Hanging Weekly Planner

Ok, I have decided that I like nice things but I don't like to pay for them, so I am challenging myself to find those things and make them myself.  All these things will be tagged under Tightwad Tracey.

My first project was to reinvent my home management board.  I was really proud of it but then the more I looked at it, the cheaper it looked.  So I found something that would work perfect but it cost $45 and wasn't set up exactly the way I wanted.  I don't really need pockets for things and I wanted more "dry erase" space.

Before

After

I don't know how much I have in it because I had everything to make this already except for the little clippy thingy.  But if I had to guess, I would say less than $10.  That works for me.  


Not really a hard project at all.  
Things needed:
Fabric--however much for the size you want, plus enough to sew a hem around it, and some for the file   folder holder and marker holder.
Laminating paper
Card stock or pretty paper
Grommets
Clip or something to hang pages from unless you don't want that.
Dry erase markers
I used my label maker to label the pages but you can hand write also.

It took me about 2-3 hours but I think it was worth it because I made it to work for me and my family.

Until the next time, stay blessed.

Things I've Been Working On

During my spring cleaning I've been doing some micro-organizing.  Here is one of my projects:

                             
I knew I was keeping those styrofoam egg cartons for something.  I would love to have a huge jewelry armoire but right now this will work.


A decorating problem I was having was at the top of my stairs.  There is a small landing and to the left and right, bedrooms.  There isn't enough room for a shelf or something like that on the floor, but there is a blank wall.  I had some brass mirrors hanging but that was it.  It has always bothered me because I didn't have any inspiration.  So while cleaning I got an idea.  Here it is...

I just spray painted the mirror frames along with a picture frame hammered bronze and inserted a quilt square.  With a small plant stand and a vase of flowers, it is perfect.  I even added some good smelling oil to vase.


Since I'm on a roll...
I think the laundry soap I use is messing up our septic system.  We have an aeration unit and I think maybe it is too sudsy for it.  So I decided to start making my own powdered detergent again.  I quit making it because I got lazy.  I didn't follow a recipe because, again, I got lazy.  All I did was bought a box of borax, added to it a box of washing soda, and added 2 bars of shredded Fels-Naptha soap.  (All found in the laundry soap isle at Walmart).  Then my friend Charli at wvurbanhippie said she added a bottle of laundry enhancer to hers to make it smell good, so not to be outdone, I did the same thing.  (We have a little friendly competition going on).   All I do is add 1/8 cup to every load unless it is really dirty, then I add 1/4 cup and a washin' we will go.  So far I have done 10 loads of laundry and everything seems to fine plus the septic seems to be working better.

Until next time, stay blessed.

Organization Ramblings

I feel like I am a pretty organized person.  At least with my stuff, my time, well that is a whole other post.  Anyway, if you know me, all I do is organize and then reorganize and then reorganize the reorganized.  No, I'm not OCD, it's just what I like to do.  Since I've been spring cleaning, I have noticed that my organization could use some tweaking.

Over the last several months I have been reading books on, you can probably guess it.  In one of the books, and I can't remember which one, the author said to go through you home and assign a purpose to every room.  I have never thought of that.  I would put stuff in pretty little baskets or ginormous rubber maid containers wherever they would fit or look good.  For example, if I wanted to sew something I would have to go to my basement and move a few boxes to get to the tub that had my fabric, pull it out, pick something, then go up two sets of stairs to my bedroom, dig out my sewing machine that is buried in the back of my closet, set it up and then get started.  Well, by the time I did all of that, I really didn't feel like creating anything anymore.  I sew in bedroom, and if you look back on a previous post, I have a nice sewing table, which means ALL of my sewing stuff needs to be in my bedroom.  I like to make jewelry also and the sewing table is a nice surface to work on, so all of my beads and everything need to be in my room.  So you get the picture.  If the stuff for the purpose doesn't fit in the space then I need to do one of two things, I need to weed out some stuff or find another room.

I am also collecting patterns and recipes for diy things.  Right now I have them in a big 3-ring binder so if I want to find something it will take a while.  I am in the process of putting like things in separate folders or binders.

So, long story short.  I am organized.  I'm just not micro-organized and it feels really good to be getting there.  I don't think I will need counseling for this pattern but you might after read this post of rambling.

Growing Pains

Why is it that when you know something is good for you, you try to run as far away from it as possible?  I know...it is because you most likely need to change something that you are doing to get it.

A little confession time...
I like to sleep but not until I get there.  I really don't like to fall asleep, I think it is a waste of time.  And I think that my family is same way.  Which works out great, right?  Wrong!  When you stay up late, you tend to sleep late and for some reason you never really feel rested.  And that creates laziness, which means not much is getting done or it is getting done at turtle speed.

So...
Scott and I talked this weekend and he made a schedule for the boys.  Boy, do they love it!  (sarcasm added).  I'm not struggling too much.  I don't like following a timed plan because I don't know what to do when we finish early or we finish late, but I will get used to that, it's just my personality.  Fortunately, only one of my boys is like me when it comes to that.  The other two seem to like knowing what comes next and when it is coming.  So I will give you the schedule that Scott made for them:


7a.m.  Get out of bed.
Tyler and Brody “clean” dog water bucket and refill with fresh water every day even though water bucket looks clean.
Seth can get breakfast , then get shower and brush teeth.
Seth feeds dogs and cats

7:30 a.m. Tyler and Brody begin exercise.
Monday, Wednesday and Friday will do Bowflex
Tuesday and Thursday will walk or run 3 miles on treadmill
      Tuesday, Tyler or Brody can sleep  additional ½ hour to wait on other to get done on treadmill.
     Thursday, the other can sleep additional ½ hour.

8 a.m.  Seth will begin school

8:30 - 9:30  a.m.
 Tyler and Brody will begin getting showers and eating breakfast. Cereal or other healthy breakfast.  Not poptarts or pastry.
    Tuesday and Thursday, One or other will have slept later and be the later to eat.

10 a.m. Tyler and Brody begins school

Seth can walk or run 1 ½ - 2 miles on treadmill or bowflex

12:30 Lunch

1 p.m.   Housekeeping education and chores inside the house
             or, chores outside house.

1:45  p.m.   Study or reading time or project making.

2:30  p.m.   playtime

Getting up at 7 is not their idea of a good time but I know eventually it will get easier.  They will learn to go to bed earlier.

I didn't realize how much I would like something so structured.  First, e-mealz for menus, then motivated moms for housework and now a schedule for the boys.  My "word" to describe my year so far would be motivation and I love it.  Anyway, I'm supposed to start school with the older boys soon.  I had a few minutes to spare so thought I would update everyone on what's happening in my day.

Until next time, be blessed.

 

Brilliant!!!

I have been trying for years to figure out how to get everything done in a day that needs to get done and still have some time to do the things I enjoy but haven't come up with a good plan.  Now, you have to know me, I love for my house to be clean or at least "picked up" all the time and I realize I have kids, but...and with schooling and hobbies and exercise and everything else that goes into a day, I haven't figured it out, until...

My beautiful, wonderful and most brilliant friend Charli told me about motivatedmoms.com.  What a life saver!  You can print it off or you can download an app right to your ipad, ipod or iphone.  It is amazing.  It schedules everything that needs to be done from changing towels in the bathroom to cleaning the light fixtures.  And the bonus is, by the end of the week your house is clean and the laundry is done and you have spent time doing the things you enjoy, yes, it also schedules time for a hobby.  There is no taking a week or so off to spring clean, because all the tasks are scheduled in throughout the year.  I am loving this!  I have so much time left over during the day now that I may just have to set up an etsy account so I can sell all the things I will be making.

Well, I'm done rambling for now.  Until next time have a blessed day.

Home Management Board

Okay, I know I have preached about having a home management notebook.  You remember, something that you can put somewhere that you will look at every day and it will contain everything you need to run your household.  Well...I have changed my mind.

Since having my home management notebook, I found that it was getting buried under mountains of other stuff.  I stopped consulting it for recipes and schedules and all the other things that were in it and resorted back to my old way of doing things, post-it notes everywhere and lists made on scrap paper.  I realized that I needed a better system.  One day while browsing pinterest (a very addicting website, by the way) I noticed that people were making things for a command center in their home.

So here is what I did.

I made a dry erase board out of a picture frame and some scrapbooking supplies.  I had this plastic basket hiding in my basement and the box on the bottom is a cardboard magazine box.

The dry erase board has places for don't forget, this month, to do, this week, and goals.  If you make one you can put whatever works for you on it.  The basket holds my dry erase markers.  The box has all the important categories I had in my home management notebook, such as addresses, birthdays, packing lists, calendars and miscellaneous school things.  I also signed up for e-mealz.com and have all my menus and grocery lists from that in it.  (Again, a very good place to visit and worth the money to have a menu and grocery list already made up for me.  And my family is loving it.)

So I guess what I'm saying is, if you want to have a home management notebook that's great, but some of us work better having something on the wall.  Whatever works for you and your family as long as you use it.

Until next time, be blessed.

I'm Back

I never really left, but I have been super busy these last few weeks.

Last Friday a friend and I, with our husbands, went to a produce auction.  What a blast!  I have never been to one of these and really I have never bid on anything in my life, so this was an anxious yet pleasurable day.  I went with list in hand and of course you get there and the list secretly grows.  I had no idea what I was willing to pay for things, I left that up the Charli, after all, this wasn't her first auction.  We came home with so much stuff I couldn't believe it.  I knew once I got there that I would be canning for what seemed like forever, but I had no idea.  I am finished, but wow.  This is what I put away for the winter and until it is gone:

35 quarts of sweet potatoes
39 pints of pepper butter
30 pints of peppers and sauce
16 pints plus 12 quarts of pepper jelly
40 quarts of corn
27 pints of applesauce
I froze 12 pints of sliced peppers and 12 whole peppers (for stuffing).
I also have 40 pounds of red potatoes.  If they start going bad before we eat them, I will can them also.

Would I spend a week of 6-8 hour days on my feet cleaning and cutting and burning my fingers again, you can count on it.  Was it worth it?  Oh yes it was.  I love to go to my basement and look at all the pretty jars filled with yummy food.  If you come over and visit I might just share a jar of the pepper jelly with you.

We are going to start school next week.  I can't believe it but my older boys are actually asking if we can please start school.  Maybe this will be a good year.

Until next time, be blessed.

Kitchen Swap

Sorry, I really didn't forget to post something last week, I just got really busy cleaning.  Anyway, our homemaking co-op did a kitchen/home decor swap last week.  It was really fun!  It was so much fun that we are planning on doing a Christmas decor swap sometime toward the end of October or early November.  That forces everyone to get out the Christmas stuff and go through it before the mad holiday rush.

Today we exchanged recipes for homemade cleaning products.  You can make pretty much anything you use to clean your house with ingredients that you probably already have around your house.  This is cheaper in some cases and better for you.  Google anything that you want to make and you will find as many recipes as you can keep up with.

Until the next time, have a great week.

Chores and more....

We were talking about different ideas about getting your family on board with helping around the house and following a home management notebook.  A friend has chores written out on index cards for each room.  These a very detailed to what needs done daily, weekly and monthly and so on.  She posts them on the wall near the entry of each room so when her children have that room to clean they know exactly what to do.

Well all this talk got me thinking...

Some of us don't have husbands that support the idea of organization or making our kids help out.  Some men have other priorities.  We as women may want a clean, organized house where the kids have a chore to do and we all work together in beautiful harmony and our husband comes home with flowers and breaks out in song.  (okay, life as a musical is what I'm trying to visualize).  But that isn't always reality.  We have to quit comparing our parenting and the way we interact with our husbands with others.  We don't know the whole story and every one is different.  Every husband is different.  Some may like a hot meal on the table as soon as he walks in the door.  Some may want to eat alone because he needs that time to regroup after a bad day.  It's okay.  Maybe you have to clean your house by yourself because no one is willing to help.  Don't think you are doing something wrong because someone else seems to have it all together.

Do everything as unto the Lord and do it with a good heart attitude, even if.....Maybe if we keep a smile on our face and continue doing those things that seem to get overlooked we will one day get the recognition we want from those we are doing it for.  But if we don't, we can at least know that because we had a good attitude and did it because of love that Jesus smiled.  Isn't that what is important anyway, what Jesus thinks of us?  So pray about how God wants you to run your home.  Get ideas from others, but don't take them as the rule.  They may not work for your situation.

I read somewhere that our earthly homes should reflect what we want our heavenly home to look like.  You can take that however you want.

Have a great week.

Scheduling Time

Okay, I know that most of you know that a day won't function to it's potential if you don't have a schedule.  I have been struggling for YEARS to make a schedule that fits my family.  I have read numerous books and blogs about how to make a proper schedule.  (I know, you are thinking it's no-brainer).  Every article says you should break things up into 15 minute or half hour or whatever it "fits" in blocks.  I am not a "block" oriented person.  I don't really like that way of scheduling but everyone says that's how it is to be done, until yesterday....I was told that I am a random scheduler.  This means that I do have a "plan of attack" for every day, it just isn't placed in a "time block".  I do things randomly.  One day we might have school in the morning and do chores in the afternoon.  The next, we may do the exact opposite.  I might clean my house on Monday one week and Thursday the next wee.  It's okay.  I am doing it right.  So if you are struggling with making a schedule that works for your family because you can't seem to do it the way everyone else does just make a page with columns for Monday-Sunday and put on each day what NEEDS to be done and then put what you WANT to get done.  Remember, your families needs come before your wants.  I know, hard pill to swallow, but it's true.

Our homemaking co-op discussed putting together a home management notebook for your family.  If you are interested in how this works you can read Large Family Logistics by Kim Brenneman.  You don't have to have a large family to incorporate the ideas in her book.  Or, if you are local you can come to our co-op.

A very random thing...I like to make my own jewelry.  I have been doing it for about a year now and I have found that I really enjoy this little hobby.  It all started when some of my friends started selling jewelry.  Well, I went to A.C. Moore this week because they have several of their beading items on sale for a dollar.  My score:  $246 worth of stuff for $63.  I am so excited!

Until next week.  Have a great one!