mt. laundry

This is what happens in a family of 8 when you miss a day of laundry!  I don't mind washing the clothes, as long as everyone gets them to the laundry room, but as of last weekend I have officially boycotted folding laundry for anyone over the age of 5!  I am headed to Walmart to get each kid a small bin that their clothes will get separated out into upon leaving the dryer. From there it is up to them what becomes of their clean clothes, cause this mama is done staying up til 11pm folding laundry after it has sat, clean, in baskets, in the living room for day!  I honestly don't know why it has taken me this long to start moving the laundry chores to my completely capable children! (Brooke, if your reading, thanks for the individual laundry bin idea!)

i need a mental health day

I am feeling a little overwhelmed these days.  There is so much to do and we are accomplishing so little!  I am tired (without any real excuse since Emmaline has been sleeping through the night (10 hrs) for weeks now) and short tempered.  I can't seem to organize my thoughts let alone my house.  When we do school it has been going better this year than ever before, the problem is finding time (and a clean space on the table) to actually do school!

If I could just bring myself to allow some sort of routine and spend a little time planning each week I know things would be much better, but everything in me fights against routine!  The problem is, when you have 8 people living, schooling and running a business in a small space you have.to.have. some structure! 

So, I think it is time to stop all the activity, organize our space, and make a loose plan for our days.  I also need to carve out a few minutes everyday to write down my thought and ideas.  Wish me luck!

P.S.  I couldn't get my act together enough to work out while the kids were in PE at the Y today, but I did spend a few minutes drawing up my June pattern for the calendar and as soon as I get things in order here I will start stitching it up :)

menu planning

I have tried making menus before and have not stuck with them, but I think it was because I only did 8 weeks worth of dinners and used some recipes that were not "tried and true" family favorites. This time I pushed myself to come up with 12 weeks of meals that I knew we would enjoy. (I use the term "we" loosely, not everyone in the family will be thrilled with every meal, but you can't please everybody all the time.)

I also made this list to fit our schedule, for instance, we have CC on Thursdays and are gone all day, so most of my meals for that day are easy, pre-made casserole type meals that I will prepare on Tuesday, which is my "kitchen day" (see this post). Also, I planned mostly crock pot meals for Wednesday so that I have less to deal with the night before CC.

12 Week Dinner Menu
If you look at my list, it may seem a bit odd- only 6 days and starting with Saturday, but we shop of Fridays, so my week, as far as meal planning goes, starts on Saturday. Also, we usually eat dinner with friends of Friday nights, so I don't plan anything for dinner on Fridays.

I also have a rotating, 4 week breakfast/snack/lunch schedule.
Breakfast, snacks and lunch

I will add that when I made both of these list I had not intended to share them, so there are some dinners with no sides listed and maybe they could be laid out better, but this is what worked for me, so I am sharing in hopes that maybe it will inspire you or help you to make your own menus. I really has free up a lot of time that I used to spend trying to figure out what to eat each week!

I also have a master grocery list as well. I made this list based on the things that I most frequently buy, and according to where they are found in the stores I shop. There are always things to be written in, and it needs occasional tweaking, like my BJ's list has juice on it, but we are no longer buying juice, but I find it makes creating a grocery list just that much easier. I made my list in Excel and it does not come across right on Scribd, but it is specific to our family and the things that we buy each shopping trip anyway, and really, I think it is something best made up on your own, to suite your family :)

I hope that some of this is helpful/encouraging to some of you, I confess I am feeling a bit insecure about sharing all this, I am no expert and it is far from perfect... I think I better just hit publish before I change my mind!

upcycled

I picked this shelf out of someone's trash pile at least 6 months ago and it has been sitting in front of the windows in our living room ever since... waiting to get a paint job... waiting to find some free wall space to hang it. My ever patient husband never once said "what are you going to do with this shelf?" or "why is this still sitting on the floor, dirty, and unused". When I brought it home I had wanted to paint it and hang it somewhere for the kids to store all their art supplies, but I could not find any wall space where they could easily access it, so it sat...
Until yesterday when I had a moment of inspirations, with just a few small adjustments it would fit on the wall over my sewing desk and I would finally be able to get all those jars and containers holding sewing notions and tools off the desk (about 97% of what you see on the shelf was stacked on my desk, plus some other stuff). So, I dug out a can of white spray paint and got to work!
Pretty exciting to actually be able to see the desk top... it's been awhile!