Managing a Family Centered Household: Get Set… Get Crafty!
My apologies, this article is a day late.
First thing’s first – you’ll need to choose a special task for each day of the week. You have to follow the rhythm of your own life, but here is how mine shook out:
Monday – Laundry, Deep Cleaning
Tuesday – Baking, Marathon Cooking
Wednesday – Office Day (bills, recordkeeping)
Thursday –Homeschooling
Friday – Sewing Day
Saturday – Shopping Day, Family Outings
Sunday – Scrapbooking, Family Crafting Projects
This will help you with the decorating of your dividers. Of course, if you prefer the minimal look – you’re going to be done much sooner! Now, I like pretty. If it ain’t pretty, I won’t use it.
Making the Binders …
Oh, so much fun! You have your binders – a 2” and a 1”. The 2” binder is for YOU, and the 1” binder will be used for your chore manual (we'll do the chore manual later). You will also need tabbed dividers or manila file folders. I prefer refashioning the manila folders, but you’ll do what works best for you. You’ll also want to gather pretty bits of scrap, images, stickers, and quotes. Get out your scrap-booking paraphernalia, making sure you have your three-hole punch if you are using the manila folders…
To start with you’ll want to take out 10 manila folders or tabbed dividers. We’ll add more as needed. If you are using manila folders, you’ll want to trim off the back covers (save them!) – make sure you’re careful to cut them neatly and accurately. Punch the cut edge with your three-hole punch. Label your dividers Sunday through Saturday, the remaining folders will be labeled “Correspondence”, “Book of Joy” and “Book of Celebration”. I love to write in calligraphy or pretty script, but you can use block letters and slim marker, if you’d prefer.
Now that you have your days’ tasks planned, you can choose quotes and images to illustrate that. If you are a gifted artist, you might enjoy painting or drawing original art on each divider. This is meant to be an enjoyable exercise for you – a bit of an escape. If these projects seem heavy to you, keep it much simpler. You can add things as you go as well – no need to do it all today! A great place to get beautiful images is through Dover Publications. Another idea is to use pretty fabrics to glue to the divider – be creative!
When you’ve finished with the divider decorating, apply hole reinforcements to the holes. You can get stiff paper and sometimes you can find copper ones. Either way, they have an adhesive backing to peel and stick.
If you already have your address book in your computer, you can make it look pretty and print it out on cover stock. If you haven’t got it in the computer – take your time over the next couple of weeks to get that done. If you have Publisher, you can make some really, really pretty pages! Last, you’ll want to print calendar pages (the kind with nice-sized blocks for each day) for one full year, you also want lined calendar pages – one for each month of the year. You can get some really nice ready-mades from Donna Young, or you can use templates in Publisher (or another similar program) and modify them to your tastes! I recommend printing them out on cover stock so they’ll hold up better – you’ll be using them a LOT. The first set of calendar pages are NOT for appointments, these are to be used for recording life’s little milestones and joys like baby’s first steps, the day your little one learns to read, the day you found a cardinal sitting on the back porch, etc. These will one day be treasures! The second set of calendar pages will be used to record birthdays, anniversaries, deaths, saint’s days, sacrament commemorations. Again, not for appointments – this is a reference for marking the special days through the year. Make this one extra pretty – it will be a pleasure to use!
The address book pages will go behind your “Correspondence” divider. The block calendar pages will go behind your “Book of Joy” and your lined calendar pages will go behind you “Book of Celebration” divider.
We’re going to do a fun sewing project on Friday that will make your binder even nicer!
First thing’s first – you’ll need to choose a special task for each day of the week. You have to follow the rhythm of your own life, but here is how mine shook out:
Monday – Laundry, Deep Cleaning
Tuesday – Baking, Marathon Cooking
Wednesday – Office Day (bills, recordkeeping)
Thursday –Homeschooling
Friday – Sewing Day
Saturday – Shopping Day, Family Outings
Sunday – Scrapbooking, Family Crafting Projects
This will help you with the decorating of your dividers. Of course, if you prefer the minimal look – you’re going to be done much sooner! Now, I like pretty. If it ain’t pretty, I won’t use it.
Making the Binders …
Oh, so much fun! You have your binders – a 2” and a 1”. The 2” binder is for YOU, and the 1” binder will be used for your chore manual (we'll do the chore manual later). You will also need tabbed dividers or manila file folders. I prefer refashioning the manila folders, but you’ll do what works best for you. You’ll also want to gather pretty bits of scrap, images, stickers, and quotes. Get out your scrap-booking paraphernalia, making sure you have your three-hole punch if you are using the manila folders…
To start with you’ll want to take out 10 manila folders or tabbed dividers. We’ll add more as needed. If you are using manila folders, you’ll want to trim off the back covers (save them!) – make sure you’re careful to cut them neatly and accurately. Punch the cut edge with your three-hole punch. Label your dividers Sunday through Saturday, the remaining folders will be labeled “Correspondence”, “Book of Joy” and “Book of Celebration”. I love to write in calligraphy or pretty script, but you can use block letters and slim marker, if you’d prefer.
Now that you have your days’ tasks planned, you can choose quotes and images to illustrate that. If you are a gifted artist, you might enjoy painting or drawing original art on each divider. This is meant to be an enjoyable exercise for you – a bit of an escape. If these projects seem heavy to you, keep it much simpler. You can add things as you go as well – no need to do it all today! A great place to get beautiful images is through Dover Publications. Another idea is to use pretty fabrics to glue to the divider – be creative!
When you’ve finished with the divider decorating, apply hole reinforcements to the holes. You can get stiff paper and sometimes you can find copper ones. Either way, they have an adhesive backing to peel and stick.
If you already have your address book in your computer, you can make it look pretty and print it out on cover stock. If you haven’t got it in the computer – take your time over the next couple of weeks to get that done. If you have Publisher, you can make some really, really pretty pages! Last, you’ll want to print calendar pages (the kind with nice-sized blocks for each day) for one full year, you also want lined calendar pages – one for each month of the year. You can get some really nice ready-mades from Donna Young, or you can use templates in Publisher (or another similar program) and modify them to your tastes! I recommend printing them out on cover stock so they’ll hold up better – you’ll be using them a LOT. The first set of calendar pages are NOT for appointments, these are to be used for recording life’s little milestones and joys like baby’s first steps, the day your little one learns to read, the day you found a cardinal sitting on the back porch, etc. These will one day be treasures! The second set of calendar pages will be used to record birthdays, anniversaries, deaths, saint’s days, sacrament commemorations. Again, not for appointments – this is a reference for marking the special days through the year. Make this one extra pretty – it will be a pleasure to use!
The address book pages will go behind your “Correspondence” divider. The block calendar pages will go behind your “Book of Joy” and your lined calendar pages will go behind you “Book of Celebration” divider.
We’re going to do a fun sewing project on Friday that will make your binder even nicer!
posted by Nissa at 2:57 PM
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