31 Days to Becoming an Organized Mom: Day 2 Where to Start?

by

Want to join me on my journey of 31 Days to Becoming an Organized Mom?  Today I am chatting about where to start when you are feeling overwhelmed with disorganization. In case you missed yesterday’s meal planning post you can find it here.

The Mindset

Grace.  It’s a good thing.  Moms need to have LOTS of grace for themselves, for their children and for their husbands.  I like to be covered in the stuff {smile}.  But I think that there can be too much of a good thing and I’m pretty sure that’s why I’m in the disorganized mess that I find myself in today.

Hard Work.  It’s not fun but it’s necessary. I’m pretty sure that I thought that I was allergic to hard work for a while.  But, as I look around my home and my life that has been pretty “fly by the seat of my pants” lately I see that a lack of hard work has gotten me here.  As I wallow in my wondering about where to even start I know that I am dealing with the consequences of not being willing to do some hard work along the way.

Yes, I have 6 kids {and for some reason everyone seems to think that automatically makes me super organized} and they make crazy messes {anyone know how to get melted crayon out of every thing in the wash load?} but there are plenty of days that the hard work of staying on top of everything kept me from doing anything.

So what do I do about a messed up mindset?  Have you ever heard that the greatest is the servant of all?  I have to put on a mindset that I am here to serve my family.  They deserve it.  If I am willing to clean up and make amazing meals for guests shouldn’t I do that ALL THE MORE for my family?  I love these people {crazy messes and all}.  If I fail to serve them and let them know that they are the most important people in the world to me then I have failed as a mother.

Having this new mindset has given me the strong desire to do the hard work.  For me {and my peace} and for my family.

It Is Work

I am the one who let things get so out of order.  I am the one who was too tired to set a system in place.  So now I am paying the price and have so much more work to do to get back on top of everything.  And that is okay.  I acknowledge this and I stand up and get to work.  One thing at a time.

Where I start is with my mindset and my attitude.  If they aren’t in the right place then I will fail as soon as I begin.

How about you?  Do you struggle with where to start?  How can you look at things differently to be able to overcome your obstacles?

 

Filed Under: Mommy Tips, Organization, Uncategorized Tagged With:

31 Days to Becoming an Organized Mom: Day 1- Meal Planning with Pinterest

by

Welcome to Day 1 of 31 Days to Becoming an Organized Mom.  In case you missed the details and the reason behind this series you can find them here.  Today I wanted to share with you how I am attempting to get organized with meal planning by using Pinterest. I feel that having a meal plan and sticking with it is one of the biggest keys to being organized.  When I have a meal plan in place it brings a whole new level of peace and order to my day.

There are about a million different ways to go about meal planning and I have attempted at least 500,000 of them.  Okay, well maybe not, but I have tried a LOT of them.  The problem they all seemed to have for me is that my (big) family didn’t care for all of the recipes or they didn’t leave much room for flexibility.  Also, if you happen to have anyone on a special diet or with an allergy a meal plan can be tricky.

Enter Pinterest.  I started pinning lots of amazing looking recipes on Pinterest but I would never get around to using them because of that darn meal plan or just not remembering them.  I use the internet a lot anyway for finding recipes and planning meals, so I thought why not make a Meal Plan Board?  Oh my goodness!  I get to make meals that I think my family will love every night, plus I get to try lots of new things and can anyone say crockpot?  There are about a bajillion crockpot recipes on Pinterest {and yes I did just make up a number}.  The crockpot is a busy moms best friend! Plus an amazing added bonus is that you can find recipes for just about any diet or allergy issue.  If you are eating Paleo, gluten or dairy free, or low carb, whatever it is, there are lots of recipes to be found for your family on Pinterest.

How does a Pinterest Meal Plan Work?

  • First I created a board on Pinterest and called it “Meal Plan.” You can call yours whatever you like but distinguish this board from your other recipes.

 

  • Next I added the recipes that I wanted to the board by either pinning them with the pin it button {see the pin it button below this post for an example} on a website or I repinned recipes from Pinterest itself {you can search for specific recipes or just see what your friends are pinning}.

 

  • When I pinned the recipes to my Meal Plan Board I would type “Meal Plan Day 1” and so on before the title of the recipe in the description box.  Pinterest doesn’t allow you to order your pins but if you only have only up to 30 recipes on one board it’s not too difficult to find the right one for each day.  I created a 30 day board and if I want to do more I will add another 30 day board called “Meal Plan 2.”  You could also do it for only a week or two at a time or even 28 days {exactly 4 weeks} if that works better for you.
  • Once I had my 30 days of recipes I made a shopping list for each week.  This takes a little bit of time but if you do it upfront then the weeks that follow will be less work.

 

  • When I went shopping I got everything I would need for the week and tonight we are having Mongolian Beef.  I can tell you what we are having for dinner for the next 3o days and exactly what I need to get to make it!

A Few Notes:

  • I made sure to think ahead to what my days are like in a month.  On days when we are busier I chose crockpot or make ahead recipes.
  • You can be as specific as adding a date to the recipe of when you want to have it.
  • This works for breakfast and lunch as well.  I made separate Breakfast and Lunch boards and am still working on completing them for the month.
  • If you are thinking “but I cannot add my own recipes” this is true but there are ways around it.  Since I am a blogger I can add recipes that my family uses and loves to my blog and pin them onto my Meal Plan Boards {and I plan to do this}.  You could also search the internet for similar recipes to the ones you know and love {I bet you’ll find something close} and go ahead and pin it onto your board as a reminder that you are making that favorite dinner recipe that day and just make it your own way.

I know the system is not perfect but I think it will be a fun way to spice up the meal planning!

What do you think?  Will you give a Pinterest Meal Plan a try? Is there anything that you would do differently? Here’s my Meal Plan Board link of you’d like to take a look at it.

Speaking of Pinterest, perhaps you should pin this post {smile}?

 

 

Filed Under: Mommy Tips, Organization, Uncategorized Tagged With:

31 Days to Becoming an Organized Mom

by

Welcome to 31 Days to Becoming an Organized Mom! I have decided to jump on the 31 days band wagon this month and join The Nester for 31 days of posts.  I’ve just been getting my feet wet lately with getting back to blogging but I am committing to dive in completely this month.

Why did I choose to do 31 days to Becoming an Organized Mom?  Because this has been pressing on my heart a lot lately.  I am not writing from the place of having everything organized but rather wanting to get there.  There have been lots of babies and toddlers in my house over the past 14 years and life seemed to speed past organized to barely holding on for a while.  But I know that being organized brings me so much peace and there is a balance between having grace for yourself and doing hard work.  I am desperately seeking the balance.

One day,  a couple weeks ago, I was driving in my car and thinking about the guests we would be having over in a few weeks.  I was thinking of all that I needed to get done before they came and how much work I would be doing.  It would probably mean some late nights and early mornings.  All of a sudden I felt very convicted.  “Why aren’t you willing to do all of that hard work for your family?  Do you realize that the message you are sending is that they are less important than any guest you might have?”  Ouch!!

This is the message I have been sending to my precious family for many years.  Yes, there is grace…they have TONS of grace for the sleepless nights and jam packed days, but this is not what I want to communicate to my family.  They are the most precious people in the world to me and they deserve being my priority and any ounce of hard work that it takes to provide a peaceful home for them.

So I am digging in and getting organized.  This month I will use these 31 days to prioritize and organize and share with you here my progress and processes.  I know that deep down inside there is a very organized woman who is very anxious to get out.  I know this because I had to lock her away years ago after my 4th child was born.

Would you like to join me?  I’ll be adding the posts each day to this page so you can read them all.

Day 1- Meal Planning with Pinterest

Day 2- Where to Start Getting Organized– Your Mindset

Day 3- Where to start Practically In Your Home

Day 4- Eliminating Distractions

Day 5- Dealing with Life’s Curveballs

Day 6- Controlling Clutter

Day 7- Don’t Forget to Rest

Day 8- The Voice you Listen to {a.k.a You are NOT Overwhelmed}

Day 9- Analyzing the Problem Spots and Finding Solutions

Day 10- Eat the Frog

Day 11- Planning Ahead

Day 12-Scary To Do Lists

Day 13-Resources to Get You Going

Day 14-Take Care of Yourself Too!

Day 15- What Are We Organizing? {This one could change everything!}

Day 16- Decluttering Tips

Day 17- Remembering Why We Do It

Day 18- Beauty Only

Day 19- Quick Tackle Something

Day 20- Shopping Smart

Day 21- Intentional Fun & Rest

Day 22- A Plan for Success

Day 23- Setting Goals to Stay Organized

Day 24- Helping Kids Help You

Day 25- Kids Checklist for Chores

Day 26- Scheduling Chores for Kids

Day 27- An Ideal Life

Day 28- Printable Chore Checklists for Kids

Day 29- Doing a bit of Dreaming

Day 30- Staying on Top of Laundry

Day 31- This. Just This!

Filed Under: Mommy Tips, Organization Tagged With: , ,

The Only Way to Travel With Kids {aka Crayola Saves the Day}

by

Usually once a year my family of 8 packs into our 8 seater minivan and takes an 18 hour drive to either Florida or North Carolina.  Are you starting to think I’m a little crazy?

My twins trying to sleep in the car

 

How do we manage such a long time in a cramped vehicle with 6 kids?  One of the ways I help occupy my kids is to bring along some surprises to whip out when the “He’s breathing my air!” whines start. My go to goodies to take along are Crayola Color Wonder pads, coloring books and markers.

This year Crayola lavished some this-mom-needs-some-help love on me prior to our annual trip. I was thrilled to find a box of goodies at my door that was sure to keep my kids quietly creating for hours on our trip.  I packed it all away secretly and whipped it out, piece by piece, once we were on our way.  

I should have recorded my kids when I started showing them what we got.  They were thrilled with the new coloring and drawing goodies.  They even played games together nicely with the Dry Erase Activity Center.

My kids seemed the most fascinated by the On the Go tiny Tube that sits in your cup holder while you pull out sheets as you need them and tear them off the roll when you are ready to share them.  You can even stick them up so others can see how creative you are!

I’d like to kiss the person who came up with the color wonder markers as they are a lifesaver on a trip!  I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced lost crayons on a trip only to find them later melted into the carpet but I sure have.  Color Wonder markers have saved me some major cleaning time since then!  They are a must on every trip we take.  All of my kids love them from the 3 year old to the 13 year old.  I might have even used them a time or two myself…

Crayola has graciously allowed me to share some of the same goodies I received with another mom and I have chosen to send them to a mom that I know who is expecting her 4th baby soon.  She is probably not going on any trips soon but she will sure need some activities for her kids in the coming days as she tends to her new baby.  These Crayola products will be exciting for her kids to get and should keep them occupied for a while.

So what do you have to have with you when you travel with kids? Have you ever brought Crayola Color Wonder products along?

Disclosure:  The information, products and additional Crayola Sumer Fun gift pack was provided by Crayola® through MyBlogSpark.

Filed Under: Mommy Tips, Reviews Tagged With:

Taking Care of Yourself Tuesday: Unplugging to be Present

by

One really important way we can take care of ourselves is unplugging to be present in our lives.  I’ve been thinking about how much noise is in our lives these days. We carry phones that give us access to what all of our friends are up to, our email, videos, music and more.  We watch TV, listen to music (now anywhere we have speakers thanks to iPhones, iPods and iPads), and have information (any information) at our fingertips as soon as we think about wanting it.

All of these things are great for a mom who wants to be productive and make the most of her time.  But I’ve been noticing that all of this noise makes it difficult to stay present in the moments of life.  And sometimes I think we don’t care to.

Perhaps the present moments in life are painful?  Maybe they are just hard.

Motherhood is hard.  It can be great and fun, but there is really no way around the hard {trust me, I’ve tried to make it easier}.  I’m not going to list all of the ways moms work because I’m pretty sure you can name them easily.  The point is that, because it is hard, we can find ourselves not wanting to feel it or deal with it.  We can look for ways to escape and we have plenty of ways to be numb to our present reality.

 

The problem is that when we are constantly listening to noise and escaping reality we are missing opportunities to be present, to be thankful for what we have, to acknowledge the good things and to get healing for the sad/hard/painful things.

I’d like to encourage you to make time to unplug every day to live in the present moments. Some ways you can do this are:

  • Only check your email once or twice a day.
  • Don’t keep the TV on when you aren’t actively watching it.
  • Write down the things you think of that you need to check online and set your timer when it is time to look them up.
  • Get in the habit of leaving your phone in your purse when you are eating a meal.

The goal is to stay present most of the time.  This isn’t just for your kids sake but for your sake.  When you learn to really listen to yourself, your feelings, and take in the beauty of life around you, you will have less reasons to feel the need to escape.

Here are some things to do help you enjoy your present reality:

  • Over time invest your time and money into making your home {especially the rooms you spend the most time in} beautiful and peaceful.
  • Eat without the distractions of your phone, computer or TV. You’ll enjoy what you eat and probably eat less.
  • Count the things you are thankful for as opposed to the things that you are bothered by.
  • Give yourself permission to relax and enjoy life instead of always having to stay busy.

How about you?  Do you feel like you are constantly connected and distracted?  Are you trying to avoid pain? How do you make sure you are staying present.

 

 

Filed Under: Mommy Tips, Taking Care of Yourself
« Previous Page
Next Page »