Beginning of the month planning {summer style}

My school year (sounds like I'm a middle schooler) schedule is quite a bit different than my (glorious) summer schedule. There will be no waking up at times that begin with a 5 uhthankyouverymuch. And hopefully I will not have to work in multiple towns in the same day. Though, I cannot guarantee that won't happen.

So here is a peek at my last week weeks.  The last week of school was a little crazy especially since we were all hanging out at the hospital from Friday afternoon until Tuesday around noon.

The first week out of school is still pretty swamped. Babysitting Niki's kidlets Monday through Thursday plus working a couple days and a work meeting....then off to Des Moines for the weekend for a wedding.

But then finally gaze at this glorious empty week!! (angles sing) I mean really, that baby is empty!! Wa-hoo!!

So here's June's calendar, the one that we share at home. Not much room for details on this one, just events for both of us are listed.

My menu calendar stated back in May and I am trying really hard to stick to it! I think it will be easier being home everyday to make "real meals" ya know, the kind you eat with a fork and not out of a paper bag. That's my goal anyway.

And my weekly cleaning checklist...I'm trying hard to stick to it this summer!

And that's all....woo-hoo!

Operation: Get it Together version N.2

A big part of Operation: Get it Together for me is getting my children on board with maintaining our household. I have been looking at all different kids of chore charts, online on paper and even apps. But they were all to complicated. I have 3 kids, and several chores that need to be done. I thought about a rotating schedule, but I couldn't really make that work. I thought about switching jobs every week, but didn't really like that either. My kids get bored easily. :)

I ended up with a Chore Jar. I'm sure there are tons of them all over the internet, and I know I have pinned a few. But I wanted just the things that were important to me right now.

I decided to go with 3 categories: Daily, Weekly and Extra Credit. Each of the kids has to pick 2 or 3 daily chores a day. They get completed and at the end of the night they are put back in the jar. Each kid gets to pick 1 or 2 weekly chores. They get put back on Sunday night. Extra Credit are things that the kids are not normally expected to do but can do to earn some extra money, or at my discretion.
I had Shannon whip me up some super cute chore chart cards:

I printed them, and Shannon cut, laminated and cut again. I want them to last for a while.

 Then she made me a super cute label for my container:

I had planned on putting these in a cute mason jar. But it just didn't work out that way. Shannon raided my shelf of extra storage and found this fun green container from Dollar Tree. I just printed this, cut it out and Mod Podged it on my container.

Right now we can't find the lid to the container, so there is no picture of that, but used your imagination for now, I will be back to add a picture when I find the lid!

We have started using it. The kids each pick 3 green chores (daily) and 1 orange (weekly) every day. They love the job of wiping the fridge and freezers, and it pays 50 cents, which they love even more! My fridge has never been this clean. So far, we have done a pretty good job of maintaining our house.

Look for our customizable chore jar kit in our Etsy shop soon!

How do you maintain your household? Are your kids doing chores? At what age did you start them? Any helpful hints to get me through this?

Summer Goals

I only have a week if school left. My brain is already in summer vacation mode. It's time for the calendar to catch up.

However, summer vacation means its time to complete all those organizing projects that I put on the back burner because we were too busy. And because I am an over sharer I thought you all should know what my plans were. Maybe you can keep me accountable. 

• organize and purge coat closet

• organize and purge toy closet

• organize and purge my closet 

• paint CT's room 

• paint JT's room

• organize and purge kitchen cupboards 

There are only 6 things. So I need to tackle about 2-4 a month to get them all done before going back to school in August. And you know I will be back to blog about what I do, my inspiration and what didn't work. 

Do you have big organizing plans for this summer? Share your to do list for a little accountability.

This post brought to you by Operation: Get it Together. Join us on Instagram and twitter #getittogether.

April Accomplishments and May Aspirations

Niki posted about how she was doing on her April goals so I figured I should share what I got accomplished in April. 
Time management and obligations:
 1. survive prom-- check. I only forgot to have the pastor say the prayer before I sent the first table, so only a minor glitch, but otherwise it went great and the food was Amazing!
2. Get bridesmaid dress altered- check. I am currently awaiting it's return. Wedding weekend is coming fast! 
3. register for summer classes- half check. I haven't registered yet because none of the classes I need are available until fall, but I am able to take them in the town I live in through a local university, so that's a bonus. And since I have to wait to take those, I'm looking in to a sped endorsement to start too. Might as well pile on the debt right? 

Home and Organizing.
1. get all labels printed, laminated, and put up. check.  
2. finish up spring cleaning. mostly check. I'm still coming up with a few more random things to purge, or reorganize, or sort through. But as far as my actual cleaning, I've made it through the whole apartment.
3. purge, declutter, and organize coat closet- well since we still had snow in May, I put a halt on this one. But I think we might finally be clear of the snow...so we'll put this back on the list for May.
4. store seasonal winter clothes- see above.
5. new desk area-  whomp, whomp. still failing at this one. I may have just started avoiding it. 

Blog and Etsy.
1. Update items in the shop-check. I've even finally listed our planners!
2. Get my posts written before the day they go live-  half check- this usually happens.
3. do some projects- mostly fail. moving this to May's list.

So I did eh, sort of okay in April. Not a complete success, but hey things come up and we have lives and {multiple} jobs, it happens.
So for May, when I in theory have a bit more free time. I'm hoping to kick some mega butt. And my biggest goal for May is...

1. Operation: Get It Together. This is kind of a big project that isn't really a project at all. I already started posting about it actually and then decided to keep it going until things truly become a habit for me and I really do feel like I have it together. This started with a simple cleaning plan from clean mama and I'm hoping that by the end of summer I will have the whole apartment de-cluttered and cleaned and rolling in my new habits and systems. This is going to be the biggest goal to complete for me.

2. Make a weekly meal and plan and stick to it. No pizza rolls and other kid foods because I didn't plan anything and have no brilliant ideas!! (also, excellent excuse to try pinterest recipes??)

3.  Make our little brother's planner. His runs out at the end of May.  He has ADHD and uses the same planner at I do and he says it really helps him to manage his time and schedule. (here's a peek at mine)

4. Finish April's not completed items---coat closet and packing winter clothes. I bought ziplock space bags to stash winter bedding and coats in. I"m thinking of just swapping around some hanging and tub things in the closet and only actually packing up the super warm things.

5. Go through closet. Find massive amounts of clothes to give to Niki??? Seriously that thing is so stuffed you can't even find anything.

6. Complete Jillian Michael's 30 day shred....I already started, just have to commit to finishing it! (even if she kicks my butt!!!)

What are you aspiring to do in May??

Goals for April

I am posting some of my goals for April. Sort of a way to be accountable. I have some home organizing goals and some lifestyle goals. At the end of April I will do a recap and let you know how I did.
Here goes:

Home & Organizing Goals:

• Print, laminate & hang laundry labels
• Clean & organize kitchen junk drawer
• Declutter and organize coat closet
• Clean/Dirty labels for dishwasher
• Bind blog planner and blog about it

Lifestyle Goals:

• Complete the Bikini Body challenge
• Print Planner
• Be more present with my family

Do you have any goals for April? What do you want to make sure gets done before the craziness of May starts? (What your May isn't crazy? Whatever.)

Since no post is complete without some a picture, I thought I would share this. In case you missed it on twitter, instagram or facebook. This shows my journey from the day I graduated college in 2011, to 2 weeks after my first chemo session, to my last chemo session to last week. It has been an awesome journey that you all got to join.

Share your goals for some accountability. We will meet here, same time, same place on May 2 to see how we did. Hopefully these will all be crossed off.

Getting April in order

The beginning of a new month means getting all of our lives in order. Shannon showed you how she gets a new month started in March, so now I am showing you our craziness. She has 3 jobs, I have 3 kids, so our planning looks a bit different.
I have my AMAZING life planner that Shannon designed for me. We took a ton of inspiration from the web and she made it fit my life! I love it and use it daily. I always say, steal my purse, leave my planner.

I start every day checking out my planner. I double triple check it on Sunday nights so I know what is going on for the week.

My planner has our meal planner built in. It is the boxes at the bottom of each of the days. I just could not maintain two different planner for meal planning, and I do ours by the week. So on Sunday night when we are planning for the week, Tim and I meal plan. Easy meals for days he works late, the kids have practice, that kind of thing, bigger meals on weekends so we can have leftovers for lunches. We also get input from the kids. What have they been craving? If they help create the meal plan and the meal, they are more likely to eat it!

I also make a monthly calendar for Tim. He has no need for daily plans. He does want to know what all we have planned, dance, ball practice, concerts, fun stuff like that. So I started making him a beautiful monthly calendar. He doesn't care that it is beautiful, but I sure do. :)

I also have a work-out calendar. This has not been working well. I am "training" for a 5K but I haven't ran in weeks. Boo. This month Shannon created a Bikini Body Challenge for us. So I printed that bad boy out. I am going to do my best, but I make no promises. I need to focus on my running, but I'm going to try to fit this guy in too! The best thing is it can all be done at home, with no equipment. She also snuck in a shower challenge, which I already forgot to do. So, I will get it in before bed.

Finally I have a blog planner. It really deserves a whole post, but for now you get a snap shot. I usually post Tuesday and Thursday, Shannon usually posts Monday and Wednesday and Friday is always High Five for Friday! I also have tons of fun planning pages. I use them to plan out things I want to blog about, then I decide when I can get them done, photographed and blogged about. Right now, I have little idea about when things are going, but lots of ideas.

Just for fun, I thought I would throw out the Bikini Body Challenge and an Awesome April Arms challenge as freebies. There is still plenty of time for you to catch up!

What does your beginning of the month or week planning look like? Are you more like Shannon balancing work schedules, or like me balancing kids schedules?

Beginning of the month madness

The beginning of the month is a glorious time in my life. I love starting a fresh new calendar :) Yeah, I'm a freak I know. But I also know that there are others out there like me! And so for those people, I'm sharing a rundown of my monthly rituals.

1. A new "family calendar". Mine is a photo calendar (the one we sell in our etsy shop, here). My calendar used to be all by its lonesome on the side kitchen wall, but it recently found a new home next to my new bulletin board (see that here). This calendar has everyone's events on it. Mine and Drew's. (except darts hasn't been added yet- but that happens every Tuesday). Nothing too wild and crazy here, but it helps us keep track of what's going on in each other's lives.

2. Blog planner. Since we write the blog together we have to do some serious planning. Or at least in theory there should be planning. Sometimes its a 5:45 am text....you were posting today right?? We don't usually plan more than a week ahead of time. But we like to jot down things we need to do, like challenges from other bloggers or link ups that we want to participate in.

3. Desk Calendar. Most people with a "desk job" have a desk calendar. Mine is a "teacher desk calendar". There's not usually a lot on mine.  A few meetings, early outs, dates that kids will be gone, and my work schedule. My favorite papermate flair markers are used to fill this calendar up :)

4. Meal planner. I don't always plan my meals out for the whole month. I tried it for awhile and just never stuck to it because we get groceries more frequently now since we have an apartment sized fridge and freezer. But that also allows me to shop by what's in the ad for that week and plan accordingly. I do try to plan out days to do crockpot or casserole meals so that we can have leftovers for the nights that I have to work after school.

5. Grocery List- this is the list I use when I actually do my grocery shopping. I usually go on Friday's. Mainly because that's when the 2-day sales are at the grocery store and I don't usually work after school on Friday's. Having my menu for the next week handy is a big help.

6. Monthly planner calendar. I have a monthly calendar at the beginning of each month in my planner. I like to have a 'big picture' and not just the weeks. It just gives an outline of what I've got going on for the month.

7. Weekly plan- My weekly calendar pages offer much more detail into my daily activities. Birthday's are included here also. My evening meal (dinner or supper, whichever you prefer) is listed in the night box- so I know what needs to be done before I leave for work. My part-time job hours are also listed during the appropriate time of day. Each job has it's own color, for quick reference.

8. Monthly budget- I also set up my budget for the month. I usually do this before the beginning of the month since I get paid from my full time job on the 20th. And I get paid once a month---lame!! I still do my budget by the month though. All my bills are paid by then, and I use cash for gas and groceries. I didn't want to broadcast how ridiculously poor I am, so no photo but I will share the form that I use.

This is actually the budget form I made for Niki, but mine looks just the same- with my categories.

9. Workout calendar. Niki and I are both "working on our fitness". So we have been keeping workout calendars to keep ourselves accountable and on track. This month its burpees and squats. eeekkk!! (ps. the challenge is not mine-found it on pinterest, the original source is families getting fit) Each day gets a sticker if I work out that day, and a different sticker if I met my goal for water. Want your own challenge calendar? check out the link below the photo.

What happens at the beginning of the month in your life? Does a fresh calendar make you giddy? or does planning your month sound completely mundane??

My new cleaning schedule

I have already posted some about my efforts to get my life in order, with some new printables, checklists, and a makeover of my home management binder. I updated my cleaning checklists as part of that home management binder makeover, and now they are getting another touch up as a part of my "organizing your new year" spree. We have been following along with a New Year Resolutions challenge on the clean mama blog. Recently she has posted her Clean and Organized 2013 schedule, and ya know, I think she might have something there. Her cleaning schedule makes sense, and I am going to try to merge my cleaning routine with hers.
Each day has different tasks assigned, and there are certain tasks that are performed everyday. Very easy to follow along with. If you are the calendar type, hop over to her blog and grab her clean and organized January calendar, if you are the checklist type, stop back Friday for my freebie.
This is what my new cleaning regime is going to look like:

I wish I had a fun and pretty cleaning caddy, but for now all my supplies live in a tub under my sink.

Mondays are for cleaning the bathroom(s). This means cleaning the shower, toilet, counters, and mirrors. This also means removing any left over dirty laundry or towels and putting them in the proper location. The floors and counters would also be checked as part of the everyday tasks and mopped on Thursday.  This is also a good time for taking a quick peek into the medicine cabinet and closet, just to make sure they haven't gotten out of control. A once a week tidy should prevent any major meltdowns.
{See clean mama's Monday tips here}

Tuesdays are for dusting.  I am so not a fan of dusting, so I am hoping that by putting it on the schedule and making myself do it, it stays under control and becomes a maintenance task. Dusting for me also includes using my Pledge multi-surface spray to wipe down our  TV's. They gather just as much dust as wood products, if not more! We don't have a lot of wood furniture in the house- coffee table, dining table, a few end tables, and my headboard and bed frame are all wood (I like to give them a wipe down too, just so they stay nice and clean)
{see clean mama's Tuesday tips here}

Wednesdays  are for vacuuming.  We only have adults living in our apartment, but if there were small babies and small children this would obviously need to be done more than once a week. So if you have little pumpkins, adjust your cleaning schedule accordingly. I also try to make sure that the floors get swept completely today, in preparation for floor washing on Thursday. That way I can just quick touch anything up if I need to before mopping. Cleaning the living room and writing the grocery lists are also Wednesday tasks for me. The newspaper will all the grocery ads comes on Wednesdays, so I like to tackle that as soon as I get it, that way it is done and ready so that I can do my grocery shopping Thursday, Friday, or Saturday-whichever works best with my work schedule. Cleaning the living room isn't a huge task since there's really not that much in there. My desk does reside in there though, so getting a handle on that situation is a big part of it.
{see clean mama's Wednesday tips here}

Thursdays are for washing floors. Wednesday prepared them so Thursday is a quick task.  We only have two spaces that need to be mopped in our apartment, the kitchen and the bathroom. Neither is very  big so this is super quick and easy for me. I like to try to do my grocery shopping on Thursday if I don't have to work at my part time after school job (that makes me sound like a high school kid doesn't it??). If I have to work Thursday night, then I usually do the shopping on Friday ( I rarely work both nights).
I also like to give the bathroom a quick clean again on Thursday's. I'm kind of a freak, and I live with messies. (defined=people (mainly men) who leave a trail of mess behind them) So a quick wipe of the shower, sink and toilet with an antibacterial wipe keep me feeling sane and clean.
{see clean mama's Thursday tips here}

Fridays  are catch all days. This means anything that for any reason didn't get finished, or a space that needs a little extra attention. On Fridays I also clean the kitchen. For me this is giving the counters, stove, and sink a good scrub. I also put away or maintain the small appliances too. This could be wiping down the coffee pot and toaster or putting the pizza pizzazz away for the 4th time. I swear we cook everything on the pizazz. (pizza, pizza rolls, mozzarella sticks, fries, quesadillas, garlic bread..) If we could only have one appliance, that would probably be it. I also give our bedroom a quick tidy on Friday too. This usually isn't too much work. Make the bed pretty again--adjusting sheets and blankets that got out of place during the week. Pick up and throw away any random water bottles left in there. Put away any clean laundry or wardrobe choices that got changed at the last minute and tossed aside.
{see clean mama's Friday tips here}

Saturdays are for washing sheets/bedding and towels. Depending on my work schedule (one of my part time jobs I work 11am to 11pm) this may or may not get done completely. If I work out of town, then I try to get a load of towels done before I leave and put one in on my way out for the bf to finish. He can also help out with sheets. When I was sheets I don't put the same set back on. I have two sets of flannel sheets for winter and two sets of jersey sheets for summer. When I put one set in the washer I put the other set on to the bed immediately. That way it's done and taken care of right away and I'm not left with putting sheets on my bed when I get home at 11pm, because that is not a fun time.  My sheets are stashed in a big zip lock tote that lives on the shelf above our washer and dryer. I think having them in the tote is actually easier than just on the shelf. The tote is much easier to pull down- no falling piles of sheets. I'm only ever taking a set of the top and later putting the clean set on the top. When I switch from winter to summer sheets I simply switch the other around in the tote so that our current sheets are on top.
{see clean mama's Saturday tips here}

Sundays are for relaxing and family time. I try not to do any really serious cleaning projects on Sundays-(unless its a blog project).  If I missed any tasks during the week that need to be done, I will do those quick on Sunday. I like to try to do some blog and life planning on Sunday evenings. I like to plan out my wardrobe for the week and hang them up with my weekly closet dividers so that I am not scrambling to find something in the mornings. Sunday is also the fun day when the refrigerator gets a clean out. Give the whole thing a wipe down and check the status of the leftovers, toss anything that's questionable.

This is what I envision that I look like.

Everyday tasks are just that, tasks to be completed everyday. These are simple things that help to maintain cleanliness and order in your house. Everyday I pick up clutter, do a load of laundry, check floors, and wipe counters. None of these tasks take very long but go a long way in saving sanity. Pick up clutter is simple, if something does not belong in the location you found it in-put it away, where it belongs. Do that for each room in your house. A basket or tub could be helpful for this if you have a big house, toss the lost things in as you go from room to room and put away things from your tub as you come to the correct room. I don't really need a tub since our apartment isn't that big. Laundry is another simple task that pays off. Complete a full load, that means washer, dryer, fold and put away, each day and it will do so much to keep the laundry monster under control and you from pulling your hair out! This is something that I need to do better with. I don't have a problem getting the laundry done, its the getting it put away part that I hate. So I just keep putting it off until I convince myself that I will do it tomorrow. This is going to be a goal for me. Anyone else in the same boat? The next everyday task is check your floors. This is just a quick once-over. Pick up any big (visible) dirt things (you know what I mean right??) for carpeted rooms and make sure hard floors are clear, give a quick sweep if you need to. And the last everyday task is to wipe your counters. This is every counter top in your house- kitchen, bathroom, laundry, mudroom, whatever rooms you have. For me this is just the kitchen and the bathroom. The kitchen counter gets wiped down every night after I've finished and put away supper, then I quick pop into the bathroom and wipe down my 6 inches of counter space in there.
All of these tasks keep your home tidy and prevent huge cleaning disasters from happening. If you are maintaining your "cleanness" everyday, that's all you need to do-maintain.


I also redid my cleaning checklists and popped the new one into my home management binder in the home maintenance section.
They now look like this:

Next up in my cleaning department is spring cleaning. Which probably means a fun new spring cleaning and maybe deep cleaning printable? What are the vital cleaning tasks that would need to go on a deep cleaning or spring cleaning list for you?

Check back with us Friday for your own cleaning checklist FREEBIE!