OK. Well, they aren’t in full force exactly. Mainly because I didn’t really make any New Year’s Resolutions. With Lydia’s birthday and party the first week of the year, I feel like this is actually the first week of the year.
I have had a sense of a “one word” for the new year, though. It’s a simple one: Home. I’m not a great homemaker. I try. And then mostly, I don’t try. It gets overwhelming and I just end up cleaning for 2 days before a birthday party. (*gulp*)
But I want to get my HOME under control. And it’s more than just dishes and laundry. It’s how everything works together. For example, Lydia takes ballet once a week. So, she has one leotard and one pair of tights. The tights are $8 and every time I’ve tried the $3 tights from Wal-Mart they rip the first day. THE FIRST DAY.
Anyway, when I don’t have the laundry done, or Lydia’s room is a mess (her fault AND mine for not teaching her how to keep it clean) she gets aggravated that she can’t find her ballet outfit. Then I get aggravated that she can’t find it and usually uncover it under her hamper.
So, now when I mention, “It’s time to get ready for ballet!” she gets an immediate attitude. It doesn’t matter if the laundry is done or not, she gets an attitude because 9 times out of 10, she does have to look for her leotard. And honestly, I get an attitude, too. Do you see how all of this could have been stopped? That’s right! IF I HAD JUST KEPT ON TOP OF THE LAUNDRY! This is the kind of thing I want to eliminate and change in our home!
This week I have tightened the reins in our home by doing a few things I know to do anyway (and have done in the past on a semi-regular basis).
1. Menu Planning.
Seriously, why is this so hard? It’s not like it’s harder than staring at the pantry at 5pm every single night. Why not just do it all on one day?! This week I used the 30-day free trial at Plan To Eat. And I do like it because it organizes your recipes so well. But it’s $4.95 a month. So, I’m not sure I want to commit to it.
I might try to get a Once a Month Mom freezer cooking session planned. Staci? Mandi? Anyone up for it?
I was also thinking about doing eMeals again. I absolutely adore not having to think a lick about my meals! And a shopping list ready to print! But I feel like my kids have gotten decidedly picky as of late. And preparing 7 new meals every week for them? Sounds daunting.
And while we’re on the subject, I’m in the middle of reading Stephanie Langford’s new ebook, Plan It, Don’t Panic about meal-planning. It launches today! And since I officially love Stephanie, I think you should get the book. I’ll let you know if I can make myself put it in to practice.
{See, I really have been thinking about Menu Planning! It’s kinda been my main order of business this week!}
2. Laundry
So, my husband has this habit. He likes to do laundry. Well, he doesn’t really like to do laundry. He just likes to have clean clothes. So, he will wash a load of clothes. And he’ll even put them in the dryer. But folding? Notsomuch. So, right now? I have about 4 loads of clothes to fold. And put away.
My new weapon of boredom is listening to an audiobook while I fold. I’m listening to The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck right now. I love it.
3. Food
Let’s just say, my pants are getting tight. So, I download the Sparkpeople app. Yesterday I stayed within my calories. But that might be because I didn’t eat lunch. So, I’m not sure how well that’s going.
4. Homeschool
Lydia’s school is really easy to do. They plan it out so well, it’s just up to me to do it and make it fun. It’s Asa’s school that takes some planning. I do some Tot Trays and get tons of ideas from Carisa at 1+1+1=1. So, this week, I planned all 3 days of his Tot Trays at once. I’m so excited because I found some fun stuff!
5. Bring the Awesome
I haven’t forgotten about bringing the Awesome. But I have slacked on the “wherever you are, be all there”. It’s partially my iPhone’s fault. So, I’ve been putting the iPhone by the door, hiding Tweetdeck on my dock and only checking my blogs once a day. And wow, it’s amazing how much you can get done when you’re not plugged in!
6. Stuff Still On My To Do List
The Maximize Your Mornings Challenge with Inspired to Action begins on January 16th. I’m an Accountability Captain. That means I have to get up early. Earlier than I am right now anyway.
Institute a few new routines. I am still stuck on #4 in One Bite at a Time. Do you have routines? Like something you always do before going to bed to make your morning better? Or something you do before breakfast? I’d love to know what it is!
OK. Hope you’re still awake! So, what’s you New Year’s Resolution? How are tightening the reins of your life this year?
Great Links and Motivating Post Amanda! I appreciate your get-up and go! It spurs me on!
Thanks! My get-up and go always needs a little push and now that this post is out there, I have to do it! 🙂
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I’m right there with you…I mean, there are so many things I’d rather be doing than cleaning the house, right? 🙂 But, for this month, I am working on doing a few things consistently in the morning (and not worrying about the other 3,000 things that I need to work on–they’ll come later!). My goal is to have these things done before we leave in the morning or by 9:00 a.m. if we are staying home. Here they are: make my bed, get the kids dressed, make sure I know what we are having for dinner, start a load of laundry, and empty the dishwasher or drainboard. Very simple things, but they are working for me and doing these things usually (but not always!) spurs me on to other things.
I love this. Just those few things before 9am would make me feel like a supermom. I’ve got to do the same thing. Maybe I’ll just steal yours. 🙂
Feel free to steal them! Goodness knows I’ve “stolen” plenty of your ideas. My 4 1/2 year old daughter keeps asking me when we are going to do more Advent calendar crafts (from Truth in the Tinsel)…I told her that Christmas is over and we’ll have to wait for the next e-book (hint, hint). 🙂 We LOVED it!
Amanda…YES! I was actually looking at her mini menus! But yes, yes, yes, I want to do something!
Hmmm… I so don’t do New year’s Resolutions. BUT, I did just come across a 30 Day Mom Challenge, and I’m doing that. Does that count? 🙂 I blogged about it, too, just to hold me accountable. (Very sneaky of me to blatantly use my readers in such a fashion, but I’m going to go with the ends justify the means.)
Laundry was always my nemesis…seriously. I put off folding clothes and I can remember periods of months on end where we lived out of the clean clothes pile (as in, every morning we went foraging through the pile for something to wear…thinking back now it mortifies me!). My solution was to switch over to doing a single load every day–no more, no less. For me the trick is to start it immediately–the first thing I do when I get up and dressed is to gather up the dirty laundry and start a load, that way it’s ready for the dryer by the time the kids are done with breakfast and I can fold it in the morning (which really means before I’m burned out for the day). I also tivo househunters to watch while I fold & put away–it makes the time go by more quickly.
I remember you linking up to the once a month mom thing before and I tried it a few times. I found that a modified version works best for me; my husband travels a lot and lots of new meals aren’t good for kids. My kids are really good eaters, but they don’t like seeing a bunch of new stuff in the lineup. My solution is to spend a few hours once a week or so and make a big batch of something I know they’ll eat, and I package it up in cheap foil containers (dollar store, baby!). This week I made turkey meatballs with a huge 3 lb container of meat (I *hate* mixing up stuff like that, so really doing a triple batch isn’t that much more work and means I can put it off for longer), bake and flash freeze on a tray then store in ziplocs. Those I can use with pasta/sauce, subs, swedish meatballs and “mini” meatloaf’s for the kids. My other “project” for the week was to cook an entire large pkg of chicken breasts in the crock pot, and then chop up and make two each of chicken enchiladas and chicken pot pie filling (the filling I thaw, top with refrigerated biscuit dough and bake). Honestly, it was two hours of actual work in the kitchen and I have about 7-8 meals out of it. I’ve also started making “kid food” in easy to use serving sizes. I’ll make big batches of homemade mac & cheese (so much healthier–I make about a cup extra sauce so it reheats well) freeze in silicone muffin tins (1/2 cup serving…one is perfect for a side and two if it’s a main dish), then pop out and store in ziplocs. I do the same thing with a cheesy broccoli rice dish that my kids love (sometimes I put ham in the last one).
Another thing…have you checked out flylady.com? The whole email thing and the way she writes is absolutely nutty, but it really is a good system, and I find when I follow it I really do have a clean house with a minimal amount of invested time.
I am so like you! Always behind on the household chores. But I always have been. I remember when my girls were little, and my sister in law said, “I can’t believe you think your house is a mess, it’s always clean when I see it”. And I answered, “Of course, I clean all night before you come!”. My husband said if I tell him one more time how busy I am, it’s not going to be pretty!. I really have to work on this house keeping goal.
I am all about menu planning and though it can feel like a chore every Friday when that time rolls around, I would be so lost without it! I would highly recommend the iphone app MealBoard, which has been a lifesaver for me! It takes a while to get all your favorite recipes inputted and get your master grocery list in place, but it is so worth it! It has made my meal planning and grocery list creation a breeze and I love it! I’ve tried many different menu planning techniques, but this app has been by far my favorite and I’ve been using it for over a year.
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I’ll gear this review to 2 types of people: current Zune owners who are considering an upgrade, and people trying to decide between a Zune and an iPod. (There are other players worth considering out there, like the Sony Walkman X, but I hope this gives you enough info to make an informed decision of the Zune vs players other than the iPod line as well.)
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Hands down, Apple’s app store wins by a mile. It’s a huge selection of all sorts of apps vs a rather sad selection of a handful for Zune. Microsoft has plans, especially in the realm of games, but I’m not sure I’d want to bet on the future if this aspect is important to you. The iPod is a much better choice in that case.
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