In Control

I finally found the perfect Control Journal for me. People familiar with Fly Lady will know what I mean. It is a notebook/journal that has all your homekeeping information in it. Your checklists for cleaning, etc. Calendars. Menus, shopping, etc.

Now I know I am something of a perfectionist. I want something perfect before I begin. Or I want to know things will be perfect before I begin. As you can imagine this often means I don't begin at all.

Since I home school the Wild Child, I have long recognized the need for record keeping and actually have a pretty good system for the school things (which I will blog on another time). But I wanted the perfect home one. I have used a Daytimer - those are really great and I recommend them, but it seemed like it was a bigger expense than I wanted for home use. I could justify it when working (they are pricey and have all kinds of little addons that add up fast!) So, I worked last year (well not all year) on finding a good system. And I finally did. I made it myself, adapting ideas I found here and there. And it works. I have a yearly and monthly calendar. Sections for receipts I need. Budget plan pages - although I came up with the super duper easy way for that as I knew from experience if too difficult we wouldn't use it. It is adjustable, and I suspect it will be refined a bit more as it is used. There is a weekly at a glance two page section, menu planners, shopping list, pockets for bills and small bits, a work planner for my creative endeavors. And a section for some manuals I use a lot - I found them on line at manufactors websites (like for my bread machine - the original was small and lost) and printed them on 8 1/2 by 11 paper, hole punched them and - viola - a nice copy in my book that is easy to use.

When bills come in I can throw away all I don't need that comes with them and just put the bill and envelope if needed in the pocket for the appropriate payday - the budget runs on payday, every two weeks instead of monthly. It works for us! And it could be adapted anytime.

One thing I did, I made the weekly pages, menus, etc., dateless - I write them in - and thus it can be used and started any time.

Just this one thing and I feel more organized. It works so well. Now, the main CJ is way too big to carry with me, so I don't. I have a smaller date book with calendar and blank paper I carry with me. I take the time daily to transfer anything I added. I also make sure I mark calendar entries back to the date book, so I can tell when talking to someone if a date is free. This is also working well.

I started this in early December - as I said it can start anytime. When one week is done, I move all the weeks pages to the back of the section, so I have them for reference. If it gets too big, I can make a second CJ for archival purposes and put half the year in one - or the older pages, etc.

The point is, I designed something that worked for me. With the computer and printer it was easy (although I personally take my masters to a local 4 cent copy place for copying).

Right now I am working on a way to organize coupons into/with the Control Journal. I want to use them, I should use them, but, I have a tendancy to not/or lose them. Control! That is my mantra.

Politics and news are out

I am not going to be commenting on politics or news here, as I have another place for that. Hopefully, I will be able to figure out how to remove the old stuff, but, if not, it will just be there in the past. I know a lot of things about homekeeping and such and that is the new focus of this blog.

New Year New Blog

Well, at least a new blogging attitude. I have neglected this as I couldn't think of why it mattered. And now I know. It matters to me and I have some great ideas to implement in the next few days. The Barefoot Domestic Goddess is back and determined to turn this into the blog I want. I have been studying some ideas and found a great new template that has three columns which is a look I like. Watch for new art, pictures, and lots of content that I hope others will like as much as I do.