Merry Imbolc! Paper Project- Getting Started

Today is Imbolc. Or, for some, groundhog day. Today I have an appointment but when I get back, my kids and I are doing a little something for Imbolc and then we are going to work on a paper project for the house.

Paper Project! 

You will need:

• A box or bin (or 2)
• 10 minutes

This is the first step to organizing my filing system and something I have needed to do for awhile. We are grabbing the box (I use banker boxes) and we are filling it with all the paper we find scattered throughout the house. If we know it's trash, it goes in a trash bag. Other items we are just tossing into the bin or box. 

Yep, that's it. Nothing crazy. No sorting (yet). No hours of sifting. Just walk through each room and grab all the heaps of paper, envelopes, notes, etc and put them in the box.

Tip! If you put the box on it's side and stack the papers in it, then when you need to find a paper before we get to sorting, you can easily thumb through the papers easily once you set it back up.

Now you can put a lid on the box and set it aside and it won't look as bad as piles of papers all over the house.

This weekend will start the paper sorting project.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all my Gimpy and Limpy Friends!

Happy New Year to all my gimp and limp friends! I am working on getting a month of posts done. My goal for this year is to make sure I post AT LEAST 3 times a week to this blog with daily projects to keep us all going!

Hope all of you had a great New Year celebration.

Living Room Pretties

This weekend is a big holiday coming up for a lot of people. My husband is coming into town to celebrate with the boys. SO I want to make sure the living room is pretty for all those pictures we'll be taking.

I am going to do a quick tidy and a "pretty"ing for the living room today.

Morning: I am going to clean off the couch and coffee table and put a nice throw blanket on the couch and decorate the coffee table with the beautiful Holiday bouquet my friend made for me.

Afternoon: I am going to get the floor vacuumed (actually, I am going to have the kids do that) and straighten up the area around the tree.

Evening: I am going to straighten up the book shelves. It should only take a minute or two. Then I am tidying up the coffee table. That way, when the weekend comes my living room will look nice for all those photo opportunities.

Merry Yule! New Year Planning!

Setting Goals
This is the Winter Solstice a day for celebrating for us but also my day of setting goals for the new year that is coming up. I like to go to 43things and make a list of goals for the year or just type out pipe dreams that I always wanted to do! Like see the Northern Lights.

Some of my goals for the new year are:

• Save $100 in change
• Journal Regularly 
• Post to my blog every day for a month
• Crochet blankets for my children.

These aren't "resolutions" for the year and I don't pick things that are unobtainable or easily not done, like "lose 50 lbs this year". I pick realistic things. And if they aren't done in the year to come, they will still be there for next year or the year after. Call it a bucket list if you want. It's just something to challenge myself and give me something to look forward to.

This year I picked easier stuff (like save $100 in change and Stay off facebook for a week) that I can do with a hurt back. The rest are just something to look forward to.

What are your goals for this year?

Calendar Planning

Something else I do to get ready for the coming year is to buy the next years Motivated Moms chore calendar. It's $8 for 2012 and has different styles with or without Bible study for the year. I like it because it keeps me on track if I can't do anything extra that day. As long as I get chores done, I know my tasks will come back around. And for $8 it is a deal.

Once I have that, I add in birthdays, Anniversaries, Doctor appointments that I know about, "Time to order Homeschool Books for the month" and when prescription refills need to be picked up.

What else do you add to your calendar?

Budgeting for the Month...

I usually budget for the month ahead sometime near the end of the month. Hopefully I will get my check this week. But I am budgeting anyway.

I started using the Dave Ramsey program to help get my budget and spending into shape. If you aren't paying for the program, he has a wonderful budgeting tool online that you can use to help you figure out your budget for the month. You can find it here.

Type in your income for the month (or next two weeks) and the form will fill in with his suggestions. You can change whatever amounts you want to fit into your budget. I usually change the amounts for food and transportation because I use more for food and less on transportation. I also don't put anything for charity because I don't have enough income to donate right now.

I use the Envelope System to keep my cash for things like food, personal items, fun money, transportation and other things like that. The rest goes in the bank to pay bills.

If you are a do it yourself kind of budgeting person, I blogged about how I create my budget each month and figure out what I am going to put towards what expense.

So today, figure out what your bills are and plan your budget for January 2012.