Tri-H System

Tri-H System implemented.

I'm going to put it to work tomorrow----I'll go through the piles of mail around and get what I need into the files. Hopefully, that won't be much as the point is to not hold on to as much.

Headed to dinner at mom's in a bit. I'll try to get a moment to go over the new system w/ Rob tonight.

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Thoughts on a new filing system

So, despite my efforts to simplify and streamline, there are still a lot of papers that need to take up space in out living area. I am attempting to get a handle on what they are and how often they need to be accessed so I can set up a system. This post is kind of a thinking outloud.

Let me back up a bit. I spent the morning going through the 3 file boxes and 4 filing cabinet drawers we have. The boxes live in the living room and the big filing cabinet is downstairs in the computer room. I have two big boxes of paperwork to be recycled. And I have streamlined a lot of what needs to be "kept." Bank statements, most regular bills (mortgage, utilities, cc statements), health insurance statements and our paystubs are all available online. There is no reasons to keep the hard copies anymore. That was probably about 80% of what was in the filing cabinet. Here's what is left down there:

• ~birth certificates, Social Security cards, bonds, coins from the years the kids were born
• ~appliance and electronics manuals
• ~car title
• ~deed to house and mortgage paperwork
• ~car, health and home insurance policies
• ~awards & certificates the kids earned in school

Now, a lot of that stuff should actually be in a safe deposit box or a strong box somewhere. I'm putting that on the "when I have some time and money to kill" list. lolz For now, this is taking up two drawers. A third drawer is all art projects and such the kids have done. And the fourth drawer is empty. I could easily get rid of this whole piece of furniture. It's in the alcove under the stairs and behind a curtain, though, so it's not taking up a ton of room. The main issue with it is that simply having it encourages me to hold onto things. I can get over that, though.

So, right now, everything is cleared out of the 2 file boxes and one plastic box that I keep in the living room. And all the papers that I'm keeping are on my bed. It's not much, really, but it will increase in the summer and there is still a lot of random paper around the house that I need to go through.

Anyway, the paper we need to keep around for more than a day, falls into these categories:

• ~homeschool paperwork from the district
• ~classes and clubs for the kids
• ~gadgetology
• ~cooking class
• ~drama class
• ~Warriors for Our Shores packets
• ~Spiral Scouts stuff
• ~there will be plenty more under this topic come Fall
• ~household stuff like take out menus & coupons
• ~some bills that are not available online (these are mainly medical bills)
• ~medical insurance paperwork
• ~medical care paperwork
• ~prescriptions
• ~glucose charts (*can be kept online, googledocs?)
• ~cozmore software and paperwork (could be kept downstairs with appliance manuals?)
• ~packets of info from Sneiders (sick day checklist, phone directory for diabetes team members, etc)
• ~information on supplements and fasts for me
• ~Rob's school work (will be gone by end of October)
• ~personal correspondence (not sure why I cannot get rid of this stuff, actually. I'm going to meditate on that this afternoon, I think.)

I was planning on having accordion file folders for each kid for school work. Well, I am still doing that---I already bought them (they were cute, made from recycled paper and soy ink, AND on clearance!). I was thinking I could put their classes stuff in there and maybe even the paperwork from the district. But, no. I want those folders just for their academic paperwork, I think. I don't want to mix their stuff w/ my stuff, yk? Gets too complicated.

So, it would seem my major categories would be:

• ~homeschooling
• ~household
• ~health

I'm going to meditate on that for a bit, maybe even take a nap. And then I'm going to put on a pot of coffee and build the system.

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What I wore to work last night, kinda

What I wore was fatter and those are not the exact same accesories, but this polyvore I made is pretty dang close. I looked super cute.

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The Pagan Home Management Binder

This is information c&p'd from the Pagan Summer Camp 2008 at mdc.  All my own words.  :)

Monday: Overview and Title & Cover of Your Binder



I'm going to get us started here with an overview of the binder and
today's assignment/lesson. I hope you all will share your questions,
comments, pictures, suggestions and wisdom!!



The Pagan Home Management Book is precisely what it sounds like: a book
that will help your family organize all the work of managing a pagan
home. It will cover all the responsibilities and work you feel running
a home and family requires and it will help you bring your spirituality
into your everyday.



The manual labor of running a family is blessed work. From doing the
dishes to planning holiday traditions, the work we do builds our life
and teaches our children.



Each family's book will be different, as the contents will reflect each
family's priorities and unique spirituality. For some of us, the book
will likely be a solitary endeavor---built, loved and used by just one
person. For others, it's a family task to keep the book on track and
focused.



The first thing to do is to sit in meditation and focus on what you
want the book to be for you and your home. What are your priorities?
Where do you need more concrete help in organization or incorporating
spirituality? If you wrote a how-to of your daily life, what would it
look like? What would be the title?



Today, you should start to think about what, if any, title you want to
give your book. Imagine that the binder will contain the mechanics of
your home labors (lists of groceries & phone numbers, calendars and
menu plans, your most oft-used chants and spells) as well as goals and
inspiration to shape the future of your family and home. Perhaps you
want to title your book after your home. Does your home have a name? Or
maybe just your family name (that's what I used) or the name of your
favored goddess or your craft name.



Here is a great page about naming your home:

http://members.shaw.ca/kitchenwitch/...house_name.htm



Work on your cover page to slip into the cover of your binder. It can
be a piece of your own art work, a collage of images from a magazine,
maybe just some text with your books title or your families name. You
can also decorate the spine of your binder with it's title. Don't worry
about boxing yourself in----you can always change this out. I'm
thinking about changing the cover and spine on a seasonal basis,
actually.


Day 2: Building your binder!



Today we'll focus on how our home management binders will be organized.
We'll create our dividers and start decorating our pages.



My binder is divided into rooms---just like this year's pagan camp!
I'll be continuing to build my binder and work on each section as we go
through summer camp. I am looking forward to adding to my sections as I
learn here in the coming weeks. Here are the sections of my binder:





Porch/Entrance

Here is where I keep my calendar, the current week's menu, my morning and evening rituals and my weekly flow of goddesses
(more on that tomorrow!). When our academic year begins, I will also
keep our weekly homeschool plan here. I love thehomeschoomom.com for
printables I use in this section:

http://thehomeschoolmom.com/gettingo...p#weeklyplnrev



Kitchen



My menu plans, master grocery list, food budget,
renovation/decoration ideas all live here. I also have my kitchen
spells/rituals for deep cleaning, decluttering, cooking and
blessing my kitchen. And a list of tips I've put together for green
cleanings. This section will also include information on my crafting
(scrapping, knitting, etc), I think. I haven't added any of that yet.



Here is a great spell called The Kitchen Witch's Creed. I have both
this one and the blessing below printed out and in plastic page
protectors in this section of my book. I plan to get the Creed up on
the wall of the kitchen with a picture of Brigid (my kitchen goddess).
I say the blessing when I work in my kitchen---be it cleaning, cooking
or just making magik.



http://groups.msn.com/SoulQuestLearn...tchscreed.msnw



Kitchen Witch's Blessing

--------------------------------------

Blessed be this Kitchen of Air, Fire, Water, and Earth.

Be warmed by the sacred light of the Goddess and the Horned One.

May all that is created here by means both magical and mundane

bring nourishment, healing, and sustenance, and cause harm to none.

With love and peace, with joy and magic, be now and always filled.

So mote it be!

-Gerina Dunwich

found at: http://tribes.tribe.net/kitchenwitch...1-94bcad5f9f5d





The goddess of my kitchen is Brigid. I am in the process of getting
some real representations of Brigid (pictures, maybe a sculpture) into
the room itself. It is Brigid I call on to guide me in my kitchen work,
Brigid who keeps me company as I go about my chores there, Brigid who
inspires art and magik in my cooking and creating.





Bathroom

This section includes a deep cleaning list/ritual, renovation ideas, personal body care, health & healing arts, laundry and pet care.
My bathroom has a goddess and her name Yemaya. Yemaya is an African
goddess of the Ocean and Water. Yemaya is the goddess I call on to
assist me in my health and healing work and in home care arts that
involve water and cleansing. She is also the goddess I call on to help
me with my personal flow. When I feel stuck or like I have fallen off
the track and don't know where to start, I will commune w/ Yemaya while
I take a long hot shower and often find my place in the rhythm of my
life by the time the steam fades. I have a meditation on Yemaya and a
couple of health and healing blessings in this section, as well as
resources on meditating. I am probably most excited about the Bed &
Bath week of summer camp to add more to this section.



Since the bathroom also covers health, I keep our family doctor
information and the lists of meds and such we use. My son is a type 1
diabetic, so I also keep a lot of his information here. I'm thinking
that it'll be a bit much here, though, and may make him his own binder
for those things.



I also have my recipes of personal care items here.



Living Room



I'm still a bit scattered on this section---it's quite spare. I know I will include the deep clean and decluttering rituals, decorating inspiration, homeschool information and entertaining lists.
Our main alter is in this room. I want to incorporate Sarasvati as the
goddess here as she is the Hindu goddess of art, music and writing. We
do a lot of reading, homeschooling, writing and art-making in this room.







Bedroom

Deep clean and decluttering lists and rituals, decorating inspiration and information on clothing.
This is the room of romance and sex for me. Aphrodite the goddess I
like here, but I also I am looking for a male spiritual energy since I
am partnered w/ a man. I do have a poem from Kahil Gibran in this
section:

http://www.katsandogz.com/onmarriage.html

and lots of printed images of Aphrodite and Venus of Willendorf. We are
planning our 10 year anniversary renewal of vows so all my wedding
planning stuff is in this section---lists, pictures from magazines,
ideas, etc.



Outdoors/Yard/Garden

I don't actually have anything here yet!! This is a major source of
personal weakness for me. I have tried, quite unsucessfully, to start a
garden for the past several years. I find sticking to things long-term
to be difficult. But I know I can do it! Right
now, I am focusing on creating inspirational collages from magazine
pictures as well as researching about gardening and green ways to care
for the suburban yard. I will also add lists on cleaning and
decluttering my garage and back yard.

Today I wanted to talk a little bit about using my book to find a
rhythm and flow to our days and weeks. I've agot a system going that I
am still tweaking but it's going pretty well! I have a morning and
evening ritual that are based on getting little things done so that I
simply don't have to think about them. They also remind me to take care
of myself and include things like "stretch to music" or "set aside 15
min. to meditate."



I also have sheets of Goddess of the Day. These are 7 goddesses I have
chosen to kind of guide each day of the week. On Sundays, dp and I (and
the kids, if they are interested) sit down and look at the calendar for
the week and decide what order the goddesses will go in. That order is
dependent on our schedule for the week. Here's a breakdown of the
goddesses and the days they cover. I am incorporating lessons
on/rituals about each goddess as well. I'm going to link some resources
to info about each goddess.



Day of Hekate: menu plan for the week, grocery list and errand running.



Day of Hestia:
household chore day! cleaning, tidying, whatever. Hestia pretty much
covers all things related to keeping the house going.



Day of Gaia: outdoor chores!



Day of Seshat: paperwork! mail, bills, calendar



Day of Amaterasu: declutter and simplify day



Day of Inanna: catch-up on things not done



Day of Lilith: Free day! no major chores or duties.

Today's class is about involving the rest of the family and working on
your family-specific pages. For instance, my youngest child is way into
tarot cards and stone energy, so I've got some infor in there that is
really just for her. And my eldest is a type 1 diabetic, so there are
some parts of my book that speak only to that.



If you've got littles in your family, or even if you don't, http://www.pookachild.com/game_room.htm

go over there and get some print-outs! Especially if you are feeling
stuck or stressed about this project, a little time at the kitchen
table coloring with your favorite people and crayons/colored pencils
can really center you and bring back some joy (if you let go of
in-the-lines-perfectionism! ).



Great background music here:

http://faerieradio.com/

Day 4



Today is about goals and how your binder/journal/bag/ring of index
cards/whatever can help you set and work towards your personal goals.



Your goals can be spiritual (daily meditation, creating seasonal
alters), tangible (renovating the bathroom) or a combination of both
(planting an herb garden!).



Take some time to free write or meditate or talk with your family about
the things you would like to have in yoru future. You can make collages
of magazine pictures, write lists of words, create your own
artworks---whatever works for you! I like to make collages of pics that
speak to me and inspire me. I'm thinking about making some online,
actually, at a digital scrapbooking site (it's too hot to touch paper
today---everything is moist here!).



I hope that those who are building binders/systems can see them as ways
to create the life and family and spiritual journey that we all want.
You have to know what you want to get it.

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