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WELCOME TO HOMEBODIES
June 20, 2006
Volume 7, Issue 23
Weekly encouragement and empowerment e-zine
for stay-at-home parents and working parents
considering the at-home lifestyle
Your Hostess - Cheryl Gochnauer, author of
"Stay-at-Home Handbook", "So You Want to Be a
Stay-at-Home Mom", "Mom to Mom" and founder of
http://www.homebodies.org
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THIS WEEK'S ARTICLES:
“Celebrating a Safe Fourth of July” by Homebodies founder,
Cheryl Gochnauer
“Home Improvement” by Homebodies columnist Jill Rigby,
founder
of Manners of the Heart (www.mannersoftheheart.com)
“Organizing Your Home” by Homebodies columnist Debbie
Williams, founder of Organized Times
(http://www.organizedtimes.com)
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CELEBRATING A SAFE FOURTH
Homebodies
By Cheryl Gochnauer
homebodies@comcast.net
Copyright 2006
Marking the Fourth of July with fireworks, parades and
cookouts? With a little preplanning, you can avoid potential
holiday pitfalls like singed fingers, pouty kids and queasy
stomachs. Try these tips for keeping your Independence Day
sparkling.
BOMBS BURSTING IN AIR. Before you head for that roadside
fireworks stand, know your community's ordinances. What kind
of fireworks are legal? Where can you set them off?
Reduce the chance of injuries raining on your parade by
following these guidelines:
* Never point or throw fireworks at another person.
* Have an adult present whenever kids play with fireworks,
even seemingly harmless sparklers and "snakes".
* Be aware of your surroundings. Direct rockets away from
roofs and trees, and be especially careful if there hasn't
been any rain for a while. Dry grass plus hot fireworks equal
combustible trouble.
* Dunk used sparklers and bottle rockets in water buckets.
Have a hose ready, in case a fire accidentally ignites.
plenty to choose from over the holiday weekend. It's easy to
over-amp youngsters, racing from one activity to the next. To
keep from falling into the pitfall of "too much fun,"
carefully plan the family's parade or carnival outing,
including deciding beforehand how much money will be spent.
* Let kids make choices within the previously-set budget.
* Locate bathrooms before they are needed.
* Bring a small medicine kit with pain-relievers, ointment and
adhesive bandages. Use sunscreen and insect repellent.
* Plan for crowds. Allow plenty of time to reach your
destination, especially the evening fireworks display.
EAT, DRINK AND BE WARY. More than likely, a hot July sun will
be blazing down on your picnic table on Independence Day.
Protect diners by doing what you can to moderate food
temperatures.
Be especially vigilant in keeping mayonnaise-based products
cool by surrounding dishes with chopped ice or insulated
containers. Potato salad that looked great at noon can be
questionable by two and downright dangerous by four, thanks to
bacteria crashing your party.
Watch how you grill, too. Make sure meat is refrigerated up
until the time you're ready to use it. Never put cooked meat
on the same plate as uncooked meat. There's the possibility of
contamination between the cooked product and raw juices still
on the plate.
* Use different knives to chop vegetables and cut meat.
* Never baste a cooked product with raw juices.
* Wash fruits and vegetables before eating them.
Keep these hints in mind, and enjoy a safe and festive Fourth.
*****
Looking for an encouraging book for the mom in your life?
Consider Cheryl’s books, “So You Want to Be a Stay-at-Home
Mom” (InterVarsity Press, 1999) and “Stay-at-Home
Handbook”
(InterVarsity Press, 2002). Request a copy of each at your
favorite bookstore or online at
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0830823360.
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HOME IMPROVEMENT
Manners of the Heart
By Jill Rigby
jill@mannersoftheheart.com
Copyright 2006
It’s summer time, and that means its time for home improvement
projects. Ten ideas to improve your home from the inside out:
(1) Set aside family movie night. Rent a movie, pop the corn,
and relax together.
(2) Take a walk with your child around the neighborhood, just
the two of you.
(3) Take turns choosing the supper menu. Even the youngest
members of the family. (Everyone has to eat, without
complaint!)
(4) Start a jigsaw puzzle. Keep one going all summer. The
best place in the world to talk to your children is over a
jigsaw puzzle.
(5) Volunteer as a family at a center for the homeless. Even
young children can hand out napkins for dinner.
(6) Enjoy a picnic in a nearby park.
(7) Have an all night game-a-thon. When I was growing up, my
sister and I would drag out every board game in our closet. We
played one game after another all night, keeping tally of who
had the most wins.
(8) Make homemade bread, once a week, with the kids.
(9) Start a family newspaper. Let the kids gather stories
from family members to include in the paper. Record the news
of the week. (Microsoft Publisher has great formats for
newsletters.)
(10) Unplug the house, once a week. No television, no video
games, no I-Pods. Cook without the stove, use candles for
light when the sun goes down. Make up roundabout stories with
the whole family when night falls.
You might be surprised how many new traditions you start now
that will remain long after summer has past.
*****
Jill Rigby is the author of Manners of the Heart®, a manners
and etiquette curriculum for elementary school children that
teaches the moral principles of respectfulness toward others.
She conducts workshops and seminars across the country for
schools, civic organizations and parents’ groups. In addition,
she has a newspaper feature that highlights these life lessons
with activities for children and their parents.
Jill has been a speaker for numerous local and national
conventions—–Focus on the Family’s National
Teachers’
Conference, NAEYC, and NAESP, in addition to others. She
serves on the board of The Louisiana Family Forum, a statewide
board that supports family values. She is a graduate of CLASS
and is a member of AWSA (Advanced Writers’ and Speakers’
Association.) She is also a popular speaker for women’s
retreats, conferences and banquets, as well as, home school
organizations.
Jill is the very proud mother of twin sons, Boyce and
who are well known as young men with “perfect” manners.
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ORGANIZING YOUR HOME
By Debbie Williams
Organized Times
Debbie@organizedtimes.com
Copyright 2006
One of the key rules in organizing and decorating is to
utilize vertical space. Often we place furniture around the
room with nothing above it, forming a nice horizontal line.
There is a ton of unclaimed storage and visually appealing
space right above the furniture line! For most organizing
projects, you have four choices: hang it, put it in a drawer,
store it on the floor, or shelve it.
Getting Started –
Gather several boxes labeled: To Keep, To Trash, To Sell,
Undecided. Begin sorting. Don't try to find a place for
everything until your items are sorted. Group your items by
category. Decide what will be folded, what will be placed on
hangers, what will go into drawers. By planning wisely during
your sorting process, you have eliminated the need for many
storage items. Use what you have around the house, then buy
specific sizes for the articles you need to organize.
Closet Space -
Up off the floor!! Use multilevel rods for hanging items. Bins
and shelf dividers keep folded items stacked. They are
inexpensive to buy and can usually be found in discount stores
or home stores. The time you save sorting through things on
the floor or in drawers for purses and accessories will be
well worth the small investment. This will not only free up
valuable drawer space, but can eliminate the need for chest of
drawers altogether.
When organizing your closet, keep all blouses together. Sort
by color, casual or dressy, long sleeved or short sleeved. Do
the same for skirts, dresses, slacks and jeans.
Kitchen Capers –
Stack it Up. Use plastic or wicker in-baskets and go vertical
to utilize counter space. Don't spread; stack. Purchase wire
shelves for pantries and cabinets at your discount store.
These double the space for dishes, pots, and pans. Lid
organizers and baking tray racks store stackable pots and
pans.
Hang on. Use over-the-door hangers or door-mounted holders to
display pantry items. Holders for seasoning envelopes, spice
boxes, and plastic wraps consolidate these elusive items once
and for all. You can even buy under-the-shelf organizers for
paper plates, napkins, and coffee filters.
No more junk drawer? No way! Just use any type of plastic
basket or cutlery organizer for your junk drawer, and clean it
out routinely.
Pretty is as pretty does. Since counter space is at a premium,
don't display all your knickknacks on the countertop - hang
framed prints rather than resting them on easels. Consolidate
fridge photos with a magnetic mat, or adhere a magnetic sheet
to each picture creating your own photo magnets. Store tall
utensils in pottery or your favorite pitcher. This makes your
favorite things do double duty, creating more drawer space and
reducing countertop clutter.
Kid Clutter -
If you have a two-story home, upstairs toys are not dragged
downstairs, they stay in the bedroom or playroom. Keep a few
toys on a small shelf, in a wicker basket or toy bin
downstairs in the family room. These must be cleaned up each
night before bedtime. Downstairs push or riding toys must stay
downstairs and off the steps.
To further utilize vertical space, install shelves and paint
them to match the wall. Hang toy hammocks for stuffed animals.
Spray paint a long shower tension rod, wrap with Velcro
strips, and stick up stuffed animals.
Old soda crates found at flea markets can be cleaned up,
painted, and will house treasures of all kinds: collections
(shells, rocks, key rings, kids meal toys). Smaller versions
can be purchased at craft and discount stores.
Interior decorators encourage us to keep our collections, but
to consolidate rather than scatter them for drama. Encourage
your child's creativity by enlisting their help for novel
solutions for storage. Give them a budget, make a list of
things to contain, and see what they come up with. Perhaps
they'll surprise you and suggest taking a box full to their
favorite children's charity, or have a garage sale to raise
money for newer toys. Involving your kids in the planning,
prioritizing, sorting, and containing stages ensures better
(not perfect) participating in the maintenance of clutter. And
who knows? You may actually nurture a minimalist of your own
in the process. Or a packrat with incredibly organized
closets.
In the lower grades of elementary school, the classrooms are
set up in learning centers. And to contain the clutter in the
classroom, Miss Crabtree has a strict rule of putting a toy
away before taking out another one. This may seem strict in
your own home and does not work with every child. With my own
son, I have the "three toy rule": he may play with three
toys,
then it's time to put them away before dragging out another
one. It works well with puzzles, books, and other like items.
If you start young, they may continue this "clean as you go"
rule throughout life.
Small plastic shoe boxes are perfect for Legos®, Barbie®
clothes and accessories, and Hot Wheels. Find the totes a size
larger with handles on the top for easy carrying to and from
the play area.
Larger tubs hold blocks, play food and dishes, and other
pieces that just seem to multiply in the night.
Save the extra large tubs for train sets, car tracks, doll
accessories, and sports gear.
Flat under-the-bed boxes are wonderful for out of season
clothes and toys. Most closets are not large enough for toys
and clothes, so why not store unused toys as you would
clothing: kites, beach gear, and baseball gear is stashed
during winter months; football, hockey stick, and ice skates
are stored during the summer.
In Summary –
By using some of these organizing tips, you will reclaim
storage space and cut down on the clutter in your home. Use
the basic principles of clutter containing for each area in
your home. By containing clutter, you'll find yourself well on
the way to becoming a bit more organized.
*****
Debbie Williams is an author, speaker and radio host who
offers tools and training to help you put your life in order.
Learn more tips like these in her book, Common Sense
Organizing (Champion Press Ltd, January 2005)
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PUBLICATION INFORMATION
Copyright 2006 Cheryl Gochnauer. All rights reserved. For
permission to reprint an article, please write
homebodies@comcast.net.
All articles are printed with the author's prior consent. It
is assumed that any questions, tips or replies to questions
may be reprinted. All letters become the property of Cheryl
Gochnauer.
Cheryl Gochnauer does not assume responsibility for advice
given. All advice should be weighed against your own
abilities and circumstances and applied accordingly. It is up
to the reader to determine if advice is safe and suitable for
their own situation.
Homebodies is a free weekly e-mail newsletter.
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