeschooling!) So buying them is simply habit and lack of self control.  I would love to create a tear-file for my recipe books but I must admit since my recipe books all have a home at the moment they are a lower priority.  So for now I just have to learn not to buy any more!

I am listening to an audio book “Margins” by Richard Swenson.  Yesterday I listened to him talk about the role of advertising in creating our discontent society. As he talked about how advertising convinces us of our wants he made a very simple statement (I think he was quoting someone else actually) “A hungry man doesn’t need to be convinced of his need for food.”  If we truly need it we don’t need to be told we need it.  I made a connection here with my collecting information.  Emails tell me information all the time, I have so many coming in.  But if I need that information I will go and find that information.  I don't need to be told it now, and I don't need to hoard it for later.   This should be the motivation I need to reduce my email subscriptions.

When I need something I can go and find it,

and I don't need to be told I need it, I'll know.

Apr. 8, 2009 - Decluttering - a long term project

Mar. 26, 2009 - Being Organised is all good and fine....

Mar. 25, 2009 - Simple Recipe - Creamy Pasta Sauce

Mar. 23, 2009 - Getting Organised #7 - Homeschool

My older two children are basically independent learners – most of their subjects they study by themselves.  I read their written work and we talk about a lot.  At the beginning of each study block (term) the kids and I work on an assignment sheet for each of them.  This helps them see a long term goal (like completing a series of lessons, a text book, or dvd series) broken down into weekly, or daily bite size pieces.  They then use this assignment sheet to help them plan their study times.  So there is very little for me to do on a weekly basis to get them ready for their week of lessons.

But the younger two are still dependent on me.  I plan their weekly lessons and I direct how they spend their time daily.  For our week to go well I need to be well prepared.

At the beginning of the year I outline the daily/weekly/monthly routines and the subjects we can slot into available times.  Then each week I collect the lessons that I need for the coming week.

My control journal will hold

1. Assignment sheets, for the term, for Josh and Jess (these are my copies, just so I am familiar with them and can monitor how they are going)
2. Lesson Schedule, for the week, for Nomi and Daniel

Mar. 23, 2009 - Getting Organised #6 - Shopping list

In my control journal I will have a file tab with blank paper and this is the place everyone needs to write what we need to buy.  I have tried to train my children (and I say try because I don’t think we are there yet!!) but we try and write down an item when we open the last of something from the cupboard.  This way I buy a replacement before we actually run out.  I have also stopped buying items in between major shops.  I shop once a week and if we run out of something we just go without until the next planned shopping day.  Toilet paper is an exception!

My real shopping list won’t be in my control journal because I have it on my computer.  

I use Excel for my shopping list.  Each column is an aisle in my local grocery store.  Many years ago I walked through my preferred grocery store and took note of what items where were and typed up a replica. I type up my shopping list, filling in each item we need to buy in the right place on my shopping list.  I print it off and head for the shops.

These days I take my girls shopping – they each take a shopping trolley and part of the list.  My list organized in aisles makes this extra easy.  I tear my list up; one aisle per strip and give the girls the aisles I want them to cover.  We can get through the shopping in less than ½ the time it takes me when I’m by myself.  

Future Project:

I would like to print a master grocery shopping list – where I insert all the grocery items into the framework I already have.  This way I could file the master list in my control journal and the kids could mark off what we need on the actual shopping list instead of me typing it up each week.  But I haven’t got there yet!

Mar. 23, 2009 - Getting Organised #5 - Menu Plan

I have been menu planning ever since I got married – 18 years ago.  I think I first read about menu planning from Emilie Barnes.  Within the first 6 months or so of being married we had moved up to the family farm where we drove for 3-4 hours to the shops; shopping became a monthly thing.  Menu planning kept me organized and prepared.  It gave us variety and made shopping a month in advance a do-able thing.  Though I shop weekly now and the shops are just 20minutes away, menu planning is a way of life.

Before I write up my menus I always preview my diary – what nights are we busy, what social commitments have we made?  Our night time commitments influence what meals we eat and our afternoon commitments influence what I have time to cook!  So it is important that I keep our days in mind before I plan our meals.

I also keep an eye on the contents of my pantry and freezer before I write up my menu.  I try and use as much of the food we already have in the house.

Once a week I have a different cook’s helper as my children’s chores get rotated.  Each of the children have a main course and a baking recipe that they want to perfect.  I ensure that we use this recipe on the week they are my cook’s helper.  Often this is Saturday as I have a bit more time to be in the kitchen.

With my menu planning chart I also keep a list of family favourites and vegetarian meals I am trying to introduce into our family.  I also try and use a new recipe every so often.  I enjoy cooking a variety of meals and I am sure my family enjoys eating a variety.  Though we do go through seasons where time is pushed and I revert back to tried and true favourites with no variety at all!

Once I’ve written up my menu for the week, I take note of any preparation that may need doing before hand for a recipe.  This is particularly relevant for any raw food recipes I want to use – things may need sprouting, soaking or dehydrating which needs to be done sometimes 2-3 days earlier.

Now I'm ready to write up my shopping list for the week.

Mar. 23, 2009 - Getting Organised #4 - My To-do Lists

I have two lists that record every little extra task that is not a part of my routine activities. 

1.  My overall to-do list

2.  My today to-do list

Overall to-do list:

This is where I dump everything from my brain.  I have a bad habit of writing things on pieces of paper and I’m left with bits of my brain floating all over the house!  I am disciplining myself to keep all my thoughts in one place – which means typing it all into one file on my computer.  It is tempting to buy special computer software for this but I have come to the conclusion that to keep it nice and simple, reduce learning curves and costs – the best choice is to simply use Excel.  This is a spreadsheet programme that has your page divided in columns.  Each column is a sphere of my life or a specific project.  For example at the moment, my headings are:

Conference (this is a project I'm working towards)

Homeschool Workshop (another project)

Office  (sometimes this is divided between computer work / phone calls)

Creative Memories (business tasks)

Lessons

Website

Misc

Town

Blogging

I simply list everything – no order – and then when I review it daily, I select the top 5 things that I need to get done today.  I make these bold.  Most days I transfer this to my daily to-do list but if I don’t then I can still quickly see what needs to be done.

Once it is done – then I simple delete that info off my list!

My daily to do list

I got this idea from www.simplemom.net and it works for me so well.  I have created my own to suit my lifestyle.  I have a different sheet for each day of the week, this is because on the left hand side is my daily trigger times.  These are the times that signal to me that we need to change activity, mostly these are meal times and chore times.

On the right hand side I have grouped things (much like Simplemom) into broad categories of my day so I can have a quick glance at what is going on.  Some people may say that this is a double up but I find this form ties it all together for me.  I can have my rosters all typed up, diaries (online and printed), and automatic reminders but I actually take control of my day so much more if I physically write myself a list.  My categories are:

My Children’s hearts:  this is a quick reminder of the things I am working on or want to address today.

My Priorities:  I hope to work on 5 priorities for each day.  This maybe lessons, or a phonecall, or a trip to town.  It varies each day but this list helps me keep my eyes on the main thing.

Today's Menu:  I copy this from my menu sheet, this helps me make a mental note of any prep that I need to do.

My Commitments:  Information is taken from my diary/calendar.  Seeing this listed here helps me organize my other things around these time constraints (commitments).

Today’s Lessons:  Once again I copy the information from my lesson plan sheet – this is simply a list of lessons, one after the other.  As I write the list up, I am doing a mental checklist that I am ready for these lessons.

My Blog and Website:  This is a little corner of my list where I can write thoughts, as they come to me throughout the day, that I can blog about.  If I don’t write these thoughts as notes then I am tempted to jump online and post then and there – or I forget about it all together.  Neither are very good, so writing myself a note is a good habit to get into.

This form alone pulls my control journal together.  It covers

My housework

Lessons

Commitments

Training my children

Office work

Food for the family

And blogging!

Jessica and I once heard that making ticks – as in ticking off a list – sets off endorphins in our brains and makes us feel good.  So we are all for making lists and ticking them off!  This form is fully disposable and has plenty of opportunity for making ticks!  I write it up the night before, check it and work with it during the day, tick it off, and throw it away in the evening.  Yay for ticks!

Mar. 23, 2009 - Getting Organised #3 - My Routines

Our lives are made up of mini routines and since I’m in ‘getting organised’ mode it is a good time to reflect on my personal mini routines.  Flylady is all about mini routines.  There are two that I am going to focus on

1. My Morning Routine
2. My After Dinner (Before Bed Routine)

I have used many systems over the years, Flylady and Emilie Barnes are probably the two most influential in my life. 

My Morning Routine

My biggest threat to a good start to my day is my emails and writing.  I like to write/blog in the morning and yet once I start it is really hard to stop so the time ticks over and before you know it – it is well and truly time for lessons to start and I haven’t even had breakfast!  So number one challenge is to have self control, to write notes so I can get to my writing later, and to keep an eye on the clock!

4.30am Wake up – Check in (email, Diary, Dinner)

5.00am Quiet Time

6.00am Exercise

7.00am Shower – Bed/Swish/Swipe/Sweep

7.30am Daniel Devotions (a time of training) and Breakfast

8.00am Homebless

8.30am Family Devotions

This routine is based on what already really happens so I know it is do-able and yet I am setting it as my routine just to sharpen it up a bit.  The times are only a guide – often my Q.T. only go for ½ hour, and I may read for another ½ hour or I may start on another project.  This timing gives the opportunity to walk for longer than ½ hour though I rarely am away from the house for 1 hour.  The times allow me to see that it is possible to do all this in the time I have allocated and yet reality is that it is a list of activities that flow, one from the other, regardless of the time.

My Evening Routine

This routine isn’t as consistent as I would like it.  I have 1-2 things a week happen in the evenings so on those nights my routine looks totally different.  I’d like to get into the habit of starting earlier in the afternoon and getting most of my evening routine done before dinner.

This routine is my after dinner routine.  We have 1-2 night time commitments a week and this throws out this mini routine.  My plan is to be aware of this, and in the light of wanting to establish a habit, consider these things before dinner if I am not going to have time after dinner.

Evening Routine starts after dinner

1. While the children are doing the dishes, I’ll blog (record keeping for our day)
2. Office Desk – this is to mainly tidy it, and update my overall to-do list

The next three points are the basis of Flylady’s Before Bed Routine

3. Tidy the house – this will take 5 minutes since the house is generally tidied as a part of the kids 5.00pm jobs.
4. Tomorrow – check my diary, food, clothes, lessons for tomorrow
5. Time out – take some time for me (this maybe blogging, reading, scrapbooking but hopefully not working!)

Mar. 23, 2009 - Getting Organised #2 - Chore Charts

My first task was to print my calendars.  I now have plotted in all the regular standard, week by week commitments I have:

Parenting courses and monthly Mums Support Night

Creative Memories workshops

Homeschool Co-op / or Support days

Family Birthdays

MDO – Mother’s Day Off (I have joined a craft group that gets together once a month)

I have also translated them to my online calendar as well.  (Which isn’t always that great of an idea since I’ve been without internet for 2 days!!)

Anyway getting organised #2 task is to print off my kids chore charts and my housework chart.

Last year we went to a chore system where the kids were responsible for one area of the house for a week.  During that week they would deal with the daily cleaning up as well as the bigger cleaning tasks that happen once a week.  Come Saturday morning they need to check their list and if there was something that didn’t get done then Saturday morning was the morning to finish it all up.  This works well.  Daniel and Nomi are at various levels of training with these chores which means I still need to be involved, supervising or working with them, when they are rostered for those tasks.  Josh and Jess can do everything independently.

We have three chore times a day

• After breakfast
• After lunch
• Before dinner

Though they also have times of personal responsibilities before breakfast and after dinner where they deal with getting dressed, personal hygiene, their bedrooms and desks, exercise and their devotional time with God.  My friend has her children follow the Flylady principle of getting clothes ready for the tomorrow the night before.  We do this on Saturday, for Sunday, but not any other night – maybe we should.  I know it would help my mornings.

The second chart that I’m printing off for my control journal is my overall housework chart.  I fluctuate between calling this my homeblessing (aka Flylady) or my housework chart.  I tend to think that work is not a dirty word and it is good to remind myself that I need to get in and work!!  My husband has aspects of his job that is simply hard work and that he doesn’t particularly enjoy.  Maybe home-work is a good compromise – it is the work that makes our house a home!  I am only playing around with words here.  It doesn’t matter what you call it – it has got to be done, and if it is done with a loving heart all the better!

Mar. 20, 2009 - Getting Organised

Feb. 13, 2009 - 4.00am is definately an early rise!

Feb. 13, 2009 - 4 Challenges from Prov 31:15

Sep. 25, 2008 - Time Wasters

Do you have things that happen regularly in your home that are nothing more than time wasters?  Jessica talked about Enthusiasm for the Kids Talk on Sunday and she mentioned that we can be either

• Energy Givers
• Energy Takers
• Energy Wasters

It is much the same with the activities we do, the things that we fill our day with.  Some tasks are energy givers – I feel refreshed, ready to go after a good chat to my mum or when we’ve had a quick house blitz and things are looking tidy, or I am prepared for the day.  Some tasks are energy takers and we have to discern if they are energy takers simply because we’ve done a hard thing (a right thing, but hard none the less) or is it an energy taker because it is the wrong thing, because we aren’t being productive, focused or specific about what we are doing.  Some tasks are simply energy wasters – we know that these need to be fixed.

Sometimes the change that is needed is internal – an attitude adjustment.  We don’t like a task so we delay, procrastinate, fiddle-faddle around.  Energy wasting, energy taking.  Sometimes though we do have control over the situations and we need to orchestrate change.  This is how I think of time wasters – they are situations, that zap my energy, but I can do something about them.

What are my time wasters?

• Lost and misplaced items.  An ironic thing happened to me to just show how chronic this is in my house.  I set aside some time to get my filing system in order so I could know where my papers are and yet, I had lost my worksheets on setting up my filing system!  I had lost my notes on how to not loose things - a great start!  A place for everything and everything in its place is an adage as old as at least my grandmother (93) and probably her mother before her.  It is a truthful thing.
• Bugs on the floor.  At this time of the year there are so many insects around and they are attracted to the evening lights.  The other morning I swept the floor 3 times before lunch, just so we could walk without crunching insects.  They came from everywhere.  Since then, every evening we have pulled the curtains to block out the light and now there are hardly any bugs visiting us.  How many times do I put up with a repetitious housework task when there is something I could do to eliminate or reduce the dirt in the first place? 
• Incoming Emails.  The other day I switched on the offline function on my emails.  This means my emails download automatically, every 5 minutes or so.  Regardless of where I am in the house I hear a little “beep” – you’ve got mail!!  Though I may not rush back to the computer there is a distraction there for a moment, wonder who that could be?  Curiosity will eventually win out!  There are many aspects of the internet that causes distractions – energy wasters.
• Piles and piles.  I like to see the tasks that I have to get to.  This means I keep piles around me.  But if I am really honest, they represent mental baggage, and they exhaust me.  I am slowly finding system that can keep the task at hand in front of me, and yet not be a pile.  Having times where I regularly go through any pile and deal with it is also helpful.  I have a pile of “give away” stuff – I need to make regular trips to the Salvation Army shop with this instead of letting it pile up.  Putting it in a container that I can load into the car will help here.
• Eating the wrong food.  My energy levels are immediately affected by processed foods and starchy carbs.  Self control is needed! Eating and exercising, and drinking water, certainly are energy givers.

My To-do / Office Desk pile, sorted into files, but still sitting on my desk

Energy wasters change with the seasons of our life; we grow and mature, learn new skills and our energy wasters will be eliminated, and yet others pop up!  So what are your energy wasters and energy takers?  Is there anything you can do about them to turn them into energy givers?

Sep. 13, 2008 - The time has come to prepare for Christmas