New Year's Mantra

OK, OK so I am slightly behind the times with the whole New Year's Resolution post LOL. But is is still January (for another eight or nine hours)!

While up in the middle of the night with a toothache a couple of weeks ago (that's a whole other story!) I stumbled across a show called "The Perfect Housewife". Think Shannon Lush only British and anally retentive LOL. Anyone who knows me can vouch for the fact that I am the first to jump on any new organisational band-wagon LOL. Now, I believe the show has gotten a bit of a bad wrap for being archaic, sexist or whatever, but I think anyone with at least half a brain can tell that the whole thing is a little tongue-in-cheek. See for yourself:

Anyway, I digress, In the particular episode that I saw, Anthea shared her mantra for decluttering. I LOVE it!

If it's not beautiful, useful or extremely sentimental you don't need it. I was so inspired that I have made myself a little reminder:

From Life

So if you too feel that 2010 is your year to declutter and be free try this little mantra on for size :)

Mission accomplished {finally!} and some news . . .

Well anyone that has spoken to me in the last couple of weeks is probably sick to death of me rabbiting on about my plans to introduce a chores roster and pocket money rewards system into the family routine. Well, guess what? I have finally got there!!!!! Yay!!!!

I had been wondering why the house was getting out of control, and why I was just not getting to all the jobs I needed to. I know I am busy with work and choir rehearsals for OLIVER! etc, but I have always felt that there are enough hours in the day. So I pulled out Shannon Lush's Speed Cleaning book (which I have owned for about three years now). I realised that I was getting completely bogged down in all of the daily repetitive jobs that the kids and DH are completely capable of doing. REVELATION! A cleaning roster!

It has takes some time to get the whole system up and running, but I stand by the fact that investing a little time and effort into planning does go a long way. However, it is only Day 3 LOL. So whether it works in the long term remains to be seen.

So here is how it works

The Roster

I have two columns, one for me and my movements so that I can schedule everything in, and one for the daily jobs that need to be done.

From Life

Pocket Money

This is a collaborative effort :) I had a number of suggestions, but one of the ones I loved the most (especially or a 3yo & 5yo who do not yet understand how money works) was to have all the pocket money in 20c pieces taped up on display, then take away 20c for each deduction. The practicality of having to get to the bank each week to get the change was a bit much to contemplate. And, as my neighbour pointed out, it may also be a bit tempting when needing change for lunch orders etc LOL.

I realised that I my mum had a given me an educational font that had currency dingbats, so no need for real money :)

Then DH thought of a chart in the shape of a piggy bank so that the kids could grasp the concept of saving. Brilliant!

My friend Vikki suggested googling for colouring pages to make the piggy bank.

So in the end this is what I have come up with:

From Life

From Life

At the end of the day it's more about everyone learning to take responsibility for themselves, there belongings and their behaviour. Cross your fingers for me :)

And in Scrappy news . . . .

Rochelle saw this post and convinced me to enter the LO into the Scrap the Girls challenge for this month as the colours perfectly fit the criteria. And guess what??? I won it!!!!! And the best part is the prize. This month's challenge was sponsored by What's Old is New. This is what I have won:

From Life

Man! As if I didn't have enough reason to stalk the postie already LOL. The poor bloke is going to get a complex :)

So now I had better get off my butt and check the roster! ROFL

Check this out

Oh Wow! I'm in heaven. Darling Hubby Dave has just found this amazing Application for our Mac. It's called **Mac Gourmet and it's like the Apple programmers went into my head and found all the things I wanted in a recipe organiser - and some features I didn't know I needed :)

I mean imagine, clicking on the recipes you want to cook for the week and a shopping list being generated automatically for you. And it knows what's in your pantry already, so you won't double up!

I am seriously excited about this people . . . now if I could just find the time to learn to use it properly LOL

** That's Mac as in Apple, not Ronald MacDonald!