I'm sorry, but the more I utilize the system, the more I love it! Admittedly, when I first drafted the pages, I would go weeks or sometimes months without using it, but it was always in the back of my mind and I was forever thinking of ways to improve it so that it might be of greater and greater benefit to me. Over the years, I found I was using it more and more frequently. Now hardly a day passes, where I'm not found several times referencing, filing, or recording something on it's pages. By far it is my most useful and helpful tool for building effortless homemaking habits!
I think that keeping the system up to date is crucial for it to work properly. I pay much closer attention to what the plan is and how the days are actually going. As our lives go on, of course, they are constantly changing and so what worked last year most likely won't quite fit into this year and a tweak here and there at least once a year makes everything go so much more smoothly!
In the past, I've shared with you that I have 5 binders:
1.) Homemaking
2.) Homesteading
3.) Homeschooling
4.) Menu Planning & Grocery
5.) Health & Nutrition
{Homemaking}
One of the greatest changes I've made to the system this past year was that I have incorporated into the Homemaking binder an Education tab. Under this tab I'm keeping a list of goals & curriculum for the year (sometimes I find at the end of the year there were whole books I meant to utilize and forgot to!), an outline of what I'd like to get done each day of the week for each child, and a month's worth of record sheets for each child.
The purpose for this addition was to eliminate the daily usage of one binder and keep it so that the Homemaking binder is my center of operation. I've already been using the Homesteading binder in much the same way and keeping all the totals for the month under Homemaking and then tallying and shuffling the previous month into the Homesteading binder once a month. I made that improvement last year as I planned on keeping better homesteading records through 2011. I like it this way a great deal and it is so nice to function with just one binder most of the time.
From the Monthly Schedule I've removed all of the work in regard to baking sourdough and feeding the starter. The system worked beautifully, but since my starter was spoiled I haven't found the time to get back in the habit of working up another batch and I'm realistic enough to know that with a baby due just a couple months, now isn't the time to bother. The cheesemaking I've been doing already has me feeling like nearly every moment is spent in the kitchen and I'd just as soon have one less thing to try to remember to do. I added a reminder for Daily Laundry Management and also my husband has a small note each Saturday to work on some crucial element that is often neglected if not scheduled into the month.
I was quite pleased with the Daily Outline and rhythm of our days at the time of my last revision and little editing was done other than a tweak here and there.
One other noteworthy addition made to the schedules was a Yearly Schedule so that we might be better prepared to get all of the work done around here. It's so easy to get swept away in the busyness of life that before long you're wondering why the chicken eggs are perpetually soiled when they're brought in. It's so nice to have those little tasks planned into the year so they're always taken care of.
Our Yearly Schedule for 2012 looks like this:
{Homesteading}
I found the additions I made to the Homesteading Binder last year to be of great benefit during the year and only made two small additions. First, was a seed order inventory and list for the upcoming year, and the second was to design a Cost Analysis Sheet that breaks down your yields per product and the price per pound. I was shocked at what I saw for our 2011 Cost Analysis but I'll share more on that soon.
{Homeschooling}
The Homeschooling binder suffered a major overhaul last summer as I completely revamped how I envisioned our schooling time. We just finished our second full month of school around here (we've adopted an agrarian calendar) and I am thus far quite pleased with our "smooth & easy days." This year has proved to be the most tear-free yet (to both mother and children) and I'm so thankful because I had been beginning to fear that educating my children would prove to be one of the most challenging parts of raising them. I know I promised half a year ago to go into greater detail about these changes and please forgive me that I have yet to do so. Chalk it up to hormones, but I lost all my nerve to confess to just how relaxed our homeschooling here had become. The reality didn't end up as bad as it seemed to me on paper. I do hope to find the time to share more in the coming days.
{Menu & Grocery Planning}
Menu & Grocery Planning continues to be a wonderful system for me especially as I try to buy more in bulk, the Price List has proved a wonderful tool to help me track cost and the Pantry & Freezer Inventory Sheets to analyze how frequently we're requiring what quantities so that once-annual bulk purchases might become a reality in the near future. That is the goal at least.
{Health & Nutrition}
Finally, the dusty Health and Nutrition binder is scheduled to get a makeover this year. We're a relatively healthy family, but between frequent illnesses this year and the accident with my one year-old's toes, I've felt the need to build my knowledge and outfit my medicine cabinet this year and intend to make some progress to that end as the year passes.
Tomorrow, I'll be sharing my templates with you in a downloadable, editable format so that you can easily get started setting up your own customized homemaking binder!
If you're interested in learning more about my Homemaking Management System, please visit my Homestead Management page.
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