Preslaysa — Faith, Family, Home Management and Life

How to Clean, part 4

May 6, 2013 by Preslaysa Leave a Comment

Have you noticed that all of these fifties housewives look especially cheerful? I usually don’t approach cleaning with this same level of giddiness, but using this index card system has made maintaining the home manageable.

Today we’re discussing how to put the index cards to work with the activity lists. You can find last week’s posts on developing activity lists here and here. If you’re new to the series, start here.

Sidetracked Home Executives suggests having different colored indexed cards. Each color denotes the frequency of each activity.

The Color Coded Organizational Scheme

Yellow – daily tasks

Blue – weekly tasks

White – monthly, every other month, quarterly, seasonal, yearly, twice yearly tasks

Pink – personal tasks (This is the only card which isn’t assigned to a time frame.)

Organizing Your Index Cards

Transfer all jobs from your activity lists onto the cards. Write only one job per card. Cleaning tasks are assigned by frequency. All personal tasks are written on pink cards, regardless of frequency.
In the upper left hand corner of the card, write the frequency of the activity. In the upper right hand corner of the card, write how long it will take to complete. If the job takes ten minutes or less write ‘Mini’ on the top line in the center of the card.
Continue until each task from your activity lists is transferred to a card.

This part of setting up the system takes a while. Depending on your circumstances, it can be done in short bursts or you can set aside some time to complete the project in one long stretch (about an hour).

On Wednesday, we’ll talk about the ‘Mini’ jobs and how mini-jobbing (I made that word up) can keep a house in order more than you may think.

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Filed Under: How to Clean, Your Home

How to Save, Get Out of Debt and Build Wealth Series, Part 3

May 2, 2013 by Preslaysa Leave a Comment

A great way to save is to first get out of debt! Paying off debts frees up your cash flow to save and invest more. Today, we’re discussing how Dave Ramsey’s Baby Step 2: Pay off all Debt except the home using the Debt Snowball.

That means ALL debt: student loans, credit cards, personal loans, auto loans, money owed to a relative or friend. Everything.

Baby Step 2 is the get out of jail (but not for free, we are paying off debts) card. Dave Ramsey proposes that all debt is bad. There’s no such thing as good debt or bad debt. It’s all forms of bondage. And he’s right. Proverbs 22:7 says that “the borrower is servant to the lender.” Whenever we owe someone money, we’ve automatically changed the dynamics of the relationship that of master/servant. This includes friendships and family relationships.

Debt Sucks.

Back to the Debt Snowball. Ramsey recommends listing your debts from smallest balance to largest balance. Then putting all your extra money on the smallest balance debt and paying the minimums on the rest. When you pay off one debt, roll that money into the next largest balance and then the next one. Keep going until all your debt is wiped out, except the house. You will pay that off in a later Baby Step. You can find more details about the debt snowball method here and here.

Ramsey advocates paying the smallest balance first verus the debt with the highest interest rate first because it builds momentum. Once you see those debts getting paid off quickly, starting with the smallest balance you’ll get intense about paying the next one, and the next one, and the next one. Until you are debt free!

I highly recommend purchasing Dave Ramsey’s book “The Total Money Makeover” It outlines the baby steps in greater detail and shows you practical ways to get started on your journey to financial freedom.

Next week, we’ll talk about Baby Step 3: Save 3-6 months of expenses in an emergency fund.

How to Clean Series, Part 3

April 30, 2013 by Preslaysa 2 Comments

Personal Activity Lists

We’re learning how to clean and this is part 3 of the series! In addition to the cleaning lists which you are developing for your home, adding in a personal activity list is just as important. We lead busy lives, and a lot of times the important things can get shoved aside for the urgent. (As you can see by today’s illustration!) There have been many, many times when I’ve had to wash poopy clothes, answer the call of a screaming baby or a toddler who has an owie.

Days like these can make a mother wonder if it’s all worth it. Having personal activity lists ensure that we are taking care of ourselves too, especially when the days are rough.

Here’s a sampling of things you may want to add to your personal activity list:

*Shower (I need a reminder for this one!)

*Shave legs (ditto!)

*Haircut

*Manicure

*Pedicure

*Read

*Study

*Exercise

*Any volunteer work

*Any errands like library, post office, bank

*Writing

*Brushing teeth

Etc.

Children’s Activity Lists

You may also want to create lists of things you’d like to do with your children. Here are some examples.

For Babies:

*Make Formula/nurse

*Wash bottles

*Clip nails

*Wash clothes

*Bathe

I know some of you may be thinking, why would someone need a reminder to do all this stuff for babies? This should be natural, mother’s instinct. All I have to say is when you have an infant, you’ll know…

Small Children:

*Bathe

*Wash hair

*Dress

*Feed

*Read stories

Family activities

*Children’s lessons (homeschooling moms may want to break this down by subject/type of activity)

*Family meeting

*Religious observance

*Eat Out

*Date with spouse

On Monday, we’ll talk about how to put it all together using the colored index cards.

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Filed Under: How to Clean, Your Home Tagged With: Sidetracked Home Executives

The Creative Mother: Merging the Miraculous with the Mundane

April 26, 2013 by Preslaysa Leave a Comment

Spring has emerged from its long hibernation. I’m enjoying the sun rays warming my back as I take the trash outside. Upon returning inside, I notice a bowl of homemade banana pudding, Mama’s labor of love, upturned on the freshly mopped floor. The three year old and the one year old exchange a mischevious glance. I step over it, resisting the urge to pick up the bowl, wipe up the mess and be done with it.

They have to learn to clean up their messes. I won’t always be there for them.

I walk to the laundry room and empty the dryer. Warm, fluffy clothes fill a plastic laundry basket. More clothes to fold. I open the washing machine and toss the damp clothes into the dryer. More clothes to dry. The faint sound of innocent giggles tickles my ears. I start my folding regimen. I daydream about solitude.

I’m an introvert by nature. When it’s quiet, I have time to think. And write. When it’s quiet, I can tap out a sentence on a keyboard. And when it’s not so quiet, I steal moments to write.

But some days, these moments slip from my grasp.

And so I fold laundry. Or wash a dish. And wonder how to remain creative during the daily. A silent fear begins to overwhelm me, a fear which my rational self fights hard to ignore.

Will I be relegated to the daily forever?

I wonder if Jesus asked himself the same question when the disciples asked him how they were to feed the four thousand.

I’ve grappled with this question many times in my domestic ventures, especially when I’ve tried to finagle writing a page of my novel in a notebook while rocking a baby in the middle of the night. Or when I pass by a craft store and admire an intricate quilt that a pair of gifted hands created.

Could I be gifted with such a long stretch of time to create?

There is room for art in any life we have – any life, no matter how crowded or overstuffed, no matter how arid or empty. We are the (writer’s) “block” we perceive -Julia Cameron, “Walking in this World”

To believe that I need a long stretch of time to create is an excuse not to create. I’m here. I’m steeped in the daily. And I’m fully present {when I’m not daydreaming.} Divinely appointed to rock babies, wipe runny noses, and clear poopy butts of fecal rubbish. Divinely appointed to teach and to nurture and to love.

And sometimes I discover sparks of the creative in pages I scribbled in the middle of the night. Or when I notice my children giggling at one another while I fold laundry.

And when I feed two mouths at a dinner table, my four thousand….

…Miraculous.

Filed Under: Your Growth

How to Save, Get Out of Debt and Build Wealth Series Part 2

April 25, 2013 by Preslaysa Leave a Comment

Learning how to save, get out of debt and build wealth is the topic of this multi-part series. In it, we’re going through Dave Ramsey’s 7 baby steps to get an overview of what it takes to gain financial freedom. I hope to explain this wonderful money management plan in simple terms for the savvy home manager who also wants to find ways to save and become financially free.

Last Week I talked about how debt has entrapped my life from the wee age of 18. (You can read my article about my struggles with credit card debt as a college student here) I have to admit, I do have selfish reasons for writing this series of posts, I need to ingrain the concepts in my head. Writing about topics like how to save helps me to do so.

I love Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps plan. You don’t need an MBA to understand it. In reality, personal finance is basic addition and subtraction, but the temptation to live beyond our means lurks behind every corner. So the average person like me needs to always stay on guard.

Dave Ramsey advocates a debt free life: 100%. This involves no debt. Nada. Zilch. According to him, there’s no such thing as good debt and bad debt. Credit cards, student loans, auto loans, credit cards – it’s all bondage. As far as mortages go, he advocates the 100% down plan: paying cash for the house. But if you can’t swing that, then he suggests getting a fixed rate 15 year mortgage with a 20% down payment.

One of the basic tenets of the plan is living on cash money alone. To live on cash, I am learning how to save in a disciplined manner. To do this, Dave Ramsey advises a starter emergency fund of $1,000 as the first step to financial freedom.

Some of you may already have this and for others, this may be the most you’ve ever saved in their life. This baby emergency fund will keep you from falling back to using credit cards if an emergency arises while you are working your way through baby step #2 (pay off all debt except the mortgage).

There are many ways to save this $1,000. Ramsey recommends selling the junk in your house in a garage sale/ebay/Amazon/Craig’s List, getting a side job, saving your change, etc. to quickly save this $1,000. Then you can quickly move through baby step #2. Once you’ve paid off all non-mortage debt, you will fully fund your emergency fund for those big emergencies: like unemployment.

Also, this $1,000 is for emergencies. It’s not your slush fund for discrtionary expenses that pop up. And you’ll want to keep this money liquid, meaning, easily accessible. Something like a savings account or a money market account. 360 Capital One Savings (formerly ING Direct) offers great rates on their savings accounts.

That’s Baby Step One. It’s basic and simple. However, it’s the rock upon which the rest of the aby steps works. So save a grand. Quickly.

Next Thursday we’ll talk about Baby Step #2: Get out of Debt.