Tag: organization

Shared Bedroom Makeovers… Two become three

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog9 Comments

As many of you already know, we bought this house and it has already been well-loved. It was definitely in need of some TLC… a bit more than we had realized at the time but we’ve been making improvements as time and budget have allowed.

We had a lot of hopes and dreams for this house when we first moved in but there were so many issues that happened and had to be dealt with that we just had to focus on those. Plus the pandemic had just started, we were dealing with an unexpected high-risk pregnancy and then a stressful premature birth with a NICU stay and other complications, and then when we thought things were getting better we were sidelined by an unexpected leukemia diagnosis.

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Get a little more organized with a Planning Notebook! FREE Printables!

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog4 Comments

This year has been busy already and I’ve been on a mission to get a little more organized… I really NEED the organization and simplified routines that we had before. I spent a little time and revamped my planning sheets for our Home Binder so I thought I’d share them with you.

You’ll find sheets to keep track of birthdays and anniversaries, upcoming holidays and events, garden planning schedules, family meeting checklists, goal planning sheets, habit trackers, seasonal to-do lists, daily/weekly/monthly planning sheets to keep you on track, blog planning sheets, and meal planning sheets plus a pretty cover! You can check out these older posts for some ideas of upcoming holidays to celebrate.

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Getting Ready for the Holidays Week 12 (The Week After Christmas)

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog3 Comments

We pray that your family had a wonderfully blessed Christmas holiday and that things are going well as you start the New Year. Here are some of the things we will be focused on this week:

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Holiday Planner Pics… Nothing Fancy!

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog10 Comments

I’ve mentioned in several posts about my Holiday Planning Binder but I don’t know if I’ve ever really shared what it looks like. It’s definitely nothing fancy… just an old Trapper Keeper that the kiddos didn’t use and the folders are old pocket folders that they aren’t using. I really like that it zips up because it helps to keep everything contained really well and prevents the inevitable spillage that happens when you have kiddos running around.

This is what the outside of the planner looks like… nothing special at all but the fact that it is purple helps me to identify it from other binders on the shelf and I can tell almost anyone to grab me the purple binder and they have no trouble finding it all. I probably should’ve tried to clean it up a bit before the pictures but this is how LIFE goes around here and these smudges and smears remind me of all the little blessings that are running through my house!

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Getting in the right mindset to simplify… simplify your spaces

Published on by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog1 Comment

It seems like our lives can get so hectic so quickly without us realizing it is even happening. I know that I seem to get one thing running smoothly but then ten other things seem to just fall off the track and then everything turns to CHAOS. We need our homes to be comfortable and not a place we dread being.

For me, the very first thing I need to do before starting this process is to find a little time for me & God… I often find that life feels overwhelming when I haven’t been able to have any quiet time for myself. I have tried getting up earlier but that just isn’t working out right now, I often would take a few minutes after lunch when the baby was down for a nap but our school routines have been out of whack since adding a new kiddo, when the time bedtime rolls around I am worn out. I do find little bits of time here and there to have little chats with God but I just haven’t been able to have my devotional time and I think that may be part of the reason that I am feeling so overwhelmed.

When something is frustrating me I often go to Him in prayer and ask Him to help me and show me ways that I can change or that we can change as a family. I ask Him to give me wisdom and guidance about the changes and things we need to work on so that they will benefit everyone.

Where do we start when it seems like everything is the problem?

We use this process in our home for a lot of different problems, part of it we even use for teaching the kids to make good choices. I’ll give a couple of examples of how we have used this system in the past.

1. STOP and identify the problem.

This might be the most difficult part of the whole process because sometimes it can be difficult to actually narrow down what or where the problem actually is when you are feeling overwhelmed. Many times there are multiple problems and sometimes the problems are not actually what we think they are. If you do find yourself with a multitude of problems then just try to focus on the biggest one first and work on ONE AT A TIME or you may find yourself even more overwhelmed and frustrated.

Maybe your home just feels way too small and unorganized. What’s the biggest problem area? Well, the one that bothered me the most was the kitchen because that was where I spend the majority of my time.

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