A Woman's Best Friend

This morning while dressing after my shower a funny little thought flitted across my mind.

You see, my best friend has been so busy with things in her own life that we haven't talked much. This is perfectly excusable for the most part. She is a busy sales executive, smack dab in the middle of her busiest season. She is blessed with 3 boys of her own, plus just found out that she has a step son (yes, these things do happen in real life) and is trying to navigate the murky waters that all of this entails. Personally, I think she is doing a fantastic job. Not only is she very involved in her sons lives, she volunteers a good deal of time in her community. She sits on various booster club boards, does the class mom thing and is overall maxed to her limit. She puts dinner on the table and prepares her family for extended business trips out of town. She really has got to be one of the most unselfish women I know. Is there any question why I love her so? Even though she is incredibly busy, she is willing to juggle it around if I need her at a moments notice. Did I mention she lives 4.5 hours away from me in another state? We see each other in "real" life about twice in a year period. This is the friend that hold me spiritually, morally and emotionally accountable. There is nothing off limits to converse about and we both can be completely undone, flawed and in the wrong. We expect each other to call out the others' sin, work through a solution and follow-up to see if we did what we said we were going to. When we greet each other on the phone we use only one word. Depending on the tone of the word, we know exactly who will be dominating the conversation. When my phone rings, and I hear the word... "Friend"... everything else gets ignored and I step into my friends life for a few minutes. No time or distance separates our hearts.

Let me introduce you to my other best friend. Right now, she is out of town for 5 very long days. Long for me, short for her. For the first time ever, she has left her 3 children at home with her husband so that she can attend a big fireworks convention of some sort. Her parting remarks were something along the lines of " I feel like I am going on spring break, only I don't plan to get naked or drunk". This is why I love her so much. This friend is a stay-at-home mom who is willing to get up and go to the gym with me at 6:30 every morning. Her daughter and my daughter are best friends. Her husband and my husband hang out. She is a mom of excellence and is faithful to her high school sweetheart. This is the friend that I can call on a moments notice and see if she wants to run off with me to do things. I trust her completely with my children. We spend hours and hours each week watching our girls play competitive soccer. We craft together. She is my other set of hands when I am overwhelmed. She is the friend who came to my house and washed my dirty clothes and carted my children around from event to event when Nick was in the hospital.

Let me introduce you to my other best friend. Oh wait, what do you mean you have 3 best friends? Actually, I have 4! Yes, this is very possible. I am a very blessed woman. My other best friend works at a college and travels the nation to judge coffee competitions. She loves coffee. Breathes coffee. Teaches coffee. Now if I stopped right here and didn't say another word about her, you all would KNOW why she is one of my best friends. COFFEE! But actually, our relationship goes much deeper than that. You see, this friend brought me to the Lord, mentored and learned along side me... and even stood next to me that Easter day, dripping wet, with tears pouring out her eyes as I accepted and dedicated my life to the Lord. She is the friend who understands who I used to be, and can see who I have become. She has been my shield too many times to count. She is never critical or judgmental. Now that she has an empty nest, she fills my heart with laughter as she takes on new things that she was never able to do when her son was at home. She is an inspiration to me at all times. She is honest and real.

Lastly, but not least by any means is my other best friend. This friend used to live next door. If we were not with each other in person then we were on our front porches talking on the phone. When we first became friends, our babies were only a few months old. We had older kids the same age. She loved Jesus. She is now a pastor's wife and lives 7 hours away. She is the friend who always is encouraging and laughing at something. She is fun and playful. She is beautiful in spirit and body. She ministers to me by asking me questions... always asking questions. She never gives me an unwanted opinion. Just asks me questions that make me think outside of the box. This is the friend who sends me random gifts in the mail, a gift card to get something for myself, or sends a  book she loved. This is the friend that I can walk into a card store with, go through and find a stack of cards we think is hilarious, swap them with each other and laugh until we almost pee our pants. Never do we have to buy the cards, just search and swap. This is the friend that opened up her home to give my son some much needed spiritual counseling for several months. Her name is the same as mine and my kids call her mom.

Now that I have introduced you to my best friends, let me share a story about two of them meeting. This would be best friend #2 and #3. One day I invited the 2 of them to go walking at a local park. I figured that the two of them would really get along well. Both are love God. Both have claws! Seriously. So friend #2 introduces herself to friend #3. "Hi~ I'm Suzie, Jenn's best friend".... "Hi~ I'm Sandy, Jenn's best friend. I have known her longer and I was here first"... Girls will be girls. We all mark our territory. We laughed quite a bit during that walk and have gotten together several times since then with no issues. While there were many more talks about friendship and sharing with each other, my girlfriends accepted each other because of their love for me.

Where does friend #1 come into play in this story? Later that day she called to see how the day went. I recounted the story in a great bit more of detail, and she just laughed. Even though she can't be here with us to take that walk, she confidently proclaimed " Yeah, we all know that I am your best friend"...

God gives each of us a friend for a season of life that we go through. Just because we have grown past that season, it doesn't mean that we have to out grow that friendship.

God gives us each a special someone in our lives. Some of us are blessed to be able to keep them for a lifetime and others for just a short period of time. Treasure each of these friendships while you can. I know I am forever thankful to the Lord that he has trusted me with so many beautiful women. Each one filling a need of friendship that my heart has always yearned for.

Reflections from a Mothers Heart

Several years ago, sometime before my 11 year old daughter was born I bought a book called Reflections of a Mothers Heart. It's intended for me to write my own story using my own words, in  my own handwriting. This really appealed to me at the time because my grandmother was experiencing TIA strokes and dementia. Her mind was failing at an alarming rate and even though we all wanted to set down and get as much information and history from her as we could, we only ended up with bits and pieces. Now, her story will never be retold and remembered. It's really a shame because she was an amazing woman.

My own mind and memory banks started failing years ago when I was in my early 20's. The doctors say it's because of the trauma I endured and I am repressing all memories both good and bad. Regardless of the reason, I wanted to get my own memories and  thoughts down so I wouldn't forget them forever. Thank goodness for digital cameras. I have had one since they first came out. It's through pictures that I remember my life. Some day when things are not quite as hectic I really should set down and print them off.

While cleaning up the classroom/office last night I came across this book that I had packed away. You see, some of the questions they ask are things I had not experienced yet. I was only 25 when I got the book. I had not experienced some of these seasons in life yet. I have a ton of empty pages. I flipped through the book, stopping to read a bit here and there. To be honest, I was quite shocked by some of my answers. Fun questions like my favorite flower, perfume, song, bible verse, dessert, food, sport and leisure activities all changed. Only my favorites for color (green), book (Little Women), Author (Louisa May Alcott) and vacation spot (Ozark Mountains) were left unchanged. This started my mind wondering about how in 10 or 20 years my answers will change again. I was left with a feeling of awe as I realized how amazing God is to us. He gives us experiences and understanding a little at a time. Shaping, molding and creating us in His image.

Deep in the heart of this mom there lies that desire for things to always stay the same. For life to be perfect. If I am honest with myself, I will tell you that I fondly look back at those younger years with a strong desire to recapture the years of wonder. A time of new beginnings and wonderment of everything God has blessed me with. But I know in my heart of hearts, that I cannot grow and become the woman of wisdom that God intends me to be unless I do experience the hard stuff.

So today during my quiet time I will sit with my favorite pen in hand, turn through the pages and take a long walk back down memory lane. I will share my thoughts and experiences with my children in writing. I may even be amazed a time or two, how much can change in so few years.

"For all of us, today's experiences are tomorrow's memories".

Barbara Johnson

Making Changes one step at a time

I like pretty things...

I ADORE functional things...

So when you weave the best of both worlds you have a very happy Lumber Jack's wife.

My job as the president of a corporation is to make things run smoothly. While I often pop in at the job site to do safety checks or bring a little sunshine now and then, most of the work I do is behind the scenes. I am my own office manager. One of the most noteworthy things I did in life when I worked outside of the home was entering into a place of business and building the organizational structure from near scratch. I love working through details, finding things that are smart and making things run smoother.

I struggle with this in my own office. I tend to get emotionally attached and am comforted by things I have, even though they just don't work well. Add to this problem the fact that my office area is used for many, many things because it's large and there is tons of room to spread out. During the day, I enjoy having my kids do their school work and it makes it convenient when I am multitasking. Needless to say, it's best if my business stuff is not spread out all over the place.

At the beginning of the year I had a great vision for revamping and reorganizing my work areas. What month is it now? Yeah, 4 months later and I still have this great dream with little to no motivation...

Which bring us to today's project.

I love pinterest. Not so much because I accidentally come across an idea, but rather because once I have an idea I can go and look at the end product and see if I really like it or not. Hey, my time is valuable and who honestly wants to end up with an ugly project?

One day last week I decided that because I am a person who no matter what, will choose to pile their papers verses organizing in a more practical way, I must do something to save hours hunting for ALL the paperwork of like kind. Have you ever picked through a pile, placed it down, picked some more, found the item you are looking for and then just tidied the pile back up again? This means CHAOS when you are in a hurry and need ALL papers of like kind.

In steps my old love... and old way of office organization. I am going to use some of the tools I have implemented in the past that worked. Best thing... VERY little upkeep.

Off I go to the supply area and grab a few 3 ring binders. I sat and looked at them. They are black and utilitarian. Practical and useful but drab. Maybe scrapbooking them will make them look better... Off to pinterest I go. NOPE... That was NOT what I was looking for. After all I am the president of this Corporation, how will this look professional in my office? A few days later I by chance came across a blog that was showcasing something entirely different. In the background there sat my ideal binders.

Dang! $40 each... I am too cheap for that... Back to pinterest I went. YES! This will work!

So here is my journey to create something practical, organizational and frugal.

First, I found some fabric that I liked. It had good texture and the perfect color. On my way to the fabric store I stopped off to see if I could find any scrap fabric at  the thrift store. Instead I found this great table cloth for $1

You must iron. Any little wrinkle will be seen. I had been warned of this ahead of time. There is no way to get the fabric pulled tight enough to get the wrinkles out.

After you choose your binders (mine are 3") cut your fabric leaving 1/2 inch on all sides.

Now, I have seen where other people used hot glue, fabric glue and elmers glue. Personally, since I was going to go through all of this work, I wanted it to be done right the first time. I found this bonding spray at the craft store and it works great for cloth to plastic applications. $12

You will want to protect your area. Anything that gets sprayed becomes super sticky. Garbage bags did the trick. Spray a light coat. Quickly press your binder and begin smoothing. Start with one end and be sure to close the binder before working the opposite end. It won't close all the way if you don't.

Fold over the seams. If you sprayed all of your fabric it will stick nicely.

By now it should look something like this.

Cut a small square for the inside flaps. I left about 1/4 to 1/2 inch so I could fold over the edges. Spray the plastic this time. Start at the middle where the hardware is and work to the ends. This way you can tuck the fabric under the metal leaving a finished look.

This is what it should look like once you have completed these steps.

I found some great hardware at the craft store as well. These book plates come in 3 sizes per pack. I heard that you can find self adhesive ones as well. $5

My first binder. Quite simple and to my liking.Could probably go in any room, not just the office.

 Binder #2. Found ribbon yesterday (yes, at a thrift store) that was a perfect match to the blue accent I am using in the office.

Binder #3. The bohemian feathers and seashell thing is my personality sneaking through. I adore anything brown, this includes burlap and twine.

The 3 of them together on the credenza. You can see there to the left, the magazine holders that are just about to get the same make over so they all coordinate!

My completed trio!

I have enough fabric, spray and accessories left to make over 3 more holders. I will place tags inside of the binders which will be free since I already have the card stock. Remaking these total cost was almost $18.00 total. Divide that by 6 (I may get more but being conservative here) the total cost each is $3.00 per binder. Compare that to the $40 Target wanted... and I come out a winner!

Seasons of Life

A Time for Everything

Ecclesiastes 3
  ¹ There is a time for everything,
   and a season for every activity under the heavens:  ² a time to be born and a time to die,
   a time to plant and a time to uproot,
 ³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
   a time to tear down and a time to build,
 ⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
   a time to mourn and a time to dance,
 ⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
   a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
 ⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
   a time to keep and a time to throw away,
 ⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,
   a time to be silent and a time to speak,
 ⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,
   a time for war and a time for peace.

Have you stopped for just a few minutes and sat in the quiet? Have you sought out the Lord and asked Him what season of life you are going through? The seasons of our lives revolve similar to the seasons of the year.

Give me a minute to explain.

Winter is an excellent time to rest and rejuvenate. The celebrations that take place during the winter months are designed for us to come together and spend time with our friends and family. It is a season of both giving and receiving. It becomes a time that is slower than normal. The chores pare down, the running becomes inconvenient, our minds are less hurried. Spiritually winter is the same thing. Its a season where we spend time reflecting more than acting and doing. When our bodies settle in and just wait for restoration.

Spring is a time of new growth. Where we can experience a wide variety of gentle rains and devastating storms. When floods may come, and the earth is tilled and planted. It's a season of new births. Things literally "spring" to life. The air is fresh, the sun is warm. In your spirit anticipation flourishes. Things are repaired, restored and beautified.

Summer is a time of "mountain top freedom". It's a time when things are consistent and pleasant. There are not many storms, the rains tend to fall less often and the weather is warm and pleasant. It's a time for Barbeques and back yard baseball games, fireflies and smores. Camping trips and family vacations. It's a time when we discover new things and enjoy extra freedoms.

Fall is a time when we buckle back down and begin to harvest all that we have sowed. It's a time when we return to work and school, take a second look at the pantry and the car maintenance. We hold out for as many little moments we can squeeze in before the weather turns and we can plan no longer. It's also a time to really reflect on the seasons that have come before, and stow them away as we know that the season of hard work and rewards has finally arrived.

Do you know what season you are in? For me, I am in both the physical season of spring and the spiritual season of spring. Anticipation of running my fingers through the sweet dense dirt, the joy of seeing new buds on the trees and new patches of color bursting out in every direction. Inside I feel like things have been dusted and swept, the journal of my days to come have been written and with great anticipation I am waiting... The storms have came and done damage as usual. The survivor in me measures with grace how much time it will take to clean up the aftermath... But my heart soars knowing that new things are coming. I am anticipating a burst of sunshine and the glow you experience on a warm day in mid May.

This is what I am feeling inside. I think my garden represents how I am feeling in life right now.

So I ask you, have you taken the time recently to discover what season of life you are in and how your time, your resources and your energy should be spent? What great wonders lie ahead for you in the next coming days, weeks and months? Are you anticipating good things from the Lord?

Household Control Journal

How do you order your life?
Fifteen minutes at a time!

Here is the deal. If you will take just 15 minutes once a day for a week or 15 minutes several times a day, this time next week you will be singing a song of joy. Planning order in  your life may come naturally or you may have to really work on it. Deciding what you want from your life DOES take some time to figure out. That is where your journal will help.

Let me start over. My life is beyond crazy busy. I home school, own 2 businesses that I am very actively involved with, do competitive sports activities with 3 of my children (soccer, baseball, track, football, Futsal), organize and facilitate a local home school group, lend a helping hand to my elderly and handicapped parents on both sides of the family, work out daily, cook from scratch and pretty much run this household on my own. My dear Lumber Jack is a blessing to me when he can be but, our work is seasonal. Often he is up at 4 AM and getting ready for his day, only to return home exhausted for dinner, a shower and a little bit of time with the kids before he heads to bed. During the winter time I am blessed with his company 24/7 so a little bit of a break is OKAY!

I have a need that may be different than you. For me, there is no easy way to separate what needs to be done for the family and what needs to be done with the business. Everything but the bills are kept together for simplicity and scheduling.

Let's take a look at how I order my life. Maybe in some small way, you will find something that will help you to make your days smoother and more productive.

This is my Case it. For the particular job it's perfect for me. 

 The Case it has double 3 ring binders. This is open to the middle. All of this takes up about 5 inches.

 My day planner  is the most used item in my portfolio of tools.

 The black case it with red stripes is my main holder for all things personal and often used.

In the middle I have a pencil pouch that holds pens, markers, highlighters, post it notes and coupons.

This red binder is my secondary tool. I keep my lesser used forms in this binder.

Behind this last Case it I keep several see through plastic sleeves.

Let me show you the meat and potatoes of our daily operations. Like I said before, our daily planner is used and loved. This is my month at a glance. The things I keep on this page are NOT day to day activities. For example: games, Dr. Appointments, Co-op dates, field trips and visitors would all be added here. This is especially useful when I am trying to plan something special or out of the ordinary.

This is the current weeks day to day pages. I use removable post it notes to block of certain times in my day. I have a couple key areas that MUST be visited each week. If you look closely you will see that the Lumber Jack and I meet twice a week about finances. Other times set aside are paperwork, groceries, house blessing (cleaning), & unscheduled games. I keep a small colorful envelope attached to the top so I can add any activities as well. Recently I had the topics of taxes, Once a Month cooking, and time set aside to stay with a friends baby at the hospital.

 Once I have my big items in place I then micro manage our schedules. I made it a point to set an exact time for a couple of things. Morning routines, laundry, Whats for Dinner? (WFD), laundry again, and finally dinner. I do have some wiggle room. However, if I don't take something out to defrost on time then I can't feed my family. If I don't do at least 2 loads of laundry every day then by the weekend I have to dedicate 16 hours of time I don't have to getting caught up.

Not everyone will like the same formats. I searched for the planner I have used forever and a day and Office Depot no longer carries it. I was heartbroken. I just adapted this one because it had great bones. I love the tabbed months. When you are in a hurry and need to get something written down before you forget it, turning easily to that page is a plus. When you turn to the tabbed month you get the month at a glace and behind those are each of your weeks broken into 15 minute segments. Do you remember me posting about 15 minutes at a time? This was important to me!

 Now, leaving the planner lets look at some of my other tools. Here are legal sized envelopes that I ran through my printer. I don't know about your house, but at mine I keep all of my receipts. I have to do this for businesses and it just over flowed to my budgeting for the home. I started with month and week. For example March week 3. At the end of each month I will pull them all together and file them away. I keep track of the date, place, amount, if it was cash or debit (C/D), a budget buster (BB) or planned (P). If I see TOO many (BB) marks I hide it from the Lumber Jack! Just kidding! It does help me be more accountable though. I keep these in the pocket for binder 1.

 On the left hand side bottom I keep paper clips, my favorite pen and a personal calendar. Because I don't want to share my weight, measurements or stats with anyone I put them in this little book. I also use it to mark the days I work out and if I am not feeling the best.

This is my morning routine. I separated each one of these inside the binder by a see though divider. the first section is my morning routine. These can be found on the Fly Lady website somewhere. They are user created.

The next section are my 15 minute chores. I love the last one. It's pampering!

 I had to flip through my pages to find one I haven't used. This is a flylady worksheet that is part of a program called FACEing your finances. I keep an updated copy for each month and a running total of how much debt we have paid off year to date. I encourage everyone to take ahold of your finances and do something to get debt free!

Next up in this binder are those odd ball schedules and random emails for field trips that I need to deal with.

 Did I mention I really don't like to cook? NOR do I like to plan dinners. My next section has new recipes I have tagged on Cozi and added to my menu's. I keep all of the new meal recipes for the week together and once I am done I transfer them to the back binder since I don't need them again for a while.

 Practicing saving money... Yep, creating a menu and a shopping list. I actually have 8 weeks made out ahead of time and a master shopping list for each week. When the week is over I take it out and transfer it to my second binder and then add the upcoming week in this spot. The full shopping list is on the back of this clear plastic sleeve. I made multiple copies so I can just grab and go!

Finally at the back of my first binder I have 3 folders (one is missing in these pics). The first one is for business meetings, the second one is for a running personal checkbook ledger since I have desk checks I use for our home bills and the third one I share below. It's a running list of "pretending" you are a realtor and walk through your house. I choose one item each week to update, fix, repair, paint, or organize.

The pretend you are a realtor papers can be found on flylady as well.

This is my second binder. It hold all of the stuff that is important and I need access to but don't really need on a daily or hourly basis.

 I actually cleaned this out for the photo shoot. I had tons of papers from the hospital in here.

In the pink binder I have my goals for 2012. Because I listed several that were very sensitive and personal I am excluding my goal list from this shoot. My favorite on the list was "Have an affair with the Lumber Jack".

 The black folder is for all those loose ends I am going to get to... or things I need to hold on to. Permission slips, paper work for physicals, personal recommendations....

This is my schedule from Flylady. For the first month I printed them all off and added them to binder #1. Once completed I moved them to binder #2. I almost DARE the lumber Jack to ask me what I did all day long!

These are forms for my kids to use. Cleaning chores... Yes, we make our kids actually help around the house!

I created this form just for my absentmindedness. My children are often telling me they need to do something and for whatever reason only part of it actually makes it into Cozi. My part, like send money for a tournament, pick up a birthday card, purchase a secret santa present... well... That is why I have this form~!

I have more see through sleeves. This one is for emergency numbers for skilled tradesmen.

Lets talk about Cozi for a minute. With Flylady you can create a free account. If you don't have one, you are REALLY missing out. I create to-do's for each day and I can even email them straight to each of my kids' phones! I print mine off because that is how I like it. At the beginning of each week, The Lumber Jack gets an email telling him who is doing what at what time and which day. My kids are responsible to add every single activity to Cozi so I know where they are at all times. If it's not on Cozi, then it doesn't happen.

Probably one of the best tools in the world, and most beloved in my collection. On the left is my prayer journal for my husband and on the right, the current book I am reading for a woman's bible study. Words cannot express how important praying for your spouse is. I picked a particular journal with Paris on it for a reason. When I was a young bride I went to Paris as a Missionary. The Lumber Jack and I were not in agreement. It did cause quite a bit of turmoil in our household. This is my reminder to be sensitive to the season of life we are in and ALWAYS listen to GOD first!