Guest Post!

 Today I have a guest blogger, my friend Laura.

She recently started a business helping people

declutter!

If you remember, I've decluttered a lot 

Read HERE

But it is a constant work in progress, 

and because of the quote Laura told me once, 

(the one she starts her post with)

I am constantly asking myself, 

"Do I really need this?"

Here is my friend Laura, from 

O Happy Day (!) Organization

“The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry; the garment hanging in your
wardrobe is the garment of him who is naked; the shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of
the one who is barefoot; the money that you keep locked away is the money of the poor; the
acts of charity that you do not perform are so many injustices that you commit.” – St. Basil the Great

 It’s a little heavy-handed, I know. As an organizer, it’s not a quote I pull out for everyone: but
I know that you, Jamie’s loyal readers, will get this one. Collectively and individually we have a
lot of stuff.For good reason, I know! Many of us have young children and aren’t planning on being “done” (if there is such a thing!) anytime soon. Several of us have the space for it: storage rooms, or if not that, at least enough totes to fake it. Some items we store were gifts that we can’t get ourselves to admit we never liked, or garage sale deals that we keep thinking we’ll use someday. Last, but certainly not least, we have precious memories piled on precious memories, in shoesboxes, small bins, and even cardboard boxes.

Can I be honest? That IS a lot of stuff: but I think what we have, as a culture, the most of, is fear. I think that we’re afraid to let go of the stuff we don’t need, aren’t using, don’t truly have the space for, or haven’t looked at because what if we might need it someday?

In other words: What if God doesn’t provide?

Like I said, a little heavy handed.

Yet there is an element of truth to it. As Americans, we’ve been blessed with more than enough. In our own lives, we know that God has always provided, that He watches over us and guards us. Have we returned that favor? Have we acted in His stead towards others?

There is some prudence in keeping what we think we will use or need. But is there an alternative to holding onto all the extra stuff? Could we create a picture album of our children’s old art work instead of letting their cardboard projects rot in the basement? Could we acknowledge that our kids maybe don’t need a closet FULL of clothes? (The extra bonus to that is less laundry!) Maybe we could finally admit that holding onto our old wedding gown isn’t the treasure we thought it would be, and we could give it to a grieving parent instead.

When we seek the alternatives, when we live like God will take care of all our needs—when we give what we have to others—we find that we’re living in peace. When we love what we have, use what we’ve been given, and not worry about the rest, we’ve found freedom from “stuff” and are able to act as God’s hand to the poor around us.

We also, I’ll add, leave behind a beautiful legacy for our children. Sure, they won’t have an attic of old stuff, but they will have a tradition of generosity: of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and giving without counting the cost.

Laura is a wife and mother, who runs the business O Happy Day (!) Organization when she is not corralling her three boys. You can find more information about her business (and her October specials!) at O Happy Day (!) Organization

Order Please

I, believe it or not, am not a scheduled person.

I think it is because of a few reasons.

I like to go with the flow,

 take things as they come and deal with those things

I think when I have a schedule, then, well, 

I am faced with failure and I don't like that.

I'm kind of a perfectionist

(I know, if you saw my floor and house you would not think so)

Hey, I live with non perfectionists who do not care about the floor 

or if they left their socks all over the house.

I know also, that we need to practice a summer schedule
before school starts, so we can master it!

You'd think a perfectionist would love a schedule, right?

You'd think a perfectionist would be able to follow a schedule perfectly, right?

Well, read this:

 Just as the Demons know our weaknesses, 

God knows our strengths

 Being a Martha, in our busy world can be hard, 

But Jesus calls us Martha's to come and sit by Him,

to put Him first.

(Luke 10:38-42)

Oh, we can still take care of what needs taking care of, 

but we need to balance it by putting Him first.

Have you prayed today?

(that's rhetorical for me)

Do we stop everything and pray?

No computers, TV, I-pads, radios, whatever is 

making it loud for us?

 

Is there quiet in our lives anymore?

Can there be order?

 I interrupt this post for a little cuteness...

"I want a cracker!"

 "Oh, you have the camera?"
See?  This post has interruptions, just like life, scheduled or not!

 (School work will be added in those playtime areas)

I had been praying about a schedule for quite a while,

and finally decided I needed more help.

So, I asked Tom to help me.

It was fun to write it out with him.

We need to tweak it a little when school starts

like the kids will need to get up earlier, 6:30 or 7am
 And
We need to do "bed checks" at 10pm to make sure the big kids
 are actually in bed.

I will have 5 kids in school.

Yes, Sweetie Pie will be in preschool!!!

I need to be orderly in order to run this family.

It's just not working going with the flow!
God has blessed my life with 6 living children and I need
to take this vocation seriously,
to do my best.
Is sleeping in til everyone is up doing my best?
No, although, I love to do that,
I hate how the rest of the day goes,
It's not what God wants or expects of me.
He wants me to be happy and for our kids to be happy.
He wants me to do my best
I believe following a schedule will help me with that

(Breakfasts will stay the same each week, each day,
Lunches I plan with the kiddos and they pick each week, except Wednesday is always pizza)
Oh, and
(there is always fruit and veggies with each meal, I just didn't write it down)

Following a schedule requires a few other things to be orderly, 

like meals need to be planned 

(supper is already planned)

This past week was our first week trying this out 

As I said, it needs some tweaking.

Like, I decided the kids might need to do 

quicker easier breakfasts, you know, 

granola bars. yogurt, or cereal

Baking and preparing each day just takes too long

It's OK in the summer, but when school starts, 

well, how do you do it?

What do your kids eat for breakfast?

Do you cook every morning for them?

Of course it is summer and we need to make allowances, 

that pool keeps calling us...

 I'm trying to not be a slave to the schedule

I'm trying to still be easy going and carefree

but the perfectionist in me, struggles with this, 

because maybe it's not on the schedule.

At the end of the day, 

I still wish there were about 2-4 more hours left to

do what I did not get to do.

I know God has a plan, and that He gave us 24 hours 

in each day for a reason.

No more 

no less.

I know, if I put God first, as He told Martha,

that things will all fall into place.

So I keep trying.

What about you?

Do you schedule your day?

Do you have any tips?

 

Positive Reinforcement!

Several people have seen my fridge, and it has these charts (below) 

taped on it, the "jobs" do not seem like jobs at all, and if not explained,

well, you might think I'm super easy on my kids or something silly like that

One of our children's therapist suggested we come up with a positive reinforcement chart

to help work on those troubled areas. 

 Now, this particular child

has things like, No physical harm done to anyone, and some easy ones like 

practice piano.

When you have 6 kids, well, everyone wants a chart (except the baby)

So we came up with 5 things each child needed to work on

Just 5

We first did 10 and it was not attainable, we want it to be positive, 

so we tweaked it a little and made it only 5

 

This is Jedi's

Each child has their own 5 things

Easy, right?

You'd think.

If each child does their 5 things 

They get a ticket!

There is the potential to get a ticket each day!

Exciting, right?

 The tickets are then redeemed for one of the items on the list, 

These are kid thought up and not all worth money, but time.

I've found though, that the more tickets they have,

 the more money they want us to spend

Like no one wants to waste 21 tickets on going to the park and picnicing

Jedi likes to earn 7 tickets and spend it on i-Tunes songs each week.

The girls want to save lots and go big!

Teaching Thoughtfulness

or

A Nickel for Your Thoughts

(We started with only a penny, but found it just was not that much)

We decided we needed to do something to teach 

the kids to be thoughtful and helpful.

We want it to come natural to them, 

if they see someone who needs help, we want them to help,

without being told to help.

So, this summer we've been noticing every time they are helpful, 

without being told, or thoughtful, without being told,

they get a nickel.  

It is up to them to remember how many nickels they earn, 

and when they get up to 20, they can cash in and get a dollar.
(so we are not physically handing out nickels each time, it's more of a counting game)

So, if one child is struggling to carry something and 

another child offers to help--NICKEL!!

If I'm getting out of the van and have things to carry and babies to get out,

and a child offers, "Do you need help mama?" NICKEL!!

If there is only one pancake left and someone else wants it, but you got it first,
and you decide to give it to the other person--NICKEL!!

You get the idea, right?

It has helped us, as parents, to notice the good things they all do

(and all kids do)

and hopefully,

 it has helped with that automatically wanting to be thoughtful and helpful 

(it's also teaching counting by 5's to my almost 2nd grader!)

These are not "Job Charts" but Positive Reinforcement charts!  

They have jobs that they each do each day and each week, 

but that is expected, this is extra.  

I'm not saying you should do this,

 just giving an example of what is working for our family

An idea.

It has to be easy, or I can't do it.

I've done things in the past 

and it ends up being too much work for me 

to keep track of, 

These are simple and easy

and the kids keep track.

I do monitor the tickets, I have the tickets

they come to me and let me know if they get one and I sign it.

Trying to Be Organized

I am always trying to be organized.

I finally made a master list of meals we eat.

I have 38 meals listed so far.

I'd like to keep adding meals as I think of them.

These are only supper meals, and "daddy approved"!

I shop every 2 weeks. (every pay-day)

Now that we have a Super Wal-Mart, it's so easy to just get everything there.

(and Sam's Club of course)

My plan is to go down the list, listing on another list (middle sheet) my daily meals for the next 14 days (2 weeks)

I have the recipes either memorized or in the red folder, ready to list the ingredients to buy and to make for each meal.

We do have some repeats every 2 weeks, like Crepes and tacos.

(tacos are so easy on a busy Tae Kwon Do night, crepes, we use fresh berries and whipped topping in a spray can)

It's been great!

In the past I've tried to sit down with my hubby and think of 14 meals before shopping, which is actually hard to think of.

I've got my breakfast meals in here too, especially Baked Oatmeal from Barbara
which we have every Tuesday and sometimes Saturdays.

Monday is Muffin Monday, French toast Friday, Wednesday is eat whatever you want, usually cereal, yogurt and juice, Thursday is Eggs...or whatever you want if you are picky.

Our whatevers are: cereal, yogurt, granola bars, bagels, toast.

Lunches are another story.

We haven't thought up enough lunches.

Every Wednesday is pizza though, that is a must. It's our band/piano busy day.

This post doesn't seem to be very organized, and I've probably lost all readers by now, BUT

if you are still reading, what do you do to keep organized for meals?

I have enjoyed reading all your comments!

I must add that Barbara has great menus planned every week and they do give me a ton of ideas and new things to try, like her Colorado White Chili

and Chicken Cordon Blue Casserole (taken from her menu)

Her cooking blog is the best and is on my Google Reader, she does not disappoint with her honesty and ideas! She will make you wish you were in her kitchen having supper with her and her family every night.