Happy Day-After Christmas! I am hoping you all had a wonderful holiday with the family, a joyous time of giving and a great memory making venture! We had a great time with my husbands side of the family. Since I spent my Thanksgiving time with my family in Georgia we were not able to see them over Christmas. I am a little sad, but thankful and content!
I have been spending a lot of time lately thinking about this year and what I want to change and do differently in this next year. There are a lot of things and a lot of areas of my life and my family's life that I see changes necessary. Basically, I need help. What do I need help with, you ask? I need help with organization and time prioritizing. I have been thinking about the kind of help I need and what decisions I am going to make, for the betterment of our family and the functioning of our everyday lives.
So, this brings me to the MAIN part of this post. A Hodges Family Notebook. Yes, you read that right. For years now, I had played with the idea of a family notebook, I have attempted to kind of put one together, and then I kind of get lazy. Well, I have been doing a lot of research about a family notebook and have seen some awesome ideas [go to my boards on pinterest if you don't believe me!] and I have decided to really, really try to implement this notebook for me and my family for this next year. What is a family notebook? Well, I am glad you asked! I want our family notebook to be our "hub" of information, our "go to" for just about everything we need, when we need it. Here are some of the things I plan to include in our family notebook:
Addresses/Phone Numbers - I can't tell you how many times I have had to call my mother in law, or sister in law, who are both wealthy with information, and it would be nice to not have to take time out to call them and ask them for information that they have already previously given me...and I bet they would appreciate it as well!
Birthdays/Anniversaries - I have a goal this year, and to meet my goal [which I am not going to reveal, because I don't want my family and friends to know if I fail!] and this is an essential tab to have in the notebook.
Emergency/Doctors/Medicinal Information - Danny and I have some health issues and we need to keep all of our information in one place so we can have fast access to give to doctors or maybe in case we have an emergency. Also, there is a lot that goes along with having a special needs child. We have lot of appointments, lots of records, and lots of info to keep up with. This section should help me with all of that info.
Menu Planning/Recipes/Groceries/Coupons - I have proven time and time again that I can save a significant amount of money if I plan my meals for the week or month and then grocery shop based upon these plans. On average, when I meal plan, I save about $50 a week. That is a lot of money and a necessity when we are a one income family. I want to keep my favorite recipes, tried and true ones, in this section, and also my inventories and coupon planning [I am by no means an extreme couponer, but I do use coupons when I can!
Bible Reading and Scripture Memorization - I have joined with a PB group of like minded brothers and sisters and we plan to read the Bible through in a year, and I am real excited about that. We also want to plan our devotional time with the kids a little better and this is a perfect place to keep this information for both my hubby and I to get to.
Daily/Weekly/Monthly/Yearly To do lists - This will include a daily agenda, appointments, and things I need to get done around the house.
2013 Calendar - This will be the main place I will keep appointments and obligations
Fitness/Food Log: Self explanatory...I hope...
Finances/Budgeting/Bills - We are starting this new year hopefully really in tune with Dave Ramsey and his methods of budgeting and paying off debt. We really need help in this area and I am really in need of a specific and organized location to keep my records.
So, this is what I am working on at the end of this year. What I want is to hear back from my friends, especially those with families, and I want to hear if you have a home management notebook or method, and if so, what is it. I would love to hear your ideas and stories, etc. so please get back with me. You can email me or message me on facebook, or leave a comment here [I know, that is not always the easiest thing to do!]. Please share your thoughts with me. If you want to know more about my research, you can follow me on pinterest and look at my pins and boards. I have pinned a ton of sites that have tons of free printables and tons of information on how to create a family notebook and the purposes of a notebook of this sort. Let me know what you think!
2 comments:
I pop over to read a bit, though I haven't meet you in real time. I came through Lydia's blog. For all that stuff you might want a couple of notebooks, and just a particular place to keep them. I didn't have that many categories, but my first notebook, was too big to be user friendly. I built mine based off the lay out that I got through flylady.net. I'm great at organizing but not so much at staying on top of cleaning, and it really helped me build routines.
I have one notebook with Addresses/Phone Numbers, Birthday/Anniversaries, and My to do lists. I also have some menu planning stuff in there (though that needs to move somewhere else, it's what makes the notebook too bulky). I keep most of the bills to pay in the pockets of the notebook, but took all the info out, and built an excel spreadsheet to manage all of that. I felt like it was safer there than in a notebook. (As another side note, we have been trying to do the Dave Ramsey thing too, and get our finances more organized.) Then I have a second planner that I use with it for my 2013 (now) calender, some emergency info, and currently my OB records (in case I need them while we are out of town), and my journaling.
Anyway, I would recommend, some tabs, and one of those pencil bags that you can put into the rings, so it stays with the notebook. That is good for stamps, pens, pencils, etc.
I love the idea of a family notebook(s), but I've never done it. I think Danielle's advice is good. I would say that having all of that information in one notebook would make it too bulky to be functional. I would say having the addresses/phone numbers, birthdays/anniversaries, emergency/medical info, calendar, to do list in one would be good. And then menu planning stuff, Bible reading, budget, fitness/food log in another.
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