Maybe It's In the WAY That You Spend It

My daughter was getting ready for school this morning and was having a problem locating her backpack (which was supposed to have been located and loaded last night, rule #1, check for yourself that all is in order that is supposed to be for the next day – our new rule is no tv until everything is order for school tomorrow)

I wasn’t of much help because #1, I had no idea where she had put it and #2, she has two, one older one that is very similar to the new one.

It occurred to me – why does she even have two? There is a pretty good reason, the old one was still usable but it’s nice to send them off to a new year with new school supplies, so she got a new one in Sept. But it did get me thinking that she has far too many “twos” (or more)

Both of my daughter’s have “shoe collections”. When I was a kid I had one pair that lasted me the entire year, my "good" shoes for school became my play shoes for summer (besided winter boots and one pair of slippers)

So I got pondering why this is. We are not rich. When they where young, they got a lot of “new to you” things from relatives, but we never went overboard on shopping.

And it hit me. I never used credit cards back then. It wasn’t so easy to cave when they wanted something, frivolous purchases just where not the norm.

It is nice to be able to pick up some extras sometimes, but I think the availability of credit in our house has created a few problems.

Firstly, I just did bills last night, and we never seem to get far with our credit card payments. As fast as we pay, they are “loaded” again.

Secondly, there is so much more clutter than I ever had growing up. Because we just have too much. Mostly stuff that isn’t even used, or so junky that it breaks after a week or so.

It also does nothing to teach the kids that everything doesn’t grow on trees. My 2 older “pre credit card” kids seem to know this lesson and pay for most of their own extras. But my youngest resembles a movie star marching through the store - she'll take one of everything some days. One time I bought her a doll that she “had to have” and when we got it home I forgot to give it to her. She never noticed! Ever!

It was an eye opener for me.

I think that I am going to go back to cash when shopping at the mall in particular. Cash for groceries as opposed to the debit card also helps to cut spending. That’s a whole other story.

ACTION TIP

Think about your spending habits. Not so much what you spend it on, but how you are spending it. Look into the habit of using cash or the envelope system.

Get your shopping habits under control and the benefits will trickle down in many ways.

PS - I came across this handy tool that is the answer to a lot of the problems that I and many of us have with tracking our spending, especially when using credit and debit cards as well as cash.

It's called Budget Map, it works just like a check register only it includes your budget and/or tracking system for all areas.

It's very simple to use - my kind of thing (if it's not simple, it won't work for me!)

Budget Map - Makes it easy to keep it together for a change!

I have been making some changes in the KAOS blog world.

To make it a little easier to focus on your area of interest, this blog will be geared towards making home, family and your self happier and healthier through time management and organization skills and ideas.

My newest blog - Time Management For Work At Home Mom's - Everyday KAOS, is geared towards home business success.

Both contain the basic priniciples - practical application and advice in the areas of time management skills, organization, tools and resources that I like to use to make it all easier and more efficient and most importantly, more fun. We only live once. Really.

You'll be able to have a peek at my day to day experiences, my highs, my lows and everything in between and how I cope and even triumph some days. And how you can too.

You can check out Time Management for Work At Home Mom's - Everyday KAOS - as it happens!

Be sure to sign up to get an email subscription so that you don't miss anything.

You can do that on the sidebar for this blog as well (you need to sign up for both if you would like to recieve both blog posts to your email)

I will probably try to get on a schedule of posting to each blog on alternate days so as not to flood your inbox sporadically.

Both will contain the Action Tips feature, this is a section at the end of each entry that will give you a specific action to focus on until the next entry comes along.

Why? Because knowledge is nothing without action, period. And action is often the missing element. So I try to make it easy.

ACTION TIP

Subscribe to the blog of your interest or both if you work at home.

Access the subscribe box for this blog in the top right hand corner.

Access the Work at Home blog by clicking this link. Sign up box is in the top right corner as well.

Time Management for Work At Home Mom's - Everyday KAOS

It's Sad, but Sometimes We Bring It On Ourselves - I Know I Do!

I was contemplating how I dug in and stuck to my guns today, doing my BOOST Circuit as I was supposed to, to keep the house nice this weekend, instead of working on my far overdue bookkeeping. Have you ever been tempted by work when you had other obligations?

I had a shower and walked up the stairs to my bedroom, so totally relaxed in the feeling of peace and freedom that the clear and clean spaces gave me.

And it occurred to me how easily I could have spared myself a lifetime of guilt and feelings of failure but simply sticking to my guns, sticking to my plans, the ones that I made for myself!

It all boils down to self discipline, trying to get away with something, and trying to do too much.

I have always found it ironic when I would have people drop in and would be horrified at the mess, and know that these people are thinking that I’m a lazy sloth.

Nothing can be farther from the truth.

I have unbelievable drive. I jump out of bed at the earliest time I can wedge my eyeballs open every morning and work until I can’t keep my eyes open at night.

I seldom watch TV or do much of anything that isn’t “doing” something.

But sometime I still fall behind.

And I know exactly why. It’s because I don’t always discipline myself to do what I know I know I should be doing. This leaves me scattered. And that does not accomplish what needs to be done in the order that it needs to be done in.

I think that by plowing through that I WILL get it all done, and I probably will, but at what cost?

My kids get muddled and stressed with the mess, what kind of an example I am setting I shudder to think.

The feeling that I just can’t get it right on those days, and those days are the ones that stand out like a sore thumb.

All it takes is the pledge to yourself, to do what you say you will.

Do you ever notice that the people who have it “together” have an iron will of self discipline? The are in control and don’t let what they need to do be messed with.

Take an example from them. (The ebook by Carole Pagan called “Confessions of a Clean Freak” is an inside look on one of “those people”. Ever wanted to be a fly on a wall. Now you can!)

So…

Set clear priorities first. Every day.

Home and family are a must. And the basics are a neat and functional home. And proper meals.

That comes first – a little bit every day is all that it takes.

If you can relate, believe me, it isn’t hard, it just takes conviction to stick to your plan.

Make one today. Make it doable and stick to it. And be sure to make it consistant.

The feeling of accomplishment – that you have ARRIVED – is so energizing that you will blast off from there to get the rest done.

Your family will win, your business will win, and you will win, big time.

Start today.

January is the Month of Beginnings

One of my favourite ways to stay on track is to give each month a theme.

December is endings, time to tidy up all the odds and ends so that we have a clean slate to work on in the new year.

January of course is beginnings, a most exciting time for the middle of winter!

I am always busy in January reorganizing and creating new systems so that I can get things done faster and with less stress.

Some of them last, some of them don't :0)

One of the best and most practicle in terms of targeted usability that I've stumbled on in a long time is Jeanette Cates "Organize Your Online Biz" package.

Think tools.

It gives you actual downloads of worksheets that you can use to see everything at a glance, you can set them up in minutes.

She has videos and an audio as well as so much more, I started using it the same day I got it and just can't believe how valuable it is.

I can forsee it to be one of the best purchases I've made for my biz in 2007, and the good news is that it doesn't cost $97.00+!

You can see it here Organize Your Online Biz

I really hope that you check it out, it really can help you to crack down on the KAOS this year!

Biggest Parenting Challenge So Far

When they told me that parenting issues just got bigger as they got older, I couldn't imagine.

Then my son started to drive (insert dripping font!)

I don't know that there is any feeling comparable to sitting in a moving vehicle, with none of my hands or feet on the controls, with my child at the wheel, who up until a few years ago wasn't allowed to ride his bike on the road.

I was just having that conversation with a friend of mine the day before yesterday.

Then yesterday it happened. We had to go to the mall, a 45 minute drive from here, the roads where worse than I thought, and you guessed it. In the ditch we went.

It was a scary experience but thankfully no one was hurt. It gave my son a lot more respect for careful winter driving, and just how fast and easy it is to loose control even when it looks ok.

For me, I thought I had gratitude for my family and my life before.

It has been magnified to infinity!

I am so grateful that nothing major happened except for a lesson in winter driving that will hopefully stick with him for the rest of his life.

I can't imagine what I could have been thinking this morning. I don't even want to try.

Once again, I have to urge you all to remember that our time is limited, like it or not. Your babies are going to grow older, (next time you get in your van with a bunch of kids, have a look at that car seat and be thankful that they are buckled in there instead of the drivers seat :0))

Some day all that we know and take for granted will be dust.

Your alive. And in the drivers seat. Enjoy it!

Christmas Ponderings

This morning I was making breakfast (we have chickens so I just ran out to the coop, collected a few eggs and presto, had the makings for a good breakfast - store bought eggs do not compare - raising chickens for eggs is easy - if you live out of town with a bit of property I highly recommend it)

Anyway, as I was making breakfast my youngest daughter came down the stairs looking all cute and sleepy eyed in her (actually mine) flannel nightgown.

I was right just turning to flip the eggs but in a split second decided to go give her a hug and tell her how much I loved "my beautiful girl".

It made me think that when she grows up, she will have some great mommy moments to remember and how precious that is. And all it took was a moment and a concious decision.

Then a few moments later I heard a funky song on the radio that went

"I just want to celebrate another day of living,
I just want to celebrate another day of life.
Yeah, Yeah."

And that reminded me of a thought I was having yesterday about how we should take more time (and some do this naturally, especially our grandparents generation) to honour the people in our lives, bottom line is that the people in our lives are who make our lives what they are and we sorely notice it when they are gone.

When they are gone, or when we are gone, we will never have this opportunity or experience again to be here with them. How rich we are at this very moment.

And that got me thinking of how we are all the same in spirit truly - some good, some bad and somewhere in the middle, nobody is perfect and we all want to love, even if we don't show it.

And for some reason the saying "turn the other cheek" popped into my head and I wondered, maybe Jesus meant not (or only) to turn the other cheek to those who hurt you - not worry or waste time on revenge as it only hurts ourselves in the long run - but to turn the other cheek literally - look the other way to the positive side of your life. In my own life, many times I spend far too much time dwelling on the negative instead of celebrating the so many great things that I have to enjoy. Most of us have plenty to be happy about if we just "turned the other cheek" and looked that way.

I think the greeting Namaste (the spirit in me meets and honours the spirit in you) sums it up very nicely (there are many literal translations)

Namaste and Have a Happy Christmas

Support Work At Home Mom's and Home Biz when Xmas Shopping this year!

Hi

It occurs to me every year that if the work at home market could get a fraction of the department store business, just how much it would mean to them, personally and financially.

But we don't seem to be out there as we could or should be.

So I'd like to provide this opportunity for any of you to list your site under the comments section if you have a work at home business that provides Christmas gift giving solutions.

I need to specify that any links posted here are not personally tested by me, but that is no reason not to check them out for yourself.

Merry Christmas!

Note: If you would like to read my full article on Beating the Christmas Crunch for a lot of Christmas ideas, you can see it in the WHAM Time Tips Archives

Don't forget to use the comments link to add your url and sign up to get other urls sent to your email using the email link or RSS feed.