Posted in Keeping our homes
Last night our homeschool support group had the first meeting of the year. It was about organizing our homes, schools and avoiding burnout. It was a very good meeting and I thought that the topic would me a good blog post. Let's be honest, as homeschooling mom's we all struggle with these topics to one degree or another. There simply are not enough hours in the day to do all that we want and need to do. I know that there are not that many people reading here but it would be wonderful if you could share a little on your blog about how you manage it.
First, let's talk about organizing our homes. Oh, how I would love to say that my home is a model of perfectly organized precision. It's not. It's not messy and it is rather organized, but I still think I could do better.
One tool I have just discovered is the Motivated Moms Planner. Each day you get a list of daily chores to be done as well as a handful of smaller things that we often overlook - like cleaning out our purse and wallet or vacuuming the car. There is space to write in other things that you like or want to do each day and appointments you have. The best part is that each day there is a place to check off your quiet time, exercising, taking your medications/vitamins/supplements and reading to your children. The to do lists are not overwhelming at all and are a perfect fit with me. The planner for the entire year costs 8$ but it's on sale now that the year is almost over for only 4$ and I love it so much that I will buy it again as soon as the 2010 planner is ready. I keep mine in a few page protectors in my household binder and take out the pages for the current week and attach them to a clipboard I have stuck to the side of my fridge with sticky tac.
The next thing I use to keep things running smoothly at home is my household binder. There are many, many places online where you can find information about these and probably just as many methods. Cheryl over at Copperswife discusses her methods for keeping house and planning in many places at her blog and in my opinion it is well worth your time to just cruise through her previous posts and take it all in. Dawn at By Sun and Candlelight has so many great ideas over there I couldn't possibly link to them all. You can also create a binder like the ones discussed at Christian Women Online just scroll down a little bit to see the article. Mine isn't something I use daily, it's a place where I store things I need to do my planning. I keep spare grocery lists, weekly planners, my Motivated Moms pages, gardening ideas, plans and articles, meal ideas, spare calendar pages, phone numbers and a master chart for birthdays and anniversaries. The first section is my daily schedule and blank chore charts that I used to use for the kids. My daily schedule is taken from the ideas in Managers of Their Homes and is only something I use during the school year to keep me on track. It's not uber scheduled either with activities each half hour. Just sort of outlines my day and to be honest I never look at it. I know what time to make supper, what time to put the kids in bed and what time to go to bed myself. It's one of those things I do because it makes me feel organized. Each week I sit down and open the behemoth binder and plan out my menus, write up the grocery list and take out my planner pages for the side of the fridge. In the front pocket I keep my little black and white composition book that I use to keep my themes and plans in (an idea I took from Dawn) and will refer to that as well in case I need to pick up something special from the month's plans. At the end of the month I will also sit down and take out the next calendar page and my list of birthdays/anniversaries and write anything coming up that month. That's all I use mine for, most of the time it sits on my desk but it is very useful and I highly recommend making up your own version of it. There are plenty of free resources available online and if anyone is interested I have many forms, covers, divider pages etc...that I can share. I have a yahoo group called Homemaking Forms where I have many of these available for download. No emails are sent from the group and there is no discussion there either. It's the only place I could freely share the forms with anyone interested. Here is a word of caution, please don't go and buy an ebook on how to create one. Money is too tight these days for that, if you want to create one and need help let me know and I would be glad to help you make one for free (other than the materials you will need for yours)
Next I'll talk about organizing my homeschool. I am a new homeschooler. My oldest is in third grade so by no means do I have as much to offer as more experienced moms, especially to those with high schoolers but you never know. One thing I do is I keep a binder much like my homemaking one just for homeschool. I keep my record keeping blank forms in there as well as any print outs I have for the kids to use later. Things like mazes, manipulative sheets, lapbook printouts that we haven't started yet etc... this never gets too cluttered because it's full of consumable items so it empties out. I only fill this with things for use within a two month period unless there's something special I have gotten and need to store away for a while. I keep papers only for a short period of time. Living in
I found the cutest Mary Englebreit sewing organizer at Walmart two years ago and decided to use it for homeschool use. It's metal with three compartments perfect for holding my Sharpies, pens, pencils, dry erase markers and highlighters. There's a long compartment behind them that's about the length of a legal size envelope that I keep boxes of crayons, index cards and little doo dads in. The kids have a pencil box with spare pencils, sharpeners and erasers in it. I also keep the glue, glitter and paint in a high cabinet to prevent creative little hands from making a good intentioned mess. Since I plan to keep each year's portfolio as mementos I'm going to just place them in an under bed storage box, one for each child (I only have two) to keep them in.
Finally, I want to discuss burnout. Talking about it last night with other moms that I honestly thought could never feel as fed up as I do sometimes was very comforting. We all suffer from it from time to time and we all have to realize that those moments will come. So one thing we need to do is be careful with our time commitments. Too many activities will strain us too much. Learn to say no, even to the good things to make room for the best things. One thing I do to lighten my load is I use paper plates and keep weekday breakfasts and lunches simple. Cereal, oatmeal, toast, frozen waffles or pancakes (you can freeze your own) make it much easier and less messy. Lunch is often leftovers, sandwiches or a good old box of mac and cheese. Yes, I am aware that there are other moms who cook meals from scratch all day and school and keep wonderfully clean homes. I am not wired that way and need to cut a few corners to accomplish a smooth flow to the house without burning myself out. You can buy healthier boxes of mac and cheese than the familiar blue box and day glow yellow cheese. Annie's is a really good brand. Another thing I do is allow myself time to relax. If we're having a bad day I will walk away and take 10-15 minutes to decompress. Playing Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook accomplishes that very well. I'd rather walk away and assign some reading until I can come back than force myself to keep going and risk a melt down by the kids or worse, mom. The kids have chores they are expected to do and I watch them to make sure the chores are done to my standards. I found a wipe off chart at Dollar Tree that I stuck to my fridge. This is great because I can get much more done with 6 hands than my two. I can be cooking while Jay is dusting and Tina is unloading the dishwasher. Each child cleans their own room and helps put away their own laundry. Well, Tina does her own and I help little Jay. It works. One thing we talked about in the meeting was to have an accountability partner that you can call and ask them if they think you can handle another commitment on your plate. I love this idea! So often I will try to do this and that, and that and this and find out that all I've managed to accomplish is stressing myself out. I'm not even talking about outside commitments, but things like going to visit friends, babysitting, appointments, errands, helping others, church activities. Let's face it, we do not have to attend every last activity available to us to be a good Christian. Most churches have dozens of activities and we have to prioritize them according to our needs and talents. I need Bible study, I want to join the choir. Maybe the time commitment for practices will be too much and I need to put that off for a season. If your church is having a bake sale and you’re asked if you can make something and for you baking is a stressful, time consuming undertaking that will throw off your entire day and maybe back you up more than that then you might want to consider declining this time around.
What are some things you do to organize or avoid burnout?
