I was a hard core Franklin Covey follower. I think I’ve used this planning system since I was in high school. Read that to mean a long time. This year we are trying to save money. Read that to mean, seriously paying down debt and trying to figure out how we are going to pay for three children to attend Montessori school. (We have a little time to figure out the school thing though, Pie-Pie is only 2 months old.)
I used Franklin Covey’s planner pages. I used their project sheets for work, for school, and for personal planning too. I attended their planning seminar, read the book about the 7-Habits of Highly Effective People. And I switched from the original design to the monticello to the 7-Habits design. (Now Franklin Covey has expanded their product line and solution services dramatically but I stopped paying attention when I left the work force six years ago.)
I tried other daily planning systems and just wasn’t as pleased. Until money became a necessity. $40 a year for fancy colored planning pages? Or $40 for two pairs of sorely needed rain boots? $40 for 365 witty inspirational quotes that promote productivity, efficiency, and leadership? Or $40+ for the gas it takes to get everyone to school each week? Hummmn. I went with the latter.
Now I use a composition book to plan daily. Its cheap. A composition book costs exactly a $1 each at the back-to-school-sale. I estimated that it takes me about 3 months or so to fill one up writing on both sides of the page. So that is a grand total of $4 of planning sheets a year and what I call a $36 savings.
It is my everything book. My to-do lists, correspondence I need to track, recipes, musings and dreams, shopping lists, weekly menus, my monthly calendar, Christmas lists, and a ton of other stuff. How do I keep track of it all? A master list, an index, and a calendar.
How To Use an Index
I write a phone number down on page 48 and some notes about our phone conversation. I note that in my Index. Mrs. Smith p# – pg 48 – Aug 8th. Now I know where to find her number should I need it again. I know where to find the notes I took about our conversation and I know what day I last spoke to her, should I need to follow-up sometime in the near future.
If a flood of blog ideas flow into my head and I am in the shower, I dry off and locate my planner composition book. I note them all down on page 57 and then note blog post ideas – pg 57 – Aug 11 in the Index. Now I know where to look when I’m twiddling around at the computer the next time. (I keep the first few notebook pages blank and use these for the Index.) (Another aside: this Index thing does work. I used it in with my Franklin Covey systems. But I haven’t implemented it yet here. I just flip back until I find whatever it was that I am looking for. But when I finish this composition book I’ll have to make an Index. With more than one archived planner book it will be helpful to have an Index I can scan to see if that bit of information I am seeking is indeed in this volume.)
How to Use a Master List
I keep a Master List of all the to-dos I can think of. Some need to get done like yesterday and others can wait until whenever and I note the “due-by” date by each item. Each day, I write a fresh to-do list for that day. I start a new page, put the day’s date at the top, and try to keep the list reasonable. (For goodness sake, I have a newborn who nurses every three hours.) I look at what I didn’t accomplish from the day before and add these items. And I look at my master list and see if anything needs to be accomplished today and I write these down. I also take a look at the calendar and write down anything I need to do to prepare for the days ahead.
Each week I transcribe the Master List tasks I didn’t crossoff, add new ones, and write the date at the top of the new Master List. (And I put a line through the old Master List.) I feel better having written a fresh list. Yes, I use white out to correct mistakes and try to make my handwriting a bit neater. It’s cathartic for a list maker like me.
How to Use the Calendar
I printed out calendar pages from a free Internet site. (Just Google it. There are plenty out there.) I cut them out and pasted them into the last pages at the back of the composition book. When I got our school calendars I noted each event in my planning calendar. And as new events arise, I note these as well. If there are general notes about events or to-dos that month, like “pick apples for applesauce in September,” I note these at the bottom of that calendar page.
Limited space in your monthly calendar is a good thing. When you run out of space to write things, you’ve probably run out of time to do it all too.
# # #
And that is about it. It works for me. Sometimes someone under the age of 4 gets a hold of my planner book and I come across pages like this on August 4th.
It’s a nice surprise.
Every one’s planning needs are different, but this is the money saving strategy that helped me. Maybe it can help you too.
We love, love, love tote bags. This organizing tool, in my opinion, is one you can never have too many of. Tote bags are some of the easiest and most economical green organizing solutions to create yourself. Really!
I purchased retail quilting-weight cotton fabrics for the applique motif, but the unbleached mid-weight cotton fabric I bought at a thrift store for $1.50. (In it’s former life it was a curtain. And with this kind of a yardage, I am able to cut 4 tote bags of varying sizes.) To save more money, thrift, or yard-sale find the applique fabric as well. Look for shirts, blouses, and light weight cottons to create your very own design.
There are a million and two uses for organizing with cloth. I use them for the obvious toting of belongings. A simple tote holds our birthday banner and keeps it neat, and free from dust until it’s next use. I store those silly glass pebbles for my flower arrangements in a tote bag. Puzzle pieces can be stored in a tote with a zippered top and a simple tag. Think of dice, card games, and dominoes organized in little draw-string totes hung on a peg board for all to reach. That is just the beginning of the list of uses for this very useful organizing solution.
The tote I designed above is an applique design. Wanna know how to make your own? Read on!
Honey-Comb Applique Tote
Materials
- light cardboard
- paper scissors
- scrap pieces of coordinating patterned fabrics
- thread and sharp needle
- paper-backed fusible webbing
- Embroidery thread and sharp embroidery needle
- (2) 23″ x 10″ pieces of unbleached cotton fabric – medium weight (I recycled the fabric from a curtain)
- (2) 14″ x 4″ pieces of unbleached cotton fabric – medium weight (these will be the handles)
- fabric scissors
- sewing machine
- iron and board
How To
1.Wash and tumble dry all fabric.
2. Make your form. On the computer, create, or just download, a hexagon. Print it out, transfer the shape to a piece of thin cardboard and cut it out.
3. Trace the form, leaving 1/4″ seam allowance. Cut out the fabric hexagon.
4. Center the fabric under the form and fold two sides to the wrong side of the fabric,
 
finger press, and hand baste stitch in place. Continue counter clockwise until all corners are basted in place.
5. Remove form from fabric hexagon and press. Repeat 13 times with varying patterned fabrics, or create enough for your desired design.
6. Arrange your hexagon pattern.
7. Whip stitch the hexagon pattern together.
 
8. Lay hexagon pattern on paper-backed fusible webbing and trace. Cut webbing. Follow manufacturer’s instructions and fuse webbing to the wrong side of the hexagon applique pattern.
9. Fold the outside tote bag fabric in half, matching raw edges with wrong sides together. (The bottom of the tote should be where the fabric fold is.)
10. Arrange outside tote bag fabric with the fold closest to you. Peel off paper from webbing and align applique motif on the front of the tote in manner desired. Follow manufacturer’s instructions and fuse the applique motif to the front of the tote bag.
11. Edge stitch around applique motif in thread color of your choice. Stitch along all edges of each hexagon. (Stitch-in-the-ditch, to use a quilting term.)
12. Add any embroidery, like a simple running stitch design, to the front of the tote bag.
13. Fold outside tote bag fabric in half right sides together, matching raw edges. Pin and stitch the side seams using a 1/2″ seaming allowance (sew the 11 1/2″ sides.) Repeat with the inside tote fabric. Clip corners and turn outside tote fabric right-side out.
14. Fold handle fabric pieces in half lengthwise, wrong sides together, and press. Open and fold raw edges toward creased center and press. Fold in half lengthwise again and press.
15. Edge stitch pressed edges together along the length of the bag handle (the 14″ side)
16. Align tote bag handle raw edges (the 1″ side) spaced evenly along the right side of the 10″ top of the bag outside fabric and pin. (Make sure the handle fabric isn’t twisted and handles should lay toward the fold of the bottom of the tote on the outside of the bag. Baste raw edges.
17. Place outside tote bag fabric with handles, inside the tote bag lining fabric so that right sides are together. Align side seams, make sure the handles are in between the tote bag layers, and pin.
18. Seam raw edges (use a 1/2″ seam allowance) around the top of the bag, leaving a 3″ unseamed opening through which to turn the bag, back stitching at the beginning and end. (Reinforce the seam over the bag handles by back stitching.)
19. Turn the bag through the opening, smooth bag liner to the inside, and press.
20. Edge stitch the top of the tote bag 1/8″ from the edge to close the 3″ opening.
21. Fill your new tote with something gorgeous!
This month of September for our One Small Change, we are incorporating more green organizing solutions into our home to help our environment. Visit the One Small Change blog to declare and share your change, and be inspired by what others are doing to help heal our earth!
UPDATE: For more pictures about how to construct a lined tote bag, visit my other tote bag tutorial at the One Small Change Blog.
a tisket…a tasket…a green and yellow basket…
And then something about sending a letter to someone I love, and losing the thing…and now that I think about it…I don’t think I have ever seen a green and yellow basket…except maybe at Easter.
Anyway, this week I am pondering some more green organizing solutions going on here at the house. (Last week I wrote about organizing with wood.) Along our journey away from plastic bins, buckets, and boxes, I’ve begun collecting…slowly…baskets. Thrifting one here, rescuing one there, and now, I am even considering making one myself.
Back in the old days, when this blogger was in third grade, and her teacher lived in a teepee, I tried to make my first basket. It was made of raffia and pine needles. (We did a lot in third grade that wasn’t on your main-stream-grade-school syllabus. Plucking a chicken for the boarding students’ dinner and making pine needle baskets were among the off-beat curriculum requirements.) I kind of remember this being a difficult task. Pine needles breaking. Pine pitch on my fingers. My fingers turning black. And never finishing that first basket attempt.
Beside that assignment I never paid baskets much attention when I was a kid. We’d used a deep wire basket hung high up on a nail near the ceiling where the air is warm for ripening fruits. And another round squat wire basket with handles was for collecting fresh eggs from our chicken coop. And now I can’t think of a single other basket we used back then. (I phoned my mom about this lack of basket use in our home, and she informed me ,that she didn’t much like baskets and that kids broke them. That was why we didn’t use many.)
When I entered college and read one of the winter seminars was entitled “Underwater Basket Weaving,” I just laughed. And I started to reach for the plastic. I couldn’t imagine how you’d weave a basket while swimming around under water. When one of my friends took that class, I figured out that only the basket is underwater. Not the weaver.
Fast forward to today. I am finding that baskets that are made of natural materials are difficult to find. Books about making baskets are easy to find. And so are basket making supplies. So maybe when I get up the guts to try making one again, I’ll choose a simple pattern, locate some pruning shears, and give it a go. Until then, I am sticking to uncovering the few and far between hidden treasures at my local thrift shops.
Even in scarce times we are using natural baskets more and more in this house.
This basket bin organizes all those odds and ends that need to be near the telephone. (Because they just don’t have elsewhere to go.)
This old top-hinged picnic basket tucks away my knitting projects and yarn stash.
This is the pre-school green wire grocery shopping basket.
This lovely basket was rescued from our toy-pile and put to work organizing wash clothes in the bathroom.
  
I believe these were desk filing trays in their former life. Now they beautifully organize my pantry and chest freezer stuffs.
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If you do run into a basket on your next trip yard-saling, thrifting, or sifting through your grandmother’s basement, here are a couple of things to consider before you bring that baby home with you.
- Avoid mildew and mold. Avoid anything with spotty black stuff on it, and avoid the ones that smell musty.
- It must have a sturdy construction. Avoid baskets with missing parts, handles that are frayed, or parts that stick out. You wouldn’t want your farmer’s market beets to roll through the parking lot because your basket busted.
- Eye varied shapes, sizes, and colors. Since you can store tiny kerchiefs in a small basket, as well as a down comforter in one much larger, vary the shape and size of the baskets on your thrift store shopping list.
- Lids are nice. I like ones that close and pretend that the cluttered contents on the inside mean nothing to the serene brown cane exterior.
Baskets made of natural materials can provide sturdy, hide-away organizing. And metal baskets can withstand freezer temperatures as well as the humidity of a steamy bathroom. So, do away with the plastic bins and reach for a basket. Maybe if we continue to use baskets at home my kids will have more fond memories of baskets then I do.
For more ideas about how to make One Small Change to your lifestyle, and read what others are doing to live more sustainably, visit Hip Mountain Mama’s challenge blog!
If you’ve been following along for a bit here in the space, you might remember Suzy from Hip Mountain Mama challenge to other bloggers and those endeavoring to live greener to make One Small Change. The challenge ended in April, but those who began this movement decided to continue on and are still making One Small Change every month to live more sustainably.
September as a pivotal month of change. A change of seasons, a change of schedule, and a change of weather. So I decided this month to be the time to jump back in and share the One Small Change our family is undertaking to live greener. I love organizing my home, so this month I plan to collect and create some greener organizing solutions, and of course share them all here with you.
There is just so much plastic a girl can take I tell you! This blog, Organizing-Life began with my passion for all things in its place. I organized everything really. And all in plastic containers. They are cheap, simple, modular, interchangeable, uniform, and plentiful. Now, as a girl going green, I am thinking about what else can I use to organize our belongings that isn’t going to leach BPAs, phthalates, and other toxins. What do you use to organize your home you ask? Why, natural materials of course! Remember stone, wood, glass, paper, and metal? Ahh, to bring a bit of the earth into our home would be a relief.
This month I plan to share a few of the ways we incorporate organizing solutions made of natural materials into our home. It isn’t easy. I feel like I am on a safari sometimes hunting down organizing containers made of anything other than plastic. I am usually astounded at the prices of these beautifully crafted organizers. Think outside the box, get creative, and thrifty, and make do. And really, it works to help make the home a bit greener.
The first switch we are endeavoring is to get rid of our plastic bowls. I found these very dirty, but very sturdy, wooden bowls the other week at the thrift store. With a little bit of elbow grease, these were revived into working condition and are now part of our collection. In fact, they are the perfect size for popcorn.
- Sand them down. Use coarse sandpaper for wood first (like a #60) and then a fine sandpaper to smooth things out (like #150.)
- Rinse to get rid of the dust, wipe, and let them air dry completely.
- Let them be or seal them with linseed oil and beeswax. (Melt a 1:1 ratio, cool, and wipe on with a clean rag. Wipe off excess with another clean rag and let the piece dry completely. This concoction is food safe.)
- Hand wash these babies. Don’t try to put them through the dishwasher because they’ll dry out and crack.
Where to find it:
- Yard sales, Craigs List, Freecycle, Ebay, rummage sales, thrift stores, your parent’s attic.
How to use it:
- Knick knack drawer
- At the dinner table
- Fill with stones, acorns and pine cones and use as a table centerpiece
- Jewelry catcher on the dresser
We have a lot of plastic bowls. And we are slowly replacing them all with wood, glass, and metal. For food stuffs, it is a small way to keep the plastic out of your food. For the rest of your home, well, wooden bowls are a nice way to bring a bit of the outdoors inside. And we just like to limit the number of plastics we touch daily. (If that is even possible?) The fish Nemo’s friend Dori comes to mind. “Keep on swimming, keep on swimming.” We are just endeavoring to do the best we can in this world made of plastic.
Up next, plastic vs. baskets.
P/S Can I also submit this as an additional Small or rather Large Change? My husband just took a new position with the Department of Energy managing government loan guarantees for renewable energy projects across the country. I am pretty darn proud of him as I too believe that renewable energy sources will pave the way for our continued future energy consumption. As a former poli-sci undergrad, I am a bit taken aback that now we are part of that bureaucratic system. Yikes! All for a good cause perhaps.
P/P/S
Take a peek at what others are doing to live a bit greener at the One Small Change Blog!
 P/P/P/S
Can I do that many P’s? For a much better tutorial about how to restore your wooden treasures, visit The Magic Onions blog here.
Okay in my head this was going to be a 3 hour project. I know about angles, about compound miter saws, and I always love a little bit of DIY home improvement. In reality this took the larger part of a day. But someone, (maybe Ni Hoa Kia Lan) was blessing the kiddos with a bit of extra patience as mommy and daddy were outside in 98 degree humidity trying to figure out mitered corners.
So we saddled up on Saturday morning and trekked to Home Depot. After $60 of molding, 4d nails and pine plank, we went by my father-in-law’s place to borrow the miter saw we gave him a couple years ago for his birthday.
Fast forward to after lunch. 4 cuts done correctly. 4 cuts done incorrectly. One more run to Home Depot to get the plank I forgot. (Foggy Friday-night math I swear!) And not even the box was completely assembled. (Click here if you want to make your own cornices.)
Fast forward to after dinner. Another run to Home Depot to buy additional crown molding I forgot to buy. (Did I say I know anything about angles and math? Nah, that wasn’t me.) And I am sitting on the kitchen floor filling nail holes, gaps, and priming the cornices.
Sunday after church, my husband did a fantastic job of hanging them, and they looked fabulously primed for our dinner company; family visiting from Korea.
Now, how long do you think it will take me to actually paint these puppies enamel white? I am thinking next spring…
 We have a summer of learning ahead of us. I believe it to be a unique and exciting mama experience to have the opportunity to learn with and teach your children. Not all parents have the wherewithal to be able to spend all day with their little ones showing them a personal tour of a small part of the world. I am always on the look out for new learning tools and new ways to learn through play.
There is this wall at the center of our home I just didn’t have a clue how to utilize, so I decided it was time to create a space where we can all write on the wall. Make a chalkboard that is. This is before.
 
This is after.
  
It is hilarious that the writing is on the wall, and it fills only the bottom third of the black board, that I never have to erase because the kids like that more than drawing, and that a wall can provide hours of entertainment. I have some paint left over, so I am contemplating, the pantry door, another wall, the entryway–so we can write inspiring words on the wall, and hummm where else? Here is how I went about this process if you feel so inclined to create your own chalkboard wall.
How To Make a Chalkboard Wall
- Tape off the area you intend to make chalkboard with low-tack painter’s tape.
- If the area is already painted with latex paint, sand the area with a fine sandpaper. If the area is exposed wood, or dry wall, you can skip this step.
- I had holes in my wall, so I filled them with patch putty with a putty knife. After this dried, I sanded the area again.
- Prime the area with a quality primer. (This extra step just makes painting the area tons easier and the finished area is nice and smooth.)
- Paint the area with chalkboard paint and a sponge roller. (I got my chalkboard paint at Home Depot. There is also a chalkboard paint you can tint different colors to match your decor.) (And I needed three coats to get good coverage. Oh, and remove the painters tape after the paint has almost dried.)
- We waited three whole days to write on the wall, per the instructions on the can. First I covered the chalkboard with a coat of white chalk, then I used a chalkboard eraser to erase the entire thing. Then we were ready to draw.
- When needed, wipe down the chalkboard area with a barely damp cloth. “Prime” the area again with white chalk before drawing again.
Do you do anything to sneak “learning” into your everyday? Hope you are having a simply wonderful summer.
Here is a quick jewelry pouch how to. I like the envelope flap and the easy snap closure to keep my jewelry neat, protected and organized.
Need:
- 2 scrap pieces of fabric 9″X5″ each (quilting weight woven cotton works well)
- 1 metal snap
- 1 needle and straight pins
- coordinating thread
- fabric scissors
- sewing machine
- iron and ironing board
How-To:
1. Cut (2) 9″X5″ rectangles of coordinating fabric. Fold up one short side, right-sides together, 3 1/4″. Using a 1/4″ seam allowance, machine stitch both sides of “pouch”, back stitching at the beginning and end. (I used a generous 1/4″ seam allowance to stitch the lining so it will fit smoothly into the outer-fabric pouch.)
2. Clip bottom corners of pouch, and turn lining fabric pouch right-side out. Insert lining pouch into outer-fabric pouch and smooth the layers. Clip the corners of the flap to create an angled envelope-flap shape. Pin the layers if necessary. Machine stitch the sides of the flap, and across the front of the pouch, keep the top of the flap open for turning, back stitching at the beginning and end. Clip the corners of the flap where it meets the pouch. Turn the piece, tuck in the lining and press flat.
3. Turn under the open envelope flap and press. Top stitch around the edge of the flap.
 4. Align the snaps in desired position and hand stitch in place.
5. Insert your jewelry or other items and voilá…nifty organizing.
That’s all there is to it. I just love little pouches.
I have been reading so many great articles about how to get organized for back-to-school! This year my family is preparing for our older son to enter pre-school. 3-year-olds look so cute with those big turtle-like back-packs on their little shoulders! The pre-school we chose is a cooperative school, meaning that parents assist in the classroom, serve as coordinators for different activities (we are the social-committee co-chairs) and participate a number of hours in other areas such as fundraising, cleaning and maintenance, and field-trips. I was feeling pretty overwhelmed when the e-mails starting coming fast and furious last week and all of a sudden I needed 6+ days of morning week-day child care for my daughter this fall. I guess it isn’t just kids who need a schedule adjustment, but do parents too! As a parent, how am I going to manage all of these obligations and everything else? Here is how I am planing my back-to-school schedule.
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:: Write in obligatory or mandatory events first. I have scheduled the days I am required to assist in my son’s class, holiday gatherings, birthdays, holy days of obligation, and our Cancun vacation. I like to plan at least 6 months in advance. Or, in this case, my BIL is getting married in January and is also having a separate important reception, so we need to have our January schedule plan outlined now as well. Planning ahead especially around the holiday season, helps you know what you need to do to prepare, and what you need to acquire to be prepared. This way you can catch sales along the way instead of paying full price in a panic the week before.
:: Make a list of other seasonal activities you would like to do with your family or friends. I am planning to go apple picking with my family, and then spend the rest of the weekend making apple sauce, dried apples, and can apple pie filling. I also hope to visit the fall farm festivals we have in our area so the kids can see the farm animals and I can pick up some pumpkins.
:: Schedule these seasonal activities in your calendar, with the “weather permitting” caveat of course.
:: I try to schedule a “home-project” weekend each month as well. Sometimes this varies with the weather conditions, but I feel if I don’t schedule it in with all the other things we need to do, that crown moulding that has been sitting in my basement for a year will never get hung!
Although it may seem silly, make it a point to write down the fun stuff in your calendar too and don’t forget to schedule a day to relax!
:: Don’t forget a do-nothing-weekend. I always schedule a do-nothing weekend every other month or so, when I put aside the work and we just hang-out as a family, cook together, play together, and do what ever we feel like.
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How are you coming along preparing for the new school year? A while back I designed a few planning pages, you can find the monthly planner here, and the weekly planner here. (Be sure to read the posts to learn how to utilize these planning tools.) Do you have tips you rely upon to help you schedule all of your parental obligations, both academic, athletic, and otherwise? Leave a comment here, I’d love to hear from you and I am sure readers would like to hear your tips too! Happy Organizing!
Okay, I love my freezer. If you have been reading this blog for a bit, you probably think I use my freezer like a piggy bank–which I kind of do. It is kind of like my bank for saving leftovers, saving fresh produce, and stashing dishes made-ahead of time which otherwise would be bound for the trash. Reading TipNut.com’s zucchini bread recipes in my Reader, reminded me of another freezer-saver favorite from my childhood: frozen bananas.
My mom would beat out any other sugar police out there, so we stuck to healthy everything with no refined sugar. One of my favorite snacks as a kid was a frozen bananas dipped in yogurt and coconut. In my home, we always have ripe bananas the kids aren’t going to eat, and because I don’t eat them anymore, they head for the trash. But, with this money and time-saving healthy tip, we can start saving our banana money in the freezer! Here is how I make them and some other variations:
- Select moderately ripe bananas, peel, take off those stringies, and slice in half width-wise.
- Push a clean round popsicle stick through the cut side of the banana about 1/2 way up the banana. (You can cut a 1/4″ dowel from the hardware store with a kitchen shears into 6″ lengths.)
- Coat with desired topping.
- If topping is drippy like melted chocolate: Place banana flat on baking sheet lined with waxed paper, lightly cover with plastic wrap and freeze flat for 4 hours. Then roll each individual frozen banana in waxed paper, twisting ends, and place in Ziploc freezer bag. Label the bag, and place in the freezer for a sweet and yummy frozen snack.
- If topping is dry like toasted coconut: Roll each individual frozen banana in waxed paper, twising ends, and place in Ziploc freezer bag. Label the bag, and place in the freezer for a quick, refreshing money-saving snack.
Suggested toppings:
- Plain yogurt and toasted coconut or granola
- Fruit flavored yogurt and mini chocolate chips or chopped nuts
- Peanut butter – can get messy
- Melted chocolate (white chocolate is yummy)
- Berry or fruit puree
- Caramel (melt caramels, or make your own, place bananas on baking sheet lined with waxed paper and drizzle caramel on with a fork.)
I hope these inspire a chilly snack to cool off your summer days! For more Save Your Money in Your Freezer posts visit here and here. For a printable Save Your $$ In Your Freezer download it here.
Do you have other freezer saving, money saving tips? if so, leave a comment here for other readers! Happy organizing!
When people ask me, “are you planning to have more children,” my answer is, “we aren’t planning now, but if God is planning, than yes, then we’ll be planning too.” The reason is because I don’t know if I could keep up with the medical issues of a third baby if he or she had as many as my two children have had.
I frequently wonder how I end up spending so much time coordinating doctor’s visits for my children. In three years, we have been to see the cardiologist, nephrologist, urologist, orthopedist, physical therapist, and countless radiologists in addition to their regular pediatrician and dentist. We have had only two ER visits for a clipped off finger pad and a nurse-maids’ elbow, a week’s stay in NICU, and one stay-in-the-hospital surgery to correct a Grade-5 kidney reflux condition. I count myself and my family lucky that we are in overall good health and that none of these medical issues are major. But I can’t help but wonder why I have a directory of medical specialists when most of our friends who have children simply brought their babies home from the hospital and never looked back.
You are probably asking, why am I thinking of this now? I just scheduled my daughter for an Early Intervention evaluation to find out if she qualifies for physical therapy services (provided our insurance and budget cooperate) for gross and fine motor skill development. I am just not sure if it is her little premie-baby-attitude saying, “I’ll walk when I am good and ready!”, or if there are other bad-habits she has that are preventing her from developing the balance and muscle tone she needs to walk. She isn’t alarmingly late, not even trying to walk at 18 months, but I’d like her to eventually be able to interact appropriately with other toddlers her age who are now learning to run.
So, how do I organize their complete medical histories? I carefully record and document each phone inquiry, visit, prescription, evaluation, follow-up, specialist’s contact information, and medical proceedure. A while back, I designed a health-care planner pages packet that you can download hereand print to help you organize your family’s medical information. I also send a copy of this info to my parents and to my in-laws (and keep a copy of relavent history handy for a sitter or other care-taker) in case of an emergency.
Do you feel like you are in and out of the doctor’s office constantly? Do you wonder why God is giving you these challenges? Do you have a special system you use to organize your and your family’s medical information? Leave a comment here and share your experience with others! Happy Organizing.
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thank you for stopping by my blog  I am a 35 year old mom to a 4 year old son, a 3 year old daughter, a son born in May, and a wife to my life wonderful. I write in this space when my crafty inspiration strikes or when I get to pondering about how we can live more simply and better connect with the earth around us. We are a family surviving the suburbs, contending with commercialism, and getting to a greener lifestyle. Welcome! ~Abbie a few blogs I like in no particular order Permission © Organizing-Life 2009
All images and designs are property of Organizing-Life. Please do not copy any original designs or photography without written permission. Thank you!
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