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Beverly Coggins
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Cuyahoga Falls, OH
United States - Share
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1-2-3...Get Organized Books, Workbooks, and Free Stuff
www.1-2-3GetOrganized.com
Three Steps to Clever Cleaning
www.1-2-3GetOrganized.comOTHER TITLES:
Three Steps to Time Management for the Stay-at-Home Mom
Three Steps to Organizing Your Child's Room
Three Steps to Organizing Your Kitchen
Three Steps to Organizing Your Child's Parties
Three Steps to Planning Dinner
Three Steps to Organizing Your Office
Three Steps to Time Management for the College Student
Three Steps to Time Management at the Office
Three Steps to Time Management for the Working Mom
Three Steps to Time Management for the Single Mom
Three Steps to Time Management
Three Steps to Downsizing to a Smaller Residence
Three Steps to Managing Your Time, Energy and Clutter - with Application to MS
Three Steps to Becoming a Downsizing Professional
Hassle Free Dinners
Welcome!
Profile Information
- My kids and their ages?
- two grown daughters, and a foster parent for teenage girls
- My family style?
- Traditional mom and pop
- Biggest surprise about parenthood?
- That I didn't get weekends off any more!!
- Best parenting advice you have given or received?
- Enjoy the gifts, talents, and personalities of each child
- My blog / website?
- http://www.1-2-3GetOrganized.blogspot.com
- My Twitter or other favorite blog / website?
- http://www.1-2-3GetOrganized.com
1-2-3...Get Organized blog
Using Your Drive Time Efficiently
Happy Friday! And happy 4th of July! We plan to go to a parade and see local fireworks. Hope you have a great weekend. :) Here are some thoughts I had about using your drive time well ...
Life is busy! And our time is finite. If we use our time well, life is less chaotic and we have more time for things we love. Here are a few tips:
Using Your Drive Time Efficiently
Life is busy! And our time is finite. If we use our time well, life is less chaotic and we have more time for things we love. Here are a few tips:
- Travel during non-peak traffic hours whenever possible.
- If flexible hours are offered at work, and it works for you, start your work day earlier or later than normal, saving hours by driving at off times.
- Carpool or ride public transportation if possible, using that time to do something else.
- If possible, work from home one or more days a week, eliminating commute time.
- Save up errands, rather than running out several times a week. Write them down so you don't forget them.
- Pre-plan errands – combine errands and appointments in the same area to reduce drive time or repeated trips. Add on errands before or after times when you are out anyway.
- Listen to a recorded book or seminar, podcast, etc. while driving.
- Capitalize on the time spent stopped at lights - file your nails, remove trash from car receptacles, make a list, listen to the news, read a few paragraphs in a book, do deep breathing exercises, butt crunches, or finger exercises, etc.
- While shopping, if you find something you know you will need in the future, buy it, rather than having to make another trip later.
- Try to find doctors and other professionals near your home or workplace to reduce driving time. Do the same with shopping and restaurants.
- Share driving responsibilities with other parents for team practices/games, youth group, etc.
- Keep your car in good working order, preventing emergencies, missed appointments and wasted time.
Similar topics:
10 Ways to Double Your Time
Organize Your Shopping Trips
Restorative Moments and Margins
Helping Your High School Graduate Make an Intentional Plan for Transitioning into College Gracefully
Good Morning! We have girls coming this morning. One of them has graduated from high school and will be heading off to college in less than two months. Going to college is scary the first time! So I thought I'd chat with her about transitioning into college gracefully.
We usually go out to coffee together to have some uninterrupted time together when she's here. I want to ask her how she can make her transition into college a positive one, even though she has a bunch of emotions going on.
She is scared. I want to mention that everyone is scared when they go to college. Just voicing it out loud makes it not so scary. And to know that it's normal helps, too. My own children were scared and excited at the same time, and they had far fewer hurdles to climb than our foster girls have had.
She's be anxious to have freedom! To be a guardian of the county carries with it many guidelines and restrictions. Just to be able to call a friend, their social worker must interview the friend and family! I want to talk to her about the pendulum - how she wants to maintain the same values she has maintained this year and not go to an extreme in the opposite direction just because she can.
I've seen many college students who come from rather controlling homes go crazy their first year in college because they don't know how to handle their freedom. They haven' t been trained in how to make decisions, use discernment, or manage their time. During our girls' last year in high school, we tried to give them more control: we stopped asking if they had homework and such to prepare them for the total freedom they would have in college. We still expected to know where they were and when they'd be back, though. :)
She is so done with the childishness of her peers and siblings. Our girls were ready to move on from the beginning of their senior years! Everyone else at school seemed so petty and immature! I want to talk with our foster daughter about leaving well for the sake of the younger girls in her house. She is setting an example for them - hopefully a graceful one - on transitioning.
Many times our foster girls don't have the luxury of smooth transitions. Their parents do ridiculous things which are unpredictable, and create unpredictable lives for our foster daughters. They are yanked from their homes, schools and neighborhoods. Sometimes over and over. So smooth transitions don't come naturally.
I want our foster daughter to keep the younger girls in mind as she is transitioning - that they are the ones being left, that they will miss her, that they are looking to her as a role model.
She is stressed. There is so much to do before leaving for college! I want to help her think through what her tasks are before leaving: packing, shopping, paperwork, etc. To plan out those tasks will relieve the stress of being rushed at the last minute. I want to help her remove any chaos that doesn't need to be in her life during a very chaotic time.
She is insecure. She is probably wondering if she will be successful in college. She has already changed her major several times this year! I have gone over the Myers-Briggs personality inventory with her to pinpoint what is important to her in a vocation. So that is a huge tool in her tool belt.
I also want to work through my Three Steps to Time Management for the College Student with her to help her determine her own passions, priorities, and gifts. In doing so, she will be confident going into college because she will know what is important to her. And can measure opportunities that arise in light of her own priorities. She will be able to plan her schedule to include her own goals, rather than be at the whim of others. She will be less likely to flounder.
So ... we have a lot to talk about! If you have a child going into college, help make that transition graceful! Tears come, but that's normal, too. :)
Comments? Email subscribers click here to comment on the original blog.
More blogs about college:
Organizing For College - Dorm Room
Organizing for College - Guest Blogger Sarah Scrafford
Packing for College, Round 1
Shadow Boarding Your Tools
Hope your summer is going well! We are having a bumper crop of raspberries this year! I love it!
Here's a re-post of a one I did last summer:
Now that the weather is nicer, you may be spending more time outside and using the tools in your garage more often. One way to make sure your tools get put back in the correct spots is to do what the professionals do - shadow board your tools.
Shadow boarding consists of tracing the outline of your tools with a marker or paint onto the pegboard or wall where they hang. This is especially helpful if you have other people using your tools. Even a child can see where to replace a tool once it is used.
If you loan out your tools to neighbors, family, etc., you may even want to keep a list of who has borrowed which tool and when. Then if one turns up missing, you'll have a record of where it might be rather than having to remember who may have borrowed it.
Comments? Subscribers click here to comment on the original blog.
Other Garage blog posts:
Spring Cleaning the Garage - Storing Hazardous Materials
It's that Time Again - Swapping Out Your Seasonal Tools
Storage for Your Garage
Getting the Maximum Mileage out of Your Veggies
I don't know about you,but I get bored with the same things all the time. So I try to be as creative as possible with whatever veggies I have on hand for the week in order to save money and not bore everyone to death!
Using the same veggies, you can serve:
- a veggie tray
- grilled veggies in foil using salad dressing for a marinade
- a tossed salad or dinner salad
- a salad comprised of cut-up veggies tossed in Italian, ranch, etc. dressing (no greens)
- stir fried veggies - add some meat and it's a meal
- steamed veggies.
At the beginning of the week I usually buy a veggie tray from Sam's. With such picky eaters as our foster girls, it's nice just to put the tray on the table and let everyone choose what they want. The price is so reasonable ($10), and I don't have to do the chopping!
Depending on which girls are here, I'll take veggies they like and place them in foil and drizzle Italian dressing over them. Fold up the foil into a packet and grill about 15 minutes on medium. Broccoli cooked this way was a big hit. This week while we've been off, I combined asparagus and mushrooms. Squashes, peppers, and onions are great candidates for grilling, too.
Small potatoes can be wrapped in foil and grilled for about half an hour. When my husband turns on the grill to sear the meat on high, he puts the potatoes in at the same time and then turns down the heat for the rest of the cooking time. We have also made foil packets with thinly sliced potatoes. You can just add butter and salt and pepper or mix dry onion soup with oil (the recipe is on the box). They take abut half an hour, too.
This week my veggies were carrots, cucumbers, asparagus, grape tomatoes and mushrooms. These can all be used in a tossed salad. Or made into a dinner salad if you add your choice of meat, cheese, nuts, beans, or seeds. I enjoy adding fruit, too - apple, grapes, pears, dried cranberries, mandarin oranges, or berries. When the girls are here, I set the ingredients out and let everyone make their own salads according to their tastes.
One day this week I chopped cucumbers, asparagus, grape tomatoes, mushrooms, a tad of onions and tossed them with Asiago cheese salad dressing. The dressing's strong flavor was a great compliment to the mild taste of the veggies.
Stir fry is a great option when you have small amounts left of several veggies. I start with some of my Teriyaki marinade as a cooking sauce. Next I add the veggies that need to cook longer (carrots, onions, green beans, cabbage) followed by those that need to cook less (mushrooms, peppers, brocccoli, snow peas). If I'm going to make it a meal, I add cooked meat with the second batch of veggies. Serve a plate of fruit and dinner is done!
Steamed veggies are always a stand-by. My favorite seasoning for fresh green beans is garlic salt and butter. Same with cabbage. Really brings out the flavors.
After you've tried all these variations and you still have some fresh or cooked leftover veggies that no one wants, put them in the freezer for soups in the winter. Do the same with bits of meats, rice or beans, and you have a free meal one night!
Comments? To comment on the original blog, click here if you're a subscriber.
Similar topics:
Quadruple Batch of Teriyaki Marinade
Who Invented Meatloaf Anyway?
Grill Your Entire Meal
Expert Organizing and Design Tips for Your Foyer
(Photo by Eric Roth)
I came across this article in the Boston Globe Magazine featuring tips from architects and interior specialists. I thought it contained some great organizing and design ideas. Here's the article:
"Designer Tricks for the Foyer
by Marni Elyse Katz and Deblina Chakraborty June 12, 2008
by Marni Elyse Katz and Deblina Chakraborty June 12, 2008
Architects and interior specialists share their secret sources, strategies for clever styling, organizing tips and other home updates you can do yourself.
Place everything. That chest of drawers just sitting there in an upstairs bedroom would make an excellent hall table, says Sudbury's Sarah Desmond. Use it as storage and switch out mittens for flip-flops as the seasons change.
Reflect on you. Supply grandeur in a small foyer without taking up much space by adding a floating shelf and a mirror, suggests HGTV.com's Taniya Nayak. She suggests hanging a Lack shelf from IKEA between 36 and 42 inches off the floor, with a mirror (she likes the selection at HomeGoods) above it.
Smarten up. Sarah Desmond suggests another way to show off your style while organizing your stuff: Repurpose useful items you have around the house. A planter you like, for example, can be an umbrella caddy, or a champagne bucket can hold mail.
Frame someone. Architect Stephen Chung pieced together an interesting portrait of his son Jet in their home's entry. He took a series of photographs of Jet, each focusing on a different area of the body, then pieced them together. You could also create a whole "person" with the knees, face, and torso of different family members, for example.
Punch up the door. Add a bright splash of color to your foyer by painting the inside of your front door, says This Old House correspondent Carole Freehauf. Or, to make a door you don't want to play up disappear, stick with a neutral color or match the walls and trim. "But if you love apple green," she says, 'why not?'"
Are you proud of some of your design or organizing tricks? Let's hear them! Subscribers click here to comment on the original blog.
Similar topics:
Your Priorities, Passions, and Gifts Create Context for Your Clutter
My Guest Blog on Creating a Mudroom
Clever Organizing Tips from Better Homes and Gardens
Finding More Bathroom Storage without Expanding Your Bathroom
Latest Activity
Thanks Cathi! Your listing will appear on the May 19 MomAudience.com email! I'll email you more info on how to multiply your exposure on MomAudience. - Bev
just visited your site and submitted my website! Best wishes for a successful launch and site!
Comment Wall (12 comments)
- At 6:16pm on February 11, 2009,
Mom Made That! said… - Hi!
I have a site for mom businesses and blogs called Mom Made That! I saw that you have your own business and wanted to know if you were interested in listing with us? It's a great way to grow and promote your business. Email me at mommadethat@gmail.com if you like to learn more about us!
Thank you!
Amy
{http://mommadethat.com}
- At 10:28am on November 24, 2008,
Caringmom said… - Dropping by to say....take sometime to enjoy your Holiday...we never know what life my bring us.
glitter-graphics.com
May the Grace of God fall upon you daily!!!
- At 6:09pm on November 4, 2008,
Amy said… - I loved reading your blog-I love to organize-not clean and declutter. My girls have to hide their stuff when I am on a rampage, otherwise, it goes in the garage sale bin. If anything is left out too long-not needed and toodle loo...
- At 5:46pm on November 4, 2008,
Stacey said… - Hello Beverly! Thanks for the friend request. I love this site. Look forward to talking to you and reading your blogs.
- At 5:27pm on November 4, 2008, Caringmom said…
glitter-graphics.com
- At 7:06pm on October 14, 2008, Stacey said…
- Thank you so much for your prayers! God is good and faithful and I know He is with my little one and me. I love the outreach this site has. I look forward to learning more through such Godly women. I am new to the site and still learning to navigate it. It is awesome!
- At 10:09pm on September 29, 2008,
Jen the Dust Bunny Hostage said… - Saw you on the Christian Mom Logic. Wanted to say hello. Love that you care about younger women and desire to be a role model. That speaks volumes!!
- At 2:03pm on September 18, 2008,
T. Suzanne Eller said… - Two of my daughters and two of my SIL's attended OU. Until last year we had at least one or more children living in Norman for the past eight years. I'm definitely a Sooner's fan.
- At 11:51am on September 17, 2008, Caringmom said…
- Thank you for adding me as one of your friends I'm truly excited about being here. Are we allowed to post any blog information that we have....you see I'm a new mom inventor and i would love for others to see what I'm working on. All this is new to me so I do want to make sure I'm following the right protocol. Thank you so much.!!
- At 11:30am on September 17, 2008, Caringmom said…
- Just dropping by to say hello...pray all is well. Have a wonderful day!
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