Moving and Downsizing WooHoo!!

After five and a half years in the house we are in as of the time of this post, we are saying goodbye to Gigantic, Old, Dusty House and hello to Teeny, Tiny, Considerably Less Old and Hopefully Less Dusty House. I can hardly believe that a week from tomorrow is Moving Day! I haven't started packing yet, and I'm not even remotely stressed. Some of you just may have experienced stress reading that last part about not packing with only a week until moving day...I'm sorry to have stressed you out! Oddly, this is the first move I can ever remember that I did not have some kind of dread deep within, even when the move was wanted. 

I am very thankful to have a home to live in, a home that is safe and comfortable. And if we owned this home and had the money, it could really be fixed up nicely. I love the old, dark wood here. I love being close to the library and the butcher shop. But I won't miss the dust! There's not much you can do about dust in a house that is over one hundred years old. Battle it or give in...and honestly, I surrendered. It was just too much. I also will not miss living on a very busy road. Our new house has a dishwasher and central air, and I can't tell you how happy that makes me!

We are only moving six blocks away, and it's temporary...until we move to Arizona in a year or so. It will help us accomplish two very important steps in getting to the Valley of the Sun...save money and get rid of stuff. Obviously, we'll need money to move across the country. And I am NOT taking all this junk with us. I'm tired of dragging it around with me. And the way this is working out will make it fairly easy to downsize. First, we move essentials...beds, couch, kitchen stuff...then we figure out what we have room for and move that. The rest of it will get sold, given away or thrown away. 

It's true I've struggled with clutter and KTMS (Keeping Too Much Stuff). I even did a post a while back about being SOS (Sick of Stuff). And it's also true that I could have gotten rid of said stuff at any time...you know, I Can Quit Any Time I Want To...but it's much easier when you just don't have room for it. I know I'll have to make some tough decisions, but it's just stuff. I'm tired of feeling choked and suffocated by stuff that just sits around collecting dust.

So now, I need to plan the moving strategy, then see if it matches my husband's. Most likely it does not, since men and women think completely differently. But one thing I love about our relationship is that most of the time we work very well together. We've learned when to give and when to take and when to leave the other alone (most important!), and I know even if our strategies are not identical, we'll get through the move just fine. 

I'm going to post this and get back to Pinterest. I can't believe some of the things you can do with pallets...amazing, I tell you. I've got ideas for summer projects...

Another New Year, What's New?

It's hard to believe yet another year has flown by! My baby will be FIVE next month, my firstborn will be THIRTEEN...my head is spinning. There's been many changes in the last year or so, mostly in the spiritual and emotional areas for me. Good ones, thankfully! 

As God continues to bring healing and restoration in my "inner man", my housekeeping improves. I realized this week that it actually bothers me to have dirty dishes piled up. Oh, it "bothered" me before...just not enough to motivate me much to do something about it until I absolutely had to. This is definitely a new, and welcomed, development.

God has been opening my eyes about some things, which I plan to blog about in the coming months. It's amazing what happens when you let go of what you have always believed to be true...what you've always been taught or assumed is true...and allow Yahweh to reveal the truth that He established in the beginning.

We have some big milestones approaching...a high school graduation, a grandbaby on the way, another one leaving the nest, a new teenager in the family. I'm looking forward to what this year has to offer...and I'm sure when I look back this time next year, it unfolded differently than I thought it would. Life has a funny way of operating like that.

Once again, we've made changes in the area of food and nutrition...some rather begrudgingly in the beginning, but are turning out to be good changes. I've got another new "tool" in my kitchen...check out my post at my nutrition blog, Purposeful Nourishment, on Perpetual Broth.

I continue to try and purge the clutter in the house. It now seems to be mostly contained to closets, porches (ugh...that front porch I spent so much time cleaning is in need of another purging but it's not as bad as the last time!!), unused rooms and some corners. I cleaned out the desk today, and while there is still too much in the drawers and files, I threw out a trash bag full of papers and junk that I'd been holding on to..."just in case." Every time I go through the desk, I am able to let go of a little more. I know what would really kick me in gear is to get a different desk. Then I would HAVE to get rid of stuff!

I have a load of stuff to take to Goodwill, but since I haven't been there in quite some time, I haven't taken it with me when I leave town. I should just take it down to the drop off box here in town. I'll have to add that as a weekly task to my S.H.E. system...which I've been using again with success. The dishes are done and the house in order when I go to bed unless there's just been some kind of crazy going on here. And since that just neeeevvveeerrr happens....well, it has happened a bit less it seems, since I've been more on top of my game around here lately. 

New Year's Resolutions have never been my thing, and this year is no different. I just have an overall goal, every year, to become and do better than what I was and did last year. Not so overwhelming when I think of it like that!

I hope you have had a positive start to 2013, and whatever comes your way you will be strong and equipped to handle it. Here's to a great year!!

S.O.S. Challenge Update

It’s finally September! I so long for the shorter days, the crispness in the air and the lovely scent of autumn on the wind. The urge to bake is revving up again, and I dream of breads and anything pumpkiny emerging from my oven once more. Sigh…

It’s also the beginning of my Sick Of Stuff decluttering challenge that I’ve recently imposed upon myself. Are you curious about how I’m doing? Let me tell you!

Even though I said I would officially start this September 1st, I found myself loading up bags and boxes of Stuff in the last couple weeks of August and taking them to Goodwill. One drawback of dropping stuff off at the store I usually go to is that they give you coupons. They always ask, and actually, I could say no, but…well, I just don’t. I will have to work on that. The good news is that even though I did shop there a couple times, I brought back home WAY less than I took in, so I’m still ahead.

It’s a good thing I started early, though, because my dear honey hurt his back at work the other day so I’ve been busy taking care of him, plus we just had a few busy days already this month and I haven’t taken out a bag or box every day so far. It’s only the 5th, and I’m pretty sure that what I took out in August covers all of September so far. And, today I dropped off two garbage bags of Stuff – one I had loaded in the van last night but forgot to drop off while we were out, and one large, black trash bag full of toys and kid’s books and some things in my kitchen I finally decided I could let go of because actually, I hated them. I don’t know why I hung on to that infernal Pampered Chef potato masher that I couldn’t stand for so long. Every time I used it I grumbled about how much I didn’t like it. But now, it’s gone, and the things in the drawer it once resided in are all things that I use often and don’t make me mad.

I look around at all the things I KNOW I could get rid of, and still feel that “but I might need it some day” urge to hold on to them. It’s a process, I know, but I’m trying not to get overwhelmed by the bigness of it. I’m trying to focus on what can I part with right now, today? Even if it is just one thing, that is one less thing cluttering up my space and collecting dust.

Books will be the hardest to part with. And I know, I could get a Kindle or something, but I just love real, honest to goodness books. I love the feel of them, the smell of them (as long as they don’t smell musty, dusty or smoky!) and you just don’t get that in a Kindle. But many of those books don’t get read, so I’m just going to have to find a way to part with them one way or another. I thought maybe it would be a good winter project – read a book one more time for old time’s sake and then find a new home for it.

Overall, I am happy with what I’ve done so far. I don’t know that you can see a huge difference, but just knowing I’ve removed a bunch of Stuff that I didn’t love or use feels great. You can, however, see a big difference in the toy area and the shelf where we keep the kid’s books. It’s progress, and that’s always a good thing.

I’m going to continue to remove something from my home every day, even if it just gets to the back of the van to go to Goodwill, at least it is out of the house. I will remember to drop it off every week, since I’ll have to have room for groceries. “Odd-sized trash” week is coming up for our town, so I hope to have some trash to load up out front.

Well, there you have it, folks. I’m plugging away at my challenge and am trying to keep focused on the wide, clear, open space I long to have in my home – so I can breathe!

The S.O.S. Challenge

S.O.S. can mean several different things...Save Our Schools, HELP!!!, Switched On Schoolhouse. Anything with an S-O-S configuration, really. Right now, for me, it is an acronym for Sick Of Stuff. It's time to get serious about Stuff around here.

As I've gotten older, wiser, and more free of debilitating emotional issues, I have found that I'm somehow a better housekeeper. Do not read I'm A Perfect Housekeeper and My Home Should Be Featured In BHG there, please! I just mean that my home does not look like my bedroom did as a child...most of the time. If the kids have been running amok, well, it might look kind of like that. But, in general, you can see the floor and dont' have to walk on Stuff or shovel a path through Stuff to get around. The OTHER horizontal surfaces around here, however, typically have lots of Stuff on them. And I hate it.

For instance, my kitchen counter is a long L-shape wth a stove at one end. There is a particular corner that I have dubbed The Black Hole. Not sure why, actually - black hole implies that things go in and are never seen again. I guess it's more of the Event Horizon thing...if it gets close to that particular area, it ends up on The Pile. I do usually see it again, when I get sick of the Overflowingness and decided to "declutter" the Black Hole. 

I have wanted Simplify for a long time, but I'm not sure what has held me back...and still does.  When I'm away from our home, say at church for example, I get this overwhelming desire to go home and start Chucking Stuff. I feel up to it, I feel Inspired and Motivated. And, I get home and find that I just can't do it. Even though I haven't touched the papers in a certain file in my file cabinet for at least two years, I can't bring myself to throw them away. It's pathetic. 

Yet I long to be Free Of Stuff. I hate the choking, claustrophobic feel of all these things. Things that gather dust. Things that stare at me and remind me how disorganized I am. Things I am in bondage to, because I can not throw them out or give them away. Things that aren't worth much of anything, really. Sometimes, I think about things like What if there was a Natural Disaster and We Lost Everything. Would I survive? Of course I would. I don't really NEED most of this stuff! 

And so, I have decided to challenge myself to fill up a box or bag every day of Stuff to remove from my home. Whether it goes to the trash can, consignment shop or thrift store doesn't matter. It doesn't even matter what size of box or bag, as long as something goes out of the house every day.  It's just got to go. I'm calling it the SOS Challenge. I'm going to start this September 1, 2012...feel free to join me and share what your're doing! 

I love freecycle, but I can't wait around for people who may or may not show up to collect whatever I'm freecycling....I know myself too well. That may work for you, but it won't for me. There's a Goodwill drop box a few blocks from me, and if I have a small bag, I can also get some exercise and ride my bike down to drop it off. I also go to an area that has a Goodwill store (and I get coupons when I drop off my donations...wait, that would probably work against me!). And if nothing else, I can set it out by the road with a "FREE" sign and it will probably be gone in no time. 

Any challenge needs an outline, rules, goals....I'm going to think on those things and post what I come up with in a few days. For now, I have to work on psyching myself up for this challenge. To get rid of whatever it is that hinders me so I can get rid of all this Stuff that does not make me happy or serve a useful purpose in my life. 

DIY Planner: Revised and Improved for 2011-12

It’s that time of year again! Do you have your planner ready? Do you buy one already made or do you design your own? Last year, I learned that I can make my own planner very inexpensively. AND I could make it however I wanted. Determined to not end up with a bunch of pages unused because they just don’t suit my record-keeping style, I designed my own and took it to a local office supply store with a print center to have it coil bound. You can read about that here and see what that planner looked like. This year, I made some drastic changes…

I was quite surprised and irritated to find that I still had a bunch of pages that I didn’t use. It looked good, but that planner just did not suit my style. I was trying too hard I guess. After heading back to the drawing board with K.I.S.S. in mind (you know, Keep It Simple Sweetie), I finally had to come to grips with the fact that we are, in fact, UNschoolers. Unschooling does not lend well to traditional record keeping.

My biggest beef with trying to keep track of what we do every day is that the majority of our learning is cross-curricular. I don’t want to write an activity or lesson down in three different subjects every time. I want to write it down once and be done with it. And I would find myself agonizing over where to put something because I only wanted to write it down once…paralyzing the decision making process and driving me nuts.

So, I decided, why fight my nature? Why not find a way to embrace it in all its disorganizedness creativity? We don’t just “do school” at home…we learn where ever we are, whatever we are doing, whomever we are with. Life is our classroom! And something as large and complex as life is not going to be easily contained in little squares on an 81/2” x 11” piece of paper. Life is also messy and frequently goes outside of the lines.

I found a website called Homeschool Launch where you can download TONS of free worksheets, forms, and other helpful documents for home schooling. You can also create your own account to upload documents to share. You can find the forms I created for my planner this year at my page on Homeschool Launch.

What did I do differently? To start with, I had more time to put into designing the cover. Since we learn all year long, I chose pictures of things we did over the past year and this summer, such as my daughter using a magnifying glass on a scorcher of a day to start stuff on fire. We LOVE science!

Front cover...covered with pics of my kiddos!

The guy who did my planner there last year accidentally forgot to put something on the cover page before laminating and had to double-laminate it, which I really liked, so I asked them to do it again. Especially since the paper I chose this time was thinner.

On the inside cover, I made a copy of something I have hanging on our school cabinet. It’s an adaptation of something Nancy Campbell wrote in The Power of Motherhood. I figured it would be a good reminder, in case I ever forget how to homeschool…

I only have three, yes three, planner pages bound in this planner: a yearly goals sheet, an attendance sheet, and a yearly evaluation sheet. Well, there’s some monthly calendar pages, but more on that in a minute.

Yearly goals, right there when I open it up
so I don't write them down and forget them later!

Attendance sheet, courtesy of donnayoung.org
used this last year and really liked it.

Yearly evaluation, where we can write down
what worked and what didn't, what we liked or disliked
about the school year

Now this is where I got innovative. I bought six two-pocket folders without prongs when they were super cheap and had them bound in the planner. The first one will hold miscellaneous forms and records that we collect through out the year, such as important papers for Friday School, for example.

Miscellaneous forms and records and important papers
will go in here

I created my own monthly calendar pages for the year and printed them out on cardstock. I have them facing each other, and used the blank back sides as a place to jot down notes and reminders. I searched online for a few minutes while trying to create something fun and interesting for a place to scribble notes, looking for something resembling a yellow legal pad for a background or graphic I could use. Then it hit me – I have a color copier/scanner and a yellow legal pad. Duh. So, I grabbed the Sharpies and ended up with this:

I always need ample space to jot stuff down

I also need calendar pages to face each other so
I don't forget important dates coming up in the
next month

There is a set of two calendar pages in front of each folder. I used photo paper to print “labels” because it looks nicer. Not sure if the glue stick I used will sufficiently hold them after using it for a while, but that is easily fixed. I used Avery Design Pro to design the cover and the folder labels. Each folder will hold the Daily Learning Log Sheets for two months. This was the genius idea birthed at the drawing board. Planner pages don’t work for me because that is just not how I roll. This sheet has five large boxes to write lesson plans, activities and spontaneous learning opportunities. To the right are several check boxes with categories such as science, math, english, etc. This way, I can write in our unit study or when we stopped at a pond and observed the activity in the habitat or whatever and just check off what subjects were covered. I’ll print out 90 two-sided sheets of these and we will use them to record what and how we are learning each day. Of course, we can use more than 180, but that is to be sure we log in enough learning days to meet our state’s requirements.

Each pocket would only need to hold
15 sheets at the most. That's logging in
learning every day of the month!

I was very happy that the coil binding didn't
take up too much of the folder's edge so
the papers will still fit nicely.

I like having a full year’s calendar to look at in a place that is easy to find. Last year it was on the outside of the back cover. This year I decided I wanted it on the inside of the back cover. No particular reason, really. That’s just where I wanted it this time.

Always knowing where the whole year can be seen
is a huge benefit for me. I hate flipping through pages
to find things!

I was afraid it would be too bulky, but it’s really not. Of course, it’s not full of papers yet, either…

This isn't one of those fancy smart phones, just an LG Rumor2
but I thought it would give a decent size comparison on
how thick it is. 

I would have preferred different colors for the folders…like orange and blue…but hey, they were only like  15 cents apiece or something like that. We are trying to do school free or as close to it as possible this year in order to save money for a family trip to California in a few months to see the middle of the oldest boys graduate from Marine boot camp. Guess how much this planner cost me this year? Less than last year!

• orange polka dot paper, 25 cents each at Michael’s    $0.50
• two-pocket folders, 6 @ 15 cents                              $0.90
• printing costs, text documents                                   $0.60
• paper (negligible, due to rebates making the ream
  • practically  free!)                                             $0.05
• printing costs, color glossy photos (paper was free)    $0.10
• double laminating, 8.5 x 11 coil binding                    $4.44    
  • 20% off coupon!
• GRAND TOTAL……                                                    $6.59
  
  

I’m really excited about using this planner/organizer this year. It’s simple. It’s flexible. It didn’t cost an arm and a leg. And, it’s got cute pictures of my precious children on it. What more could I want?

If you make your own planners, what do you do? Do you change it every year or pretty much stick to the same format. Or, are you still trying to find something that works for you?

We Do It Our Way: Embracing Our Homeschool Style

Are you struggling in your homeschool? Maybe you're trying to put the square peg in the round hole...

I have finally come to grips with the fact that we are, indeed, unschoolers.  However, I have a passion for forms. I love charts, planning pages and the like, but truth be told, I end up either using them for a while then fizzling out or not using them at all. I have been pondering on whether or not I can truly consider myself to be an "unschooler" if I am using forms and charts and planning pages. 

Why not?

Unschooling is not the absence of schooling. It is allowing your child the freedom to learn whatever captures their interest. Bats. Crystals. Snakes. Underwater basket weaving. All of these things have educational merits. You can teach math with bats (Suzy had 5 bats fly into her hair and 3 got stuck. How many bats are in Suzy's hair?), geometry with crystals, and physical education with underwater basket weaving (and snakes, if you find yourself needing to run away from some...). Actually, these things are more caught than taught. My kids prefer to learn by doing rather than by sitting and cranking out worksheets. They learn by seeing, feeling, hearing, moving and asking questions. I love that!

So, how do you keep records while unschooling? What about lesson plans? 

Daily Lesson Plan:  wake up, live life, learn something along the way

Yet, there does need to be some structure. Children also need discipline...left to their own devices, they are inherently foolish.

Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of correction will drive it far from him.   Proverbs 22:15 (NKJV)

Intelligent children listen to their parents; foolish children do their own thing.Proverbs 13:1 (The Message)

Intelligent unschooling parents, then, will be watchful for what interests their children and be mindful to guide their studies.  Just as guardrails on a road are not meant to restrict our driving fun but to keep us from danger so we can arrive at our destination safely, guidelines and discipline in the homeschool keep our children from their own inherent foolishness and keep them on the road to responsible, intelligent adulthood. And as parents, we need to be responsible...as homeschooling parents, we need to be responsible and accountable.

Our state does not require labor intensive record-keeping. Thank God for that! We are only required to keep an attendance record. However, I do believe it is foolish to not keep any records at all of what your children are learning simply because the state does not require it. Many well-meaning (and some not so well-meaning) but uninformed social service agents would view that as evidence of educational neglect. So, in the event of any questioning about your homeschool and whether you are actually teaching your children, you can alleviate any fears by showing that your children are, indeed, learning at the level in which they are capable. 

So, what about those forms and charts and planning pages that I love to love, only to end up hating to use? How can I use them to keep us as disciplined as we need to be and as accountable as I should be?

The trick is to find forms, charts and planning pages that work with our family's style. That satisfy my need for writing things down, without confining me to someone else's idea of proper record keeping.  After searching through tons of documents online...some really great forms and planning pages...I've come to realize that the trick, then, is to make my own...which, it just so happens, is one of my favorite hobbies. 

And so, I have decided to make all of my own record keeping forms. I'll test-run them over the next few weeks...as learning doesn't end here because the public school system says school is out. It's more relaxed, more fun, but there is still learning going on.

Today, I created my first PDF of a form I think will finally suit my style. It's a Daily Learning Log sheet, with ample space to write in what we did and to check off the subject areas that are covered. I can easily see at a glance if we have balanced learning going on or are neglecting other areas and can adjust accordingly.

Visit my page on Homeschool Launch to download this Daily Learning Log (there is one with subjects already included, and one blank for your own personalization). I plan to incorporate this sheet in my DIY Homeschool Planner for the coming year.  You can also find a TON of great forms for just about anything you need for your homeschool and homekeeping there.

Click here to check out my new unschooling planner! It's simple and flexible, and I think I'm going to love it!

Of course, this form may not suit your needs at all. That's ok...just find out what does. Then use it. You'll be a lot less frustrated and be much more successful at making learning fun, exciting and enticing for your children. How else can we raise up life-long learners?

Spring Brings Renewal…Under My Kitchen Sink

Do you have one (or more) of those areas in your home that most of the time goes unnoticed, even though you use it frequently? Do you ever think, every now and then, “I ought to do something about that”…and then, don’t? I must confess to having too many of those areas, but one such disaster zone got a makeover this week…yep, Spring makes me want to fix things up. Take a look…

The cabinet under my kitchen sink is something that is used nearly every day here. The dish drainer and dishpans are stored there, as well as dirty towels and dishcloths, various cleaning supplies, and who knows what else. We moved here about three and a half years ago, and while it’s embarrassing to admit, I’ve never cleaned under there! I would notice that it needs to be done, but that’s as far as it got. 

There, I confessed…feels good to get that off my chest.

I bought a new dish drainer recently, so I could pass the old one (that I’ve hated since I bought it I don’t know how many years ago) on to Number One who is moving into his first apartment in a few days. It’s larger than the other one, and subsequently does not fit in the space the old one did. So, I was forced to pull everything out of there…and come face-to-face with the grim reality that it was, indeed, time to clean under there. See for yourself:

After painting and putting some floor tile down under there, I commented  about it on Facebook.  A friend of mine asked me why I painted under the sink because nobody sees it. My response to her was that I see it…in fact, I see it every day and even though after a while the jumbled, disorganized disaster under there quit registering when I opened the cabinet doors, in the back of my mind that little voice nagged and condemned me. And so, I did something about it and shut up that voice. See…nothing to complain about now:

And now, I only have the things I really need and use under there…

Well, I take that back…I do need to empty the dirty towel bucket and do some laundry…but, aside from that, it is neat and tidy under there now. Much, much better! And, there’s one less thing for Miss You’ll-Never-Be-Good-Enough to use against me…

DIY: Make Your Own Homeschool Planner

Anyone who knows me well knows that organization is something that really does not come naturally for me. Last year, I used the homeschool planner from Home Educating Family called The Well Planned Day. I really liked it, but, as I find with pre-designed planners in general, there's always a lot of the pages I don't use. Maybe that says more about myself and my "organizational" style than the overall design of the planner, but either way I end up with a lot of wasted pages. [Did it work? Or did I still end up with wasted pages? Check out my new and revised planner for the 2011-12 school year and find out!]

I came across a great tutorial over at Dynamic 2 Moms that shows how to make your own planner (which was moved to their sister site, New Beginnings) as well as tons of other great resources! That idea had never occurred to me, so I was quite excited to discover that I could design a planner that would have exactly what I wanted in it and none of what I didn't. I was also very pleased to find out that I could do this for a fraction of the cost of buying a planner. It really wasn't all that difficult, either. I did make some mistakes along the way, but now at least I know what NOT to do!

Here's some pictures of my new planner:

Click on a photo to see a larger view

Front cover, 11" x11" laminated cardstock

Front cover. This was double-laminated because the employee at Office Max made a mistake. Actually I think I prefer it that way, it's sturdier!

Yearly calendar, timeanddate.com

Starting things off with a yearly calendar with some holidays highlighted. Like that wretched Dumb Stupid Time we are now forced to observe. I never know when that is, usually.

Attendance record, DonnaYoung.org

School attendance record. This one is broken down by month, but you could use any format you like of course. Last year I had it all on one sheet, but in a landscape orientation. Didn't like that so much.

The section dividers I designed myself, with a verse relating to the section

Course Objectives section. This is where I'll write out our goals for each subject of study and ideas for fun/interesting activities or events.

 Course objectives sheet, one for each subject of study. Form is from the free curriculum planner at New Beginnings

The course objectives sheets also include a section for an end of year evaluation.

 Monthly calendar before each month's weeks of lessons

I was able to customize this calendar at www.somacon.com

Lesson Planner section. I have 52 weeks of planning sheets so we can continue with year-round schooling. There's a monthly calendar at the beginning of each month. This is one area I made a mistake in, because of how I put together the planner sheets. I'll explain that next.

Class Schedule. Form is available on DonnaYoung.org in a type-able PDF

Weekly Goals and Review. I adapted this form from one on New Beginnings

To help me with accountability, I also included a sheet that has Weekly Goals for each subject and a Weekly Review. I'll write down what we should accomplish that week in the goals section, and in the review I'll make note of what we actually did, where we missed the mark (just in case that happens lol), and any deviations from the goals and why. There's also an area to keep track of behavior as well. My husband will ask to see this every week to help me stay on track. I printed the class schedule sheets and the weekly goals/review sheets double sided, reasoning that I'll just put the sheets in alternating. That was fine, until I decided to add the monthly calendar sheets. So I had to take out a few and reprint them with the calendar on one side and the required schedule/weekly sheet on the other.

 Field Trip log sheet from DonnaYoung.org

Extra Curricular section. This would include field trips, organizations and social enrichment activities, such as Girl Scouts, Keepers At Home club, etc. All of these section dividers were supposed to be in sheet protectors, but the employee at Office Max couldn't get the sheet protectors to punch right when he tried to put the holes in them for binding. So, I had to come up with another plan for that. This section was also to have extra sheet protectors and a baseball card sheet protector to hold memorabilia, brochures, and business cards we pick up on field trips or outings.

Support and Groups section. I have information for Friday School here and the homeschool group we belong to, plus an address section to record contact information of other homeschoolers we meet. 

 Mead Zwipes pocket, front

Mead Zwipes, back pocket

Zwipes pocket. I picked up several of these at a local Amish discount store a couple years ago, but haven't found a good use for them until now. You're supposed to stick them in a notebook, but I didn't like how the side stuck way out so we haven't used them. But it works perfectly in my planner! The pocket attaches to the coil. You can put a sheet of something behind the front and the back side is like a folder pocket. The marker is really neat, too. You write on the pocket, but it doesn't  smear or rub off like a dry erase marker. It won't go anywhere until you use the special eraser tip on one end (it's wet like a marker, but dissolves the ink) and then wipe it off with the dry-erase eraser style tip of the other cap. It works on regular plastic sheet protectors, too. I don't know if they still make them, I couldn't find them on Mead's website and searching on the internet didn't bring up much, either. But just as I typed that, I glanced down at the unopened package of Zwipes I had on my desk and found this web address, which does still work: www.MeadZwipes.com

Since I couldn't add the sheet protectors like I wanted to (and there's some conjecture here that I most certainly could have had it done that way if a) the Office Max employee knew what he was doing or b) their equipment was properly sharpened. But, since I didn't have the time or desire to run around the county to find a place to do it that way, I decided to figure out something on my own. Since the cover of my planner is 11" x 11", I have plenty of room inside. I put 3 slits in the back cover and pushed brass paper fasteners through the slits. Then I put my sheet protectors in. This ended up being my Household Management section.

Daily Schedule from Dynamic 2 Moms.
It's also available in pretty colors, too!

 Morning-Noon Schedule from DonnaYoung.org

Menu planner and shopping list from Money Saving Mom, part of a free download of 14 different menu planning forms

Household Management section. Here I have a daily schedule (I use the Zwipes marker to add or change things. I will have to do this every day, so hopefully it will become a habit!) I got this sheet from Dynamic 2 Moms. Some of the other sheets in the planner are from Donna Young, a great resource of free printable planners, schedules, etc. for homeschooling and organizing life in general. I also have a Morning-Noon schedule that I found on Donna Young's site. I'm working on tweaking it to fit our home and schedule. It's kind of like a Flylady plan, but all on one sheet of paper. Then I have my menu planner/shopping list, and extra sheet protectors.

Back cover, calendar laminated on 11" x 11" cardstock
Calendar is from the free curriculum planner at New Beginnings

Back Cover. I decided to put an extra yearly calendar there so I know if I ever need a calendar, I just have to flip the planner over and there it is. I don't have to turn pages and look for it. Call it lazy if you want. I prefer to call it efficient. I hate messing around looking for things! I spend way too much time doing that as it is, so if I can find a way to NOT do that, I'm doing myself a huge favor.

  Post-it Durable Filing/Divider Tabs

Another great product I used is the Post-it Durable Filing Tabs.  They are reusable, though I'm sure eventually they won't stick anymore, but I can take them out of the old planner and put them in the new one the next year. I can also change things as necessary without too much fuss. I love that!

So, there you have it. My new homeschool/family planner. It cost me less than $10! $5 and some change at Office Max for the binding and laminating, and a few dollars (maybe) more for the paper and ink I printed out at home. You can easily spend $20 or much more on a pre-designed planner, whether it's a PDF file you print yourself or one that is already printed, bound and mailed to you. I'm hoping it works well, and I'm already thinking of modifications and additions for next year's planner. There's no end to the possibilities for personalization (if I had found this sooner, I'd have done it a little differently, but I had to get it put together before we start school!) such as pictures and scrapbooking-styled pages, dividers, etc. It was a lot of fun, too!

ON A MISSION: Using Couponing to Make the Budget Work

Last Saturday I attended a couponing seminar presented by Jill Hale over at couponthrifty.  I really enjoyed it, Jill did a great job of explaining all that coupon mumbo-jumbo and the fine art of CVS'ing and bagging great WAGS deals. She is also a good friend of my friend The Dime Savin' Diva and I was really looking forward to meeting her. She's great!

Coupons are not a new thing for me, I've used them off and on for years. But there is a difference between the casual couponer and the Coupon Queen...a big difference...we're talking hundreds of dollars a year, if not more!  And the whole CVS thing completely escaped me...I've heard tales of ridiculous deals (ridiculous as in it's ridiculous that people can even DO this!) and have longed to score some myself, yet every time I tried to figure out a 'CVS scenario' my brain would literally lock up. I just couldn't get it, which is incredibly irritating as I consider myself to be of reasonable intelligence...so why is it so hard? It takes experience for one, and an ability to think ahead and around...not always my strongest area, to be honest.

Jill did a great job of explaining that though, and I am very excited to try it out this week. I plan on spending some time Tuesday during Li'l Man's nap to plan my strategy.

She had for sale some neat coupon binders, but I just didn't have any extra money so I didn't purchase one. I had never thought of putting together a binder and decorating it with scrapbooking materials! She has some very cute ones, plus inside are all you need to organize your coupons, a grocery list, and a reference sheet of websites and other information that is very helpful.

I decided I would make my own...I have binders all over the place, sheet protectors, and coupons. I don't really like to use grocery lists made by someone else simply because they shop and eat differently than I do. I haven't made up a grocery list yet, but I did print out some Pantry Inventory sheets from OrganizedHome. My project this evening is to go through the cupboards and shelves and make a list of what we already have (I think I said I'd do this earlier...um, I haven't gotten to it yet LOL).

Jill uses baseball card sheet protectors to slip her cut-out coupons in, which is brilliant! You can see the coupon and expiration date (I had to get creative and fold some in certain ways to make them fit and keep the relevant info visible) at a glance, and you can organize them however you want. However, I have to be totally honest and say that while I do have access to 'slave labor' (she has her children cut them out and organize them into three general categories), I just don't want to cut all the coupons out...for one, when I go to those websites that tell you what's on sale where and what coupons to use with it, they say things like $1/2 (product name) RP 6-13. That's $1 off of two whatevers and the coupon was in the Red Plum Sunday circular on 6-13. My problem, then, is that if I cut them all out, how am I going to find them again later? I suppose I could just look through all the little pockets, but I don't want to do it that way.

The Coupon Mom has you keep the coupon circulars, write the date on the front in big Sharpie marker, and put it in a binder. Then you go to her website and look up the deals, which are cross-referenced to the corresponding coupons. Sounds great...yet then I have the problem of what to do with the coupons I already have cut out,  and the ones I get in the mail, on products or print out?

The solution for me is to use both systems...then I'm not cutting out every single coupon and waste time on coupons I won't use, yet I have a place for all the loose coupons I already have and the others I will no doubt accumulate.

I spent some time today putting together the binder in a 'logical' fashion. I may have over-complicated it...I often do that, but the way I put it together makes sense in my head.  I'll give it a test run for the next few weeks and if I like the way it works, I'll post pictures of it here later.

So for now, it's off to inventory all our stuff...

Organization: Decisions and Holy Grails

Today, I looked at my desk. It looked back...mocking me. I decided I wasn't going to let my desk 'dis' me like that. And I had a re-visitation of starry host singing hallelujah and radiant glory shining down upon me. And behold, a revelation on how to decide what to title the six sections in my (possible) Holy Grail of Organizational Tools for the Piler, the Pendaflex Smartfile appeared! It was so simple, it was practically absurd.

Thou shalt start sorting through the papers on thy desk and see what kind of piles develop. Then shall thee consolidate, if necessary, to achieve Six Categories. When thou hast discovered the Six Categories,  label the Index Sheet with the categories in the most logical (for thou) order...frequency of use. Then shall thou becomest organized.

My messy desk before...

This is what I came up with to label my new best friend, Mr. Pendaflex

 And this is my nice, clean desk. It did NOT take me six hours to clean this time! It took about an hour and a half, including interruptions from the children. 

  

This is our bill organizing system. It has actually worked very well. I try to empty the old bills every 3-6 months.

We keep everything we need to manage the bills in there...calculator, paper, pencils, etc. so it's just grab it and get to work without searching all over the house for stuff (usually). There are pockets of resistance to clutter in my home...hoping to change that to just pockets of clutter resisting organization!

So, desk, take that. I am now Organized...and everyone else...check back again to see how well the Pendaflex Pilesmart Project Sorter has lived up to its Holy Grail-ness...

This is not a solicited endorsement of the Pendaflex PileSmart Project Sorter. I just really think I found something that will work this time!

The Holy Grail of Organizing? Or Another Wasted Purchase? I Can't Decide!

If you are like me, you have piles. Deep down inside, you WANT to have files...neatly color-coded, alphabetized files in fashionable designs housed in cute but functional receptacles for said files. You want the contents to be neatly arranged, so whatever contract, bill, recipe or other item magically appears the instant you look for it.

The reality is, however, that files just don't work for some people. Some of us just pile, that's all there is to it. Trying to force a Piler to become a Filer is, in my opinion, a complete waste of time and an exercise in futility. Piler minds are wired differently than Filer minds.

As an unrepentant Piler, I am always on the look-out for that one piece of equipment, furniture, or system that will satisfy my Piler tendencies while producing the tidy orderliness of the Filer way. I have tried many different apparatus, all with the same results...works for a while, but before you know it, the Piles are back. It's incredibly frustrating. I am a reasonably intelligent adult...and I am bigger than these Piles, so why can't I master them?

I was wandering around Meijer one evening and as I passed through the aisle that contains the filing supplies my eyes happened to glance upon this:


This is the Pendaflex PileSmart Project Sorter. The "PileSmart" is what caught my eye. It gives validation to my preferred method of paper management.

It claims to help you "Organize Piles and Projects For A Clutter-Free Desktop" using "6 Color-Coded Sections To Sort and Retrieve Papers." You can also "Customize Sections With Blank Index Sheet" (and it includes a few extras).


When I saw this, it was almost like one of those Hollywood 'hallelujah' moments...almost like a choir of starry host singing and radiant glory shining down upon me.

"This is it!" I told myself. "This is the Thing I've been looking for to get those piles under control!"

There's only one small problem...(and no one who knows me will be shocked by this).

I haven't yet started using this miracle purchase made over a week ago because...

I CAN'T DECIDE WHAT THE SIX SECTIONS SHOULD BE

Whenever I start trying to decide what should go where, I am distressed that there are only six sections. What If I need more? And, what order should they be in? Alphabetical? Frequency of use? And what if, horror of horrors, I get it set up and decide I need to change something? I am completely paralyzed by indecision.

This brings to light the possibility that my Piler problem is rooted in some deep, psychological quagmire. Is it Perfectionism rearing its ugly head? (If I can't do it right, I won't do it at all) Or maybe, Fear of Failure (what if I assign categories and it doesn't work?). I did a search on 'psychological root of indecision', which produced a link to an abstract called Perceptions of parental control and the development of indecision among late adolescent females.

...it appears that a major source of the development of decisional procrastination tendencies in late adolescent females lies within the home environment. As expected, authoritarian parents who exercise overcontrol and inflexibility of authority untempered by warmth or support, were perceived by daughters as having a parental style that influenced their inclination toward indecision. Having authoritative parents, perceived as accepting and supportive of their children while flexible in their use of authority, and permissive parents, perceived as accepting without use of parental authority, were unrelated to decisional procrastination scores of daughters.

Certainly makes me think about how I parent my children...

Whether I can blame my parents for my inability to make decisions or not, the fact remains that no matter how marvelous this product may be (I may never know, at this rate)...it will only work if I actually use it. Nowhere on the label is any claim made that this product will actually organize your papers for you. Or that piles will be magically attracted to it and just end up in there on their own accord. I'm glad it was not outrageously expensive...$3.99 isn't too bad, but the Penny Pincher in me is quite irate that I bought yet another organizational 'gizmo' and it's just sitting there. On top of a Pile. How ironic...

This is not a solicited review of the Pendaflex PileSmart Project Sorter.