Resolutions Part 1

As I promised back at the beginning of January, I plan to blog about resolutions that I have made for 2011. I have divided them into various categories. Really they are goals that I have set for myself, but I am resolving to meet them, so I am calling them my New Year's Resolutions.

Part 1

Spiritual Goals

• I have two Bible reading goals. One is to complete the Read the Bible in 90 Days Challenge, and the other is to choose two books in the New Testament to study in-depth. I am currently on Day 18 (almost caught up to Day 19 which is where I should be today) of my first time through the Bible in 90 days. After I complete this reading, I plan to spend 3 months on Matthew, then re-read the Bible in 90 days, and then spend 3 months on another New Testament book (I haven't decided which one yet).
• I have found a great help to keeping up with the 90 Day Challenge. It is the free Bible app from LifeChurch.tv that is available on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. If you search the app store for Bible free, it is the first app that appears. This app offers a variety of reading plans, one of which is the 90 day reading plan. This app also offers the Bible in numerous translations. I mostly read in the English Standard Version, but I switch to other versions when I come to a passage that needs clarification. The best thing about this app is that once you choose the 90 Day Reading Plan, it keeps up with what you have read and checks off each chapter as you turn the page. It does use a live internet connection, so no matter which device you read on (if you have the app on more than one device), the check marks are always up to date.
• I have another app that I like to do my daily Bible reading on when I don't have a live internet connection or when I want to take notes or highlight verses. It is also free, and it is called the ESV Bible app by Crossway. This app downloads the entire Bible on your device, so you can read it at any time. If I read my Bible reading using this app, I later open the other Bible app and check off the chapters I read.
• My other spiritual goals include (1) jotting down all of the prayer requests that are mentioned at our church services as well as those that come through emails, in a new journal that I received as a Christmas gift. Then I use this journal to remind myself who I need to be praying for. (2) continuing to list 5 things that I am thankful for in another journal. I have done this off and on for 15 years now. Looking back over my thankful lists from years past serve as a sort of journal.

I am linking this post to Works For Me Wednesday. Please visit this site for more ideas on a variety of subjects.

Watering the Tree

Jimmy always has the best ideas for things! His idea for watering the Christmas tree is no exception! He extended about a 3 foot length of clear tubing from the tree stand up through the tree alongside the trunk. To water the tree, I simply pull the upper end of the tubing out from the tree and use a funnel to pour a pitcher of water through the tubing. It works brilliantly! The tubing is hidden from view by all of the ornaments.

To read about other great tips today, please visit We Are That Family.

Works For Me Wednesday

Whenever I order something online I like to keep a record of my order, but I don't want a piece of paper to have to keep up with. So instead of printing out the "receipt" or "confirmation page", I simply copy the page and then paste it into a word document entitled Confirmation Pages. I save all of my receipts in this same document. Periodically I will delete the pages for items I have already received.

When I receive the confirmation email for items ordered online, I move the email into a separate folder called Confirmations. Now I have a record of ordered items if I need them, but I don't have pile of paper!

It works for me!

Please visit We Are That Family for more great tips.

The Van Can

The van trash can.....
Today's tip is actually not my original idea. My friend Lynn shared this wonderful idea with me a couple of years ago. I have always used those plastic grocery store sacks for our van trash. The children would pass me their trash, and I would hang the plastic bag on a knob or something in the front of the van. Not very attractive!
Now I have a small wastebasket that we keep on the floor between the seats on the second row. It has to be emptied almost every day!

There is one problem: it frequently falls over while I am driving, scattering trash all over the floor! Do any of you have a suggestion about how I can keep it upright?

Please visit We Are That Family for more Works For Me Wednesday tips and idea.

The Summer List

I have finally completed my summer list! I have it divided into six major categories:

1. Household--I listed every single drawer, closet, shelf, and area that I wanted to clean out and reorganize. I also listed things like deep clean the refrigerators, wash windows, wipe ceiling fans and other cleaning tasks that I don't do on a weekly or even monthly basis.

2. Children's Rooms--This list includes cleaning out their closets and drawers, and removing toys that they have outgrown.

3. School--This list includes cleaning out the schoolroom and preparing for the next school year.

4. Projects--Here I have listed projects like scrapbooking, mending, Bible verse book for Leah, and letter writing list.

5. Places to Go--All of the places we want to make sure we visit this summer (locally)---the library, splash pad, book mobile, HealthWorks children's museum.

6. Hospitality--I listed people to visit (elderly and shut-ins), people to invite over to swim and play, and people to take a meal to.

Under each category I have very detailed, very specific items to accomplish. My three older children have each made their own Summer Productive List which includes productive things that they can do in their rooms (like clean out drawers, shelves, and closets). Each morning after our Bible lesson and regular chores, we set a timer for 30 minutes and everybody works on their productive list. Some days I will assist the children in their rooms, and some days I will work alone on my list. I also am working on my summer list at least one other time during the day. I hope to work on the list three times a day on most days.

Making the master summer list, and then making the time to work on it each day works for me!

Please visit We Are That Family for more tips and ideas.

Supper in the Morning

For today's edition of Works-For-Me-Wednesday we are supposed to share a frugal tip. My idea of "supper in the morning" saves my family money, because this helps me to avoid costly pre-packaged foods, take out food, or fast food.

Years ago when Olivia (now 14) was just a baby, I began preparing most, if not all, of my supper meals in the morning. I quickly found out that while Olivia would take 2-3 naps during the day, when 5:00 PM came, she just needed my attention too much for me to try to cook supper. As our family number increased every two years or so, it became even more difficult for me to accomplish much more than outside playtime around the 5:00 PM hour. So, "supper in the morning" became a routine for me.

Today, I still prepare most of our evening meal either in the morning or around lunchtime. Even though we don't have a baby anymore, it is still difficult for me to carve out an uninterrupted hour each night to cook supper.

To prepare supper in advance, I do a variety of things....
1. Use the crock pot. I use my crock pot at least once a week, more in the winter when I am making soups.
2. Prepare a casserole and keep it in the refrigerator until about one hour before supper.
3. Defrost a "freezer meal". I also do this once a week. Again, about one hour before supper, all I have to do is place it in the oven. A freezer meal is a meal that I have prepared in advance and frozen for later use.
4. Prepare a salad. I use the packaged organic spring mix for the base, so all that it requires is scooping it out of the box and putting it into the salad bowl. I chop the broccoli, carrots, and other ingredients and then store them in separate containers. At suppertime all I have to do is remove the ingredients from the refrigerator and toss the salad. I also make any homemade salad dressings ahead of time too.
4. Prepare any cooked vegetables (green beans, potato dishes, etc.). I store these in the refrigerator and then reheat them in the microwave at supper time.

I admit that the food probably would taste better if I could cook the entire meal and immediately serve it, but since my time does not allow this, cooking supper in the morning (or early afternoon) is a better alternative than eating pre-packaged food, take out, or fast food.

It works for me!

To learn other great frugal tips, visit We Are That Family.

Works for Me Wednesday

Managing Sippee Cups

When I had toddlers who drank exclusively from sippee cups, I purchased 4 or 5 for each child and wrote their names on the cups with a permanent marker. Every night I would put all of cups in the dishwasher or hand wash them (believe it or not, I used to not run my dishwasher every single day!). Each morning I would refill all 4-5 cups per child with water, diluted juice, or milk and put each child's cup on a separate door shelf of the refrigerator. Done! No more fixing sippee cups all throughout the day.

Now that my children are older, they choose one clean cup each morning. I have their names written on these cups with a permanent marker. After each meal or whenever they have a drink, they place these cups in a certain spot on our island. They use the same cup all day. If I didn't do this, I would probably have 25 dirty cups by the end of the day, plus I would have to run our dishwasher more than once a day.

Another tip.....I keep all of our sippee cups, plastic drink bottles, plastic drinking cups, and plastic bowls and plates in bottom drawers in our kitchen. This allows my younger children to unload the dishwasher--the unbreakable items are stored in an area that they can easily reach. This also allows them to get a cup or plate on their own.

One last tip....to prevent me from having to run the dishwasher more than once a day (I run it at bedtime), we use paper plates for either breakfast, lunch or sometimes both. For dessert after supper, my children know to ask me if they need to use a paper or plastic (washable) bowl or plate. I make my decision based on dishwasher space availability.

For more tips visit We Are That Family.

Plan for the Day

As mothers and CEOs of our homes, we usually have our days carefully planned. I have a datebook and home management binder with a calendar on my desk, an iGoogle calendar, a purse sized datebook, a large bulletin board sized wall calendar in our hallway, plus various to do lists. The purpose of all of these items is to tell me my "plan for the day". However, if I don't share the plan for the day with my family members, they don't know what to expect. So, each morning after I read aloud to the children, and before I send them off to complete their morning chores, I share our "plan for the day". It is really very simple, but they appreciate knowing what is expected of them each day and where, if anywhere, we will be going that day. For example, I might say, "Today is Monday. We have to leave for piano lessons at 3:10. We will need to do our housework as soon as lunch is finished so I will have time to put Sam down for a nap early enough for him to be through sleeping by 3:10. The weather is going to be warm today, so we will run outside after piano. You will need to wear your running clothes to piano lessons. I will be going to Kroger while you are at piano. Is there anything any of you need from the grocery store (the girls are always trying out new recipes, so I want to make sure I have the ingredients they need)." I will also inform them of the day's temperature and tell them what to wear (playclothes, nicer clothes because we have to go somewhere, running clothes, etc.). The children now have an agenda for the day. This works for all of us!

Check out We Are That Family for more "Works For Me Wednesday" posts.

The Blog Book

As I have mentioned before, my sister in law, Megan, surprised me with the neatest gift about a month ago.....my 2008 blog published in a book! I love this book so much, that I plan on publishing my blog at the end of each year. In order to prevent this from being an overwhelming task in the already busy month of December, I am already preparing. Each time I post on my blog, I copy and paste the post into a word document. When I am ready for publishing, all I will have to do is upload the word document to the publishing site. The site Megan used is Lulu.com.

Here is the front of the Blog Book

This is what it looks like on the inside.

For more Works For Me Wednesday Tips, visit We Are That Family.

Works for Me Wednesday

I recently changed the homepage on my computer from Google to iGoogle. iGoogle has the same search engine as regular Google, plus a whole lot more. You can choose from hundreds of applications to add to your homepage. You can also select from a large number of backgrounds. I chose a pink dotted one--very cute! I selected the following applications:

Bible Verse of the Day

To Do List---you type your to do list, choose if each item is high, medium, or low priority, then "x" it when you complete it by deleting it from your list. This has taken a little bit of getting used to for me, because I like the satisfaction of seeing all of those items crossed out on my to do list. On iGoogle, the completed item is just removed from your list.


5 Day Local Weather Forecast


Clock

Calendar/Datebook--here you can type in your appointments and reminders for each day. An added feature to this application is that iGoogle will send you an email reminder before each event on your calendar. You can also add your daily menu on each day.

I haven't completely abandoned my "paper" calendar/datebook, but I am really enjoying seeing my to do list and calendar each time I use my computer.


Each person in your family with a separate email/google/blogger account, can create their own iGoogle page. You just sign in and out as you change users.

Check out We Are That Family for more Wednesday's tips.

Rotating Chores

In addition to helping with the house cleaning four days a week, my children have daily chores. These fall into two categories: fixed chores and rotating chores. The fixed chores are done by the same child everyday. These include things like making their bed, tidying their room, tidying the bathroom, taking out the trash, sorting dirty laundry, putting away clean laundry, and straightening an assigned room of the house. Rotating chores are those chores that each child keeps for just one week. I typed a chart with these chores and who is to do each one. Since I have 3 children rotating these chores, every 3 weeks they just repeat the rotation. Rotating chores include pet care (outside dogs, inside dog, cat), unload dishwasher (top, bottom, silverware), and van seating (this is not actually a chore, but the children have assigned seats in the van, changing their seats every week). Leah and Sam are in carseats which stay in the same spot.

Check out other WFMW tips on this blog. Also note, that beginning next week, there will be a new hostess for this blog carnival. See WFMW for more information.

Works For Me Wednesday

15 Minutes a Day

Today's tip will help you accomplish a lot of your cleaning and organizational goals, a little at a time. Most of us don't have hours of free time each day just waiting to be filled. But, all of us can steal 15 minutes here and there. Look at your day. Find two or three times during the day that you can carve out 15 minutes to tackle some projects. For the first day, use your 15 minute time blocks to actually make a list of what you would like to work on for 15 minutes a day in the future. Your list might include things like clean out a some drawers, cabinets or closets, go through your recipes and sort, purge, organize, etc., sort through a pile a papers in your kitchen, file papers, balance your checkbook....anything that you need to work on, but just can't find the time to complete the job. 15 minutes a day works! One key to its success is to make sure you set a timer and QUIT after the 15 minutes is up! Currently my 15 minutes a day job include typing all of my recipes that I want to include in my recipe binder, enter our bank statements into Quicken, and compile documents for our taxes. Once these jobs are completed, I always have a closet, cabinet, or drawer that needs attention.

For more tips visit Rocks in My Dryer.

Works For Me Wednesday

Works For Me Wednesday is a time of sharing helpful tips. If you visit Rocks in My Dryer, you will find lots of links to other people's blogs who are posting tips too.
Here is my tip for this Wednesday. I call it Popsicle Stick Chores.

Since my beloved housekeeper of 5 years has moved several states away, I have added a new class to our homeschool: Home Ec. This new class meets 4 days a week for about an hour. The curriculum is "cleaning the house".
I divided our home into 4 zones, and we clean one zone each day Home Ec class meets, usually Monday-Thursday. I listed all of the jobs involved to clean each zone on popsicle sticks, one job per stick. I put all of the sticks into a cup, and the children (all 5 of them) each choose a stick (without looking). Then they complete the job on the stick. I do not choose a stick, because I help Leah and Sam do their task. When one person finishes the job on their stick, they choose another stick. We just keep on choosing sticks and working until all of the jobs are done.

Here are some of the sticks

It works for me!