We don’t like to think about the possibility of any emergency, and definitely not one that might last for an extended period of time. With Hurricane season fast approaching, we do need to give it a little thought.
When we first moved here, I was totally unprepared for the two hurricanes that hit us back-to-back. We had not even had a chance to get to the grocery store, but we made it through with what we had. Fortunately, we are a little better prepared for emergencies now, but something could always take us by surprise.
Many of us drool over the beautifully crafted pantries we see on Pinterest or Instagram. They have neatly arranged shelves lined with beautiful canned goods. This doesn’t happen by accident… those jars of proof of lots of hard work that went into growing and preserving each of their contents.
I did a lot of preserving many years ago. I had a garage with custom-built shelves to display our garden’s abundance, but my situation is different now. We dream of a pantry with beautifully stocked shelves, but it hasn’t quite happened yet. I can’t build the pantry today, but I can work on getting some jars filled with delicious food to nourish my family.
I will say that last month went pretty well, and our home does feel a bit more PEACEful. This month, our theme will be LOVE. We will be looking at ways that we can be more intentional in showing LOVE to others through our actions.
I’m going to take a quick look at what we have planned for the month so you can get a little idea about how all of our systems work with each other.
Calendar
My morning routine means that I check our calendar every morning, and here is what I am looking at:
There are few appointments that are noted, and I have reminders set in my Cozi app. One appointment is this week, so I remind my husband about it to make sure he remembers.
There are a couple of birthdays, and I am noting the special meals in my planner.
Homeschool Planning – look for lessons ideas to go along with our monthly task and upcoming holidays
Menu Planning – check that we have everything we need for upcoming meals
Garden Planning – check what needs to be transplanted, seeded, started, and bought.
Other Planning – Valentine’s Day, Super Bowl?, President’s Day, income taxes, and possible outings/vacation; check for upcoming birthdays and anniversaries
cleaning windows and doors -washing curtains and/or blinds
cleaning out the top cabinets and wiping all the cabinet fronts
deep cleaning the countertops, sinks, dishwasher, cutting boards, and dish drainer
cleaning under the sink, and the kitchen drawers
deep clean the stove and oven
declutter the dish cabinet and island storage
move and clean behind the large appliances
take an inventory of what we have in the freezer and pantry – incoporate things into the menu
clean/organize the linen cabinet
deep clean the vacuum cleaner, and clean/change filters for the vacuum and ACs
deep clean the high chairs
deep clean bathrooms
Some of the yearly chores for this month are:
defrost freezers (this can be done when we inventory the frozen foods as we can place foods outside in coolers on a cold day)
deep clean the porches: windows, cobwebs, sweep, clean furniture, etc.
Sometimes the kiddos are tempted to skip over chores, but it catches up to them later on when things break down or run out. We are trying to teach them important skills that they will need later on in life, skills that will hopefully make them successful in all that they do.
Homeschool
Today, I check my Homeschool Manager app for anything that I might not have added to the main calendar. I normally look over the next week’s schedule on Thursdays, after we finish our school work.
I note when we plan to start back.
I add the appointments to the monthly lesson plan calendar as well, so I can plan accordingly. I realize that I may need to alter our start date and just use that as a Home Blessing day to get the house back in order, so I just swap a few things around really quick.
I also go ahead and update the sites for our lessons so everything is set to go for Monday!
These quick changes will keep us from having a very frustrating week back to school… at least I pray it will.
This month, I will be focusing on adding Fine Arts tasks to our homeschool routine, so I will look over those tasks to see what I can work in with our lessons.
Fine Arts(february)
We want our kids to know that you don’t have to buy things to show others how much they mean to you. Often, handmade gifts have more meaning to the recipient.
Some ways we are doing this are:
Art Studies:
Study sacred art and music
create art projects inspired by Bible stories or verses
Hymn Studies:
study hymns and music that appreciate the beauty of GOD’s creation
Research gifts and talents from GOD:
encourage children to use their artistic or musical gifts to help others
Check accounts to see what payments have cleared, and highlight them on the worksheet
Note any bills still left to pay
I usually do this first, so I know what I have left to spend. My bill pay worksheet makes things much simpler as I can see what I have paid, and what needs to be paid.
I write in the birthdays and special holidays for the month, and then add those ingredients to the grocery list. Clicking on the link will give you a ready-made list of holidays for the month and links to recipes and menu ideas to make them special.
I look over the planned meals and pencil them in.
I note the days when we have appointments and swap those meals for easier meals, if needed.
I check the grocery list that the kids have been filling out on the fridge, and add items to the main list.
I also check my pantry restock list to see what I need to add to the list, if money allows.
I make sure I have the ingredients to preserve the produce that I plan to pick up this month as well. I will add supplies to the grocery list, if needed. Some of these posts have not been published yet, but you should be able to find the printables in the library.
I will either schedule a time to go shopping or place an order for groceries and set a delivery or pickup time that works for us. When I go to town, I usually plan to take care of several errands at once.
At the beginning of the month, I will also place a Sam’s Club order for bulk supplies to be shipped, as well as any supplies we need from Amazon.
Some of the pantry restock items I added to list are:
Yeast
Salt
Pasta
Pasta Sauce
one other item that I choose
Some of the produce I’d like to buy for preserving:
Cabbage
Broccoli/Cauliflower
Dry beans for canning
If money is short, we can skip the restock and the preserving items until next month. I don’t like to skip things too often, but we do have our pantry pretty well stocked, and as long as we replace what we use, we should be fine.
Garden & Animals
I usually try to get feed and garden supplies once a month to cut down on the number of trips I make to town. The feed store is in the opposite direction of our normal grocery store, and I need all the space in the back of the van for feed, so I can’t really combine these tasks, or I would.
I go out to the greenhouse and garden just about every day, so I keep a running list of things that I need. I will also check my monthly list of tasks that need to be done. I went over my lists this weekend, and I have:
placed online orders for seeds and plants
I need to:
get some more seeds started for the Spring
finish putting together the new raised beds
get the pile of mulch/soil into the new beds
transplant some of the cool weather crops out to the garden beds
set up bird feeders
deep clean the coops/pens
work on bed layouts/Rotational Planting/Companion Planting
sift the vermicompost to make potting soil for the new seeds – I actually tried a new seed starting mix that you can see here:
Some of the tasks are also listed with my yearly tasks to make sure that I don’t forget them 🙂
I also check with the kids to see what animal feed we have, check that against my master inventory list, note down what we need in my phone, and then I will make time to go get the feed. I try to combine a few tasks during the same trip.
When I go to get the feed I will:
get feed and animal supplies
pick up seeds or plants at the Farm Center
check with the nursery to see what they might have available
stop at the grocery store, if there is anything we need before the next grocery order
fill up with gas on the way home
When I get home, I always have the kids unload the feed right away, mix anything that needs to be mixed, and put the surplus in the old freezer that we use for storage. Once the feed is taken care of, they will clean out the back of the van 🙂
I try to make sure to do this mid-week, as Fridays & Saturdays are a bit crowded at the Feed Store. It’s always a bit stressful when we get too low on feed as well, so by making sure we have a regular schedule, we can alleviate some of the stress and replace it with PEACE, as we know we have what we need. We can also use these tasks as ways to show LOVE to one another.
To-Do List
I also like to start a To-Do List because things always pop up that I can’t fix right away. I also find things when I am out in the garden that need to be taken care of, I will usually snap a photo and then add it to the list if it can’t be taken care of right away.
This is our list so far:
Master Bathroom
build new garden beds – we finished the first ones, but then bought more
add solar lights to chicken coops
finish chicken tractor
hang cameras
put the StarLink on a pole
add trellises to garden beds
create a sensory garden and/or integrate sensory-themed activities into our existing garden
It isn’t too long yet, but it will grow longer the further we get into the year… hopefully, we can stay on top of it.
This is just a quick look at my weekly plans… I have all month long to work on some of them, and I will try to knock out as many as I can. I know that by handling the smaller things now, it will free up time I might need in the future for BIGGER and BETTER things. A little maintenance helps to keep things running nice and smooth… it also helps us to appreciate all that we have been BLESSED with.
I pray that you will find something useful in these links.
We’ve had quite the month already, and we aren’t even a week in yet, but it’s OK. There has been a sense of calm in our home, and things have been pretty PEACEful, which is our goal for the month.
I’m going to take a quick look at what we have planned for the month so you can get a little idea about how all of our systems work with each other.
Calendar
My morning routine means that I check our calendar every morning, and here is what I am looking at:
There are few appointments that are noted, and I have reminders set in my Cozi app. One appointment is this week, so I remind my husband about it to make sure he remembers.
There are a couple of birthdays, and I am noting the special meals in my planner.
Homeschool Planning – look for lessons ideas to go along with our monthly task and upcoming holidays
Menu Planning – check that we have everything we need for upcoming meals
Garden Planning – check what needs to be transplanted, seeded, started, and bought.
Other Planning – Valentine’s Day, Super Bowl?, President’s Day, income taxes, and possible outings/vacation; check for upcoming birthdays and anniversaries
pull out any foods that need to be used up- work them into upcoming meals
deep clean stove top
clean stove hood
scrub high chairs
Some of the yearly chores for this month are:
take down the Christmas tree
check garden beds for any repairs needed
pruning anything that needs it
gather information for income taxes
Sometimes the kiddos are tempted to skip over chores, but it catches up to them later on when things break down or run out. We are trying to teach them important skills that they will need later on in life, skills that will hopefully make them successful in all that they do.
Homeschool
Today, I check my Homeschool Manager app for anything that I might not have added to the main calendar. I normally look over the next week’s schedule on Thursdays, after we finish our school work.
I note when we plan to start back.
I add the appointments to the monthly lesson plan calendar as well, so I can plan accordingly. I realize that I may need to alter our start date and just use that as a Home Blessing day to get the house back in order, so I just swap a few things around really quick.
I also go ahead and update the sites for our lessons so everything is set to go for Monday!
These quick changes will keep us from having a very frustrating week back to school… at least I pray it will.
This month, I will be focusing on adding Biblical-based Financial Literacy tasks to our homeschool routine, so I will look over those tasks to see what I can work in with our lessons.
Financial Literacy (January)
We work on our family budgets and get our Bills organized in January, so it just makes sense to use this as a teaching moment for the kids.
Some ways we are doing this are:
Biblical Stewardship:
teaching financial principles through a biblical lens
emphasis on the fact that EVERYTHING we have belongs to GOD
learning to FAITHfully manage our resources
Budgeting & Generosity
researching what the Bible says about charity, giving to the poor, and tithing
creating budgets that allow us to give to others in need
Bible verses related to contentment, greed, money, and giving
Check accounts to see what payments have cleared, and highlight them on the worksheet
Note any bills still left to pay
I usually do this first, so I know what I have left to spend. My bill pay worksheet makes things much simpler as I can see what I have paid, and what needs to be paid.
I write in the birthdays and special holidays for the month, and then add those ingredients to the grocery list. Clicking on the link will give you a ready-made list of holidays for the month and links to recipes and menu ideas to make them special.
I look over the planned meals and pencil them in.
I note the days when we have appointments and swap those meals for easier meals, if needed.
I check the grocery list that the kids have been filling out on the fridge, and add items to the main list.
I also check my pantry restock list to see what I need to add to the list, if money allows.
I make sure I have the ingredients to preserve the produce that I plan to pick up this month as well. I will add supplies to the grocery list, if needed. Some of these posts have not been published yet, but you should be able to find the printables in the library.
I will either schedule a time to go shopping or place an order for groceries and set a delivery or pickup time that works for us. When I go to town, I usually plan to take care of several errands at once.
At the beginning of the month, I will also place a Sam’s Club order for bulk supplies to be shipped, as well as any supplies we need from Amazon.
Some of the pantry restock items I added to list are:
Honey/Syrup
Flour
Jelly
Peanut Butter
Toilet Paper
Some of the produce I’d like to buy for preserving:
Broccoli/Cauliflower
Dry beans for canning
If money is short, we can skip the restock and the preserving items until next month. I don’t like to skip things to often, but we do have our pantry pretty well stocked, and as long as we replace what we use, we should be fine.
Garden & Animals
I usually try to get feed and garden supplies once a month to cut down on the number of trips I make to town. The feed store is in the opposite direction of our normal grocery store, and I need all the space in the back of the van for feed, so I can’t really combine these tasks, or I would.
I go out to the greenhouse and garden just about every day, so I keep a running list of things that I need. I will also check my monthly list of tasks that need to be done. I went over my lists this weekend, and I have:
placed online orders for seeds and plants
ordered some new garden beds
made a list of seed starting materials that I need to pick up.
I need to:
get some seeds started for the Spring
get the heater hooked up in the greenhouse
transplant some of the cool weather crops out to the garden beds
replace the broken beds with the new beds
order mulch/soil for the new beds
sift the vermicompost to make potting soil for the new seeds
Some of the tasks are also listed with my yearly tasks to make sure that I don’t forget them 🙂
I also check with the kids to see what animal feed we have, check that against my master inventory list, note down what we need in my phone, and then I will make time to go get the feed. I try to combine a few tasks during the same trip.
When I go to get the feed I will:
get feed and animal supplies
pick up seeds or plants at the Farm Center – I did grab a few seeds
check with the nursery to see what they might have available – I didn’t stop this month
stop at the grocery store, if there is anything we need before the next grocery order
fill up with gas on the way home
When I get home, I always have the kids unload the feed right away, mix anything that needs to be mixed, and put the surplus in the old freezer that we use for storage. Once the feed is taken care of, they will clean out the back of the van 🙂
I try to make sure to do this mid-week, as Fridays & Saturdays are a bit crowded at the Feed Store. It’s always a bit stressful when we get too low on feed as well, so by making sure we have a regular schedule, we can alleviate some of the stress and replace it with PEACE, as we know we have what we need.
To-Do List
I also like to start a To-Do List because things always pop up that I can’t fix right away. I also find things when I am out in the garden that need to be taken care of I will usually snap a photo and then add it to the list if it can’t be taken care of right away.
This is our list so far:
Master Bathroom
build new garden beds
add solar lights to chicken coops
finish chicken tractor
hang cameras
put the StarLink on a pole
It isn’t too long yet, but it will grow longer the further we get into the year… hopefully, we can stay on top of it.
This is just a quick look at my weekly plans… I have all month long to work on some of them, and I will try to knock out as many as I can. I know that by handling the smaller things now, it will free up time I might need in the future for BIGGER and BETTER things. A little maintenance helps to keep things running nice and smooth… it also helps us to appreciate all that we have been BLESSED with.
I pray that you will find something useful in these links.
Pollywog's Place Blog 