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About Expectations and the Family Vacation
It’s that time of year again: Time for the family vacation. It’s a good time to rethink some things like perfectionism, expectations, and the meaning of the word “vacation.”
First of all, we call it a “vacation,” but if you’re the parent, it...
Baby Shower Favor Ideas
With so many different aspects of a shower to plan, coming up with a baby shower favor idea is often the last consideration on a long list of planning.
There are several unique, exciting and interesting baby shower favor ideas that will work...
Defusing Family Anger: 3 Keys to Reducing Conflict
Esther, 55, and Jim, 71 are successful professionals who married five years ago. Unfortunately, conflicts have escalated between Esther and Jim�s adult children. Things reached the point that Ester was no longer welcome at holiday family...
Jump off the Stress Express--Bring Back the Holiday Spirit with Family Christmas Traditions
'Twas the week before Christmas and all though the house everything was in shambles. Too much to do and not enough time. More shopping to be done, presents to wrap, cookies to bake and decorating await. Oh the hustle and bustle, the extra work and...
Tips for Keeping Packed Lunches Fun and Interesting
• Let the child choose his or her own lunch box or reusable lunch bag. Encourage the child to add decorations, too.
• Children like finger foods. Cut chicken, cheese, or meat into bite-sized pieces for easier handling.
• Sandwiches don’t...
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The Family Organizer
I'm forever looking for ways to get better organized. It's even more of a challenge when you have a family to keep track of. The schedules, shopping lists, and tomorrow's to-do's are always being lost or shuffled from one place to another.
I've put together a family organizer that helps me keep track of my family's activities from week to week. This organizer makes it easy to keep track of almost anything.
One day I was looking at the ready-made templates that came with my word processing program, and I noticed there were many home-related templates already made up for me to use for my organizer. There was a monthly calendar and a weekly menu planner and grocery shopping list. I made a calendar for every month of the year to write important dates to remember, and printed out enough weekly menu planners to last a month or two.
The weekly meal planner has columns for every day of the week with "Breakfast," "Lunch," and "Dinner" listed for each day. Every weekend you write in your meals for the week, and then make up a shopping list to take to the grocery store. The menu planner has a place at the bottom to write in your shopping list, or you could make up a separate list. Download a free menu planner template from http://www.creativehomemaking.com/download.shtml. Just print, and photocopy as needed for your organizer.
The best way to organize your calendars and menu planners is in a three-ring binder. You can buy dividers that already have the months of the year
printed on them. Just file your monthly calendars in the binder with your weekly menu planners in between.
This is just the start. You can create sections in your binder for whatever you want. For instance, file your children's school or sports schedules in your organizer. Just punch holes in the pages and file them in the appropriate month. You could also include a list of phone numbers and addresses, or a list of family birthdays and anniversaries.
You can buy folders for your binder that have pockets in them. Make one for greeting cards and one for coupons. How about one for your monthly bills? The possibilities are endless.
One of the great things about the family organizer is that it keeps so many things handy and in a central location. Now if someone wants to know what's for dinner or has something to add to the grocery shopping list they can refer to the organizer themselves. We keep ours in the kitchen next to the microwave, where it's easily accessible. If you're afraid of pages getting messed up, sheet protectors work great. You can design a cover, too, and slip it into the front of the binder.
Family organizers are fun to make, relatively inexpensive, and limited only by your imagination. Start getting your family's schedules in order today!
About the Author
Originally published at Suite 101. Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. For complete resources for the Christian home, visit her web site at http://www.Christian-Parent.com.
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| Offers practical help for marriage and child-rearing. Recent magazine articles, letters from Dr. James Dobson, news, and RealAudio broadcasts. |
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| FamilyFun: Fun stuff for Kids, Parents - and More Family Fun |
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| Family.com - closed beta |
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| FamilySearch.org - Family History and Genealogy Records |
| Search for family ancestors. Billions of free family tree, family history, ancestry, genealogy and census records. |
| www.familysearch.org |
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| Family - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| A family consists of a domestic group of people (or a number of domestic groups), ... Members of the nuclear family use descriptive kinship terms: ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
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| Family (biology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| The concept of rank at that time was still in statu nascendi, and in the preface to the Prodromus Magnol spoke of uniting his families into larger genera, ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
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| Family Guy |
| The official Family Guy website with everything you ever wanted to know about the show and more. |
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| Parenting advice, child development and family reference at ... |
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| www.familyeducation.com |
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| Family Life Today |
| FamilyLife, a division of Campus Crusade for Christ, provides practical, biblical tools to strengthen marriage and family relationships, including the ... |
| www.familylife.com |
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| WorldVillage - A Family Friendly Portal for Families, Kids, Adults ... |
| WorldVillage is for families, kids, adults, parents and teachers. Features include coupon codes, online games, downloads, internet monitoring and internet ... |
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| Open Directory - Home: Family |
| Family Check-up - Provides assessment activities and access to educational materials related to family health with respect to family life, finances, ... |
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| Free Family Ecards, Family Greeting Cards, Family Greetings, Cards ... |
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| kids and family news articles - arizona education - arizona family ... |
| Family News Articles - azcentral.com provides articles and reports on Arizona education and Arizona family events. |
| www.azcentral.com |
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| Google Directory - Home > Family |
| Many articles dealing with a wide range of topics from single parenting, family life, child development and stress management. ... |
| www.google.com |
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| Family Research Council: Wednesday, December 6, 2006 |
| Christian organization promoting the traditional family unit and the Judeo-Christian value system upon which it is built. Provides links, commentary, news, ... |
| www.frc.org |
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| Sesame Workshop - Home Page |
| The non-profit educational organization behind the show and related educational outreach. |
| www.sesameworkshop.org |
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| National Sex Offender Registry |
| Free national US search for registered sex offenders. Map registered sex offenders to see who lives in your area. |
| www.familywatchdog.us |
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| FHI Family Health International |
| Provides the highest quality research, education and services in family planning, STDs/HIV and family health to improve the health and well-being of ... |
| www.fhi.org |
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| National Family Caregivers Association |
| Caregiving advocacy organization with tips and statistics on caregiving in America. |
| www.nfcacares.org |
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