Google Calendars

I am always looking for things to make life easier.

I was a huge Daytimer fan back in the early 90's.  Loved all the colored dividers, fancy pens, cute rulers that act as a bookmark and papers for lists and schedules.

In 2000 I remember moving up to my first Palm.  I was hooked.  The stylus pen was high tech and once I learned the Palm letters, I was hooked.

With all the advanced technology, just when I think that I have got the perfect system, something new and better comes out.  I'm not one to camp out at Best Buy the night before the new Microsoft comes out.  On the contrary, I'm usually the last one to switch from my old and good system to the new and better system.  But it does seem that once I try the latest, it's not long before I get hooked.

I was so upset when My Man bought me a Blackberry a few years ago.  It just meant I had to read an instruction manual and that is one of my least favorite things to do.  So he gave me a bullet point lesson and I learned to love my Blackberry.  Last January he switched my Blackberry for an iPhone and even though I whined and cried about it at first, I wonder now how I ever got along without it.

So I just thought I would chat a bit in several posts about technology things that I love, that help my home run smoothly and make life easier.  I would love to hear from you what works, so please comment.  I just might try out your suggestion sometime next year.  HA!

About 9 years ago we opened up our first gmail account.  I ignored the bar at the top of my gmail screen for many years before actually figuring out what all google had to offer me. I think that a few years ago, my sister (who is major high tech) mentioned google calendars.  Well, I was happy with my Microsoft Outlook calendar so I just disregarded what she had to say.  Then my Microsoft started messing up and when that happened, I missed a few appointments, forgot a few birthdays and pretty much lost my brain for a time.  I called her up and she introduced me to google calendars.  Because I am sometimes unwilling to change overnight, I just stuck with one calendar.  Then my kids started to go outside of our home to school, adding multiple things on my calendar each week. 

I called my sis.

Did you know that you can create multiple calendars, naming them all different things and even share specific calendars with other people?  It's wonderful!!!  Now I'm hooked on google calendars and I have stunted my short term memory so badly by using google calendars that if one day I am without them, I would quickly be put into the Stupid Club.  It's become my brain.

Here are some of my calendars that I have:  Cassie (just anything on there without a specific category), School, Church, Sports, and Celebrations.  When I get the Fish Sticks' game schedules or practice schedules, they go on the Sports calendar and I share the calendar with the grandparents in case they want to come cheer the Fish Sticks on.  I have put all family birthdays and anniversaries into my Celebrations calendar with reminders scheduled to give me time to buy gifts and send cards.  I have made them repeat themselves yearly so I never have to put them in again.  The school events from the school newsletter quickly go into the School calendar and any social outings of my own, play dates, doctor appointments, etc. go on my personal calendar.  I can hide any or all of the calendars and only show the ones I want to see.  I even remind myself to give the dogs and cat their heartworm meds at the beginning of each month.

I have this synced to my iPhone so it's with me and I can add on the go.  Our doctors don't even need to call to remind me of our visit.  My alarm let's me know.

If you don't have a gmail account but want to try google calendars, it's easy to sign up for one.  Make it your junk email account if you want and give the calendars a try.  Don't be as slow as I was to catch on to a good thing.

Clean House

Keeping my house clean has been an issue for me the last year.  It probably shouldn't be as much of a frustration as it is.  My first job in college was cleaning the dorm bathrooms (there are many stories there that could make you lose your lunch but I will refrain).  My side job post-college was cleaning 2 houses.  I think I'm a pretty good, thorough cleaner and heaven knows I have lots of experience.  Ironic thing is that as a newly married woman, cleaning was my least favorite thing to do, so I just didn't do it.  My poor Man.  Hey, I can overlook black mildew in my shower.  Those cob webs up there in that corner....that's just my Halloween decorations.  Pink in my toilet?  Didn't even notice it.

Shameful, I know.

I think I've learned to love a clean house and so I strive for it yet try not to obsess over it.  Living in the country with 8 people in one house equals nothing but dirty house.  And so that is my challenge.  I've read the books from the library about speed cleaning, refreshed myself on Don Aslett's professional cleaning book and tried many systems and charts.  They all have gone by the wayside.  Now that I'm only homeschooling before lunch time each day (kindergarten "let's out" early), I should have more time to focus on keeping the house clean.

My Man suggested I just do a little everyday - say an hour - as my goal.  Sounds good, but will I really make that a priority or will it just become stressful?  I have a large house - over 5,000 square feet, so cleaning it is very time consuming.

Last week I jotted some notes to try it out.  I broke my downstairs into zones.  Each day I did a zone, top to bottom and then left out my cleaning supplies hidden in a corner.  I got the downstairs done well in 5 days.  That leaves the school room (over garage) and the upstairs.  I told the Fish Sticks that they would be responsible to clean the upstairs with my help and supervision every other Saturday.  They all have a rotation chart posted on the back of their door.  As for the school room, I can do that on the off Saturday.

Then my sister sent me this link.  Later that week I read this link.  I liked both ideas, although I am assuming that both these women have smaller houses than I do.  So there's my homemaking challenge.  What's yours?  Do you have a great cleaning schedule to pass on?

Canning

 My MIL taught me to can my first year of marriage when I came to her house and she was preserving her garden vegetables.  Little did I know that years later, I would have my own garden with vegetables to can myself.  Canning vegetables is nothing to shy away from.  Even if you don't have a garden, buying homegrown vegetables at a good price and preserving them is a smart thing to do. I have a friend here who is a grandma.  She spent years working in her garden but now prefers to drive 1 hour to the closest Amish community weekly all summer.  She buys large quantities of their produce at an excellent price and preserves them herself without the backbreaking work with manning her own garden.

I was going to do a tutorial on canning but realized there are so many good ones out there, that I won't try to compete.  Basically, you will need a pressure canner like this one. I think I got mine at Walmart 10 years ago for about $30.

 These are a few tools that I didn't start out with but have found VERY helpful:  funnel, strainer, can grabber (that would be my own redneck term - not sure what it's really called).  They don't cost much either.  Of course you will need canning jars with lids too.  They run about $1 a can regular priced.

 After cooking the vegetables (in this case, green beans) for just a few minutes (each veggie is different so check a chart on line to see how long), then place them in hot jars, add cooking water to about 1/2" of top, add 1 tsp. canning salt and seal with lid.

 Charts on line will also tell you how long to can them, as will your canner handbook with directions on pressure canning.  Tomatoes are acidic and don't have to be pressure canned.  You can just cover them with water (called a water bath) and can them that way.  It's a tad bit easier.

Canning is a beautiful thing.  At the time it might seen tedious and you might feel you have better things you should be doing, but when the winter comes and you open one of your cans of summer, garden vegetables, well....there's just nothing better tasting!

Laundry in the Fish House

 Today is LAUNDRY DAY.  Here's what laundry day looks like for us.  My Man had the wonderful idea when he built our house that he would put a stacked washer and dryer upstairs for the Fish Stick's laundry.  How grateful I am that I no longer have to lug laundry up and down the stairs, although I'm sure my flab would appreciate a bit more lugging up and down.

My mom always had a laundry day. I remember the hallway being filled with laundry for the majority of the day as she sorted, washed, dried, folded and stacked for us to put away.  I did things like that for a long time and then added another laundry day as the family grew.  I'm not the best about completing the laundry 100% in a day.  I wish I did, but I forget to stay on top of the buzzer.  I throw the dry clothes on the couch, saying I will fold them later.  I leave folded laundry sitting in my closet or worst yet, I leave dry clothes in the dryer for days to be a big, wrinkly mess.

So back in August, I was revamping my daily schedule after sending 3 kids to school and only homeschooling 3 little ones.  I decided every Fish Stick would have their own laundry days.  Monday was the parents, Tuesday was the boys, Wednesday was the middle girls, Thursday was the oldest and youngest girls and then Friday was the parents again.  I gave it my best shot but honestly, my bad laundry habits listed above just worsened, not to mention I realized I didn't like doing laundry enough to spread it out into 5 days a week.

As part of my New Year's Resolution changes I decided to go back to the old way but commit to doing it better.  So far, so good.  Monday is LAUNDRY DAY!!  Whoo Hoo!!  All laundry upstairs hits the hallway the night before and I throw in a load as I am tucking all Fish Sticks in bed.  In the a.m. I throw in a downstairs load, switch a load upstairs and turn on the baby monitor.  I can hear the upstair's buzzer on the monitor and guess what?  I'm actually listening to the buzzer and jumping up to switch out the laundry when I hear it.  I also found that bringing dry clothes into my closet and hanging and putting away as I fold works much better for my bad procrastination habits of old.

As for the Fish Sticks, well they have 24 hours after all laundry is complete (beginning Monday night usually) to put their clothes in their dresser.  My 5 year old Fish Stick gets his sorted by his Mama to put up and my 3 year old Fish Stick gets her folded laundry handed to her so she can lay them in the opened drawer.  If the laundry is not put up in 24 hours, then the Fish Stick has to wash, dry, fold and put up their own laundry the following week.  Pretty motivating, huh?  It has only happened 3 times and oh, were they ever sad they forgot to put up their laundry!  Not too bad.