Basic Weekly Plan

I finally found a website where I can fill in the calendar pages online and print out a calendar with my stuff already on it!  www.janbrett.com/calendar   This got me thinking that I haven’t shared with you how I keep track of what to do when recently.  I do mention some organizing tips in my category “survival tips for moms of school age children”.  Feel free to click over their for some other things.

I used my janbrett calendar to write down the stuff that has to be done over and over.  Years ago, many moms did the same thing on the same day of the week every week.  Working moms, well, this doesn’t work so well.  I recommend you do a little of everything each day instead of focusing on one thing each day.  Me, however, I’m a stay-at-home mom.  I have this curse blessing  called spend all day every day with three tornadoes young men and keep them occupied.  Besides separating the young men from their fights every time I turn around, I do have to do some basic tasks in order to keep us all sane and the kids out of foster care (-;

If you read my previous post today, you will note that what I’m actually doing this week is not exactly how my plan is but here is my plan for the remainder of August, subject to change:

• Sundays- church and soccer
• Mon- office work, errand list, football
• Tues- grocery day
• Wed- laundry day, clean kitchen, football
• Thur- baking day, football, soccer
• Fri- clean barn day, yard work
• Sat- a.m. is ME time and PM is catch up day (until football games start next month)

Like I said, it’s not exactly what’s on tap for this week.  The nice thing is that when it’s down on paper, if I have to do something on a different day than I have it scheduled for, I can look at my plan and remember that whatever that “thing” was needs to be put on another day.  My life is full of changes and disruptions, usually involving the husband calling and saying, “can you go to town and pick up blah, blah, and blah right away?”  However, my plan is wrote down so that when I get back home and say, “okay, where was I?” I can glance at my plan and say, “oh, yeah. . . I remember, today was. . . . . . “

 

Oh, and one other thing about this- some people keep these “lists” in a 3-ring binder.  I put mine on the fridge near my monthly calendar with the entire family’s schedule on it.  I would lose the list and the binder if I used a binder. . . . .  I’d lose my head it if weren’t attached too. . . .

Evacuation Plan. . . Do you have one? Are you prepared?

www.flylady.net  mailed out a great essay on emergency preparedness and how to plan for an emergency evacuation.   It is important to be ready for emergencies and I know I don’t often think about being evacuated.  I usually think about having to “hunker down” and stay home for long periods of time.  Having to leave your home for self-preservation is just as real.   As you read flylady’s essay, don’t panic and think you have to get prepared by yesterday and go rush to the store and spend a million bucks right this moment.  Work on each step a little at a time.  Perhaps each month take care of one step.  Here’s what she has to say about it:

Could You Evacuate your Home in Minutes?

Posted by: “FLYLADY” FlyLady@FlyLady.net   sheflylady

Thu Aug 13, 2009 8:12 pm (PDT)

Dear Friends,

Here it is that time of year again when we are faced with the threat
of Evacuation from our homes. We never know when we this could happen
because of fire, train wreck, floods or hurricanes. It is up to us to
be prepared!

1. PEOPLE: Have a plan for getting out of the house and make sure
everyone knows it. Have an emergency bag of food and water for your
family. Include wholesome snacks and treats for the children: dried
fruit, nuts, peanut butter, crackers and granola bars.

2. PETS: Keep pet carriers and leashes readily available to lead pets
to safety. Also take pet food with you.

3. PICTURES: Keep negatives or CDs of pictures in a lock box or at a
family member’s home. Have picture albums in one place ready to grab
and go at a moments notice.

4. PAPERS: Have all your important papers in a lock box at a bank and
only keep copies at the house. This keeps you from panicking. If you
have them at home then put them in a folder that you can easily grab
if you have to move fast. Color code it so you can find it!

5. PRESCRIPTIONS: Take your medications with you. Don’t forget the
ones that have to be refrigerated like insulin. Have small ice chest
and cold packs readily accessible to pack and go. If you have babies;
remember their formula or medications.

6. PURSES and PETRO: This is where you keep your identification,
credit cards and cash. Keep a stash of cash for emergencies and grab
it. You may not be able to use an ATM in the event of a power outage.
Make sure your car always has a half a tank of gas.

7. PROPER CLOTHES and COMFORT ITEMS: According to the weather
conditions; gather up a change of clothes along with outer clothing:
coats, rain gear, boots, gloves and hats. If you have babies remember
diapers. Remember to grab your children’s favorite blanket, stuffed
animal or toy. A game or a deck of cards could keep them occupied and
calm too.

8. PLANNER/CALENDAR/ CONTROL JOURNAL: These documents have all the
information you will need from phone numbers, insurance numbers and
important dates. They are small and filled with things you don’t have
to try to remember.

9. PERSONAL PROTECTION: Many of us still have that time of the month.
Be sure and grab a box of your preferred protection. It may be hard to
find if you have been evacuated. Stress can cause our bodies to do
strange things too. So be prepared. Take medication for cramps too.

10. PHONES, RADIOS, FUEL FOR THE CAR: Many of us have cell phones now.
Always keep them charged up and have a charger in the car or an extra
battery. They may not work in the event of power outages, but then
they might. Know which local radio station has emergency bulletins.
Keep your battery powered radio tuned to that local station and have
plenty of batteries for it. Also keep a old type regular phone that
does not operate with electricity. GAS PUMPS don’t work without power
either. You can’t leave if your car is on empty. So keep your car fuel
tank topped off when it hits a half of tank. This way you will have
gas to drive at least a couple of hours. Evacuation routes are usually
bumper to bumper traffic. Having a tank filled will keep you less
stressed.

11. PATIENCE: This is one of the most important things to pack. Keep
it inside of you so that you have a clear calm head. Having your P’s
to Preparedness list guiding you will keep you patient. In the event
of an evacuation there will be lots of displaced people. Being patient
will make things less stressful. Your children need to see you calm
and collected. This will help keep them calm too.

We can FLY in the face of Danger and Emergency if we are prepared.
Don’t wait till you are being asked to evacuate. Everyone thinks that
it could not happen to them. Well it could and it is up to you to make
sure you are prepared.

Don’t wait! DO IT NOW!!

FlyLady

Love you Girl!!!!

Dear God:
> The girl reading this is beautiful, classy and strong, and I love her.
> Help her live her life to the fullest.
> Please promote her and cause her to excel above her expectations.
> Help her shine in the darkest places where it is impossible to love.
> Protect her at all times, lift her up when she needs you the most, and let her know when she walks with you, She will always be safe.
> Love you Girl!!!!
>

Random Quotes on being a Mom of Sons

Someone gave me a tiny “coffee table” book titled, The Love Between Mothers and Sons.  It is edited by Helen Exley.  This cute little book is victorian in style and each page has a quote or two with a beautiful picture facing it.  It’s all quotes from famous people about being a mom of sons or from a son about their mom.  I thought I’d share my favorites with you!  As you read them, think not only about yourself as a parent or a child of a parent but also think about Mary, the mother of Jesus.  Compare your feelings with what you can imagine hers were.  I’ll bet they won’t be all that different. . . . .

“Mothers don’t really have premonitions.  They have been over every possible evetuality so often- both good and ill- that whatever happens to you, they’ve rehearsed it.” – Pam Brown, b. 1928

“In the effort to give good and comforting answers to the young questioners whom we love, we very often arrive at good comforting answers for ourselves.” – Ruth Good

“Every breath she ever breathed, every effort she ever made, every prayer she ever prayed was for her son. . . . The greatest break that Francis (Frank) Albert Sinatra ever enjoyed in his entire life, in  his entire career, was to have Dolly as a mother.”  Reverend Robert Perella

“Everybody knows that a good mother gives her children a feeling of trust and stability. . . Somehow even her clothes feel different to her children’s hands from anybody else’s clothes.  Only to touch her skirt or her sleeve makes a  troubled child feel better.” – Katharine Butler Hathaway

A happy childhood is one of the best gifts that parents have in their power to bestow.”  -R. Cholmondeley

4-H Livestock Auction

I’m assuming that all or most 4-H organizations have an auction at the end of the fair or sometime.  My understanding of this is that businesses and families in the community purchase the animals from the kids at the auction.  A portion of that sale price goes back to the 4-H organization and the rest goes to the kid who showed the animal at the fair. 

This year, I noticed an increasing trend.  Buyers are spreading out their money!  Multiple buyers will go together and buy multiple animals.  This spreads out their buying power and benefits more kids.  I’m wondering if it doesn’t increase the total revenue of the auction some too. 

I like this concept a lot!

Our 4-H organization’s tradition is that the kids thank the buyers with some kind of gift.  Some thank the actual person who is at the auction doing the bidding and others thank the organization that person represented at a later date.  We do both in our family.  I provide bottled water and/or chocolate for the boys to deliver immediately to the actual person/s who won the auction and then later we make up some homemade goodies to thank the entire organization or business.  We try to find out approximately how many employees and make the gift appropriately sized for each business.

To give you some ideas for your own thank you gift-

Homemade cookies

Fudge

Bread

Cinnamon Rolls

Tea Bags and Individual packets of instant coffee /cappucino

Candy

Gift Certificates to a local bakery/restaurant

Don’t forget to include a thank you note that is signed by the kid him/herself!  When they are in high school, they are capable of writing the note themselves as well!

YOU are lovable and capable!!!

I AM LOVABLE AND CAPABLE- (repeat out loud as necessary)

Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world. -Helen Keller

Kids can and will help

I woke up this morning to the sound of someone else’s very loud radio alarm and a sinus headache.  How do you teach alarm clock etiquette to children???  I’ve made this deal with them that they can get up w/ their alarm clock at 6:30 if they want (I wake kids at 7)- IF they get completely ready for school before playing or watching TV.  For a while, it was just #2 kid and that creature of habit was doing really well (except for the alarm clock- he can’t get the volume adjusted to loud enough to wake him but not loud enough to wake everyone else).  #1 gets half ready.  #3 does nothing until he gets in trouble. 

I’ve been meaning to share something that I started last week that is working out really well.  Quite a while ago, I made 3 chore lists for the boys that we rotate between them.  A week or so ago, I ordered the Brat Factor (Pam and Peggy Young) 3×5 card download at www.bratfactor.com .  I knew better than to print all the cards and think I would do them all.  Instead, I made a to-do list from the card system for the bathrooms and the laundry room and taped them inside the medicine cabinets and laundry shoot doors.  These are now part of the boy’s daily chore list (along with feeding animals, etc)  Every day of the week has a different chore.  Some of them Pam and Peggy recommend be done daily but since many of them were not done at all before, I made them weekly chores- adapted it to fit out life (we tolerate more dirt than others apparently- lol).  It’s working out quite well!!  Most chores are obvious that they are done- I see the start of clean surfaces after the boys work!!!  I need to get them to put their cleaning supplies back better but otherwise I am very proud of them!!

Sidebar- the boys chores (they are 10,8,6-well, just turned 7) come with these rules attached to them: 

1. We eat supper when the work is done – or we go to their activity when the work is done, whichever comes first.
2. They get paid, but only when they know they did the chores and ask to be paid.  It’s not mom’s job to pay them if they don’t come to her.  They then decide whether to keep the money or put it in the vacation fund piggy bank (a larger than a  shoe box box with a slot in it- when it’s full we can take a special vacation!)

 

Anyway, my point being- maybe I need to make morning routine lists for them so they can get themselves ready the same way they do their chores.

Here’s an example of one of  the boys’ chore lists:

1. Feed and water dog
2. Dump little garbage cans into big one, tie it shut, put in fresh bag.
3. Pick up any garbage and dirty dishes in living room.
4. Do upstairs bathroom chore
5. Spend 15 min. on a 4-H project of your choice

I gave them step by step instructions at first to help them know they were getting the jobs done right.   The bathroom  and laundry room chore lists have step by step instructions because these chores are new to them.  Here’s an example of one but without all the detailed instructions:

• Monday- bathtub
• Tuesday-sink
• Wednesday-toilet
• Thursday- tub/shower walls
• Friday- mirror
• Saturday-floor
• Sunday-shelf/window sill 

I guess I’ll get back with you when I have a morning routine list made up.  For more tips like this try www.shesintouch.com or www.flylady.net or the Brat Factor site I mentioned earlier

In a Flash they’ll be grown

This morning, I got to hold my 6 1/2 y.o’s hand as we walked downstairs for breakfast together. Last night, I got to talk to my 8 y.o. about whether or not he was ready for sleep-over camp this summer.  Late last night, I got to hug my 10 y.0. after a hard day at wrestling practice.

My “devils during the day” and “angels while they’re sleeping” have moments of pure joy.  The time I have left to teach them all they need to know before they go off into the big big world is nearly over -more than half over for my 10 y.o. and almost half over for the others.

All the older women in my life told me this time would be gone in a flash and I didn’t used to believe them.  I used to feel like it was all a dream and in reality I was just these kid’s babysitter and their parents would be home to be pick them up at any minute. 

I believe them today.  I believed them yesterday when I watched my son get hurt on the wrestling mat and I watched him quickly turn those hot tears into anger and self-esteem so no one would see him cry.  I believed them last weekend when my painfully shy 6 y.o. showed his mom where he had to go for that last heat of his Pinewood Derby Race and I watched him overcome the overwhelming desire to run back to me and instead stand with the others and wait his turn for the race.  I believed them a week ago when I received notice that my 8 y.o. with test anxiety was successful in completing the state mandated test without the help of the school counselor. 

Life is good.  Time is flying.  My life is one prayer after another. . . . .

Take a look at your devil angels tonight when they’re sleeping.  Look long and hard and put that image in your body’s hard drive and have it encrypted so no one can remove it from your brain.   Remind your kids that there is NOTHING they can do to make you stop loving them.

More Christmas Fun!!

I love the idea of sneaking to put Christmas ribbon around all the stuffed animal’s necks! My sons (ages 8,6,4) are animal lovers and oh what joy they will have to know all the stuffed animals were included in Christmas! I will add this to my new plan/fun I have decided on this year. My plan is to put three gift bags under the tree with each boy’s name on one. These bags will not hold a gift, but will hold clues as to where their gifts are hidden! The boys will be oh so disappointed when they see only one bag each and then when they see that it only contains paper, well! I just hope I’m awake to see their faces! I will be having a hay day watching the boys this Christmas morning! -

Please visit our website at www.thebratfactor.com.

Ideas on Gift Giving at School

Because of the economic recession, our area of the state has one of the highest unemployment rates around.  Factories are doing lay-offs and some plants are even closing.  Our school has decided to do their part to help families feeling the pinch of less income.  This year there will be no gift exchange between the kids and many of the teachers are insisting that they receive no gifts.  One teacher said that the children who are unable to give her a gift feel bad and feel like she will not like them as much as the others.  (which is not true at all in case you wondered- lol).

Anyway, I buy gifts for teachers and other adult helpers in my kid’s lives throughout the year when I find things on clearance racks.  So when I got the note saying “please no gifts”, I had to get creative in order for the teacher to accept the gift I had been collecting for her for nearly 6 months (sticker and stamping set for grading schoolwork).   

I decided that I would make this gift from the whole class rather than just from my kid.  So, I spoke to the music teacher to see if she could help.  The plan:  the music teacher will receive a large envelope from my kid (his regular teacher will think nothing of my son delivering a package to someone else for his mom- lol).  Inside is a computer generated card I made for my son’s teacher and a letter to the kids explaining what surprise awaits their teacher- if they can keep a secret!  The music teacher is going to have each child sign the card and return the large envelope to my son to bring back to home to me!  I will then wrap up the surprise and figure out a way to “drop it off” by their classroom w/o being seen sometime before Christmas break!  This is soooo exciting- I love doing surprises!

If you have not yet purchased a gift for your children’s teachers or other significant adults, here are some ideas that I have heard that teachers enjoy and some I’ve done in the past:

1. basic supplies for the kids (pencils, crayons, paper)
2. game for the classroom (does not have to be educational- the kids need activities for during inside recess too)
3. storybook for the classroom
4. stickers and stamping set for grading papers (this years!)
5. homemade drink mixes
6. homemade cookies
7. ornament with child’s picture on it
8. ornament made by the child
9. over-sized card with all the student’s names on it
10. thank you card
11. a letter praising their teaching ability with specific examples of what is working well for you and your child and send a copy of it to the principal or superintendant
12. gift card or certificate to a teacher store or bookstore
13. An essay or drawing from the child of what they like about the teacher
14. a monetary donation to a non-profit organization in honor of the teacher
15. ask if there is a specific need in their classroom and do your best to fill that need or help with it in any way you can

What ways have you thanked the other adults in your kid’s lives?  I’d love to hear your ideas!

A side note:  last year, one of my kid’s teachers had a death in her family and she had a really  hard time with it.  She was gone for 2 weeks or more.  My SIL (sister in-law) and I both thought that something from the kids might help her to feel a little more like coming back to school.  My SIL brought in a roll of butcher paper and markers and wrote in really large letters, “Welcome Back Mrs. Smith” and had the kids add their own special greetings to the butcher paper.  The substitute and my SIL then hung it up above the board so it would be the first thing she saw when she came back to school.  I took a regular poster board and folded it in half.  I used post it note letters and wrote “Hands are like Hugs” on the front.  The inside message was “This is our hug to you” and had the children trace their hands anywhere they wanted on the card.  My son and his cousin then brought that with them to the funeral home when we went for the visitation.  Their teacher was thrilled and took it right up close to the casket and propped it up for everyone to see. 

Don’t be afraid to thank those people in your life and your children’s lives for the work they do!  There is nothing nicer than knowing you are appreciated, well, except maybe the fun of giving the appreciation!