Happy New Year's Eve!

I've just spent the last five hours or so putting together my Household Management Notebook. God bless my husband. He made dinner AND cuddled the vomiting four-year-old so I could get it done. The camera is still lost, so no pictures, but I was able to scan the cover:


My scanner adds shadows where shadows don't actually exist. Odd.

The quote in the lower right corner is:
Start by doing what is necessary.
then what's possible,
and suddenly you're doing the impossible.
and is credited to St. Francis of Assisi.

If I ever find the camera (please, St. Anthony!) I'll post pictures, but for now let me tell you what the sections are.

First off, I have emergency contact information. If I ever lose this baby, I want to make sure it finds its way home. Then I have tons of blank filler paper (15 cents a pack at Staples back-to-school sales).

This is followed by:
Calendars and Schedules: So far, there's a 2008 year calendar, blank monthly pages, and some blank daily routine sheets. I also typed out their weekly commitments (Scouts, ballet, Odyssey of the Mind, etc). Eventually I'd like to map out our routine, but it's pretty loose so I'm not sure how it will look on paper.

Housekeeping and Homemaking: Right now I have a schedule of the room I focus on cleaning each day, a page of natural cleaning solution recipes, a seasonal chores checklist, a page on handwashing the dishes and mealtime clean up, and a page on cleaning in a hurry. There's a lot more I would like in this section. For one thing, I want to start an every-two-months deep cleaning rotation. I also want to start the kids doing chores without complaining. I'm still pretty much doing everything on my own, and when I ask them to help they do it grudgingly with much weeping and gnashing of teeth. It occurs to me that the oldest two at least should be helping out a little more. I downloaded Motivated Moms and may print it off to use here.

Food, Shopping, and Meal Planning: I printed off a Healthy Kitchen Basic Inventory (found at Kitchen Comforts), blank weekly menu planners (I like these because they include space for snacks!), a master grocery list, and a page for favorite recipes. I'd really like to be doing more from scratch, so I envision this going in here as well. I want to come up with some sort of routine/schedule for making things from scratch. I have a freezer and a pantry, and I want to come up with some way of keeping up with the inventory. Also, I need a meal routine. I'd really like to incorporate the Waldorf practice of different grains each day.

Volunteering and Service: I'd like to put my LLL info here (including those pesky meeting reports I forget to send!. I teach Sunday School as well, and can put some of that in here. If I was really good, I'd call my little ones on their birthdays and send postcards when they don't show up to Sunday School. I don't really have any MDC paperwork, but if I did I could put it here as well. There are also occasional things, like the Angel Tree at church at Christmas that could go here.

Planning and Projects: Right now there's just a vague 2008 month-by-month planning sheet, but oh, do I have plans for the plans and projects section!

Learning Together: All I have here so far is a print-out on making timeline books. I want to put the Waldorf curriculum chart in here, and my plans for the year and for the month. Plus a copy of Michael's affidavit and our daily log and a list of the resources and supplies we have. And... and... and... oh, there's lots that can go here. Library receipts! Not only will this help with our book log (oh, that's something else that can go in here- book logs!) but maybe we won't end up dropping $20 to clear our fines-- and that was at half off!

Faith and Family: Right now, there's just a list of saints' days. This is a subject that's near and dear to my heart, though, and I have lots to add to this section.

Contacts: This is my friends and family section. I downloaded birthday calendars from Jan Brett's website, and will add phone numbers here as well.

Health and Healing: Nothing here yet, but eventually I want to have PA law and our immunization exemptions, doctor and dental info, some natural healing resources, including a list of what remedies we have on hand because I always forget, and the like. I also want a page for each kid with a current photo, and maybe even the childsafe kits we had done at the health fair.

Gardening: Nothing here yet, but one of my goals this year is to get serious about gardening, beyond the few anemic tomatoes that manage to survive our tender mercies.

Vacation and Travel: You know, just in case we ever go on a real vacation and travel.

Finances: I'm not sure what will go in here because DH manages the finances. I am saving up for a laptop.

Other: Because there has to be an other.

So, wow. All those hours of work and I still have a lot to go.

I've gotten a lot done (but alas, no pictures). I moved the craft stuff to the basement and created a craft area. Where the craft stuff used to be, I moved our extra food. My next step is to move the superfluous school stuff to the basement as well. I also need to do a lot of cleaning tomorrow, and a huge pork roast to cook with sauerkraut. Yum.

Happy New Year!