Organized for the Holidays?

Have you looked at the date? 8/31/15. Do you know how few weeks are left before the holidays are upon us?

I used to stress a LOT when thinking of this. There is always so much to do. I normally host both Thanksgiving and Christmas for my family. And since we have moved away from all of our extended family, yep, the task is on me every holiday now.

Shopping, budgets, meals, gifts, decorations...ahhhhhh stop the madness! It can be very overwhelming to say the least. Most people just go along their way, while hating the holidays more and more and they can't wait until it's all over. That's not how I want my holidays to be! I love Thanksgiving and Christmas the most. And since becoming a grandmother, Christmas has taken on a whole new meaning. I want to relish each and every moment slowly.

And now that we have the boys living with us, I want to relish those moments even more. I want to plan fun activities and adventures for the boys. I want them to be able to look back and say I always loved Christmas with my Mammaw!

There are so many traditions to pass on.

One of my favorite traditions is what I like to call our Christmas Baking Palooza! It's happened every year with Braedan and now Cameron gets to join in the fun. Every year I get a list of all of the yummy treats I want to make for the season. Cookies, cakes, fudge all kinds of yummy bits! Then we choose one day and we make everything! We make several batches also so we can give these yummy goodies to friends and family. It's gone over quite well with the adult children in my life, and Braedan is having a great time handing out treats to his other grandparents as well!

I'll be starting my organizing/cleaning/list making for Christmas this week. Yes I know it's only August. Do you remember me telling you I'm a list person? Well along with that goes I'm a planning person. I don't want to wait until the last minute to plan anything. Yes I love spontaneity, but when it comes to something as huge as the holidays, I want most things planned on paper where I can see what I have going on, when it's going on, what's my cost for what's going on. I want all the little details. The little details can make or break an event or gathering.

Of course you know what's coming next don't you? Binders!!!! You know me so well :) I have found a couple of programs online that I have been following for a few years now. They give me the ability to have a stress free holiday and love every minute of the time I get to spend. They are both put out by Organized Christmas. You just need to decide which plan you really want to do and go for it. Both plans began yesterday 8/30/15, see I'm not the only one thinking ahead!!

The first one, The Holiday Grand Plan can be found here. It's really in depth and takes cleaning and organizing to a crazy level :) This is the one that I have done for years. But this year, I found something that I think will work even better from the folks at Organized Christmas.

The House and Holidays Plan. Same type of info and tasks, but seriously, why clean the attic for Christmas when no one is going to be in the attic? Or the garage or this or that. This plan is a simpler version of the Holiday Grand Plan, with all of the same great information.

I will be working on my Christmas Central location, also known as my desk in my bedroom office. Yes it needs a ton of help. Way too much is disorganized there, I have no idea what half of those papers are and more than likely, they can be shredded and thrown out! Since I use this space every day for my jobs, it can get quite messy quite quickly. This is my mail center, my I'll look at this later center, my homework center for me, my everything really. And it's stressful when there is no organization. I know I put a piece of mail somewhere on this desk and now cannot find it, well it's probably under that 2 ton stash of mail/magazines/etc that you call your look at later pile. Seriously, this has to go! Of course, since this area is in my bedroom, this means that while getting this organized, I'll have to get other areas organized at the same time so it all flows really well.

Both plans have a ton of printables for you and I promise, you will find that following either one, will make your holidays more enjoyable and you will see a huge difference in your joy level! Come join me in this fun adventure and let me know where you are at and how you are doing in it!

I'll be sure to post some pictures of the outcome, there is no way I'm posting pictures of the before ;) Add your pictures as well, let's support each other in our goal of an organized, blessed, wonderful, joyful holiday season!


Until next post, Have a very blessed day,

 Shelly

College life

We are sending our youngest son off to college! He will be going to a local community college, but still, college none the less. I too am in college classes. With all the websites, classes, instructors and homework, it's very easy to become disorganized really quick!

I have to admit, I'm OCD when it comes to keeping class information organized. I'm one to pour through the syllabus and write down assignment dates and what we are going over in my calendar so I don't forget anything. I tend to never look at the syllabus again actually once I have everything in my calendar.

But why keep the information in so many different places? If I had a place where I could keep all information about school together, wouldn't that just make more sense? Of course it would, but you know, I have to go through trial and error first before I finally get it all together. Then my mind quickly ran to binders! My mind said to me, "you have a binder for everything else, why don't you have one for your classes?" "Hmmmm, how right you are right self!"

So I sat down and thought about what I needed for my college binder. I know what information I want to keep close at hand and decided I would only put that information in my minder, no need to add things, it will just clutter it up. This binder set is simple, yet very functional. I made one for my son and one for myself, and will be adding more colors also as I like to change things up a bit :)

This is specifically directed at college students, I know here, our school system gives each student a planner/calendar and it's a wonderful bound book. No need to re-invent the wheel ya know?

In my binder package I have a cover page of course, every binder has to have a pretty or nice looking cover right?

Then I made printables for semester info, student info, class info and a perpetual calendar. I have 2 colors as of right now, khaki and tiffany blue. Working on getting others completed and will post links to those as soon as I get them up!  I love the look and feel of these printables, and can't wait to use them during this semester. Who knows what I will come up as the semester goes along that can be added.

Do you have an idea for a printable that should be in this package? Let me know, I'd love to add anything that will be useful!

You can download the khaki binder here. 
And the tiffany blue binder here.


I'll be making more printables soon to share, remember, if you have any to add, leave me a comment. Want something you don't see here? Leave me a comment! 

I hope you enjoy these and get a ton of use from them!

Until next post, Have a very blessed day,

 Shelly

Meal Planning

Let's talk meal planning for a moment. This has been the bane of my existence for quite some time! What's for dinner? What's for breakfast? Do we have any XXX?

You see, I love love love to cook and bake. I love to try new recipes. I love almost all foods, I am not a picky eater at all. My husband on the other hand thinks fish shaped like a log in a box is "real" fish and that hamburger is the greatest meat on earth! Now add 2 little boys into this mix. One who thinks chicken nuggets/strips are the bomb diggety end all be all food, and a wee one, who at 18 months, still has trouble chewing so we are still on soft foods.

I would sometimes get so frustrated with my menu planning that I would just give up...until...... I discovered a recipe/food/meal planning binder a few years ago along with freezer cooking. Helloooooooo, where have you been all of my life? I have always been frugal when it comes to shopping, I would carefully plan each trip, write down all sales items and go through my coupons like a mad woman (more on my coupon binder later). Then I discovered freezer cooking! I also discovered that I had recipes EVERYWHERE! What a mess!

I decided to get my recipes/meal planning more organized! I can tell you this has helped me tremendously! No more wondering what's in the freezer, no more guessing what's for dinner. No more, ooops I don't have that spice to go with that chicken.

Just like with your home binder, just grab any binder you have laying around the house! I happen to use a leather one from a job I was once employed at, it has nothing to do with cooking or meal planning, but it is large enough that I won't need to upgrade anytime soon! Don't forget to grab those dividers! I have several categories in my binder so I used about 2 pkgs of dividers.

I make room for my:
Monthly planning sheet
Weekly planning sheet
Food Categories
Freezer/Pantry
Shopping Lists

First tab:
This is for my monthly planning sheet. I sit down and decide on all meals for the month ahead and write them on my calendar. Now this doesn't mean things won't get moved around or scratched off the list at any given time, but it gives me an idea on what we can have for meals and what I need to look for when it comes to shopping. You can get a copy of my monthly planner here.

Second tab:
Is my weekly menu planning sheet. Most of the time I take this directly from my monthly sheet with no changes. However; things happen so I always use the weekly sheet to make any changes on, plus I can put this on the fridge and no one asks me "hey, what's for dinner?" as they can read the menu themselves. No sadly, this still does not stop that infuriating question :) Grab a copy of my weekly menu planning sheet here.

Then I have my food category tabs. Lots of tabs here! Here is a list of the tabs I have in my binder. You will want to set your binder up with what works best for you. You may not like to freezer cook or don't even own a crock pot (to which I say why not??).  The first sheet in each section is a sheet for my favorite recipes in that category. I keep a list by name, cookbook/source, the page number, and any comments I want to leave for myself. This is so much easier than combing through the mass of cookbooks/magazines I have looking for that great Monterey Chicken recipe! You can find it here.

After these tabs I have my freezer inventory, my pantry inventory and my shopping list.

Having everything together really helps in the meal planning process. With the monthly plan, I can just write down our favorite dishes and plan my weekly menus based on that. And with freezer cooking, I never have to worry about not having something for dinner. Grab a binder and get started, you will thank me later!

Next post will be all about freezer cooking!

Until next post, have a wonderfully blessed day!

Shelly

Organization

Yeah funny title I know. I am probably the most organized, disorganized person you will ever meet!

I am a list person. I have lists for EVERYTHING! Literally, everything! I discovered a new way for organization a few years ago and I have been pleasantly surprised how easy it is to keep up with and how much it has changed my life! What is it? BINDERS!!

Everything to do with our home, family, medical history, travel, moving, schedules, the list goes on and on, is now in a binder of some sort! It really is a great way to get organized, stay organized and keep on top of all things that is life!

Let's be honest here, life is crazy. School, jobs, family, sports, shopping....with so much going on, it's no wonder we are all stressed out. I've taken it upon myself to lessen our stress levels with the use of binders. If you search home management binders a plethora of websites and blogs will come up. There is no shortage of information on this topic! It's so abundant because it works.

I'll start with my home management binder.

I just grabbed an extra binder I had lying around and began with printables I found online. Then I learned how to make my own (and I am having the time of my life with this, more about that later).

I added a cover to the binder so it would look pretty and so anyone who needs any information from this knows which is our Household binder.

 You can download your own copy of this here!

Then I added some very pretty dividers with tabs.

I have tabs for:

Monthly Planning

Weekly Planning

Daily Planning

Our Family

Contacts

Cleaning

Daily Cleaning

Deep Monthly Cleaning

Monthly planning tab:

I keep a monthly calendar here and I have our schedule on it. There are too many things going on for me to try to remember!  I coordinate all of our calendars from this main calendar. You can download your own blank calendar here.

Weekly planning tab:

This is where I can see our week in advance. Things change from week to week, day to day, so to keep even more organized, I print out weekly planning sheets that others in the family can view as I tack them to my cork board. Print out a weekly planning sheet here.

Daily planning tab:

Yep you guessed it, it's all about each day. I have a sheet for each day of the month in my planner. I sit the night before and take a look at my weekly planning sheets to see whats on the agenda. I have a space for to contact, to buy, and to do also on this sheet. There is also a mini task calendar so I can keep track of any appointments or schedules for that particular day. Download the daily planner sheet here.

My next tab is Our Family. 

Here I have basic information on our household with member information, notes on each family member, and some page protectors to hold any paperwork that is absolutely needed for each family member. I have created sheets that are specific to our home, and you can download them. These printables are for a family of 4 in pdf format. I also have them saved as word documents and you can add to the files as is necessary for your family. If interested in the word document version, please email me, I'd be happy to send you a copy! Download the family information sheet here. Download the family notes sheet here.

**UPDATE** The next tab is a contacts tab for household accounts. I don't do a family/friends contact sheet as I have everyone's info either saved on my phone or on Facebook. This contacts sheet is more for utility companies, so the hubs can find the cable number quickly if the cable goes out ;) You can pick up a copy of the household contact sheet here.

I then have my cleaning tabs. 

I like to deep clean in sections of my home and not all at once. I honestly do not have the time for an all at once deep clean! I do have a daily cleaning list, which keeps things tidy.

You can download the daily cleaning printable here.

Here are my monthly cleaning sheets.
First week of the month: entrance and dining room.
Second week of the month: kitchen.
Third week of the month: bathrooms and kids rooms.
Fourth week of the month: master bedroom and office.

I learned a lot of what I know from some great websites online. My absolute favorite can be found here:  Learn household management skills and techniques
Lots of lists and a yearlong declutter/cleaning challenge schedule!  

I have many more binders to share :) And printables coming for those also. I'm working on making other printables to match different seasons and even holidays!

So that's one part of my organization, I hope it's helped you a little bit if you are stressing with how to get everything in your home together!

Have a very blessed day!

Shelly