Friday Hopping

1. If you had $1,000 to donate to a charity, which would you choose? I would probably give to a children's charity or the the American Diabetes Association. I have quite a few family members with Diabetes.


2. Snow days: Do you welcome them happily or are they a pain in your butt? HUGE pain in the butt. We got 16 inches of snow yesterday. I keep saying I want to move South. One day I will.


3. What talent did you wish you had and why? I wish I was naturally organized. I feel like my life is an organized chaos mostly. Other than that I would love to be able to sing!


4. Are you a news, politics or celebrity gossip junkie? Celebrity gossip. My husband hates it, but we listed to news in the background all day at work so when I get home my brain just wants to mush out.


5. What is your favorite "cocktail"? I'm more into the fairly sweet and doesn't taste alcoholic kind of cocktails.




It's Friday - you can also find me hopping at the following blogs.  Stop by and check them out!

52 Weeks: Organize your Mind

Bonnie at House of Grace had a post about a book called, “Organize Now!” by Jennifer Ford Berry.  It sounded like it would be helpful so I picked it up.  I’m hoping it will help me with my goals of sticking to the 52 Weeks of Organizing Challenge.

This week’s goals:

- Get a minimum of 7 hours of sleep

            This is a tough one for me.  I tend to stay up late doing things, since the kids don’t go to bed early.  Since I work all day, it’s really the only time I have to get stuff done.  The problem is I know I need at least 7 hours – more like 9.  I NEVER get that though.  My goal for this week will be to get to bed by 11pm each night.

- Jot a short to do list

            I do keep a running to do list in a small notebook in my purse.  Great for when I’m out or at work.  The problem is once I’m home it stays in my purse.  I’ll have to work on getting it out and checking it once I’m home for the night.

- Schedule a 2 minute break 2-3 times a day to spend time alone and just be.

            “Just be”.  Time Alone.  I think I like the sound of that.  ;-)

- Set goals and then break them into doable daily To Do’s

            This seems like it might make it a little less overwhelming to get things done.  I’m going to work on doing things this way rather than the big goal all at once.

Wordless Wednesday 1.26.11 - Snow over this.

52 Weeks of Organizing: Junk Drawer

 I saw that OrgJunkie was hosting a 52 week organizing challenge and I decided that was just what I need right now!  Motivation and accountability?  Yes please!

I decided to start with our two junk drawers.  Yes, two.  One is more of a office supply drawer, but it was junky none the less.  Here is the office supply/tool drawer before:

After:

Here is the real junk drawer.  What a mess!

After:



Show all

Hopefully I will stick with this and get a lot of things organized around here!  Once a week isn't too bad, right?

ThreeJars

I was given an opportunity to use the site ThreeJars for a while and review it.  I thought it would be a great opportunity to teach my six year old daughter, Noodle, about money.  She currently doesn’t get an allowance and probably doesn’t know a thing about money.  She knows it exists, she knows we go to work to earn it, but it really doesn’t mean anything to her.  She doesn’t even really ever see money change hands.  We usually use our debit cards to pay for everything.  I rarely carry cash.

So we sat down together one night and talked about money.  I told her that she could earn money by doing chores around the house.  I told her it’s called an allowance.  We then talked about a website we could use that would help us keep track of it.  She’s into computer games right now, so I thought that might help motivate her.

We went to www.ThreeJars.com and set up an account.  It was so easy.  I quickly set up my account, then reviewed some of the information they provide.  There are many helpful tips including what amounts may be appropriate for different ages, allocation tips, chore suggestions.  We breezed through setting up how much money she would get and which chores she would do.  Noodle seemed very excited to get started.  She even went and marked Friday as Pay Day on her calendar.

We then set up Noodle’s part of the account.  She gets her own login ID and password.  She can view how much money she has in each of her three jars – Save, Spend and Share.  She can send me messages asking to make more money by doing special projects.  I really like the fact that anytime she changes anything or makes a request I get an email either letting me know or asking me to approve it.

All in all, I think ThreeJars is a great website and a great resource for parents.  We will continue to use it.  I do think at this stage, Noodle is a little too young and we aren’t fully utilizing all the aspects and benefits of the site.  She still needs me to help her navigate the site, read a lot of the site to her and help her send messages, so I’m not sure she needs her own login at this point.  It would probably be much better for kids about 2-3 years older than Noodle.  It is nice to be able to have the conversation and lessons on money flowing when we log on together.  For that reason, I consider it a very valuable tool.

**Disclaimer:  I was provided an opportunity to use and review ThreeJars thanks to CecilyK at www.CecilyKellogg.com