Grasping the Universe : July 2012

I have a busy life. Currently, I spend a great deal of it napping, but that doesn't mean I can’t have things planned for when I actually have the energy to do more than grow another human being. So how do I manage my universe when I’m running at full speed? BINDERS!!

Oh I have an addiction to binders. I’ve tried a few different methods for making a home management binder, and after a couple of years of trial and error I’ve found a system that works well for me-when I have energy to grab it down from the shelf and get to work that is-.

I don’t have just one binder; I have three that are used for managing my universe. The first one is the largest one (I may eventually break it down once we move and I have an actual office/classroom space to work with), I use the largest one to manage the cooking, cleaning, children, and homeschooling that takes place in our home. The second one is used to manage our military existence and the third one is used to manage well…me.

The first three will be covered in the Managing My Universe Series. The other four are for my children's homeschooling purposes and I'll be covering everything that is in those on our homeschooling blog.

So what’s in these binders? Well tons of printouts (I’ll include links at that bottom of each post) that I feel are useful for my purposes, as well as things I’ve thrown together. Let’s take a look at each one shall we? This first post is dedicated to:

Binder One aka “The Back Breaker”

First is the cover. It’s just some nice clipart with a quote and I placed it on a piece of construction paper to keep the paper from moving about when I open the binder.

On the inside I have “Daily To-Do List” inside of a sheet protector so I can use it daily without having to print out a new one each day. I can use a dry erase marker to write in what I need, including tracking my water intake, and then wipe it down at the end of the day. Also I have a pocket for pencils, scissors, etc.; and a set of calendars.

This binder is broken down into five parts: Cleaning, Cooking, Money, Kids, and Homeschooling. I’m going to go into the goodness in each section. First each section starts with a cover sheet that has some clip-art and a quote as well as a folder to hold papers and information.

Cleaning

In the cleaning folder I have natural cleaning information such as cleaning recipes (window cleaner, all-purpose cleaner, etc. that are all non-toxic) and a list of needed cleaning supplies (such as baking soda, essential oils, and so forth).

Next, I have my weekly laundry list.

Mondays: Family Laundry;

Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays: Cloth Diaper Laundry;

Wednesdays: The Spouse’s Uniform Laundry; and Sundays are for Bedding/Linens. This ensures I get everyone clean laundry as well as clean bedding on a regular basis. I find I can manage once a week family laundry if I start my first load by 8am, which has me finishing up all the laundry by around 2pmish. Then there is just folding and putting away. I have organizational cubby holes in the children’s closet where I set out two weeks’ worth of clothing options for them so all they have to do is go in and grab out an outfit of their choice-this ensures their dressers don't turn into a disaster area, they spend less time getting ready because they don't have to hunt for anything, but it still allows them choices in their clothing-.

After that is my weekly cleaning checklists. Mondays are when I handle the bathrooms, Wednesdays are for the kitchen/dining room area, and Sundays are my main cleaning day when I tackle the living room/bedrooms/laundry room areas . I do general house cleaning during the week such as vacuuming, wiping down tables and counters as needed, but the big stuff I have set days for to ensure for a weekly deep clean. I'll be sharing my cleaning checklist in another post. Lastly, under the cleaning section I have the 4 Weeks to a More Organized Home checklist from Money Saving Mom to help when I need a bit of extra organization motivation.

Cooking

The folder in the cooking section holds favorite recipes and recipes I want to try. I also keep a Daily Food Plan for each member of our family to ensure we are each getting the recommend daily amounts grains, vegetables, fruits, “dairy”-we don’t consume dairy so we substitute it for other calcium-rich foods to get this need meet-, and then protein.

After our food plans I have our monthly menus for breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner. Our menus stay the same, but under dinner I only list a meal once to ensure a bit of variety. I keep an ongoing shopping list on my tablet which has a free app programed on it for ease of grocery shopping. My grocery list stays relatively the same every two weeks which makes budgeting easy.

Money

The money folder holds bills I need to pay as well as a copy of the Monthly Cash Flow Plan from Financial Peace workbook. While the program is a bit religious we’ve found parts of it useful, so we take what we need and just ignore the religious bits.

Also in this section I have a breakdown of when I pay certain bills (as in which one of The Spouse’s paychecks will be used to cover that expense), as well as a filled in Monthly Cash Flow Plan, and The Spouses current LES (since this section has personal financial information I won't be showing any pictures of the inside of this section). That section is the lightest of the five, but still takes a great deal of work to manage.

Kids

The folder in the kids section is currently empty. It will mostly be used for things I need to remember (birthday invites, papers I need to sign, etc.) for now though there is nothing to go in there so it stays nice, empty, and clutter free.

After the folder I have two timetrackers/schedules. The first one is for our “Enrichment Days” those are days when we need to be out of the house for part of the day (usually for music lessons and if we are part of a co-op or doing some sort of field trip it falls on that day as well). I try to book all of our out of the house stuff on a day when we would normally be out of the house, this helps cut down on interruption to our schooling and allows me to get the most out of my days. The schedule listed is for a typical day when we wouldn’t be going on a field trip or taking part in a co-op (joining a secular one is my aim when we move). The next page is our typical everyday schooling schedule; although it’s going to get a bit of tweaking it will still stay generally the same (I share our schedule over at our homeschooling blog once it's complete).

Next I have the kids current shot records (yes my kids get shots *gasp*) for the kids, a medication chart for each of them so I can track when they take certain meds. Mostly, this is to track my oldest son’s inhaler use-which is important information to have when he goes in for his annual appointments-, but it can also be handy when dealing with a cold or fever so I know when I gave them their last dose of medicine and how much I gave; just in case we have to head in to see the doctor they know exactly what I've done and when I've done it. Lastly, there is a babysitter’s info sheet for those rare times The Spouse and I, or just I when The Spouse is away, happen to be out of the house without the children.

Homeschooling

This is the largest section of the binder and the reason I may eventually break the binder up into smaller portions. I choose to print out enough pages of the planner I use to cover the whole school year, which comes out to a whole heck of a lot of pages. I did this mostly so I don’t have to worry about printing and adding pages when we are in the middle of moving, just in case I don’t have access to a printer. It makes the binder heavy, but it gives me everything I need in one simple spot, so the weight is worth it in the end for me-currently-. Once we are settled in our new home then I may decide to change things up a bit. Or not. It’s a bridge I plan to cross when I get there.

I use “The World is Our Classroom” secular homeschooling planner by Kristina Daniele. I don’t use the entire planner just pages that are useful to us this school year, such as the student information, general planning, and goals pages. I have the homeschooling section broken down into months starting in June, we actually officially start our school year in July, but the planner started with June so I’ve got that first currently. Next school year I’ll be able to work it so that way I can have the planner with July first, which helps me personally see where we are in our year, that way I can plan out vacation/time off/breaks accordingly. Each month has a calendar, month in review sheet, and then a daily and weekly plan for each day and week of that month. This way I can plan out my week and then tackle each individual day based on what we have going on that week that is none school related. So, days when we have a lot going on I can plan the lighter lessons and then we can go heavy on days when our schedule is wide open.