When our beautiful newborn boy was transferred to a regional hospital, my husband and I felt lost at sea. A few hours later, we learned that our baby required immediate surgery at a university hospital 750 miles away. Without it, he would die. That news threw us overboard. We longed for someone who could come alongside and pull us out of the water. A book to chart a map through unfamiliar waters and assure us of God’s presence.

But our son was born in 1982 when pediatric medicine was a relatively new field. Families like ours were hard to find. Parenting books hadn’t been written. The internet didn’t exist. Over the next twenty years, even after the surgeries and medical procedures that corrected our son’s condition were over, my search for parenting resources yielded scant results. Eventually, I sensed God nudging me to come alongside young parents lost at sea like we had been, to create a map they could follow.

Different Dream Parenting: A Practical Guide to Raising a Child with Special Needs is that map. It’s a map for parents of kids living with medical special needs as well as conditions like Down Syndrome, juvenile diabetes, developmental delays, and autism, and those facing a terminal diagnosis. It guides parents by providing tools and resources they need to become effective advocates for their kids.

The book features interviews, advice, and resources from more than fifty families and two dozen professionals. With their help, the book addresses the situations parents face every day. Things I wish someone had told me, like:

• Asking questions after diagnosis.
• Dealing with insurance companies.
• Preparing a child for a hospital stay.
• Accessing financial resources and government monies.
• Accessing special education services.
• Determining optimum level of care.
• Mobilizing volunteers at home.
• Supporting the sibs.
• Preparing a child for death.
• Planning a funeral.
• Participating in community and church events.
• Creating a special needs trust for adult children with special needs.

In addition to practical advice, Different Dream Parenting tackles spiritual questions families are often afraid to ask. Questions about:

• God’s sovereignty
• Parental guilt
• Setting and maintaining spiritual priorities
• Grieving for children living with special needs
• Grieving the death of a child
• Passing faith on to children with special needs

Thirty day prayer guides in the appendices are for parents too exhausted to form their own prayers.

I remember what it’s like to be lost at sea, thrown overboard by an unexpected diagnosis, and drowning under a flood of caregiving demands. My goal is to put Different Dream Parenting into the hands of floundering parents so they have a map and know they’re not alone. To order the book, visit www.DifferentDream.com and click on the “buy the book” tab.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Jolene Philo has been a teacher for 25 years and has published numerous articles on parenting a special needs child and preparing children for a hospital stay. She is a regular contributor to a regional monthly women’s magazine, has spoken to MOPS groups, and is a commentator for Iowa Public Radio’s ‘Iowa Voices.’ She and her husband have two children and live in Boone, Iowa.

Listen in as I talk with Jolene Philo, author of A Different Dream for My Child. Jolene shares about her journey as a parent of a special needs, chronically ill child. She gives ideas on how to survive as a parent in this situation and also shares tips and advice on how to best reach out to these families.

Post a comment to win 1 of 4 copies we’re giving away!*

About A Different Dream For My Child:
For years, Jolene Philo’s son was hospitalized many times as he battled a life-threatening birth defect. Far from home, without friends and family to support them, Jolene and her husband felt utterly and completely alone. Today, support networks for parents of critically or chronically ill children have improved, but most only provide for urgent physical needs. The devotional meditations in this book address the spiritual needs of these parents as the author shares her own life lessons, as well as those of other parents who have walked this road. “No matter how difficult the road,” Philo writes, “you do not have to lose hope.”

Learn more about the book and Jolene at DifferentDream.com or find the book on Amazon.

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(*US entries only, Contest ends 12/4/09)

If you’re a work-at-home mom with kids in elementary school, you may be harboring a guilty little secret. You’re not looking forward to summer vacation as much as your children are. And since the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) reported that parents should cut back on children’s scheduled activities so they have more time for unstructured play, you may be wondering what to do with the kids this summer and still get your work done.

But, you can make summer a healthy, growing time for kids without going crazy. The ideas listed below are designed to make summer fun while giving children time for unstructured play. Plus, these ideas will keep your kids thinking and learning, easing their transition back to school next fall.

Limit TV and Video Time

No doubt you know you should set limits on TV time. But perhaps you aren’t sure how to enforce such limits. Here’s an idea that worked with our kids. Each child was allotted one half hour of TV daily. They could also watch their sibling’s half hour. Or they could combine their daily time and watch an hour long show together, or save half-hours until they had enough time for a video or DVD. They spent almost as much time planning what to watch as watching!

Push Reading

Encourage school-aged children to read this summer. Sign your kids up for the library’s summer reading program. Schedule a library visit one day a week. Check out audiobooks, games, puzzles and puppets along with books. Choose some books that your kids can read alone and others that you will read aloud. Schedule time for your children to read alone each day, and read aloud to your children every single day. As Jim Trelease, author of The Read-Aloud Handbook says, “The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children.”

Balance Activities

Children need structure to make them feel safe and in control of their environment. To create structure during the summer, balance these four types of activities within each week:

Structured activities could include Little League, swimming lessons or art classes. In adult-directed activities, the parent teaches a child croquet or how to ride a bike, play a board game or put a puzzle together, cook or garden. And child-directed play allows children to develop and direct activities by themselves.

Create a True Toy Stash

The AAP’s 2007 report on the importance of play states that children should have more time for self-directed play with “true toys” like blocks and dolls. The bad news is that blocks and dolls alone won’t keep kids busy all summer. The good news is that true toys are cheap, easy to find and most don’t require a trip down the toy aisle. In fact, your closets are probably full of true toys. Here’s a list of true toys to help you get started:

• Blocks – Buy blocks or sand down scraps left over from woodworking and remodeling projects
• Dolls and stuffed animals
• Cardboard boxes – Use Kleenex boxes, appliance boxes and anything in between for make-believe play and “building” projects
• Blankets and clothespins – Pin blankets to furniture for indoor tents or on the clothesline, swing set, or fence for outdoor tents
• Sidewalk chalk
• Ice cream buckets and old paint brushes – “Paint” the driveway and the garage with water
• String – Run string from tree to tree outdoors or from chair to chair indoors to create houses and rooms
• Dress-up box – Collect old hats, clothes, canes, costumes, wigs, and clown noses
• Art box – Fill containers with old crayons, markers, scissors, pens, stickers, yarn, buttons, and craft sticks, paper, glue, and tape
• Sports equipment – Store basketballs, volleyballs, tennis balls, Frisbees, and jump ropes and send kids outside to play.

Let your children help create your true toy stash. Listen to their ideas and observe what excites them. Think about their interests and passions and let those guide you as you gather true toys that kids will use in self-directed play.

Create a Junk Box

A well-stocked junk box is a summer essential. To make one, store the following items (and any others you think of) in a cardboard box or plastic tub so kids can create cool stuff all summer:

• Cardboard tubes
• Toothpicks
• Old newspaper and magazines
• Twisty ties
• Rubber bands
• Clean, empty plastic jars, bottles, and jugs
• Disposable plastic and aluminum trays

When creating a junk box, always consider safety. Stay away from items that could cut or constrict an airway and from containers that once held dangerous chemicals.

Set Limits

Self-directed play is loud and messy. The mess can take over the entire house. As the parent you have the right to declare some rooms off limits and to designate some activities as only outdoor endeavors. Children should also clean up after themselves.

Even with these limits, true toys will make your house busier and messier than ever before. So take time this summer and play. Revive an old hobby or begin a new one. Relax, make a mess and create your own fun. After all, isn’t that what summer’s for?

About the Author:

Jolene Philo is a freelance writer and speaker who lives in Boone, Iowa. She shares her house and her home office with her husband Hiram, daughter Anne, and dachshund Abby. You can learn more about her at her website, www.jolenephilo.com.

One of my favorite childhood memories is of a family vacation when I was nine years old. Uncle Jim and Aunt Donna, who should probably be nominated for sainthood, took their three girls and me and my younger brother on a road trip. At night the gals slept in the orange TeePee pop-up camper. The guys hunkered down in the trunk of the car. Breakfasts consisted of cold cereal eaten from those perforated, single-serving boxes that, when bent back correctly formed passable, though soggy, bowls. Lunches were bologna sandwiches and carrot sticks, often eaten in a ditch by the side of the road. Supper was cooked over the Coleman stove. We toured the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, the Denver Mint, the Red Rock Amphitheater and more. The trip was a blast.

I hope you have a precious childhood vacation memory, too. Because family vacations are all about creating happy memories for our kids. That should be the main goal of your vacation, though you probably have other criteria as well. Maybe your vacation needs to be economical. Maybe you want it to be educational or memorable or loads of fun. It definitely needs to be kid-friendly. Whatever your criteria, you increase your chances of achieving them by planning ahead.

Low Key Vacations

My best advice for family vacations is to keep them as low key as possible. Kids don’t need spectacular vacations and won’t demand glitzy, glamorous ones unless you create that expectation within them. What kids do need is uninterrupted time to hang out with their parents away from the normal hustle and bustle of life. That’s what you need to do – create a vacation environment where your family members can connect.

There are a number of ways to create such an environment, and they don’t have to cost a great deal. Google your local Chamber of Commerce or State Tourism Department. Are there county or state parks nearby? Campgrounds? Fishing ponds? Canoe rentals? Nature trails? With gas prices increasing, a week at a state park can be the perfect way to stay within your budget. Because you won’t spend hours on the road, your kids won’t be tired of each other before you reach your destination. And you’ll have plenty of time to explore trails, wade in a pond and cook meals together.

Road Trip Vacations

Of course, it’s hard to call yourself a red-blooded American unless you’ve taken at least one road trip to visit our national treasures. Visits to places such as the Grand Canyon, Washington D.C. or the Great Lakes do enrich kids’ lives. As a former teacher I can tell you that elementary students who have participated in such trips better understand United States history and geography. They’ve been given prior knowledge, a scaffold of experiences that make the dry facts, dates and names in their social studies books come alive.

Road trips with kids, especially on a limited budget, are challenging but not impossible. Take a page from Uncle Jim and Aunt Donna’s book and camp instead of staying in motels. The kids will love it. Make your own meals. Get on the Internet and scope out special admissions to national parks.

With forethought, you can even make the time on the road fun without resorting to the portable DVD player. When I googled "traveling with kids," I found some great websites. A couple of the best sites are www.activitiesforkids.com/travel/travel_hints.htm and http://www.essortment.com/in/Children.Travel/index.htm. But my absolute favorite is www.momsminivan.com, where you can download printable boards for car bingo and battleship. Be sure to check out the ideas for getting kids to sing in the car and how to use aluminum foil to create wacky stuff.

Once-in-a-Lifetime Vacation

Of course, every family should take a once-in-a-lifetime vacation. If this is the year for yours, you want to make the trip memorable. If you aren’t sure where to start, 100 Best Family Resorts in North America by Janet Tice and Jane Wilford (Insiders’ Guide) and National Geographic’s Guide to Family Adventure Vacations by Candyce E. Staphen (National Geographic Society) can help.

If you’ve already chosen a destination, your local library should have books to help you maximize your time there. Browse the library’s travel section to get an idea of the guidebooks available. You’ll find kid-friendly guides, cheapskate guides, off-the-beaten-path guides, and lots more. Once you know what you want, purchase a your favorites, either from your local bookstore or online. Use them to plan an itinerary that is fun for both kids and parents.

Vacation Benefits

As a Christian mom, you can invite God to join your vacation and impact your children for eternity. Take time for family devotions. As you explore nature, talk about the Creator. Encourage children to ask hard questions and discuss them together. During prayers, express your gratitude to God for providing this time for your family to be together.

Vacations are often more work and more expensive than staying home, at least for moms, but take them for your children’s sakes. Vacations are part of your family’s history. They contribute to the sense of belonging children need if they are to become secure adults. So take a vacation, even if it’s more work for you. Some day your kids will be grateful.

I sure am. Though I’ve told them before, I want to tell them again. Thanks, Uncle Jim. Thanks, Aunt Donna. That vacation was the best.

About the Author:

Jolene Philo is a freelance writer and speaker who lives in Boone, Iowa. She shares her house and her home office with her husband Hiram, daughter Anne, and dachshund Abby. You can learn more about her at her website, www.jolenephilo.com.

If I asked you to write down your dream components of a perfect day, "doing the laundry" probably wouldn’t make your list. It wouldn’t make mine either. On the other hand, "having no laundry to do" definitely would. When my wash is done, I feel like I’ve won another round of the dirty laundry game.

Maybe you’d like to win a round, too. But your preschooler just smeared grape jelly on his shirt. Your toddler, wearing light pink overalls, looks like a human dust mop after crawling all over the floor you haven’t swept for a week. And your baby projectile vomited an entire jar of blueberry buckle over everything within eight feet of her, including you and your husband. So you doubt you’ll win the laundry game any time soon. However, with the right equipment, a few timesaving strategies and some practice, you can improve your record.

Keep It Simple

Staying ahead of the wash is much easier if you keep things simple. The first way to simplify is to be selective about the clothes you buy. Avoid clothes that require dry cleaning, hand washing or have instructions so complicated that it would take a trained professional to follow them. Purchase clothes that can tolerate the settings on your washing machine and can be sorted into one of three groups: whites, darks and colored.

Another simple technique is to funnel the dirty laundry to one location. Put a basket (or hamper) for dirty laundry in or near each bedroom and bathroom. Train yourself and your husband to put dirty clothes and towels in the baskets. By the time children are three or four, they should use the baskets, too.

Simplify further by sorting as you go. Put three bins (or large baskets) in your laundry area, and sort when you bring baskets of dirty clothes from the bedrooms. As children get older, put three sorting baskets in their bedrooms and train them to sort in their rooms. Then they can dump the sorted baskets into the bins every few days.

Keep It Going

Stay ahead of dirty laundry better by doing a load or two or wash each day. When soon as a sorting bin is full, start a load in the washer. As soon as the wash cycle is done, move the wet clothes into the dryer. If your washer and dryer don’t have buzzers to tell you when a load is finished, set your oven timer as a reminder. And if the dryer load contains clothes you want to fold before they get wrinkled, set the timer a few minutes early to get to the clothes before wrinkles set in.

Another way to keep ahead is to put a load of bath towels, sheets, socks, and underwear in the washer an hour before you go to bed. Right before bedtime, move them to the dryer and start a load of clothes you don’t want wrinkled in the washer. In the morning, put the dry load in a basket and the wet load in the dryer. Set a reminder timer if you need to and fold both loads when it rings. With this system, you can have two loads done before breakfast.

Keep It Folded and Put It Away

The least favorite laundry chore, for some people, is folding and putting away clothes. But the job isn’t done until the clothes are folded and put away. Whenever possible, fold clothes as soon as they’re dry. If you can’t get to them immediately, put the basket somewhere obvious and fold them later while doing something enjoyable like watching TV or listening to the radio.

Streamline the job with these time savers. Sort underwear into neat piles but don’t bother folding it. Make beds with the clean sheets as soon as they come out of the dryer. As you fold, put everything in labeled tubs or baskets: your room, kids’ rooms, linen closet and kitchen. Have your kids fold the socks into balls and "shoot baskets" to get them to the right tub.

Keep It Kid Friendly

Consider folding and putting away laundry as a reoccurring series of teachable moments for your kids. A two-year-old can fold washcloths, dishrags and napkins while you introduce colors with comments like, "Now fold the red towel." Teach a preschooler to recognize family members’ names and her own by putting folded clothes in the labeled tubs. School-age children learn organizational skills by taking tubs to appropriate rooms and putting their clothes in the correct drawers.

Of course, all these efforts take time and supervision, but your children will be the better for it. By involving them in laundry tasks at a young age and increasing their responsibilities as they grow, you are preparing them for adulthood. Believe it or not, the ability to do laundry is an essential skill young adults need to master to live independently.

You can stay ahead of the laundry, though it won’t happen immediately. By implementing these suggestions and adapting them to meet your circumstances, you can win the laundry game – at least until the baby sends the strained sweet potatoes flying your way at breakfast. When that happens remind yourself to wear the old rain poncho at lunchtime. You’ll be glad you did.

About the Author: Jolene Philo is a freelance writer and speaker who lives in Boone, Iowa. She shares her house and her home office with her husband Hiram, daughter Anne, and dachshund Abby. You can learn more about her at her website, www.jolenephilo.com.

Family mealtime is important. In fact, its importance is becoming clearer as modern families abandon the practice of eating together. Therefore, even though mealtime and menus were addressed in the December column, I am revisiting the topic. This month the focus is on why eating together is crucial for you and your children.

Mealtime Truth Observed

Family meals added structure to my own life. They were the center of my childhood. Three times a day we gathered at the table even though my mother taught full time. We ate together for two reasons. First, it was economical and money was tight on a teacher’s salary. Second, mealtime provided company for my disabled, homebound father.

So we ate cornflakes together at breakfast. Dad fixed cold sandwiches for lunch. Mom fixed a hot supper though by age ten, my siblings and I could do the same. We talked and joked around the table. The look on Dad’s face during meals told us they were the highlight of his day. He loved to eat, but this was about more than food. Just as family meals provided structure in my childhood, our presence at the table gave structure and meaning to his very long days.

My childhood experiences were so strong that as a mom, I insisted on a family meal every day. Some nights, when my husband worked the evening shift, the kids and I ate without him. Some nights, when I had late meetings at school or attended a conference, they ate without me. Sometimes, breakfast or lunch was the only time we could eat together, so that’s what we did. But every day, there was a family meal.

It wasn’t always easy and it wasn’t always perfect, but the impact of that practice was clear when our college daughter came home from her freshman semester in December. Though she hung out with friends, she scheduled her holiday activities around supper. "I want to eat with you," she said. "That’s what I missed most at college."

Mealtime Truth Proven

Recently I read Miriam Weinstein’s book, The Surprising Power of Family Meals (Steerforth Press, 2005). The author presents reasons for the decline of family mealtime. Most of them you can probably guess: parents’ work schedules, kids’ activity schedules, television and divorce. She lists the benefits of mealtime cited in a number of research studies. The benefits include:

o Lower incidences of smoking, drug use and teen pregnancy

o Positions children to do better in school

o Passes down of ethical, familial and religious heritage

o Lowers rates of eating disorders and obesity

o Builds children’s literacy, vocabulary and conversational skills

o Teaches manners

o Promotes resilience in children

o Promotes enjoyment of other family members

That’s quite a list. Weinstein never states that family mealtime guarantees these benefits. But she suggests that making adjustments so a family can eat together is an investment with the potential for high yields.

The book includes study results and anecdotal incidents that strengthen her position. She examines two parent and single parent families, as well as different socio-economic levels and cultures. Though her roots are in Judaism, she explores the importance of family mealtime in several faiths, including Christianity. Her insights make the book worthwhile reading.

Mealtime Truth Applied

But my subjective observations and Weinstein’s objective study results can’t do anything without action from parents like you. As a mom, especially as a work-at-home mom, you can give your children the gift of a family mealtime that will reap benefits for the rest of their lives.

As my family history shows, doing so isn’t always easy and it isn’t perfect, but it can be done. Here are the strategies that helped our family eat together at least once a day:

o Plan your meals ahead of time. Go to the December column, It’s About Time to Get Cooking for ideas about how to get started.

o Be flexible. If your husband works evenings, eat breakfast or lunch together. If he gets home in late evening before the kids go to bed, have a family snack time.

o Take the television set out of the room where you eat.

o Limit the number of activities your children participates in at any one time to free up time for family meals.

o Complain to those in charge when your kids’ activities are scheduled during mealtime.

o Have a family scheduling meeting once a week. Write all activities on one calendar. Then schedule mealtime for when the most family members can be home.

o Have the kids help plan menus, prepare meals and set the table. The more they’re involved, the more they’ll be invested in mealtime.

When your family sits down to eat, begin take a moment to share spiritual food with your family before digging in. Bow your heads and offer a blessing. When you thank the Father who gives you food to eat, children to nurture, a family to love and a Savior who guides, mealtime blessings multiply.

Always remember that you are the mom. You have the power to make each

family mealtime a blessing. By eating together each day, you will send those blessings forward into the lives of your children, their children, and their children’s children.

Kind of gives you an appetite for a family meal, doesn’t it?

About the Author:

Jolene Philo is a freelance writer and speaker who lives in Boone, Iowa. She shares her house and her home office with her husband Hiram, daughter Anne, and dachshund Abby. You can learn more about her at her website, www.jolenephilo.com.

Winters are long in the Midwest. And even though the daylight hours grow discernibly in February, it’s still the month when cabin fever shows up. This uninvited visitor plagues work-at-home moms, cooped up with kids determined to litter the house with toys and projects.

One way to banish cabin fever is to keep the house clean. Accomplishing that feat while maintaining control of kids bursting with excess energy is a challenge for even the most organized mom. But you can gain control over your home and keep cabin fever at bay by establishing some daily house cleaning routines. In the process, you’ll teach your kids skills they need to be successful as adults. So let’s get to work.

Control Your Clutter

To make your home look clean even when it isn’t, you need to control clutter. Of course, with children creating messes as you get rid of them, you’ll think you’re fighting a losing battle. But if you implement these quick tricks, eventually you will win the clutter war.
* Sort mail daily. Throw junk mail in the garbage without opening it. File catalogs you want to keep, bills and other important mail. Note in your planner when to pay bills and respond to other correspondence.
* If you have school age children, check backpacks every day. To learn more about controlling school papers, read the September 2007 It’s About Time column
* Purge newspapers weekly and magazines monthly.
* Pick up toys every day, even if you just toss them in plastic tubs and hide them behind the couch.
* Set up ongoing projects in an out-of-the-way place like the basement or the spare room.

Create a Schedule

Most people clean in one of two ways: in one fell swoop or in small, daily spurts. Both have advantages and disadvantages. The first is exhausting, but if you stick with it to the end, the whole house looks great. The second is more manageable, and therefore more likely to get done, but every room in house never looks magazine cover ready at the same time.

Over the years, I moved from being the first kind of cleaner to the second. It easier and left the weekends free for family activities. My system evolved into the following five cleaning duties completed after work: kitchen, bathroom, dusting, vacuuming, and rotating chores. Rotating chores included things that didn’t need weekly attention such as closet cleaning, sorting toys with kids and cleaning the porch.

You can tweak the system to meet your needs. If you want a little more structure and encouragement as you change your cleaning habits, visit the Fly Lady at www.flylady.com. She has schedules, daily emails and cleaning products that will help you develop daily housework habits. You’ll take baby steps each week and have fun in the process. One word of warning: if you sign up to be part of the Fly Lady’s email group and don’t want your inbox flooded, select the digest format.

Include the Kids

Your kids can clean house. In fact, your kids need to clean house. It is one of the best ways to teach them necessary life skills. As an elementary teacher I discovered there are two kinds of students in the world. The first kind keep their lockers and desks clean, finish their homework and can find it when asked to hand it in. The second kind can’t find any homework, complete or incomplete, because of their messy desks and overflowing lockers. In discussions with kids and their parents, I found that most students in the first group had cleaning chores at home, while those in the second group didn’t.

Teaching your kids to clean is a win-win situation for your family. You get help around the house; the kids learn life skills. And the key to teaching them is to start early. Of course you can’t expect your two-year-old to scrub the bathtub or your three-year-old to vacuum the house. But there are appropriate cleaning tasks for every age group: toddlers, preschoolers, elementary-aged children and middle schoolers.

These two websites have excellent articles about age-appropriate tasks for kids, as well as other information about allowances, chore charts and other topics.

* familyeducation.com – Type "chores for children" in the search box, and you’ll find many useful ideas.

* raisingchildren.net.au – For a bit of Australian parenting flavor, type "chores for children" in the search box of this website.

Make It Fun

House cleaning is not my favorite activity. And my grown kids, who were part of the family cleaning crew during childhood, agree. But when they were young, we stumbled onto a method that made cleaning fun. We listened to book tapes or fun radio shows while we worked. Believe it or not, the memory of everybody working together at home and listening to a good story is one they cherish.

By following these three steps, you and your family will have more than a clean home. You’ll have more than a home devoid of cabin fever. You’ll have good memories and more responsible kids, too. So dig out the mop bucket and feather duster. It’s about time to clean the house.

About the Author:
Jolene Philo is a freelance writer and speaker who lives in Boone, Iowa. She shares her house and her home office with her husband Hiram, daughter Anne, and dachshund Abby. You can learn more about her at her website, www.jolenephilo.com.

When most people hear the word "January," they think of cold and snow, abandoned New Year’s resolutions, short days and long nights. But when I hear "January," once the shivering stops, I think of down time. Between holiday recovery time and uncertain weather, many activities take a break during January. That gives you a chance to prepare for the new year. The best way to do that is to gather the tools you need and make them part of your routine. And the most important tool to have in place is your daily planner.

I know, I know. You’re thinking, "Why is she talking about this again? We went over this in August." You’re right. We did. But at that time I promised we would revisit the daily planner this month and maybe add a few bells and whistles. And being a woman of my word, except for that silly vow I made about never eating chocolate again, a second look at how to use the daily planner is in order.

If you missed the first column and want to start at the beginning, or if your memory is like mine and you have no idea of what you ate for breakfast this morning, much less the contents of an article you read last August, take heart. A quick trip to the August column will get you up to speed.

Evaluate Present Use

This January commit the new year to God and ask Him to help you redeem the time (Ephesians 5:16) He’s provided. One way to do that is to use your planner well. If you haven’t purchased one yet, the link above tells what you need to get started. Once you determine what you need, you can shop websites like www.dayrunner.com or www.franklincovey.com or visit your local office supply store.

If you already use your planner regularly, now’s the time to evaluate how effective that use is. Ask yourself these questions:

* How can I improve my daily planning time?
* Do I ask God to guide the way I use my time?
* Do I take my planner wherever I go?
* When does it save time?
* When does it waste time?
* What can I change to utilize it more effectively for household chores and family responsibilities?
* What can I change to utilize it more effectively within my business?
* What do I need to add?

Make Necessary Adjustments

Based on the answers to the questions above and ones you think of yourself, you will see where to adjust your present practice. For example, if you aren’t planning daily, make that a priority each morning and include prayer time in it. Or, if you forget your planner when you leave the house, try clipping your car keys to it. You won’t forget it again!

Keep all present practices and features that save time. But if some waste more time than they save, figure out why. If you just need more practice until they become second nature, keep practicing. If moving components to a different part of the planner or tabbing them differently would help, try that. But if something is a true time waster, abandon it.

Add Needed Features

As your family and business grows, so will your planner. When I first attended writers’ conference, I exchanged business cards and stuck them in the front of my planner. A quick shuffle through the cards was enough to jog my memory so I could find the person I needed to locate. Once I attended a few more conferences and hit the ripe old age of fifty, that method tanked. Cards began falling out of my planner. I couldn’t recall the face or conversation that accompanied the name on the card. But at the DayRunner website, I found a plastic holder that displays all the cards at once. And I now write a note on the back of each card to help me remember the person who gave it to me.

In the same way, you will add features when previously workable practices become frustrating. When that happens, think about what you need to make them work again. Ask others if they had the same problem and how they solved it. Search online to see what’s available and when you find it, add it to your planner.

Create a Habit

If you started using a planner once and then gave up, don’t despair. Be patient and persevere. Remember, it takes six weeks to turn a new practice into a habit.

You just need to think of easy ways to keep the new habit in front of you at all times. So if you forgot to use your planner today, put it where you will have to touch it tomorrow. Depending on your morning routine, that place could be: on your breakfast chair, in a sack hanging from the doorknob, on top of your purse or Bible, beside the alarm clock, in your shoes…you get the idea. This method works so well you can use it to help other people in your house remember their stuff, too.

Time is a gift from God, and He’s given you a new year of minutes and hours and days and weeks and months. The four steps above can help you redeem that time in a way that honors your family, your business and the Giver of all good gifts.

About the Author:
Jolene Philo is a freelance writer and speaker who lives in Boone, Iowa. She shares her house and her home office with her husband Hiram, daughter Anne, and dachshund Abby. You can learn more about her at her website, www.jolenephilo.com.

For years the question, "What’s for supper?" filled me with dread because I rarely knew the answer. I was married eight years before I stumbled upon the practice of menu planning. Once discovered, it made my life a whole lot easier. I spent less time cooking, reduced food waste, saved money and my family ate better. These ten tips can make your life easier, too, so give them a try.

Tip One: Be a Fabulous Cook Once a Day

Reserve your best cooking for your main family meal. Put all other meals on autopilot by creating a weekly menu of simple meals like those shown on this table.

Breakfast

Lunch
Sun
Orange juice, cold cereal, toast Sunday dinner, then popcorn at supper
Mon
Grape juice, instant oatmeal Soup, PBJs, baby carrots
Tues
Orange slices, toaster waffles Grilled cheese, chips, canned fruit
Wed
Orange juice, cold cereal, toast Leftovers
Thurs
Grapes and muffins Hot dogs, veggies and chips
Fri
Grape juice, PB toast or English muffins Mac & cheese, fresh veggies with dip
Sat
Apple slices, Pop Tarts Lunch meat sandwiches, fresh fruit

*This menu assumes milk is served with meals

Tip Two: Plan Menus Weekly

Think of main dishes for the main meal of each day. Write them on your monthly wall calendar or in your planner. Check church, school and work calendars as you go so you don’t plan something for the night of the PTA pancake supper. Do your planning on the day you get your favorite grocery store ads. Make your grocery list as you go, letting good deals on produce and other items guide your side dish choices.

Tip Three: Utilize the Crock Pot and Grill

Plan at least two crock pot meals per week during the winter months and two grilled meals in the summer. Crock pot and grilling recipes are everywhere. Inexpensive cookbooks are available in the check out lanes at grocery stores. Google "crockpot" or "grilling" and see what you get. You can also check at the library or in women’s magazines and newpapers.

Tip Four: Use Leftovers

When planning menus, include at least one meal per week that yields leftovers to be used for the main dish of another meal. Grill a turkey and boil off the carcass for soup. Use leftover meat in hash or a casserole. Put a beef or pork roast in the crock pot and use the leftovers for hot sandwiches, stew or stir fry. Or reheat leftovers for an easy lunch.

Tip Five: Shop Once a Week

Menu planning will help you develop a once-a-week shopping mindset. As you plan meals, make your grocery list. Post it on your refrigerator. As you run out of items during the week, add them to the list. Always take your list with you to the store.

Tip Six: Stockpile Basic Ingredients

Once your breakfast and lunch menus are in place, stockpile kid foods such as canned soup, Spaghettios and macaroni and cheese when they’re on sale. Do the same with ingredients you use regularly such as flour, sugar, spaghetti sauce, pasta, spices, oil, canned tuna and salad dressings. Check the stockpile as you plan menus and add needed ingredients to your grocery list.

Tip Seven: Make Your Freezer Your Best Friend

If you have a deep freeze, take advantage of it. Buy sale-price meat and large quantities of staples to freeze. Date and label everything. Store food in freezer bags or disposable aluminum pans if you run out of casserole dishes.

Tip Eight: Fix More Than One

You can maximize your time by making double, triple or quadruple batches of anything you prepare – casseroles, baked good, snack mix, cheese balls. Serve one batch immediately and put the rest, labeled and dated, in the freezer. By doing this consistently, you will have meals on hand for busy days.

Tip Nine: Develop a Plan for Picky Eaters

Inform the picky eaters at your house that a one choice optional menu plan is available. It should be nutritious but not very glamorous. At our house it was peanut butter sandwiches. As soon as the picksters are old enough, they should fix the optional meal by themselves. This method feeds picksters without catering to them, and they often begin trying new foods.

Tip Ten: Create a Recipe Arsenal

Menu planning is easier if you have a large number of recipes you like. Look for recipes that are uncomplicated, nutritious, freeze well and use inexpensive ingredients. One book that meets all these criteria is Once a Month Cooking by Mimi Wilson & Mary Beth Lagerborg (published by Focus on the Family). Other sources of good recipes include: good cooks, church cookbooks, newspapers and magazines, the library, the Internet and food packaging. Set a goal of trying a new recipe once or twice a month. If your family gives it a thumbs up, add it to your arsenal.

Once I implemented menu planning, I didn’t hate the "What’s for supper?" question because I always had an answer. You will too, with a little practice. So as winter sets in, try these ten tips. And send an email to tell me how you’re progressing. If you do, I’ll send you some of my favorite recipes. So go on, it’s time to get cooking!

About the Author:
Jolene Philo is a freelance writer and speaker who lives in Boone, Iowa. She shares her house and her home office with her husband Hiram, daughter Anne, and dachshund Abby. You can learn more about her at her website, www.jolenephilo.com.

This fall we’ve enjoyed some record setting warm temperatures in the Midwest, my part of the country. The mild weather reminds me of a similar fall years ago when my daughter Anne was a first grader. Between the pleasant weather and extra duties at work, I forgot to sort through the kids’ winter paraphernalia. An unexpected night time snowfall in November resulted in a mad search through our coat closet the next morning. Anne’s coat, mittens and hat still fit, but her old boots were way too small. So off to school she went, bootless through the wet snow. She came home very upset. "Mom," she sobbed. "Everybody without boots had to stand by the wall. And the playground supervisor scolded us and…" Her story went on and on, and I felt guilty as I comforted her. Why? Because a little forethought on my part would have prevented the whole situation.

You can avoid a similar scenario at your house by using the four steps below to help you organize the hodgepodge of winter cast-offs cluttering your closet. Then you’ll be ready for the cold days that will soon arrive.

Step One: Sort and Size
First, pull last winter’s things out of the closet and have your kids try them on. Pass clothes on if they fit your next smallest child or store them if a much smaller child can wear them in a few years. Save items you can’t use for a garage sale or donate them to another family or to a thrift store. Immediately put things to be stored in a labeled box. Bag items to be donated and drop them off the next time you run errands. Price garage sale merchandise and place it in boxes labeled for that purpose. Whatever you do, don’t put things you won’t use in the closet. Get rid of them instead.

And while you’re at it, use the same system to sort through spring jackets, raincoats and umbrellas. Pack what you will use again in a labeled, clear plastic tub, but wash soiled items first. Put the tub in storage. Get rid of everything else.
Now, run the usable winter coats, hats, mittens and scarves through the air fluff cycle of your dryer. While the dryer removes the wrinkles, you can create a shopping list, including kids’ clothing size and color preferences. Put the list in your planner so it is handy when you find a good buy.

Step Two: Swap and Buy
Because you’re starting early, you can avoid paying top prices for your kids’ winter gear. Think about friends and family who have children older and larger than your kids. See if they have coats or boots to pass on or sell at a reduced price. Or maybe you can swap coats and boots back and forth from year to year.
If that doesn’t work, check ebay, consignment shops, garage sale ads and thrift stores for quality used outerwear. If you still come up empty-handed, watch the department store sales flyers. Most run a pre-season coat sale with deep coupon discounts. If you’re a catalog or Internet shopper, check websites to do some comparison pricing.

And don’t forget your local discount store. They’re a great place pick up extra pairs of inexpensive stretch gloves and headbands. Keep them on hand for emergencies and to replace the mittens and caps that inevitably get lost each winter. Layering a couple pairs together keeps kids’ fingers warm without making your temper flare. They make cheap stocking stuffers at Christmas, too.

Step Three: Hang and Dry
Once the family is outfitted for winter, train everyone to take care of their gear when they get home – unless you enjoy navigating your way through heaps of coat and piles of boots during several months of cold weather. These tips can help you avoid that fiasco. You’ll spend a couple weeks training kids (and adults) to use the storage system, but the effort is worth it.

- Hang adult coats in the closet.
- Install pegs at kid level near the door they use to enter the house. They should hang their coats up as soon as they take them off.
- Put a bathmat, boot tray or folded vinyl tablecloth on the floor near the same door, perhaps below the pegs. Kids should place wet boots there.
- Hang a shoe organizer over the coat closet door. Use it to store hats, gloves and mittens. Label the pockets with the names of everyone in the family, reserving the lowest pockets for the smallest children.
- Varnish a long narrow piece of wood. Glue clothespins to it and hang it on the wall above a radiator or other heater. Kids can pin their wet mittens there to dry.

Step Four: Sort and Store
This last step, which will make next year’s winter preparations much easier, will be completed next spring. Make a note – "Store winter stuff" – on an April day in your planner calendar so you don’t forget when spring arrives. When the designated day comes, haul the tub full of spring outerwear to the coat closet and complete step one in reverse.

Once you have the spring jackets arranged and the winter things stowed away, do one last thing. Write a note – "Store spring stuff" – on a November day in your planner calendar. Now, no matter what next fall is like, you’ll set a weather record. Your kids will tramp through the snow, dry and warm, two years in a row. Kind of makes you eager for snow, doesn’t it?

About the Author:
Jolene Philo is a freelance writer and speaker who lives in Boone, Iowa. She shares her house and her home office with her husband Hiram, daughter Anne, and dachshund Abby. You can learn more about her at her website, www.jolenephilo.com.

An early September trip to a craft store, where I saw Christmas items prominently displayed, forced me to check the calendar. "Yes," I told myself, " it is time to start Christmas shopping."

It’s hard to whip up holiday spirit when the weather’s warm and the calendar says you have almost 100 days to go. But every October, two reasons spark my holiday spirit. First, shopping early means there’s more time to celebrate the coming of Christ in December. Second, it saves money. If those reasons make the sugar plums do a happy dance in your head, you’re ready to shop.

Establish a Budget

Before you start, make a budget. With your spouse, decide how much money you can spend without going into debt. Gift giving doesn’t honor the Savior’s birth if your spending creates debt.

Once you know your spending limits, get a couple blank note pages from the back of your planner and make two lists. On one, record every person who needs a gift: family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, club and school gift exchanges. On the second, list other holiday purchases: the Christmas tree, decorations, lights, stocking stuffers, cards, postage and gift wrap. Then use your budget to assign dollar limits for all gifts and purchases.

If the limits depress you, don’t lose heart. Expensive gifts aren’t essential to a Christ-focused Christmas. And your kids don’t need to receive everything on their wish lists as much as they need the example of parents who spend within their means.

Be Creative
But if staying within your budget seems impossible, don’t give up. Use creative gift ideas, like the ones below. They can stretch your dollars and establish traditions your family, friends and co-workers will look forward to and enjoy for years.

- Implement a gift exchange with extended family members. Have cousins draw names so they exchange gifts with just one other cousin. Do the same with aunts and uncles. Set dollar limits and stick to them.

- If that’s still too pricey, do a five dollar white elephant gift exchange instead. Make crazy rules to decide the order for distributing and opening gifts. Make more rules for "stealing" and "restealing" items. Our extended family does this and everyone, from kids to grandparents, scour thrift stores all year looking for unforgettable bargains.

- Draw names amongst co-workers and club members instead of buying each person a gift. Again, stick to a spending limit.

- Use your hobbies to create inexpensive gifts. Knitters and crochets, quilters, scrapbookers, woodworkers, bakers – the possibilities are endless.

- Give the gift of time. Offer to baby sit a friend’s kids. Spend a day cleaning, doing yard work or sorting through old pictures with parents or grandparents.

Give Memories

School or graduation pictures, prints of special events and your child’s artwork are gifts family members will appreciate. Years ago my mother-in-law gave me boxes of slides she’d taken while raising three boys on an Alaskan homestead. Each November, I make a few slides made into prints to send to his brothers. The pictures bring back wonderful memories of their childhoods. Use pictures to preserve family history for your loved ones, too.

Prepare to Shop
Now, put the two lists you made earlier in your planner. Clearly write spending limits beside each name, along with clothing and shoe sizes and wish list items that match your budget. Put two envelopes in the back of your planner. Stash receipts in one so you can locate them quickly if case of returns or exchanges. Put discount coupons you will use in the second.

Start Shopping
Finally, you are ready to shop. Watch sales flyers and garage sale ads, check Internet shopping sites and eBay for the best deals. Purchase items on your list when the prices match your budget. Never leave home without your planner. Set a target date, perhaps December 1, to be done shopping. Once your purchases are completed, quit looking at the sales flyers and don’t go where you could impulse shop. Schedule a final shopping trip during the after Christmas sales so you can stock up on gift wrap, cards and other staples needed for next year.

As gifts accumulate, you need a safe storage spot. That’s not easy to find since kids have noses trained to sniff out even the most cleverly hidden toys. Ask a nearby friend or relative if you can store your gifts in a box or large plastic tote in their basement. Then offer to store theirs in return. This tactic will also keep you from forgetting where your gifts are located. Two heads are better than one!

Set an Example
If you finish shopping early, you’ll have time to establish meaningful holiday traditions with your kids. You could celebrate Advent together, building anticipation for the arrival of Baby Jesus. Or you could read Christmas stories, research the origin of Santa Claus, go caroling together, visit elderly neighbors. Spending time with your children gives them a gift money can’t buy: your example of true Christmas spirit, a heart grateful for God’s love expressed in His Son, a heart compelled to share His love with others.

About the Author:
Jolene Philo is a freelance writer and speaker who lives in Boone, Iowa. She shares her house and her home office with her husband Hiram, daughter Anne, and dachshund Abby. You can learn more about her at her website, www.jolenephilo.com.

School’s been in session for a while now, just long enough for the stacks of precious school papers, lunch menus, field trip permission slips, picture order packets, lunch money reminders, monthly PTA calendars and book orders to reach nearly unmanageable proportions. If you don’t organize the mess soon, there won’t be room in your house for a tree by Christmas.

I was on paper-sending end of things as a teacher before becoming a paper-receiving parent. During those early years I learned a number of techniques, many from wise and experienced moms and teachers, that helped me handle the onslaught of papers my son brought home from kindergarten. Those techniques can help you, too. Use the list below as a guide while you sort through the papers threatening to engulf your home. In the process, you’ll create an organizational system that will work until your cute little kindergartners graduates from high school. And if you do things right, you’ll be teaching your kids management skills that will help them be more successful in school and eventually on the job.

The Right Stuff

Investing in the right stuff helps you and your child stay more organized so buy, find or create the following:

* A backpack. You need one per child.
* A designated place. Assign a place for each backpack to live when not in use – a shelf in the entryway, a hook in the coat closet, a bin by the back door, whatever. Train kids to put their backpacks in that place once schoolwork is done.
* A bulletin board. Arrange a large bulletin board high on the wall for your use, then hang smaller boards below it, one for each child if possible. If you don’t have that much room, use string or ribbon to section off a second large bulletin board and label one section per child.
* An accordion file or small plastic tub. Again, you need one per child, labeled with name and grade.
* Your personal planner and the family calendar. Yep, these are the ones mentioned during the last two months. I told you they’d come in handy!

The Right Routine

The right stuff works best if you and your kids develop a regular routine to use it. The routine outlined below provides a good starting place.

1. Have kids unload backpacks as soon as possible after arriving home. Maybe they can do it while you fix a snack. Don’t let kids turn on the TV, computer or Nintendo until this job and their homework is done. Have them make one pile of homework and a second pile of things you need to see.
2. Sort through your pile. Look over any school calendars and write important dates in your planner and on the family calendar. Tack each child’s school calendars and lunch menus on their bulletin boards. Tack information you need for the future on your board. Complete forms that need to be returned. Put any forms containing money or checks in labeled envelopes. Have kids put anything they need to return to school in their backpacks.
3. Sit with each child and go through the school papers. Tell children that they can keep as many papers as will fit in their accordion file or small plastic tub. Young children want to keep everything. As the year goes on and the file gets full and new memories replace old ones, they’ll be more willing to pitch old papers. Make sure kids keep original stories in their own handwriting, little notes they’ve written, unique art projects, speeches they’ve given, and any hilarious or touching completed assignments. On the back of those items, jot a reminder note and the date. Take pictures of your child holding artwork too big or messy to be filed. Put the artwork on the refrigerator until it is replaced by a new masterpiece. Then throw the old masterpiece away, preferably when your child isn’t looking.

A Few Other Useful Ideas

Not all school clutter is paper generated. Some clutter is time-related and some is money-related. Use these ideas free up time and money so you have more of both when you need them.

* Train kids to set out the next day’s school clothes as part of the bedtime routine. Also have them check and see if their backpacks are in their designated spots.
* Have someone set the table for breakfast before going to bed.
* Limit the number of after school activities your child is involved in. Insist upon one church activity, like AWANA or youth group. Then let kids choose one physical activity per season, such as soccer or dance. Use your discretion about joining clubs and starting music lessons. Be sure these activities don’t break your budget. And don’t over-schedule your children. Leave plenty of time for them to play, create and explore.
* Set limits on the book orders kids bring home. The rule at our house was that each child could order three books, and only books, from each order. I chose one book, the child chose one book, and we chose a third book together. This system kept our kids from ordering expensive non-book items and brought plenty of good reading into our home. And I learned a lot about my children’s changing interests and unchanging passions as we examined each flyer and discussed what they wanted to order.

Go for It

Now that you know how to attack the school paper pile and take control of it before it takes over your home, it’s time to get started. Once your system is in place, instead of dreading the sound of a backpacks zipping open, you’ll look forward to seeing what kids brings home from school each day. And one day your adult children will thank you, not only for those files that provide a peek into their childhood, but also for the organizational skills they learned from you each day after school.

About the Author:
Jolene Philo is a freelance writer and speaker who lives in Boone, Iowa. She shares her house and her home office with her husband Hiram, daughter Anne, and dachshund Abby. You can learn more about her at her website, www.jolenephilo.com.

If you didn’t have time to read it, the title of my July CWAHM column, Where to Start Scooping Snow in a Blizzard, may seem seemed a bit strange to you. But if you did read it and you began to use a to-do list and family calendar consistently, give yourself a pat on the back. If it helped you de-drift your house, even a little, you may be ready for an upgrade. It’s about time for you to dabble with a daily planner.

A To-Do List on Steriods
A daily planner is used in conjunction with your family calendar. You keep your family calendar, but after you learn to use a planner, it replaces the to-do list stuck on your refrigerator. The planner is a to-do list on steroids. It’s portable, versatile and easy to update every year. And once you get into the habit of using it, you’ll be more productive.

Now please understand that I am a fairly recent personal planner convert. During my teaching years, I used a lesson plan book and the daily memo book, but I never used a planner at home. For twenty-five years I planned like a fiend at work, but at home I made do with a family calendar and a to-do list on the refrigerator.

Once I started a home business, the to-do list and family calendar system frustrated me because they weren’t big enough tools to organize both home and work. I had no way to schedule, prioritize and integrate housekeeping and parenting tasks with home business duties. Therefore, I got very little done. But, when I learned to use a planner, my productivity increased and my frustration decreased.

Start Small and Slow
I started small and slow with my planner, and I advise you to do the same. Visit an office supply store or surf the web to get an idea of different styles and formats before purchasing anything. August and September are great months to browse and compare because that’s when planners and refills for the upcoming year hit the stores. Buy the smallest planner available that still meets your needs. The planner you choose should be stocked with the following:

* A tabbed month-at-a-glance calendar.

* One year weekly pages (two pages per week) or one year daily pages (one page per day) or one year daily pages (two pages per day). Choose the format that best matches your business and home needs.

* A tele-file where you can record information for business contacts, family and friends.

If you purchase a planner this fall, all the pages in a planner purchased should be preprinted for the upcoming year. Of course that means you can’t start using it until January. If you want to begin immediately, you have a couple options. You can buy blank refill monthly calendar and daily pages and fill in dates for the next few months. Or you can go to http://office.microsoft.com and click on "Templates." If you browse the templates for calendars and planners, you can download pages and print what you need for the rest of this year.

A Planner Exercise Routine
Once you have a planner, follow these steps to learn how to use it. Think of the steps below as your planner exercise routine.

1. Commit a few minutes every morning to your planner. Get up a few minutes before the kids do so you can concentrate. If you have a morning quiet time try ending it with planning and then pray over your plans.

2. In pencil, record the appointments, meetings, and special events written on your family calendar on your planner’s monthly calendar and visa versa. It takes less time to double record than it does to flip and scan daily pages to find where things are recorded.

3. Create a to-do list on the daily page. Again, do this in pencil.
* Record anything written on the monthly calendar for today.
* Note upcoming deadlines and write what must be done today to meet it.
* Transfer uncompleted items from yesterday’s page.
* List business, housekeeping and Mom tasks.
* Add something you will do for yourself.
* Prioritize the list in numerical or chronological order.
* Pray and commit the list to God.

4. If you are using the one or two page per day format, your planner will get fat and heavy if you put all the pages in it. Put two months’ worth in your planner. When a new month begins, remove the previous month’s pages and add the next month’s.

Here are two final tips. First, take your planner everywhere with you. That way you won’t forget to record things as they occur and you’ll avoid double-booking appointments and events. Second, record contact information in the tele-file in pencil. You can then update contact information so your tele-file will never be out of date or need to be replaced.

Patience is a Virtue
Remember to be patient as you implement the steps and tips above. It takes time
to develop a new habit, about six weeks according to research, so stick with it. Once your planner makes you feel more organized, it will become indispensible.

If you want more ideas about how to use a planner, look for time management books at the library. Many dedicate an entire chapter to planners and calendars. I recommend Confessions of an Organized Homemaker by Deniece Schofield (Betterway Books; Cincinnati, Ohio). Despite the dated book title, her chapter, "Calendars, To-Do Lists and Schedules," gives more ideas about how to organize and use a planner than any other book I’ve read.

If you don’t feel comfortable doing more on your own, spend the next few months slowly implementing the planner basics listed above. Then in January, we’ll revisit planners and learn to add a few more bells and whistles.

Next month, with a new school year starting, the column will tackle all the school stuff your kids will tote home. You and your child will learn to create keeper piles and throw piles. And you’ll develop a manageable storage system for the things you keep. Until then, enjoy the last weeks of summer, and don’t forget. When you go to buy school supplies, sneak a peak at the planners, too!

About the Author:
Jolene Philo is a freelance writer and speaker who lives in Boone, Iowa. She shares her house and her home office with her husband Hiram, daughter Anne, and dachshund Abby. You can learn more about her at her website, www.jolenephilo.com.

A long time ago, my mother gave me a plaque that said, "Keeping house while your kids are at home is like scooping snow in a blizzard." As a full time teacher and mother of two kids, ages 5 and 11, all I could do when I read the plaque was laugh. My only other option was to cry, and I couldn’t do that because my daughter had torn up all the Kleenex to make beds for her Beanie Babies.

But your situation, as a work at home mom, is harder than mine was. When I went to work, I escaped the distractions at home and focused on my role as a teacher. When I left teaching to work at home, the challenge of being everything at once – business woman, mom, wife, and housekeeper – nearly drove me crazy, even though my kids were almost grown by then.

Thankfully, the organizational skills needed to survive as a teacher and parent were a lifesaver for me as I made the transition to working at home. But I wondered how young work at home moms coped without the on-the-job training I’d learned through twenty-five years of experience. "It’s about time," I thought more than once, "for someone to write a time management column for work at home moms."
And then, while waiting for a Southwest flight to a writers’ conference, I met Jill Hart. She was going to the writers’ conference, too, and was waiting for the same flight. So we sat together on the plane and Jill described her CWAH website. I asked if she needed a columnist. She said yes. And "It’s About Time" was born.

The purpose of this column is to help you, a work at home mom, scoop your way out of the blizzard that storms through your house and threatens to bury you, your family and your home business. And since the hardest part of digging your way out of any storm is deciding what drift to attack first, that’s what we’re going to talk about this month – where to start.

As a teacher, with twenty-five little munchkins adept at creating drifts of paper blizzards, I didn’t start by attacking the papers. I started by writing lists. And I did the same thing at home where my daughter, queen of Kleenex, created drifts of Beanie Babie bedding at an alarming rate.

My husband Hiram used to think that writing a to-do list was cheating. He thought any self-respecting adult should be able to remember what to do rather than consult a list. (This trait, I believe, is related to the male sex linked never-ask-for-directions gene that won’t be discovered until some male scientist adds it to his list and consults the human genome map for directions.)

My hubby’s attitude changed when he realized that while he was trying to remember what he needed to do, I’d completed my list. Now he makes lists, too, and gets a lot more done. And as we both discovered, writing a list is very freeing. Once a list is written, there’s no more worry about forgetting, no more self-reminders, no more feelings of dread about what will happen if you forget.
Instead, you know where to begin scooping and you can get through a whole lot of drifts, especially if you follow these simple steps:

* Since writing every little thing on little scraps of paper creates a new paper blizzard, which you don’t want, use a pad of paper stuck on your refrigerator along with a calendar that hangs near your phone instead.

* As soon as you know about them, write all family and business appointments, meetings, and special events on the calendar. I like Mom’s Family Calendar (available at amazon.com) but any calendar with large daily boxes will do. If you’re a computer whiz, you can use the Microsoft Office calendar the same way.

* Every week, write your menu plans on the calendar as you prepare your grocery list.

* Every morning, take the notepad off the refrigerator and write a to-do list. Include housekeeping chores, business projects, and time to spend with your kids. Check the calendar and add anything written there to your list.

* As you write the items down, pray over them. Ask God to show you how to prioritize them.

* Once your list is complete, number the items, starting with the ones that must be done today and ending with the ones that can wait. This process gives you a place to start and makes the list less overwhelming.

* When you think your list is complete, offer it up to God. Ask Him to help you finish what needs doing. And always ask for a flexible heart that submits your agenda to His will.
Once you’ve completed these steps, start working your way through the list. Cross items off as you complete them. And when, despite your best intentions and hard work, life interrupts and you can’t complete the list, don’t get frustrated or mad. Realize that God is interrupting your day and reminding you that your ways are not His ways, and that He is answering your prayer by teaching you to submit your agenda to His.

So that’s how you start scooping your way out of your work at home blizzard. Practice this method for the next month and see if helps. But don’t get married to the method. Next month, you’ll bump up a step and learn to make your planner your best friend. For now though, use the calendar and make lists, submit your will to God’s agenda and see if the blizzards in your home and your soul subside just a little. If they do, rejoice! You’re making progress.

About the Author:
Jolene Philo is a freelance writer and speaker who lives in Boone, Iowa. She shares her house and her home office with her husband Hiram, daughter Anne, and dachshund Abby. You can learn more about her at her website, www.jolenephilo.com.