Waste more time in 2012 (and 52 other little goals)
By mom4life | Category: Creating a Home, Organize Me!, The Journey of Motherhood | Posted Tuesday, January 10, 2012
On New Year’s Eve we sat around the table and pulled some questions out of a hat taking turns reminiscing 2011.
I had to answer “what was your biggest time waster in 2011?” and although this may sound surprising, I was stumped. For better or worse, I have been “blessed” with a highly productive and organized personality which struggles to waste time (I know, pathetic right? I can practically hear you gagging. Please tell me I am not alone with this strange trait!). My husband was quick to provide some examples to illustrate this point. If I am waiting for my emails to download, I will throw in a load of laundry. If I am going upstairs, I will bring up the clean laundry along. If I am folding the laundry, I will be listening to a book on CD or talking on the phone. Leaving the house before wiping off the kitchen countertop or making my bed would be a huge mental hurdle and I almost never go to bed at night before first cleaning my sink. The poor man has been subject blessed to my mental efficiency and over the last 11 years of marriage, has adapted surprisingly well. The closest thing I can typically get to doing “nothing” is reading a book or watching a movie, but I can hardly ever justify wasting taking the time to watch TV. After some good hearted laughs at my expense, it was decided that one of my goals for 2012 should be to enjoy more downtime, or said a different way: waste some time!
52 ways to simplify life
I plan to consider this goal of wasting time as the year progresses, but before I get to that goal I am having too much fun reading my newest ebook from Tsh Oxenreider titled One Bite at a Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler.
In Tsh’s own words:
Be still my beating heart: Pinterest
By mom4life | Category: Creating a Home, Home Crafts, Kids Crafts, Organize Me! | Posted Tuesday, April 26, 2011
My friend Kira recently introduced me to a website that I LOVE! Have you heard of Pinterest? It is like the marriage of Evernote and Facebook with a little Flickr thrown in for good measure. Or another way to describe it is an eye pleasing, super easy to use, share and find, idea garden for crafts, projects, tutorials and more. (Oh ya it is free too:) ).
Steering Wheel Lists
By mom4life | Category: Activities with Kids, Organize Me!, The Journey of Motherhood | Posted Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Each morning I drive Hunter to school. The drive takes about 30 minutes. Although it is not ideal to have to drive so far, we have discovered many useful things that can be done during our drive time, one of which is homework. Each week Hunter’s teacher sends home a newsletter with his weekly spelling words and memory verse printed out in the same place and size. Recently, I found a simple yet very helpful tool for keeping this list close at hand while also keeping both hands on the wheel*.
-Using this size of his weekly list as a template, I took a UPS label protector sleeve and cut it to size. (You could also use a USPS customs form sleeve–free for the taking at the Post Office, or a ZipLock bag)
-Then I taped this “pocket” to the center of my steering wheel using packaging tape (although I am sure other forms of tape would also work) being sure to leave the top section open to allow me to slip in and out each weekly list.
-With my pocket in place, I can easily update the lists each week and refer to them as we travel.
*Please note that I am not advocating that you look away from the road while driving. However, most of us have points in our route in which we are simply waiting in traffic (on a backed up freeway, at stop signs, traffic lights, etc). Using that time to read over your list is of course most ideal and safe! My particular weekly list can be glanced at in the same time that it takes to check my driving speed.
How about you? Have any handy tips to share on how you get homework done with your kids?
Let’s organize the rest of our day
By mom4life | Category: Organize Me!, The Journey of Motherhood | Posted Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Judging from the traffic and views from the last “Let’s organize our day: the evening routine,” post and the fact that it was featured on the StartUp Princess website, my guess is that this topic of routine and organization is one that is of interest to us moms. And who can blame us? Sanity is a pretty appealing commodity!
I will start out by keeping it real: my evening routine is a still a work in progress. I am tweaking and adjusting it even now. Recently (after being late out the door yet again despite all my attempts to be organized) I decided to start setting a timer for Hunter when he wakes up in the morning to help him stay on track. When the timer goes off, he needs to be ready to leave (just to be safe, I will set this to go off 5 min before we REALLY need to leave). If he is not ready by that time then I start the count-up timer on my phone. For every minute he is “late” he loses 2 minutes from his allotted “technology time.” My theory was that this would motivate him enough to stay on task (and not take 30 min to eat his breakfast like it did about a week ago). After putting my theory to work for several mornings I am happy to report that this “tweak” has been successful and we have not only been out the door on time but early to school the past few days – yeah! All this to say, if what you are doing for your evening/morning routine is not yet working the way you want it to, don’t give up, keep playing with it and over time ideally it will be better and better suited for your family. Now on to the meat of today’s topic: the daytime routine.
Because each day’s schedule is often different from the next I don’t have a schedule that is quite as mapped out as my evening routine. However, I have found several things that have created a more manageable, less stressful day.
-Grocery shopping:
It is imperative that I have some sort of “list” system in place both for my sanity and for our pantry’s well being.
In the past, this simply meant having a grocery list on the side of the fridge that my husband and I would add to as we thought of things, used up the last of something or planned a future meal. This method worked well for us expect for times that we were in town (without our list) and near the store and wondering what it was we needed. Now my husband and I have transitioned to using an online tool for keeping our list. This enables us to access (and add to) the list from anywhere with the use of our phone or computer. I am sure there are many great grocery list solutions out there and I have tried more than one.
However, the one that I have settled on and used for the last several months is ZipList. There are several things I like about ZipList but the main things are the fact that it is quick and easy to update and access and (my favorite part) if I use it to store favorite recipes then I can “push” the ingredient list from the recipes I plan to make into my shopping list. Sound like something you would be interested in? There is a great video tutorial that quickly covers the features of ZipList here which you might find helpful.
Another great option for taking care of your grocery list is shopping online via Alice. Alice has a very intuitive website that allows you to shop from home for your general household items. As long as you order a minimum of 6 things, shipping is free. They even have an option that will allow you to choose a schedule to be reminded via email when you might be low on specific items you need to repurchase preventing you from running out. Want to get a better feel? Watch this video tutorial.
-Keeping track of the family schedule:
If i can write something down then I can use my mind for something else besides remembering upcoming events. In the past I used my Outlook calendar that is built into my email system.
However, I have since transitioned over to using Cozi (which conveniently syncs with Outlook). I have mentioned Cozi in the past so feel free to click on over and read more details there or simply watch this short video tutorial to get a feel for how you can use this fantastic (and free) service to keep your entire family’s schedule (and to-do lists) in check. Oh did I mention they also have a fun family journal feature? Here is my journal which I update from my phone or computer and schedule to email out to our parents at the start of every month. I can see that I need to update it myself!
-Remembering everything else:
Evernote is where I keep all my random info that I don’t want to forget but don’t have a good place to store elsewhere. The toolbar shortcut makes it easy to clip things to my account that I want to file and the customizable folders allow me to create endless categories such as “recipes to try” or “blog post ideas”. I don’t use this free service to its full potential but it is pretty cool. (click here for a video tutorial of Evernote).
Quite often I run across a blog post or article that I really want to read but don’t have the time to focus on. This is where Read it Later comes in handy. I have down loaded a shortcut for my toolbar and can simply click on it when I am on a page I want to read later. The URL is stored in my Read it Later account and I can go back and read it . . . later! After I read it, it is removed from my list. (click here for a quick video explanation of Read it Later).
-Keeping things clean:
A tip that I was taught as a teenager that has continued to stick with me is the saying, “Always leave a room cleaner than you found it.” This one simple phrase is a great one to teach your kids and to practice yourself. If each time you pass though a room you do SOMETHING to improve it (pick up a towel, close a drawer, etc) then the next time you enter it, it will look a little bit better!
If all of this just feels a little overwhelming or if it has you excited you might find some inspiration from the FlyLady. Have you heard of her? on the homepage of this website it says, Are YOU living in CHAOS? (Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome) Do you feel overwhelmed, overextended, and overdrawn? Hopeless and you don’t know where to start? Don’t worry friend, we’ve been there, too. The FlyLady offers practical, step by step solutions to tackling your home and whipping it into shape and best of all, maintaining it with a great, manageable plan.
Want more?
I recently read this blog post from Passionate Homemaking which talked about order in our lives and how we can look to Jesus for some practical examples for how order in our own lives can be worked out in a practical way. Then a few days later, Developing a Simple Schedule & Routine was posted on the same blog, also with great content. Worth the read if this topic is of interest to you!
If you clicked though more than one of my links to video reviews you may have started to notice a familiar face: Carley Knobloch’s. Carley’s passion is finding creative digital solutions to make your life easier and condensing what you need to know to see if it is right for you in a short 3 minute video sent to your inbox each week. if you click on her Digiwirl website you just might notice my smiling face next to my testimonial because I really have enjoyed the content she has introduced me to. If digital solutions excite you to, you would probably enjoy getting her weekly emails sent to you as well. (no I was not paid to say any of this, nor she doesn’t even know I am writing this post with an obscene amount of links to her websites, I just really have enjoyed what she does).
I feel like I have only just scratched the service on the topic of routines and organization but I hope that something I had to offer was just what you needed to hear. Do you have any great resources to share or tips on things you do to stay sane? I would love to hear them!
A month in review: courtesy of Cozi
By Heather Ledeboer | Category: Family Focus, Organize Me!, The Journey of Motherhood | Posted Sunday, August 29, 2010
Three months ago I started using a website called Cozi to organize my calendar (and my life). I LOVE IT!!!! If you don’t have a calender system that you love, you are in for a treat. Do you have an active family with mulitiple schedules? This just may be a dream come true for you. Each family member is given their own color dot allowing you to signifiy which events affect which people and easily recognize in a glance who needs to be where. Don’t want your husband to forget your Parent Teacher meeting? No problem! Simply set up an auto text reminder for his phone ( ___ minutes) before the meeting.
Not only is Cozi super intuitive and easy to use but it has some really great extra features too. One that I have started using lately is the “journal”. This is a great way to add a photo and a quick snipt about your day–think of it as an online diary. I use it for stuff that isn’t “big” enough to blog about, but that I don’t want to forget. The bonus is that you can set it up to automatically email all your journal updates to friends and family on a monthy basis (think grandparents). Or if you have someone that you want to keep updated that doesn’t have computer access (think great-grandparents) you can print your journal and pop it in the mail to them! I am also able to access my Cozi account though my phone so updating and checking my calendar (or journal) is effortless. You can also sync your journal entries to your facebook page so that all updates are automatically shared on your profile page.
Want to get a feel for the journal? Here is a peek at our August journal entries.
Perhaps you are like me and are a visual learner. You are in luck because I found out about Cozi though Carley over at Mothercraft Coaching. She has her pulse on all things helpful for moms who want to keep their lives organized and sends out a weekly newsletter with one simple actionable idea. I (heart) Carley and have started using almost EVERYTHING that she has suggested–seriously it is just sort of ridiculous. Whenever I start telling Trent about something new I am using he asks, “Did you find out about this though that lady again?” and I say “Of course I did!”
Oh dear I almost totally forgot my focus there. What I wanted to say was that Carley created a Cozi video tutorial that will quickly and easily give you the tour of Cozi and help you see how super cool it is. And when you start using it, don’t say I didn’t tell you so (oh and the best part, Cozi is free)!
Just in time for back to school–go get organized!
Please share: What method of calender organization works best for you? Do you have one?
