Tami Fox

Fix It Friday – Getting Organized

Posted on August 7, 2015 by Tami

Getting Organized in Your Home and Homeschool

How was your first week of August? Mine was busy, as you might have noticed with my email about the freezer. There were several little things the boys and I worked on this week, so I thought today I would remind you to see what you can tackle on your “Fix It” list.

I also put together my 11th grader’s American Literature reading list for the year to go along with his American History course. My big project was to redo the school cabinet and drawers. It’s been years since I really cleaned out the drawers. It needed to be done, and I found art work from my daughter when she was in elementary school. She’s a young adult now. I kept her art folder with the boys’ art folders. It was fun to see how they progressed in their artistic skills. I could also tell when they did art work based on one of our unit studies. They had similar pictures done at their own pace and ability. I treasure our years as a homeschool family, and I am thankful I have more to go!

Yesterday, I posted a picture of my school cabinet. I will post it again today with a comparison of what it looks like now.

Before

After

Craft drawers

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:

What else do you have to do to be ready to start school? We started back on math this week, and because I cleaned out the craft cabinet and school cabinet, the boys have done a lot of arts and crafts. I realize that we all have different schedules, and some of you may not start back until after Labor Day. I typically start slow and steady the first week of August. That gives me flexibility for the school 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
Zone Focus: Front Porch: Sweep and wash the front porch. Wash the windows. Clean the outside of the front door.Throw out anything that you do not need on the front porch.

Family Fun: Do something fun today with your children. Is there something they have wanted to do all summer, and you just have not done it it? Don’t forget that tomorrow is Family Fun Day. Ask your husband what he would like to do for Family Fun Day.

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

Toss It Thursday – Getting Organized

Posted on August 6, 2015 by Tami

Getting Organized this Summer:

In your home and homeschool

Part of my summer organization plan each year is to defrost my large, upright freezer. I did not have it on my task list this week, but circumstances changed today. I had to clean out my large freezer and move some of the foods that were still frozen to my two smaller freezers, and I also had several items that had partially thawed. So I had to change my meal plan and preparations for today. I am blessed that the situation was caught when it was. I am blessed that I had already been thinning out the amount of food in my big freezer with freezer cooking and using what I had on hand in my pantry.

I had reduced my grocery budget this summer to help use these items that really needed to be used. Since this situation came about quickly, I enlisted the help of the boys. They helped me sort out what was still frozen solid, and they helped me repack my small freezers. They helped me throw out the things that had been in the freezer too long.

One of the items that had thawed to the point of needing to be cooked was a pack of Buffalo Chicken Legs from my Freezer Cooking Plan. I put it in the crock pot. Another item was a pack of frozen field peas, so I put them on to slow cook on the stove top. I had several bags of frozen corn on the cob from last summer, so I will boil those just before time for dinner tonight. Two small pork chops and some kielbasa had also thawed, so I put them in the refrigerator to cook tonight, too. This is not what I had on my menu plan for the day, but it will be okay. I can move my menu plan for the week over as needed each day.

Another thing that thawed out was two small packs of deer meat. The boys helped me work it up to make deer jerky with our deer jerky gun (kind of like a cookie shooter) and our dehydrator. So they will have healthy snacks for a few days when this is ready later on.

None of this was planned for today, but I was able to handle it easily because the boys helped me. It was also easy to handle because my routines were in place. My sink was shiny. My kitchen counter was cleared off. I had thinned down the amount of food I had on hand. All of this worked together to make this unplanned event not become a stressor for me.

Here are a few pictures from my endeavors 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.

School: Today, purge any papers from previous years that you do not need any longer. I have attendance records and testing records since we started our homeschool in 2000. I only have to keep one year’s records. It’s time to purge those old records. I will always keep a copy of my student’s high school transcripts, but I have it on my computer and on paper.

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 Entrance, Front Porch, and Dining Room – Put away the clutter in your dining room. If you can’t see your table, break it down into zones – one end, the other end, right side, left side.

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

I post a new post each morning during the week at www.TamiFox.net.

Family Fun – Hot Air Balloons

Posted on August 5, 2015 by Tami

The final part of our family fun day was hanging out with the people who organize the Carolina Balloon Festival each fall in Statesville, NC. They brought two balloons to the bike race to display. This was not a night flight, but it was just to show off a couple of the balloons without taking off. We were able to watch the entire set up and airing of the balloons. It was spectacular. It is hard to imagine how big these balloons are when you see them up in the sky. But when you see them aired up in the middle of town, it is amazing to compare the size of the balloon to the side of the buildings downtown. If you live within driving distance of Statesville, NC, you should check this event out the week-end of October 16-18, 2015.

Enjoy these pics. We were nearly speechless watching them.

This was a neat event that gave a great ending to our family fun day. I want to go see all the balloons now at the Carolina Balloon Festival.

Well Done Wednesday – Getting Organized

Posted on August 5, 2015 by Tami

Getting Organized this Summer:

In your home and homeschool

How do you feel after a job well done? I know I feel satisfied and happy when I have done a job well. But I have to be careful not to fall into the trap of perfectionism while doing a job well. I can can overboard with trying to do a job well, and I want to help you release the guilt if you feel you are not doing a job well because it does not live up to your perfectionism. I have to remind myself that I am juggling a lot of balls every day, and when the boys help me around the house, it is important to not go behind them and redo a job because it does not meet my perfectionism. It’s ok if the towels are not folded perfectly. It’s ok if the stack of washcloths is not perfect. It’s ok if they miss a few crumbs when they sweep the kitchen for me. It’s ok if their swish and swipe in the bathroom is not perfect.

What I have found to help them the most is to compliment what they have done. Everyone likes to have their work acknowledged, so even if the job is not perfect find something positive to say to them and thank them for helping you. It is much easier to build self-esteem in your children than to tear them down.

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:

Go through your craft supplies and toss the paint that is dried up and no longer useful. If you have to throw out much of your collection watch the craft stores for a sale. They usually have a good sale on craft paints before school starts.

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: Entrance, Front Porch, Dining Room – Look around the entrance to your home. Do you see clutter in that area that needs to be put away? Spend 15 minutes decluttering around your main entrance.
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. Stop for ice cream or slushies. We stopped for half price slushies on errand day.

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

Thankful Tuesday – Getting Organized

Posted on August 4, 2015 by Tami

Getting Organized this Summer:

In your home and homeschool

What are you thankful for? I am thankful for many things. I am thankful for God’s mercy, my family, the ability to homeschool my children, my country, and my church. I like to tell my children what I am thankful for and ask them what they are thankful for often. I think it is a good reminder that we all have much to be grateful for. If you have not kept a Thankful Journal before, this is a good time to start one. You can write you thankful list in a notebook and add to it daily. One year, we make construction paper leaves and wrote one thing we were thankful for each day. We put them up on the wall where I made a construction paper tree. It was a visual reminder of all of our blessings.

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:

Check your children’s collection of markers and pencils. You can probably purge a lot of items this way. I purged our collection last week, and it was much-needed. Now they each have a pencil box with new pencils and markers.

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: Entrance, Front Porch, Dining Room – Let’s clean our front door today. If you do seasonal wreaths, consider putting up a new wreath. Wipe the trim around the door. If yours is like mine, you will find pollen on the outside trim.

Family Fun: Do something you have been thinking about doing for fun today. Doesn’t matter if it is something at home or if you go somewhere. Surprise your children.

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.)
Decide on a place in your house where you can put things for the next day. The FlyLady calls this your Launch Pad. It is usually close to your main entry of the house. You are going to use this every night.
Shine Your Sink
Clean Off a Hot Spot
Go to Bed at Decent Hour

Family Fun – Bike Race

Posted on August 3, 2015 by Tami

Family Fun at the Short-track Bike Race

We were invited to attend a bike race after our bowling adventures. We have never been to a bike race like this one. It was a short-track set up around the city square. The cyclists went .6 of a mile on each lap. Each division raced for a set amount of time. We saw the ladies’ division, men’s division, and master men’s division. It was getting late, and we did not stay for the last division. It was fast-paced, and the community sponsors had activities for the children. The boys enjoyed the races, and they enjoyed playing with hula hoops, corn hole, and a bouncy house. Everything was priced just right — free. It was a fantastically, fun community night.

We had such a fun time at this event. Look for community events to attend. It’s a great way to have fun as a family.

First Monday – Getting Organized

Posted on August 3, 2015 by Tami

Getting Organized this Summer:

In your home and homeschool

Welcome to the first Monday of August! I am excited with the plans I have been working on for our school year. I have an 11th grader, 9th grader, 7th grader, and 4th grader this year. I will teach some subjects together unit study style, and each boy will have independent work based on grade level. All four of them use DVD’s with their math lessons, and I follow up with each of them daily to see if they understand the concepts.

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:

You will spend 10 minutes or less on each activity.

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:

Pick a book to read out loud to your children this week. Start slow with adding in some routines for school.
Do any other organization things you need to do for your school 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
Zone Focus: Entrance, Front Porch, DIning Room – When you are dusting during the Weekly Home Blessing Hour, detail dust your entryway and dining room.

Family Fun: Plan a water activity.

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

Family Fun – Getting Organized

Posted on August 2, 2015 by Tami

One of the keys I have found to motivate my children to help around the house is to REWARD them with play time as a family. Play time can vary from fun at the house to an activity outside of our home. I wanted to share a few things we did this week to have fun. First, I printed off coupons for the boys to bowl two games for free at the bowling alley. I had to pay for the shoe rental, but it was still very reasonable, and they had a blast doing something active that wasn’t outside.

We did a few more activities while we were out, and you will read about them in another post. I want to encourage you to find ways to reward your children with play time when they have helped you around the house.

Fantastic Friday – Getting Organized

Posted on July 31, 2015 by Tami

Getting Organized this Summer:

In your home and homeschool

Welcome to the last day of July! The past two months have flown by since I started writing this series. Today, I was looking at the boys’ new books for the school year. We will be starting our school year slowly over the next two weeks. I like to introduce their new books to them over the course of a few weeks.

Since I don’t have full-time, paid help, I will do some pre-planning to help me through the start of school. I need to decide on our menu for the first few weeks of school, so I will have time do make some freezer meals like I did earlier in the summer. I will pick some easy meals, too. The boys can also help more with meal prep and cooking, too. By using the crock pot this summer, they have not helped as much in the kitchen as usual. What are some things you can pre-plan before you start your school year?

Also remember that you can purchase my book and the Homeschool Teacher Control Journal and Student Control Journal now. You will have access to several forms and helps for you to organize your home and homeschool.

Homeschool Teacher Packet

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:

Look through the new books you have for the school 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
Zone Focus: This is the last day this month that we will focus on the Living Room. Today I want you to move the furniture and clean under it. Have your children help you if they are big enough to help move the furniture.

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

Dive In Thursday – Getting Organized

Posted on July 30, 2015 by Tami

Getting Organized this Summer:

In your home and homeschool

Let’s DIVE IN today! I am starting to get excited about the start of the school year. I hope you and your children are, too. Today, let’s DIVE IN and DO something that needs to be done to get our school year off on the right foot. Do you need to make copies? Organize pencil boxes? Throw out old markers? You just got my top 3 list of things I needed to do to get my school year started off smoothly. I did those three things today. I am challenging you to do your top 3 things to get ready for your school year.
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 you top 3 things to get ready for your school 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
Zone Focus: Living Room. Today I want you to challenge one of your children to go SOFA DIVING. This means to pull off the cushions and clean out the stuff that fell down in the sofa. Their reward can be to keep any money they find. I have one child in particular who loves to do this each month. While he was sofa diving today, I changed the air filters for our Air Conditioning unit with another one of my boys. We double teamed the Living Room!

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