I Want To Be A Writer When I Grow Up

So, I thought I would start a blog to display some of my personal writings. I would love feed back on any or all of it! I welcome constructive criticism, or words of encouragement!

Sunday, September 27, 2009

ORGANIZATION: TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE

I had to teach a mini class about organization for Enrichment two weeks ago. Here's what I came up with! Enjoy!

How can we obtain a more enjoyable life of balance? What we really need to put balance into our lives is more TIME. Unfortunately, we can't control how many hours are in a day. And so we must try to control how we spend the hours we do have.

You might be wondering what organization skilss have to do with putting more balance into our lives... You might wonder what difference does it make to be organized.

I believe that it makes all the difference in the world.

Organizational skills can help you cope with the world around you. Organization provides structure and creates a semblance of order. Being organized helps reduce daily stress levels.

I've also learned that organizational skills save time and effort. I learned the importance of this kind of organization when my first daughter was born. I was overwhelmed by the responsibility of a new born. And so the last thing I wanted to be doing was looking around for blankets, burp cloths, baby wipes and diapers. So, I kept all of those supplies on hand in the family room, upstairs, in the car, and in her room. They were handy and convenient anywhere I spent time. I always KNEW I could find whatever I needed when I needed it.

I learned to do the same thing with cleaning supplies. For example, each bathroom has a cleaning basket with Windex, Lysol, Comet and other cleaning supplies. It's easier than lugging around my supplies, and it's a little bit quicker. And if you think about it, I'm not really spending any more money on the supplies I use. I do have more, but I'm also not buying them as frequently.

Organizational skills are the keystone to having a more balanced life.

There are two components to being organized; there are teh STRUCTURES and the REGULAR ACTIONS (habits). The structures are the physcial tools you use to hold things in which you are organizing such as your filing cabinet, desktop sorters, baskets, etc. On the other hand, you can have all the structures in the world, but if you don't actually have the habits like filing papers into your files, or opening up your planner to see what's on the schedule, you won't be organized.

Disorganization can quietly eat away, day by day, at your productivity. You may wonder, does anyone really care if you are organized? Heavenly Father does. He said, "Establish... a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God." Without some organization, these qualities are difficult or impossible to demonstrate.

To become an organized person, you need to start thinking like one. The following is a list of tips to help you become organized and stay ont eh path or organization.

- IT'S ALL IN THE PLAN - Proper planning gives the overall picture of teh task or tasks to be completed. It saves time in the long run. I use a VERY large calendar to keep my family organized. It's from moretimeformoms.com. I recommend it!
- TIME MANAGEMENT - Successful people spend their time wisely. Did you know that the average human being in our society loses an HOUR A DAY due to disorganization? Just take a minute to think about it - that's more than 2 weeks per year! That's a whole vacation!
- DON'T PUT IT DOWN; PUT IT AWAY - An organized person will come to realize that it is always easier to put something away rather than set it down "for now." I really struggle with this principle, but I'm lucky that my husband picks up the slack for me here! :-)
- A PLACE FOR EVERYTHING AND EVERYTHING IN ITS PLACE
- LET CLUTTER ANNOY YOU - Start to act out against clutter; throw it away or donate it. Act now!
- FILE IT; DON'T PILE IT - I love my filing cabinet. And once I created a filing system that worked for me, I use it much more. The fun part about getting organized is helping your children learn the skills too. Both of my daughters received filing cabinets for their birthdays last year, and love learning how to file their own report cards, award certificates, and other special things.
- OPEN AND PROCESS ALL MAIL - I once heard a smart person say that you should open all mail over the trash can so youc an file junk mail immediately where it belongs - the trash! :-)
- BREAK LARGE PROJECTS DOWN INTO SMALL SEQUENTIAL STEPS - Kiara nd I did this with a skeleton project she created a couple of weeks ago for school. First we drew the skeleton on the fabric. Then we cut out the skeleton. Then we glued the pieces together. After drying, we stuffed the pillows and finished by labeling each bone. SMALL STEPS! :-)
- KEEP SUPPLIES WHERE YOU USE THEM
- DATE AND TITLE ALL MATERIALS

Sometimes there are somet higns that make organization difficult. Knowledge of these "monsters" makes it easier to wage a war against them and stay organized!

Watch out for the PROCRASTINATION MONSTER. Don't put things off. Just do it!

Watch out for the monster, INTERRUPTIONS. Interruptions reduce motivation to continue to work. Try to reduce the number of interruptions you get while working on organization.

MISMATCH BETWEEN TIME AND ONE'S CAPACITY is a frightening monster. When people ovestimate or underestimate time taken to perform a task it leads to disorganization. When we try to do too many things in one time slot it can be frustrating. It reduces our pace. On the other hand, when we do too little in a given time period we are wasting valuable time.

Another monster to watch out for is SETTING THE WRONG PRIORITIES. We all have priorities that should be set up in the order of importance.

All anyone needs to be organized is just 15 minutes a day. That's all it takes. Organizing your home doesn't have to be thiss all-day, all-week event. Just set aside 15 minutes every day to tidy up and you're well on your way to an organized home. I like to put on our family "WORK" CD and make the "job" of organizing fun!

Take it one day at a time - 15 minutes at a time! Rome wasn't built in a day. Take baby steps. If your dining room table is now a flat filing cabinet... Work for 15 minutes creating piles to file. If your idea of being organized, is multicolored Post-it notes, invest in a good calendar and use it! I promise life will be better! You will be happier!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

SAD DAY

I was having a discouraging day a few months ago. Sometimes that happens! :-) So I wrote this poem to keep me from crying in front of my classes at school....

It’s not easy…when
All I see are imperfections
All I hear from everyone is criticism
All I feel is doubt
Being accomplished isn’t good enough
I fall short
If I can’t forgive myself…
Who can?My emotions are THINLY veiled
An imaginary smile that doesn’t reach my eyes
Desperation covers my heart
What will heal my soul?
I prayerfully implore, “Father, remember me?”
I silently sing
Psalms of hope in Christ
It calms
It soothes
Perfect? No.
Confident? No.
At peace? Most assuredly.
-2009

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

After the Election....

I wrote this poem after the election. I was really upset that Obama won. But, looking back, I wasn't happy with ANY of the candidates. I think all politics are corrupt right now. I'm worried for America....

Oh, remember the glorious story
Of America and all her glory!
Unfortunately now that Obama has won
A hopeless and frightening new future’s begun.
Looking around; indecency abounds
It’s everywhere: schools, governments and towns.
Socialism is the new way to be “free”
Palosy will tell you just how to be.
It’s Satan’s plan for homosexuals to marry
But Liberal actors say gays should be “we.”
Crime has reach colossal heights
While main street Americans Loose their rights.
Terrorists will be allowed to see more free days
While Joe, the Plumber, will be the one who pays.
Taxes are raised for the “greater good”
Corrupt politicians making laws just ‘cause they could.
Viciousness and suffering cause people to fear
People with morals and values should shed a tear!
-2009

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

BOOKS!

I LOVE books! I've always loved books! I remember when I was a kid, and I'd finish a book, Dad would take me into his office downstairs and help me pick out a new novel to read from the book shelf. I never was without books! And I still get caught up in good literature as an adult. There are times (like right now) when I can't sleep and all I want to do is read, read, read!

But mostly, I wanted to write a couple of book reviews about the last few books I've read. My daughters are lucky to be a part of "Battle of the Books" at their school this year. "Battle of the Books" is a "club" where they form teams to read 6 different books. Then they get to be in a quiz like game show about the books they have read. Since they were reading books I had never heard of, let alone read, I decided to read the books with them!

"Dicey's Song" by Cynthia Voigt was the first of the books that I read in the past two months. I actually started with "Homecoming" which is the prequel to "Dicey's Song." I'm glad I read "Homecoming" first, but "Dicey's Song," which won a Newberry Award, works well by itself too! After walking with her younger brothers and sister for months and months to their grandmother's house, Dicey Tillerman and her siblingss have finally found a home with their "crazy" Grandma Tillerman. Grandma has made it perfectly clear that she enjoys their company, regrets some of the mistakes she made with her own children, and is willing to adopt them immediately. As the eldest, Dicey is pleased but being adopted isn't enough to ease her day-to-day worries. Younger brother James is making himself appear like an average kid in school (rather than the genius he truly is) so that he'll have friends. Little Maybeth has never done well in her classes, though she's a whiz at music comprehension. And youngest child, Sammy, is constantly pretending to be a "perfect" child at school. While Dicey is worrying about these things, it's not as if her own life is perfect either. She shuns friends and cares mostly about scraping the paint off an old sailboat belonging to her grandmother. Still, as things come to a head, Dicey's gonna learn what it means to hold onto the people you love, what it means to let go, and when to decide which action to take. This is a great book about a young woman learning how to grow up. I've also read the third and fourth books in this Tillerman series. They are fabulous too!

A COMPLETELY different book would be "The Lightening Thief" by Rick Riordan. But this series is no less GREAT than the Tillerman series. I couldn't put the book down. And I read books two and three already too! :-) I think one of the reasons I loved this series so much is because I enjoyed my high school Greek mythology class and the stories that came with it. This book brings Greek mythology to a modern world! The hero, Percy Jackson, is in fact the son of Poseidon. Kids that are actually children of Greek gods and goddesses are called "half-bloods" in the book. Unfortunately, there are forces of darkness - monsters - whose aim it is to destroy such kids. They are only protected at a special camp - "Camp Half-Blood." Percy lands at this camp, but must eventually leave it and risk the monsters, to fulfill a Quest. Each book is more exciting than the next. And the references to all the fun Greek legends makes this even more fun! I had to go back to my notes from the class for a refresher on who each God and Goddess were. But my daughters have never taken a Greek mythology class and they love the books without the prior knowledge. (Although we did bring out the movie "Clash of the Titans" and Disney's "Hercules" for them to see this past week....)

Katia had me read "Frindle" by Andrew Clements. She begged me to read it and told me "it's an easy read!" I laughed at her expression. She was right. I read the entire book in less than two hours! But it is a book that is well worth two hours of anyone's time! :-) I only regret that I didn't read it years ago, so I could've been recommending it to all my friends and their children!
Like most successful books for kids, "Frindle" works on many different levels. It's funny, fast-paced, and while the main character, Nick, is kind of a class clown, he has qualities that even a mean teacher like Mrs. Granger would like. And even though Mrs. Granger has a reputation for being strict, she also earns the respect of children and parents. With "Frindle," we get a glimpse how a seemingly insignificant event at a small town elementary school through a media-frenzy becomes an international phenomenon. Can anyone say "fad?"

I just finished reading another book today, that my eldest daughter, Kiara, insisted that I read. "Once Upon a Marigold" byJean Ferris is delightful! I finished it in one day! I absolutely loved this book! I loved that it was a fairy tale, and I loved the fairy tale. Christian is a boy that ran away from home and was adopted by a troll and his two dogs. He grows up admiring the princess Marigold from across the river, and when he is 17 he starts coresponding with her. Eventually, Christian takes a job at the castle, to be near Marigold. I don't want to give away the story, but it's a fabulous fairy tale in the same league as "Ella Enchanted!"

I hope my reviews are something that will encourage you, my readers, to read today! And I highly recommend the books I've mentioned. They have appeal for young and old alike! :-)