I have used just about every organizer, calendar & planner under the sun. All promise such wonderful things…however, reality is…the author isn’t me, and doesn’t know my family and our life. Sure many are pretty neat, but nothing really just ’fit’ “perfectly” for me and my family. One day, a light bulb went off…..I’ll just make my own!

This binder is just your average 3 ring binder but it has everything in it to keep my homestead in order!

To get started on my binder,  I printed off a cover from another planner that I use some of the pages from, put in the cover sleeve ( I change this on mood and the amount of ink I have in the printer!) and then gathered up some supplies: divider tabs, paper, all those loose sheets of info that needed a home (my children’s homeschool schedules, menu planners, monthly bill schedules, address book pages, etc., etc.) and plopped them all down in a pile. Now, what categories did I need my binder to have? For me, it looked something like this:

Daily Schedule & ‘To Do’s’

Want To Do’s

Seasonal Chores

Menus/ Food Shopping & Pantry Lists

Bills/Expenses

Farm & Garden

Addresses / www.’s

Homeschool

Family Info

Medical

Herbal

Preparedness

I also got out a zippered / 3 ring case to put pens, post-its, letter opener, stamps, sharpies, etc . = Office in a Bag, for my binder too!

I also got out some of those handy dandy page/sheet protectors, for documents, and such that I want in my binder–should I need to grab-n-go—–my auto insurance info, homeschool law and my certificate to homeschool (for my state), you could put birth certificate copies, medical cards, etc., etc–whatever is applicable to your family.

So, now that you have a list of supplies– gather everything up– then ponder what categories you’ll need for your family binder.

Lisa is blessed to be a Wife to Marc, a Mama to 4 blessings, and a Keeper at Home! They live their off-grid, homestead adventure in the mountains of the Northwest. Seeking the trail, ‘off the beaten path,’ that the Father has called them to follow, they homeschool, homechurch & work from home. They operate their family run business, Homestead Originals where they specialize in wonderful handcrafted goodies! Lisa is also the author of the Homestead Simplicity E-book series that focuses on Encouragement for the Homekeeper, Simple Family Living, Natural Cleaners, and Making Everything from Scratch! Come on by and visit Lisa’s Blog for great ideas, tips, freebies and contests too! To contact Lisa, email Lisa@HomesteadOriginals.com

This week I have been reading a book by Anne Ortlund, Discplines of a Beautiful Woman. The chapter that I just finished talked about your looks. Now I must admit that I am not one to spend a lot of time on my clothing or my appearance.

What Anne shared was very thought provoking, so I thought I would share it with you!

~Her first tip was this: when you become conscious in the morning (meaning waking up fully), get decent. Before she has her devotions or spends time with God, she gets up and gets herself dressed and ready for the day.

She says

I look over the day’s calendar, warm up a little and then stair climb (the fastest way to get in exercise) shower, and put on my face while I talk to God. Hair next, then clothes. Now I am ready for breakfast, meeting God, and all the day’s agendas.

This little bit really struck me because I am one of those ladies who lounges around in her PJ’s until 10 (I do get everything done, but when I do this I tend to feel chaotic and out of sorts.)  I think I might start implementing her suggestion and see what happens.)

~The next thing  she talks about is the Proverbs 31 woman being a worthy woman. She stated that out of the 22 verses on the Proverbs 31 woman, only one of them is about how she looked. Anne had this to say:

Father, I want to give 1/22 of my time to making myself as outwardly beautiful as I can; and I want to give all the rest of my time, 21/22 of my life , to becoming wise, kind, godly, hard-working, and the rest.

~Anne then goes on to share about her clothing. This is what really got me to thinking, because I don’t do this and I honestly should, because I AM TIRED of standing in front of my closet thinking I have NOTHING to wear! She shared that most of her morning hour is spent doing the looks thing–exercising, showering, doing her face and hair. She only spends five minutes getting dressed. Seriously? Five minutes? This is why!

I have SO few clothes to choose from! I keep my closet stripped down to the following outfits: 4 dressy street length outfits, 4 long casual outfits, 6 day pants, 5 day dresses, 2 sandal dresses, 3 at-home outfits, 3 evening and party outfits.

There is NO way that I could use her clothing plan because I don’t even have those types of clothes. My problem is finding something that does not have a stain on it! EVERYTHING I own is stained, so I stand in the closet for twenty minutes trying to decided which item is less stained. I really need to work on getting my clothing updated–and perhaps an apron for the kitchen so my clothes will stop getting stained. Sounds like a trip to the thrift store is in order!

But her organization of her clothes AND her accessories is where I was truly drawn in. Listen to this:

Now when I buy a dress or an outfit, I don’t just buy that alone. I make sure at the time I have everything I need–shoes, bag, jewelry, underthings, scarf–whatever. I stand before a full length mirror when it is new and check the whole outfit. I jot that complete outfit in my notebook. Everything is listed to complete the ensemble. Then it’s ready to go. I never have to dawdle over, “Does this blouse go with this skirt?”, “What beads would look good with this neckline?” I know the whole outfit, and I can fall into it fast and get onto life’s more important considerations.

I guess this just really floored me because I have never considered utilizing a clothing notebook to help with organization in this area.

So what do you think? Would you consider trying this? If you already do this, how does it work for you? Is this just “over the top”?

Many people I know always ask me, How do you manage to get everything done and still work from home too? My solution is very simple. Scheduling my time.

I started creating a schedule for myself last year when I found I was spending way too much time on-line, not necessarily being productive, but just wasting time. It has worked for me, so I thought I would share what a day looks like for me. What works for me, may not necessarily work for you, so don’t feel like you immediately have to go out and make yourself a schedule. This is just how I keep myself organized.

5:00 a.m.–Get up, cook breakfast for hubby and send him off to work.

5:30 a.m.–Get my Bible and books and do some reading.

6:00 a.m.–Work on the computer (this will include answering emails, posting to the blog, checking comments)

7:00 a.m.–Exercise (this sometimes gets pushed aside if I have a heavy workload), shower and get myself ready for the day.

8:00 a.m.–Wake kids up so they can get ready for school (summer break is still going so they actually get to sleep in)

9:00 a.m.–Get school started, kids eat breakfast, I straighten the house and pass out daily chores. I also check to see what is on the menu and lay out anything that is frozen.

11:00 a.m.–Lunch time for husband and kids.

12:00 p.m.– Kids finish school while I work some more.

1:00 p.m.–Rest time for everyone. This could include a nap, some tv time, reading time, or just relaxing.

2:00 p.m–My personal computer time. This is when I read blogs, check in on Facebook and Twitter, and see if I have any comments I need to respond to.

3:00 p.m.– Husband comes home from work. Kids go out to play so dad can rest.

4:00 p.m.–Start dinner preparations. The kids usually help me if they are not outside playing.

5:00 p.m.–Dinner, then cleanup. Everyone pitches in.

6:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m. Free time for everyone.

8:00 p.m.–Mom works while showers and bedtime routines are taken care of.

9:00p.m.–Spend time together before bedtime.

10:00p.m.–Bed time

This schedule is not always followed to the “T”, because I am not a slave to our schedule, but it helps me to be more organized when I have something concrete to go by.

In closing, I love this quote about keeping our homes, so I thought I would share it with you:

I am thankful for a lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning and gutters that need fixing because it means I have a home…. I am thankful for the piles of laundry and ironing because it means my loved ones are nearby.  ~Nancie J. Carmody

Scheduling my day works for me! What works for you?

Here are a few fun links I found this week:

First, I found and fell in LOVE with The Mother Huddle blog. So many cute things here.

For instance, check out this apron (made with one yard of fabric!) with built in hotpads in the hem! Love that!

An then there’s this super-simple solution for turning baby rompers into shirts once they are outgrown. I honestly can’t believe I’d never thought of that before.

And if this frugal and easy solution for storing ribbons isn’t a keeper, I don’t know what is. I might actually head upstairs and do this today instead of continuing to wait to install the wall mounted version I have in my head (that I never actually get to). I could put this together in a matter of minutes!

FeelsLikeHomeBlog.com shares  10 Things to Cook in a Bundt Cake pan. Great ideas here, and truly creative! I’m definitely going to use some of these if I can remember.

Here’s wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

A couple of weekends ago, I attended the 400 mile long yard sale that is held every year in my area. I ran across these really cool stair stepped racks for only .25!

This is what my spices looked like before I got down there with this neat little shelf:

And here is the finished project! Not bad for only .25 cents, huh??

Do you have one (or two or three) person in your life that never writes an actual email, but rather sends you forward after forward? Are you like me and just don’t have the time to read through them all? Have you wished you had the nerve to ask the sender to refrain but don’t know how to word it politely? No worries, Stop Forwarding to the rescue!

Visit this site, enter the offending party’s information and they’ll receive this very polite and ANONYMOUS letter.

Hi Steve,

One of your friends has sent you this message from StopForwarding.Com, the website that allows individuals to politely and anonymously email their friends and ask that they stop the habit of sending forwarded emails or FWDs.

Please do not forward chain letters, urban legends, potentially offensive jokes, videos or photos without being asked or first receiving permission. If you find something that you want to pass on and you genuinely think the recipient will enjoy it then forward it to that person only (not in an email blast to all your friends and family) and include a personal note about why you enjoyed it and why you think they will too. Avoid sending forwards to friends or relatives that you’ve grown distant with. It can be frustrating for the recipient when the only correspondence he or she has with someone is via impersonal, unwanted email.

For more tips on email etiquette, visit www.StopForwarding.Com

Thank you,
A Friend (via www.StopForwarding.Com)

I don’t know about you, but  this service really Works for Me! To see more Works for Me Wednesday tips visit We Are That Family!

I get asked all the time: “How in the world do you keep your house and schoolroom so tidy”?

The answer to that is not a complicated one. I have a few steps that I call “my routine” and follow  to help me keep things neat and in order. Now mind you, it is NOT always tidy, but because I keep things picked up, it doesn’t take me long to pick up when there is a mess.

Put everything back in its place: This is my absolute number one rule. My children know that if they get something out, it is their responsibility to put it away when they are done with it. I have been known to call them in from outside playing to put away a board game or to put away some toys left in the living room. Be vigilant in enforcing the “everything in it’s place” rule and soon the rest of the house will naturally comply on their own.

Fifteen minute rule: The fifteen minute rule is one I learned when I used to read the FlyLady’s emails. One of her suggestions was to set a timer for fifteen minutes and see what you can get accomplished in that time period. The first time I did that, I was amazed at how much I was able to clean up. Try it, you might find yourself as surprised as I was!

Engage the children to help out: Regardless of how old your children are, they can always help clean up. My oldest usually has laundry folding duty for a whole week, while the middle child has vacuuming duty for a week. If you have younger children, you can have them take dirty clothes to the laundry room, pick up dirty disher, or gather up stray toys that have been left out.

Make a schedule for each day of the week: If trying to clean your whole house in one day is overwhelming, make a schedule and hang it up so that you can see what needs to be done each day. I have a friend who washes on Monday, vacuums on Tuesday, mops on Wednesday, dusts on Thursday, and Friday is errand day. Saturday is a light housekeeping day and Sunday is her day of rest. Come up with a schedule that fits you and works around whatever out-of-the-house activities you may have.

Purge!: If you are anything like me, you collect tons of treasures from baby showers, parties, yard sales, and freebies,  not to mention all the friends who give me goodies. Make it a point to purge things every now and then. I have to clean out my bookshelves at least once every couple of months. Our schoolroom gets a good purge about every month. I straighten pencils, pens, books, folders–and anything that has to do with school gets the once-over to decide if it stays or goes.

Light some candles: Candles always makes me feel like my home is tidy and ready for company. They make the rooms smell clean, give off an inviting feel, and are just gorgeous in a neat and tidy room. They are like “room jewelry”.

Be ready for company: If you keep the awareness that someone “might” drop by to visit at any time, you are more apt to straighten up a little bit in the mornings. This way if someone does stop by, you are not always asking them to forgive your messy home.  I speak from experience here!

So, now you have a few of my steps for trying to keep my house tidy. Does it always look picture perfect? No! Some days, you may find a homemade fort, books, or crafts strewn about. During these times, I don’t worry so much about tidiness. I know that after we are done playing, we can work together to straighten everything back up!

What are some of your tips for keeping your home tidy?

My friend Heidi, who works for TOS, posted about a website she reviewed recently that has intrigued me. I thought you might be interested too!

Heidi wrote:

My Job Chart is a FREE online chore chart.  You may be thinking “whoever heard of such a thing?!”  Well, I hadn’t either, which is why I wanted to look into it a bit further.  Here’s what the website has to say: “Helping our children understand the benefit of consistent work and the value of a dollar is increasingly difficult in today’s world. Parents have tried everything from printable chore charts, stickers, reward cards, and posters but none seem to engage the interest of today’s children. My Job Chart has found the solution. It’s simple, it’s fun, it’s ONLINE, and best of all it’s FREE! Our online chore chart system inspires and motivates kids to do their chores on time every time. Kids get excited when they see their points adding up and want to do more. The chore chart is completely customizable. Your kids will finally be excited to do their chores. Give My Job Chart a try today!”

You can read her full review and check out the site for yourself HERE.

This past weekend I spent some time reading The Complete Tightwad Gazette. I love this book! It is full of all kinds of great ideas for us frugal ladies and gents!

I came across this one article on page 93(for those of you who have the book), entitled “Interior Decorating for Tightwads”. How do you feel when you visit a home that is neat, orderly, inviting, and decorated lovingly? Sometimes when I visit a home like that, it kind of makes me feel guilty for all the things I should do in my own home, and then other times, it gives me new ideas to help spruce up my home. Amy (aka The Tightwad), offers some thoughts and I thought they were pretty pertinent to us for today. She says this:

Where we live has a marked effect on our sense of well-being. If we are happy in our home we have less need to leave it and spend money. As tightwads, how we feel about where we live is important. But we approach interior decorating in a unique manner–money is an object. Therefore we must resort to the strategies that yield the most improvement for the least money.

Here are her tips from the book:

• Housecleaning: Make a concentrated effort to eliminate the permanent pile of clutter, minimize eyesores, and put things away. Smaller places are harder to keep clean so the less stuff you have the better.
• Rearranging: Redecorate by putting old things in new places.  When you clean house and rearrange you can still keep the decorative items that please you, but try to group them and create a focal point. I did this with some old picture frames and an empty wall space. It freed up space on a counter and helped make the wall space more inviting and family oriented.
• Eclecticism: Why not mix furniture of all types? Who says everything has to match? Eclecticism is a great liberator. You can’t make a mistake as long as you choose things that you like. It doesn’t have to match or conform to someone else’s standard of tastefulness.
• The Potpourri Approach: A potpourri is a grouping of items that are similar but not identical. Do you have a variety of picture frames of various sizes? Paint them all the same color and hang them on the wall. Or do like I did and buy a set of mismatched that paired well together and created a nice focal point for my dining table.
• Do-It-Yourself: If you see something that needs work, like a chair that needs refinishing, or growing plants from seedlings, why not research how to do it and try it yourself? You can save a lot when you learn to see the potential of something that needs work. (my husband and I are doing this right now with a boat and a camper)
• Flexibility: Don’t try to cram all your interior designing into one weekend. Carefully choose things over time and as bargains come your way. For instance, my children have been using a set of bunkbeds that we purchased several years ago. When it was time for them to get their own room, instead of purchasing new beds, we just took those apart, used the ladder for a clubhouse outside and now they both have beds for their rooms. When the time comes for them to get a new bed, we can put the bunkbeds back together and sell them.
• Breaking with Convention: Just because an old tv has always been an old tv doesn’t mean it is ready to be thrown out. Take an old tv, remove the guts, and refinish it, add shelves and now you have a fabulous shelving unit for collectibles. The goal here is to break out of the box–don’t always think about what it was, think about what it can be.
• Stick with the Classics: Some of the most basic and least expensive things you can do is stick with basic colors when redecorating: black, white, wood color–anything that is natural looking. If you look through magazines, you will see most of the walls in cute country homes are painted white with lovely accents.
• Think: Look around your home and ask yourself, “What is it about my home that bothers me?” Try cleaning, rearranging, and a fresh coat of paint and see if that helps!

I think I just might use these tips today and rearrange my living room! What about you?

I’m sure the majority of you are familiar with envelope budgeting, where you pull aside cash for various budget categories and keep an envelope for each. Fiscal Geek has a great description, basic how-to’s and commentary on how the system worked for him and his wife. If you’re opposed to carrying around cash, here is an interesting idea for using prepaid gift cards, instead. Dave Ramsay has a fancy-schmancy envelope system that comes in a nice case. It’s $19.95, but might be worth the investment, especially if you like things all neat and tidy (and a great system will help keep you motivated). And, for those of you who don’t get our weekly newsletter, you missed these free envelope template and tutorial from from Kelleigh Ratzlaff Designs. These are beautiful and would be so fun to use.

Now, I already told you that I try and use my credit card as much as possible to get the rewards points, but I still manage to use a virtual version of the envelope system. I use YNAB (You Need A Budget) software and love it. It is a bit more work in that you need to enter all your checks and card charges, but it works for me. Each month I budget the amount I have to spend in each category (envelope) and distribute my income accordingly. The great thing is that each credit card charge is deducted from my envelop as I enter it and not when I pay the bill at the end of the month. This gives me a more true picture of how much money I actually have available.This program also builds in a one month cushion if you use it correctly. You slowly build up a “buffer”, at which point  the money you make in January, is not budgeted until February. And, since I  set aside funds in envelopes for upcoming expenses, that estimated tax payment or dental bill no longer hurts when I write the check. I’ve already budgeted for it and the money is there!

I tested several trial programs before deciding YNAB was the one for me. Another popular program is Mvelopes.com, which also has a free trial. PearBudget is also very popular and offers a 30 day free trial ($3/month thereafter).  If you have Excel, you can download this free program. Simply trying one of these programs for 30 days, might be an eye-opening endeavor if you haven’t tried it before.

The envelope budgeting method helps you:

• Spend only what you have
• Choose your priorities (if you overspend in one category, you must take from another)
• Stay out of debt
• Easily assess your spending habits

Do you or have you used the envelope system? Do you have any tips or tricks? What is your favorite system? Simple or high-tech?