My Home Management Binder

Welcome to Part Two of My Home Management Binder tour!

(Otherwise known as Part Two of "Look at what a nerd I am!")

;)

         

I'm going to work through the last six categories today. They are:

Menu

Budget

Medical

Compassion 

Homeschool 

Other

If you missed Part One, I featured Schedules, Home/Garden, and Projects and filed it under the Organization label on the right side of the home page.  :)

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My next section is Menu:

         

"Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread." Proverbs 20:13

Doesn't the King James Version sound so beautiful?!

As I've been going through the binder for these posts, and typing out each verse that's on the cover pages, I'm reminded that I went through a phase several years ago where I only read the KJV. Now I remember why I did that, haha... It reads like beautiful poetry!

But anyway, staying on task... Menu!

In this section I keep a couple of things. In the back is a list of healthy lunch ideas and a master grocery list:

        

A year or so ago I began to realize that I was making healthful breakfasts and dinners, but I struggled coming up with nourishing lunches. I did a little research and wrote a list of a few ideas. Now, whenever I become uninspired about lunches, I have a list I can refer to.

The master grocery list is something that I actually don't refer to when I make out my grocery list, but it was created in case I'm ever in a situation where I need Micah or my mom or somebody like that to run to the store for us. For example, last fall we had an emergency with our son and he was unexpectedly hospitalized. It put me out of the home for three days. My mom and mother-in-law took turns staying at the house with the other children. 

I would recommend making a master grocery list and keeping it in a spot where your husband or mom can easily find it in case something comes up, (another example would be having a baby) and you need help keeping your household running smoothly.

In the front, I keep our weekly menu list:

        

Every Sunday night I sit down and write out my grocery and menu list for the week. I also pull whatever recipe cards I'm going to need and keep them here for the week. That way I'm only rummaging through cookbooks once a week instead of wasting time searching for recipes every time I need to cook.

Next category, Budget:

        

"A false balance is an abomination to the Lord; but a just weight is His delight." Proverbs 11:1

I would love to think that only friends and honest-hearted folks are the ones who have access to my blog. Blogland, though, is open to everybody, and anyone's blog is at risk of falling into the wrong hands.

(Sad face)

With that in mind, I feel like it'd be wise to just tell you what's in the budget category, so that I don't accidentally spread personal information.

Several things are kept here. The monthly budget, a years-worth of checkbook registers, (with the current month in front) receipts that haven't been entered yet, and an envelope of coupons. 

On the first of every month, I sit down and "do the budget". I reconcile the checkbook, figure out the new month's budget, and pitch old receipts and coupons.

Moving right along, Medical:

       

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made." Psalm 139:14

It seems like every time I take my kids to see the Doctor, they send us home with 20 papers. Do I really need a new paper every 3 months that says what my child's head circumference is? (Moment of truth... I don't care!!!)

When my children are teenagers are they going to think it's fun to spend an evening going through a box of papers, reminiscing about how when they were three, they were in the 60th percentile for weight? 

I don't keep these papers. I pitch them! (Am I a bad mom?... haha)

I do keep a few papers, though, and these make it into the medical section of my binder.

(I've done my napkin trick again to hide personal information. :)

Compassion:

         

"Religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress." James 1:27

Micah and I sponsor four children through Compassion International. Leon, Nicole, Yair, and Hamidu. These kids are so precious and it's such a blessing but it comes with a lot of PAPERS!  So, just this alone gets an entire section of my binder.

         

They write us the sweetest letters and Compassion supplies us with stationary and envelopes to write back. We also get updated photos of them regularly, and sometimes they send pictures they have colored for us. All of this x 4 means there is potential for clutter. 

I keep everything in my binder and write to each of them regularly. Two of the kids have been with us for several years. This picture of Hamidu makes me want to cry because I think he was around five-years old when we got him. 

        

I recently begged Micah for a plane ticket to Uganda so that I can hug and kiss him before he turns 18 and leaves the program and I never hear from him ever again. (Micah didn't pick up on that... Something about, "Flying to Uganda is kind of a big deal... blah, blah, blah....." Whatever.)

Homeschool:

         

"Therefore shall ye lay up my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your head, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." Deuteronomy 11:18-19

I do not keep curriculum or workbooks in here (I have a cupboard for our books). This part of the binder is used for saving invoices from curriculum I have ordered and contact information for the teachers that are in my kids' lives because of church, dance lessons, and other extra activities.

       

I also keep a Memory Verse Log for the three older kids in this section:

I love that quote by J.D. Greear that goes something like, "Our goal should be to stuff our kids so full of scripture that when life cuts them, they bleed God's Word."

         

When my oldest was a toddler I had a vision. My dream was that by the time he became an adult, he would have huge chunks of scripture stored away in his heart.

"I have hidden your Word in my heart that I might not sin against you." Psalm 119:11

So.... I began working with him, little by little. By the time he was 4-years old, he had the 23rd Psalm completely memorized.

I consider it one of my greatest accomplishments of my life.

I have continued the tradition with my other children as well.

I have learned from experience that small children are capable of memorizing large chunks of scripture if you're willing to call them up to that standard and take the time to work with them.

The final section in my Home Management Binder is Other:

            

"For the word of The Lord is right and true; He is faithful in all that He does." Psalm 33:4

This is really just a miscellaneous assortment of random things like, cards people have given me, pictures my children have made for me, etc...

           

We have reached the end!

Whew! Are you sick of looking at papers?!!!

Me too.

If I didn't have my binder and all of these papers were scattered around my home, I would grow weary of that real soon!

I really hope I didn't bore you to tears but that you enjoyed my series on my Home Management Binder!

What about you? What do you do to help keep down on paper clutter?

I'd love to hear about it! Don't hesitate to leave a comment! I love hearing from you!

~Courtney