A Family Well Organized

I think that being a home-maker is different to me than being a stay-at-home mom. I have thought about this before: my kid's and my home are my job, and I want to treat them accordingly. I have been a stay-at-home mom long enough and am ready to take on the job of being a home-maker. I have let the concept grow from within, from the rich black soil of de-jobbing for long enough.

I thought, as a mom, who would I hire to best care for my kids, and what would I want their days and lives to look like?

First thing, I wrote up a job description: My job as a home-maker means I care for children, home, and animals. It means making our house an inviting home, deeply and playfully loving our animals, and enriching the children's lives to the best of my ability."

Then I made a list of duties, broken into 3 categories: home, kids, and animals. I was careful to not get too detailed or unrealistic -- if I were taking on a job, what would appeal to me and be doable for me?

"Home" included cleaning, organizing, simplifying, and beautifying the home, and budgeting, cooking/prepping food, driving, paperwork, planning, and progressing (making things "better" and evolving) the household.

"Kids" involved helping them meet their own goals, doing strewing (new) activities with them, setting up a loose schedule, practicing our family principles with them (be safe, respectful, and sincere -- I will elaborate on these in another post), researching/learning to update my info on being the best home-maker I can be, and living a nourishing lifestyle (nourishing food, sleep, play, conflict, communication, quiet time, togetherness, etc.).

The "animals" were basic care done promptly and lots of play :))

After organizing my responsibilities, I was sharing with Kass about it, and we started to make one for her (and then I started one for Noble and Najaia), which I will share in another post, but let's just say it focused on their roles in our family and jobs as a person, in general.

So, I decided that what this newly uber-organized home-maker mama needed was a family planner/organizer to reflect our life and enable us to be our most enriched selves :)) I made this organizer from a repurposed journal cover and cardstock (to last).

 

 I wanted everything (calendar, to buy list, to do list, and monthly, weekly, and daily schedules) basically on one page, so it was quick glance. And I wanted something that would open right up to my calendar/main page, so I glued tabs/pockets in the top corners to hold the pages open when I want. I included a flip note on this calendar (my daily checklist).

I glued some pockets to the inside of the covers to hold loose papers. I wrote my "beginning month stuff" (budget, list of household supplies we typically buy at one month or another) on the other side of the page of the calendar,

and wrote stuff for our monthly pow wow on the other side of the back calendar page.

I have some "lists" (ideas for different calendar things -- parkday ideas, sustainability tips, etc) to add to some pages behind the calendar (once I transfer them to paper that is the same size as the calendar pages, so there are no creases when I write). I tied it all up with some twine, and it can be totally revamped as my needs find throughout this month of using it. I made sure that the actual calendar reflected the organic growth of rhythm already present in our life, with just enough new stuff to not feel overwhelmed. I don't want to live my life based on what a paper says to do, so I know that if we end up ditching this and just going with the flow of life, then this organizer is not working right for our family. I just want to help us organize, not dictate :))

I feel prepared and accomplished. I feel organized, simplified, deconstructed, and re(self)constructed :))