Being a Keeper at Home.....

A few months ago I went into our local investment office to deposit a check. The nice receptionist asked me if I was off work that day since it was in the middle of the day. My response before I even really put much thought into it was "I don't work, I just stay at home" and then she said "Oh it must be nice to just stay at home and do nothing" this really didn't even sink in until I was back in the car. I almost got back out, I wanted to run right back in there and tell her a few things !! She didn't say what she said to be mean or anything but I think she and lots of other people think the same thing, staying at home is easy! You can just stay at home all day and sit around and do nothing. I was really down by the time I returned home and it bothered me all day, why when she asked about me working wasn't my response proudly "I am a Keeper of my home" . This escalated over the hours to me questioning my ability and dilligence of keeping our home. I then went and got out any and all books, pamphlets, etc...that had to do with organizing/homekeeping and proceeded to find out why I am such a bad home keeper??

This is just a sampling of books that I have on the subject. I made all kinds of notes and what it is that I need to work on more. I stayed up into the wee hours of the night to get this done. I just Love the book titled "More hours in my day" I am always thinking that there just never seems to be enough time. Then I realized  that I was trying to cram too many things into my days. We are empty nesters so I think people assume that since I  don't have any small children at home anymore I should be out working. For some people this may be an option but I am standing on God's Word and in His Word it clearly states that we are to be Keepers at home. I just know that this is where God wants me, I feel it in my heart. I just need to get way better at it :)

I have started to redo my home management binder (Which I have renamed my Keeper at Home Binder), since it's just me and Roger and I don't have children's chore charts or any homeschooling papers I have decided to downgrade the size and things that I put in my Keeper at Home binder. I have gone from using a 3" Binder for everything to puting all my Keeper at home items in one that is a 1 1/2" binder. All of my other papers are being organized and put into small binders seperate from the Keeper at Home binder.  I am now using the large 3" binder to put all my embroidery stencils/patterns/instructions in and does it hold a lot. Makes finding things much easier than searching through the piles on my table top!!

I will have to take some pictures of my new Keeper at Home binder to show you all, I am still trying to get a routine/schedule made up for my daily cleaning and organizing that will work for me. I have tried using so many different methods and there doesn't seem to be one specific one that works for me. I like doing the task cleaning, like dusting the whole house or cleaning all counters/sinks so I am trying very unsuccesfully so far to incorporate everything I want done in to the days of the week. I will let you know if I make any progress on it :)

I also want to thank all of my wonderful blog friends who have followed me over to this new blog. You are all true treasures. Thanks for all of the nice comments left and the e-mails.

I would certainly appreciate your prayers for tomorrow, I will be going to the one place I dread more than anything ~ The dentist, getting a crown done. My dentist does prescribe me some Valium just to get myself in the door, if not I would be a basket case....

Blessings,Joann

New Blog address

Hello my Wonderful friends here in blogland, Please note that I will no longer be posting on this blog. I have made a new blog, please bookmark or add to your blog list my new blog address. I am hoping and praying that all of my good friends will come and visit me at my new blog. I will not be deleting this blog but will be using mainly for my crafts after today.

Blessings,Joann




http://titus2keeperathome.blogspot.com/

Welcome to my new blog

Hello and welcome to my new blog!

I am needing a change in my life right about now so it seemed a change in blog was needed too. I will be keeping my old blog only for the purpose of leaving a legacy for my children and grandchildren. All new posts will be made here at my new blog.  I was told once by a very good friend that she was doing her blog for her children and  grandchildren so they could look back and see how much she loved them and maybe remember times when they were little. I liked that idea and that is why I am going to continue to blog. I have for the past week or so been contemplating removing my blog but after much prayer and thougth decided to keep it but just change it. I also have not decided for sure if I will keep it open to anyone or just to friends. This I will decide in time. I seem to have some people visiting that I really don't want to visit, but there is no way to block just their coming to the blog. I will be praying on this before I decide for sure, so right now it will be open to anyone.

I will be changing the background and such in the next few days so please bear with me. If you have my blog listed in your blog friends please change it, also please sign up to be a follower. I am thinking of using the other blog as my crafting blog from this point on and the archived things will be there whenever my children or grandchildren want to read  them.

I am hoping and praying that all of my good Blog friends will still come to visit, I wouldn't want to loose anyone along the way.

Blessings,Joann

And the winner is.......

I want to thank each and every one of you who left a comment for the Purse giveaway. I wish I had enough purses to send one to everyone but I only have the one. I really enjoyed this giveaway and may have another one around the holidays.

So I put all of the names of everyone who left a comment into the purse~

Then I had my wonderful husband Roger pick out the winner~

And the name he picked out was....~

In case you can't quite make it out it says Paula from Paula's Place, go on over and visit her blog and congratulate her on her win. Paula please e-mail me(you can find my e-mail at the end of each post, it looks like a little letter) with your address so I can get this sent to you.

Once again I thank all you wonderful ladies out there in blog land, you are some great friends. Praying that you all have a wonderful weekend.

Blessings,Joann

Working on our grocery list

This is our new Revised Master Grocery List Front and Back~(You have to click on it if you want to actually read it, though it is kind of boring :)

Today I spent some time working on a revised Master grocery list. I like the idea of having a Master list of everything we purchase. I shop once a week on Friday's so on Thursday I take my list and go to both my pantry and freezer and I highlight on the list what we need and then I will make a note next to the item of how many we need. I have been buying a few things in large quantities lately when I have seen them on sale. One example is Tuna, we eat a lot of tuna...Roger takes tuna everyday for his lunch. One of the stores in our area had chicken of the Sea tuna for 64 cents a can, but on some of the tops of the cans there were coupons for $1.00 off of 5 cans so for every 10 cans you buy you would get $2.00 off, $6.40 for ten cans minus the $2.00 off is only $4.40 so that's only 44 cents a can for a name brand tuna so I bought lots of cans and I still have about 6 of the coupons left. I am blessed to have a husband who put in a nice pantry for me so I can buy things in large quantities and have a place to store them. I will share some pictures at a later time. So back to my new revised grocery list. This time instead of just grocery items I also made a list of all of the other things we buy, paper products, personal items, cleaning items etc... When I printed it out I put the grocery things on one side of the paper and then put the paper back in and printed the Non food items on the other side. It took some time trying to think of everything we buy and I am sure I have missed some things. That's what's nice about printing it on the computer, it's very easy to come back to the page and just edit it to either add something or to take something off.

So everyone out there what type of system do you have in place for grocery shopping??? Let me know, I would love to hear how others do it. Also if you haven't signed up for my Fall giveaway make sure you go to that post and leave a comment, Friday the 9th is the last day!!

Blessings, Joann

Weigh in Wednesday????

Okay so maybe that title isn't exactly true! I am changing my weigh in day to Friday's. I was noticing that I have not put up a weigh in post since back in July. One of the reasons is that I have been on and off the Weight watchers program, some days following it and some not. I was going through some real stressful times and I am a stress eater. So now I am trying to get my life back to somewhat normal. My total weight loss as of Last Friday was 51.4 pounds, not very good considering my total weight loss back in July was 50.2 but I am very thankful that in the end I am still loosing. I did put some of that weight back on but have managed to get it back off again.
I am also not going to the meetings anymore. I was paying $40 a month and really liked going but it wasn't helping and now that I am weighing at home I seem to be doing better. It of course helps to have a very supportive husband :)

I will be posting on Friday's now so look for Weigh in Friday's, I know not as cool sounding as Weigh in Wednesday's but I am starting to post over at Sugar Pie Farmhouse and they weigh in on Friday's. I may even have a new picture up for my Jo's weight loss journey posts.

Blessings,Joann

Taking pictures of Grandchildren!!!

Has anyone here had the same problem taking pictures either of their children or grandchildren?? It seems that almost all the pictures I end up getting are just a blur, especially with Dylan. Then it goes from not being still to some goofy poses. This is what I got on Saturday when all I was trying to do was get a picture of Katie and Dylan with the shirts on that we bought them at the Louisville Zoo.

Take #1 ~ Asked them to sit on the sofa and take a picture, first they were both sitting on the ends with all this room in between so we asked them to scoot closer. I wanted a picture so you could see the shirts and Dylan grabs pillows to put in front of them~

Take #2~ Now both of you smile, are you kidding, you either get no smile or one smiling and one with their eyes closed~

Take #3~ In this one they are both smiling but Katie started to move away from Dylan!! ~

Take #4~ This one they are both smiling and no pillows in front but at the last minute Dylan had to scoot himself up higher~

Take #5~ The last one and did they cooperate NO Dylan is tilting his head funny~

They loved the shirts, Dylan's favorite colors are green and orange and the shirt we found him is green with orange lettering on it saying " Crazy Monkey" and it has monkeys on it wich he really liked. Katie's shirt is a cute bright pink and has an elephant on it and says "I'm unforgettable"

All of the pictures came out cute but I just wanted one that was "normal" looking oh well I will always have these cute pictures :)

Hope everyone has a great start to their week, I have many things planned in the keeping of my home and in my crafts.

Blessings,Joann