Taking Time to Take Care of Yourself

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Getting Organized:
In your Home and Homeschool 
 

Dear Friends,
How are you doing with your self-care? Busy moms tend to put off self-care. They take care of everyone else. They burn the candle at both ends. They get tired and burned out. They skip taking care of themselves.
When you think about self-care, you don’t really know where to start. You feel guilty for thinking about taking care of your needs.
A wise woman said something to me this week, and it stuck with me.
Life takes time.
Allow yourself time to take care of yourself.
-       Caroline
Let that sink in for a minute.
Taking care of yourself is an important job. Your health depends on you taking care of yourself. When you take care of yourself, you are taking care of your family’s caregiver.
This same wise woman told me that she had an important job. It was to take care of herself, so she could take care of her family.
She has learned well from what The FlyLady has been telling us for years.
Simple Steps to Taking Care of Yourself:
1)     Get enough rest
How many of you stay up late at night?
When you stay up late at night, it makes it hard to get up the next morning. Often, even when you get up, you are still tired. Working on your Before Bed Routine, and pay careful attention to the last step.
Go to bed at a decent hour.
Some of you have babies and small children. You might be awakened at night. If you are the season of life with little ones in the house, establish afternoon naps or rest time for everyone. Use an alarm, so you don’t fall asleep for too long in the afternoon. This will not help you get to sleep at night, but a 30 minute power nap will give you a little boost when you have interrupted sleep at night.
2)     Drink water daily
Do you know how much water you need to drink daily?
The best way I keep up with how much water I drink is to take my weight and divide it in half. That is how many ounces of water that I need each day. In the summer, I need a bit more than that. But it is a good general rule of thumb in determining how much water you should drink daily.
Water cleanses your body. It hydrates you. It gives you energy and keeps you from being dehydrated. Drinking water helps your skin. Drinking water has many benefits. Use a refillable cup or bottle and drink up!
3)     Exercise
Your body needs daily movement.
Movement stimulates your circulatory system. It helps boost your metabolism and gives you energy. I know that sounds like it would have the opposite effect, but regular movement helps your energy level to go up.
You do not have to have an elaborate exercise routine. You can go outside with your children and walk for 15 minutes around the yard while they play.
You can play ball with them in the yard. You can get up early and do an exercise video before the children get up. You can find a friend who wants a walking partner and walk daily.
Don’t let lack of finances keep you from exercising. You do not have to spend a lot of money to exercise. You need a decent pair of tennis shoes to support your feet.
4)     Eat healthy food
Eating healthy can cost more at the grocery store than pre-packaged convenience foods, but you will reap rewards in better health. Eat a balanced diet that suits your body’s needs.
I love bread and pasta, but my stomach hurts when I eat gluten. I have had to eat more vegetables and gluten-free foods. It’s worth the research in finding gluten-free alternatives. I am always reminded at the Holidays when I have tasty treats that are not gluten free and my stomach pain comes back.
Use your menu planning time to plan new recipes. Incorporate more vegetables in your menu planning. Prep food ahead of time to make it easy to cook each day. Teach your children to cook and enjoy spending time teaching them healthy food options.
5)     Relax and do something you enjoy
Do you remember what your hobbies use to be? Do you still take time to do any of them? Your interests may change over time, but you need to do something you enjoy on a regular basis. You need to relax and unwind. Being a homeschool mom is a lot of work, and you need to take care of yourself.
6)     Have a regular date night
Do you have regular dates with your spouse? You need this time for your relationship. One day the children will be grown and gone, and you will want to have a good relationship with your spouse. You don’t want to get to that point in life and realize that you have neglected your marriage relationship. This is still a part of self-care even if it involves someone else. Nurture your relationship.
Hopefully, I have given you some ideas and inspiration to take care of yourself daily.
Send me pictures of your progress this week in zone 1!
Today’s Zone Mission is to dust high and low in the Dining Room.
Your Home Blessing for today is to empty the trash, sweep, and mop.
My menu plan for Friday is take out.
Have a wonderful weekend!

What do I do with my children’s artwork?

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Getting Organized:
In your Home and Homeschool 
 

Dear Friends,
Someone asked me to write about my children’s artwork and keepsakes. How do I know what to keep and what to toss?
With six children, I have to be careful with how much of their school work I keep. I have found that when they grow up and move out, they don’t always take their keepsake boxes with them. (smile)
When we do our school work, I toss worksheets fairly often. Usually, I toss them weekly, but with my high schoolers, it is more like monthly. If they write a paper that I want to keep, I put it in a binder for that school year. Most of our work is done on the computer, so it is just saved there.
If they have a notebook or binder for a subject, such as science, I leave their lab sheets and worksheets in there for the school year. During the summer, I will clean these out and toss most of it. Occasionally, I will keep a diagram.
During our years in 4-H, each of the children made project books yearly. I still have all of these in a crate. There are not a lot of them, and they fit nicely where I have them stored. A lot of effort went into the project books, and I kept any ribbons or awards they won in each booklet.
We have done a lot of hands on learning and created a lot of projects. For some of these, I kept the project intact, but for most of them, I have pictures of the project on my computer. It’s fun to look back at those projects and pictures, but they do not take up a lot of space in my house.
In my school cabinet, I have a drawer that holds some artwork from each child. It’s not a huge stack, but it is the stuff that makes me happy to go back and look at from time to time.
When I pull out my Christmas decorations, I have a couple of boxes of hand-made ornaments. I cherish these and enjoy the memories that come back to me each year as I go through these boxes.
You can enjoy your children’s artwork and projects, but you do not have to keep every single thing they make. First, toss the easy stuff, like worksheets. You don’t want to take up valuable storage space with math worksheets.
Then, go through your children’s artwork. Establish a place to keep the special items. Take pictures of everything. You can have one memory box for you, or you can set up boxes for each child. That is a personal choice you need to make.
Share some of your children’s artwork with friends and family. That is a way to bless someone else with your child’s efforts, and it is a way of making your child feel special to brighten someone else’s day.
Do any of you have a special way you store your children’s artwork?
Today’s Zone Mission is to declutter in the interior area of your entryway. This may be your launch pad area.
Your Home Blessing for today is to declutter paper and magazines.
My menu plan for Thursday is sweet and sour chicken and a salad.
Have a great day!

Caring for your Dining Room

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Dear Friends,
We are moving along in Zone 1 today. Your mission is to spend 15 minutes decluttering in the Dining Room. If you do not have a Dining Room, pick another area that needs attention.
If you do have a Dining Room, let’s talk about it for a few minutes. In my years of mentoring ladies, the dining room often is not used a lot, and it is a place where clutter is stored. The Dining Room usually has lots of flat surfaces, and they become stacking surfaces for stuff.
Sometimes I have heard from ladies that the Dining Room is sorting central for other decluttering projects, or is it where they work on craft projects.
No matter what you use your Dining Room for, I want you to spend 15 minutes decluttering that room today. Put away the things that have been sitting there for a while. Toss the trash. Box up some items to donate. A few minutes now will help you as we get closer to the Holiday Season.
There are other areas in your home that easily become cluttered, so you can focus on one of those areas if you do not have a Dining Room. I don’t want you to feel like you can’t do a zone mission today. The main goal of working through the zones is to help you work around your home each month and detail clean.
It’s anti-procrastination day, too. Share with me something you are going to do that you have been putting off.
Your Zone Mission today is to declutter in the Dining Room for 15 minutes.
Your Home Blessing for today is to wipe windows and mirrors.
My menu plan for Wednesday is cheeseburger bake.
Have a great day!

Sprucing Up Your Front Porch

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Dear Friends,
Today’s zone mission is one that I enjoy doing when the seasons change. We are going to spruce up the front porch. Give it a good sweep and shake out your welcome mat. If you have fall decorations, put them out as well.
You may wonder why you should make your porch look pretty when you have clutter in your home. But it will make you smile when you drive up and see a cheery front porch. It will also give you a little push to make the inside of your house look as pretty as the outside.
This month we are decluttering paper, and that is a key thing for many of you in making your home look less cluttered. Be intentional about getting rid of paper daily. Practice the OHIO method.
With the OHIO method, you Only Handle It Once when dealing with paper. Toss the junk mail as soon as it comes into the house. Toss other papers daily. You probably have stacks and boxes of paper that you have been avoiding.
Someone asked about decluttering paper from a file cabinet. My advice is to take it one drawer and one section at a time. Often papers in a file cabinet have personal information, so you will need to use a paper shredder or have a burn barrel to get rid of large quantities of papers at once.
Review statutes on how long you have to hang onto certain papers. Your tax papers and receipts do not have to be kept forever. You can dispose of them when the statutes run out.
Papers you will want to keep can usually fit in a fire-proof box. You do have to keep certain legal documents. But you can use the fire-proof box to keep them safe. I have a normal size box for our larger normal than family.
What kinds of paper do you find yourself dealing with regularly?
Your Home Blessing for today is to dust and vacuum.
Your Zone Mission for today is to sweep the front porch and entryway.
My menu plan for Tuesday is pulled pork BBQ and salad for me.
Have a blessed day!

Are you ready to let go of paper clutter this month?

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Dear Friends,
Happy October 1st! We are embarking on a new habit of the month starting today. We are going to declutter paper for a few minutes each day. As homeschoolers, we have a lot of paper in our homes. Really work on letting it go a little at a time.
Here are you missions for the week:
Zone 1 Missions: The Front Porch, Entryway, and Dining Room
 
Monday – Declutter Front Porch/Entryway
Tuesday – Sweep Front Porch/Entryway
Wednesday – Declutter in the Dining Room
Thursday – Declutter in the Interior Part of Your Entryway (Launch Pad)
Friday – Dust High and Low in the Dining Room
Set your timers and then take a break when it goes off!
The front portion of your home is seen by each person who enters your home. It is also the place where people drop things when they come in the door. The entryway is often your launch pad area, so it may need attention more than once a month. It might be a daily Hot Spot area that you have declutter.
If you do not have a formal dining room area, you can use the mission time on those days to organize your homeschool materials. Spend a few minutes on your homeschool materials regardless if you have a dining room or not. Homeschool materials can take over our homes, if we don’t stay on top of them.
Here’s your recap of the Weekly Zone Missions.
On Monday, declutter the front porch and entryway for 15 minutes. Take a trash bag with you to these areas. Toss, toss, toss.
On Tuesday, sweep the front porch, shake out your welcome mat and make it look beautiful. Sweep the entryway of your home while you are at it.
On Wednesday, declutter in the Dining Room for 15 minutes. Toss the things you don’t need. Check the corners. Put away the things you want to keep. If you have items that have been hanging out and waiting on you to make a decision, toss them or donate them.
On Thursday, declutter the interior area of your entryway. This may be your launch pad area, and it might get cluttered on a daily basis.
On Friday, dust high and low in the dining room. Use your feather duster and have fun while dusting. This is a great time to play music and dance around the room.
Your Home Blessing for today is to wash the sheets.
Your Zone Mission for Monday is to declcutter the front porch and entryway.
My menu plan for Monday is round steak and a salad.
Have a blessed day!

Quick Menu Planning Tips

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Getting Organized:
In your Home and Homeschool 
 

Dear Friends,
We are wrapping up our week of Zone Missions in the Living Room. Each daily mission helps you in developing small steps to decluttering.
Today’s zone mission is a quick mission to have a Hot Spot Fire Drill in the Living Room. The first thing I recommend is that you walk into the living room and take a picture with your phone. Now, look at it. Do you see any clutter? Set the timer for 15 minutes and take care of it. You can do one of three things with it. Throw it away, put it away, or give it away.
On Friday, I typically do my menu planning. This week, I decided to do it on Thursday, so I could share a picture with you and the steps I use to plan each week.
When I start my menu planning, I look at my calendar for the next week and note any days that we have obligations. I know that afternoon appointments make it difficult to prepare a complicated meal. If we have evening commitments, I keep the menu plan simple for those days. Sometimes, I cook a large amount of our protein item and use it in more than one mail meal.
My goal is to serve healthy meals and introduce the boys to different types of foods. Next week, I want to focus on proteins and vegetables and less carbs. I used my Menu Planning pages from my Homeschool Planner, and I wrote down my menu plans in pencil. That way I can make changes to it later, if needed.
After I write down my menu ideas, I check the freezer and pantry for ingredients. If I am out of something, I add it to my shopping list. My shopping list is divided up by store, and I add items under the name of the store. Throughout the week, we will put things on a list on the fridge for items that we run out of in between shopping trips.
One thing I have not implemented regularly in my grocery shopping is utilizing the online ordering and pickup. I enjoy grocery shopping and choosing my items. There have been times in the past when I have used these store services, and it is a time saver. It is also a money saver since it cuts down impulse buying.
How is your menu planning?
Send me pictures of your progress this week!
Today’s Zone Mission is to have a Hot Spot Fire Drill in the Living Room.
Your Home Blessing for today is to empty the trash, sweep, and mop.
My menu plan for Friday is take out.
Have a wonderful weekend!

Moving Furniture and Monthly Maintenance

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Dear Friends,
Good morning! Yesterday, our zone missions took us along the tops of things in the Living Room. Today, we are going to tackle the lower areas. Use a long-handled duster to help you, if you can’t move the furniture easily.
If you have many things along the walls in your Living Room, consider if you need to keep them all. It is easy to keep adding things in a room until you realize that you have completely filled up a room.
When I was growing up, my grandmother moved furniture in the Living Room periodically. This gave a fresh look to the room, and she cleaned under and behind the furniture when she did this. We never quite knew how the Living Room would look when she did this when we were at school.
As you contemplate changes to the furniture arrangement, put out a few fall decorations, if you have them. I have a cute little Fox welcome sign that I use in the fall with some silk flowers. You will have to check out my daily Facebook videos to see when I put them out this week.
Another fun activity in the fall for your children, is to cut out some construction paper “leaves” and write something you are thankful for each day. You can put them in a basket or jar. Then you have something that gives a fall feel and is a way to express gratitude.
We are getting close to the end of the month. Are there any monthly maintenance things you need to check around the house. We change our air filters for our heating/air unit at the beginning of each month. We check the gutters and downspouts on the house. We check the water filter on the kitchen sink and in the refrigerator.
Fire safety month is in October. That is a good reminder to check batteries on your smoke detectors. You might want to schedule a field trip to visit your local fire department. Bake some cookies ahead of time and have your children write a Thank You note to the fire fighters. They have an important job in our communities.
Finally, reflect on this month’s habit. How did you do with your Before Bed Routine?
Today’s Zone Mission is to dust the lower areas of your Living Room.
Your Home Blessing for today is to declutter paper and magazines.
My menu plan for Thursday is chicken and a salad.
Have a great day!

An Open Letter to Moms of Little Ones

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In your Home and Homeschool 
 

Dear Mama of Little Ones,
Right now your days may seem long, and you nights seem too short. This is a very busy season in your home. Children from birth to age 3 are rapidly learning skills — feeding themselves, crawling, talking, walking, learning cause and effect from dumping things or throwing things.
They seem to always be hungry. They are little sponges who soak up the things going on around them. By lunch time, you are spent. You have fed them, dressed them (sometimes more than once), taken them to potty several times (or changed their diaper several times).
You have fixed them drinks and fed them a snack. You tried to get the dishes in the dishwasher, but your helper wanted to do something else. You managed to get the laundry switched. Maybe you will get it folded before bedtime.
You have played with your little one and read books. You have helped them pick up their toys even though it would be faster if you did it without their help.
You wonder if it is time for a nap, but you want to feed them lunch first. Who says you can’t have lunch at 11:00? You find your coffee cup in the microwave. You’ve reheated it three times already, and you still have not had a chance to drink it.
You have answered the question WHY almost a thousand times already. You check your calendar to see when story time is at the library. You need a shower. How does anyone get up before their little ones to actually drink their coffee and get a shower?
Little ones have a radar. They know when your feet hit the floor in the morning. They wake up ready to get on with the day. They don’t know you need a few minutes to go to the bathroom and wash your face.
You aren’t paid with a paycheck. Your pay comes from sticky hugs and kisses. Your pay comes with giggles and grins. Your pay comes from the love you have with your child.
Every day seems to run into the next one. Will your house ever be picked up and clean again? How do other moms do it?
You can sing the theme song to several children’s programs. You can recite 10 different children’s stories. You don’t need to see the page anymore. You can tell it from memory.
You look at the clock again. Is it still not nap time yet?
You desperately want to brush your teeth and your hair, but you still haven’t gotten around to it. Every time you think you will make it to the bathroom, someone needs you.
You finally get to the bathroom, and your little helper follows along. You wonder if it’s time to start potty training. You get your teeth brushed finally.
 Now it’s time for lunch. Oh, look! There’s the breakfast and snack dishes right where you left them. You fix a quick lunch and while the children eat, you try to eat quickly and get the dishes done.
You wonder what’s for dinner.
Finally, lunch is over (and with it another stack of dirty dishes), and it is time for a nap. You get the little ones down, and now you have a little time to work around the house, but first, you want to squeeze in your shower. You shower quickly. Then you realize that the little ones are awake already.
The laundry is still in the dryer. The dishwasher needs to be loaded from lunch and started. You should have started the crock pot before your shower.
You know that the next few hours will be busy, so you take a deep breath and dive in. It’s time to play, read, and snuggle. This is time you will never get back again, and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
Use your FlyLady missions. Have fun and find JOY in each day!
Your Zone Mission today is to dust the tops of doors, tops of the windows and curtains, and the ceiling fan.
Your Home Blessing for today is to wipe windows and mirrors.
My menu plan for Wednesday is lasanga with a side salad.
Have a great day!

Your routines bring you peace.

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Dear Friends,
You keep hearing from me how important your routines are to your daily life. The Morning Routine gets you moving along in the morning. The Afternoon Routine helps you work in decluttering and getting the laundry finished up for the day. The Before Bed Routine helps you get ready for the next day. Each one is important.
Read this testimonial from Elizabeth:
Well, I have not been great at decluttering, so I can’t give you a big testimony on that.
 
I go in phases.
 
BUT routines have saved me during tough times.
 
I started following Flylady years ago when she first started, and when my daughter was born, 12 years ago, my routines were super solid. My control journal was impressive with my menus and recipes always at my fingertips.
 
Then when my twins were born 15 months later, I was on auto pilot because my routines were so solid!
 
 My routines are still pretty solid and have weathered the storm of changes in life over the past few years and allow me to focus on what is most important in life – to major in the majors and not the minors.
 
         THANK YOU for helping me re-focus and for keeping me focused, Tami!!!!
The basic routines will help you when times are easy and when times are busy. As I sit here in my kitchen writing tonight, I can look around and see where the routines have worked well for me today. To be quite honest, today was a hard day, and it is comforting to see the sink empty and the counters cleared off.
If you are not doing your Before Bed Routine, I want you to do it tonight. Start right after dinner. Then do it each night for the rest of the week.
Your Home Blessing for today is to dust and vacuum.
Your Zone Mission for today is to declutter and dust the flat surfaces in your Living Room.
My menu plan for Tuesday is chicken and rice casserole and salad for me.
Have a blessed day!

It’s Living Room Week! Are you ready to declutter?

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Dear Friends,
Good morning! What did you do this weekend for Family Fun Day? This week we are going to declutter and detail clean in the Living Room or Family Room. You can pick one or alternate between the two. If you want to, you can play a game with the children and do both rooms quickly each day.
Here are you missions for the week:
Zone 4 Missions: The Living Room or Family Room
Monday – Go sofa diving!
Tuesday – Declutter flat surfaces & dust
Wednesday – Dust tops of doors, windows, etc.
Thursday - Vacuum & dust along the baseboards
Friday – Hot spot fire drill
Set your timers and then take a break when it goes off!
Your Family Room or your Living Room should be a place where your family gathers and spends time together. It should be comfortable and functional. If it’s like mine, it is used a lot. Some of you may homeschool in the Living Room or Family Room, so that may lend it to having more items in it than you would normally have in there.
If you have homeschool materials in this room, have a place for everything. Have your children put their school things away as they finish with them daily. Putting their things away should be a part of their daily routine.
Here’s your recap of the Weekly Zone Missions.
On Monday, go sofa and chair diving. Make this a treasure hunt for the children! Pull the cushions off and find the treasures that have fallen down between the cushions. Vacuum out the crumbs and put the cushions back. Make this quick and easy with helpers.
On Tuesday, declutter the flat surfaces in the Living Room. If you have things sitting around that you don’t love but have on display because you think they “should” be on display because someone gave them to you, put them in a box. If you don’t miss them, give them away. Don’t burden yourself with holding onto things because you think you “should.” Keep things that you want to keep and display.
On Wednesday, get your feather duster out and go across the tops of the doors, windows, curtains, crown moulding, and ceiling fan.
On Thursday, vacuum and dust along the baseboards today. Enlist some help in moving the furniture around to get behind it. Move the furniture back and vacuum the middle of the room quickly.
On Friday, spend 15 minutes doing a Hot Spot Fire Drill in the Living Room. Banish the clutter from this room. It will make it easier for your Home Blessings, and it will bring you joy to have a decluttered Living Room.
Your Home Blessing for today is to wash the sheets.
Your Zone Mission for Monday is to go sofa and chair diving.
My menu plan for Monday is hamburgers and the fixings for the boys. Salad for mom.
Have a blessed day!