Tami Fox

Timely Tuesday – Getting Organized

Posted on September 15, 2015 by Tami

Getting Organized:

In your home and homeschool

Are you a timely person or always running behind? For many years, I have been a timely person. I attribute this largely to being raised in a home with my grandparents. Being punctual was a big deal for them, and they instilled that in me. As I had children, I had to learn how to prepare ahead to be able to leave the house on time for appointments. With six children, I needed a launch pad for our things. In the years when I had little ones, I had a place for the diaper bag, shoes, and jackets. As my children have grown, we still have a launch pad area for shoes for going out and a place for jackets. I use a calendar on my refrigerator to write down appointments, and I also keep a digital calendar with alarms set to keep me on track. The children know to check the calendar after dinner to see what is on the schedule for the next week. If we have an early morning appointment, I will also tell them about it and ask them to have what they need laid out in the launch pad area. The launch pad has been a key ingredient to our success in getting out of the house on time.

Set your timer for 15 minutes for the Home Assignment and 15 minutes for the School Assignment

Home:

Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
Swish and Swipe
Start Your Laundry
Decide on Dinner
Check Your Calendar
Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.
Clean out your refrigerator. Toss the science experiments.

School:

Do you incorporate hands-on learning in your homeschool? Teaching science and history with a hands-on component helps children retain information. My children enjoy learnning by doing, and it is easy to motivate them to get their paperwork for school finished. They want to get to the fun part of school where we learn things by doing.

Afternoon Routine:

Eat Lunch
Clear off One Hot Spot
Reboot the Laundry
Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
Drink Your Water
Write up a menu plan for the next 7 days. Check your pantry and freezer and make a grocery list. This habit will save you time and money. Try out some new recipes with the slow cooker. It will save you time once you start back to your school schedule.
Zone Focus: Zone 3 – The bathroom and one extra room. Today we are going to deep clean our shower and bath tub area. If you use a cleaning product, spray down the walls and tub. Use a cloth to wipe it all down. If you have shower doors, clean them, too.

Family Fun: Take your children for a walk.

Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)

Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
Put things at the Launch Pad that you will need first thing in the morning
Shine Your Sink
Clean Off a Hot Spot
Go to Bed at Decent Hour

Taking Care of Mom Monday – Getting Organized

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Tami

Getting Organized:

In your home and homeschool

Taking Care of Mom Monday

How do you meet your Monday morning? I used to not enjoy Monday mornings very much. They will filled with lots of things to catch up after the week-end. Then, I started following The FlyLady and implemented her system into my home. Monday became the day I blessed my house. I also learned that by teaching the children to clean up behind themselves, that I did not have as much to do on Monday mornings. Now, my Mondays are much more pleasant. My heart attitude shifted. I lost the martyr attitude. I learned to set aside time to take care of myself every day. If I am not feeling well and caring for my health, then I am not going to enjoy blessing my house. I exercise daily, and I eat healthy foods and drink my water. It’s not selfish to take care of myself. I have short time periods during the day where I will spend time doing something I enjoy and just sit down and not think about the next task. By doing my routines daily and blessing my home weekly, I am also not spending the entire day on Monday cleaning the house.

How are you doing taking care of yourself? Take some time for you today to rest, work on a hobby, or exercise.

Set your timer for 15 minutes for the Home Assignment and 15 minutes for the School Assignment

Home:

Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
Swish and Swipe
Start Your Laundry
Decide on Dinner
Check Your Calendar
Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.

Weekly Home Blessing Hour:

Spread these out over the course of the week. Put a note on each day of the week with one or two of these per day.

7 Parts of the Weekly Home Blessing Hour from The FlyLady:

Quick Dust
Sweep/Mop
Purge Magazines or Paper Clutter
Change Bedding
Empty Trash
Clean Windows/Mirrors
Vacuum

School:

Look at your school records for the year and update your files and attendance records. How are your children doing with the curriculum you picked out? Is it working for your family?

Afternoon Routine:

Eat Lunch
Clear off One Hot Spot
Reboot the Laundry
Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
Drink Your Water
Zone Focus: Bathroom and one extra room – Spend 15 minutes purging your bathroom cabinets. Add items to your shopping list that you need to replace. Pick one other room in your house and do a 5 minute room rescue.

Family Fun: Go outside with your children and enjoy the weather. It is finally cooling off in the South.

Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)

Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
Lay anything out that you will need first thing in the morning
Shine Your Sink
Clean Off a Hot Spot
Go to Bed at Decent Hour

Found It Friday – Getting Organized

Posted on September 11, 2015 by Tami

Getting Organized:

In your home and homeschool

A natural result of decluttering and cleaning out is that you FIND things that you had been looking for. Sometimes you find things you forgot you had. This week I decluttered three of my kitchen drawers, and in the process I found a lot of screws, bolts, and nails that needed to be put in their proper places at the work bench in the garage. Two weeks ago, I was looking for nails for a project, and I could not find any. Now, I found quite a few small nails for my home decorating projects. I also had been having a hard time keeping up with small screw drivers that I used to open items that use batteries. I found several of those as well, and I found a basket to hold the smaller screw drivers. I another drawer, I found lots of papers. Some of them were recipes, and some of the papers were just trash. I threw out a lot of the papers, I also found a lot of special family recipes that were hand-written. I have a special place for those recipes in a binder. I have a pretty good handle on clutter and the amount of stuff in my house, but I still have areas that need detail attention from time to time. Next week, it will be time to tackle the linen closet! I wonder what I will find in there?

Before I decluttered

After I decluttered

As you take a few minutes a day decluttering, tell me what unusual things you find! Have a great week-end and have fun with your family!

Home:

Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
Swish and Swipe
Start Your Laundry
Decide on Dinner
Check Your Calendar
Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.

School:

It’s Friday! Do something fun with your children today.

Afternoon Routine:

Eat Lunch
Clear off One Hot Spot
Reboot the Laundry
Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
Drink Your Water
Zone Focus: Kitchen – open your cabinets and take a look at the top shelf. Do you have some things up there that you don’t need any more? Do a 15-minute declutter of the top shelf of your cabinets. You might find something you forgot about up there!

Family Fun: Play a game with your children today.

Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)

Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
Put things at your launch pad
Shine Your Sink
Clean Off a Hot Spot
Go to Bed at Decent Hour

Thoughtful Thursday – Getting Organized

Posted on September 10, 2015 by Tami

Getting Organized:

In your home and homeschool

I want you to think about your routines today. What is working? What still needs work? Every new school year brings changes to your household routines. We have had years where we added babies to our home, and now we are having years where older children get jobs or move out. These changes mean that our routines will change. A job change for our spouse or for us can also change routines. The beauty of the routines is that you can change things around when you need to. If you need to change a routine, you will want to write it down on your calendar for a while to help you remember when to do them. I use my Google calendar for reminders like this. I have recently had some changes to my schedule, and I just put reminders in my Google calendar to keep me on track.

How are your children’s routines? When we started the school year, I slowly added subjects each week, so they had time to adjust to new books and the school schedule. I thought some of you might like to see a sample of our school schedule this year. I have an 11th grader, 9th grader, 7th grader, and 4th grader.

8:00 am – Get up, eat breakfast, and morning routine
9:00 am – Start school work (I do some things with everyone, and then they do individual assignments.)
12:00 pm – Lunch
1:00 pm – Older students finish school assignments. Younger students have play time.

We are generally finished for the day before 2:00 pm. The boys will help with dinner preparations and afternoon tasks as needed.

Set your timer for 15 minutes for the Home Assignment and 15 minutes for the School Assignment

Home:

Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
Swish and Swipe
Start Your Laundry
Decide on Dinner
Check Your Calendar
Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.

School:

This week we have been learning about India, and we have cooked some meals that use a lot of Indian spices. We have also made Indian flatbread.

Afternoon Routine:

Eat Lunch
Clear off One Hot Spot
Reboot the Laundry
Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
Drink Your Water
Zone Focus: Kitchen – Declutter 10 things from your kitchen.

Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)

Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
Put things at your launch pad
Shine Your Sink
Clean Off a Hot Spot
Go to Bed at Decent Hour

Wondrous Wednesday – Getting Organized

Posted on September 9, 2015 by Tami

Getting Organized:

In your home and homeschool

Welcome to Wondrous Wednesday! I always awake with a thankful heart for another day. Each day is a wondrous gift. Enjoy it!

How are you doing with your evening routine? This is one of the most important routines you can start. It will help you have better mornings because you have done the prep work ahead of time. I am sitting here tonight with the washer, dryer, and dish washer are all going. When I get up to switch everything for the next cycle or unload the dishwasher, I will do my evening routine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)

Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
Put things at your launch pad
Shine Your Sink
Clean Off a Hot Spot
Go to Bed at Decent Hour

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is a pretty simple evening routine. The only additional thing I do in this routine is set up my coffee pot to be ready for me when I get up in the morning. I suppose technically this post is a part of my evening routine, too, since I normally write them in the evenings after dinner.

Really it is just a matter of building YOUR evening routine to suit what YOU need to do before bed to help you hit the floor running in the morning. Start a list, and put no more than 7 to 9 things on it. Do NOT make it complicated.

Grocery Shopping and Errand Day – Take your list, pack snacks, and water bottles.

Home:

Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
Swish and Swipe
Start Your Laundry
Decide on Dinner
Check Your Calendar
Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.

School:

How are you doing managing your school paperwork? Take 10 minutes to do a quick purge and straighten of your school papers.

Afternoon Routine:

Eat Lunch
Clear off One Hot Spot
Reboot the Laundry
Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
Drink Your Water
Zone Focus: Front Porch – Sweep and declutter the front porch.
Errand day: Make your plan for grocery shopping and errands. Pack water bottles and snacks for everyone. Pack up your library books that need to be turned in.

Family Fun: Plan a fun activity while you are out. I am in the habit of checking for free activities that are going on while we are out doing errands.

When you get home from doing errands, have everyone work together to unload and put away everything.

Tasty Tuesday – Getting Organized

Posted on September 8, 2015 by Tami

Getting Organized:

In your home and homeschool

How are you doing with your menu planning? This is one of the best habits I have established for keeping my home running smoothly. Children and husbands like to eat on a regular basis, and for years, I had a loose menu plan. In the make my past several years, I have written down a weekly menu plan and posted it on my refrigerator. I keep the format simple. I use pencil in case I need to change something because we all know that things pop up during the week, or someone gets sick.

Besides, saving time, I also save money by menu planning. My grocery list is very specific for our need, and I try to list my items by the aisle in the store. I try to be efficient with my time while I am shopping. I was able to reduce my summer food budget with several changes to my routine. First, I bought in bulk and did the freezer cooking session in June. Then, I shopped in my pantry and freezer before I made my grocery list. Third, I used produce from a small garden.

Having my menu plan on the refrigerator also gives the boys the information they need without having to ask me what’s for dinner. My husband also checks it daily to see what is coming up for the week. Since I am doing a country study this year, he is also looking at my menu plan to see what country we are studying.

Set your timer for 15 minutes for the Home Assignment and 15 minutes for the School Assignment

Home:

Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
Swish and Swipe
Start Your Laundry
Decide on Dinner
Check Your Calendar
Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.
Clean out your refrigerator. Toss the science experiments.

School:

For some of you, this is your first day of school. Enjoy it! We are starting our second month of school for this year.

Afternoon Routine:

Eat Lunch
Clear off One Hot Spot
Reboot the Laundry
Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
Drink Your Water
Write up a menu plan for the next 7 days. Check your pantry and freezer and make a grocery list. This habit will save you time and money. Try out some new recipes with the slow cooker. It will save you time once you start back to your school schedule.
Zone Focus: Zone 2- Kitchen – Today I want you to spend 15 minutes decluttering your junk drawer in the kitchen. We all have one of those.

Family Fun: Take your children for a walk.

Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)

Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
Put things at the Launch Pad that you will need first thing in the morning
Shine Your Sink
Clean Off a Hot Spot
Go to Bed at Decent Hour

Majestic Monday – Getting Organized

Posted on September 7, 2015 by Tami

Getting Organized:

In your home and homeschool

Majestic Monday

When you think of the word “Majestic” what comes to mind? For me, it makes me think of the Majesty of God. With that in mind, let’s have a great day taking care of ourselves and our family. Today is Labor Day, so I am taking today to have a Family Fun day. We will do our normal routines, but we are going to have a day of play, too. We all work very hard, and it is important to take time for fun and enjoyment of life with our family. What does your family like to do? We like doing things outside, so our fun day will involve a lot of time outside.

My weekly schedule will look different this week, so I will be flexible. My Weekly Home Blessings can be spread out over the week, and I can do one or two of them per day. I already scheduled the day off from school, so I won’t feel behind on our lessons. My menu plan and shopping are done for the week, so I won’t feel behind on that either. By planning ahead and knowing that I have my regular stuff covered I can enjoy the day of playing with my children. Childhood passes so quickly, and I want to take advantage of play time with them as often as I can.

What can you do to enjoy your family today?

Set your timer for 15 minutes for the Home Assignment and 15 minutes for the School Assignment

Home:

Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
Swish and Swipe
Start Your Laundry
Decide on Dinner
Check Your Calendar
Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.

Weekly Home Blessing Hour:

Spread these out over the course of the week. Put a note on each day of the week with one or two of these per day.

7 Parts of the Weekly Home Blessing Hour from The FlyLady:

Quick Dust
Sweep/Mop
Purge Magazines or Paper Clutter
Change Bedding
Empty Trash
Clean Windows/Mirrors
Vacuum

School:

Take the day off and ENJOY your family!

Afternoon Routine:

Eat Lunch
Clear off One Hot Spot
Reboot the Laundry
Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
Drink Your Water
Zone Focus: Kitchen – clean off the counters and flat surfaces.

Family Fun: Plan a FUN DAY with your family.

Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)

Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
Lay anything out that you will need first thing in the morning
Shine Your Sink
Clean Off a Hot Spot
Go to Bed at Decent Hour

Fabulous Friday – Getting Organized

Posted on September 4, 2015 by Tami

Getting Organized:

In your home and homeschool

Let’s all purpose to have a Fabulous Friday, even if it does not feel fabulous to you right this minute. We have much to enjoy about our days and in our lives. Having a positive attitude about the day can help turn a tough day into a better day. We are wrapping up week 5 of our school year. It’s been a lot of fun learning about China this week and cooking together. We have also worked together around the house to declutter more and get ready for a family cookout this weekend. It has not been a huge effort to get ready for company. It has more like tweaking things here and there. It’s been a pleasure getting ready for this event rather than dreading all the work that comes with having a large group over for a visit.

How are you doing with routines around your house? One reason that I slowly add subjects to our homeschool at the beginning of the year is to allow us time to get adjusted to new books and still keep our routines in place. We haven’t fallen apart because we don’t start off on immediate overload.

How are you doing with the amount of papers you have around the house? Keeping control of the amount of paper you have around the house will help you stay organized with what you have to keep track of, and it will also give your home a peaceful feel if you aren’t living with stacks of papers everywhere. Spend 15 minutes a day purging paperwork. Deal with your mail as soon as it comes in the door. Keep your shredder handy. You can stay on top of the papers that accumulate if you set aside a few minutes each day to deal with it. Reward yourself with a treat after you deal with the daily paperwork.

Home:

Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
Swish and Swipe
Start Your Laundry
Decide on Dinner
Check Your Calendar
Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.

School:

Do some kind of hands-on activity or go on a nature walk. Enjoy learning WITH your children.

Afternoon Routine:

Eat Lunch
Clear off One Hot Spot
Reboot the Laundry
Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
Drink Your Water
Zone Focus: Dining Room – If you keep stuff on your dining room table, today is the day you are going to clear it off and put something decorative on it. I keep my dining table cleaned off daily because we use it for meals, school work, and my office work. I like to set it with nice dishes and a candle to give our meals a special setting.

Family Fun: Play a game with your children today.

Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)

Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
Put things at your launch pad
Shine Your Sink
Clean Off a Hot Spot
Go to Bed at Decent Hour

Routines Thursday – Getting Organized

Posted on September 3, 2015 by Tami

Getting Organized:

In your home and homeschool

What routines do you have in place that are working for you? What routines do you need to work on? It has taken me many years to get a good routine in place, and there have been lots of changes to my routines as my children have gotten older. Many young moms beat themselves up for their routines not being what they expect them to be. Just know that having young children in your home is a short season in life. It seems like it will never end, and suddenly one day, you realize that your baby is grown up. It’s hard for me to believe my first-born is almost 25-years-old. I still remember her baby days like it was yesterday. I floundered quite a bit back then with routines, and then I added another baby to the mix. I floundered around a bit more, but I kept at it. I tried different routines and organizational ideas. In 2000, I found The FlyLady, and I started following her principles. It still look a long time and a lot of practice to get my routines in place. From 2001 to 2006, I added 3 more children to my routines. We had lots of “new” schedules. We had great days, and we had hard days. It’s all a part of life. Caring for our home was difficult at times. Most of that can be attributed to having too many clothes, too many toys, and too much stuff in general. As I have purged and decluttered, it is so much easier to care for our home. It is easy for the children to help pick up behind themselves. I am not a drill sergeant in my home. I don’t bark orders all day. We have lists and routines in place, and it is very easy for us to have the house company-ready on a moment’s notice. We work together to bless our home. That is a gift I am giving my children for their adulthood.

Set your timer for 15 minutes for the Home Assignment and 15 minutes for the School Assignment

Home:

Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
Swish and Swipe
Start Your Laundry
Decide on Dinner
Check Your Calendar
Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.

School:

Do something fun and engaging with your children. They will remember it. We are studying China this week, and we have cooked together and done some fun activities together. School can be fun, too.

Afternoon Routine:

Eat Lunch
Clear off One Hot Spot
Reboot the Laundry
Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
Drink Your Water
Zone Focus: Entry Way – Walk into your front door. Look around. Now spend 15 minutes decluttering and making it look inviting.

Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)

Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
Put things at your launch pad
Shine Your Sink
Clean Off a Hot Spot
Go to Bed at Decent Hour

Works for Me Wednesday – Getting Organized

Posted on September 2, 2015 by Tami

Getting Organized:

In your home and homeschool

Do you have a tip that can help someone else with scheduling, cleaning, school, or cooking? What works for you? I read a post from a homeschool mom today who had a great day of school with her children, but she was asking for help on how to also get dinner on the table. Being a homeschool mom is a job. You are sacrificing the time you would have to cook and clean, and yet you still need to do these things, too. Add to it the fact that you are at home with your children more than the average working family with children in school away from the home. More messes are made. More food and meal prep is needed. How do you fit it all in one day?

If you have been following my posts over the summer, you know my go-to kitchen helper is my slow cooker. I did a once-a-month freezer preparation in June. I saved time and money by using this technique. Now that our school year is off to a great start, I would likely schedule a day to make 5 to 10 freezer meals versus 23 to 25 meals. Even though the plan I used said it would take 3 hours to prepare the freezer meals, it took me longer than that. Using my slow cooker on a busy is a huge help in providing us a healthy meal on a budget.

Cleaning the house and laundry are also necessary in our weekly schedule. I do two loads of laundry per day. The only day I do more than two loads is Monday. That is the day I wash sheets. We have five beds, so that means additional laundry one day a week. The boys help me with laundry. They can wash their own laundry, and they can wash their sheets. So I do share in the load of laundry (pun intended). As you know from my posts, I clean our home with the boys’ help on Monday morning. This is just a part of our weekly schedule. If that does not work for you, switch it to a different day of the week. You might want to do one or two things per day rather than all of them on one day. Just don’t put your Home Blessing Hour on Saturday. Keep your Saturday schedule free for Family Fun Day.

Email me your tips. What works for you?

Grocery Shopping and Errand Day – Take your list, pack snacks, and water bottles.

Home:

Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
Swish and Swipe
Start Your Laundry
Decide on Dinner
Check Your Calendar
Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.

School:

We are adding back subjects to our school schedule each week. How are you doing? Don’t overdo it the first few weeks. Enjoy homeschooling. Don’t let it stress you out.

Afternoon Routine:

Eat Lunch
Clear off One Hot Spot
Reboot the Laundry
Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
Drink Your Water
Zone Focus: Front Porch – Sweep and declutter the front porch.
Errand day: Make your plan for grocery shopping and errands. Pack water bottles and snacks for everyone. Pack up your library books that need to be turned in.

Family Fun: Plan a fun activity while you are out. I am in the habit of checking for free activities that are going on while we are out doing errands.

When you get home from doing errands, have everyone work together to unload and put away everything.

Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)

Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
Put things at your launch pad
Shine Your Sink
Clean Off a Hot Spot
Go to Bed at Decent Hour