Andrea's blog
Organized
Problem:
papers, mail, bills, receipts, etc. The "STACKS"
- The 2-minute rule (If it can be taken care of in less than two minutes, do it immediately)
- Have appropriate disposal bins handy where you read your mail (trash, recycle, shred)
- Use a by-date separator to know when to pay certain bills
- Have an "inbox" and go through it daily (or weekly)
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- Family Calendar with room for each family member's activities for the week.
- White board calendar in the kitchen
- Sync up your PDAs, Outlook Calendars, etc.
- Keep a perpetual birthday, anniversary calendar
- Keep a long-term (this month/year) and short-term (today/this week) to-do list
- Categorize your to-dos. A work-related to-do, a home related to-do, a kid-related to-do, etc.
- Make a next-action list (Ben got this from the book Getting Things Done. It has a fantastic system that we use occasionally...not religiously)
- Each kid gets a bin and they're allowed to put as many of whatever toys they want to have in the bin, but the lid MUST close. All other toys are stored in bins in the basement/garage/etc. Every month or so you give them the option to go "shopping" for a new round of toys. (Alison gets total credit for this idea--which btw my MOPS group thought this was genious!)
- Buckets with photo labels of the contents.
- Toy "check out" and "return" policy from shelves. Can only have 3 items checked out at once before they need to be put away. (I don't actually know anyone who does this, but it might be an interesting experiment to see if kids are willing to go along with it...)
- Boxes, folders or bins divided by school year. Label with child's name, year, teacher's name.
- Portfolio divided by year
- Hang recent creations from clips on a curtain rod to create your own kid's art gallery
- Go back 2-3 years later when you aren't so emotionally attached to *every* art piece and quiz and purge, keeping the best and most special.
- A place for everything and everything in its place.
- If it can be done quickly, do it immediately.
- Clean out your closets/desk/etc. every 6 months. If you haven't used it in a year, get rid of it, you probably don't need it.
- Put things away every night before you go to bed.

Itza Pizza

The Long Way Round

Playhouse


I love the little shoebox shelf above the sink!

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And, I thought all my northern friends would get a good laugh out of this weather that interrupted television shows last night several times with winter storm warnings:

Home is a Four Letter Word
My pictures came in the mail today, so I was able to fill our four frames in the kitchen--FINALLY. You guys got me thinking about four-letter words, and then I ran across this article I had written a while back for Scrapjazz, and I thought, "duh! I'll do a word collage!" How easy is that? So I took some photos of letters around our house, cropped and enlarged them to 8" x 10" and hung 'em up!

I'm likin' it. It wasn't on purpose really, but I like the black and red thing I've got going with them too..
Now, for a special pat on the back...who can identify where each of these photos was taken in our house? I guess this only works for those who have been here....
Deals




U23D
This afternoon, Rachel graciously offered to watch Ayla so that Ben and I could join Josh, Zach and Janel at the theater for U23D. We'd planned to go a couple of weeks ago for Zach's birthday, but it kept getting bumped back because of Hannah Montana in 3D...I guess she's more popular around here. Especially since there were only about 10 people in the theater this afternoon...including the 5 of us!
Startcooking.com

Fours

Those Who Save Us
Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum. It was a book my grandmother recommended. Written by a Jewish author, it flashes between the late 90's and the 1930's - 40's and follows the story of a German mother and her daughter. The mother lived in Germany during WWII and falls in love with a Jewish doctor, has a baby, and so on... (don't want to ruin the story too much). The daughter is a German history professor (in Minneapolis, of all places) and is doing research on the experiences of Germans during the war.
un-religious. Actually there are very few Jewish characters in the
book.