Last week was standardized testing in our home. The next day I accidentally discovered something that has been very helpful to my younger son (8 years old) who has difficulty concentrating on his assignments. I had left the stopwatch sitting on the table, and my son picked it up while he was doing his math.…
Picking out a Tree
A hayride with hot cocoa. Singing Christmas carols. Finding the PERFECT tree. Together. As one big happy family. Sounds beautiful doesn’t it? Wait, I should make it a sleigh ride through the snow and why not chop our own tree down? Let’s face it. This is not reality for most people. Our reality for getting…
Simple Spinach Salad
I like salad, but I really hate to make them. All the chopping and slicing tends to keep me from taking the time. Plus there’s the keeping a bunch of different vegetables around to use in the salad without them spoiling. I’m sad to say, I have thrown away way too many vegetables. Last year…
Creative Dusting Tool
I should mention that I really don’t like to dust. It’s one of the chores that I try to assign to my kids. My bedroom furniture is particularly difficult because it has grooves that are hard to get to. Here’s a picture of the cabinet on the front of the chest after not dusting it…
Racing through Chores
This week is cleaning theme week at Works for Me Wednesday. I have already made a few Works for Me Wednesday posts with some of my cleaning tips. Here’s our Chore Chart, and just last week I posted on Dividing Cleaning Tasks. You may think that I like to clean. But I really don’t. I…
Dividing Cleaning Tasks
When I was a kid, my mother cleaned the whole house once a week. (Not that she didn’t clean up anything in between) I mean all the dusting, vacuuming, bathroom cleaning, floor mopping, EVERYTHING on ONE day. As I got older I was assigned a lot of it. It takes a lot away from a…
Using Hidden Spaces
This week for Works for Me Wednesday I have another one of those tips that seem so obvious and yet took me a while to think of. We all like to keep various papers and notes handy so that we know where they are. A lot of people have chosen to hang everything on their…
Chore Chart
It’s Organizing Week on Works for Me Wednesday and I really love to organize! For my contribution, I am sharing how I organize our chores. This is our weekly chore chart for me and the kids. I implemented this format of chore assignments a couple of years ago. It has really worked well for us.…
Monthly Menu Planning
For the last year I have been planning my menus a month at a time. For me this has several advantages over weekly meal planning. I really don’t like menu planning, so I had a tendency to skip a week without planning. With monthly planning I don’t have to plan as often. It doesn’t take…
Vacation Packing Tip
We just got back from a week at the beach. In addition to our clothes, we had to take bed linens and towels for our stay. Our family of six traveled in a Chrysler Town and Country mini van and we didn’t have to use the roof carrier! My favorite vacation packing tip—- LAUNDRY BASKETS…