J - O - Y Prayer Journal

Several months back I was thoroughly inspired by a link I discovered that featured a tutorial on how to put together a personal prayer journal. It spoke to my heart as this is something that I had wanted to put together for myself. So I bookmarked it.

But unfortunately there it sat. Enter a book I picked up at the library recently entitled Eat That Frog! which I had originally reserved for some ideas on dealing with procrastination in my children. But at this point the most value came for myself. Did I have any goals set? Were those goals able to direct my day-to-day activities and priorities? Well, no, to be honest. So there I came full circle again to my desire to have a more structured prayer life.

So back I went to my bookmark and some searching through Pinterest. And yes, I came up with something even more inspiring for me. A simple composition notebook, decked out in scrapbooking papers and personalized tabs. So off I went to pick up these simple supplies. I decided that this would also be a great opportunity to introduce this concept to my ten-year-old, so she selected her themed papers as well. The original post does a fantastic job of outlining the steps to put together this personalized journal...hers was a Christmas planner...but here are the basic steps that I followed:

 
basic supplies...composition notebook, scrapbook paper, ribbon to tie journal with, glue, and scissors

 

although hard to see here, ribbon is glued to outside of book so that it will wrap around it and be able to tie. front and backs are covered with a piece of patterned paper cut to fit.


 

more embellishments are added to the front and back covers to conceal the remaining surfaces. 

The journal was finished up by glueing another sheet to the inside and back covers to conceal the printed information. And lastly, I doubled over small scraps of patterned paper and glued them to the outside edge of individual sheets to divide the book into roughly thirds in order to have some tabbed dividers. I know, hard to visualize but the link to the original post is very clear if you check it out.

So the big question...how to use this beautiful little journal? And then it came to me. The Sunday School song "J - O - Y" whose chorus lyrics are:

Jesus first,
Yourself last,
And Others in between.

How perfect.

The tabs would be labeled J - Jesus...a place for praise and thankfulness for what Jesus has done.

The second tab would be O - Others...listing of ongoing prayer requests.

And the last tab would be Y - Yourself...how would you like Jesus to work in your own personal life.

So simple that even a child could understand which is exactly what I wanted for H-Bob. We decided to start a new page for each time the month changed and then review her entries weekly and add happy faces or hearts to those items that were answered prayers. Best idea in a long time.

If you've wanted something structured for yourself that you can use to track answered prayers and to keep others' requests in the forefront of your thoughts, this just might work for you. Plus it's a chance to be just a tiny bit crafty and creative even if you think you aren't. Have you put together anything similar? Has it helped? Would love to hear your thoughts.

The Single Sock Club

Do lone single socks in your household have a way of mysteriously multiplying? Do you ever wonder how it is possible to have 20 odd socks with no mate? Or make that probably more like 30 plus socks languishing around?



Well, here's my no-sweat way to deal with this infuriating problem. It is a little like out-of-sight, out-of-mind, but that's okay in this instance. I keep a basket...just so happens to be a wooden one...downstairs into which gets tossed all lone socks while I'm folding laundry.

So here' the routine: when I'm done folding a load of laundry and if there are single socks...no, make that WHEN I have single socks, I simply pitch them into the basket. Nothing to trouble myself with. Then about once a month when I find myself noticing that the basket is getting pretty full, I sit down and start matching socks. I'd say fifty percent of the basket gets handled. Now...I haven't figured out a nifty trick for dealing with those leftover socks, but I could throw them away...or save them until we paint our goat pens for county fair...or turn them into sock puppets...or stuff them with rice to heat up for sore necks...or...you get the idea. It blows my mind that we could possibly have that many unmatched socks elsewhere in the house, but I guess it is what it is.

But overall, this little practice immediately deals with lone socks, keeps those said unmatched socks from wandering off to create more lonely socks, and keeps me from tearing my hair out over the apparent inability for both socks to make it in the laundry at the same time.

So, how do you deal with the single sock club in your house?

I'm linking up today with We are That Family and Works for Me Wednesday. Head over that way for more good ideas.

Works for Me Wednesday - Vinyl Tablecloths

I'm linking up today with We are That Family and Works for Me Wednesday.

Can you name the one item in the main living area of your home that takes an incredible amount of abuse? If you immediately thought of your kitchen table, then you’re with me!

We have a nicely finished oak table, but you will never know that until our kids have grown enough to reveal it. It stays cloaked in a vinyl tablecloth. Yes, a $2.99 special…the kind with the flocked backing such as you would use outside on a picnic table. They're great.

It’s guaranteed that the tablecloth will end up with sharpie marks, hot glue gun residue, and perhaps are few tear marks along the edges from the dogs. Better it than the table I say. I used to put on a traditional cloth tablecloth, but they were considerable more work.

Our table gets heavy use...read dumping grounds for most anything...so it’s not long before the current vinyl tablecloth gets tossed with no regrets and the next seasonal beauty will find its way on to it. You'd be surprised at the choices you have too. Not just the typical red-checked picnic variety that usually comes to mind.

Now before you think we fill up the landfill with vinyl tablecloths, many of them do survive and are cleaned up before storing them for another season. We have quite a stash of seasonal tablecloths that we rotate out every week during Christmas. There are more for other holidays that are in great shape after gracing our table for only a week or so.

But in the long run, the vinyl tablecloths are money well spent for the abuse they take and the ease in which they help up sail through life. Give them a try...you just might switch too!

What are your thoughts? Vinyl too casual for the kitchen? Use nothing at all? I'd love to hear how others keep their kitchen table in tip-top-shape.

Loose Ends and Unfinished Business

Sometimes there is just no way to get off the roller coaster of life. There are no eject or pause buttons available to us. And when that happens, what happens to the projects that get started or suddenly arise out of necessity? They become loose ends and unfinished business.

So in case you wonder what keeps me up at night worrying, here's my current list...

I need to order fall and winter garden seeds; research food stuffs I can grow through the winter.

Want to incorporate working my way through my 15-minutes-a-day plan to purge and clean every drawer and shelf in the house; so desperately needed but just can't seem to surface to the top of the priority list.

Deep clean the barn and pitch old and broken items; yes, the girls could do this, but it just might not be as thorough as is needed.

Pick date for a garage sale. We're finally getting to the point we can sell off anything that relates anyone younger than eight.

Consolidate and purge my goat resource notebook; the loose and duplicate papers are driving me mad.

Sort through three years of digital photos and create hard copy photo albums with them through Shutterfly; perish the thought, but if they were lost due to an inability to restore them from backups, it would be a true disaster. This should get some priority I guess.

Along the same line, organize the keepsake and memorabilia and unfinished baby books of our four children. This was supposed to be done for my oldest once she turned eighteen. Now she's twenty.

Finish homeschool school planning for our eight-year-old and thirteen-year-old; this really needs to get wrapped up!

Make notes about this summer's garden so that I don't duplicate the same mistakes year after year.

Work outside including substantial weeding and mulching, researching how to prune our fruit trees, how to boost the performance of our blueberry bushes, how to improve our pastures, and in general just time to get things done.

My mother needs new flooring in her house; since my dad passed away several years ago, those type projects have fallen with our family to help orchestrate and supervise. As she would like the job done before fall starts, it is looming overhead as well.

I could list improving or monetizing my blogs...to validate the time I do spend online.

Create an on-the-fly menu plan and grocery list so that on panic weeks, I can just grab the list and send it with DH and or one of the older kids to save my sanity.

Get to some of the kid-friendly projects we collected supplies for in early spring just for the reason of doing them during 'down time' in the summer; the concept of 'down time' just makes me laugh right about now.

Our sixteen-year-old son will be needing college-level recruiting cover letters and resumes along with videos to promote his passion...football...this coming fall. Need to educate myself on how to promote athletic prospects I guess.

Of mounting importance would be helping our eight-year-old figure out what she would like to take to our county fair for 4H Clover Buds so that we can get them tagged and ready to exhibit; fair is only a few weeks away, so this is going to become VERY important REAL soon.

We have two horses; I grew up obsessed with horses; do I ride these said horses? So obviously that is another to-do item that is important to me...to take advantage of what we have now...you never know when life circumstances change and an opportunity of a lifetime might be lost forever.

Now if I sat here much longer while listening to two of my daughters help record a scripture song CD for our church, I'm sure I could add to this list. But by now I've probably lost your interest, and you might be wondering, "Lady, get your act together!" So I will leave this topic...get back to the business of life...and continue to chip away at this list albeit slower than I would prefer.

Household Organization Notebook

To be honest, I really didn't know what to call the notebook I have been keeping household information in until I started looking around to see how others have organized their household information. A Swagbucks search of "household organization notebook" came back with enough information that I decided that that title should work just fine.

A household organization notebook should be just that...a notebook that helps keep your household organized.  And I know we all could use help with that. Ideally it would have all the important information that you might need in an emergency or just refer to make daily life simpler, all located in one place. It makes it easy to pick it up and go if you need to leave the house with it quickly. I usually go through it every summer once I hopefully have a little more time and update the information.

My notebook is pretty simple: three-ring binder with page dividers labeled with a Dymo labeler. A few plastic pocket folder and sheet protectors add a little more functionality to some sections, but it's just pretty basic and gets the job done. Currently I use these sections:

Household Maintenance - My running list of where in the house I have deep cleaned and purged; a back-up copy of my Remember the Milk regular chore lists for household cleaning; information relating to cleaning zones.

Animals - Because we are responsible for so many animals, this section also has my hard-copy of the appropriate Remember the Milk (RTM) tasks for our animals; list of horse vaccines and worming schedule; puppy health information.

Garden - This is a pretty broad category but includes the pool maintenance check sheet; hard-copy RTM for watering schedules and timing for various garden-related tasks.

Books - My list of magazines to reserve the library is stored here; a listing of magazine subscriptions and their actual expirations dates (so I don't renew them as early as the publishers would like).

Health - The children's immunization cards; list per family member of dates of various medical procedures and appointments, as I can never remember how long ago someone went in for a strep throat check, physical, you name it; address list of physician/dentist/orthodontist and insurance policy names and contact information. I had a gift list stuck in here, perhaps to keep wandering eyes from seeing it, but I think it deserves its own section now.

Notes - This would be a better home for that gift list; an excellent article on prayer; verses and quotes I want to remember; and most importantly to me, a single sheet with very large type, "Excellence is achievable; perfection is God's business".

Addresses - Pretty self explanatory but a copy of our emergency contact information that is posted in the kitchen cabinet by the phone; a second copy of my Yahoo contact list (my current location of my address list).

Beaver Lake Stables - I no longer have enough activity over there to maintain its own notebook, but I do keep my receipts and statements for the work I do as well as the boarder and trainer contact information.

School - With one child in public high school, there needs to be a place to keep school progress reports, accounting receipts, and school phone numbers. This is where they go. There is also a list to record outside activities for future reference (volunteer work, awards, athletic camps, etc.); school calendar; class schedule.

Mom - No, not a section for me, but for my mother's affairs that I assist her with. There's always a need to refer back to my notes for some transaction that took place or person she contacted and cannot find the paperwork herself.

Your notebook would most likely have completely different sections although some are pretty basic to most situations. I found some other excellent notebook ideas at Blissfully Domestic, Tipnut (which has some cool printable sheets), and Flylady. Along with your own inspiration and creativity, you can pull together a notebook that meets your household's needs and frees up a little more space in your already crowded cranium. Knowing where to go for specific information is definitely worth an hour or two now to get yourself organized.

Have fun, pull together a notebook, and let me know how it went.

A Typical Day Around Here

This just seems like it’s going to be one of those days. So just for kicks and giggles, I’m going to keep track of what goes on in a somewhat typical day around here. Just a good exercise to keep life in perspective at times. So here goes:

Heard son wake up early to get off to AP exam. Already had breakfast burrito in fridge ready for him to heat up so decided not to get up. But then worried that he wouldn’t make it in time since he really should have been out the door by then. Rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. This would be a good case of reality discipline if he were late.

Woke up with back killing me for some reason. Decided it was because 8yo plus a puppy were in bed with me.

Realization that my two oldest girls are out of town, and I’m in charge of all animals today. Let out puppies and fed them. Slapped in contacts and headed to barn. Fed buck and his companions. Filled water bucket. Fed horses. Gave grain to milking does and babies. Checked their water buckets. Fed their hay. Sprinkled chicken food here, there, and everywhere so everyone would get a fair chance to eat. Took hay out to other goat pen. Opened greenhouse and felt an oven blast at me. Already 70 degrees outside. Wonder of wonders. Will not allow anyone to complain about ‘heat’ today. We’ve lived in the 40s, 50s, and 60s for way too long this year. But of course there won’t be anyone to complain. 16yo at school and 8yo won’t be too hot. She’ll have her swim suit on all day.

Made my morning latte. Today’s flavor…hazelnut. Thoroughly enjoyed the goat's milk in it. Richness to die for. Ate an overly dry homemade high-fiber muffin. Might not repeat that recipe again. Put two forgotten pounds of fresh picked asparagus into refrigerator. Rinsed out batch of sprouts. Picked up forgotten dishes throughout the house. Unloaded and reloaded dishwasher.

Headed upstairs to the ‘fast’ computer to check email that has largely been forgotten for a week except for anything that screamed ‘read me now’. Gathered up loose stacks of papers, notes, and resulting printed emails into a pile to tackle later. Checked my Twitter feed. My daily fix reminding that I really do have a good life and I should be thankful for my own situation.

Phone call from DH that they made it to their hunting spot. He was whispering, as they were watching a flock of wild turkeys. Burst his bubble by telling him 13yo already had sent me a text at 1 a.m. or so that simply read “SERVICE!” Deciphered that would mean they were there and there was cell service at the house. Her biggest fear didn’t materialize I guess.

Headed out to weed the peppermint and spearmint bed by the back deck that hasn’t been touched all year. Being the real gardener that I’m not, I hauled off the weeds in a Little Tykes wagon to compost around one of the fruit trees. Headed back outside with camera to snap shot of mint for my 365 Project.

Short break to attempt to annihilate extra large black fly that made it into the house. Battery operated fly zapper is one of our summer staples I tell you. Guzzled glass of water and downed some Advil. Instant headache from the bright sun outside I’m guessing.

Once again attempted to wake up 8yo. Went to bed late since daddy was gone and of course is tired this morning. Watered hanging front porch plants that I received for Mother’s Day. They went with plastic pots this time instead of peat. Should make a world of difference with the western exposure they get.

Vacuumed downstairs floor. Folded load of laundry. Bagged and took out kitchen garbage. Workers were absent today.

Looked up Alton Brown recipe for monkey bread. Episode we watched last night must have stuck in 8yo’s head, because the first thing she said once she did wake up, “Let’s make that monkey bread.” Sounds good to me. Put together dough and put into dough machine. Used up buttermilk, so I used last remaining cup or so to start a new batch inoculating on the windowsill.

It is now straight-up noon. Should probably see to it that 8yo eats something. Her monkey bread isn’t going to be ready for quite some time.

Hauled two giant bags of potting soil to garden shed to start potting up plants. Took over new hose to swap out for one that has no end connector which will go to chicken/goat house as that hose have 5,009 leaks in it. Let’s hope they all will be long enough for what I want. Tied shut front gate and let mini horse out to graze the grass around the fruit trees.

Call from 20yo hunting. Needed her work scheduled checked. Hasn’t been able to get anyone to pick up her Saturday shift. Not a good thing. 16yo tried to call on cell while I’m on land line. Told him to text me. Now he says never mind. So of course I want to know why he called in the first place. A text back is in order.

New hose too short but found another short one I didn’t know existed by fire pit. Perfect connectors too. Hooked up spray head and watered garden beds. So nice when your equipment is in working order.

Picked full bowl of greens from greenhouse…spinach, romaine, arugula, and mesclun mix. Going to pick new dressing recipe to try on these. No way I want to smother them with something commercial. While in kitchen, gave 8yo directions on how to make her raw apple pie. The one she eats most of the apples before she gets the dough finished so it gets eaten raw as well.

8yo asked if she could let out horses. Wants to help since older girls are gone. “Of course, sweetie you can. But please don’t get trampled.”

Honey mustard vinaigrette was so good on the garden greens with some of the preserved feta I had made last year and a few toasted walnuts that I could have just about licked the plate clean. Belly full, it’s now time to head out to pot up the pepper, tomatoes and squash plants. Got to keep those roots growing.

Potted up a zillion tomato and squash starts. Think I could sell the extra starts on Craig's List maybe. No way I can wear gloves to pot stuff up. Can’t feel what I’m doing. I have fingernails to die for now. 8yo interrupted potting session to announce her yearling goat was stuck. Extricated her from behind their shed. Decided to let all yearlings out in pasture for awhile. Then decided she wanted to mix up both herds. Told her yes to all to keep her busy. Goat herd needs new separation anyway so helped me out besides.

Request for strawberry lemonade as 8yo running through wiggly worm type sprinkler with puppies. The smell of wet dog is a little overpowering on a day like today. They are staying outside. As for me, I’m making up my iced coffee that cold-brewed overnight.

Debriefed with 16yo on his AP exam. Checked on his evening plans. Made him a strawberry lemonade. 8yo really hungry now so heating up some canned tomato soup.
Totally forgot about monkey bread dough in bread machine. Caught it just in time. It was beginning to billow over the top of the bread pan. Yikes! That would have been one of those monster messes had it run over.

Finished shaping and setting up monkey bread. Ate rest of canned soup 8yo didn’t eat. Topped mine with croutons though. Makes a world of taste difference. 8yo brought me her favorite young hen to visit me on the deck which then reminded me to go get my bowl of kitchen scraps to chuck over the fence for the other awaiting hens. Dessert for them. Now off to change and head down to our local fruit and veggie market to replenish and those warm climate food items that cannot be grown here. Realize that is just exactly what a locavore’s speak against. I’d have to have a serious support group and recipe base to just live off what would be available locally here in the NW at this time of year. Also realized that it is five o’clock…dinner time. 16yo’s dinner will have to wait until I get home.

Impromptu detour to try on swimsuits for 8yo turned into disaster. This hypersensitive child of mine has a hard time wearing any clothes at all and tight banded swimsuits above drove her off the deep end. Not sure how we ever found one for her last year. Trip to fruit market yielded a plantain to fry up tonight as well as the usual fare. Near death experience on the highway as well.

Returned home and sorted out goats into current feeding plan. Noticed that scur on a yearling had been knocked off. Actually a good thing. Now it just needs some antibiotic cream attention.

16yo spending night at friends before going out to youth football referee training in the morning. Got him set up with GPS as training site is 45 minutes on other side of town where he has never driven before. Came to realization that monkey bread –which had risen way, way up and almost over top of its pan- will have to all be consumed by 8yo and myself. No one else home to share it with. That is not a good thing.

Unloaded grain and horse vitamins out of back of van. Fed all animals. Started some clean up of barn while has been sorely neglected as of late.

Seven pm. Thoroughly hungry. Thoroughly sweaty. I guess that happens when the sun comes out. Now time for some leftovers which unlike the rest of the family, I thoroughly enjoy. Haven’t even cleaned kitchen as I went today or put away fruit, so no point in cooking for just myself and 8yo. Besides, monkey bread will go in the oven tonight.

Oops. Guess I need to feed the pups too. They still had breakfast in their bowls at lunch so they’re pretty ravenous now having missed their lunch meal.

Loaded up dishes that could go in the dishwasher. Had tour by 8yo of her latest animal scene creation, for lack of words to describe them. Grabbed leashes to take puppies for a stroll through the woods with plan to lock up horses when done down there, feed cats, and milk my one doe. Took along peppermint essential oil and almond carrier oil as I fear she might have a congested udder on one side. Also hauled down California Mastitis Test, just in case.

After lengthy walk –discovered some sort of animal bone- and lengthy session on wooden play structure down there, finished up animal chores. Did a little more pick up in the barn. Checked on pullet hens. They were in hen house as they were supposed to be.

Turned on oven to back monkey bread. Checked in on 16yo who was now home with friends, so obviously there has been a change in plans. What next? Why I’m not sure. After all, the night is still young…it’s only 8:30 p.m.

Now I find myself making nachos, preempting the oven for the monkey bread. 16yo has three friend over, and they’re ravenous. Guess I’ll concentrate on getting the hand-washed dishes done and picking up the dining room table. Doesn’t every one use theirs as a dumping ground? Just too easy at our place as we have a common kitchen/dining area.

Just about lost the entire tray of nachos under the broiler. Par for me. Wandered out to outside refrigerator to look for 16yo’s treasured bottle of Tabasco sauce. Clean forgot about what was going on in the kitchen. Teens fed and presently occupied with the hot tub. 8yo bathed. Three days worth of 365 Project photos edited and uploaded. Double cup of Stash White Christmas tea in my hand. And sliver removed from 8yo’s foot. Now time for my shower.

Now that it’s approaching midnight, I’m going to grab Walter, the Lazy Mouse and finish reading it to 8yo. Puppies look like they’re sacked out for good. And my legs are plain tired from standing. And then it will be time to pull up the covers and call it a night.

And so, that was a day in our household. The observant reader will notice that there was no homeschooling done that day. When the older kids are gone, it's a vacation day for the 8yo and me. Not that today was a vacation by anymeans however. Have you posted about a typical day in your household? I'd love for you to leave a comment and link to it.

Refrigerator Organization

We now have a new best friend at our house. The seven-year-old got a great playhouse out of the deal. The thirteen-year-old is just impressed. The 16-year-old loves the fact that choices are now easier. And the remaining adults are just as happy as can be. The new friend...a shiny black refrigerator with double French doors on top and a freezer compartment on the bottom. There are many reasons why our old refrigerator needed to go, but let's just focus on how the new guy is going to help organize life in the kitchen. While helping to unload the refrigerator, a friend commented, "Wow. You certainly have a lot in your refrigerator." I stepped back and tried to take an objective look, and yep, it was crammed to the gills. But everyone always said, "What's there to eat?" Since I knew where every last container was, my reply would usually be, "All sorts of stuff. Can't you see the leftovers from two nights ago?" "Nope," they would reply. "Well, they're right here," I would retort angrily while pulling away miscellaneous containers to unearth it. Obviously time for a new routine with this new refrigerator. Especially with a second refrigerator out in the garage. So...here's the plan. Nothing was moved back into the new refrigerator unless we actually needed it. I also set up designated areas. Those for leftovers.  Another for ingredient-type items - lime juice, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, eggs.  A shelf for condiments - pretty obvious here, ketchup, mustard, mayo, etc.  This refrigerator has a great drawer for deli items so the only thing that will be allowed here will be - deli meats, sliced cheese, flavored cream cheese, etc. Sandwich makings. Of course there are your standard crisper drawers. But they're pretty self- explanatory. As there are three of them, one has been designated for quick snack items - yogurt, baggies of jerky, precut veggies for snacks. The shelf with milk will hold all of the dairy products - sour cream, buttermilk, etc.  And another section is just for stuff that goes on other stuff - salsa, jam, dressings, etc.  There's another section for bread-type products - tortillas, bagels, and the next loaf of unopened bread.  And my brainchild, a shelf just for those foods that were purchased for dinner this coming week. That might seem obvious, but how many times does newly purchased food become forgotten and wasted? Well, at our house it was often enough.  The freezer compartment is only going to house frozen juice cans, frozen snack food items, and anything purchased intentionally for this week's consumption. No mystery freezer bags. Those can go live outside. The other stuff...it's going to stay in the outside refrigerator until I can purge through it. I do a lot of coupon shopping and so end up purchasing block cheese, butter, and other items that keep very well but don't need to end up in the house refrigerator. Those will be stored out there. And all the condiments or obscure ingredients that seem to keep forever, they're not coming in. I can always go out there to fetch them and promptly, hopefully, return them. As we have our own laying hens, our egg supply will be out there as well as jarred goat's milk when we starting milking again. Now when we take a peek in the refrigerator, you can actually see what we have to eat. No excuse for not being able to make a sandwich. Easy to tell when you're on the last jug of milk. Dinner ingredients are staring at you reminding you to use them up if the weekly menu plan gets out of synch. And those lovely leftovers are front and center. The other refrigerator was so packed that I had considered getting rid of any round storage containers as they were space wasters, but so far there's enough room that it doesn't seem necessary. Nice idea though to have square, stackable containers. And clear ones too. It's a little hard to distinguish at a glance what's inside that frosted purple container. So what's your refrigerator like? Is it prettier on the outside than it is inside? Do you have a trick up your sleeve for keeping it organized and purged? Leave me a comment. I'm guessing this is an area that we could all tweak a bit to make more efficient for ourselves and our families.

How I manage to "Remember the Milk"

I honestly am not sure how to even start this post. All I can say is that I have stumbled across something that has revolutionized my to-do list. I'm all for Excel spread sheets, organized lists, probably over-organized systems to keep track of my household duties as well as all the other livestock, extracurricular, and community activities I find myself involved in. However, they all had one thing in common...they worked for awhile and then became a burden in themselves.



That all changed upon discovering RememberTheMilk.com. There's no better way to describe it than straight from the horses mouth, or in this case, their website:

"Managing tasks is generally not a fun way to spend your time. We created Remember The Milk so that you no longer have to write your to-do lists on sticky notes, whiteboards, random scraps of paper, or the back of your hand. Remember The Milk makes managing tasks an enjoyable experience.

We began work on Remember The Milk in August 2004. What started as a simple idea soon became a huge web application with every feature imaginable (there's a reason why this took more than a year to finish!). We launched in October 2005. Remember The Milk now has more than 1.75 million registered users."

Here's how I have set up Remember the Milk to work for me. You are able to create separate lists by category. I have Animals, Desk Work, Kitchen, Household Chores, Kids, Personal, Outside, Employment, and a few others for organizations I'm involved with. Imagine that under each list are all of the possible tasks for that category. Each one gets to be assigned a priority, a next due date, and a frequency. Beyond that they can be assigned tags, the ever-popular method of marking something so that it can be searched as a group, for the items that I normally tackle during the morning, afternoon, or evening. It's also in the works for me to tag them with the name of a family member who could also handle this task on their own. Can you just see the possibilities here?

So on a typical morning, I log into RememberTheMilk and take a look at the entire list of tasks due that day. I then click on the tag for 'morning' which searches through all the different lists for just those tasks tagged 'morning'. Voila...there's my list to work from. It can be printed to hard copy, or as I've now moved my laptop to a central location, I just work from it online. Come afternoon, I pull up that list and so on. For those items I don't get to, I can choose to postpone them to a later date...a very tempting option quite too often...or they will simply reappear the next day. I tell you, I just can't say enough about how tremendously easy it is to use as a guide throughout the day. My next project to incorporate will be homeschool assignments for each child, but I need to decide how I want to set that up first.

Not only can you log in to view your tasks through your computer, there are many apps that have been developed to work with smart phones as well as even Twitter. I use the Twitter app so that I can text a list item through my cellphone that will show up in my RememberTheMilk inbox where I can import it into my routine later. How cool is that? The site is free but you can upgrade to a Pro version for $25 a year, but I do not see a need for this unless you want one of the newer specialized apps.

Trust me on this, and visit their website. I know I sound like I work for them, but this secret is just too good to not share with those who are obsessively organized but just need a working platform to accomplish that or those who run around looking for lost notes written on who knows what. And come back, and let me know how you can manage to "Remember the Milk".

Fourth Meal

I don’t think Taco Bell has anything on our family. We’ve been having a Fourth Meal for way too long around here. Perhaps it started with trying to eat as a family after various evening extra curricular activities or it could have been eating too early before said activities and then needing something later on. Regardless…the Fourth Meal habit appears to be here to stay at least while we have 2.5 teenagers eating at home (12-year-olds count as a half, right?)



A semi made from scratch dinner is served most every night. Nutritious, filling, and healthy. It may not go over well with some family members, but it is what we routinely eat. Dishes are cleaned up. Leftovers put away. The over-used dishwasher is loaded to the hilt one more time. A few hours pass, and then those stomachs start to grumble again. Out comes some leftover dessert; perhaps nachos are made or an ice cream shake is whipped up; it could be some stove top popcorn. Whatever ever the snack, it seems that everyone needs something. Plates are pulled from the cupboards. Dishes are filled. Utensils used. And of course more cups are out on the counter. Now multiply all of this by six household members. Regardless of whether they clean up after themselves or not, the fact of the matter is there seems to be a sink full of dishes by the time morning arrives the next day. Sigh. What’s one to do?

Well, short of padlocking the refrigerator…not a good idea since I do want them to eat up those leftovers…I’m thinking of other creative ways to limit the sink full of dishes that await me every morning. There is nothing like unloading a dishwasher and then turning around to fill it again first thing. Growing kids with active lifestyles do need to eat and frequently, so I won’t begrudge them their food, but it’s just the side issue of the residual dishes that result because of their Fourth Meal. So I believe my answer is going to be PAPER…paper cups and paper plates exclusively after dinner. Whether that is a green option or not is beside the point at this time.



So now that my shopping list is going to have some paper goods on it to purchase this coming week, it will be up to staff sergeant mom to enforce the new code. But hopefully the family will see that a happy mom is a happy home. Any other families with Fourth Meal dilemmas out there? How ever do you cope?

Pesky Fruit Flies

I'm not sure of how many folks I've met that enjoy insects of one type or another cohabiting in their homes with them. Flying or crawling...we just don't care for them.

The "bother factor" of some insects, such as flies for instance, depends on whether you live in proximity to livestock. Those who live in warmer climates I've heard have other nuisance bugs. But as long as we're bringing commercially grown produce into our homes to start the cycle, I think we've all had to battle with....fruit flies.

They seem to proliferate in the warmer weather. They're too small to swat...although I've been known to swing wildly at them with my battery-powered fly zapper. But that's info for another post entirely. If you keep your fruit covered, then it ripens too quickly. I don't like bananas kept in the refrigerator as it ups the ick factor with dark skins for my kids. I've even gone to keeping fruit in the garage to try to combat them. Never works. And when garden tomato season starts, they seem to have a hay day.

Until now. I opened a side kitchen cupboard door and reached for my white wine vinegar. Pulling out the bottle I realized that the lid was missing. Oh well, I figured. No harm. But what I saw inside was a revelation...floating fruit flies....dead of course...drowned. No, I did not go ahead and use that vinegar, but a light bulb did go on in my head.



As par for the course, I had probably left the bottle on the counter for a day or two waiting for the lid to show up before shelving it. I know fruit flies are attracted by scents such as very ripe fruit. Vinegar gives off a similar attractant as even sourdough starter does. The flies with their expert sense of smell entered the bottle through the pouring lid and never made their way out. The lid I believe will be the secret to my new fruit fly trap. Those perforated holes make it pretty difficult for them to escape.



So to test my new fruit fly trap, I set the same bottle out on the counter where I have the most trouble with fruit flies. By morning there was several trapped inside. A few swirls of the bottle washed them off of the sides and down into the vinegar to never fly again.

I'm going to use this as my plan A for the remainder of the year. Once the liquid in the bottle starts looking too "unattractive" with its drowned flies, I will probably pop off the plastic insert and try a piece of banana or something else tempting to see how that does too. While you are using a trap, you do have to remember to make a conscious effort to remove any other source of fruit that would be more tempting than the trap liquid though. No saving bananas for banana bread sometime later in the week. It won't work that way. But this way sure beats getting out the vacuum hose and trying to suck them up while they're flying through the air, doesn't it?

If you've found a way to combat fruit flies in your house, I'm all ears. Please comment.