This is what I'm calling my home management binder I'm working on.  I'm making good progress on it, too.  The great thing is, some of the things I've been including in the binder are things my Beloved has wanted me to get down on paper for some time.  A list of lunch and breakfast menus is one example.

So here are the categories I have.  Later I will tell you what all is in the categories, as I get them filled up.  Here's what I have so far:

First Page: Our Family Mission written out to remind us.

First Section: Schedule

Our master schedule and my weekly housekeeping routine right next to each other.  Also a 2008/2009 Calendar just for viewing.  I keep my actual calendar separate on my chalkboard. (I use the Mom's Plan-it! Calendar because it has room for lots of kids, but I will be running out of room with this new addition, I think, LOL.)

Second Section: Housekeeping

Cleaning Checklists & Supply Forms

Third Section: Family Kitchen

Menu Lists, Pantry Inventories, Herbal & Health Information.  Will also include mix recipes and often used recipes.

Fourth Section: Home School (This is going to get full.  Good thing Beloved got me a LARGE binder.)

Goals for each child through high school.  Yearly course of study and curriculum record.  Master copies of book report forms, etc.

Fifth Section: Children

Non-home school children items.  Right now I have a master of the drawer labels I did for the boys dressers.

Sixth Section: Projects

These are my personal projects I'm working on.  (I finished my Master Bedroom curtains, by the way.)

Seventh Section: Contacts

Home Group Rosters, Medical/Dental Office Info.,  Business Card sheets for household contacts.

Eight Section: Encouragement

Any article, etc. I run across that I want to read again and again for encouragement.

That's what I'll be working on over the next few weeks.  As I try to get my household more organized and make it so that I don't have to be the only person who can run it.

Blessings today,

Kris

It has many names: Home Management Binder, Household Notebook, Home Companion, etc., etc.  Do a web search and see what comes up.  It is a very useful tool to help you run your household. 

And, although it is becoming very popular with homemakers these days, there is nothing new about a Household Notebook.  Our great great grandmothers likely used them.  Historical records of famous families usually include the matriarch's household notebook.  In my research of the Lees of Virginia, a household notebook is part of their historical record.

I have known about this concept for some time, now, but have never put it in to practice.  The idea seemed overwhelming several years ago when I read about it at www.organizedhome.com.  I guess I needed to see more examples.  Now, however, there are so many examples online, blogs with instructions and free downloads, and more!  I am encouraged and have started to finally put together my own Family Home Companion Notebook.

Most folks don't know me well enough to know that when it comes to paperwork, I am a real messie.  I sometimes feel like all I do is shuffle papers around our home.  This is a problem I have had since I was a kid.  I always had papers, papers everywhere.  I've gotten a bit better about it, as I throw out junk mail when it comes in and at least throw all the bills into a basket for Beloved to pay as soon as they come in.  I have also filed all of the property information in files by address so Beloved can go right to the necessary place when dealing with tenants, insurance, etc.  I am improving, somewhat.

Expecting my fifth child and seeing that my daughter is nearly ten years old, I feel it will only benefit our family to have all our important household information in one place.  This will help me rest more when baby comes and it will help Beloved and the rest of the family to become familiar with things they normally don't pay attention to.  In the next few weeks, I will describe what I am doing to create this Notebook and as soon as I can, I will post photos of it.

In the meantime, check out www.organizedhome.com, http://starryskyranch.typepad.com/starry_sky_ranch/2006/10/the_home_mgt_jo.html, http://savethephillipsfamily.blogspot.com/2008/08/household-notebook-preview.html, and do your own search to find out what others are doing with these once very important tools.

Okay, so this is probably the story of my life.  But these days my to do list never ends.

Granted, I put a lot of it on myself.  But when I am done at the end of the day, my house still feels like a mess.  Ever since I started organizing my entire house in JUNE, I feel like the mess just follows behind me.  I am still not done with that project!  I know I am gaining ground, but I really want everything in it's place very soon, as I start my bulk freezer cooking in October.

My plan is to make meals ahead for the freezer every weekend in October, and possibly early November if I'm up to it.  That way I will not have to cook for a long time after the baby arrives.

I also have some home sewing projects and baby sewing projects to do before baby gets here, too.  I just feel like if I don't get it done soon, I won't get it done.  But I have to pace myself.  I also need to finish our Christmas shopping.  I know what we need, so that shouldn't be hard.

Our living room is looking homier these days.  Got some pillows covered and everything is bright and cheerful looking, I think.  I have my pumpkins out, starting to do the fall decorating.  I'm excited about making soups and stews and enjoying the crisp fall air.  I really enjoy this time of year.  It will be nice when we put the garden to bed and are done putting up food.  A great sigh of relief will follow!

Goodness, I didn't realize how tired I am until I sat down to write you.  Going to climb in bed, now.  I hope you have a great week!

Miss Kris

It's Monday again and we are getting back into our weekday routine.  The new chore packs I made the children using Managers of their Chores have been a God Send, literally!  My three oldest LOVE to clip their chore cards on and complete them in order and then report back to me.  They are pictorial for the non-readers and it is so nice.  My four year old son is learning what the pictures mean and starting to remember what he's supposed to do next.  I LOVE MOTC!

I got a lot done this weekend, but looking at my house, it sure doesn't look like it.  What did I do on Saturday?

1. 3-1/2 Quarts of pickles made.

2. Baking done: Coffee Cake, Granola Bars, Cookie Bars

3. 6 Loads Laundry

4. 3 Loads Dishes

5. Church Clothes Prepared

6. Errands Run - 5 stops, took #3 wiht me.  That was fun!

7. Made Pear Sauce, and still have many more pears to deal with!

On Sunday:

1. Went to Walmart all by my lonesome, peaceful.

2. Clean up Kitchen, kind of.

3. Sewed a cover for my wicker loveseat pad.  Moving it into the house for extra seating in the Living Room.  "New" piece of furniture for the cost of the fabric to cover, $8.88, plus I got two pillows out of the fabric.  GOOD DEAL! 

Making some pillows to match, etc.  Got another good deal on pillows clearanced at Walmart.  Bought 5 pillows for $3 each.  I cleaned them out, actually.  They aren't the right colors, but who cares?  I am covering them.  It costs about $5 to buy a small pillow form, and these are nice 16 inch pillows.  Adding some comfort to our living room.  It needs to be homier, IMO.

The house is a real mess.  I did not finish the boys room completely on Friday, so that is staring me in the face.  But right now we need to get our schoolwork done, so I have to live with it for now.  More important things, ya know?

Have a blessed day,

Miss Kris

Well, you've probably guessed that between the Morning AKA All Day Sickness and everything else, I have been MIA for quite some time.  I am hoping I can post more regularly now that we are following more of a routine again and I am feeling somewhat better.

A few things we've been up to around here:

1. Garden, 1600 sq. ft. this year!

2. Three birthdays

3. Decorate baby nursery in blue and yellow!

4. Family Camp

5. Creating and implementing a new chore system (Managers of Their Chores is highly recommended!)

6. Getting ready for the school year

7. Establishing new routines

8. Putting up food

9. Picking pears

There's probably more that I'm forgetting right now.  Why I think summer is a break  is beyond me.  It has been VERY busy.

Did you catch the color scheme of the nursery?  I'm using blue and that's a clue! 

We couldn't help ourselves this time and scheduled an U/S to find out what we're having.  On July 14, we found out we are having another little boy!  We just laughed so hard in the U/S room!  We're thinking we are extremely blessed to have gotten a girl first.  Now we know why we both really wanted a little girl first.  She is such a big help with her little brothers.  And, she didn't take the news too badly, although she has wanted a little sister for some time, now.  I think she realizes now that even this were a little girl, they would be ten years apart.

I have been busy this week.  Besides school, I am organizing the boys clothing, again.  I bought plastic drawer units to get everything into their closets.  I will be adding the little guys clothes to it, too, as he has been moved into the big boys room.  It's hard to believe we will eventually have four boys in that room. 

Their twin beds were starting to fall apart, so we moved them out and they have been on their mattresses on the floor for a few months, now.  Beloved plans to make them twin beds with trundles, so everyone is close to the floor, as neither of us is comfortable with bunk/loft beds at all.  But he hasn't had time to start them, yet.  It isn't too bad in there right now, with the toddler bed between the twin mattresses. 

My boys beat up their walls, so I am seriously considering using wall carpeting half way up the walls.  What do you think?  More practical then painting again, I think.  We'll see how much it costs, first, though.

Well, I have to go crack the whip.  The noise level has gotten too high in there and I need to check it out.

Edited to add: (Okay, so you all know when I say "crack the whip" I am really just  giving a stern reminder for my children to get back on task, right?  My Mom was concerned folks would think I was using a whip on them, LOL!)

Blessings today,

Miss Kris

Today I am beat! 

We started our day early by getting our chores done so we could meet friends at the park.  I got the laundry and dishwasher going, packed our lunch and we were off!  Two errands, and then the park by 10:00 AM.  Spent a few hours there. 

Then my friend M said she didn't feel like taking 5 children to the store for what she needed for her Partylite Party tonight (she had two extra children today in addition to her own).  I said I didn't want to go to the store with four children, either, hehehe.  I was joking really.  What choice did I have?  I have to do it while I am in town.

Wonderful friend that she is, M suggested the children stay at her house and I go to the store for both of us.  Hey, that works for me!  Guess what?  This is the first time I have posted a Works for Me on Wednesday.  I am so proud of myself.  Does that mean I am with it, now? LOL

It was so lovely to cruise those aisles without worrying about children hanging off the cart and falling out of the cart, LOL!  I ended up getting everything we needed for the whole weekend in a short amount of time.  WOW!  Maybe this should become a habit?

Laundry is not my favorite chore.  But I do not hate it as much as I hate to do dishes.  Here's how I handle laundry at our house.

Each bedroom has it's own laundry hamper or basket.  The children are responsible to put the clothing they take off into the hamper or basket.  Every other day, I tell them to bring their hampers to the laundry room and I unload and sort the laundry right there and toss them back their hampers to put away.  I have three trash cans in my laundry room -huge trash cans-that I use to sort my laundry in.  One for lights, one for darks and one for towels.  Believe me, they get filled up, too.

I basically do laundry everyday.  If I get everything caught up, I may take a day off, but laundry is almost never caught up around here and I am learning to be okay with that.  I wish I could say that I fold everything when it comes out of the dryer.  I am supposed to do that, but here's what really happens:  Everything gets piled up and then we all have a folding party.  Either that or I stay up late and watch a movie that only I like and fold, fold, fold.

Everything gets put into colored baskets and taken to the appropriate rooms to be put away.  The children are responsible for putting their own laundry away, including my three year old.  Each bedroom has it's own colored basket, so I sort everything while folding it.

That's what happens now at our house.  I hope to become more disciplined and organized so that I can fold everything much sooner.  I am careful right now to pull out things that I need to hand right away so I don't have to iron them, at least.

I am getting ready to leave for the weekend for Family Camp.  We love Family Camp and I love not having to cook all weekend.  What do you do for Labor Day Weekend?

Miss Kris

How do I arrange this clothing, especially with three boys in a row?  Well, quite some time ago, Beloved and I purchased beds from IKEA that have drawers underneath.  These are not captains beds, as those are just too tall for my taste and safety concerns.  These are normal height beds, but with three large rolling drawers underneath each.  If you are familiar with IKEA, you know their products are reasonably priced because you put them together yourself.

These beds are made of birch and white laminate, easy to clean and not such good quality that I have to worry about the stickers that are now stuck to them, or the pen marks here and there.  The drawer closest to the head of the bed holds all undergarments and pajamas and swimsuits.  The middle drawer holds all shirts, whatever season we're in is kept forward.  So right now, the long sleeves and sweatshirts are in the back of the drawer.  The drawers are pretty deep, so the child need only pull it out so much to get what he needs.  Same with the drawer at the foot of the bed, except it holds pants/shorts/sweats.  Right now the shorts are at the front of the drawer.  We have no dresser in the boys room and this is all that is in their room except for a tall narrow bookcase which holds red baskets with special books, toys, etc.  All other toys are kept elsewhere.

Daughter has her grandmother's bedroom set complete with a dresser of her own.  Since she is the only girl, this works for now.  Baby has his own set, too.  Before we had our first child (daughter) we bought a high quality nursery furniture set because we knew we'd have a large family and we wanted it to last.  That set includes a crib, changing table/dresser and an armoire.  They are both filled with baby items.

Church clothes are hung inside the closets up high so the children can't mess with them.  All extra jackets, etc. are hung in there, too.  They each keep one or two jackets/sweatshirts in the mudroom depending on the season.  That reminds me, I need to organize the mudroom.  I don't know when, though!  We are getting ready to leave for Family Camp and when we return, school begins.

I hope you all are ready to start school or perhaps you've already started?  I would love to hear how you get ready for school.  Do you cook meals ahead, spend all summer organizing the house, fly by the seat of your pants?  Tell me how you do it.  I would love to know.

Until next week, blessings,

Miss Kris

Okay, so I have a lot on my plate today.  I am late in getting the beds changed.   Got two done last night, daughter did her own this morning.  So I've got two more to go.

I also have:

Dishes to put away.

Scrub inside of toilets (Children did outsides yesterday.)

Spray down showers.

Mop Kitchen

Make two dishes for tomorrow.

Get family videos for tomorrow.

Pick up Master Bedroom

Declutter School Room

Children to:

Vacuum bedrooms

Dust Mop (needs to be done daily)

Fold Laundry - four loads

Yesterday, daughter and I had our hair trimmed and I cut Beloved and the boys' hair.  We went to Safeway (Vons for those of you not on the West Coast) and they had a book bargain table and I picked up a few children's books and some beautiful flipcharts for $6.99 each.  Those of you who live in my town, check out the downtown Safeway.  There were a few charts left when I was there.  They each had 16 flipcharts, one was lifecycles and one was an atlas.  I didn't have time to review them for evolutionary content yet.  That's what my Sharpee is for, though.  And my children are well aware of the lies of the enemy.  Nonetheless I'll get that taken care of ASAP!

My Beloved has four days off, so we are making plans.  It's been almost three months since my last big shop (not quite), so we will do that as a family Friday or Saturday.  We will also take our family photo and finish the Christmas shopping and gift making.  I was up late last night finishing my online Christmas shopping (I hope I'm done).  We also put up our tree the day after Thanksgiving.  It will be fun this year, as I actually have a mantle to hang stockings on.  I love to decorate for Christmas.

We have a surprise for the children tomorrow.  Daddy bought them a race car set.  (Or did he buy himself one?) He has already told them they get to open one group gift on Thanksgiving.  He told them to help Mama today so they could play with their gift tomorrow.  We will set it up and leave it up through Christmas.  My sister and I had one for years (or was it my Dad's? ) and I have good memories of times playing with that.

Something I've been much aware of lately is traditions.  We want to pass traditions on to our children.  As parents, we get decide what is important from our childhoods to pass on and create new ones for our own families.  What we do with our children and the knowledge we give them will continue down our family lines.  It is the heritage we leave our children and grandchildren.  When thought of that way, parenting is a heavy task indeed.  That should make us pause for reflection.  Shouldn't it?

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.  You have been a blessing to me and I thank you for reading my non-sensical ramblings!

Miss Kris

There really isn't much tantalizing about today  But I thought it made a more interesting title.

We are already done with the three R's today, before 9:30am!  I was up pretty early and got everything done early today, yeah!

I have to go into the office today.  That is a rarity these days since we hired our best Office Manager yet in May.  Hi Mom!  Yep, my Mom works for my Beloved.  Isn't that cool?  I always said she is the most organized person I know.

I updated my Beloved's website and I need to learn how to put it up on the web and I want our Office Manager to know it, too, so....Mr. Computer Guy is coming in to show is this PM.  I never put it up myself because I always had too much going on last spring with the baby coming and building the house and moving.  But now things have slowed down and there are no more excuses!

I will assign some handwriting practice for daughter to do before we leave and have her do some of her Victory Drill.  I will get some laundry done before then, too.

Yesterday, I didn't do so bad on my goals.  The ones I missed were missed because we did our history in addition to the three R's for school and I had a baby who needed attention.  Definitely more important than the bedrooms getting vacuumed.