A Simple Saturday

Wouldn't it be great if we could all adopt a new viewpoint about the days of the week? I have been thinking about this a little bit today and this is what I have come up with so far:

• Amazing Monday
• Terrific Tuesday
• Winning Wednesdays
• Thoughtful Thursday
• Fun Friday
• Simple Saturday
• Sensational Sunday

What if we had a completely different viewpoint of each day of the week? Most people in our society only really appreciate Friday Night through Sunday evening, never looking forward to the five days in between. Somehow I don't think this is living life to the fullest. Not if we only trudge through the weekdays to get to the weekends. I think this goes along with the mindset of creating a life you love.

Lets dream a little bit about what a Simple Saturday would look like in a perfect world. I am sure that each of us would have a completely different vision for this day, which would often change depending on the season that you are in. For me, a simple Saturday would have some similar attributes.

1. Slower
2. Relaxing
3. Easy
4. Friendly
5. Pleasant
6. Creative
7. Enjoyable

I sit here and chuckle to myself just a little bit because in my "real" city life it's very hectic on the weekends. They absolutely fly by, jam packed with a plethora of child based activities. Realistically, the chances of us not being in a constant monsoon of activities is unlikely for several more years yet. I desire to make it my JOB to infuse my Saturday's with the above attributes. I long for a simple Saturday in which I can just live.

Is it possible to meet all seven of these goals realistically? Lets take a look at what a "typical" Saturday in the late winter and early spring looks like. Wake up, grab a cup of coffee while throwing a multitude of drinks and snacks into a bag or cooler, yelling and the princesses to hurry up and get themselves ready, encourage the toddler to eat a little quicker, grab diapers and baby "stuff" for a few hours of being out of the house, run to the car to check if the lawn chairs and stroller are accounted for, double check the soccer blankets, soccer balls, Ergo carrier. Run back inside and grab a second layer of clothing, umbrella, sunscreen, waterbottles. Top off the coffee, grab the kids and race out the door. Once you get in the car and everyone in seat belts, throw protein bars at all your children while discussing what field you are supposed to be on. Turn on the radio and pray that you get the kids to the field on time because you have been late to the previous 2 games.

After the game or games if you have more than one child, every one piles back into the car. Maybe I should think about what's for lunch? What's for dinner? I need more coffee. Good game. Did you have fun? Are you enjoying yourself? What was the best part?

After traveling a minimum of an hour you arrive home. Tired, hungry and windblown. Everyone wants fed. The baby needs a bath. The teens want to change their clothes and plan for another activity. Husband needs your help. The coffee pot is empty, your nerves are shot, the baby is fussy and you still don't know what is for lunch or dinner.

Stop... Just stop right there. I cannot tell you how many of my weekends have been spent in this cycle of craziness. That is NOT a simple Saturday. That is not any of the attributes that I yearn for.

My girls will continue to play soccer until they both graduate. I need a better plan. In the spring, they travel quite extensively. Sometimes we have two or three days in a row like this. I won't even go into what life was like when I had three playing soccer and two playing football, two doing track, one in basketball, one playing baseball...

In order to have a Simple Saturday you MUST plan better for it. Over the years we have made great strides to have a better handle on how the day will turn out. Dinner in the crockpot, everyone get up an hour early, the car has gas, diaper bags, soccer bags and equipment packed and by the door. Thermo's are filled to capacity. Lunches packed into a small cooler. Encouraging music streaming through the speakers. Bellies full of a nice hot breakfast. Plans made AHEAD of time for evening activities. House clean and organized so everything can get accessed at a moments notice (like last minute walking out the door). Does this happen all the time? No. We are still a work in progress. This is something that we will strive more to have in place with the new move. Actually, it will be imperative since we are moving an additional hour out both ways.

I have been playing around with how to change our landing zones and to go areas. I think that by setting up these stations we all could be a little less stressed about what is where and what is missing. I have combed Pinterest a lot and have a nice little board of great hacks I'd like to put in place. There is a lot I have learned from the Flylady over the years about zones and being prepared. This was a blessing to a mom who always seems to be a day or two behind-ALWAYS!

One of the best things about Simple Saturdays? Summer time. Weekends without games or activities. Those moments I look forward to as well. Ditching the obligations of organized activities and just living life. Doesn't that sound wonderful?

I leave you all with a quick update about the upcoming move. We were supposed to close in 3 days. That isn't going to happen now. It could be 5- 12 days from now. We are all pretty much living out of boxes and suitcases at this point. We still can't schedule the movers because these people don't feel it's important to give us an actual close date. Life has been full of surprises these last few days and it's all I can do to smile and count it all joy.

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!

Only 15 minutes?

A while back I think God was preparing me for the journey I was about to embark on. Hindsight being 20/20, I think I can say that with some confidence.
A couple weeks before Christmas of last year I was constantly being prompted to make some time in my busy schedule to take charge of my life and my activities. Mostly, the kids' activities.
Along comes a sweet little website called the Flylady. The day after Christmas I dedicated my life to becoming a flybaby. Now, before you get the idea in your head that I was some kind of compulsive hoarder please understand, I am naturally an organized person. Yet some way, some how, the burdens of this life had become too much and I was spiraling out of control. In fact, I was getting so desperate I was willing to try anything.

So 15 minutes at a time sounded reasonable. After all, I seldom had more than 15 minutes of free time in my day. This proved to be a perfect solution for me. I immediately ran off to Target to get a kitchen timer.

With in 2 weeks I felt I was back in control of my house. My schedule actually had more than 15 minutes in it when I took ownership of my time and started saying "no". When I came across a little saying, I knew immediately I had to put it up on my 8 foot dry erase board as a reminder. "Stop saying yes to what God is saying no to". Surprisingly enough, it became easier as the weeks went by.

So here I am on this cloud of reclaiming some sort of normal and less confused life when out of nowhere my son gets sick and we end up being hospitalized (I will at some point share this very tragic story). Talk about a screeching halt! LIFE STOPPED. The day before we began our hospital journey I mentioned to a friend that if one more thing was added to my plate, my house of cards would collapse. And it did. Quickly.

Here is really where the rubber meets the road. Ever tried to run your household for over a month when you don't dare leave your son's side? Ever try to run a business when you can't think of anything more than if your son will live through that day? How about educating your home schooled children? Sports events? Team mom responsibilities? Tutoring? Carpooling? Even the act of paying bills completely stressed me out.

Good thing the Lumber Jack was a solid rock for me. How he held us together is way beyond my comprehension. One thing I can tell you though, is that because I spent 15 minutes at a time, several times everyday, we were able to function with only the stress from our son's health crisis.

I realized then just how important what I had committed myself to doing was for my family.

Now, after coming through this crisis I am in "make up" mode. That means I almost get to start from scratch again.

Welcome to my journey. Since you are new too, won't you follow along with me and both of us can reclaim some ground? Do you have a sincere desire to do everything in  your life excellently? Is there something deep within you that says you can have an orderly life that is well pleasing to your help mate and family? If you are brave enough to just try 15 minutes at a time, I promise you that it will be worth every minute!

Welcome to my journey~
Jenn