A Legacy of Peace (Not Stress)

During the month of June, I attended 4 funerals in 4 weeks.  It's gotten me thinking quite a bit about life and death and all of the other BIG questions we tend to forget about on a day to day basis.

I'll probably have a few related posts, but in the meantime, I was reminded to tell you about my Legacy File.

A Legacy File is something for your family to have on hand should something happen to you.  It's a file to help them love you more and stress less.  Think about it.  How many different bills do you pay each month? In most families, there is a primary paper-worker, and an incredibly-grateful-to-them-spouse.  Does the grateful spouse know where to find stuff in case the paper-worker is suddenly unavailable to do his/her job?

Here are some things a legacy file should include:

• Bank information and account numbers
• Bill information
• Birth certificates (copies)
• Wills (notarized)
• Life insurance paperwork
•  Social Security cards (copies)
• Wedding certificates (copies)
• Etc.

As I began trying to get my files in order, I literally LONGED for the days of yesteryear when we weren't so connected with 3,000,572 different passwords.  Seriously.  It's crazy!

So, on the off chance that a loving relative would want to update my status, or check my e-mail, or whatever, I created a honkin' HUGE document for my family.  One copy is in our safe, and one copy is with trustworthy relatives who've promised not to open it unless necessary (after they oooo'd and ahhhhh'd over it first in my hearing).

Here's what mine ended up looking like (with personal information changed, of course!):

I know.  You're impressed.  Your mouth is actually hanging open, isn't it?  Yep.  Happens to me every time I look at this list, too.  :D

Go ahead.  Savor the moment.  Ahhhh.  

It took me several months to compile everything, so to save you the stress, I've uploaded the Word document here.  You can go in and change all of the fake (and slightly humorous) stuff and put in your own information instead.

Just save a copy of the Google Doc to your own Google Docs (you'll need a Google account), and then you can edit all of the info.

Remember, times of loss are difficult enough without wondering how to do basic things like logging into bank accounts to pay bills.  Leave a legacy of peace.  Not stress.

I've never really been one for New Year's Resolutions.

Perhaps that's because I only ever think of the usual stuff like: "journal more" or "eat veggies".  Ick (to the veggies, not the journaling).  As it turns out, I've been resolving several areas of life for the last six months or so, and therefore I didn't really have any new and improved resolutions for 2012, just a continuation plan.

I'm going to share what I've been working on for the latter part of 2011, and then I'll elaborate over the next few posts...which will actually happen soon, because I'm going to type them now and post a little at a time, thus outwitting myself.  Hopefully.

1.  Be intentional with my time.  Don't waste it and then complain that there's not enough time to get things done.

2.  Simplify our stuff.  (Remove clutter...ugh!)

3.  Save money.  (Make Emily's food, for starters.)

4.  Do my job.  (Make meals each night, do laundry, and generally have a presentable house.)

5.  Deal with the little stuff in my life that's keeping me from being who God wants me to be.  (Ahem...Dr. Pepper.  Don't underestimate the power of addictions!)

6.  Raise Emily as well as I possibly can to know and love God, His Word, and His ways.

7.  Create traditions for our family. 

8.  Look nice for Matt and Little Bit.

9.  Make cute stuff.  (Crafting is important.  I'm a recent convert.  I'm still working through this one, but I will post cute things as I steal ideas from other people and make them.  Thanks primarily to Tara and my in-laws for sucking me in with your adorable-ness and making me say, "I can do that."  Sigh.)

So, that's what we'll be discussing over the next few posts.  Stay tuned.

Moving Toward Household Happiness - Step 3

I'd say in the grand scheme of Household Happiness*, I've just finished Step 3.  Because it's the most succinct, I'm starting with 3.  I promise to go back and do Steps 1 & 2 later, though.  I'm envisioning around an 8 to 10 step program overall.

*Household Happiness (my definitions):
1.  A state of being where I am not wallowing in unending guilt due to overwhelming household tasks (...like laundry and dishes - which NEVER end...  Sigh.) 

2.  The ability to actually invite people inside my home with a moment's notice and not have to shove stuff into the bathtub or the oven. 
(You might be wondering, "why not the closets?"  They're...ahem...full.  Stop judging and go open your own closets.  Yours probably are, too.  If not, then come teach me!)

Now, I know what you're thinking.  "Poor Tiffany.  She doesn't realize that Matt loves her and the house just the way she (and it) is, and no one expects perfection, and...blah. blah. blah."

No worries!  I'm not at all needing affirmation in my daughter of God-ness, or in what priorities REALLY matter, or in Matt's love, or whatever. 

What I do need, is to figure out this whole domestic diva thing so that I can actually be spending time doing the stuff I want to do and not keep folding laundry and moving piles of stuff around so we can sit down to eat the meal I didn't actually make because I was too busy trying to downsize my to-do list with a crying baby* on my hip. 
*Sometimes she's crying because I kept ignoring her while I tried to get stuff done.  :o(

Jesus came that we might have life more abundantly and let me tell you that spending the day locked inside and avoiding the neighbors who want to come for playdates because the house is a mess and sometimes not even having time for a real Bible study or playing with my ah-dorable daughter because of chores is NOT an abundant life.
*Yes, I avoided all of the punctuation in that crazy, run-on sentence.  Wasn't sure about one or two spots, and I figure the bad grammar adds to the stress the paragraph is trying to convey.

I'm doing fine, and I have a decent outlook on life.  I would simply like more time to live my life and less time maintaining it.  On a side note, I've been learning TONS about God lately, too, which I think has helped my outlook immensely.

Anyway, Step 3 in this whole process is a permanent grocery list.  I had one a while back, but I stopped using it as our tastes changed.  I was writing more in the "other" categories than I was marking the stuff already on the list.

I took my old list along with a list from Woman's Day, and I made the following list.  I'm a wee, tiny bit proud (and giddy), so I'm sharing it with you here.  And then, I'm going to bed.  It's 1:36am.  I'm going to pay for my latest obsession tomorrow.  But, oh how glorious this obsession will be the next time I need to buy groceries!!!

Drumroll please...

My new grocery list:

E-mail me if you'd like the original Word Document so that you can play around with it for yourself.

Have a lovely weekend!