Family Planning

Don't you love a new calendar, all fresh and clean and ready to take on the adventures that await in a brand new year? Last year, I used a MomAgenda. I was disappointed with the some of the features (mostly offensive quotes that jumped out at me and made me sorry I paid for the privilege of reading them again and again for a week). But I did love the column format of the MomAgenda, even if the columns close to the binding were a bit difficult to use. It was all bound into a book--sometimes a pro, sometimes a con. In September, I started using Google Calendar. I'm still using it, though not as regularly as I should. The nice thing about Google Calendar (well, one of the nice things) is that as soon as I get an email from a coach or a teammate about a practice or event, I can add it directly. No searching for the planner which might be in my diaper bag or might be in the kitchen. The bad thing about Google Calendar? It's not in my diaper bag or the kitchen. The good thing about Google Calendar? I can share the calendar with my husband and with friends, too (a huge blessing when I was tweaking learning schedules). I created a calendar for each child's school plans, a liturgical year calendar, an appointment and activity calendar, a calendar for household chores. I was a calendar-crazed mama! These are printable, though not nearly as nice to print as the calendars one can create on a Mac. Sigh. All that work and I ended up with calendar envy.I'm still tweaking my Google calendars and hoping the geniuses at Google will figure out way to take all the extraneous junk out of the printable versions. Or that I get a Mac for my birthday.

In the meantime, I miss my kitchen refrigerator at-a-glance-where-is-everybody calendar. I wanted something pretty and warm that celebrated the season in a family's life. It's no secret I'm a huge fan of Susan Branch. This year, I'm going to use The All for One and One for All 2008 Family Planner. Susan says that her greatest claim to fame was being the oldest of eight children. This is a family -friendly calendar with columns like the MomAgenda. (There are only five columns, though, which means I might need two.) Instead of politically charged demoralizing quotes there are delightful illustrations and a sprinkling of happy thoughts. Here's an interesting little tidbit: my husband sat and flipped through the entire thing and read all the notes and such. He even noticed all the eye-candy. This is a man who's most recent calendar is dated 1997. And it's not written in at all. At least he looked at this one:-). I think this one will end up duplicating the online appointments and activities calendar but it will stay put on the fridge for reference. The Google one will catch all the updates and it will be printed when necessary for Dad.I'll continue to rely on checking in with Catholic Culture daily to plan ahead and to immerse myself in the day of the Church. As I do that, I note what I want to remember on the Google Calendar for the liturgical year. Eventually, Google will work out its print issues and won't I have a great printable resource for my Faith Home Companion notebook?
I have ceased searching for the perfect calendar for my organizing purposes. Very few (no?) planner people are planning for ten people in a household. Then again, I once talked to Sean Covey about his planners and he has a whole gaggle of kids. We agreed then that the Simplicity pages worked best for large household management.I haven't yet tried Franklin Covey electronic planning. Maybe that would be the solution...Probably not. I have trouble seeing past the whole corporate mentality. I'm organizing and inspiring a family, not running a business. There's a huge difference and that difference really needs to be reflected from the get go. If our planning has a purpose, it has to be a family purpose.
Really, there is no perfect planner. I know that. The key to making all this planning and preparing work is discipline. I need to decide on a system and then work the system.I can tweak a bit as we go and read about other ideas, but in the end, what matters most is that I am faithful enough to stick with it. No planning system works if it's abandoned the third week of January for nothing, or even for the next thing to come along. I can't establish rhythm if I'm twisting in the wind, whether I'm looking for that rhythm in my household management, my school plans, or my prayer life.
The waning days of December are so peaceful. Happy children are engrossed in new toys and books. There is little pressing in the way of obligations. We have a little respite from the regular lesson schedule. it's a great time to build a fire and curl up under a Christmas comforter and ponder how to make it all work in the new year. So, I think I'll do that today. More later. Much more.:-)

Teacher's Gifts

Jennifer at Cozy as Spring is thinking about teacher's gifts. We are, too! Today is the day to assemble gift bags for the dance teachers. In each bag, Mary Beth will place a bar of saintly soap, a sachet of garden lavender buds, and a tin of homemade healing salve. It's a bag in keeping with the handmade pledge. The soaps are not handmade in our home, but they are handmade. I think the teachers will be very happy at this improvement over last year's soaps, which were made in our home:-). Trish's soaps are truly amazing and I think it still counts as homemade. I can only imagine how wonderful her Canadian home must smell.
The salve is becoming legendary. Recipients of last year are begging for more. I'm told it heals anything from diaper rash to windburn to hemmorhoids. I'm also told that some northern ladies were coveting some southern ladies' healing salve and I've been encouraged to skip sending teas this year and just send large vats of salve. Alrighty then!
We have a small crockpot that came with my large slow cooker. I think it's intended purpose was to keep dips warm.We've never used it for that. Truthfully, we'd never used it at all until last year when we discovered it to be perfect for making salve.
I put a handful each of dried plaintain, comfrey, calendula, and St. John's Wort in the crock and then fill it all the way with olive oil. I leave the herbs to simmer all day.
    At the end of the day, I drain the oil through cheesecloth, squeezing as much of it as possible out of the herbs. I toss the herbs into the garden. Then, I measure the oil and put it back into the crockpot. When it is warmed, I add one ounce of pure beeswax for every 8 ounces of oil. This seems to give it the right consistency when it cools. While it is still warm, I add a few drops of lavender essential oil, a few drops of tea tree oil, and I squeeze out the contents of two or three Vitamin E capsules. Don't skip the Vitamin E--that's the preservative. Stir it all until the beeswax is melted and it's all blended. Pour into containers of choice. Mountain Rose Herbs sells the dried herbs and a variety of containers. I think these little herbals sets would make nice hostess gifts, too. That's all for me today--I'm off to deliver teachers' gifts.

My weekend project

My homemaking notebook is about a year old. I have to say that I'm very grateful Kim talked me into this endeavor. And, tonight, I'm very appreciative of her gift to me. I was appreciative when she first sent me the binder and the dividers. They were beautiful and she perfectly nailed my "graphic personality." A little country, a little Susan Branch. I want Kim to come decorate my house--she could probably make it look more "me" than I can. But, now that I've undertaken a little makeover, I'm even more appreciative. It takes some effort to make these look beautiful! I recycled some of Kim's work and added some fresh paper where needed. And they're so pretty, I'm inspired all over again!

My binder was becoming big and cumbersome and was looking a little rough around the edges. So, I bought three smaller, heavyduty binders and set about to break the big binder apart. I made a kitchen binder (and named it after my kitchen blog), a "faith in our home" binder where I will keep all my notes for our family's celebrations of the liturgical year, and a home management binder for schedules and chores/cleaning routines, and everything else that was in the big book.

I'm pleased with the way they look. Very inspiring. Do you wonder what's in them?

Um.

Nothing.

Yet.

I'm working on it. Stay tuned.

Freeze Yer Buns!

I admit that I'm a big energy consumer in the summer.I over-use air conditioning.  Heat makes me wilt in a big way--I think it's because my blood pressure is practically non-existent. But I do try to make amends in the winter. I like to be a little cold. And I love a warm sweater. There is nothing more sleep-inducing than a down comforter with a heavy quilt on top. Cold? Bring it on! Kara alerted me to Crunchy Chicken's admonition not to be left out of the cold. In the Foss household, we're shooting for 64 degrees during the day and 55 at night. I am fully aware, every time I drag the trash out to the curb, that this household of ten makes a greater impact on the environment than the house next door. I'd like to think that we can also make a greater impact for the better. I'd like to think that the people being educated inside this chilly house are being made aware of how important it is to reduce, reuse, recycle (and but the way, that CD is way too great to miss--even the big brothers are loving it--many thanks, Mary Chris). We are very, very happy to eat locally and love the farms that bring us food. We are over-the-top cloth diaper fans. But we also have a lot to learn and a lot more to do to ensure that all the people in this household grow up aware of their serious responsibility to be good stewards the beautiful world with which they've been blessed.We're going to freeze our buns this winter. Are you in?
Oh, and if you're coming to visit, consider yourself warned--bring a sweater and some fuzzy socks:-)

Inspired.

I have to be inspired to clean. Sometimes, all it takes is a new scent from Mrs. Meyers. Sometimes, all it takes is knowing that the truck to take away my giveaways will be here Wednesday. Sometimes, all it takes is knowing that the lady who has been cleaning her footprints off the fridge and everything else in sight will be in my house in a few short weeks. And sometimes, it's a beautiful blog with really well organized lists that lights my fire. This morning, the stars have all lined up. It's all there. It's all happening. I have an overwhelming urge to put things in order. Kara's lists are really remarkable. They are Flylady inspired and  tweaked for her personal use.  There is an overall at-a-glance for dailies, weeklies, and zones. Then, she's detailing, room by room, for her homekeeping notebook. I was just saying that my notebook really needs some updating. Michael's departure completely sacked my routines and now that we finally have new ones in places, my pages need re-doing. Kara has beautifully  inspired me. I have Home Comforts and I have Martha Stewart's Homekeeping Handbook. Should be a simple thing to "just do it," particularly given all the inspiration I have. Should be. First though, a cup of tea...and then I promise, I'll get going. Many blessings to you on this Monday morning. New weeks are so inspiring, aren't they?