Family Binder Project

In the November newsletter I touched on a great project that you can start now that it is getting colder and we are spending more time indoors, the family binder.  

Before you run out and purchase a cute three ring binder and cute leaf pages, first sit down with all your papers and miscellaneous items and sort them into piles. By sorting the information first you will have a better understanding of how many categories and supplies you will need. Second purge or file away any paperwork that you no longer need. This will save you money and supplies.
 

One of the best resources I have found for retention periods for personal documents is the Department of State Division of Consumer Protection for the State of New York. They put together a great retention guide, check out the website for specific details: https://www.dos.ny.gov/consumerprotection/identity_theft/protect_yourself_fr om_identity_theft/record-r etention.html

Once you have all of your categories now it is time to go shopping and get some cute supplies. :) You can use really any program to make cute cover pages and type all the information into a cute format. I used Excel, Word and Publisher.

Supply List

1. Three Ring Binder
2. Three Hole Punch
3. Leaf Pages

  Three Thr
To give you some ideas for categories below are the categories that I have in the Anderson Family Binder:

Contact Information - work, personal, emergency contacts, doctors, dentists with both phone numbers and addresses

Schedule - I have a calendar for family birthday's and anniversary's, the city events calendar, the library event calendar and any other misc. calendars or events

Home - pest control, heating and cooling, as well as emergency city information such as public works and the sherrif's non-emergency line. I also have our home service plan through CenterPoint Energy as well as our own Home Maintenance checklist. The Home Maintenance checklist includes how often we should change filters, clean the garbage disposal, replace caulking, tune up equipment and any other maintenance related items. I also include any other information that I may need such as natural ways to clean the dishwasher and how to prune lilac bushes. A great resource guide for a home maintenance schedule is Lowe's

  https://www.lowes.com/cd_Home+Maintenance+Schedule+and+Checklist_1297357358_

Budget - a copy of the monthly budget, reoccuring expenses, debt snowball list and a folder that includes all the bills that need to be paid that month or statements

Insurance - "Financial Team" page - this page includes our accountants contact information, insurance contact information for dental, medical, health, life, home etc. Anything insurance goes in this section. I also have the current insurance policies included in this section

Maintenance - there is a car maintenance check list for each car, there is a category for each routine maintenance and a spot to write down the date, mileage and check off the maintenance that was performed. I also have any auto related information such as tire warranty paperwork.

Projects - I have a project checklist of things I would like to get done broken down into different categories such as "Organizing Projects", "Cleaning Projects", "Home Projects" and "Misc. Projects". We are also working on updating our home and we have a budget for each item so there is a copy of the budget and receipts for material and any inspirational pictures I have for ideas.

Addresses - addresses

Meals - recipe ideas and weekly meal plan

Workout - different workout ideas, I will rip out pages from magazines with different workouts and put them in this section.

Menus -  local restaturant menu's, coupons and gift cards

Books - list of must read books and authors

Library - I sit on the Library Advisory Board so I have documents related to the board

WMG - I am involded in a women's mastermind group so I have information that pertains to the group (if you are in a book club or mommy club you can have a section for this)

*I did have a School category but now that my daughter is actually in school "School" has its own binder with many more categories :)

Many of us have magnets on our fridge with contact information, doctors, dentists, insurance agents and many others, toss out the magnets and put the information in the family binder. The goal of the binder is to have one central location for all the information that makes the family tick.

EXCEPT I would not recommend putting social security numbers, birth certificates, marriage licenses and car titles in the family binder these items should be in a fire proof safe.

HAPPY ORGANIZING!!
 

Embrace imperfection, give fear a name, fail, success is what I say it is, laugh, have fun and slow down!!

October was an amazing turning point in my life as far as mental health goes. I have high expectations for myself in this life. I am a perfectionist, over analytical, an over achiever and extremely hard on myself. Some of you may be nodding your head in agreement. :)

I used to look at these traits/personality styles as a positive. That somehow these traits are what was going to make me successful.  After many years of trying to be perfect, achieve success before others, searching for outward approval I realized I was not enjoying any of my achievements.

The revelations that came to me in October, came to me after many prayers asking for guidance and the ability to let go, support from a women's group, and several wonderful books, "The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are" by Brene Brown and "Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average, Do Work that Matters" by Jon Acuff. I felt an amazing weight lift off my shoulders when I let go of several ideals I had put on myself for years.

PERFECTION - Perfect sucks and is extremely boring! There is no fun in perfect, and when we try and be perfect we close all the other doors around us. We sit on an island by ourselves in a quest for something that is unachievable. In a quest for perfection we stop laughing as much and take ourselves too seriously, that is a miserable place to be...UPTIGHT, ALONE with no laughter....perfect sucks and is extremely boring. I DO NOT want to be perfect I want to be me, and I love me!

FEAR - Give it a name and its power goes away!!! This was AMAZING!! With the quest of perfection comes this fear of not being good enough, doubt, and the fear that you may never achieve perfection. In Jon Acoff's book, "START, Punch Fear in the Face", he has an exercise where you write down all of the negative self-talk we do to ourselves. Once the list of negative self-talk is completed write down why each item on the list is not true. I tried the exercise and the results were indescribable. Putting the negative self-talk on paper I gave it a name and by rebutting it with the truth I created an army inside my head. In my mind without trying, when that negative thought/fears came up the positive thought automatically came up next and kicked it in the face!!!! Talk about a self-esteem booster.

FAILURE - GASP....does anyone want to be labeled a "failure"? I do!! I DO!! Pick me...yep that is right. I learned that failure is exactly what I should be striving for, because without failure I can't learn and move forward. IT IS OK TO FAIL.....is there a cure for cancer? What would have happened if the first time we tried to find a cure it failed so we stopped trying, threw up our hands and said I quit because I failed??  Be a failure it is wonderful...embrace it, it makes you feel free.

SUCCESS - .........I am not sure where my definition of success came from, if it was society, my environment, family, friends...my perfectionist ideals of myself or a combination of all of the above. In my mind to achieve success I had to be established in this amazing career before I was 30, debt free before I was 30, beautiful all the time, an amazing mother, an amazing wife and an amazing friend. What a weight to carry!!! In an attempt to achieve all of this success, whenever I actually achieved a goal I would NOT ALLOW MYSELF TO ENJOY IT!!!! How insane is that???!  I had a revelation that NO MORE! I realized I am racing through my life accomplishing goals and quickly adding another goal in its place. I WILL ENJOY this life!! Busy does not make you important! Slow down enjoy what you have!!

• We define our own success, I refuse to allow someone else's idea of success change mine
• I will enjoy my life every day, because I love my life and I love myself
• I have already succeeded! Anything else is a bonus

LAUGH, HAVE FUN, SLOW DOWN - Make fun of yourself, embrace who you are because you are wonderful and amazing! I am a nerd and I LOVE IT and I can laugh at myself. I recently was asked to write down on a piece of paper the five most important people in my life that I could not live without. I wrote them down and then was asked where are you spending your time? GULP.....um......well you see the thing is...I am trying to accomplish XYZ...so once I do that...then I will get to focus and enjoy more time with 1-5.....my own mind's justification...WRONG!! Look back up to Success and you will see that I did not allow myself that time. SO NO MORE!!! I am slowing down and it feels amazing. Say no, it is ok. When we say yes and we really want to say no, we end up being resentful that we are taking our time and spending it on something we didn't want to do, and we fill our time with stuff and events rather than the people and the things we love.

I am working through my urge to offer help and support to anyone who crosses my path as well as say yes to every event I am invited. I have allowed myself the power to say no whether in my head or out loud. I put together a list with two columns, "Things I Love and Hate". My energy and time needs to align with the things I love and decrease the amount of time I spend on the things I hate. NOTE - we all do something we hate like cleaning, picking up kids toys...what I did was find ways to decrease the amount of time I spent on them...like cutting the amount of toys the children have in half. I kept only the toys THEY LOVE, and cut out all the other toys.

October was amazing for my mental health. I finished out the month of October with the overbooked schedule of events I had already committed too and said November is the start of my; embrace imperfection, give fear a name, fail, success is what I say it is, laugh, have fun and slow down way of thinking. I feel free and I love myself!!

I wish everyone relief in the burdens we carry. Give them up to a higher power and let them go.

Thoughts.....

Recently I did a family photo shoot with my kids, husband and dog Smalls. We worked with a great photographer who I have worked with in the past. Over a year ago we bartered services and she utilized my budget services.

I was taking my time looking at each one of the pictures and I was amazed at how big my children have grown, how amazing it is that my husband still makes me laugh out of control, and how much we love each other. I could not help but think about the woman taking my pictures and her life over the past year. She has a special place in my heart because of her amazing character. She opened her life up to me and opened herself in a way that not many people are willing to do. She wanted to live her life a different way and had the courage to ask for help.

People are in constant fear of being judged and that is sad. Why is it that we live our life in fear of what others will think of us? We have to live with us every day and live in our life every day....so why are we trying to make other people happy??

I am so proud of her and I think back to a year ago and where she was in her life and where she is now. The courage she had to reach out and ask for help gave her the courage to make other changes in her life. She is amazing and I am so happy that I was a part of her change and that she continues to be in my life.

Have the courage go against the grain, make a choice for you. Make a positive change today!