Chocolate Vegetables

I have struggled to both menu plan and buy according to the specials at the supermarket so I can save money.  In my opinion the issue comes about because of the advice to menu plan and make a shopping list before going shopping.

Here is my solution - menu plan in reverse.  I am sure you have favourite seasonings and methods of cooking in your family.  Make sure the necessary ingredients are always in your pantry.  Shop for them every week as they get low by putting them on your shopping list. 

When it comes time to go shopping, get the good prices on foods that are reduced by shopping at the time of day that means you are getting the stickered goods they are trying to clear out.  Remember though that bulk lamb chops are no good if someone in your family gets an upset stomach from too much lamb.  lol

Now go home, pack everything away and sit down to make your menu plan.  It is no good me making a menu plan with lots of chicken meals if it was only a "good" price yet the lamb was greatly reduced.  I know generally what my family eats.  I know the spices we use and the pantry staples I need.  We have a range of vegetables that we always eat.  I buy them in good quantities in plenty of variety.

I am finding it much easier if I menu plan after shopping for the specials.  Maybe this idea will work for you too.

When your children are very young the clock can seem to be your enemy.  Try this idea for managing your day.  Organise your day with the idea of routines inside bubbles of time.  

For example before and after breakfast routines that include making beds, cleaning teeth, getting dressed etc leading on to cleaning for you while he does independent play.  The amount of time for cleaning/independent play flexes to a longer or shorter time depending on his ability to play on his own that day or how long the earlier parts of the morning routine took.  End that bubble of time with morning tea at a set time of day.  

Use the same idea for the next bubble of time between morning tea and lunch and so on.

It gives your little one a sense of structure and familiarity to each day but you are not clock watching or forcing an activity to continue when it is a lost cause.

I have binders for all sorts of things.  Medical records, recipes - sweet and savoury, Christmas planning, Household management, School planning, School records, Finances.  Just about anything really.

White binders can get boring and I could never quickly locate a binder so I have started to decorate my binders.  I thought I would be able to use scrapbooking paper as inserts but there really isn't a great range of designs out there, for instance, no food ones that would suit my sweet and savoury recipe binders.  So instead I am using quilting fabrics.  At this stage I just cover the outside of the book then use card on the inside to cover over the cut edges.  It looks neat enough for my liking.  I am wondering about the whole ribbons, buttons, patches idea but I am concerned they will get wrecked with the whole being put on the bookshelf and being pulled out again.

The kids each chose a fabric and I am covering their school binder in that fabric and a small photo album that holds index cards with their daily tasks.  

I am not going to write on each binder as I am the sort of person who can get tired of a certain colour or theme so I am going to just decorate binders with fabrics that appeal at any one time and then swap them around if I get bored.  At least now my shelves will look a lot more colourful.  lol

Here are some places that helped me with covering my binders.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BCsk8jBQB0

http://reviews.ebay.com/How-To-Put-Together-A-Household-Orgainizer_W0QQugidZ10000000001520436?ssPageName=BUYGD:CAT:-1:LISTINGS:3

http://www.geocities.com/beadfettish/projectsjune.html

This last one was a bit over the top for decorations for my tastes but her folding technique for the fabric on the inside corners was very useful.

I have had fun decorating them and it really does help me find the binder I want in my sometimes visually cluttered world.

I first got onto the idea of a home management binder from Flylady and then developed the idea of using binders for just about anything from Cindy Rushton.

I have set my Home binder with the following sections:
 - Calendar (not used often as I now carry a diary although I do have a page of annual events that is good with birthdays for the family and things like carpet cleaning, major bills and dentist check-ups noted),
 - Household routines (which includes my monthly rotation of cleaning duties),
  - Contacts (first page is always emergency contacts and quick reference contacts like the real estate),
 - Finances, and
 - Projects.

Projects is one of my favourite areas.  I have a page for each room in the house and then one for Household projects and one for Personal projects.  For example I have a reading room in this house so on its page I have listed to sort the books into order and paint the bookshelves.  In my bedroom I have to find a side table lamp with a pretty shade, make the top of my dresser pretty, design and build a wardrobe.  It is fun to dream and plan on these pages.  And when I do get a little money for my birthday or Christmas this is often where I go to look for ideas for spending it.

I must admit that it varies in how much I refer to my binder.  For me it can become just another piece of visual clutter but every so often I give it a good clean out and rearrange it to fit my current circumstances.  I use a 38mm 3 ring binder as I find they come out on special each school year for students and I like how the pages sit better in a 3 ring binder than how they tend to fall in a 2 ring binder.

Due to Cindy's influence I also use these binders for school planning, keeping the kids' school work together (at this stage one binder each), favourite recipes, and medical records.  My dh is not a well person and I download information off the net about his condition regularly like insulin resistance and obesity.  We keep copies of all his doctor's referrals in there and his test results too.  I am hoping that over time I can get a better picture of what is going on with his health and we can help him to get better.

And then yesterday I started a new one.  I am printing off the bank statements and writing notes all over them with the pays and the allowances left for various things like clothing and school.  This will help me keep better track of our finances.  My husband just laughed when he saw me pulling out the 3 ring punch and a binder.

This is my version of using the Franklin Covey system.  Please realise I got my first planner in 1993 in the paper form, then converted to the electronic version on a Palm when my binder was stolen in 2001.  

First Things First was my main inspiration for the below method.  The way I do the steps may very well not mesh with Steven Covey's more recent publications.  I would love to read his more recent book about the 8th Habit but I am still stuck back at the Quadrant level of prioritising my day.  Ahh well, it has still improved my life and as a busy homeschooling mother with a new baby I am happy with my level of productivity right now.

Step 1 Discover what matters most to you by
  - clarifying your values,
  - identifying and defining your roles;
  - thinking about who you want to be,want to have, want to do; and
  - creating a mission statement.

Step 2 Plan what matters most with the following steps:

  a. Create goals - From what you want to be, want to have, want to do create goals, remembering the S.M.A.R.T. (simple, measurable, achievable, reward and have a time frame) system.

I create a master goal sheet/index card for each goal I know will have multiple steps.  At first I brainstorm them and the ideas are all over the place but then I write them out in order and put dates beside each step.  Click here to download my goal sheet.

  b. Monthly and/or Weekly planning - Maybe some of you can plan out a month in advance but in my world of changing children and other life intrusions weekly planning is the most useful time frame for me.  Once a week I go through my values, read through my statements linked to my roles and read through my goals.  I note down a list of things I would like to work on in the following week from my goals, add in a focus for any roles that have been lacking in attention lately such as time with my poor hubby without children interruptions and then turn to my calender.  On my big calendar (A4 page folded up inside my small file box of index cards) I note down days that may best suit actioning any of the items on my list.

  c. Daily Focus - On a daily basis I re-read my roles and values, my mission statement or inspiring thought then I check my calendar, write things down on post its to add to my routine, check my school plans and add those notes in too.  (If you have come to this post first in my blog please check out this blog post on how I put together my index cards and album.)

Step 3 Review - If I manage to have an end of day rehash time I cross off the things done from my goal cards, remove the post it notes and check that my actions matched my priorities in life.  Sometimes this review is ugly.  Actually considering these are my days with a new baby make that most days are "ugly".  lol

I hope these tips help your days to be more productive.

Over the years I have tried many ways of planning.  A paper binder worked well bk (before kids) and my Tungsten E Palm was good too, but I got to a stage as a homeschooling, stay at home mama that neither of these tools were working for me.

That is when I transferred all my planning pages to index cards and created a paper version of the Franklin Covey software I like to use. I was finding that 20 minutes of daily planning was taking 2 hours of also checking emails, surfing links set in said emails, etc, and then signing off with several games of Spider Solitaire. Not a good start to the day!

Here is how I have worked it so if you're really not into the whole idea of mission statements, goal setting, prioritising etc this could be over the top. It is sort of a combination of FlyLady's CJ and a Franklin Covey planner.

I have my routines written on index cards and inserted into a photo album. The cards are in this order...

1. Morning Routine for me
2. Morning Routine once kids are up (or need to be kick started lol)
3. Breakfast and post breakfast routines
4. Chore Time only written on card
5. An empty space that I put that zone's card into each day as I do my planning (I have my house broken into 6 zones Mon - Sat and then have 4 different weeks that I rotate through for monthly tasks)
6. Yard Time routines
7. School Time only written on card
8. Space for putting post it note with quick details of school to be done
9. Morning Tea and School Time
10. Space for putting post it note with quick details of school to be done
11. Lunch and post-lunch routines
12. Table Time space for Science/History activities, Art/Craft ideas, Preschool activities, again with post it notes with prompts
13. Project Time space for my personal project time, time for kids to use PC or watch pre-approved DVD, or work together on a bunny trail from our lessons
14. Afternoon routines
15. Dinner and after dinner routines
16. Bedtime routines
17. My personal time routines

How I do my day...

On card 1 I have personal planning time. In this time in the morning I look through some index cards from a file box. These are:

1. Mission Statement/Inspirational Quote for this period of my life
2. Values eg Family, Education, Service with a short statement of what each means to me
3. Roles eg Mum/Teacher, Homemaker, Individual, Church Member, Family Member, Wife, Community Member each again with short brief statements of areas that are important to me in each role eg as Mum/Teacher giving my children basic skills in personal hygeine, 3Rs, etc suitable for their age
4. Project/Long Range Goals with tasks/steps necessary
Eg Homemaker Project 1
Goal: Tidy and catalogue outgrown boys clothing
Tasks: - Sort clothes by size into boxes
- Make a list for each size noting item brand, style of clothing, colour, condition
- Type up lists in Excel for analysis
- Send lists to my mum
- Put list in HMB (Home Management Binder)
- Move boxes to garage

I have cards for all sorts of projects and regularly check through them, pencil in dates when I write a step on a post it note for in my photo album, then cross off as done or rub out pencil because it has dropped in priority and I must do some other Project task more urgently.

I also have a Misc project card for those things that I want to do that are only one task to complete, like posting a letter off or hemming a certain skirt for instance.

Next I insert the appropriate zone card and write up lessons from my Homeschool binder onto post-its in a very brief summary form, sticking them in the appropriate spots in the photo album.

A list like in Franklin Covey overwhelms me or makes me want to do it all now and my routines fly out the window. Having only routines with no place to record big goals/projects or one off tasks wasn't working either, so this is my way of combining the two. Now I know to leave projects till the afternoon, to not get caught up cataloguing clothes when school hasn't been done yet, and other similar dilemmas.

Ok, was that overwhelming?

For me I needed to put it all in one place and my to do lists kept clashing with my routines and I was running around stressed but not doing anything important. So far this seems to be working for me.

Ask away if you have any questions.