Vicki's 2009 Family Reunion Fun

Organizing family reunion  fun is not an easy task, but a systematic approach is helpful. In a previous article, I shared some tips for putting together a general master plan for family reunion fun.

In that article I promised theme ideas, favorite activity ideas and photos suggestions. I am a woman of her word. Here you go:

Family reunion themes for family reunion fun! – Your theme is what makes your family reunion fun and most memorable. Here are a few favorites my extended family have chosen the past few years:

• A Blast from the Past for family reunion fun: Meals = favorite meals from preparers childhood. Activity = ‘hide & seek’ or ‘no bears are out tonight’. (Be sure to assign a young child with an adult supervisor.)
• Where in the World for family reunion fun: Meals = country of preparers choice. Activity = go hiking and call it climb the Swiss Alps or do a swimming activity and call it Hawaiian fun.
• Western Roundup for family reunion fun: Meal = hot dogs and hamburgers, or chicken tenders named prairie dog nuggets. Activity = while roasting marshmallows tell ghost stories around candlelight. (Books of ghost stories can be found at your local library or local bookstore.)
• Summer Olympic Games for family reunion fun: The lodging was called Olympic Village. Activity = Synchronized swimming with judges and audience participation. The reunion finale was titled the Olympic Ribbon Ceremony.

Family reunion awards ceremonies for family reunion fun! – Some of my favorite reunion awards are these:  Best Gymnast award for the most wounded attendee. Best Balancing Act for the attendee who balanced well reunion events and family care. The Get Up & Go award for the attendee who typically rolled out of bed at noon. The Miss Universe award for the attendee who needed lots of spotlight attention.

Memory photos for family reunion fun! – Think ahead and schedule family reunion scrapbook time as you near the end of your reunion OR provide family reunion photo CD’s as a reunion parting gift.

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 learn my tips for designing a family reunion fun master plan, click here.

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

www.familyreunion.com AND www.familydetails.com

Began to plan with a master plan that includes family reunion fun. Include themes, activities and memorable photos in your plan. Bring your family together and feel the love surrounding you!

   As part of January 2010 National Get Organized Month I am pleased to offer you this FREE downloadable form focusing on balancing work and family. By investing 10 minutes each week YOU will become a life balance pro. Click here to download your quick and easy Life Balance Worksheet.

Balancing work and family is not an easy job. But if you want to feel you are investing your time and efforts in your priorities, this life balance worksheet is just what you need to begin. I wish you great success! Thanks for droping by.

Please share with other visitors your favorite life balance tip(s) by leaving a comment. You can do this by clicking on the green numeral next to the word “comments” above.

Home Organizing Workshops

Join Vicki for any or all of the 3 classes she will be teaching during the month of January 2010 in conjunction with National Get Organized Month. The class information is listed below. If you have any questions about the Utah professional orgainzer, Vicki Winterton, and her organizing classes please contact us.

“I just wanted to say thank you for your time in teaching me about time management. As you promised, the “Action File” has changed my life. I’m able to stay on top of the paper mess that comes into my home. I knew the importance of daily maintenance prior to your class (I only learned this in the last year!), but you’ve taught me how to perform daily maintenance on the paper mess, not just tidying the house. Wow! What a great thing!” –Diane, 2009 UVUcommunity education class

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.

I was interviewed on the WIN Show (The Womens Information Network) this month because I am a show host with The Organized Woman Show. In the interview, we talked about how my FREE WIN online radio show, The Organized Woman Show, can benefit listeners in their lives. We touched on systems for organizing your shoes, systems for organizing your papers, systems for organizing your time, and how to organize any portion of your life.  To watch the interview, click the title here: The Organized Woman Show with Vicki Winterton.

My show co-host, Laura, and I record and upload 8 new shows a month. Our shows talk you through the steps to plan and organize your spaces, your papers, your office, your family, your personal time, etc.  If you would like to be notified by email each time a new organizing show is available to our listeners, subscribe to The Organized Woman Show through RSS or Itunes feeds by clicking on this link and then click on  the or logos on the right side of the web page to subscribe yourself through your email account. You can then pick and choose which shows interest you.

I’d love to have you join me to win online at The Organized Woman Show for ANY of the many 12 minute shows that meet your needs or may be the answer to an organizing question you need answered. If you have an organizing concern that a new show could answer for you, just email me at vicki.theorganizedwomanshow@gmail.com and recommend a show topic. Be sure to include your specific question or concern.

My goal and the goal of The Organized Woman Show is to allow you to live a better life by learning a new way to accomplish your life goals. I want to help you live your best life!

I offer you options to organize your life and bring relief to life’s obvious pitfalls! Are you tired of feeling overworked and unable to maintain control of your life? After participating in any of these options you will feel you are better able to take control of your time, spaces, family, etc.

1. Please join me as I conduct a Utah Valley University community education workshop, Organize your Office (I teach this 2 hour class each January and October) which will focus on helping you better organize your life by implementing the following:

• Balance – Time management for busy people in 3 easy steps
• Five steps to organize your home and/or business office
• How to organize your inbox with my 6 D’s and
• Three systems for managing your incoming papers AND file cabinets

Now, if that is not enough, here is help #2 for organizing your life a little better.

2. The Organized Woman Show now has greater than 40 shows to help you organize your life. Some of the show titles included are:

• Fun Fall Family Traditions to help you organize your life and your family fun
• Perfectionism – Is it worth it?
• Setting up a Family Management Center to help you organize your life
• Setting up Family Rules so all family members understand that if they live there, they work there

We are now recording four new shows each month to help you better organize your life. Click on the or feeds in the middle right of the show page to be automatically notified through email of new shows as they are loaded. If you subscribe, you get to pick and choose the shows that interest you most.

3. I was invited for the 5th time to be the organizing expert on a KSL TV’s Studio 5 segment “How to Prepare for Murphy’s Law”. I shared the trick to preparing for Murphy’s “drop in” visits.

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.

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!

This organizing website launch is big news to me! Last night I finished up my new website, www.organize-utah.com by posting my 2008 before and after pictures.  My wonderful brother in law and family computer genius, Richard Winterton, helped me with some html code and a table…after which it was easy to load in the photos.  

     Click here to take a look. 

I want to thank my website designer and SEO specialist, Janet Meiners Thaeler, for the many hours she invested in my website. We bartered services. I think we both felt we came out ahead. I found Janet to be one of the nicest people I have had the privilege of knowing. She is wise, humble and very skilled. She will always be one of my favorite people!

I will post each Week and share with you some of my favorite organizing insights for the week. The names and locations of my clients will be changed to protect the innocent. Return as often as you can and PLEASE ask ne questions or comment on my posts. 

I am pleased to announce my organizing website launch. I have a new website to begin the new year. I have enjoyed the process. I am grateful for good people and good information. Today is a great day!