Simplifying Life

With Ryan in college, and raising three kids, life is hectic. We have some sort of therapy on Mondays, Wednesday, Thursdays, and Fridays and Kayleigh goes to school Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I don't have alot of time to think about other things, like, what to make for dinner or the mounds of laundry in the laundry room. Some days I will completely let my house go, just to enjoy some down time or play with the kids.

One way that has helped me so much this month was making a menu. I bought a desk calendar from wal-mart and sat down one evening and went thru all my pins on pinterest of the food that looked good. I mean, why pin something if you aren't going to try it? I also copied each recipe and printed it out so I would have it when the night came.

I love it! I look at it each morning and get out what meat I need so it's defrosted by the time I need to start making a meal. If I decide that what I had planned for that night doesn't sound good, I just swap it out for a different night. Plus, it makes grocery shopping so much easier.

Since we don't have anything going on on Tuesdays, that is when we deep clean the whole house. I get the kids to help by offering them an item out of our chore store. My kids receives a quarter each time they helps out. Then they can "buy" from the house "store."

We went to the dollar store and got a bunch of things the kids were interested in. It's worked out great for us.