Finding Contentment

Daily Happenings

We didn't get to work on the chicken coop any Monday, and only for about an hour Tuesday.

I didn't think about it at the time, but the purple plaid shirt and the camo pants Hubby is wearing don't really match, do they.  

We probably won't get to work on the coop today as Hubby has a late meeting. I had hoped to go outside with the kids and get some more painting done on it today, but there's been too much other stuff to do. This morning I had to go to the church to make the bulletin and put it on the pastor's desk for review. Then I went to Wally World (Wal-mart) for the express purpose of getting a bigger plastic tub to put the ever-growing baby chicks in. This will not surprise those of you who know me well, but I came out of the store and drove home before realizing I bought a lot of stuff, but not the tub.

The kids have had colds for the past couple of days, so I didn't make them go outside and help on the coop. But here's some pictures of them helping to round up the chickens up over the weekend.

I have got some things done inside the past couple of days. I reorganized the pantry shelves. The clipboard you see hangs in the pantry with our weekly menu. A few weeks ago I sat down and made four weeks worth of menus. So now I just rotate them and we don't have to have the same meals but once a month. Of course, the menu is flexible if I find a really good sale on something, though.

I also made a couple of loaves of Amish bread. We are using one loaf for sandwiches and I used the other loaves to make garlic bread. I just sliced it, spread soft butter on the bread and sprinkled on some garlic powder and Italian seasonings before putting it under the broiler for a couple of minutes. It turned out great.

Hubby brought home some brown fruit somebody at work gave him yesterday. We made a fruit salad for the chickens and now I am off to make banana bread out of what is left!

Household Management Binder Part 2

For those of you who are anxiously waiting (yea, right) for the next installment of my Household Mangement Binder, the next section is "Cards & Gifts." This is where I record the gifts I get people for their birthdays and other holidays (excluding Christmas). That way I don't get similar things every year. It's also a great place to jot down ideas for gifts and to record who sent you a birthday card last year so you can return the favor this year. Organized Home is another great site for planners and printable pages for your household notebook. They have a form I use to remind me of birthdays and anniversaries here.

The next section is Chritmas, which is why I don't record Christmas gifts in the "Cards & Gifts" secion. Anything and everything to do with Christmas goes here, from your list of Christmas gifts to who sent you a Christmas card, to what's on the Christmast menu and where the good Black Friday sales are. We are just getting over Christmas, so this is a good time to jot down what you gave so you'll have a record of it before buying next year's gifts. Throughout the year, I also print out recipes for Christmas cookes or gifts-in-a-jar and place them here.

Then comes the secion on "Church." Again, you may or may not need this section. I do a lot of volunteer work at church, and I need a place to keep things. Do you help with Vacation Bible School? Teach a Sunday School class? Are you on a committee? This is a good place to keep that paperwork.

Next is "Cleaning." This is a good place to keep cleaning schedules, tips on cleaning, Fly Lady stuff, hints on taking stains out of clothes, or whatever.

Tune in next time for the next installment of Household Management Binder.

A good start to new goals

As you can see on my sidebar, one of my goals for 2008 is to make and put into use a Household Management Binder. Why? Because I am the manager of my home, and like any manager, there is paperwork involved! The Household Mangement Binder will help keep me organized and efficient.

I cheated a little on this goal for the new year as I have already been working on it for a few days - okay months - but I think I have finally finished it. It was one of those things I would work on for a few days and then put away for a few weeks. Now that it's done, the trick is going to be to use it! To make a habit of using it, I will leave it laying out on the kitchen table or my bed (depending on where I am in the house) for one month. By that time it should be indespensible to me.

I thought I would share how I put my binder together and how I will use it. It is extensive, so this will be more than one entry. I have 26 sections in my binder, and each section has a title page with a picture that I thought was lovely. I want to be able to enjoy looking at my binder. I choose old-fashioned pictures, but you may want cartoon characters or pictures of horses.

Like the pictures, each section or category should be personalized to you, the homemaker. You may not need certain categories that I included, or you may need ones I did not include. Also, you may not want as many categories as I have. I tend to like my paperwork ultra-organized, but you may want to put things like new recipes, your pantry inventory and your menu in one section instead of splitting them up. I also put all my sections in alphabetical order, but you may choose to put them in a different order.

Here is the front cover of my binder:

I used self-adhesive tabs because I needed so many of them. Dividers just didn't come with many tabs! I also purchased a pack of 50 clear covers with three holes in them. This helps protect everything in my notebook from spills and dirt. For the binder itself, I use one with the clear cover and back that you can insert a page into.

Upon opening my binder, this is what I see:

In the left pocket are some coupons I can give to kids who do good deeds. These coupons are for things like "a free movie rental of your choice" or "to stay up an hour past bedtime." On the right is an at-a-glance calendar (I need to change that to a 2008 one). I get most of my forms free from Donna Young's web site.

The first section is entitled "Budget." Although I can't stick to it exactly, nearly every penny of our income is budgeted. This was something I had to do in order to quit work and become a stay-at-home-mom. I have this in an excel format on my computer so that I can tweak it whenever our income or expenditures change. This is also a good place to put bills that only come in once, or once a year (like our warehouse club membership). That way I can remember they need to be paid whenever I look at the budget for the month.

The next section is labeled "Business." It is intended for paperwork regarding my small home business. Unfortunately, I don't have a home business yet! But I am determined to help out with my family's income in some way. I am currently researching various methods of earning a tiny bit of extra income for my family. This will be a good place to put ideas, contact info, etc. If you have any ideas, let me know!

Feel free to e-mail or comment if you have any questions. We'll look at some more sections tomorrow. In the meantime, if you would like to take a peak into the Home Management Binders of some other homemakers, look in the left sidebar at Keeping the Home. Candy has listed tons of links where you can take a peak at other people's binders for inspiration.