Since getting married and becoming a Mama, I have tried all sorts of ‘household helps’ from books to internet organizational sites.  And while they were all fantastic in their own way, I just couldn’t get them to work for me.

Enter Organizing Life as MOM.

FishMama from Life as MOM has written the household manual for mothers. I truly could not be more impressed with how comprehensive this e-book is.  It contains everything I could ever dream of to help my house run smoother.  From worksheets to calendars to planning pages and inspiring ideas, FishMama covers every aspect of household management.

And of course she knows what she’s talking about – she is the Mama to 6 kiddos, after all.  She has gained some wisdom as being a more experienced Mother and House Manager and thankfully she is sharing her knowledge with all of us!

I am so excited to share with you that Organizing Life as MOM is debuting today!  The price is a mere $9.

All of the planner pages, calendars and worksheets are completely customizable and can be printed multiple times.  Per FishMama:

What sets this book/planner apart from others is that it
is customizable. Many of the planning pages are “fillable,” meaning that a
user can click on a “to do” list or chart and edit the action item to fit
their needs and their family.

I’ve already completed a lot of the planning pages and am working on filling in the worksheets today.  I can’t wait to see how this changes the way my household runs.  My laundry life seems to be in great shape…but the rest of my household?  Well, it could use some adjustments. So I’ll give an update after the baby is born once I am able to truly put all of this into practice.

So download your copy of Organizing Life as MOM today!  Start this journey of better household management with me!

If you’re a regular reader here at Mama’s Laundry Talk, you know that I also am a contributor over at Life as MOM.

I love writing about laundry.  But it is also nice to write about other things I love, like pregnancy, newborns and the early months with a new little one.  And this month at Life as MOM, I’m tackling the subject of coping with the inevitable exhaustion that comes during those newborn days.

All mothers deal with it at some point.  Stop by and leave your best coping tips in the comments!

It’s Baby Love Week over at FishMama’s, so click on over and take a peek at the wealth of information over there!

And there are giveaways.  Lots of them

Please forgive the short interruptions we have from laundry this week.  Yesterday I guest posted on Preparing for Morning Sickness and today we’re talking birthday cake ideas.  For all of you laundry lovers, we’ll be back to regularly scheduled programming in a day or so!

I’m participating in FishMama’s Birthday Cake Round-Up today!

When my son Davis turned 3, I wanted to make him a Thomas Birthday Cake.  But I had zero (and I mean zero) decorating skills.  So for all of you who are a little cake-challenged, you can try using sugar wafer discs.

I melted the discs in the microwave in a bowl and then spread in a thin layer on wax paper while it was still warm and spreadable.  I made a template of the design that I wanted to use and then placed it over the cooled sugar discs. 

Using an ultra-sharp knife, I carved the design from the template into the cooled sugar wafers.  The excess easily broke off and I carefully placed the wafer design on my cake.

For this cake, I baked two 9 x 13” cakes and cut the front edge of the top one off to make a shelf.  I had a Thomas candle sit on the little ledge with three single candles.  I had the idea to pipe in a black railroad track for the Thomas candle to run on, but alas.  I ran out of time!

(Yes, I am painfully aware that I placed the cake on the cake board upside down.  Thomas and his friends are completely upside down…sigh) 

A plethora of birthday cake ideas are waiting over at Life as MOM.  Go check them out!

Like everyone else, I’ve set many New Year’s Resolutions in the past. And honestly? I really don’t like to set resolutions – I don’t keep them very well. And who likes to feel like a failure by the third week in January?

Certainly not me.

I’ve taken a hard look at this past year. There were lots of things I was blessed to be a part of in 2009. But there were many things I wasn’t proud of and I’d like to do differently going forward.

Since I am apparently a girl that needs accountability, I thought I’d post them here.

1. Having a daily prayer/Bible time before my children get up. I have done an awful job of this I shamefully admit. It is often hard to hear what the Lord is telling you with three little people saying “Mama” all at the same time.

   Action step: I must have lights out by 10:00pm. This will be very hard for me. Which leads me to #2…

2. Wake up at 6:00 am every single day. Or even a little before then. I’ve proven to myself over and over that on the days I do not wake up before my children are my least productive days ever. I refuse to continue in this stubborn pattern.

   Action Step: Same – I must have lights out by 10:00pm. Yikes.

3. Planning and implementing a date night with my husband once a month. In the past 9+ months, my husband and I have been on 2 dates sans children. I still have a nursing baby, but thankfully she’s an early-to-sleep kind of girl.

   Action Step: Brainstorming not-so-pricey places we can have dinner. Also getting the actual date on the calendar and lining up a baby-sitter.

4. Exercise 3x/week. My brain says that 5x/week is a much better goal, but I just think that is too ambitious in this season of my life.

   Action Step: Line up a few exercise shows on the DVR. (I need some cheap exercise options!). I’ve heard tons about 30 Day Shred so I’ll check into that. That scares me just a hair, I must admit. I don’t think I’ll be able to exercise at the same time each day, so I need to schedule it into my calendar to ensure I’ve set aside enough time during the week.

5. Spending real heart time with my children every single day. Craft projects, reading aloud, playing outside, cooking, games.

   Action Plan: It is not enough that I give them fun things to do while I wash dishes, do laundry, etc. I need to purposefully sit down with them to do some of those fun things. And I’m going to do that at least once a day, even if I have 500 other things waiting on me.

6. Purposefully teach my children their chores/jobs. My little ones are 4 ¾, 2 ¾ and 8 months. My older two have specific jobs that they take care of every day. I want them to know how to do their chores really well without me having to re-invent the wheel every day.

   Action Plan: Create a very simplistic chore chart that uses stickers. Both of my kids love stickers, so they’ll respond well to that. For 2 weeks straight, I will be diligent in teaching them to do their chores. Then let them be independent…I hope.

7. Implementing a schedule for cleaning our house. I’ve tried several methods half-heartedly in the past. Now I’m paying the price in clutter and grime. Yuck.

   Action Step: I’m going to take a couple of hours in the next two days and look over the methods I’ve half-heartedly tried before: SHE, Motivated Moms, FlyLady. I’m going to determine which will fit our lives at this point in time. If you have a suggestion of another “plan” I’m all ears. Feel free to leave a link in the comment section!

8. Getting up-to-date with Quicken. I am a die-hard Quicken fan and have done a pitifully poor job of keeping track of our finances the past 4 months. The data is up-to-date, but I haven’t looked at a report in months. It does no good for Quicken to track our money if I am not looking at the reports of our monthly expenditures. Data is of little value without analyzing it, right?

   Action Step: I can keep up with downloading data and sorting it. I am going to schedule in time once per week to look at our expense reports. I need to know weekly where we stand in our grocery budget, dining out budget, etc.

Wow – when I read back over this list of goals I feel slightly overwhelmed! But I’ve given myself the multiple pep talks that I’ve needed and I’m ready to get started!

I can’t wait to see what 2010 brings!

I’m pleased to post this at Frugal Friday over at Life As Mom.  Head on over and start 2010 on a frugal foot!

I’m also pleased to post this at The Happy Housewife’s 2010 Goals Link-Up.  Stop by and get some Goal Inspiration!