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Listen in as I talk with Jolene Philo, author of A Different Dream for My Child. Jolene shares about her journey as a parent of a special needs, chronically ill child. She gives ideas on how to survive as a parent in this situation and also shares tips and advice on how to best reach out to these families.

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About A Different Dream For My Child:
For years, Jolene Philo’s son was hospitalized many times as he battled a life-threatening birth defect. Far from home, without friends and family to support them, Jolene and her husband felt utterly and completely alone. Today, support networks for parents of critically or chronically ill children have improved, but most only provide for urgent physical needs. The devotional meditations in this book address the spiritual needs of these parents as the author shares her own life lessons, as well as those of other parents who have walked this road. “No matter how difficult the road,” Philo writes, “you do not have to lose hope.” Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re a work-at-home mom with kids in elementary school, you may be harboring a guilty little secret. You’re not looking forward to summer vacation as much as your children are. And since the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) reported that parents should cut back on children’s scheduled activities so they have more time for unstructured play, you may be wondering what to do with the kids this summer and still get your work done.
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One of my favorite childhood memories is of a family vacation when I was nine years old. Uncle Jim and Aunt Donna, who should probably be nominated for sainthood, took their three girls and me and my younger brother on a road trip. At night the gals slept in the orange TeePee pop-up camper. The guys hunkered down in the trunk of the car. Breakfasts consisted of cold cereal eaten from those perforated, single-serving boxes that, when bent back correctly formed passable, though soggy, bowls. Lunches were bologna sandwiches and carrot sticks, often eaten in a ditch by the side of the road. Supper was cooked over the Coleman stove. We toured the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, the Denver Mint, the Red Rock Amphitheater and more. The trip was a blast.

I hope you have a precious childhood vacation memory, too. Because family vacations are all about creating happy memories for our kids. That should be the main goal of your vacation, though you probably have other criteria as well. Maybe your vacation needs to be economical. Maybe you want it to be educational or memorable or loads of fun. It definitely needs to be kid-friendly. Whatever your criteria, you increase your chances of achieving them by planning ahead.

Low Key Vacations

My best advice for family vacations is to keep them as low key as possible. Kids don’t need spectacular vacations and won’t demand glitzy, glamorous ones unless you create that expectation within them. What kids do need is uninterrupted time to hang out with their parents away from the normal hustle and bustle of life. That’s what you need to do – create a vacation environment where your family members can connect.

There are a number of ways to create such an environment, and they don’t have to cost a great deal. Google your local Chamber of Commerce or State Tourism Department. Are there county or state parks nearby? Campgrounds? Fishing ponds? Canoe rentals? Nature trails? With gas prices increasing, a week at a state park can be the perfect way to stay within your budget. Because you won’t spend hours on the road, your kids won’t be tired of each other before you reach your destination. And you’ll have plenty of time to explore trails, wade in a pond and cook meals together.

Road Trip Vacations

Of course, it’s hard to call yourself a red-blooded American unless you’ve taken at least one road trip to visit our national treasures. Visits to places such as the Grand Canyon, Washington D.C. or the Great Lakes do enrich kids’ lives. As a former teacher I can tell you that elementary students who have participated in such trips better understand United States history and geography. They’ve been given prior knowledge, a scaffold of experiences that make the dry facts, dates and names in their social studies books come alive.

Road trips with kids, especially on a limited budget, are challenging but not impossible. Take a page from Uncle Jim and Aunt Donna’s book and camp instead of staying in motels. The kids will love it. Make your own meals. Get on the Internet and scope out special admissions to national parks.

With forethought, you can even make the time on the road fun without resorting to the portable DVD player. When I googled "traveling with kids," I found some great websites. A couple of the best sites are www.activitiesforkids.com/travel/travel_hints.htm and http://www.essortment.com/in/Children.Travel/index.htm. But my absolute favorite is www.momsminivan.com, where you can download printable boards for car bingo and battleship. Be sure to check out the ideas for getting kids to sing in the car and how to use aluminum foil to create wacky stuff.

Once-in-a-Lifetime Vacation

Of course, every family should take a once-in-a-lifetime vacation. If this is the year for yours, you want to make the trip memorable. If you aren’t sure where to start, 100 Best Family Resorts in North America by Janet Tice and Jane Wilford (Insiders’ Guide) and National Geographic’s Guide to Family Adventure Vacations by Candyce E. Staphen (National Geographic Society) can help.

If you’ve already chosen a destination, your local library should have books to help you maximize your time there. Browse the library’s travel section to get an idea of the guidebooks available. You’ll find kid-friendly guides, cheapskate guides, off-the-beaten-path guides, and lots more. Once you know what you want, purchase a your favorites, either from your local bookstore or online. Use them to plan an itinerary that is fun for both kids and parents.

Vacation Benefits

As a Christian mom, you can invite God to join your vacation and impact your children for eternity. Take time for family devotions. As you explore nature, talk about the Creator. Encourage children to ask hard questions and discuss them together. During prayers, express your gratitude to God for providing this time for your family to be together.

Vacations are often more work and more expensive than staying home, at least for moms, but take them for your children’s sakes. Vacations are part of your family’s history. They contribute to the sense of belonging children need if they are to become secure adults. So take a vacation, even if it’s more work for you. Some day your kids will be grateful.

I sure am. Though I’ve told them before, I want to tell them again. Thanks, Uncle Jim. Thanks, Aunt Donna. That vacation was the best.

About the Author:

Jolene Philo is a freelance writer and speaker who lives in Boone, Iowa. She shares her house and her home office with her husband Hiram, daughter Anne, and dachshund Abby. You can learn more about her at her website, www.jolenephilo.com.

If I asked you to write down your dream components of a perfect day, "doing the laundry" probably wouldn’t make your list. It wouldn’t make mine either. On the other hand, "having no laundry to do" definitely would. When my wash is done, I feel like I’ve won another round of the dirty laundry game.

Maybe you’d like to win a round, too. But your preschooler just smeared grape jelly on his shirt. Your toddler, wearing light pink overalls, looks like a human dust mop after crawling all over the floor you haven’t swept for a week. And your baby projectile vomited an entire jar of blueberry buckle over everything within eight feet of her, including you and your husband. So you doubt you’ll win the laundry game any time soon. However, with the right equipment, a few timesaving strategies and some practice, you can improve your record.

Keep It Simple

Staying ahead of the wash is much easier if you keep things simple. The first way to simplify is to be selective about the clothes you buy. Avoid clothes that require dry cleaning, hand washing or have instructions so complicated that it would take a trained professional to follow them. Purchase clothes that can tolerate the settings on your washing machine and can be sorted into one of three groups: whites, darks and colored.

Another simple technique is to funnel the dirty laundry to one location. Put a basket (or hamper) for dirty laundry in or near each bedroom and bathroom. Train yourself and your husband to put dirty clothes and towels in the baskets. By the time children are three or four, they should use the baskets, too.

Simplify further by sorting as you go. Put three bins (or large baskets) in your laundry area, and sort when you bring baskets of dirty clothes from the bedrooms. As children get older, put three sorting baskets in their bedrooms and train them to sort in their rooms. Then they can dump the sorted baskets into the bins every few days.

Keep It Going

Stay ahead of dirty laundry better by doing a load or two or wash each day. When soon as a sorting bin is full, start a load in the washer. As soon as the wash cycle is done, move the wet clothes into the dryer. If your washer and dryer don’t have buzzers to tell you when a load is finished, set your oven timer as a reminder. And if the dryer load contains clothes you want to fold before they get wrinkled, set the timer a few minutes early to get to the clothes before wrinkles set in.

Another way to keep ahead is to put a load of bath towels, sheets, socks, and underwear in the washer an hour before you go to bed. Right before bedtime, move them to the dryer and start a load of clothes you don’t want wrinkled in the washer. In the morning, put the dry load in a basket and the wet load in the dryer. Set a reminder timer if you need to and fold both loads when it rings. With this system, you can have two loads done before breakfast.

Keep It Folded and Put It Away

The least favorite laundry chore, for some people, is folding and putting away clothes. But the job isn’t done until the clothes are folded and put away. Whenever possible, fold clothes as soon as they’re dry. If you can’t get to them immediately, put the basket somewhere obvious and fold them later while doing something enjoyable like watching TV or listening to the radio.

Streamline the job with these time savers. Sort underwear into neat piles but don’t bother folding it. Make beds with the clean sheets as soon as they come out of the dryer. As you fold, put everything in labeled tubs or baskets: your room, kids’ rooms, linen closet and kitchen. Have your kids fold the socks into balls and "shoot baskets" to get them to the right tub.

Keep It Kid Friendly

Consider folding and putting away laundry as a reoccurring series of teachable moments for your kids. A two-year-old can fold washcloths, dishrags and napkins while you introduce colors with comments like, "Now fold the red towel." Teach a preschooler to recognize family members’ names and her own by putting folded clothes in the labeled tubs. School-age children learn organizational skills by taking tubs to appropriate rooms and putting their clothes in the correct drawers.

Of course, all these efforts take time and supervision, but your children will be the better for it. By involving them in laundry tasks at a young age and increasing their responsibilities as they grow, you are preparing them for adulthood. Believe it or not, the ability to do laundry is an essential skill young adults need to master to live independently.

You can stay ahead of the laundry, though it won’t happen immediately. By implementing these suggestions and adapting them to meet your circumstances, you can win the laundry game – at least until the baby sends the strained sweet potatoes flying your way at breakfast. When that happens remind yourself to wear the old rain poncho at lunchtime. You’ll be glad you did.

About the Author: Jolene Philo is a freelance writer and speaker who lives in Boone, Iowa. She shares her house and her home office with her husband Hiram, daughter Anne, and dachshund Abby. You can learn more about her at her website, www.jolenephilo.com.

Family mealtime is important. In fact, its importance is becoming clearer as modern families abandon the practice of eating together. Therefore, even though mealtime and menus were addressed in the December column, I am revisiting the topic. This month the focus is on why eating together is crucial for you and your children.

Mealtime Truth Observed

Family meals added structure to my own life. They were the center of my childhood. Three times a day we gathered at the table even though my mother taught full time. We ate together for two reasons. First, it was economical and money was tight on a teacher’s salary. Second, mealtime provided company for my disabled, homebound father.

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Winters are long in the Midwest. And even though the daylight hours grow discernibly in February, it’s still the month when cabin fever shows up. This uninvited visitor plagues work-at-home moms, cooped up with kids determined to litter the house with toys and projects.

One way to banish cabin fever is to keep the house clean. Accomplishing that feat while maintaining control of kids bursting with excess energy is a challenge for even the most organized mom. But you can gain control over your home and keep cabin fever at bay by establishing some daily house cleaning routines. In the process, you’ll teach your kids skills they need to be successful as adults. So let’s get to work.

Control Your Clutter

To make your home look clean even when it isn’t, you need to control clutter. Of course, with children creating messes as you get rid of them, you’ll think you’re fighting a losing battle. But if you implement these quick tricks, eventually you will win the clutter war.
* Sort mail daily. Throw junk mail in the garbage without opening it. File catalogs you want to keep, bills and other important mail. Note in your planner when to pay bills and respond to other correspondence.
* If you have school age children, check backpacks every day. To learn more about controlling school papers, read the September 2007 It’s About Time column
* Purge newspapers weekly and magazines monthly.
* Pick up toys every day, even if you just toss them in plastic tubs and hide them behind the couch.
* Set up ongoing projects in an out-of-the-way place like the basement or the spare room.

Create a Schedule

Most people clean in one of two ways: in one fell swoop or in small, daily spurts. Both have advantages and disadvantages. The first is exhausting, but if you stick with it to the end, the whole house looks great. The second is more manageable, and therefore more likely to get done, but every room in house never looks magazine cover ready at the same time.

Over the years, I moved from being the first kind of cleaner to the second. It easier and left the weekends free for family activities. My system evolved into the following five cleaning duties completed after work: kitchen, bathroom, dusting, vacuuming, and rotating chores. Rotating chores included things that didn’t need weekly attention such as closet cleaning, sorting toys with kids and cleaning the porch.

You can tweak the system to meet your needs. If you want a little more structure and encouragement as you change your cleaning habits, visit the Fly Lady at www.flylady.com. She has schedules, daily emails and cleaning products that will help you develop daily housework habits. You’ll take baby steps each week and have fun in the process. One word of warning: if you sign up to be part of the Fly Lady’s email group and don’t want your inbox flooded, select the digest format.

Include the Kids

Your kids can clean house. In fact, your kids need to clean house. It is one of the best ways to teach them necessary life skills. As an elementary teacher I discovered there are two kinds of students in the world. The first kind keep their lockers and desks clean, finish their homework and can find it when asked to hand it in. The second kind can’t find any homework, complete or incomplete, because of their messy desks and overflowing lockers. In discussions with kids and their parents, I found that most students in the first group had cleaning chores at home, while those in the second group didn’t.

Teaching your kids to clean is a win-win situation for your family. You get help around the house; the kids learn life skills. And the key to teaching them is to start early. Of course you can’t expect your two-year-old to scrub the bathtub or your three-year-old to vacuum the house. But there are appropriate cleaning tasks for every age group: toddlers, preschoolers, elementary-aged children and middle schoolers.

These two websites have excellent articles about age-appropriate tasks for kids, as well as other information about allowances, chore charts and other topics.

* familyeducation.com – Type "chores for children" in the search box, and you’ll find many useful ideas.

* raisingchildren.net.au – For a bit of Australian parenting flavor, type "chores for children" in the search box of this website.

Make It Fun

House cleaning is not my favorite activity. And my grown kids, who were part of the family cleaning crew during childhood, agree. But when they were young, we stumbled onto a method that made cleaning fun. We listened to book tapes or fun radio shows while we worked. Believe it or not, the memory of everybody working together at home and listening to a good story is one they cherish.

By following these three steps, you and your family will have more than a clean home. You’ll have more than a home devoid of cabin fever. You’ll have good memories and more responsible kids, too. So dig out the mop bucket and feather duster. It’s about time to clean the house.

About the Author:
Jolene Philo is a freelance writer and speaker who lives in Boone, Iowa. She shares her house and her home office with her husband Hiram, daughter Anne, and dachshund Abby. You can learn more about her at her website, www.jolenephilo.com.

When most people hear the word "January," they think of cold and snow, abandoned New Year’s resolutions, short days and long nights. But when I hear "January," once the shivering stops, I think of down time. Between holiday recovery time and uncertain weather, many activities take a break during January. That gives you a chance to prepare for the new year. The best way to do that is to gather the tools you need and make them part of your routine. And the most important tool to have in place is your daily planner.

I know, I know. You’re thinking, "Why is she talking about this again? We went over this in August." You’re right. We did. But at that time I promised we would revisit the daily planner this month and maybe add a few bells and whistles. And being a woman of my word, except for that silly vow I made about never eating chocolate again, a second look at how to use the daily planner is in order.

If you missed the first column and want to start at the beginning, or if your memory is like mine and you have no idea of what you ate for breakfast this morning, much less the contents of an article you read last August, take heart. A quick trip to the August column will get you up to speed.

Evaluate Present Use

This January commit the new year to God and ask Him to help you redeem the time (Ephesians 5:16) He’s provided. One way to do that is to use your planner well. If you haven’t purchased one yet, the link above tells what you need to get started. Once you determine what you need, you can shop websites like www.dayrunner.com or www.franklincovey.com or visit your local office supply store.

If you already use your planner regularly, now’s the time to evaluate how effective that use is. Ask yourself these questions:

* How can I improve my daily planning time?
* Do I ask God to guide the way I use my time?
* Do I take my planner wherever I go?
* When does it save time?
* When does it waste time?
* What can I change to utilize it more effectively for household chores and family responsibilities?
* What can I change to utilize it more effectively within my business?
* What do I need to add?

Make Necessary Adjustments

Based on the answers to the questions above and ones you think of yourself, you will see where to adjust your present practice. For example, if you aren’t planning daily, make that a priority each morning and include prayer time in it. Or, if you forget your planner when you leave the house, try clipping your car keys to it. You won’t forget it again!

Keep all present practices and features that save time. But if some waste more time than they save, figure out why. If you just need more practice until they become second nature, keep practicing. If moving components to a different part of the planner or tabbing them differently would help, try that. But if something is a true time waster, abandon it.

Add Needed Features

As your family and business grows, so will your planner. When I first attended writers’ conference, I exchanged business cards and stuck them in the front of my planner. A quick shuffle through the cards was enough to jog my memory so I could find the person I needed to locate. Once I attended a few more conferences and hit the ripe old age of fifty, that method tanked. Cards began falling out of my planner. I couldn’t recall the face or conversation that accompanied the name on the card. But at the DayRunner website, I found a plastic holder that displays all the cards at once. And I now write a note on the back of each card to help me remember the person who gave it to me.

In the same way, you will add features when previously workable practices become frustrating. When that happens, think about what you need to make them work again. Ask others if they had the same problem and how they solved it. Search online to see what’s available and when you find it, add it to your planner.

Create a Habit

If you started using a planner once and then gave up, don’t despair. Be patient and persevere. Remember, it takes six weeks to turn a new practice into a habit.

You just need to think of easy ways to keep the new habit in front of you at all times. So if you forgot to use your planner today, put it where you will have to touch it tomorrow. Depending on your morning routine, that place could be: on your breakfast chair, in a sack hanging from the doorknob, on top of your purse or Bible, beside the alarm clock, in your shoes…you get the idea. This method works so well you can use it to help other people in your house remember their stuff, too.

Time is a gift from God, and He’s given you a new year of minutes and hours and days and weeks and months. The four steps above can help you redeem that time in a way that honors your family, your business and the Giver of all good gifts.

About the Author:
Jolene Philo is a freelance writer and speaker who lives in Boone, Iowa. She shares her house and her home office with her husband Hiram, daughter Anne, and dachshund Abby. You can learn more about her at her website, www.jolenephilo.com.

For years the question, "What’s for supper?" filled me with dread because I rarely knew the answer. I was married eight years before I stumbled upon the practice of menu planning. Once discovered, it made my life a whole lot easier. I spent less time cooking, reduced food waste, saved money and my family ate better. These ten tips can make your life easier, too, so give them a try.

Tip One: Be a Fabulous Cook Once a Day

Reserve your best cooking for your main family meal. Put all other meals on autopilot by creating a weekly menu of simple meals like those shown on this table.

Breakfast

Lunch
Sun
Orange juice, cold cereal, toast Sunday dinner, then popcorn at supper
Mon
Grape juice, instant oatmeal Soup, PBJs, baby carrots
Tues
Orange slices, toaster waffles Grilled cheese, chips, canned fruit
Wed
Orange juice, cold cereal, toast Leftovers
Thurs
Grapes and muffins Hot dogs, veggies and chips
Fri
Grape juice, PB toast or English muffins Mac & cheese, fresh veggies with dip
Sat
Apple slices, Pop Tarts Lunch meat sandwiches, fresh fruit

*This menu assumes milk is served with meals

Tip Two: Plan Menus Weekly

Think of main dishes for the main meal of each day. Write them on your monthly wall calendar or in your planner. Check church, school and work calendars as you go so you don’t plan something for the night of the PTA pancake supper. Do your planning on the day you get your favorite grocery store ads. Make your grocery list as you go, letting good deals on produce and other items guide your side dish choices.

Tip Three: Utilize the Crock Pot and Grill

Plan at least two crock pot meals per week during the winter months and two grilled meals in the summer. Crock pot and grilling recipes are everywhere. Inexpensive cookbooks are available in the check out lanes at grocery stores. Google "crockpot" or "grilling" and see what you get. You can also check at the library or in women’s magazines and newpapers.

Tip Four: Use Leftovers

When planning menus, include at least one meal per week that yields leftovers to be used for the main dish of another meal. Grill a turkey and boil off the carcass for soup. Use leftover meat in hash or a casserole. Put a beef or pork roast in the crock pot and use the leftovers for hot sandwiches, stew or stir fry. Or reheat leftovers for an easy lunch.

Tip Five: Shop Once a Week

Menu planning will help you develop a once-a-week shopping mindset. As you plan meals, make your grocery list. Post it on your refrigerator. As you run out of items during the week, add them to the list. Always take your list with you to the store.

Tip Six: Stockpile Basic Ingredients

Once your breakfast and lunch menus are in place, stockpile kid foods such as canned soup, Spaghettios and macaroni and cheese when they’re on sale. Do the same with ingredients you use regularly such as flour, sugar, spaghetti sauce, pasta, spices, oil, canned tuna and salad dressings. Check the stockpile as you plan menus and add needed ingredients to your grocery list.

Tip Seven: Make Your Freezer Your Best Friend

If you have a deep freeze, take advantage of it. Buy sale-price meat and large quantities of staples to freeze. Date and label everything. Store food in freezer bags or disposable aluminum pans if you run out of casserole dishes.

Tip Eight: Fix More Than One

You can maximize your time by making double, triple or quadruple batches of anything you prepare – casseroles, baked good, snack mix, cheese balls. Serve one batch immediately and put the rest, labeled and dated, in the freezer. By doing this consistently, you will have meals on hand for busy days.

Tip Nine: Develop a Plan for Picky Eaters

Inform the picky eaters at your house that a one choice optional menu plan is available. It should be nutritious but not very glamorous. At our house it was peanut butter sandwiches. As soon as the picksters are old enough, they should fix the optional meal by themselves. This method feeds picksters without catering to them, and they often begin trying new foods.

Tip Ten: Create a Recipe Arsenal

Menu planning is easier if you have a large number of recipes you like. Look for recipes that are uncomplicated, nutritious, freeze well and use inexpensive ingredients. One book that meets all these criteria is Once a Month Cooking by Mimi Wilson & Mary Beth Lagerborg (published by Focus on the Family). Other sources of good recipes include: good cooks, church cookbooks, newspapers and magazines, the library, the Internet and food packaging. Set a goal of trying a new recipe once or twice a month. If your family gives it a thumbs up, add it to your arsenal.

Once I implemented menu planning, I didn’t hate the "What’s for supper?" question because I always had an answer. You will too, with a little practice. So as winter sets in, try these ten tips. And send an email to tell me how you’re progressing. If you do, I’ll send you some of my favorite recipes. So go on, it’s time to get cooking!

About the Author:
Jolene Philo is a freelance writer and speaker who lives in Boone, Iowa. She shares her house and her home office with her husband Hiram, daughter Anne, and dachshund Abby. You can learn more about her at her website, www.jolenephilo.com.

This fall we’ve enjoyed some record setting warm temperatures in the Midwest, my part of the country. The mild weather reminds me of a similar fall years ago when my daughter Anne was a first grader. Between the pleasant weather and extra duties at work, I forgot to sort through the kids’ winter paraphernalia. An unexpected night time snowfall in November resulted in a mad search through our coat closet the next morning. Anne’s coat, mittens and hat still fit, but her old boots were way too small. So off to school she went, bootless through the wet snow. She came home very upset. "Mom," she sobbed. "Everybody without boots had to stand by the wall. And the playground supervisor scolded us and…" Her story went on and on, and I felt guilty as I comforted her. Why? Because a little forethought on my part would have prevented the whole situation.

You can avoid a similar scenario at your house by using the four steps below to help you organize the hodgepodge of winter cast-offs cluttering your closet. Then you’ll be ready for the cold days that will soon arrive.

Step One: Sort and Size
First, pull last winter’s things out of the closet and have your kids try them on. Pass clothes on if they fit your next smallest child or store them if a much smaller child can wear them in a few years. Save items you can’t use for a garage sale or donate them to another family or to a thrift store. Immediately put things to be stored in a labeled box. Bag items to be donated and drop them off the next time you run errands. Price garage sale merchandise and place it in boxes labeled for that purpose. Whatever you do, don’t put things you won’t use in the closet. Get rid of them instead.

And while you’re at it, use the same system to sort through spring jackets, raincoats and umbrellas. Pack what you will use again in a labeled, clear plastic tub, but wash soiled items first. Put the tub in storage. Get rid of everything else.
Now, run the usable winter coats, hats, mittens and scarves through the air fluff cycle of your dryer. While the dryer removes the wrinkles, you can create a shopping list, including kids’ clothing size and color preferences. Put the list in your planner so it is handy when you find a good buy.

Step Two: Swap and Buy
Because you’re starting early, you can avoid paying top prices for your kids’ winter gear. Think about friends and family who have children older and larger than your kids. See if they have coats or boots to pass on or sell at a reduced price. Or maybe you can swap coats and boots back and forth from year to year.
If that doesn’t work, check ebay, consignment shops, garage sale ads and thrift stores for quality used outerwear. If you still come up empty-handed, watch the department store sales flyers. Most run a pre-season coat sale with deep coupon discounts. If you’re a catalog or Internet shopper, check websites to do some comparison pricing.

And don’t forget your local discount store. They’re a great place pick up extra pairs of inexpensive stretch gloves and headbands. Keep them on hand for emergencies and to replace the mittens and caps that inevitably get lost each winter. Layering a couple pairs together keeps kids’ fingers warm without making your temper flare. They make cheap stocking stuffers at Christmas, too.

Step Three: Hang and Dry
Once the family is outfitted for winter, train everyone to take care of their gear when they get home – unless you enjoy navigating your way through heaps of coat and piles of boots during several months of cold weather. These tips can help you avoid that fiasco. You’ll spend a couple weeks training kids (and adults) to use the storage system, but the effort is worth it.

- Hang adult coats in the closet.
- Install pegs at kid level near the door they use to enter the house. They should hang their coats up as soon as they take them off.
- Put a bathmat, boot tray or folded vinyl tablecloth on the floor near the same door, perhaps below the pegs. Kids should place wet boots there.
- Hang a shoe organizer over the coat closet door. Use it to store hats, gloves and mittens. Label the pockets with the names of everyone in the family, reserving the lowest pockets for the smallest children.
- Varnish a long narrow piece of wood. Glue clothespins to it and hang it on the wall above a radiator or other heater. Kids can pin their wet mittens there to dry.

Step Four: Sort and Store
This last step, which will make next year’s winter preparations much easier, will be completed next spring. Make a note – "Store winter stuff" – on an April day in your planner calendar so you don’t forget when spring arrives. When the designated day comes, haul the tub full of spring outerwear to the coat closet and complete step one in reverse.

Once you have the spring jackets arranged and the winter things stowed away, do one last thing. Write a note – "Store spring stuff" – on a November day in your planner calendar. Now, no matter what next fall is like, you’ll set a weather record. Your kids will tramp through the snow, dry and warm, two years in a row. Kind of makes you eager for snow, doesn’t it?

About the Author:
Jolene Philo is a freelance writer and speaker who lives in Boone, Iowa. She shares her house and her home office with her husband Hiram, daughter Anne, and dachshund Abby. You can learn more about her at her website, www.jolenephilo.com.