Omelette

Yesterday was a day of wonders in our home.  Why?  Because my kids are finally learning to help me around the house!  Yay.

Right before breakfast, my 9 year old decided she wanted an egg omelette and that she could very well cook it herself.  And I agreed.

So she did.

And here it is:

My 9 year old's first omelette (made by her!)

 Need I say how DELICIOUS it was???? Good stuff.

Then she just kept right on helping me around the house.  I told her she was my assitant trainee and that she would learn how to run the entire home on her own one of these days.

loading the dishwasher

wiping down counters

cleaning the garbage can

I think we might be moving towards an increase in allowance.  She never asked for one, which makes it all the nicer.
I am working on creating systems within my home so that everyone knows what is where and how to pitch in.  It's something that I have been working on all my married life but has just now become a necessity and the sooner I can pull this together the better.  I have willing and helpful family (as you can see) but I am working on getting organized so that it's easier for them to help me.

I accrued a pretty large library fine a few days ago *gasp* and I vowed to never let it happen again.  The thing is, I know that it's simply the result of my not staying on top of things- system wise.  I am thinking of a few different ways to keep organized with our libary books.  My hubby gave me some good advice (using my cell phone calendar alerts).  I also like to see something visual on my wall, too, but not take up too much space.  And I most definitely cannot fit the titles of 15+ books (yes, we do need that many) into the small calendar spaces alotted.

So...any ideas?

For now, I'm going to use the cell phone idea from my husband, and keep on coming up with systems that help us run our home better.

Gardening, Menu Planning, and Grocery Lists

This post will mostly be about how I do my meal planning- something that has taken me years to figure out what works for us.  Finally I think I have it down to a semi-science, at least until or until something throws me off routine.  For now I am just really excited that with a new year beginning I can finally clear up the clutter, the dust of moving is settling, and I can begin again in our new home.

A lot of my posts from here on out will focus on my home routines- what I'm doing with my kids, homeschooling, household management, cooking...that kind of stuff.  As I grow up into my role as a wife and mama I am learning each day how to better serve my family. 

So, welcome to my home...2012.

This morning the kids ate breakfast and asked to go out and check on their garden.

We planted these way back in September...I don't remember if they are radishes or grean beans.

pulling up weeds

 I go back inside and look up some recipes from the San Francisco Chronicle cookbook.  I promised myself that in 2012 I would try new recipes- more soups and salads- and try my hands at more upscale cooking and cuisine.  I will try- the operative word.  Beyond that, I'm happy just finding fun and simple recipes the kids will enjoy.

I did find a recipe I liked. So it's time to do my grocery shopping today.

I don't know why it took me so long to figure out how to do menu-planning for my family, but I think I'm about 4 years down the road of the lightbulb going off in my head and finally realizing I needed a system that worked before I drove myself up the wall. 
So- here's my little system.
I buy these little blank calendar pads and grocery/to-do list pads from Wal-Mart.  I create a menu by the week, usually based on a bit of the prior week's menu- just juggle up the days.  I only focus on dinner and lunch.  Breakfast in our home is a cinch.

 Now with my week's menu all done, I need to fill in the gaps, make sure I have all the ingredients for each meal.
 I check in my freezer to be sure I'm well stocked on the meats and veggies I need this week.  And I am except for another bag of peas.

My cabinet is stocked with pastas and all the canned goods I need for my chili on Friday.

 The rest of my grocery list consists of checking each room in the home for reminders of things to add like toiletries or cleaning products.  In the future I plan to add a clipboard list for each room- haven't gotten to that yet.

Next step, comparing my grocery list beside my coupon binder, making sure I haven't missed any coupons for what's on my list.

I don't know about you, but I sometimes I have an issue with staying on budget.  It's not that I don't carefully plan to stay under a certain amount- it's just that sometimes you never know from week to week if prices may fluctuate or not.  I mostly do my shopping at the Commissary (for military personnel- where prices can go up and down especially on meats), and I also shop a bit at Wal-Mart and Target.  There is no Publix in this part of California (bummer).

Anyhow, to combat the budgeting issue, my husband and I have worked it out that I will only shop with cash.  It gives me a fixed and concrete way of staying on track.  Once I run out of cash, that's it.  I calculate my groceries to the cent while I'm shopping and we've been able to stay on $120/week for a family of four (including food, toiletries, cleaning products, basic household and personal hygiene needs, etc.).  And of course, couponing helps.

Well, I'm off to do my grocery shopping and pick up some photos from the 1-hour photo center to send to friends.

I'll try to do more posts about household management and how I'm trying to manage around here :-)

I will also attempt to do some fun kiddie activity and recipe posts this year to.

Additionally, I will be rearranging the blog so that it makes more sense about the direction I'm going in.  (Unlike Wordpress it's a little messy and adding categories in a drop down menu doesn't seem to be an option- if you have any ideas on this please let me know).

Until the next post...

Singing, Organizing, and uh...toilets.

So it’s been an interesting week so far…and you’ll know why if you keep reading.

First of all, if you’ve been reading any of my earlier posts you’ll know that I’ve changed over to the Well Trained Mind classical method education for my daughter. This week’s homeschool structure has changed, and so has our schedule…and that meant getting ORGANIZED!

Here’s a little corner in our home near our washer/dryer that we weren’t using efficiently:


Quite a mess in fact.

There’s a little toddler art table, an end table, homeschool crates, binders, toys and organizing drawers that are in fact disorganized.

So… I brought in her computer desk, and did a little rearranging so now it looks like this:



Quite a difference, eh?

I’m quite proud of myself I must admit. Now we can think, breathe, and have school in a more organized environment.

Okay…now for the funnies…

What does a 5 year old do when she tries to flush a few wads (or maybe rolls) of toilet paper down the toilet?

Why, the only sensible thing to do, of course! Put up a sign!



Did you catch that? “OUT OF ORDER”?

yep.

That’s NyGirl for ya…my creative and orderly Little Lady.

Speaking of NyGirl…we spent a great deal of time last Thursday making out Valentine’s Cards for her little friends at our homeschool co-op. You remember back in grade school how important it was for our little boy and girl friends to get our Valentine’s in their goody bags?



This was an exciting time for her! We’re just really blessed that homeschooling doesn’t mean she still can’t have some of the social outlets we had as kids…and we’re SO blessed to be part of our local co-op, which is unbelievably awesome, (and I’m bragging!) but probably one of the best nationwide.

And one more pic for the day…

We always tell NyGirl she’s our little star…so here she is singing to her heart’s content (with her Daddy accompanying her on the piano next to her).

Wish I had a video of this!


That’s all for now.