Venturing into the world of Homemaking

Now that we're relatively settled, and Charles is busy with his new job, I'm working on figuring out what life is going to look like for me. With his really long hours, I'm pretty much in charge of maintaining our home life (which is only fair, it's not really fair for him to work a 12 hour day and then have to go grocery shopping if I've been home throughout the day!) I've thought for the past couple weeks about what I might want my routine and schedule to look like. Without a schedule, I'm pretty useless, I end up feeling aimless, more lethargic, and waste a ridiculous amount of time (like all day in some instances...stupid TV available online!) Eventually I end up feeling a twinge of depression and start to wonder what in the world I'm supposed to be doing here. I knew that if I was going to not have an official job outside the home, I still need a way of structuring my time so that I am productive, get the things done around the home that need to be done, and still have ample time throughout the week to be at the church helping Charles out, and ministering in other ways. I have brainstormed, done a ton of browsing on line to see what other people do when they need to organize their time, and made lists of everything I would like to be able to get done throughout a given week. Some of you are going to laugh at me, and think I'm ridiculous (so honestly, I'm a little hesitant to post this), but others of you are struggling to find a routine for yourself (I know, because some of you have told me you struggle with this!), so even if this isn't what ends up working for you, I hope something I share can be helpful or motivating for someone out in cyber world!

First, meet the newest member of the Kennedy household...our family notebook! Isn't it pretty? :) This has become the center point of my new life here, so I'll give you a tour. My goal was to create something that had almost everything consolidated into one place. So I simply grabbed a 3 ring binder, some page protectors, and started browsing the web to get ideas. The first page is just a page protector where I can slip coupons as I come across them throughout the week so I know where they are when it's time to plan for a grocery store trip.My next section is labeled "Goals" and I've been brainstorming things I'd like to be working towards and accomplishing throughout the next year. Having this section right up front means I am forced to flip past it everytime I open the notebook, so I am always looking at what it is I want to be doing in life. I divided life into 6 categories and am thinking about goals in terms of: social, marriage/family, physical health, leisure, spiritual, and professional/academic. This goals section is also where I have a printed list of the 30 books I am trying to read through this yearand an on-going list I came up with of 100 books I'd like to read eventually (so that when I make my list of books to read next year I have a list already to choose from)The next section is "Menu Planning." My goal is to be able to have a menu done a month at a time. Our schedules change a lot, and being a youth pastor my husband is often gone most evenings, so sometimes dinner is at 9 PM, sometimes I eat alone, sometimes I take food up to the church and we eat there before his evening meetings etc. All that to say our menu plan isn't set in stone, but I try having stuff on hand for 4 meals throughout a week that I can prepare when it looks like a meal needs to be made. My friend Miranda came across a blog where the woman made menu planning a little easier by assigning each night of the week a different category of food to give her a starting place. I'm trying that this month, and it made things easier when I was coming up with meal options! This month Sunday is soup night, Monday is crock pot night, Tuesday and Wednesday are leftover nights, Thursday is pasta night, Friday is leftover night, and Saturday is fish night. I eat a lot of leftovers at lunch, so we go through quite a few meals around here, so all these leftovers really are eaten!The next section is my Weekly Plan. What's a weekly plan you might ask? Great question!I know this is a bit tough to see, but here's what I've come up with. I started by making a list of everything that I needed to do in a week--so all the various loads of laundry (sheets, towels, darks, lights, delicates), stores I visit (the bank, Safeway, the produce stand, Costco once a month etc), and all the household chores. I marked the ones that are done every day (like making the bed) and others, like sweeping the kitchen, only happen once a week. I assigned a day of the week to each task, so I know exactly when I am doing each item on my to do list. Mornings are blocked out for me to work my way through each of the house keeping tasks assigned to a given day. Some people like doing all the laundry in one day. I don't, because that means I feel trapped at home all day waiting to change loads. So I assigned each load of laundry to a different day & only have to do one load a day, which can easily happen in the morning leaving the afternoon free. I also brainstormed other things I wanted a place to record, like tracking how much water I'm drinking in a day, whether or not I've remembered to take my vitamins, if I'm eating the variety of fruits and vegetables I'd like to be eating (the eat a rainbow guidelines is my goal in life now!), and which friend I want to try getting in touch with that day. I created a daily sheet for each day (Tuesday through Friday) and so on each sheet are spaces to record these things, along with a list of that day's assigned chores. Now, when I get up each day I know exactly where I should be starting getting things done and at the end of each day I can look at how I feel, what I accomplished, what needs to happen tomorrow, and if the way I ate that day might have anything to do with my energy levels.I'm attempting to do all my errands on Tuesday mornings, along with cleaning out the fridge, refilling pantry items, and wiping down the kitchen appliances on this day. Wednesday is my dusting day, Thursday is my floors day, and Friday are bathrooms and all the "office" type work that needs to be done--grocery list for the following week, bills, reconciling credit card statements w/ the pile of receipts, birthday cards getting mailed out, Thank you cards etc. Saturdays through Mondays I don't have any assigned chores mostly because I want to be as flexible as possible to be able to spend time with my husband when he gets a break.

The next section is an idea I found on another home maker's blog and I thought it was brilliant. She had created an inventory of all the items that regularly stock their pantry and household. This way instead of racking my brain to remember what it was that I needed to replace, I have a list of things we regularly use to trigger my memory.

List one is things I tend to buy at Costco, not every month, but as needed. I can scan through the list to see what we're out of as I make my shopping list for that month.List 2 is my kitchen/pantry inventory--things we use regularly in cooking.List 3 is Household Supplies--things to keep on hand for first aid, bathroom supplies, office type supplies etc.The next section is Hospitality--where I have two lists--one of people we want to be intentional about having over for a meal (which is proving useful as we're meeting so many people at church we want to get to know better!), and a list of easy meals to make when people are coming over that have proved popular with guests in the past. Again, just trying to intentionally consolidate all this info in one place has been helpful!The next section is labeled "Holidays" I went through our yearly calendar and put everyone's birthday on one piece of paper--family and friends, so I can easily see when I need to restock birthday cards!I also found these blank gift planner templates on line that I'm going to use for our nieces and nephew--where I can write down their current sizes, what we gave them this past year for birthdays and Christmas (I know I've already given at least one duplicate book to poor Diana!), and if I do come up with a brilliant Christmas gift idea in July I'll have a place to write that down.The next section is "Maintenance" where I have two lists--one of things I need our contractor to fix after 6 months as he has promised, and a list of yearly/seasonal cleaning jobs, like turning the mattress, cleaning the window shades, that kind of thing.The last section is "For Fun," where I have lists of movies we want to see, restaurants we want to visit, and things I'd like to write about someday.Want to see the other half of my organizational plan? It's my favorite because it's made up of such fun colors :) The plan is to not take the binder all over the place--it's the stay at home reference point for our family life. However, I'm not always at home, and needed some part of this organizational plan to be portable. So I did what everyone else would have done too--I went to Target. Oh how I love Target. First up, a purse that would be large enough to carry a traveling planner/notebook. I've never owned a purse that is not brown or black. I decided it was time. Meet my new friend :)See, plenty of space:I also got a square 3-subject notebook to carry with me in the new pretty pink purse:So here is where I write my grocery lists each week, my "master to do list" (so at the beginning of the week I can assign things that pop up to different days), and my lists of other errands that need to happen throughout the month as I think of things.We do all of our family calendar on the computer, because thanks to Apple's "Mobile Me" program Charles can access our family calendar from work, so he can see what we have going on when scheduling things. But, I can't take the computer with me. So I got a small purse sized monthly calendar to take with me, and on Fridays during "office time" I'll transfer everything from the computer calendar to my traveling one so when someone at church wants to grab coffee I don't have to say "let me get back to you."
Aren't they happy together? :) There you have it, Sarah's major OCD all in one post. I've had conversations with several friends these days who have mentioned struggling with getting life under control, who want to simplify things. This is just the method I've come up with (and we'll see how it actually works!), and I realize that everyone's life and schedule are different, so please know that this is not me telling anyone else how they "should" be handling their lives! Life is stressful for all of us, so I'd love to hear from others--what works for you when you're trying to work, get things done at home, and have a social life? What systems do you use that are effective for your family?