Review: If Mama Ain't Planning

If Mama Ain’t Planning, 2010: Daily Devotional Planner

Format: e-book

Price: $9.99

Available at: If Mama Ain’t Planning!

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The first of the year is often a time for reflection and changes made to our lives. Just a brief glance through the sales ads will tell you that most people resolve to do two things this time of the year: get in shape and get organized. Many Christians also decide to spend more time reading the Scriptures as well. If Mama Ain't Planning won't help you get in shape, but it could definitely help you with the other two!

This is truly a neat little ebook. It starts off with an overview of the Scriptures which will be the focus of each month of the following year. Then there is a printable month calendar, suitable for putting on the refrigerator, for example. The monthly calendar also has reminders of the focal Scriptures for the month as well as what she is encouraging the prayer focus to be. For example, in January, the focus is on righteousness, so the verses and prayer focus is on that subject, praying for God to make us more like Him.

Following the monthly calendar are weekly calendars, again with the verses to read that week, as well as three other sections: "Must Do," "Might do," and "Menu." There is ample room to write out the menu for the week here, as well as the priorities for the week, all in one spot.

At the beginning of each month, she has written a devotional on the theme of the month, for instance as I mentioned, January's is "If Mama Ain't Righteous." In an easy style of one friend to another, she gets you thinking about how you as a wife and mother affect the rest of your family. Remember the saying "If Mama Ain't Happy, then nobody's happy!" Well, Anitra Elmore has taken the saying and applied it. If Mama's not displaying a good attitude, not doing what she should, how can we expect our children to? This, in essence is the theme of January. The other months follow with themes such as wisdom, service, relationships, etc. throughout the year.

I think this is a neat little book, easy to use (you do have to have Adobe downloaded onto your computer to read and print it). The pages are even pretty to look at. The only negatives are very small ones. the very nature of the ebook makes it so that you can't type onto them. If you are a print it out and use it type of person this will be of no problem whatsoever. If you are a strictly digital person, keeping everything on the computer, it might not be as useful to you, though you could still refer to the Scriptures and use the themes. But really, this is a compilation of pages meant to be printed. This does make it easier for the rest of the family to see, however.

The only other downside, also a minor one, is that one or two of the "Spiritual Habits" that are encouraged each month may not sit well with all Christians, depending on their beliefs. For instance, while the activity that is encouraged to become a habit in January is a regular, daily reading of the Bible, in February, the habit is regular fasting as the Lord leads. Some of my friends and family would be uncomfortable with the idea of fasting. However, if this isn't something you would disagree with, it is easily skipped. So this is really a very minor issue.

If you are at all interested, Mrs. Elmore has a neat blog, called, of course, If Mama Ain't... I hope you enjoy her book as much as I have!

This is a review for MamaBuzz. This product was provided for free for review purposes.

Cleaning and Organization

When we talk about organization, we can't help but talk about cleaning. Partly because organizing stuff makes things look cleaner and makes it easier to clean our homes. Also, as busy moms we have to organize our cleaning time, since usually we are the cleaning crew in our homes, or at least the boss of the crew.

Before we had kids (was there ever a before kids?) and while we just had one or two kids and lived in small apartments or homes, a cleaning schedule wasn't that big of a deal. I grew up in a household where my mom had a housecleaning day. She did laundry on Thursdays and cleaned house on Fridays. When our family was smaller, I could usually do the same thing.

As our family grew and we got larger homes, I found this more difficult to do. Finally, I gave up on the idea of getting the entire house clean all at one time. It was very freeing, although it was completely against my Type-A, perfectionist personality. I decided to scrap the idea of getting the house all clean at once and decided to make sure I cleaned the whole house once a week.

To do this, I sat down and wrote out all the once-a-week and twice-a-week things I did around the house. Then I divided them all out among the days of the week. I still do this, although every year, as my family grows and grows up I change the lists up.

When I first did this I had a bathroom day in which I cleaned all the bathrooms, a floor day in which I swept and mopped or vacuumed all the floors, a kitchen day in which I scrubbed down the kitchen, etc. Sometimes I did that before the kids got up, sometimes while they were playing, sometimes during nap time. Eventually I was able to add in the kids and hand some of these chores off to them. However, even with the extra help, I don't try to get it all done in a day, but rather spread it out.

This spreading out of the weekly cleaning chores has three main advantages for me:

1. I am not worn out cleaning, and have time for other things in my life. We have a rather large house now, and I would have to devote an entire day to cleaning each week in order to get it all done in one day. Frankly, not only would my duties as a mother never permit that, I just don't want to do it. I have grammar and math to teach, babies to nurse, diapers to change, books to read, meals to cook, and emails to write. It's much easier to fit in an hour or two of cleaning a day than it is to carve out an entire day each week to it.

2. I feel as if I accomplished something today. I like lists. I like to-do lists, especially ones that are crossed out. And let's face it, "a mother's work is never done." It doesn't matter how clean the house is today and how wonderful supper was tonight and how great a child did on math today, tomorrow the house will be messy (again), the kids and husband will want to eat (again) and that same child will probably forget all the grammar she ever learned. So knowing that I did accomplish my list helps me not to feel frustrated.

Even more importantly, a completed list gives me permission to stop as well. If I didn't watch it, I could easily work until midnight every night and go to bed feeling like there still too much to do. But once my list is done, I can rest assured that even though I didn't clean the powder room today, for instance, it's on the list for tomorrow. So I can stop and spend time with my family.

3. I am more easily able to fit in monthly or seasonal chores as well. If I tried to have a housecleaning day, there's no way I would be able to do anything other than the basic cleaning on this day. By spreading the workload out throughout the week (and among the kids) I can fit in those necessary chores. I love this, because these types of things were very hard for me to find the time for before I started scheduling a few each week. For me, these are things like dusting blinds and ceiling fans, cleaning out the refrigerator (ideally I'd scrub this baby down every week, but I'm being realistic here - I'm doing good to get to it once a quarter), etc.

I still dream of having a maid one day. Actually my real dream is to have a "Susan" from the last few books in the Anne of Green Gables series. But realistically, I know it probably won't happen until I have no more messy kids in the house to clean up after. Fortunately those kids can also be taught how to clean! Next organizing/cleaning post will be about kids and chores. Now, if I could just teach those kids to eat without getting food all over the floor...

Organization: Never Put off 'Til Tomorrow What You Can Do Today

Don't you just love all the old adages?

Another way to say this is that organized people are always thinking ahead, and doing ahead as much as possible. Or, another way, don't procrastinate.

It's very easy to think that, "Oh, I'll have time to do that tomorrow." And of course, it is impossible to do everything every day. What I'm talking about are things we know we need to do. Think of it this way: there are usually two kinds of college students. One, when given a paper to write due in two months, will start reading and researching that week, will have the rough draft done in a month, and spend the final month refining. The other will put it off, thinking, "Oh, I've got two whole months. I'll get to it later." Inevitably, those are the people pulling all-nighters for two days before it is due, desperately trying to get something written.

As housewives and mothers, we constantly have work to do. And it is not only hard work, but it is never ending work. So it is "easy" to take the easy way out. It is easier to throw something in a closet than it is to put it up properly. But pretty soon, the closet is a mess, and takes a whole afternoon to clean out and organize.

The longer I've been a mom and the more kids I have, the more ways I try to find to keep things running smoothly by working ahead of the need. In the evenings I have a list (in my head) that I go through to make sure I am ready for the next day: I set out juice to thaw, mix up as much of breakfast as I can, set out Kelly's bread ready to make into sandwiches, fill up water bottles, pick out Lauryn's clothes, etc. On Saturday evenings, I help girls pick clothes, noting if they need to be ironed, tights, shoes, even hair bows. These things make our mornings run so much more smoothly just because I did a little work ahead of time.

I'm sure you can think of others. Before my kids became the main transporter of laundry, I gathered up the day's laundry the night before and put it in the laundry room, sometimes even in the washing machine. I'd put in soap then clothes, so that all I had to do the next morning when I stumbled downstairs was start the machine. If I know we are going somewhere, I try to have as much of the stuff we need gathered and ready ahead of time. If I'm really on the ball, I try to make food ahead of when I'll need it and freeze it.

Anyway, I think you get the point: procrastination and organization usually do not coexist happily. That is, unless you make enough money to pay someone to be organized for you.

Organization: Don't Re-invent the Wheel

One of the things that I learned after becoming a stay at home mommy/housewife is that the job has a lot of repetitiveness. No matter what delicious meal I made yesterday, these kids (and husband) still want to eat today! Even though I mopped and scrubbed toilets last week, they still need it this week. And of course, since these people insist on eating every day, I am going to the grocery store frequently.

Well, I decided a long time ago that it only made since that if something had to be done regularly, I needed a system to help me regulate it. For instance, every payday I was writing out a menu plan. Then one day I realized I was doing the same thing every month. I even served basically the same meals. So I spent some time coming up with a good month long meal plan and just re-used it every month. I would tweak it ever so often, but I used this same system until just recently.

Last fall I decided I was tired of writing a grocery shopping list every month. So I sat down and wrote out a very thorough shopping list tied to my menu plan for the month. Now I just print it out, scratch off what I already have, and go.* I also took the opportunity to expand it to a two month plan.

My laundry is the same way. Every week we wash the same things every day. It is such a part of the routine we don't even think about it. Monday is towel day, etc. My kids have even been known to figure out which day it is based on what laundry we did that day!

Once I get these routines established, they save us so much time and effort, and helps our household run so much more smoothly. This way I can save my mental energy for the things I can't schedule or fit so neatly in a box. You know, like kids. Or husbands.

*I blatantly stole this idea from my friend Candace.

Organization: Purge, Baby, Purge!

As a friend of mine pointed out, sometimes putting everything in its place isn't enough. Often, we have too much stuff for our places!

Believe me, I understand. I am married to a pack rat and somehow we managed to breed a bunch of pack rats. I seem to remember being a little bit of a pack rat as a kid. However, we moved once or twice a year the first few years of our marriage and then started having babies both of which has turned me into a minimalist. The pack rats in the family balance me out. :-)

My guess is that the pack rats out number us by far. Here in San Antonio there has been a building boom in the last few years - many, many new storage facilities go up every year around here. And it is rare to see a garage that can hold any cars. (I do have to temper this last statement by saying that relatively new houses around here have small garages. A two car garage is one barely able to fit two small commuter cars.) Our stuff takes over!

I think it is hard when kids are small too. We not only save their art projects, but their clothes (for the next baby), their toys, the baby paraphernalia. Believe me I understand!

However, the more stuff we have, the more effort and energy we have to spend on it: we have to clean it, organize it, store it, move it around, etc. So in order to stay organized I purge several times a year. And I am always amazed at how much stuff I can cull out of a room or closet I just went through 6 months earlier!

So one of my organization "tools" is constant purging of "stuff." This is easier said than done, especially when your kids say, "Nooooooo! Don't get rid of THAT!" There are several ways to handle this. As they have gotten older, I have gotten them involved in the culling out. I tell them that we only have space for a certain amount of ___________ (toy bins, for example). They then decide what they want to keep more in order to bring the amount down to the required level. Great lesson in prioritizing.

When the kids were smaller, I would go through their stuff, throw out the trash, and put anything else in a box and see if they missed it. If they didn't miss it after a while, I got rid of it.

Another trick I've read about is to get rid of anything not used in a year. I think this is a good guideline for some things (kitchen items maybe?) but not for all. For instance, I have some clothes in my closet that I haven't worn in over a year, but that is because I can't quite fit in them yet due to the pregnancy. But I will!

So if I have an area that is getting out of control, usually it has too much stuff in it. So I get brutal. Several times a year I add charity donation receipts to our income tax file because I keep getting rid of more stuff. Over the years I have rethought whether I really need to keep something (like school papers from 3 years ago - or last year for that matter). It's actually very freeing. Cleansing somehow.

So if you don't make it a regular habit of purging your home, try it! Do one room/closet/area a month and see how freeing it is. It's so much easier to organize a smaller amount of stuff.

Whew!

Have you ever packed up for six kids - make that six girls - including one baby, plus two adults for a six hour road trip for a week long stay? This includes snacks, blankets, air mattresses, sleeping bags, a keyboard (so my girls can practice their piano for an upcoming recital - yep, we are either dedicated or obsessed, take your pick), jackets ('cause it's actually cold where we are going), stuffed animals, movies (mobile DVD players are the best invention since...since...the washing machine!). This isn't counting all the medicine, toiletries, clothes, jammies, ponytail holders, diapers, wipes, juice, etc.

Well, neither had I until this week. And it isn't a job for the faint hearted. But we are looking forward to our first getaway in nearly a year. We are going to see my parents. My sisters and their families will be coming in as well. My dad recently had a big birthday, so it seemed like a good excuse to get together. And my hubby racked up so much overtime on his recent trip that we are going to stay through Thanksgiving! I will also get to meet my four month old neice, Callan. Should be a full house!

Summer Projects

I've been intending for weeks to post pictures of Brynna and Hailey's new bunk beds, along with a completed summer project list. I kept putting it off, but today I am getting it all posted! So please bear with me during a post that is a month overdue.

While most families have summer projects to complete, this year mine took on a new urgency. I had been unable to do much the last three months of my pregnancy except survive, and my house looked it. Plus with a new baby, we had some room rearranging to do. So once I was recovered from pregnancy, birth, and beginning nursing, I hit my to-do list for my house. It was a balm for me, since I had felt so useless, tired, fat, and discouraged for the latter part of the pregnancy. Feeling like tackling major house projects helped me feel more like myself than I had in months.

First on the list was finding and ordering bunk beds for Brynna and Hailey. Then I had painted their room before the bunk beds arrived. I also painted Kora and Aubrey's room while I was at it.


I also had the girls take up the rocks out of our rock bed in our front yard and planted sod there. We cleaned up the flower beds and I put down new red mulch. We also got some chairs and plants for our front porch to make it more inviting. That was the goal anyway.

When the bunk beds arrived, we moved Lauryn to a big girl bed and set up the crib. I then decorated Lauryn and Ashlynn's room.


We finally bought the entertainment center we had been wanting for years, so we had to work on the living room a bit.

I also re-organized the entry closet and re-did my bedroom.

I painted our entry way and got rid of our decrepit hall tree. Kelly hung up a nice bracket with hooks in the hallway instead.

I also helped the kids with some craft projects, reworked my menu rotation (more on this in a day or two), did some house cleaning, and did my lesson plans for this year. We also had tons of doctors and dentist appointments to fit in.

Whew! Makes me tired just thinking about it. But after months of doing nothing but gestating, it felt good to getup and do something, to busy and involved! Now I am happily in maintenance mode, and enjoying the new school year. Oh, and I make myself a promise not to take on that much in a summer ever again.

Look Up!

It's an old organizing tip to utilize vertical space, but it is still a good tip. Many people assume that every area of my life and home are not only organized, but cataloged and indexed as well. Not true. If you had seen my entry closet a few days ago, you would have seen a case in point. Unfortunately I rarely think to take "before" pictures, so you can't see what a mess this awkwardly shaped closet was in. It slants under the stairs, so it has always been a challenge. Just try to imagine a small closet crammed with coats, book bags, diaper bags, umbrellas, a camera bag, a tripod, exercise equipment, musical instruments, a card table, folding chairs, baby paraphernalia, and a vacuum cleaner and you'll get the picture.
So I bought a shelf and some hooks that Kelly installed, screwing them into the studs. Now there is actually a floor you can see.
I was even able to get rid of our rather decrepit hall tree next to this closet, which makes our entry hall seem bigger and brighter. So if you haven't checked out the options in stores like Lowes or Home Depot that can allow you to make better use of your spaces, get out there and do it! It's very satisfying.

A few tips for the Season

Seems like this is the time of year to blog about Christmas shopping. Everywhere I read, bloggers are sharing their thoughts on this. Well, I had planned on doing the same, so I guess great minds think alike. Then I wondered if I have anything original to add to this discussion. Probably not, but it's my blog, so I'm going to add my two cents anyway.

1. Shop throughout the year. Oh, wait, I know that's one everyone has heard. And it is easier said than done. Even for me. I am usually pretty good about doing this, but this year I fell down on the job, and now I am regretting it.

At the very least, if you don't buy stuff throughout the year, set aside money throughout the year, so that when November/December roll around you have most/all of the money you need to buy the gifts. (This method has its advantages too if you get loss leaders this time of year.) You can put it in your savings account, create a special bank account for gifts, have an envelope that you add money to every pay period, whatever. But plan for it throughout the year. This is critical if you, like me, have 4 birthdays in your family in November and December. Thank goodness this baby is coming in the spring!

2. The Christmas Kora turned 2, it was like a toy store blew up in our house. Between gifts from us, both sets of grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc., our small house could hardly hold it all. After that we decided to change how we did this. Then I read somewhere about a family that only gave each child three gifts, just like Jesus received three gifts from the Wise Men in Matthew. We decided then and there that if it was good enough for Jesus it was good enough for our kids. So from us, our kids only get three gifts. One of these is always books.

Sometimes they might share a particular gift if they both want it. especially a more expensive one. For instance, last year, Brynna and Hailey received the Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses Magical Dance Castle. It was about $80-$90 retail last year. Well that was more than I would spend for one gift on any one child, but I got the best deal I could find on it, and gave it to both of them. They were thrilled. They share a room and all their Barbies anyway, so it was a perfect match.

I have heard of other ways to limit the gifts. One lady I knew had a different system. They gave four gifts: one each for their spiritual, mental, physical and recreational lives. So a child might receive a study Bible or devotional book (spiritual), a leisure book or CD (mental), a pair of roller blades (physical) and then something fun like a toy of something for their hobby (recreational). However you do it, they children are much more appreciative of the gifts if they are a few thoughtfully given ones, rather one on a sea of other gifts.

We do, on top of those three, put one or two smaller things in their stockings. These are usually small toys (my pretty Ponies work well), jewelry, nail polish, a small stuffed animal, etc. This also in no way limits what they get from the extended family. But it has helped us enjoy our Christmases more. I can honestly say that our girls have never asked why they don't get more, as we choose carefully to get them things they really want.

And as a note, we do not do Santa with our kids. There are no extra toys under the tree, even at grandparents' houses from Santa. We have our reasons for that, but that is another blog entry.

3. Keep a list. On December 26, make a list of some kind of everyone you will need to get gifts for the next year. Keep it handy so that throughout the year you can write down ideas of something you could get them. Maybe something someone gave somebody else gives you an idea. Maybe you are talking on the phone and something they say gives you an idea. WRITE IT DOWN. Then check it off when you buy for that person. Also write down how much it is so you can keep track of holiday spending.

4. Give group gifts. If you have cousins or couples to buy for, don't feel obligated to buy each one of them a gift (unless you have all the money you need for that type of thing, in which case, I think I am a long lost cousin). I have bought movies, books, games, art supplies, and even made a tent for gifts for all the kids in the family. For couples, think of home items they can both enjoy (maybe a nice pair of candlesticks with candles for mood setting), movies, gift certificates for a date night (if you live in the same town, offer a night of free babysitting for them to use it!), or items they are both interested in (maybe they are both readers or both collect something). You'll spend less than if you try to buy two gifts, you'll be less stressed, and it will be just as appreciated.

Don't know if this has helped anyone else, but these tactics have helped keep me and our family sane through the holidays, and out of debt. It also helps keep our focus on the real meaning of the season, while still enjoying some great gifts.

This week's project: hanging shelves

This week, Kelly and I have been installing these cool shelving units in our garage.
We bought three of them and they hang from from ceiling joists in places like garages, basements, etc. where you have wasted space above. Our attic is small, so we are utilizing the space above our garage door. These are available from Lowe's, hold up to 250 pounds, and are a great storage solution.
We were able to really clean out the garage, getting rid of some things we never use, and putting up these shelves. We are putting things up there that we don't use very often like the camping gear, Kelly's golf clubs, baby stuff not currently in use.

Our next step, in a few months, will be to get some tool storage for all Kelly's tools. But it is so nice to have such a large portion of a major project like this behind us!

Up to my eyeballs in meat

For the last couple of days I have been cooking alot of ground beef. About every 7 months or so, I go to our local Sam's Club and pick up a case of ground beef, which is eight 10 pound rolls of 91% lean ground beef. These are available to any member, you just have to ask a butcher for it - no need to call ahead.
Since I can't fit all 8 rolld in my fridge, I cut up some of the rolls into 1.5 and 2 pound sections when I get home. I freeze those in quart freezer bags for use in things like meatloaf that require raw meat.
Then I use my new food processor to cut up several onions. Then I brown the meat (seasoned with onions, salt, pepper, and Worcester sauce), either 3 or 4 pounds at a time, and bag them in quart size freezer bags in either 1 pound or 1.5 pound amounts for all sorts of casseroles, tacos, burritos, etc. Storing them flat helps with space conservation and quick thawing. (Thank you to Aubrey R. for telling me about how to store them and season them!)
One of these days I'd like to do a Mega Cooking - like cookathon with the meat and actually put together the meatloaves, the casseroles, the spaghetti sauces, etc. and freeze them, thus cutting down even more on my time later on. However, at this stage in my life with so many little ones around, I just don't have the nerve to try it yet. But for now I am perfectly happy with my freezer full of ground meat ready to go at any time.

Mission: the filing cabinet

This week while our town was virtually shut down during a winter front blew in, I tackled a project that has been weighing me down for at least 2-3 years. (BTW, if you need a good laugh, listen to the San Antonio news during one of these "arctic blast" times. Everyone from anywhere north of SA laughs their heads off at us. It got down to freezing for 2 days straight and we had a little bit of ice. If everyone from Oklahoma north shut down like we did this week every time they had the same weather, they'd be shut down for 5 months every year. You'd think we had had a true ice age!)

I know most of you think that I have, in true type-A personality form, every part of my life organized, categorized, and indexed. However, even type-A's have some little area of their lives that aren't up to code. One of mine has been my filing cabinet. It is about 10 years old, rusted metal, and the filing system hopelessly outdated. For the past few years I've used the excuse, "Well, there's no reason to re-organize this until we get a new filing cabinet upstairs." It took us a little longer to get that than we thought, but last month we finally bought Kelly a new office desk that has two filing drawers built in.

So I hoed in this week while we were shut in the house, and cleaned it out. I was downright embarrassed at what was in there. Auto insurance policies from cars we no longer own, home owner's insurance policies from a house we no longer own, health insurance stuff from two fiscal years ago, every privacy policy ever sent to us by the bank, receipts for furniture long since donated to charity, discharge orders from hospital and ER visits from years ago ... Well, I think you get the picture.

So then I started shredding. And shredding. I overheated the shredder twice and had to stop for a while. I filled THREE big kitchen bags full - each bag representing about 4 emptyings of the shredder. This doesn't count another full bag of owner's manuals (many for things we no longer own) and envelopes.

So my organizational lesson learned: go through papers at least once a year, to keep it from becoming a behemoth. Learn what to keep - many owners manuals are online now. Many bills can be emailed, meaning less paperwork to keep up with. (And always shred things to keep any bad guys from stealing your stuff.)

Now our paperwork is neatly re-organized into TWO drawers, and a much more workable system is in place. I used to be bad about letting the "things to be filed" stack get way too high before I filed stuff. Then I rearranged things and I don't have a place to put that stack, so I have to file them immediately. This has worked so well, that my next step is to make myself go through our drawers twice a year: once in January and once in July (Kelly's company's fiscal year begins on July 1, so all insurance stuff begins then).

I know it doesn't seem like much, but it gives me a wonderful fuzzy feeling to get something like this accomplished. And I thought it might give some of you that same feeling to know that not everything in my house is as orderly as you would think. :)