My Home Management Binder

Here it is! I had fun putting this together. I got the instructions from an e-book I purchased from www.keepingthehome.com. It is an excellent book that I highly recommend to anyone wanting to better organize their time at home. Her first rule is that you can't start working on the inside of the binder until you have finished the outside of it, and it makes you smile when you look at it. I love that rule, because now I actually want to go pick up my binder and go through it. I did a scrapbook front (imagine that!) and the pictures definitely make me smile. The pictures are (clockwise from top left):

Me on my bed with my cat Sassy when I was 10

Sammy after his first bath

Sammy's first time in his new swing

Mike's first mud puddle

"Monkey Mike" climbing the doorpost

Griffin's two-toothed, drooling grin

There are some more things that are special to me on the cover, too. Under the picture of Mike's first mud puddle there is a black-and-white snapshot of Griffin's feet when he was a baby. I just love little baby toes! And above Griffin's picture is the little dump truck that was on his birth announcements. Behind some of the pictures is a picture of a beautiful flower I found in a magazine that was in an aqua blue vase. I smiled when I saw it, so I thought it would go well on my cover, even if you can only see a tiny bit of it. :)

Here are the sections I chose to have in my binder:

1. A zippered pouch for pens and extra divider tabs

2. Sections for:

Schedules

Menus

Recipes

Phone numbers

Cleaning

Exercise

Books

Purchases

Gifts

Holiday

Emergency

Hobbies

Health

Other (just in case I forgot something!)

3. Extra page protectors so thatI can add more to each section

4. Blank notebook paper

5. My Blessing Book -- at the end of the day, I'll write down the things that blessed me, made me happy, brought joy to my life and a smile to my face. Nothing negative allowed!

6. In the front pocket of the binder I put a thin 2007 calendar so I can keep track of personal things that happen on a monthly basis (if you catch my drift). :)

I loved getting up this morning and opening my binder to check my schedule and see what to do next. Someday I'll have it memorized and won't have to refer to it so often, but for now it's a lifesaver! I can't wait to see how it grows and changes with our family.