Merry Christmas everyone!
I love this time of year and BOY has December flown by! It just seems like yesterday it was Thanksgiving, but in a few short days, it will be Christmas and then two weeks later, my oldest daughter, Taylor, will be 8!!!
Santa has done 99% of his shopping ~ he has told me. Every time I think things are done, it seems like I forgot one last thing, which is never the last thing. I thought all the gifts were wrapped but they aren’t and I still have to take the girls and get Mike’s gifts from them ~ well Taylor did hers yesterday and Cloie is left. So there’s that left to do…days before Christmas. Normally I’m not bad like this and I thought I was ahead of the game with most of the shopping done by black Friday – which 80% of it was! This last 20% seems to be dragging it’s feet….
On a positive note, I have been working VERY hard to get organized. I have my home binder almost complete. (I seem to be having an “almost done” theme going on here……) I found pages online that were a little plain and decided to create my own and jazz them up a bit.
Below is my Laundry Sheets that is to hang in the laundry room so my family members understand how I expect laundry to be done when I’m not doing it myself. Also on the bottom is a laundry shopping list so I can make sure I have adequate laundry supplies. I hate it when I’m doing a “laundry marathon” on a Saturday, run out of something, and can’t do anymore loads. And by the time I go to the store and come back, I’m normally not in the mood to go back to my “laundry marathon.” (Feel free to use it for yourself.)
After feeling very pleased with my “skills” on out that sheet went, I decided to tackle chore charts. I have assigned daily chores to everyone to do on a daily basis. Then I have the weekly chores divided out by week day that is to be done as a family. (The weekly chores are in a chart in an earlier post.) After a few weeks after assigning the daily chores, I was constantly hounding family members to do their daily chores, and I was getting very tired of doing this. So I created a chore chart for each person with a reward (aka allowance) if the chores where done. Thus, the person can ultimately decide how much allowance they want to earn based on how much they help out and do their chores. The charts is below. (Feel free to use it for yourself.)
So far, they have been working pretty well. Better than me nagging all the time. If the chores don’t get done, no money is handed out.
I also found time to take the girls’ Christmas pictures – barely. I didn’t have time to do a family picture but I MADE sure I got the girls’ done. We went shopping as a family to get their Christmas dresses, which was a whole lot of fun! They tried dresses on and modeled them. 
They ended up wanted matching dresses. I’m not kidding! My mom always made my younger sister and I made, and I vowed I wouldn’t do that to my kids, but it turns out, the last 2 years, they wanted (more Taylor wanted to) match.
I was very pleased also how wonderful the pictures turned out!
So another busy week ahead, hopefully finishing my home binder before the end of the year ~ which is my goal. I really want to go into the New Year with a more organized person and don’t want to have things “almost done.”
My New Year’s goals:
1. To be more organized and neat
3. Appreciate the small things in life
4. Do what makes me happy like gardening, hanging with my girls, and taking pictures
So I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas filled with family memories, good times, great food, and a little snow. =oD
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