A Laundry System for Large Families...and small ones too!

A few years ago, I was about ready to give up on doing laundry. Luckily, one of my good friends (with 6 kids!) suggested a great way to organize myself with this arduous task. I now call this "Stephanie's System," and thanks to her, my laundry is under control...for the most part!!

Steps to follow.

1. The best way to start is with about 2 weeks worth of outfits for everyone to wear. This will help extend how often you do laundry.

2. Every child in the family gets their own laundry basket. In our home, my DH and I share baskets, one for darks and one for lights.

3. Once a basket gets full, the child (if able) brings it to the laundry room to be washed. This means that you will do about 2 loads of laundry per child (1 lights & 1 darks).

4. Once washed and dried, the clothing is immediately folded and taken to be put away. Since the clothing is already separated, it only takes about 5-10 minutes to fold and put away!

5. Stagger your days when you do laundry so that you aren't doing it every day. For me, it's about 2-3 times a week with 7 total in my family. But...those three days are EASY since I don't have a mountain of clothing to wash! You might find that some weeks you will have less laundry than others.

Tips:

• Wash your linens (sheets, towels, etc.) on a light day. I do this about every other week.
• Buy matching socks. We love Gold Toe from Target for boys and girls. The lines on the toes make for easy size matching and my picky daughter loves that they don't bunch. I gathered all our old socks and either threw out the ones without matches or donated them.
• Have a small basket for "can't wait" loads like soiled underwear, uniforms, etc. that need to be washed frequently. I have a hanging basket over our laundry door for this purpose.
  

I Promise I'm Not Slacking.

So it may seem that my organization has take a nose dive this past week from the lack of updated posts. But au contraire mon frere! Things have been busy, busy, busy! Unfortunately, when I decide to organize a space...I go all out! Well, I'm not sure this is completely unfortunate or not, but I do know that it is extremely tiring!

Being pregnant and in "nesting" mode doesn't make things any easier either. I've gone from searching for new furniture, to finding accessories, to planning the space, to reorganizing everything. It's not easy shopping for the perfect basket with 4 kids in tow! This week has been full of purchases, returns, and perfect finds. I'm happy to say that I'm nearly done and it feels so good!

My poor, dear, dear husband. He is AWESOME!! Last night he says to me, "Honey. You've got to slow down with all the redecorating and organizing. Everything looks great, but you still have 4 more weeks of nesting. I don't know if you can make it that long!" A supportive and loving husband he is. All he cares about is me not wearing myself out. But the tenacity of a pregnant woman is immeasurable!

Yes...I am exhausted. My feet are swollen at the end of the day, my mind is spinning from trying to squeeze in some school lessons with the kids, and I spend every spare second I have searching for all the right equipment. I'm sure I'll be patting myself on the back for planning ahead, however. It will make for a smoother year...I hope!

So here is a little sneak peek at what I've been working on.

Well, I thought I'd finish with this picture of The Virgin of the Lilies by Bouguereau. It's not new and it's been hanging in our hallway for a while. But I love to look at it each time I go upstairs as I find it inspiring to know that our Holy Mother said "YES!!" to God. I need to do the same and say "YES!" even to what may seem to be the most mundane tasks that a mother needs to do.

Diapers?

Well, I haven't written about my daily duties as a mom lately. Mostly dealing with diapers. In the past I posted about my mediocre transition into using cloth diapers. My motivation being that I want to do the earth friendly and "green" thing. I feel a responsibility to this, especially since we have a large family and who knows how many of my kids' diapers are still lying in some land fill.

Since having tried cloth diapers, I can honestly admit that I did not fully transition into a full cloth diaper routine. It was more like 75% disposable and 25% cloth. An improvement, but not fully eco-friendly. But recently (like a month or two ago), I began using a combination of disposable, cloth, and G Diapers.

If you haven't heard of G Diapers, they are pretty much an earth friendly diaper that you can flush and even compost!! They take a little extra effort, but I like them! I have also made an effort to use more cloth. This has drastically reduced the amount of disposable diapers I use. My percentages?? 10% disposable, 60% G Diapers, and 30% cloth. A great improvement. My goal is to move to just G Diapers and cloth. I still keep a pack of Pampers, though, since I don't want to make life so hard for when my DH takes the kids or when my babysitter is around.

The use of G Diapers is not any cheaper, so if you want to make the switch to save money...this is probably not the way to do it. I recommend fully switching to cloth in order to see any savings.

So that is the update on the ever so interesting discussion of diapers!!!!

Homemade Bread.

I like to make homemade bread. The smell your home fills up with, the anticipation of a warm slice of bread with honey. It's all worth the amount of time you need to invest to make a loaf. I don't use a bread machine and like to watch the bread baking in the oven. Unfortunately, I was finding myself making a loaf of bread only about once a week. I was sticking to usual store bought brands. Lately, however, I've been making a loaf from every day to every other day. I've been spoiling not only my taste buds, but those of the kids.

Yesterday, we ran out of homemade bread. I had to substitute with our usual store bought replacement. As we sat down to lunch and I took a bite out of my turkey sandwich, I almost threw my sandwich in the trash. I could taste the preservatives or at least what seemed to be something most unnatural. Needless to say, I force fed myself what was supposed to be a yummy sandwich...good mustard and all!

I immediately cleared the table and set out to make a loaf of bread. After about 2 or so hours, it was done! Piping hot from the oven, we gathered around and had a delicious slice of heavenly homemade bread. Is it possible that I may never again enjoy store bought bread?? I never thought I would turn into a bread snob!

I usually follow a couple of recipes for oatmeal bread, white sandwich bread, and Italian loaves. Here is my most used recipe...good for making sandwiches or just enjoying with a bit of butter. It is one of the very few recipes I have memorized!! I hope you enjoy it as much as my family does!!!

White Sandwich Bread

3 1/2 cups flour (I am partial to King Arthur or Gold Medal)
2 tsp. salt
1 cup warm whole mile (about 110 degrees)
1/3 cup warm water (about 110 degrees)
3 tbsp. honey
2 tbsp. melted unsalted butter
1 packet fast acting yeast

*I use my Kitchen Aide mixer with the dough hook attachment.

1. Mix flour and salt in mixer.
2. Combine milk, water, honey, butter, and yeast. It's important that your liquids aren't too hot, otherwise you might kill your yeast and your bread won't rise. I always use a thermometer and get great results!
3. Slowly pour liquid mixture into bowl with flour.
4. Mix on low until well combine. If your dough is too sticky, you can add more flour...about 1 tbsp. at a time, but no more than 1/4 cup.
5. Once combined, mix dough on medium speed for about 10 minutes.
6. Take out dough and knead into a smooth ball. Place in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap.
7. Place dough in a warm place to rise. My house is always cold so I like to warm the oven to about 200 degrees for about 10 minutes. I then turn off the oven and place my dough in the warm oven.
8. Wait for the dough to rise and double in size; about 45 minutes.
9. On a lightly floured surface, shape your dough into a rectangle and roll. Pinch the seams and ends together and place in an oiled loaf pan and cover with plastic wrap.
10. Let dough rise again until it doubles in size...about 20 minutes.
11. Bake in 350 degrees oven for about 40 minutes or until the internal temperature is 195 degrees.
    
12. Let your bread cool a bit and then enjoy!!!
    

Halloween Buzz.

Every year for the past five years, we have hosted a Halloween Open House Party. It's loads of fun and people come and go. Our neighborhood gets pretty packed with trick-or-treaters and we love taking the kids around the block. The first year we hosted, the kids were so little! Marco was only 2 and Isabella was not even a year old. But we made some great friends and had a blast. I cooked my favorite chili recipe and made loads of treats.

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays for the simple reason that it is just a fun holiday. It gives everyone (even me!) a reason to dress up and eat candy!! I've always been a fan of spooky things, so it also gives me a perfect excuse to blast some scary music and make corny comments and jokes ("you look booo-tiful!").

Today has been my Halloween prep day. I rearranged all the outdoor decorations and started planning my Halloween party menu. Every year I make chili with cornbread and this year is no exception! Following is my Halloween menu. I can't wait to get started in the kitchen!!

Halloween Menu
Appetizers
Mummy Dogs (pigs in a blanket)
Chocolate Fondue Fountain with fruits to dip
Veggie Tray with dip
Chips & Salsa

Main Course
Chili with Cornbread
Vegetarian Baked Ziti

Treats
Popcorn Balls
Chocolate & Caramel Covered Pretzels
Candy Apples
Spooky Cupcakes

Drinks
Halloween Punch
Assorted drinks

I'm never sure how many people will show up, but leftovers have never been a problem! I'm also hoping to get the house in order this weekend. I don't want to worry about cleaning the house during the week, so I'm doing as much as I can now and then getting the house cleaner to come a day or two before Friday. This will free up my time for cooking and baking.

I also have some game ideas for the kids that I have to decide on. If anything, our get togethers are always kid friendly. Besides trick-or-treating, I like the kids to be able to do something fun. Usually, I set out a table with Halloween craft projects that the kids can do mostly on their own. This year I'm thinking of adding musical chairs, a pinata, bobbing for apples, or some other fun games. We'll see how it goes!

More on Chores.

Just updating on our "Battle of the Chores." If you didn't read my previous post, here is the link. My DH has been extremely impressed by the Managers of Their Chores system. The kids have been waking up, clipping on their ChorePacks, and doing their chores. I love that I don't have to tell them what to do. They just do what is on the picture. There have been a couple of adjustments that I have made, but nothing that has taken away from the system itself.

When you purchase the book, you are allowed to register at ChorePacks.com. This website offers downloadable forms that help you create your chore system. You can also visit their Chore Board and read up on how others are using their ChorePacks, post about your experience, and access their ChoreWare software (available for a yearly subscription). This is also the place where you create pre-reader chore cards. The pre-reader cards are basically clipart used to represent a particular chore. I found that many of the clipart they feature, can be easily found on the internet, so it is not anything special. Here is where I did my first change.

I created my own pre-reader cards using clipart found using Microsoft Office and clipart from LDS Clipart. I then printed out the cards (4 per page) using Word. Voila!! My own pre-reader chore cards! Following is a sample of one page of the cards. The chore cards are printed on cardstock. I actually colored mine by hand, but you can also color them by using any paint program.



On the back of each card, is a description of what is to be done, although the picture itself is self explanatory. I did this mostly for my 6 and 4 year olds that are reading (or at least trying to!!). You then cut the cards out and stick them into the ChorePack. EASY!!!

Another way to approach the pre-reader cards is to do what a good friend of mine does. She prints out the page with the images, laminates it, and posts it on the door of the bedroom. The child then checks off the chores as they are completed with a crayon. The marks are easily erased at the end of the day and the chart is ready for use every morning!

Anyone can easily create their own chore system. The benefits to the purchase of a system, however, is that it provides a solid system. The Managers of Their Chores book offers wonderful insights, such as the benefits of chores, mom & dad attitudes, biblical basis for chores, and more. Not only that, but the book itself details simple steps to creating a chore system, how to implement the system, and it also gives great examples. There are forms, lists, and tidbits of advice that can prove to be invaluable to the chore challenged.

I'm hoping that as we continue to use our ChorePacks, chores become just another habit for the kids. Not having to remind them to make their beds or put their pajamas away is saving my voice!! My next step is to work on attitudes. But that is another entry for another day!

Back in the Game.

We are trying to cut back on some expenses, and lately...who isn't! So I decided to get back in the game. The Grocery Game, that is. Today was my first day back and I mostly shopped for items that I stockpile: frozen bread, soup, water, etc. I did pretty good. I went to two different stores and saved a total of approximately $95.00. This total includes coupon savings combined with reward savings. Not too bad!

We'll see how it keeps going on a weekly basis and if I even stick to it. If you remember, I did the Grocery Game last year and got good results. The downside was that I just didn't have the time to coupon clip and organize. It is a bit of work, but you really have to try it out to see if it is worth your time! It took me about 2 hours to organize so I roughly got paid about $47.50 per hour.

Want to check it out for yourself? Go to the Grocery Game and read up!

Chores for Kids.

I've been looking for a chore system that will work for my young kids and I have had very little luck. I usually keep 2 chore charts in the house; one in the kitchen and one in the kids' bedroom. The kitchen chart has all the downstairs chores: pick up toys, clean schoolroom, set table, etc. The bedroom chart has all upstairs chores: make bed, clean bedroom, brush teeth, etc.

The problem with my system is that I don't like have 2 separate charts. I'm also starting to flip and add chores and it makes it difficult to keep printing out new charts. I finally decided that I need a new system that's going to work. This is where my search for something began. And now, here are my reviews.

Choreganizers.

This system just didn't work. The made-out chore cards were great, but the mom & dad store was not. I'm not into rewarding kids for things they should do regardless of whether they get paid or not. That part of the system makes up for half of the program! It comes with mom and dad money and a store "front"that you can put on a box filled with stuff. I also wasn't too excited about the chart itself. It's too easy for Anthony to mess up, and once you lose the cards...you can't replace them.
Overall, I think Choreganizers earns a B average from me. Great idea, great picture cards, but the implementation was what didn't work for us. If you want a more in-depth review with awesome pictures of this system from a family that actually loves it, check out the Pioneer Woman.

Managers of Their Chores.

This is the system we are using now. It is a great improvement from Choreganizers because I actually can implement it without worrying about losing cards, kids destroying the chart, or needing to have more than one chart. This system basically works by printing out chore cards from their website and placing them in a "ChorePack." The ChorePack is a simple, clip-on name badge holder. You put the chores in the order that they are supposed to be completed and then clip it onto the child's clothing. As the child completes the chore, he moves the card to the back of the stack. The book does come with lists that you can photocopy for personal use and it goes into depth about implementing chores and their importance.
Overall, this is a really useful system for us so far. It is as simple as you want it to be and it gives instructions on how to make it more detailed for your family if need be. I love that the kids pretty much carry their chore charts around with them!! Pre-reader cards are also available. If you aren't into searching the web for chore pictures, it is a valuable time saver. I give this system a solid A.

If you aren't into purchasing a chore system at all, there are alternatives that can help get your kids involved. Here are a couple of ideas that I have come up with, but never put to use.

1. Print out cards with pictures of chores your child needs to accomplish. Laminate the cards for durability and put them together using a clasp ring. As the child completes a task, the can remove the card and place it into an "I Did It!" box or baggie.

2. Use a simple chart, much in the style of a "To Do" list. Check off each chore as it is completed.

If you don't have time to search through countless pages of free online clip-art, here are a few great spots to check out!!

www.theideadoor.com (Scroll to the bottom for clip art)
http://www.fotosearch.com/clip-art/chore.html (You can do a search on this site for particular chores)
http://www.mormonshare.com/search-lds-clipart.php (Scroll down for an alphabetical list of clip art. You can also perform a search for a particular chore.)

I hope this is useful to someone! I wish I would have read this before I went out getting pre-made chore systems!!

Meal Planning.

You all know that I am a fan of Menus 4 Moms. It helps me keep a menu for the week when I don't have time to make my own. But now that I am getting into the swing of things, I have started moving into making my own menus using my own recipes.

I recently made a neat little menu planner using Excel. It includes a space for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. I've been using this to plan our week and I post it on our fridge. Now that we are having more outside activities (co-op, sports, faith formation, church meetings), it is a bigger help than ever!

To fill my menu with recipes, I use the following resources. The websites include rated recipes and offer comments from users. They also have the feature of being able to save it to a "recipe box" so that you can easily pull up a recipe you made two months ago, but forgot the name of.

Allrecipes.com
Epicurious (my favorite since 2001!!)
The New Best Recipe
Southern Living Cookbooks (they all have great recipes)

French Toast Casserole.

I found such a yummy recipe for French Toast Casserole one day, that I had to make it for our Saturday Breakfast. Since I've been on a baking streak, I decided to make my own challah bread instead of buying one. The results? DELICIOUS!! I posted the recipes to both the bread and the casserole below. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Baking the challah bread.

A beautiful, golden braid!

Preparing the casserole the night before.

The final product!!

French Toast Casserole

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 loaf challah, sliced 1 1/2" thick
8 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
pinch of salt
1/2 cup chopped pecans
pure maple syrup

1. Combine butter and sugar in bottom of baking dish in a nice, even layer.
2. Arrange bread slices on top, squeezing them into all the spaces
3. Whisk eggs and add all ingredients except pecans
4. Pour over bread
5. Top with pecans & cover with plastic wrap
6. Refrigerate 3-12 hours (can make the night before and leave overnight)
7. Set out at room temperature for 20 minutes
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes, until lightly browned
9. Remove and serve with warm maple syrup

Yummy!

I haven't made fresh, homemade bread in the longest time. I even gave my bread machine away about a year ago because I never used it. But using a bread machine is like cheating to me. It's taking a shortcut and I know that bread from the oven tastes better than bread from a machine. At least that's my humble opinion.

So today I decided to take out my apron and make some homemade sandwich bread. The results? DELICIOUS!!! My hubby came home to a loaf baking in the oven. He might not admit it, but I think he misses the days when I was a baking queen. After a lip-smacking, good dinner, we all had a slice of warm bread with melted butter. The kids enjoyed adding jam to it and I drizzled a little bit of honey on mine. And as I looked over to hubby's face, I knew that I was the reigning queen once more. Heavenly!

More Cloth Diaper News.

Thanks to the encouragement I have been receiving on the use of cloth diapers, I decided not to give up using cloth diapers. I did go through some rough times with the swishing and washing; but I have made a great new discovery that has revolutionized my thoughts on cloth diapering. The DryBees All in One Diaper!!!

These diapers are awesome! Nice and soft, and easy to put on! I also purchased a disposable liner and now I've said "goodbye" to swishing! Putting on this diaper is exactly like putting on a disposable. Although the initial purchase for the diaper can be a little high (I paid $19 for each diaper), in the end you still end up saving. But more important than saving money, you are helping create a better environment for the future of your children.

I am still using disposables at night and when we go out. But other than that it has been all cloth diapers at home and on short errands! There really was hope for me after all!

Cloth Diaper Update.

I've now been on this cloth diaper thing for a little over a week. I honestly don't know how others do it all the time! I find myself having a difficult time changing, cleaning, and washing the diapers. Part of the problem is that I'm still a newbie when it comes to putting the diapers on. It takes me forever to fold the diaper and put it in the diaper cover! I guess it doesn't help that Christian is wigglier than ever.

As for the cleaning and washing...it's not fun! I don't know whether to swish soiled diapers in the toilet or not. I read that you are supposed to dump the waste in the toilet; but the poop just doesn't come off!! It's all pressed up against the diapers. I'd have to scrape it off, and personally, I'm just not into doing that. That means that I have to pre-soak the diapers and then put them through 2 washes. Hmmm...sounds like lots of work to me!

Ok. So here I am wanting to make the world a better place and I'm complaining about it! I was so excited about this just a little bit ago and now I feel like I'm eating my words. I guess this post shows that we are definitely not all what we seem sometimes. For all I know, everyone who read my previous post thought that I had become the cloth diaper, baby changing champion of the world. But I'm not.

I'm actually at 50/50 with this whole cloth diaper thing. Disposables are just so darn convenient. I just have to ask myself if the extra effort is worth it and does it make a difference? I've decided to keep trying, but I not going to stop buying disposables yet!

Zone Cleaning.

This week I am going to be focusing on zone 2 of my home. This includes the laundry room and living room. Since I have purged all the toys from the upper levels (for the most part), the living room always stays pretty neat. So I'll be concentrating my efforts on washing the carpets, dusting, hanging fresh curtains, cleaning under the sofa cushions (I usually forget to do this on my daily vacuum routine), cleaning the furniture, and washing the walls & windows.

Our laundry room is really small, so I don't have too much space to clean. But that doesn't mean it stays clean. We keep the cat's litter box and food in there so it can get messy. For this room I am needing to organize the shelf, vacuum, mop, clean the tops of the washer & dryer, and wash the walls & door. We clean the litter box about every 2 days so that it doesn't get all nasty and full. I really don't know how people with cats clean their litter boxes once a week (or at least that's what I hear the average is). Just knowing that I have a litter box in the house grosses me out. But what can I do? Cats need to go too!

If you are wondering how I am getting the kids involved in this, here is the breakdown of what they need to do.

Marco, 6 years old

• Vacuum
• Wash walls
• Polish furniture
  

Isabella, 4.5 years old

• Wash windows
• Pick up anything on floor and put away
• Clean furniture

Anthony, 2.75 years old

• Pick up anything on floor and put away
• Dust baseboards and chair rail

Back Again.

We are back from our camping adventure! Although I would love to share pictures, we left the camera due to last minute planning. You'll have to wait until our friends send over their copies!

It was a great weekend and we visited Deep Gap, NC. We stayed in a beautiful cabin with a creek in the back. We enjoyed hiking with the kids and on Sunday we went to Blowing Rock for lunch before heading back home. It was a really relaxing weekend and I'm looking forward to going again.

Now that we are back, however, we are far from settled in. We jumped right into school on Monday, but I still feel a bit unorganized. Yesterday we finally had our granite counter tops installed and it took all day. The whole process left me feeling exhausted, even though I did none of the work. Now I feel like I have a whole kitchen to organize!

So for now, my posts will have to be a little less involved. I'll post our before and after pictures as soon as I load them into the computer.

Weekly Menu.

Well, here is our menu for the week! I hope that I'm able to give someone some ideas, especially with lunch and snacks. This week I don't have to worry about the morning snack since the kids will be at VBS. Breakfast is never scheduled for me since the kids always want the same thing (cereal, pancakes/waffles, eggs) and I just rotate.

Also a note about having a 5 day menu...we usually have leftovers on the weekends and it's not unusual for us to go out to eat. Mainly, it's my time to take a break from the kitchen. I fix whatever is easiest and snacks usually are repeats from the week.

Monday
Lunch: Taquitos served with sour cream and salsa
Afternoon Snack: Mickey Mouse cheese & crackers
Dinner: Sloppy Joes, green beans, coleslaw

Tuesday
Lunch: Turkey sandwiches, fruit
Afternoon Snack: Tortilla chips & bean dip
Dinner: Chicken pepper pasta, sugar snap peas

Wednesday
Lunch: Baked potato with toppings
Afternoon Snack: Applesauce
Dinner: Savory swiss steak, collard greens, brown rice

Thursday
Lunch: Scrambled eggs & sausage
Afternoon Snack: Pretzels & marshmallows
Dinner: Baked ravioli, salad, italian bread

Friday
Lunch: Make your own mini-pizza
Afternoon Snack: Fruit smoothie, crackers
Dinner: Leftovers

Organizing My Home.

So who hasn't heard of Fly Lady? I think everyone and their mom has probably visited the website and I must admit that I was even a subscriber! But amidst the never ending email reminders, I decided to fly the coop and unsubscribe. In theory, Fly Lady's system is wonderful. But for me, it just doesn't work. Their system is great; however, I'm just not into the whole constant email reminders and such.

This week has been my trial run for my new schedule. The kids are not completely following it, as I'm waiting yet another week to fully start school with them, but I'm trying to adhere to the scheduled activities as much as possible (wake-up time, snacks, math, etc.). I must say that I'm loving the extra 2 hours I get in the morning to do chores or get on the Internet. I'm not one to wake up early, but this is definitely worth the effort!

Seeing that I'm sticking to my schedule, I'm finding that I have better control of my house. We're doing things at assigned times and that is helping me stay on top of household duties. So long to frenzied cleaning hours!!! Now I actually have time to clean throughout the day, which means that the work doesn't pile up on me; therefore, I get to skip out on trying to clean the whole house in an hour. It's just working out!

But getting back to Fly Lady...I really liked the thought of making zones in your home and dedicating a week to focus on a particular zone. So this week I will be organizing my home into work zones and assigning days and weeks to each zone. It will then all go into my household notebook. Here are the zones to my house.

Zone 1
Outside entry
Foyer
Hallway
Hallway bathroom

Zone 2
Living Room
Laundry Room

Zone 3
Kitchen
School Room

Zone 4
Master Bedroom
Master Bath

Zone 5
Kids Bedroom
Baby Bedroom
Hall Bathroom
Hall Area (Computer station)

Since the kids are responsible for their things, they are in charge of their own room. They are also in charge of cleaning up the playroom, taking down their dirty laundry, and doing small chores around the house. All the trash in the upstairs areas are also their responsibility to take downstairs or outside (this is usually done by Marco, although Isabella likes to help).

Lightening my workload is essential. I've come to realize that every member of the family has to have certain cleaning responsibilities. This is especially true as a homeschooling family. I don't have the same time as a mom who sends her kids off to school for the day, so its important that everyone does their share.

Weekly Menu.

Following is the lunch, snack, and dinner menu for the week. I have been using Menus 4 Moms for almost a year and it is a really helpful resource. I usually try to map out our lunch and snack menu for the week as well. My kids are like clockwork. They will be ready for a snack at 10ish, lunch at noon, and a snack again at 3 or so.

It's so much easier to have a menu and make it a no-brainer. I usually keep the menu on my fridge or in our household notebook.

Monday
Morning Snack: pretzels and cheese
Lunch: mac n cheese, fruit
Afternoon Snack: yogurt and crackers
Dinner: roast pork tenderloin, peas, potatoes, applesauce

Tuesday
Morning Snack: popcorn, fruit snack
Lunch: turkey sandwiches, fruit
Afternoon Snack: carrots, celery with peanut butter
Dinner: tacos, black beans, Mexican rice

Wednesday
Morning Snack: bagel with cream cheese
Lunch: quesadillas, leftover rice, fruit
Afternoon Snack: apples, mini muffins
Dinner: grilled BBQ chicken, corn on cob, cornbread casserole

Thursday
Morning Snack: hard boiled egg, toast sticks
Lunch: noodles, fruit, celery
Afternoon Snack: fruit kebabs, crackers
Dinner: pork lo mein, salad

Friday
Morning Snack: Ritz crackers, lunch meat, cheese
Lunch: grilled cheese sandwich, fruit
Afternoon Snack: dry cereal, yogurt
Dinner: leftovers, salad, smoothies

Organizing My Home.

So I'm finally catching up with the cleaning, organizing, and (YES!) laundry. But as I'm working around the house I keep asking myself, "There has to be a better way to organize our family!" This is especially true when I look at the kids' closets.

How do you put all that stuff into a closet without it turning into a mess? How do I separate all the clothes? How do I get the kids to keep their things in order? Ok. So there are many more questions than these 3. But I think the closets and laundry are a good place to start.

First of all, I will introduce a new laundry method we just started using thanks to a friend of mine and expert (can I say expert? She has 6 kids). Use a separate laundry basket for each child. This way there is no sorting or mixing up of clothing. You take it straight from the dryer to that designated child's closet space. So far I've used this method for a couple of weeks and it is working well. I've noticed that it's easier for me to get the kids helping out with laundry too. So I'm giving this a big thumbs up!

I won't go into closet organizing yet, as I really haven't figured it out. I'm working on a system, though. We'll see how it turns out about a month from now.

Going on to homeschooling. This takes up so much of our day that I can't escape writing about it. After using the dining room table to homeschool, I decided that it wasn't working. Papers and materials were everywhere! So I got rid of the dining table and turned to the room into our school room. Here are pictures if you are interested. The week that I spent organizing our school room was well worth it. Everything has a place, which makes it a snap to clean up. There is a bin for everything. Pens, pencils, completed assignments, books, manipulatives, educational toys, library books, markers....you name it! Granted not ALL our supplies are kept in the school room. We also have a playroom in our basement that was originally intended to become our school room. I keep art & crafts supplies down there along with larger schooling items. I'll have to take a picture sometime to show it off!

How about toys? Well, if you have read my blog in the past, you probably know that I went to battle with all the toys in our house. I decluttered the house and moved every toy into the basement playroom. Of course, there wasn't enough room to store it all downstairs, so I did make a large toy donation to Goodwill. My next step was to separate and organize each toy. Barbies in one bin, trains in another...you get the picture. I haven't posted those pictures yet because organizing the playroom is a work in progress. But it will get done!

So maybe this post isn't a big help...yet. But it's a good way for me to think out loud. It also helps me think of all the organizing I have to do around the house. I'll have to get a move on with the closets. The more I think about them, the more I just want to get them done!

Getting It Done.

Lately, I've been drowning with things to do. Laundry, floors, cleaning, organizing, planning; and on top of it all....homeschooling! It's a wonder that I'm still sane. But as I am far from any family help, I am finally beginning to embrace the thought that I can do it on my own. I mean, I have been away from family for 9 years!!

I guess it has been wishful thinking for me. Having my mom come over and help me with the organizing. Or having one of my sisters' watch the kids while I run an errand. It's not gonna happen!

But I am glad that I have finally made that realization. I guess it's empowering in a way. Knowing that I've been able to handle it for such a long time. I never really thought about it. So now I'm on my way to getting it done. All of it. All on my own.

The laundry, the floors, the cleaning, the organizing, the planning...and yes, the homeschooling. All done by Liz with no real help from anyone except my two life partners, God and DH. So yes!! I CAN get it done!