Guest article by Cathy Bates The Simple Pleasures in Life Rediscovered The recent downturn in the economy has created some very positive opportunities to live more simply. Families are eating at home more, finding creative ways to entertain themselves, and refocusing on the importance of relationships. Try some of these simple ideas: • Get the family involved in planning and preparing meals. Each family member gets to pick a night, plan the menu, and help prepare the meal. You might even... Read Full Story

Introducing another real ‘Almost Always Orgnized mom’ Cheryl Phillips; How do you keep your children’s schedules together ? I don’t overload my children with activities. If there is an activity they want to join (dance, etc) then that is fine. However, my belief is that concentrating on doing well in school and creative play at home are the best way to raise a child. I’m probably not going to be popular in saying that, but I see too many children “overscheduled&... Read Full Story

Guest Post by Beverly Coggins We all have big projects we must accomplish at different points in our lives. It may be a normal part of your job or a fund-raiser for your child’s sports team or doing a home improvement project. Whatever the case, if you plan ahead, you can eliminate much of the stress that could accompany a big project. Here are a few tips: 1. Break down your project into categories and then to specific tasks in each category. 2. Estimate the time it will take do each task. E... Read Full Story

I get calls from friends quite often being the resident computer geek in my inner circle of friends. Their computer is slow, its dragging, it’s freezing. So as my friendship duties require I stop in for a coffee and they pull out the lap top or lead me to the office. Their computer is on, oh it has been for two weeks? The update icon has a ! and there are more icons on the desktop then I can count. When I ask them when they last defragged they look at me blankly. Remember that’s ... Read Full Story

Organized Families is excited to share tips with you from a real mom. Melinda blogs at Coming Clean: Confessions of an Imperfect Parent read on to learn how she keeps it all together as a busy mom. How do you keep your children’s schedules together ? I’m a big list maker. For my nine-year-old, I have a list of basic things for him to do when he comes home from school, including homework, putting away his laundry, putting his lunchbox on the counter (so I’m not searching for it fr... Read Full Story

I was thinking about my childhood summers last night. Tomorrow I am off to be a kindergarten mom helper for a day at the beach and just one more day before schools out for my children. This summer I plan on taking the kids for a few camping trips (OK not real camping but the resort type where you have real washrooms and a swimming pool), and I started looking online for some new game ideas. I was wondering if I could find some of the board games I use to play as a child. A way to relive my c... Read Full Story

Guest Article by: By Liz Rapelje I’m a terrible procrastinator. Without a specific time management strategy, I think I’d put life itself off, while I play some Solitaire on my computer. Unfortunately, procrastination is a very real issue for many people, and it’s often responsible for the majority of your lost productivity. Do You Have a Procrastination [...] Read Full Story

There once was a time when I was the Organized mom and I actually had a menu plan. Well at least a dinner menu plan ! So this week I am determined to actually work with a dinner menu plan. I have narrowed it down to some easy, quick dinners based on whats in the cupboard meal ideas and tried to think about what I can double cook for later in the week. I am also thinking I may start using someone elses menu plans for the following week (payday is next Wednesday which will allow me to shop ba... Read Full Story

I am not sure where to start when describing how incredibly busy I will be this week. I am starting a series of mom interviews to feature bloggers and get some of their great tips for organizing and time management for their families this week. All of which will be posted here at Organized Families. If you are interested in being interviewed please drop me a note through TWITTER. I also have a client blog to complete, an aupair training manual to write for Rod’s new aupair (my boyfrie... Read Full Story

I am not sure where to start when describing how incredibly busy I will be this week. I am starting a series of mom interviews to feature bloggers and get some of their great tips for organizing and time management for their families this week. All of which will be posted here at Organized Families. If you are interested in being interviewed please drop me a note through TWITTER. I also have a client blog to complete, an aupair training manual to write for Rod’s new aupair (my boyfrie... Read Full Story