Making Mom's Life a Little Easier

Lionel Richie sang a song called "Easy Like Sunday Morning".  Ole Lionel must never have had to feed and get 4 children ready for church and then get them to the van and to church on time.  Sunday morning is never easy.  Being a mom, in general, is not easy.  When the children are small, they require diaper changes, feedings, naps, cleaning, and cuddle time(required by moms).  As they get older, they switch out diaper changes for school and naps for ball or music practice or dance.  Sure, they can do more for themselves but they now require a taxi service and a personal shopper/stylist.  They still need food and bathing but not as much cuddle time anymore.  I have 4 kids that range from 5-10, 2 girls, 2 boys.  All 4 play baseball or softball.  They are schooled at home.  We attend church several times during the week and do various field trips, play dates, and other extra curricular activities.  Time can get away from us.  I thought I would share how I get it all done.  I know you are on the edge of your seats so, hang on......

1. I don't get it all done.  At any time, my house will be in various states of disarray.  I do rely on my children to do things around the house.  They can dust, Swiffer the floors, load and unload the dishwasher, clean the bathrooms, wash, dry, and fold the laundry and put it away.  Let them help.  As they get older, you will be thankful and so will their spouses.

2. Reorganize the drawers in your home.    This little step will make putting away laundry so much easier.  Instead of stacking, put the clothes in rows.

   You can fit twice as much in there and the clothes are easily seen.  The kids can pick out their clothes with minimal amounts of fuss.  Notice this has sweaters in it.

3. Come up with easy to fix suppers.  We have had ball this spring Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri nights and Sat mornings.  We can either eat out every day or I can fix the kids something home made without breaking the bank.  Grilled cheeses wrapped in parchment paper and home made potato chips in paper bags make a great to go supper.  But these sandwiches are amazing.

Ingredients:
Bread, tomato sauce(garlic salt mixed in), provolone cheese, pepperoni, butter

Spread sauce lightly on bread and line pepperonis on it and then cheese.  Put the sandwich together and using the butter, grill them like you do grilled cheeses.  Amazing!  Hard to go back to the regular way!

4. Do small amounts of laundry.  Do at least 1 load per day.  That is so much easier than waiting until you have 6 loads.  Keep is simple. 

5. Pick 1 big project per 2 days(or week, if life is busier than usual).  Work on it in small spurts until it is done.  Like cleaning out cabinets or cleaning windows or Swiffering the walls.  My pantry needs done.  I will be doing that next week!

These are just ways that I am able to do all that I do.  I work 3-4 nights per week and volunteer and home school and exercise 6 days.  You can do it!

Me? Organize? Nah, Surely Not

If you know me, then you know how not organized I am.  My house is a mess at any time and my thoughts are even more cluttered.  But, for about 2 years now I have been trying to think of a way to organize my Family Fun.  I came up with a method so forgive my madness.  Here are what my magazines look like:

I have a bunch.  When I get them, I turn down the pages of the ideas, recipes, or crafts that I honestly think I can do. I get brutally honest with myself.  Too many steps or ingredients and I don't keep it.  Then, I tear them out.

I punch holes in them with a 3 hole punch.  Then, I organize them in a way that I can find them again.  My categories are: Christmas, Valentine's Day, Fall(Halloween, Thanksgiving, Back-To-School), Winter, Spring, Summer.  I had some file folders that I wasn't using.  They had pockets and they were purple! I labeled tha folders and stuffed the pages inside.  If there were more than 1 page, then I staple them together.

When I have them in their proper places, then I take the magazines and donate them to a local preschool so that they can reuse them as necessary. 

This is just 1 little way that I can get some of the clutter out of my home.  Now, that I have the system in place, I can just do it with 1 magazine each month.  Makes me feel so much better about life!

Tackle It Tuesday-Update

If you follow my blog regularly, you know the thing that makes my heart rate increase and my blood pressure rise. If you haven't read and are curious, check it out here. I thought that I would show everyone what the after looks like. My blood pressure has been good and the palpitations are only for my hubby ;).

The top drawer. See the kids' stuff in the back?

The drawer that made me hurt just to look at it.

Stuff I am giving to a thrift store. We have multiples of some things so they are gone. I would have given away more but my hubby insists that not all spatulas are equal so being the submissive wife that I am, I left them there.

Anyway, I feel better and as an added bonus, I was able to clean out the crumbs and dog hair from the drawer so we are also more sanitary!