Photo by blmurch

Here are some inspiring and fun links to kick off the Mother’s Day celebrations a little early. We have the hardest, but most rewarding (and fun!!!) jobs in the world. Cheers to you!

Organizing Your Way :: Weekly Action Planner and Daily Action Planner

Simple Mom :: Use the Good Stuff and Battling Mommy Brain

Guilty Kitchen :: Buttermilk Pancakes (Have Husband make these for you…I’m sure they are even better in bed!)

SouleMama :: Weekend Bliss (May every weekend be like this. I love her photos.)

Designing Moms :: Make: Pepe La Pew

Nesting Place :: Breakables and Boys

Photo by sburke2478

I want you to think back to your younger self: to a time before kids, marriage, or your career. Maybe you were still in college, or were just venturing into adulthood.

What were your passions? What did you find yourself thinking about? Dreaming about? Learning about?

Today, I want you to make a commitment to renew those interests, and find time to invest in them.

Maybe, you were a poet. Find a cafe that has poetry readings, and attend. Or, find your courage, and sign up to do a reading.

Maybe you were involved with a nonprofit?

Or, you have a great idea for a nonprofit.

Whatever it is, commit some time to think, research, or do something to revitalize that passion today.

I’m giving myself permission to put myself back on the to do list. Every day is spent doing for other people. You clean your house and cook lovely meals because you love your family. You go to work because you want to be able to provide certain things for your family. You encourage your spouse to pursue his interests because you love him. It’s time for you to do something for yourself because you love yourself and your family.

I don’t see this as being selfish because you are not only doing it for you, but for your kids. If they see Mommy passionately pursuing something, it will give them the confidence to do the same. And we all want to raise passionate and independent kids, right?

What do you want to find time for?

Photo by aaron13251

Your home is your sanctuary. Never mind the cereal bowls on the counter and spilled milk on the floor.

You spend your days chasing kids, perhaps working full-time, eating scraps off your children’s plates, and trying very hard (and failing miserably) to appear to be perfect: the perfect Mom, the perfect housekeeper, the perfect spouse, the perfect whatever.

Maybe, you spend a lot of (unnecessary) time constantly cleaning your house. Maybe you think that if you don’t spend every day cleaning, you aren’t meeting requirements for the home manager position.

I’m here to tell you that your number one job is to play with your kids.

If you are lucky enough to be able to stay home with your kids, then don’t spend every moment cleaning and cooking because that’s what homemakers do.

You are a stay-at-home-Mom FIRST!

But, because someone has to clean up toast crumbs and slimy toilets, here’s a system that is HEAVILY adapted from the FlyLady system. There are a lot of things that I don’t necessarily follow when it comes to cleaning, but her solutions for housework are genius: Do a quick once over, once a week; and deep clean one area or “zone” each week, hitting each zone once a month. This is a breakdown of my daily, weekly and monthly cleaning schedule:

I hate cleaning a house from top to bottom every week. My Mother-in-law does this, and by the second day she’s worn out, or it doesn’t get done because it’s too much. I’d rather do a little bit every, single day- I’ve found that my home is less dirty because of the daily maintenance. This does not mean that every day works out according to my to-do list. There are some weeks that not everything gets done. I have to let go of my perfectionism, and remember that next month, I need to start with what I didn’t do. Things come up, kids get sick, or every day is just too perfect to spend it inside.

If you enjoy cleaning your entire house weekly, do it. Or, maybe it makes you feel better if you do certain rooms weekly. But, the bottom line is your system has to work for you and your family. My schedule is not your schedule, and my home is not yours. What it comes down to is what makes you happy.

What are your cleaning routines like?

Photo by Josh Koonce

Steady Mom :: How to Encourage Independent Toddler Play

Clover Lane :: Yesterday Morning

Nesting Place :: Furnish Your Home Second Hand

The Pioneer Woman :: From Garden to Home: Why I Love Growing Vegetables

Family Bites :: Open-Faced Curried Chicken Sandwich

Keeper of the Home :: Learning to Live With Less

The Inspired Room :: Accessorizing Tip: Leaning Artwork

Sand in My Coffee :: Digging Down Deep: The Excavation of Me

Simple Mom :: 5 Great Reasons to Not Watch (much) TV

Image by mquest foto

Today, I want you to brew a pot of coffee, get your favorite mug out, find a book you haven’t read yet, and read.

Forget the laundry you have to do, or floors that need swept. Find an hour of your day when you don’t have to think about anything, whether it is when babies are napping or right before the bus drops your kids off from school.

There is nothing more luxurious.

Some suggestions:

-A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

-Dubliners by James Joyce

-To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

-The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing

-Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

-The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

-Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

-Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

-As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

-One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

-Beloved by Toni Morrison

What are you reading?

Image from Hollywood North Entertainment Services

In celebration of Earth Day, download a free episode of Planet Earth and watch with your kiddos.

Until April 26, 2010, you can download “From Pole to Pole” on iTunes.

I took this photo of my two boys on a perfect summer day.

It was right after breakfast, and it was already quite hot.

We were sitting under the tree in our front yard, rolling around in the grass and giggling.

Aidan was six months old, and had mastered rolling.

Chance was five, and totally enamored with his brother.

He loved giving him hugs, and Aidan loved to pat his face.

It was a morning filled with plastic pools filled with water, balls being rolled between brothers, and a Mommy trying to keep a baby from eating grass.

I’m excited to see what this summer brings, but also a little sad. Chance has finally learned to ride a bike, and we haven’t seen him since. He’s constantly at his friends’ homes down the street.

Will there still be summer mornings spent under the trees? Will Aidan still want to kick his feet on a spread out newspaper and laugh at the sound? Will Chance want to roll around with his little brother, and shout, “Mommy, watch me do this trick,” as he jumps into the plastic pool?

They get big so fast, I’m glad that I have captured moments like this: to remember how it was when it was just me and my babies, sitting under a tree, on a Tuesday morning, last summer.

Part of Steady Mom’s 30 Minute Blog Challenge.

Image by jkfid

I love notebooks. I keep notebooks for lists, notebooks for thoughts, notebooks for memories. Name something, and I probably have a notebook devoted just to that. There’s one always in the car, my purse, my nightstand, on my desk, and notecards in the bathroom.

But, probably my most important one is on my counter, next to the coffeemaker.

This is a binder filled with everything that makes running my family and home easier.

Whether you call it a Home Management Notebook or a Control Journal (if you have Flylady leanings), this is something that every Mom/Home Manager needs to maintain some level of order and sanity.

It doesn’t have to be fancy, but I do recommend personalizing it because if you are like me, it can get lost in your stack of notebooks.

I recommend using a binder. It makes it so much easier to add and remove things as situations arise and change.

I’ve also found that dividing the notebook into sections makes finding things so much easier. I just use tabbed dividers and put the pages in clear, plastic sleeves. This is so I can reuse lists and not waste so many trees.

Here’s how I divide mine:

1. Before my divided sections, I keep my daily to-do list and the current monthly calendar. I love Simple Mom’s Daily Docket. There are spaces on the docket for meal plans, your to-do list (and MIT’s) and appointments.

2.My first real section houses my daily routines and cleaning routines. I also keep cleaning tips and recipes for natural cleaning products in this section.

3. The second section has my meal plans for the current month, as well as my grocery lists and any recipes I need for the current week.

4. The third section houses my finances/budget for the current month, as well as progress made in our current Baby Step. We follow Dave Ramsey’s plan for financial freedom. Also, I have included our financial goals and relevant account information. I also keep all of our monthly bills in a plastic sleeve. The newest addition to this section is our IRA and 401k information. Can I get a YAY for retirement?

5. I keep a list of ongoing projects/long-term goals, organization ideas, and decorating ideas in the next section.

6. My newest section is devoted to this blog. I have a current calendar for all posts for the month, an ongoing list of ideas, and any research that needs to be done for upcoming posts.

7. The last section has emergency contact information for babysitters, as well as information about all of our doctors, immunization records, reminders of when doctor appointments need to be scheduled, and policy information for all insurance that we have (life, auto, medical, dental, etc.).

Basically, that’s all that is currently in the binder, but remember, as situations and life changes, make sure that your notebook adapts and grows with you. You won’t use it unless it works for you.

What do you have in your home management notebook?

Editor’s Note: My plan is to have downloads available soon to help you put together your own home management binder. Cross your fingers!!!

Photo by Duncanh1

Earth Day is on April 22. Check out these links for inspiration.

Simple Kids :: Simple Fun for Young Green Thumbs: Egg Carton Gardening with Your Kids

Babycenter :: Recycled Earth Day Crayons

Earth Day Network :: 40th Anniversary of Earth Day

Organizing Your Way :: Easy, Natural Bathroom Cleaners and Tips

Simple Mom :: How to Create a Paperless Kitchen and 19 Tips for Making Your Home Paperless

Real Simple :: How to Recycle Anything

Photo by Johan Larsson

Can you imagine life before the advent of computers or cell phones?

Don’t worry- I can’t either. Before there were calendars and to-do lists on every device that you own, how did you ever remember things? Yeah, yeah, yeah- good old paper and pencil (I have those too!), but how did they survive without alarms going off on computers and cell phones. While all these gadgets are amazingly helpful, does it ever make you feel completely overscheduled? It’s never good when you have to schedule time to unplug and relax.

Here are a few of my favorite digital tools that I just can’t live without.

1. My Mac

My entire life is on my Mac: all my photos, my music, my calendars, my e-mail, the blogs I read instead of subscribing to magazines, my to-do list. It’s the gateway to all things that keep me sane. Plus, I just really love my Mac…I never have to do anything to it to make it run “better.” It’s worth the price tag.

2. My Blackberry

It is synced to my computer and therefore has by lists and calendars. I also don’t have an mp3 player at the moment, so I have a TON of music on it. I also wouldn’t be able to keep up with all of the feeds I have flooding my inbox. When I have a spare moment, I can whip out my phone and catch up on some reading.

3. Evernote

I love Evernote. Not sure why not everyone uses it. This is where I keep all of my recipes, notes to myself, articles from the Internet, ideas…I love it. Plus, there’s an app for my Blackberry.

4. Pear Budget

I use Pear Budget for (duh!) my budget. I love how simple it is, and that it is run by real people (not a massive company) and not expensive. Thanks Tsh at Simple Mom for singing its praises and giving all of us this tool.

5. iPhoto/Picasa

I know- it’s ridiculous to use two. But I love that Picasa is free and that it does so much. Actually, I only really use it for the collage feature, and iPhoto is for everything else.

6. iCal and Mail for Mac

Gmail is my e-mail client, but I use Mail and iCal on my computer. I love how everything syncs to my Gmail account. I’m never without anything, not matter where I am. Isn’t technology fabulous? I have separate calendars on iCal for my kids, my husband and I, menu planning, and blog stuff. Not only is it

7. Pandora Radio

This is for background noise. I have discovered a lot of new music through this site that I absolutely love. All you have to do is enter a song or an artist, and the site customizes a radio station based upon the song or band. I’m listening now.

8. Daily Lit

Every morning, another installment of a book is delivered to my inbox. AND IT’S FREE. Right now I’m reading D.H. Lawrence, who knows what I’ll be reading next. It’s a great way to read, especially the classics. You can read as much or as little as you want.

What digital tools do you use that makes your life easier/better?