Plans

I had grand plans for yesterday, and I got 95% of them done. Not too bad. But I was definitely over-ambitious and was worthless when I got done.

Friday, I had Kelly stop by Sam's Club and get a case of ground beef. We do this every 6-7 months, because the 90% lean ground beef there is about $0.80 per pound cheaper (and sometimes more) than buying the family packs there at Sam's - and that is way cheaper than the same stuff at any other grocery store here in town.

Of course once you buy that much meat, you have to DO something with it. :-) I've done this for several years now, and always before I would cut up some of the logs into 1, 1.5, or 2 pound sections, bag and freeze them raw for future use in meatloaves, meatballs, or meat patties. Then I would start browning meat and freezing the ground beef in 1 or 1.5 pound portions. Not only does this save us a lot of money over the months, but it saves me a lot of time in the kitchen.

This time I decided to take it a step further. Instead of just freezing the raw meat, I actually mixed up 7 meals worth of meatloaf (3 different recipes), 3 bags of meatballs, 4 meals worth of taco meat. I also bought 8 pounds of ground Italian sausage last week at HEB. Three went into one of the meatloaf recipes, and the other 5 I browned and mixed with an equal amount of ground beef. This is now frozen for 10 different Italian based meals (spaghetti, lasagna, etc.) when I usually mix the two. The remaining beef was browned and frozen as before.

That's A LOT of work on 80 pounds of beef plus 8 pounds of sausage. But I got it all done in one day. I had also planned on taking some of the beef right after it was browned and cooking up a couple of meat sauces in triple batches and freezing them for the casseroles they go in. But I ran out of time, energy, and my back and feet were killing me. All of the above plus clean up took about 8 hours, maybe more. But it will be so worth it in the amount of time it will save us. We love just being able to pull out the meat already browned - it makes meal prep so much easier on those days.

Next time I think I will do it again, with a couple of minor changes. On Friday evening I think I will cook one log (10 pounds) and go ahead and do those sauces that night. Then I can refrigerate them overnight and bag and freeze the next morning. Then proceed on Saturday as I did yesterday. But my freezer is nicely stuffed and I really don't want to eat any ground beef for several days. :-)

Looking Back

So school starts back up at the Smith Academy tomorrow after a three week break. But I think I need a week off from my break. I almost always over fill time off from school with projects around the house. Besides celebrating Christmas with our family, here's some of what I've been up to the past three weeks:

• Of course, putting up all the Christmas decorations and getting my house back.
• Cleaning out the cabinet in our water closet, where most of our medications, first aid stuff, and other necessities are stored. Had to throw out LOTS of expired stuff.
• Cleaned out and organized three baskets in master closet that hold all the toiletries I have gotten for free/almost free/more than free from CVS and/or Walgreens. No joke I have about 10 bottles of shampoo and conditioner, at least that many bottles of body wash, and about 8-10 sets of razors (some male, some female), 6 bottles of hair mousse, and a whole lot of other stuff.
• Cleaned out all three girls' closets, reorganizing some of the toys. We also did some toy shuffling in order to encourage sisters to play together more.
• Cleaned out our nightstands.
• Had the girls clean out the game cabinet and art/craft cabinet. I refuse to touch them.
• Cleaned out and organized our deep freezer - this has needed it badly for quite a while!
• Cleaned out and scrubbed the fridge.
• Cleaned out the "catch-all" drawer in the kitchen.
• Cleaned out and organized the garage - again, something that has been looooooong over due. This also necessitated a trip to our hazardous trash drop off with about 3 boxes full of out of date pesticides or paint cans that were rusted out as well as a trip to Goodwill.
• Moving all our 2009 financial stuff into long term storage and shredding the financial stuff from 8 years ago. At least since I've been doing a better job keeping up with this task - and not keeping so much non-essential stuff - the job isn't as big as it used to be.
• Printed out and organized our history/geography/literature curriculum, Tapestry of Grace, for the next semester. I hadn't bought it yet when I did this back in the summer, so I had to do it now or be faced with lots of work every week this semester.
• Went clearance shopping - already have a few things for next Christmas! And some purty new clothes.
  
• Got the sewing machines and supplies ready for my three oldest to start their sewing classes tomorrow. A friend from church is teaching two levels of sewing classes in her home this semester. Brynna (8yo) will be taking the hand sewing class while Kora and Aubrey get to use the machines.
• I also had to go buy something to use in my Christmas present. But what that was will be in another post.
• Kept my niece and nephew for two days while my BIL had surgery. On New Year's Eve, no less. While others got champagne, he had to stick with percoset.
  
• We also hosted the dessert portion of a progressive dinner for the adults in our church on New Year's Day. That was so much fun. While we love our kids and enjoy having them with us at church events, it was nice to get to fellowship with everyone not having to keep half an ear out for the kiddos.
• We also hosted a sleepover for about 6 of Kora's (and Aubrey's) closest friends in honor of Kora turning 13. Though why they call it a "sleep"over, I have no idea, as almost no sleeping went on at all.
• Helped Kelly recover from an excruciating root canal. Or just bugged him, not sure.
  
• And of course, there was the normal first-of-the-month grocery shopping and the normal cooking and cleaning, laundry, etc.

Phew! Sometimes it is good to look back at a list like that. It's easy as a mom to feel like you never accomplish anything to completion. After all, no matter how great a meal you make, those pesky people you live with will still expect to eat again tomorrow. But it is nice to feel that sense of accomplishment, especially when something that has been bugging you for a long time - like my deep freezer and the garage - is taken care of. It helps me be able to concentrate on school with the kids without the nagging feeling of all the other stuff I need to do as well.

But it has left me tired. Like I said, I need a break from my break! Maybe teaching phonics will even sound good tomorrow.

Or not.

Canning Jars - gotta love 'em

Is anyone else besides me in love with their canning jars, even if you don't can vegetables or make jelly? I love mine. I use them for all sorts of things, like storing excess pizza sauce. Or salvaging the contents of a can that was opened by mistake (like when my child opens cream of chicken soup instead of cream of mushroom).
I especially like that you can freeze with them. I don't trust my regular "glad-ware" containers in the freezer but the jars work just fine! For instance, I have a couple of recipes that call for V8 juice. I don't use it often, but it is so much more economical to buy the big jug of it - the 64 oz. jug is just a little more than 12-oz. can. So I bought the bigger container, and poured the remainder into clean jars and popped them into the freezer. I poured the amount that I normally use in my recipes into each jar, so that next time I make one, I'll just let one thaw in the fridge the day before.

Just remember to always leave some head space at the top of the jar for expansion!

One more thing

One thing I failed to mention that I was doing this summer is revising the girls' chore lists. Any long break is a great time to re-evaluate what kids are capable of accomplishing around the house. This also gives you plenty of time to teach the child to do the chore properly, then observe the child doing it properly for days or weeks with fewer interruptions. By the time school's back in, the child should be able to complete the task by herself.

With six girls, is there any chance I could work myself out of a job???

Flappin' in the Breeze

I've been having a lot of trouble getting my dryer to dry my towels and such in a decent amount of time. The dryer seems to be working fine, but because it vents out the roof, there are several bends in the duct work. We believe this is causing my dryer to tale about three hours to dry a full load of towels.

Kelly bought a fancy attachment for his drill to clean out the ducts, but we also bought something else I've been wanting for a while: two retractable clothes lines. I've been wanting clotheslines for a while but our yard is so small that I didn't want permanent poles taking up valuable play space. But a few months ago I saw these. They come in various lengths, but I purchased the 40 foot option because of the distance between out porch columns and the back fence. I purchased mine off Walmart.com but Amazon carries them as well.

Today Kelly installed them for me.

The line winds back up inside the housing when not in use. Cool, huh?

To hang clothes, you just pull out the cord and attach it to a hook - ours is screwed into our fence.

And then the girls helped me hang up a small load or towels to test one of the lines out.

Right now, I don't see myself hanging our underwear up out there. Mainly I want it for towels and sheets - those are the loads that take up so much dryer time to dry and heat up the house while they are at it. I've been told that in our summer heat that they dry much faster outdoors than they do in. Of course, I plan on cheating just a bit. I don't like stiff towels anymore than the next person, so I plan on putting them in the dryer on "fluff" (no heat) for about 15 minutes after bringing them inside. I'm curious to see whether it helps out our electric bill this summer.

Decorating Tips

Before I leave the topic of my bathroom behind, I wanted to pass on a couple of tips that I learned while doing it. And they all involve saving money.

First, I wanted to put brushed nickel door pulls on the doors on the bathroom. The house came with no door or drawer pulls at all. The only problem was that the hinges were this (rather ugly) antique brass color.
However the hinges worked perfectly well. And if I bought new ones, not only would I spend more money, but the holes probably wouldn't line up and we'd have to drill new ones while filling in the old ones.

My solution? Spray paint! I'd seen this on tv, but wasn't sure it would work. I considered this my test run before I did the same thing to the kitchen hinges. And it worked! I don't know if you can see from the picture, but the hinges got a nice even color of a matching brushed nickel, and now look great alongside my new door pulls. Total cost for four "new" hinges: under $6.

I also needed to fill up a wall. But I had something very specific in mind. I wanted framed pictures that were pretty neutral expect for the pop of color I wanted as an accent color. I was using burgundy as an accent and I really wanted it in the artwork. So I hunted appropriate pictures I could put in inexpensive frames. But I could not find what I had in my head.
My solution? I grabbed my camera and went to my neighbors' houses and took pictures of their flowers in their front flowerbeds. Again, I'd seen this done on tv but was unsure it would work for me. Although I was prepared to go to a nursery to find some if I needed, both houses on either side of us have beautiful flowers in the perfect shade. My camera has a setting that blurs the background while keeping the fore object in focus. I then printed them out on our home computer using photo paper I already had. I shopped around to find the four matching frames for a good deal. Total cost for art work: under $30.
Actually I also saved a lot of money shopping around for other things as well. I found the mirror for about $30 and used coupons on the cubbies. I used paint leftover from when we painted the living room. It was actually more fun trying to figure out how I could do what I wanted less expensively than just going to one home store and buying everything.

Now I'm going to take a few weeks off from ANY decorating project. I have a few others in mind but promise not to touch a paintbrush until school is over!

Chores for Little Ones

I'm big on kids doing chores. Partly it stems from, at one time, having four kids aged six and under. I needed help! Part of it stems from a belief that chores are the best way to instill a strong work ethic in your kids. So I have been very thoughtful about having my kids help me around the house from a very young age.

It started with Kora: when she able to walk she would follow me around with a play vacuum cleaner as I vacuumed the house. She helped me sort the laundry and move wet laundry into the dryer. She helped me sort colors. I gave her a clean, dry rag to "help" me dust.

There are two reasons to have very young children doing "chores" whether you are very formal and structured about it or not. The first is that obviously they have to start somewhere, so they can learn to do some things and do them right and grow from there. That would be the actual help you out part.

The second is just to instill in them that chores are a part of life. Just like brushing your teeth is a part of getting ready for bed, as a member of a team called a family you must pull your weight. It's much easier to start little and have chores as a part of the family structure than it is to try to get a seven, eight or ten year old to jump in and start helping! This is the preparing them for life part. It also has the benefit, if they have older siblings, of making them feel more like the older kids.

So here's list of something that very young kids have done around my house (ages 2-5/6 ish):

• Take a dry rag and dust surfaces they can reach.
• Take a dry rag and dust baseboards.
• Take a damp rag and scrub baseboards.
• Put the clean silverware in the drawer (this is a great sorting activity).
• Help carry dirty laundry from their room to the laundry room.
• Help sort laundry.
• Fold dishrags and washrags (and cloth napkins if you use them).
• Gather up trashcans and dump into a larger can or trash bag (with help) and put cans back in the appropriate spots.
• Dust the stair railings.
• Check bathrooms to see if they are low on toilet paper and refill. (Every Saturday Hailey has to make sure each bath has three extra rolls of toilet paper, which we keep in the bottom of the linen closet.)
• Throw away any empty kleenex boxes and put a fresh one in its place (we keep the kleenex boxes with the toilet paper).
• If a parent or older sibling will put a swiffer pad on the swiffer broom, they can "swiffer sweep" areas with hard floors. (You can also put washable microfiber cloths on the swiffer brooms as well.)
• Fold and/or stack his or her underwear and put it away (keep in in a low drawer in the dresser).
• Match his/her socks and put them away.
• Fold and put away clean jammies, t-shirts, and shorts or pants.
• Pick up toys.
• Make their beds.
• Set the table with napkins, plates, and silverware.
• Take a damp rag and wipe the sides of the dishwasher.
  
• Get the clean laundry out of the dryer into the basket. (This was my favorite when I was pregnant and had a hard time bending down to get stuff out of the dryer!)
• Helping bake/cook - let them pour measured ingredients into the dish/batter, etc.

I've left out many ideas, I am sure. I concentrate on things that don't involve chemicals or heights and of course, what I think they can actually accomplish while laying the ground work for later chores. However, these things are all things that all my kids have done at this stage, and that Hailey (6) and Lauryn (4) do now. Some of them will need to be taught. Then let them do them with you watching for a while. Then when you are confident they have it, let them go at it.

Just remember, depending on the job and the maturity level of the child, you may not be looking for perfection. A two and an half year old may have a great time dusting the baseboards, but may well miss some spots. That's ok! This is more of get-used-to-doing-chores chore. As they get older you will slowly judge when to start expecting more thoroughness from them.

So what are some great very little kids chores you've had your kids do?

Menu Monday Recap

Well, the last eight Mondays I posted our weekly menus, so now I have started over. If you are just dying of curiosity, go over to the side bar and scroll down until you get to the the list of categories and click on "food." You can then look back on my two month rotation menu.

I do have an extra week menu and shopping list made up for those times when there are really nine weeks in a two month span. I'll post that next time that happens.

Menu Monday

Monday - Sweet & Sour Meatballs over rice, stir fried veggies (crock pot recipe)

Tuesday - Lady's Chicken Noodle Soup, rolls (Candace made this for us when we were all sick, and we fell in love)

Wednesday - Spaghetti, salad, focaccia bread sticks

Thursday - Picante chicken in tortillas, topped with shredded cheese, chops, picante sauce (recipe from Aubrey and Kristen)

Friday - pizza

Saturday - bean and beef burritos (I tweaked my MIL's creation)

Sunday - lunch at church

Cleaning and Organization

When we talk about organization, we can't help but talk about cleaning. Partly because organizing stuff makes things look cleaner and makes it easier to clean our homes. Also, as busy moms we have to organize our cleaning time, since usually we are the cleaning crew in our homes, or at least the boss of the crew.

Before we had kids (was there ever a before kids?) and while we just had one or two kids and lived in small apartments or homes, a cleaning schedule wasn't that big of a deal. I grew up in a household where my mom had a housecleaning day. She did laundry on Thursdays and cleaned house on Fridays. When our family was smaller, I could usually do the same thing.

As our family grew and we got larger homes, I found this more difficult to do. Finally, I gave up on the idea of getting the entire house clean all at one time. It was very freeing, although it was completely against my Type-A, perfectionist personality. I decided to scrap the idea of getting the house all clean at once and decided to make sure I cleaned the whole house once a week.

To do this, I sat down and wrote out all the once-a-week and twice-a-week things I did around the house. Then I divided them all out among the days of the week. I still do this, although every year, as my family grows and grows up I change the lists up.

When I first did this I had a bathroom day in which I cleaned all the bathrooms, a floor day in which I swept and mopped or vacuumed all the floors, a kitchen day in which I scrubbed down the kitchen, etc. Sometimes I did that before the kids got up, sometimes while they were playing, sometimes during nap time. Eventually I was able to add in the kids and hand some of these chores off to them. However, even with the extra help, I don't try to get it all done in a day, but rather spread it out.

This spreading out of the weekly cleaning chores has three main advantages for me:

1. I am not worn out cleaning, and have time for other things in my life. We have a rather large house now, and I would have to devote an entire day to cleaning each week in order to get it all done in one day. Frankly, not only would my duties as a mother never permit that, I just don't want to do it. I have grammar and math to teach, babies to nurse, diapers to change, books to read, meals to cook, and emails to write. It's much easier to fit in an hour or two of cleaning a day than it is to carve out an entire day each week to it.

2. I feel as if I accomplished something today. I like lists. I like to-do lists, especially ones that are crossed out. And let's face it, "a mother's work is never done." It doesn't matter how clean the house is today and how wonderful supper was tonight and how great a child did on math today, tomorrow the house will be messy (again), the kids and husband will want to eat (again) and that same child will probably forget all the grammar she ever learned. So knowing that I did accomplish my list helps me not to feel frustrated.

Even more importantly, a completed list gives me permission to stop as well. If I didn't watch it, I could easily work until midnight every night and go to bed feeling like there still too much to do. But once my list is done, I can rest assured that even though I didn't clean the powder room today, for instance, it's on the list for tomorrow. So I can stop and spend time with my family.

3. I am more easily able to fit in monthly or seasonal chores as well. If I tried to have a housecleaning day, there's no way I would be able to do anything other than the basic cleaning on this day. By spreading the workload out throughout the week (and among the kids) I can fit in those necessary chores. I love this, because these types of things were very hard for me to find the time for before I started scheduling a few each week. For me, these are things like dusting blinds and ceiling fans, cleaning out the refrigerator (ideally I'd scrub this baby down every week, but I'm being realistic here - I'm doing good to get to it once a quarter), etc.

I still dream of having a maid one day. Actually my real dream is to have a "Susan" from the last few books in the Anne of Green Gables series. But realistically, I know it probably won't happen until I have no more messy kids in the house to clean up after. Fortunately those kids can also be taught how to clean! Next organizing/cleaning post will be about kids and chores. Now, if I could just teach those kids to eat without getting food all over the floor...

Menu Monday

This is what's on the list for this week. This week promises to be a bit nuts, so we'll see if I stick to it.

Monday - Cheeseburger Macaroni, rolls, green beans

Tuesday - honey mustard chicken, roasted veggies, baked potato

Wednesday - Italian Meatloaf, salad, breadsticks

Thursday - Chicken Enchiladas, Spanish Rice, refried beans, steamed broccoli

Friday - homemade pizza (probably one pepperoni and one garlic chicken with mushrooms and pesto sauce)

Saturday - roll-ups

Sunday - lunch at church

Menu Monday

Monday - Lasagna, salad, breadsticks

Tuesday - Hashbrown Sausage bake, sauteed squash, rolls

Wednesday - Baked Chili Rellanos, Spanish Rice, green beans

Thursday - Parmesan Chicken, rice pilaf, cooked carrots

Friday - grilled pork chops, garlic mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli

Saturday - Crockpot BBQ chicken, oven baked fries, roasted veggies

Sunday - Roast with carrots, mashed potatoes

Organization: Never Put off 'Til Tomorrow What You Can Do Today

Don't you just love all the old adages?

Another way to say this is that organized people are always thinking ahead, and doing ahead as much as possible. Or, another way, don't procrastinate.

It's very easy to think that, "Oh, I'll have time to do that tomorrow." And of course, it is impossible to do everything every day. What I'm talking about are things we know we need to do. Think of it this way: there are usually two kinds of college students. One, when given a paper to write due in two months, will start reading and researching that week, will have the rough draft done in a month, and spend the final month refining. The other will put it off, thinking, "Oh, I've got two whole months. I'll get to it later." Inevitably, those are the people pulling all-nighters for two days before it is due, desperately trying to get something written.

As housewives and mothers, we constantly have work to do. And it is not only hard work, but it is never ending work. So it is "easy" to take the easy way out. It is easier to throw something in a closet than it is to put it up properly. But pretty soon, the closet is a mess, and takes a whole afternoon to clean out and organize.

The longer I've been a mom and the more kids I have, the more ways I try to find to keep things running smoothly by working ahead of the need. In the evenings I have a list (in my head) that I go through to make sure I am ready for the next day: I set out juice to thaw, mix up as much of breakfast as I can, set out Kelly's bread ready to make into sandwiches, fill up water bottles, pick out Lauryn's clothes, etc. On Saturday evenings, I help girls pick clothes, noting if they need to be ironed, tights, shoes, even hair bows. These things make our mornings run so much more smoothly just because I did a little work ahead of time.

I'm sure you can think of others. Before my kids became the main transporter of laundry, I gathered up the day's laundry the night before and put it in the laundry room, sometimes even in the washing machine. I'd put in soap then clothes, so that all I had to do the next morning when I stumbled downstairs was start the machine. If I know we are going somewhere, I try to have as much of the stuff we need gathered and ready ahead of time. If I'm really on the ball, I try to make food ahead of when I'll need it and freeze it.

Anyway, I think you get the point: procrastination and organization usually do not coexist happily. That is, unless you make enough money to pay someone to be organized for you.

Menu Monday

Monday - this was supposed to be White Chicken Chili, but I served that last week, so I'm substituting a meal from the weekend that I didn't make (we had Sonic instead)

Tuesday - Pasta Skillet, salad, focaccia breadsticks

Wednesday - Creamy Chicken and Potato Casserole (I believe I got this one from my friend Aubrey), carrots, rolls

Thursday - Green Enchiladas, Spanish Rice, chips and salsa, green beans

Friday - chicken fajita pizza

Saturday - Jambalaya and rice, salad

Sunday - lunch at church, and then I suppose I'll whip up something fun for Superbowl watching

Menu Monday

Monday - White Chicken Chili, pepper jack cheese, tortilla chips (This is an alteration; according to my actual menu we should have had steak stroganoff tonight, but Kelly has to take a little trip tomorrow, so I switched so I could make one of his favorites tonight.)

Tuesday - Easy Chile Chicken and Rice, broccoli, cheddar baby biscuits

Wednesday - meatloaf, baked potatoes, cooked carrots with butter

Thursday - chicken spaghetti, salad, rolls

Friday - grilled smoked sausage, rosemary red potatoes, green beans

Saturday - sloppy joes on hamburger buns, oven baked french fries, raw veggies

Sunday - taco salad

Organization: Don't Re-invent the Wheel

One of the things that I learned after becoming a stay at home mommy/housewife is that the job has a lot of repetitiveness. No matter what delicious meal I made yesterday, these kids (and husband) still want to eat today! Even though I mopped and scrubbed toilets last week, they still need it this week. And of course, since these people insist on eating every day, I am going to the grocery store frequently.

Well, I decided a long time ago that it only made since that if something had to be done regularly, I needed a system to help me regulate it. For instance, every payday I was writing out a menu plan. Then one day I realized I was doing the same thing every month. I even served basically the same meals. So I spent some time coming up with a good month long meal plan and just re-used it every month. I would tweak it ever so often, but I used this same system until just recently.

Last fall I decided I was tired of writing a grocery shopping list every month. So I sat down and wrote out a very thorough shopping list tied to my menu plan for the month. Now I just print it out, scratch off what I already have, and go.* I also took the opportunity to expand it to a two month plan.

My laundry is the same way. Every week we wash the same things every day. It is such a part of the routine we don't even think about it. Monday is towel day, etc. My kids have even been known to figure out which day it is based on what laundry we did that day!

Once I get these routines established, they save us so much time and effort, and helps our household run so much more smoothly. This way I can save my mental energy for the things I can't schedule or fit so neatly in a box. You know, like kids. Or husbands.

*I blatantly stole this idea from my friend Candace.

Organization: Purge, Baby, Purge!

As a friend of mine pointed out, sometimes putting everything in its place isn't enough. Often, we have too much stuff for our places!

Believe me, I understand. I am married to a pack rat and somehow we managed to breed a bunch of pack rats. I seem to remember being a little bit of a pack rat as a kid. However, we moved once or twice a year the first few years of our marriage and then started having babies both of which has turned me into a minimalist. The pack rats in the family balance me out. :-)

My guess is that the pack rats out number us by far. Here in San Antonio there has been a building boom in the last few years - many, many new storage facilities go up every year around here. And it is rare to see a garage that can hold any cars. (I do have to temper this last statement by saying that relatively new houses around here have small garages. A two car garage is one barely able to fit two small commuter cars.) Our stuff takes over!

I think it is hard when kids are small too. We not only save their art projects, but their clothes (for the next baby), their toys, the baby paraphernalia. Believe me I understand!

However, the more stuff we have, the more effort and energy we have to spend on it: we have to clean it, organize it, store it, move it around, etc. So in order to stay organized I purge several times a year. And I am always amazed at how much stuff I can cull out of a room or closet I just went through 6 months earlier!

So one of my organization "tools" is constant purging of "stuff." This is easier said than done, especially when your kids say, "Nooooooo! Don't get rid of THAT!" There are several ways to handle this. As they have gotten older, I have gotten them involved in the culling out. I tell them that we only have space for a certain amount of ___________ (toy bins, for example). They then decide what they want to keep more in order to bring the amount down to the required level. Great lesson in prioritizing.

When the kids were smaller, I would go through their stuff, throw out the trash, and put anything else in a box and see if they missed it. If they didn't miss it after a while, I got rid of it.

Another trick I've read about is to get rid of anything not used in a year. I think this is a good guideline for some things (kitchen items maybe?) but not for all. For instance, I have some clothes in my closet that I haven't worn in over a year, but that is because I can't quite fit in them yet due to the pregnancy. But I will!

So if I have an area that is getting out of control, usually it has too much stuff in it. So I get brutal. Several times a year I add charity donation receipts to our income tax file because I keep getting rid of more stuff. Over the years I have rethought whether I really need to keep something (like school papers from 3 years ago - or last year for that matter). It's actually very freeing. Cleansing somehow.

So if you don't make it a regular habit of purging your home, try it! Do one room/closet/area a month and see how freeing it is. It's so much easier to organize a smaller amount of stuff.

Organization: A Place for everything and everything in its Place

I get many, many questions about how I stay organized. Well, I am not as organized as most people think. At least I don't feel that way. Having six kids will do that to you. It has definitely taught me to go with the flow more. Don't believe me? Just look in my diaper bag. Or don't.

I think one the primary "rules" for organization can be summed up in the old axiom: "A place for everything and everything in its place." If you don't have a place for something to to go, then it will end up just lying around, becoming clutter.

You can spend hundreds of dollars buying containers, baskets, shelves, etc. to organize your stuff. And I use many of these, but not always. Sometimes simpler containers (like shoe boxes you already have lying around) work just as well. The point is when you set out to organize an area of your home, assign everything a place. Label it if that helps you or your family. I have a Brother label maker that my husband bought me, but before that I used masking tape and a sharpie marker.

Then of course, once you get everything assigned a home, you must periodically go through and put stuff back in its home. This is the second part of the axiom. Inevitably, the area will need to be straightened up, but if it was thoroughly organized to begin with, this will take a minimum amount of time.

You can even delegate! Yesterday I assigned the "straightening up" chore of two of the cabinets in our school room to my oldest four daughters. These cabinets store our art supplies and the other, our games.
First they went through everything, throwing out what they did not want anymore. This is the messy part. In the game cabinet, they put any little pieces back in the games they belong to.

This is the final result. I DID NOT TOUCH THESE CABINETS. I only took pictures - I was cleaning elsewhere. This only took them 20-30 minutes to do both cabinets.

My point is that everything in there had a home, from when I had organized the cabinets years ago. But since my kids are bad about just throwing their coloring books and games back in these cabinets, I make them clean it up. And it was a relatively easy task.

So think about your home. What part of it stays constantly disorganized? Do your bills lie around on the kitchen table because they have no home? Winter coats? Shoes? Children's art projects? Tools? It could be because they do not have a well-defined home.

Give 'em a home (and teach your kids where it is).

Menu Monday

I've had several people ask me about my newly expanded 2 month meal rotation, and I promised some that I would eventually post it. Not that it is anything really special, and I am tweaking a meal here and there. But I will post it a week at a time, like the folks over at Organizing Junkie.

Those of you in my circle of friends here in San Antonio will be sure to recognize recipes I have gotten from you. I'll try to credit you if I remember who gave it to me!)

WEEK 1
Monday - No Peek Stew, rice, whole wheat bread (similar to this one - thanks Blair!)

Tuesday - Savory Chicken squares, cooked carrots, salad

Wednesday - Ham and Potato Casserole, steamed Broccoli, rolls (casserole recipe from Vivian, roll recipe from Candace)

Thursday - Crispy Yogurt Chicken, roasted veggies, rolls (leftover from Wednesday night)

Friday - grilled chicken (probably using this marinade), rice pilaf, sauteed zucchini

Saturday - crockpot chili, Fritoes, cheddar cheese

Sunday - roast, mashed potatoes, carrots roasted in crockpot with meat

A Thousand Things

Now that I am finally feeling better, I have a thousand things I want to run around and do all at once: scrub the refrigerator, clean out my files, put my new calendar in my day runner, make new curtains for my dining room, study for our first ladies Bible study, bake bread, clip the coupons from today's papers (yes I got two!), get all my ducks in a row for school starting back in a week, run on the elliptical machine, make a list of the history and literature books I'll need in the next few weeks, shred old financial documents we don't need anymore, scrub our shower, finish decorating our bedroom...

Of course, I won't get all that done this week. But I can't wait to tackle some of it anyway! Best of all, it was wonderful to be back at church today!

Oh, and if you didn't get a paper today, it was a great coupon edition! So if you clip coupons, it would be well worth going out and snagging a paper or two!