6 Most Important Things List $1.00

Scroll to the bottom of the page to purchase the list for $1.00.

I recently read a story about Charles Schwab, of Bethlehem Steel, as told by Mary Kay Ash (founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics). I thought it was great and wanted to share it (this was taken from e-consultant.com)

I number my list in order of importance.

Around 100 years ago, Charles Schwab, president of Bethlehem Steel, wanted to increase his own efficiency, and of the management team at the steel company. Ivy Lee, a well-known efficiency expert of the time, approached Mr. Schwab, and made a proposition Charles Schwab could not refuse:

Ivy Lee: "I can increase your people's efficiency – and your sales – if you will allow me to spend fifteen minutes with each of your executives."

Charles Schwab: "How much will it cost me?"

Ivy Lee: "Nothing, unless it works. After three months, you can send me a check for whatever you feel it's worth to you."

Charles Schwab: "It's a deal."

The following day, Ivy Lee met with Charles Schwab's management executives, spending only ten minutes with each in order to tell them:

Ivy Lee: "I want you to promise me that for the next ninety days, before leaving your office at the end of the day, you will make a list of the six most important things you have to do the next day and number them in their order of importance."

Astonished Executives: "That it?"

Ivy Lee: "That's it. Scratch off each item after finishing it, and go on to the next one on your list. If something doesn't get done, put it on the following day's list."

Mary Kay Ash writes in her book (Mary Kay: You Can Have It All : Lifetime Wisdom from America's Foremost Woman Entrepreneur )

"Each Bethlehem executive consented to follow Lee's instructions. Three months later, Schwab studied the results and was so pleased that he sent Lee a check for US $35,000. At the time, the average worker in the US was being paid $2 per day.

If Schwab, one of the smartest businessmen of his day, was willing to pay so much money for this advice, I decided I would follow it, too.

Each night, I put together my list for the following day. If I don't get something on my list accomplished, it goes on the next day's list. I put the hardest or most unappealing task at the top of the list. This way, I tackle the most difficult item first, and once it's out of the way, I feel my day is off to a good start."

So I was inspired to make my own daily list and wanted to share with you.

Are you wondering where Sunday is? I left it off because Sunday is a day for God, family and rest. We don't plan to get anything "done" on Sundays. 

By the way, I looked up what $35,000 is in today's money and found that it translates to anywhere from $850,000 to 1.5 million. 

Amazing, huh?

6 Most Important Things List $1.00

Your pdf list will be emailed within 24 hours to the email account you have listed with PayPal. 

I am becoming increasingly busier as my children get older and am putting a pause on In Between Laundry. I feel like I'll be coming back to blogging one day, but I'm not sure when.

Feel free to rummage through old posts or email me anytime at in_ between_ laundry @ yahoo. com.

Also, I am still selling A Year of Sugar Scrubs and Table Talkers. I send out copies every day, so don't worry if you are wanting to purchase a book but noticed that I'm not writing new posts here anymore. If you have ordered a book, what a blessing you have been and thank you!

$125 Custom Blog Design Giveaway with Sweet Faerie Designs

I'm thrilled to introduce you to Carrie Koehmstedt, a designer, wife, mom and blogger. She is the owner and creative force behind Sweet Faerie Designs.

Do you have a blog through Blogger?

Carrie is giving away a beautiful, custom design to an 

In Between Laundry reader! 

That's a $125 value that will include

* a custom banner,

* background,

* one, two or three-column formatting,

* custom font titles for posts and widgets,

* coordinating social media icons and linking, and

* a custom favicon.

Having a clean, beautiful site is so important and Sweet Faerie Designs can help! 

Here are a few of my favorite custom blog designs

 from Sweet Faerie Designs...

Carrie also does Twitter backgrounds, graphics, t-shirt design, holiday cards, business cards and so much more. 

custom t-shirt design

custom business cards

How to enter:

You can enter up to three times by leaving a comment for each of the following--

1. Become a Sweet Faerie Designs Facebook fan 

2. Follow Sweet Faerie Designs on Twitter.

3. Subscribe to her blog, Carrie Loves.

The giveaway will end at 11:59 pm central-time on Monday, March 5th.

Don't want to wait? Sweet Faerie Designs is also giving away a 15% coupon on pre-made templates (reg. $30) and custom designs (reg. $125) at her Etsy shop! 

Use coupon code SFD15OFF and make a note at check-out if you are requesting a custom design. 

My Boy is 5... Wait! What?!

How is it possible?

Five is a big deal. I can clearly remember my fifth birthday party at Peter Piper Pizza. I remember my little aqua shirt, my pig tails, getting my first Barbie and all my friends who came. I even remember my mom giving me an IOU birthday present. Ha! She was a busy lady (and a great mama). It was a picture of a plastic swimming pool that I would be arriving in time for warmer weather. That still makes me chuckle.

I just wrote My Boy is Four, like, last week. He was so cute and little then. He's still cute, but seems so much bigger.

Jeremy's been promising the big boy that when he turned five, they would play golf together. So we went with a golf theme and I love how it turned out.

Here are a few pictures from the big night.

Table Talkers Spring Sale (Only $2.99)

Purchase at bottom of page.

Here are what other moms are saying about Table Talkers...

We have three girls. Our oldest is four, the next is 18 months, and the youngest is 3 months. I'm so mentally drained from the chatter of my four year old all day long :) that by dinner time, I just can't think any more! What a great way to still have fun conversations, even if I can't come up with it myself! --Ardelle


I bought your book several weeks ago and tonight was the first time I put it to use.  We are a military family and my husband is gone right now.  After a day of tending to my four children (ages 3 months to 7 years), the day seems to unravel at the dinner table.  Tonight we actually laughed and smiled and I didn't need to threaten anyone:).  You book is beautiful and a blessing.  Thank you. --Sarah 

I must tell you that we tried the one about giving clues for movies as a trial before I bought them. I have three girls 2, 5, 8 and they are always in a hurry to eat and leave the table. After introducing the game, I had to kick everyone out of the dining room after 40 minutes!!! It was so much fun. The next night we ate dinner at McDonalds because they do a fun Valentine's Day dinner and our high school show choir sings; the place was packed, standing room only, and the girls wanted to play a Table Talker game!!!! Tonight as we headed to the table, they wanted to know what game we were going to play. Thanks so much!! --Kelli

Click here to read more about why I developed these fun and simple dinner games for our family.

Table Talkers Spring Sale
$2.99 (was $5.00)

Tutorial: How to Create a Personalized iPhone Case

Isn't my little phone so cute? Something about it is just so me! Ha!

I have an iPhone 4 and created this little cover back in October or November with the intent of sharing how to do it, but time got away from me.

And now Picnik (which is how I designed my cover) is going away in April. Isn't that sad? So I knew that I had to act quick and get this tutorial out in case anyone might want one, too.

1. The first thing I did was start on Picnik.com with a plain white canvas, so to speak. You'll want to check out my tutorial here on how I always get a blank slate for beginning a project like this.

2. Once you have a blank slate, you will resize it to be 751 x 1414 pixels. I ordered my case from Zazzle.com and those are the recommended demensions. If you wanted to order from another company (I don't know of another company, but you might be able to find better prices out there), you'll want to check their image specs first.

3. Then, under the Edit tab, select Stickers. During the next couple of months, everyone gets free Premium service from Picnik so it's a great time--though limited-- to do some fun projects.

4. I used the Common Symbols stickers and selected the one that looks like a staircase. I expanded it to fit across the whole rectangle.

5. Then I rotated it to become a horizontal staircase and repeated it to create a chevron pattern. To repeat the image, right click and select Duplicate Image.

6. This time, I selected a dark navy color for my bottom shade and adjusted the fade by 10% for each zigzag line going up to make an ombre chevron.

7. Now you can play around with stickers and text until you have a design you love. Save the image and go to Zazzle.com. The link that will take you straight to the iPhone 4 cases is http://www.zazzle.com/custom/cases/iphone. I chose the Barely There design.

8. Select Create A Case and then select Select Image from the pop-up screen.

9. From the next screen, select Select Images to Upload and upload your saved Picnik image.

10. Select Make It Now and add to cart. 

Oooh. I might have to order this one. I think I like it better than the first. 

You'll be so proud of your new phone cover and everyone will think you are the absolute most talented thing ever! And you are, of course!

Hopscotch

...or, as my four-year-old named it, "Hop-chalks." Hey, it makes more sense to me.

Homemade Caramel Sauce for a Cold Day

Before Christmas I made several batches of this lovely caramel sauce and divvied them up into pretty glass jars with tight lids for my girlfriends and the kids' Bible class teachers. Such fun!

To make each jar personal, I used glass etching cream and a stencil to monogram them.

A little blue velvet ribbon and a felt snowflake on top (attached with hot glue), and they were ready for gifting.

I told each girl to spoon a little into her coffee, drizzle it over ice cream or pound cake, or eat it straight out of the jar with a spoon (my personal pref.).

I keep my own little stash in the fridge and have really lavished my evening nip right out of the jar. Another delicious idea: use as a dip for apple slices. Mmmmm.

The weather where I live is actually as perfect as perfect could ever be, but I imagine that if I were locked indoors because of a snowstorm, this would be the nicest treat to warm up with.

The caramel sauce recipe I used is from The Joy of Cooking, and I found a wonderful step-by-step visual tutorial for the same recipe here, at Mel's Kitchen Cafe.