Home Management Binder, Part III

Continuing where we left off last week..... Ah, the Lists tab. Some of you will say that it is crazy to have a tab for all of my lists. They should be filed in the appropriate sections. But that's not how I think. If it is a list, I put it here, unless it is really, really more functional elsewhere. Most of my lists are here. What are they?

• List of Demands from my striking children. It's right up front so I can show it to DoorMan later.
• Curricula 2008 - 2009 (my working list of homeschool resources for next school year)
• Shopping List
• Pantry List (a list of EVERYTHING I should have in my pantry / freezer)
• Budget 2008
• Reading Challenge Booklist

That's it. That's about all I have in my binder so far. The next tab is for Rooms, which is going to have a page for each room. I will be working on that this week. The rest of the tabs I am not happy with (name-wise) and they are mostly empty.

Thanks for coming on the tour!

Home Management Binder, Part II

I know you are all on the edge of your seat to find out what is on the reverse of my weekly planner sheet. It is my menu plan for the week. Brilliant, I know. It is great to be able to just flip the page to see what I am supposed to be cooking. I designed the sheet myself, also in Word. It is basically a grid five columns wide by seven high. The left-most column has the names of the days of the week. Underneath, in teeny, tiny print are boxes for me to check off exchanges for what I eat. The rest of the columns are labeled Breakfast, Lunch, Tea and Dinner. And I just fill in the grid while I make my grocery list.

Today's menu:

Breakfast

• Cereal
• Bananas
• Milk
• Coffee

Lunch

• Grilled Cheese
• Applesauce
• Milk

Tea

• Tea
• Leftover goodies (Christmas cookies, cinnamon buns, etc.)

Dinner

• Polish sausage
• Parsnips
• Baked potatoes
• Milk
• Water

Now, I have one of these two-sided weekly sheets done up through the end of January. I'll do February's probably the last week of January.

Right after my current weekly sheet I have the boys' weekly homeschool record sheets. I take just the current sheet from each of their binders, so I have them easily at hand to make notes on as we go through the day. No more shuffling their binders open and closed all day. Anything to be filed I put in my calendar divider pocket and file at the end of the day (as part of my Afternoon Routine). Once again I am using forms from the prodigious Donna Young.

As an aside, for those of you interested in such things, I do not have a written lesson plan this year for Arch (grade 4). I have had them in the past, and they are a lot of work upfront, and I felt they quashed our spontaneity. So I am filling in the planning grid as we go. For BamBam, he is only three and I just note down any books he reads or art projects, etc. we do.

Back to the planner, after the two current homeschool record sheets, and the future weekly planner sheets, come the rest of the monthly dividers, waiting to be filled. That brings us to the end of the Calendar section.

The next section contains my Routines. The most important sheet is on top, laminated for durability. It contains my ten daily routines in detail. I formatted it to fit all on one page in Word, using three columns. The ten routines are:

1. Morning
2. Lauds
3. Children's Morning
4. Kitchen Morning
5. Afternoon
6. Vespers
7. Children's Evening
8. Kitchen Evening
9. Bedtime
10. Compline

I refer to this all day long. It is important that it is right behind the "Routines" tab and easy to open to.

Behind this, I have a laminated copy of my boys' morning and evening routines. The original is posted on the white board in the dining room. It is a detail of what they should accomplish at the beginning and end of the day. Arch has a few chores (making beds, recyclables, carpet sweeping) which he should do without being reminded. The rest of it is prayers, hygiene, dressing.

Next is an overview of what our day (mine and the boys') should look like, with approximate times for general things. I looked at scheduling my life ala MOTH or A Mother's Rule of Life. Those clock-intensive systems overwhelm me and I get discouraged. But, I do see the value of having just a one sheet summary of what we could be doing when.



The next page is Arch's daily schedule by subject. This is one area where being time-sensitive is important, or else subjects can get out of control. It lists which subjects we should be covering when. We do not stick to this unbendingly. If we are done with grammar at 9:30 instead of 9:45, we move on. I do try not to go over the allotted time for each subject without a good reason. This schedule keeps us on course. I have some notes for BamBam on the right of the page. But, again, he is only three. We do not stick to anything with him. I got the ideas for the class times on it from Mater Amabilis.

And so we have reached the end of the Routines tab. Fun stuff, huh? You'll have to check in tomorrow for the exciting chapter on my Lists tab.

Home Management Binder

We are having a cold snap. Wind chills are around zero. The sliding doors on my minivan won't open. It is cold.

It is also a good time to dust off my Home Management Binder. I have been giving it a makeover for the past few days, in the spirit of the New Year. I have taken inspiration from one of my favorite bloggers, Dawn.

I have tried very hard to stick to my routines, and I am being rewarded by a feeling of accomplishment. Now, I don't get every single thing done every single day, but I do feel like I am getting things done. I like that feeling. I am hoping that I can continue to keep on top of my routines.


I use a 1" three-ring binder as my main binder. I bought one with the clear pockets on the outside to insert covers. I use scrapbook paper cut down to size inserted into the pockets to make it pretty. The paper can easily be changed out for different seasons or moods. I just retired my Santa Claus postage stamp paper and switched it for a very pale filigree watercolor pattern. There is no title or writing at all on the outside of my binder. I know what it is.

Right inside the front cover I have a sticker collection. It is eventually supposed to look like a collage of stickers. I am adding to it slowly. It all started when I put a "this book belongs to" sticker there.

I am still working on my cover page, awaiting inspiration. I am using a clear poly pocket for my cover page, as I am sure it will get a lot of wear and tear every time the binder is opened. Behind it, I inserted a full-page picture of Our Lady of Fatima given to my by my aunt.

Now we come to the dividers. I am not 100% happy with them. They are poly pocket dividers, see-through, multicolored in a set of eight. I got them at Office Max, but they have discontinued them. I like that the dividers have tabs wide enough to stick out past my papers, and the pockets (two on each divider) are nice for stuffing thing in to file later. I don't love that they are multi-colored. I wish they were all clear. I also have not come up with a satisfactory set of names for all of the tabs. The first four are set, but the others are in flux. Good old white-out pen!

The first tab is the "Calendar" section. This is the most active section in my binder.

Right now, in one of the pockets I have Arch's religion quiz from this morning to be filed in his school binder, and the other pocket has materials I printed off today for a unit study on Snowflake Bentley I am planning to do this month.

Next is a year-at-a-glance calendar I printed from Donna Young. I will use this to record my monthly cycles, confession and anything else I think of.

After that (still inside the overall "Calendar" tab) are monthly tabbed dividers, starting with January.


The first thing we come to inside January is a clear poly pocket containing a Mary Engelbreit Home Sweet Home print on the front, and a January liturgical calendar on the back. I cut the calendar page from the ones they give out at church. This whole poly pocket is changeable / moveable. At the end of January I will throw away the January liturgical calendar and replace it with the February, and move it to the front of the February tab.


Next is a January 2008 planning sheet, again from Donna Young. I use it to jot down events and topics we will engage in January. There is one for each month. Here is what I have jotted down for January:

• The Holy Name of Jesus
• Mary, the Mother of God
• North American saints (Sts. Elizabeth Ann Seton, John Neuamnn, Andre Bessette and Marguerite Bourgeoys)
• Christmastide: Epiphany and Baptism of the Lord
• Respect Life
• Conversion of St. Paul
• St. Thomas Aquinas
• St. John Bosco
• Christian Unity
• Mom's birthday
• Snowflake Bentley
• January Thaw

Next we come to the workhorse of my day, my weekly planner sheets. There is one for each week. I designed it myself in Word, but I got the main idea from Motivated Moms. I do purchase their planner, but I use it to fill in my own weekly planner sheets with items from their chore list. I have to have things just so, you see.



The front of each sheet has seven boxes across the top, pre-filled with the days of the week (Sunday first). I fill in the date, and any significant liturgical or family event, or appointment. I use colored pens to match the liturgical color for feast days. I also just ordered calendar stickers from Motherhood Press, but they haven't come yet. I will use them in the squares in lieu of writing. Below the boxes, on the left-hand side is a narrow column entitled "Daily Checklist." Each item on the daily checklist is actually a routine (which I have written out in detail in another section). When the routing is completed, a box is checked. There are 15 routines listed, and each has seven little check boxes below it (one for each day of the week). The main column on the page has specific tasks listed for each day of the week. This is where weekly, monthly, and seasonal tasks, "to do" items, and chores from Motivated Moms are written. Some items I do every week are pre-filled under the appropriate day. There are also blank lines every day to add items.

For instance, today has:

Prefilled:

• sewing and mending
• laundry
• menu plan and shopping list for next week

Hand-written:

• pick up prescriptions
• call train manufacturer re: warranty
• call Mary re: playdate
• Clean top shelf of fridge
• Clean shadow box in hall
• Clean combs and brushes
• Invoicing
• Past due reminder
• Pay advertising bill
• Mail books

That's about all I can cover for now. Tune in tomorrow for the exciting reverse side of this planner page.