Vicki's 2009 SIBLINGS & families REUNION

The reason to plan family reunion fun is to reunite your immediate or extended family. Few of us live next door to our siblings or cousins like was done in the “old days”. Geography divides us. The main reason to plan family reunion (s) annually is that it brings your family back to once again grow together.

BEGIN TO PLAN FAMILY REUNION FUN WITH A MASTER PLAN –  The whole  reunion should be planned beginning to end by one family member. In my family, I and each of my siblings take a year to plan family reunion events on a rotating basis.  THEN we divide up the reunion responsibilities for the year. We typically assign out one meal and one group activity per sibling.  This plan, family reunion master plan I should say, is not overwhelming for the master planner OR anyone helping. Let’s imagine that YOU are the master planner for THIS YEARS family reunion. Before you begin to delegate, you should decide these things:

FIRST, decide on the type of reunion you will hold from these options:

• siblings only (your brothers and sisters)
• adults only, (your siblings and their spouses/life partners)
• everyone’s invited

THEN

1. Choose a date for the family reunion (You should email all attendees three possible dates and see which are workable for the majority of those attending.)
2. Plan family reunion budget expectations
3. Plan family reunion destination specifics including a map for arrival.
4. Invite the guests.
5. Plan family reunion activity assignments based on the number of siblings you have and the length of your family reunion.

NEXT

• Plan Family Reunion  General Costs based on a per person cost.
• Plan Family Reunion Location Destination(s) according to your preference.
• Plan Family Reunion Activities by holding 1-2 per day and assigning one activity per your siblings attending.
• Plan Family Reunion Meals by assigning one meal per sibling attending. (IF you are a small family, assign a dinner meal and lunch meal . Cold cereal for breakfast is fine.)

To listen to my 16 minute audio show on this topic, visit The Organized Woman Show and look for show number 038 titled Organizing Family Reunions.

To see some of my favorite reunion themes, award ceremony ideas, & reunion photo suggestions; scroll up or click here.

Two of my favorite ‘plan family reunion websites’ are these:

• www.familyreunion.com
• www.familydetails.com

If you use a systematic approach when you design a general plan, family reunion meals and events will be successful in the end. By breaking down and delegating responsibilities into smaller components, success becomes more attainable. Began to plan family reunion fun now. Bring your family together this year and enjoy the support you feel from surrounding yourself with those you love!

Blending a family of any variety is an obstacle course with many hardships already built-in to jump over & climb above. The holiday season is especially hard because of all the memories (bad AND good) that come attached to each blended family member.  This week I invited my friend and neighbor, Janet Peterson, mother of 11 children combined, to share some Blended Family Holiday Tips. Listen here to show #023. My friend Janet has maneuvered the course for many years and has been successful! She shares specifics on holiday activities and traditions that have worked for her blended family over the years. A few suggestions include these:

Just think of it, for ½ the cost of a new desk or ½ the cost of a new TV set, YOU OR SOMEONE YOU LOVE can receive the gift of peace! In fact, I guarantee greater peace of mind!

Imagine the opportunity to organize your home spaces or business office spaces so they are easily maintained for $500 or less at my special Christmas rates?

Suggest this gift option to those buying gifts for you OR give this gift to someone you love who has tried and just doesn’t have the know how to make it happen on their own.

Organizing Gift Certificates Available

Contact me now for organizing help once and for all at 801-623-8411

Winter Season Traditions

Building a stronger family unit is the goal of every mother I know! Holiday Family Traditions are a great way for families to come together to celebrate the fun and festivities of the winter season. I just produced show 021 titled Winter’s Fun Family Traditions hosted on The Organized Woman Show. My sister, Cindi Barton, was my invited guest. She has done such a great job of bringing her family together each time she sees an open opportunity. She shared three fun ideas for building family closeness with winter time family traditions. My show partner, Laura, and I each shared three ideas of our own for beginning new family traditions. Listen to the show by clicking on the bolded link a few lines up. Learn about Cindi’s family’s “Story around the Tree”, Laura’s family’s “Christmas Eve House” and my family’s “Camera, Lights, Cocoa” family traditions.

My friend, Kim Shields, who is SO GREAT at finding time not only for her own children, but even includes many of the neighborhood children in her fun times, emailed me a these great ideas:

• Make sugar cookies together, decorate them and deliver them to neighbors. Enjoy the tasting as you do the baking. Happy tummies make happy workers.
• Pull out the Christmas books, put them in a basket and read the stories together while snacking on pop corn and yummy hot coco each night around the tree.
• Reminisce together over the gifts you have received or have given to someone you value.
• Read the Christmas story from the Bible on Christmas eve. Dress the young children up in simple costumes to act out the nativity story.
• Try to do something nice for someone else who is in need each Christmas.  Deliver a meal and/or toys to a family who really needs some help.
• Buy a boxed gingerbread house at target (about $12) and decorate it with your family. Be sure to buy extra candy so the kids can eat up as you design and compile the house accents.
• Set out a “Countdown to Christmas Calendar” where each day the kids find a very small treat, (think a M&M or hershey’s kiss) to consume each morning before they take off for school. (This is another Winterton family tradition also.)
• Build a “Holiday Chain” for each child’s room to count down the days before Christmas
• Have a treasure hunt for a hidden gift the day before Christmas

For additional winter season family traditions that include non Christmas tradition ideas, click here to read what is being said on the WIN’s conversation board.

Are you interested in finally getting yourself organized but are unable to find just the right organizing products? Organizing products that are a real help in setting up an organizing system that works for you today and for many years of tomorrows. The Container Store is one of my favoite online stores. It’s SO fun to walk through and almost as much fun to surf. Visit your local Container Store for the purchase of organizing products. Decide on the room that needs your attention most, go shopping online, and when your products arrive, shout “HOORAY!” and begin my steps to organize any space formula. If you can’t find what you need in the container store, I have compiled some additional links for unique and hard to find organizing products.  Who knows…one of these organizing products may be just what you have searched for for years and never been able to find.

I was called by my friend and the CEO of the WIN online, Paula Fellingham, a few months back and asked to organize many of the comings and goings of show hosts for the upcoming Women’s Information Network National Launch on September 26, 2009 in Salt Lake City, Utah. I used my SPARK formula to organize three points of need for the WIN executive team. (I always consider it a great compliment to be asked to manage or organize anything by someone who already knows me.) Yesterday I finished up the job they had confidence I could do:

Set into Categories all the show hosts coming into Utah from out of state

Purge from the list those, who after financial consideration or time constraints, had reluctantly changed their minds

Assign incoming show hosts a recording time for the WIN Show and lodging accommodations during their stay

Round up airport transport times for pick ups and deliveries

Keep the documents easy to find and organized on my computer until Paula and the WIN executive team were ready to put my plan into action

Oh, the mind of a professional organizer and experienced corporate events manager. (I gained “events management” work experience years ago by working with three of the largest corporations in Utah. That experience benefited me greatly.)

The WIN online executive team

I learned much as I worked this event. I am excited to greet these accomplished WIN show hosts who have been communicating with me the past 30 days.

Please, join us for a day of learning at the Salt Lake Community College Campus Auditorium just west of the freeway on 9400 South. I’ll be speaking. See you there.

I am an emerging and ever changing person. Ten years ago I attended a few life strategist sessions with life coach Brad Chappell and learned to change and emerge better by dealing with my anger and my need to control. I learned to move forward by analyzing and embracing this phrase, “As we progress, we rid ourselves of our shortcomings because they no longer serve us.” I am now a different person than I had been 10 years previous. I did not know how to make these necessary changes on my own, but I was willing to ask for help. Life evolves; we can accept it, direct it and change for the better or allow it to overwhelm us.

I find as I look at my clients before and after photos that each client was able to quite easily rethink their current living spaces or work spaces, and realize the benefit in change rather than holding on to their old way of thinking. Is this YOUR time to rethink and rid yourself of your shortcomings because they no longer serve you? Is YOUR life cluttered with things that you rarely use? As Utah Valley’s professional organizer, I am here to help if you’ve tried MANY times and just can’t restore or maintain order. Contact Vicki Winterton for your FREE 20 minute phone analysis.

My husband and I have been married for 31 years today. When we married we thought ourselves very similar. Our marriage planning looked to be easy. Exactly one year after we married, we found out we were expecting our first child. Once we had children we learned how different we were. Those differences brought with them great conflict. We chose not to plan together much because we no longer saw eye to eye. It took us 15 years to figure out what worked for us and our children. We came to better understand our own wants and needs and each others wants and needs after attending some life balance sessions together. We learned that our marriage was important to us and to our family’s happiness. We learned that planning together for an ultimate goal was important.

Thirty one years together. I am thankful for a husband who allowed me to change, grow and become the person I was meant to be AND I am very grateful he was willing to change, grow and better himself. Time has been good to us. Happy Anniversary Honey. I love you!

Studies show that children lose much of what they have learned during the summer school break IF their brains are not encouraged to retain. Organized summer programs for kids are now available at a very reasonable cost. The school year has come to a close. Are you wondering which summer activities will enrich your child’s learning while allowing them fun participation.

For the Utah area, here’s a link for Summer Programs filled with learning options at Organize Summertime Activities For those of you who live in other states, contact your school district special education or gifted and talented resource director about organized summer programs and learning options for your children.