The Big Secret--how I get so much stuff done in a day

I am very frequently asked how I get so much stuff done.  It seems to boggle people's minds that, with three little ones, I'm able to homeschool them, have an extensive garden, cook about everything from scratch, blog daily, take care all of the housework, sleep, and do whatever else it is that I do.  So here it the big secret:  to me, I never feel like I get enough done.  There just aren't enough hours in the day.  Still, others seem to think I do do a lot, so maybe if I go through my typical schedule where everyone can see it, maybe that will help clear up the mystery.

I wake up, usually in the morning, when my toddler tells me I have to.  We cosleep, so he's right there to let me know that it is time to be let out of the room.  He still nurses and is a fairly heavy night-nurser, so having him sleep with me is a major time saver, as well as being sweet and snuggly.  I grudgingly wake up, usually around 11am, and get some breakfast.  I think cold cereal is gross, so I almost always have a hot breakfast: eggs, sausage, & toast; waffles; pancakes; oatmeal; occasionally the baked treat such as muffins or coffee cake.  While I'm eating, I do my morning computer stuff:  checking email, the weather report for the day, my blog stats, and Facebook.  When I'm done eating, I glance at my to-do list for the day, select an appropriate outfit for the day, and hop in the shower. 

The shower is my main strategizing session for the day.  I let my mind wander and let my the goals for the day percolate in my brain as much as I can.  Of course, since I have a toddler and toddlers don't understand the concept of "mommy is unavailable right now", this is usually done with him in the tub with me, since he follows me in and takes off his pajamas even if he's not invited, which makes thinking more difficult.  Fortunately (for the task at hand), he doesn't talk much, so I usually get some good ideas on how to do what I need to do most efficiently.  After the shower, I get dressed, brush my hair and teeth, and get started with what I need to do.

Usually around this time, either while I'm in the shower or shortly after, my 6 year old will wake up, around noon or so.  I make sure he eats something and start pester him to do his schoolwork.  I put together packets of worksheets for him to do, usually doing the whole week's worth at one time, and leave one packet and any materials he needs like crayons or pencils on the table for him to find if I'm in the shower when he gets up.  Of course, he ignores his work until I get on him about it....  Anyway, he has to have his worksheets done before he can play with friends, so he makes sure to have them done before his friends get out of school.  While he's working on his schoolwork, I start doing something else nearby, so I can answer questions and teach him the new skills if there are any that day, with very little interruption of getting done what I need to do.  When he's done with his worksheets for the day, he empties the dishwasher, then he's free to do what he wants (within the boundaries of our rules) for the rest of the day, unless he has soccer practice that evening.

Meanwhile, I plug along on my list for the day, giving greatest priority to things that have to be done right away because the food the project involves will go bad, because the weather says so, or because I need to do something before I can get to the project I really need/want to do that day.  As I get something done, I cross it off my to-do list, maybe take a quick second to see if anything interesting is going on in computer-land (note: I don't sit down to do this.  That would be a productivity killer.  I keep my netbook on the kitchen counter and do just a quick check-in while standing up, so I don't get sucked into non-productive land). 

About an hour or two before dinner needs to be on the table, usually as determined by when my husband has to be to work that night, I seriously think about getting started with dinner.  If the toddler takes a nap, I try to do this while he's sleeping.  If his nap is a long time before dinner, I'll still get as much prep work done as possible so I'm not trying to do it all with a clingy toddler on me, melting down.  I like to give myself way more time than needed to make dinner to deal with the inevitable eighty-million interruptions. 

I try to get everyone around the table for dinner as often as possible, especially since that is the primary time the kids get to interact with their dad, since he sleeps during the day and works at night, as well as going to school online, which occupies much of his awake time at home. 

After dinner, if my husband has to be into work "early", 7-8pm, I usually try (note the keyword there: try) to get the kids to help me with housework, if it is something that they could/should be involved in, like cleaning up after themselves, or something they like to do like laundry.  I do a load of laundry, minimum, a day, but I don't always get around to folding it every day.  Other times, it is stuff I need to do myself, like dishes or vacuuming, so the kids play or read ("read"?) or whatever (okay, they usually are watching television by this time in the evening.  I admit it, they watch way too much television and I hate it.).

On days my husband doesn't have to be in to work until 10pm, we eat dinner at 9pm, then it is time to settle down for the evening, usually meaning dinner, bath, bed.  In theory.  In practice, I usually try to get them to calm down and go to bed for a while, then get frustrated because they aren't going to bed like I want them to and are still bouncing off the walls, so I'll retreat to doing something productive like folding laundry or writing while watching the 10 o'clock news, until they seem calmer and I try again.  Or until I get really irritated because it is getting so late and they aren't in bed yet and I am ready for some quiet time!  Either way, eventually, they end up settled down and trying to go to sleep.  Both the 4 year old and 6 year old refuse to sleep in their room at the other end of the house ("Mom, it is too scary down there!" *sigh*), so they end up on the floor of my room (how this is better than the nice, comfy beds in their room, I don't know, but they insist it is!) and eventually, usually around midnight for the toddler, 1am for the 4 year old, and 2 or 3am for my 6 year old, they go to sleep. 

Finally, I get some mommy-me-time.  Sometimes.  Sometimes there is a project I need to wrap up, or something like dishes that can't wait until morning, or I still need to put together the morning's blog post (big secret:  I'm not really awake when these things publish at 7am Eastern time).  After everything is done that I need to do for the night, I try to read a little to relax before bed, but sometimes that doesn't even happen.  I try to make it to bed no later than 3 or 4am every night.  (See why we aren't morning people?)

So, in summery, it may not be a typical schedule, it certainly wouldn't work if the kids went to school, but with my husband's schedule of working nights and the kids (seemed) and my natural rhythms of going to bed and getting up very late by normal standards, it works exceptionally well for us.  I think that is a big part of why I'm able to stay on task and do as many things as I do each day, because I'm not exhausted from trying to fit a time-mold that doesn't work for my body.  As a kid and young adult, when I had to get up and be somewhere by a certain time each morning, I was dragging all the time, not able to focus as much, and would revert to a later schedule, identical to my current one (except I might have slept into the afternoon more then to get rid of a sleep deficit...and because I didn't have kids to wake me up!), every vacation I had!

Another thing that I know enables me to do a lot more than most people (apparently anyway, from what other people tell me) is that I don't sit.  I sit for breakfast (and do my computer stuff), dinner (time spent with the family), and to complete specific tasks on the computer, whether it be writing, organizing homeschool stuff, taking surveys for money, or what-have-you.  I never just sit and watch television.  I watch much less television than most people, usually just watching the news and fake news (The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report), very rarely maybe a movie or a documentary that strikes my fancy.  When I do watch television, I'm always doing something else at the same time, like folding laundry, making dinner, or completing aforementioned computer tasks.\

So that's it.  That's the big secret of how I get stuff done....even though somehow it never seems to be enough.  Now that I've gotten my computer stuff done for the night, it is time for me to sign off, finish washing the laundry I'm doing right now, and maybe read for a while.  I'll see people's reactions to this post, and anything else I've put out there, in the morning.  Good night!

Fun and Functional Kids' Rooms

I've never met a kid who cared if all the bedding and other accessories in their room matched.  I've met a lot of kids, though, that think it would be awesome to have a permanent fort in their room.  What kid can pass up a fort? 

This mismatched not-mess is my daughter's bed.  She has the bottom bunk on a bunkbed that we got used for $30 and to make up for it being the bottom bunk, since all kids seem to want the top bunk, I made it special by hanging curtains we don't need anymore and a large piece of fleece to form the long wall of the fort.  The head of the bed is left open, just a little way away from wall to be the official way in and out, and the foot of the bed has a fleece throw to block it from the world.  I haven't decided whether I'm going to just safety pin or sew these in place, but either way, this is supposed to be a permanent configuration to give her a special, private spot in the world.

So that's the fun part; the practical part is the way I have toys arranged in there.  With 4 kids, if everyone had a complete set of privately owned toys, we would probably be completely buried in toys!  As it is, most of the toys are communally shared between all of them.  This helps cut down on clutter and fights, since it eliminates a lot of the "it's mine" nonsense (of course, we still get a lot of "I had it first!"s, but I have yet to figure out a way to prevent that one).

In other thrifty decorating ideas:  my mom made those tiger curtains for the kids from a throw blanket she found at a thrift shop.  Cool, huh?  Love how they kind of glow with the sunlight coming through them!

To keep the kids' toys organized in their room, I have a large utility shelf with a combination of milk crates (love me some Freecycle!) and small storage tubs.  The milk crates contain wooden blocks, wooden train pieces, puppets, play food, and dress up things.  The tubs store smaller things, like cars, dinosaurs, and Fisher Price Little People.  I put the heaviest stuff on the bottom to weigh it down and because they are favorite toys and put the dress up stuff all the way on top since they are the most likely to not be cleaned up when they are done.  With a vertical storage system like this, it encourages (in theory anyway) toys being picked up before something else is gotten out.  Plus, it discourages random strewing of toys everywhere in the search of a certain toy since they can easily see exactly where the toy they want is.

Gearing Up for Not-Back-to-School

This year, like every year, I am faced with the question of how do I get started homeschooling this year.  I kind of look at each school year as a separate adventure, although some of it may be similar from year to year.  I think I finally have a system down for figuring it out now though.

Homeschool central in my living room.  The top shelf pictured contains musical instruments and reference books such as dictionaries.  Next down are wooden puzzles for the younger kids (placed up high to discourage dumping, but it doesn't really work since the kids climb), math manipulatives, and other materials such as bean bags and crayons that can be useful for a variety of activities.  Next down is my son's shelf, which contains a variety of puzzle books, magazines, early readers, a binder for loose worksheets, and workbooks.  The bottom pictured is my daughter's shelf which contains a large box of paper for all the kids to use as they would like (reused paper.  The other side has printing on it already.), some high interest books to look at to stimulate her mind and imagination, her binder for loose worksheets (and coloring pages), and a stack of workbooks and coloring books.  Not pictured is the top of the shelf, which contains supplies such as construction paper, software, and "teacher" stuff and the bottom shelf, which is the toddler's and contains a variety of toys to stimulate his cute little brain.  Next to the shelf, you can see a loveseat, perfect for snuggling while studying or just reading together and an alphabet chart for reference by the kids.  This entire area is right next to the kitchen counter, where we usually do "school".

• Step 1:  Clean and organize the house.  How do I know what I need if I don't know what I have?  I might think I have something and it turns out it is broken or crucial pieces are missing, if everything isn't in its place when figuring out my plan for the year.
• Step 2:  Figure out what our objectives are.  My main objective for the school year for my 6 year old is to get him reading proficiently and writing comfortably, so most things for him will gear around this.  My main goal for my 4 year old is for her to master the alphabet, to write her name, and be able to count consistently at least to 10, so her materials and lessons will center around these.  For science, social studies, and other such subjects, I will largely be leaving it to their interests this year, so the specific objectives for those subjects will be developed in...
• Step 3:  Find out what the kids want to do.  I have a ton of books with craft and activities for kids in them, mostly from Paperbackswap.com, so I plan on sitting down with the older kid and figure out what looks fun.  I'll then use those things as a framework to figure out what we'll learn about.
• Step 4:  Find out what is going on in the community.  We live near a very homeschool friendly city, so I'll be looking into activities at the museums and other places to see what will fit with what we want to do.  I may also use some of these things, like the homeschool science days as the children's museum to figure out more lesson themes.
• Step 5:  Decide what we are actually going to do.  Being thrifty as I am, I'm not going to be buying a curriculum, so I'll be putting together a loose curriculum based on the things I mentioned before.
• Step 6:  Figure out what we need to get.  Shortly before the beginning of each school year, I post a list of the things we want or need for supplies, whether it be normal things like construction paper or unusual things like toilet paper tubes or more toy-like things like puzzles on our local Freecycle group.  I also will let friends and relatives know so they can keep their eyes out for freebies or cheapies at yard sales or whatever.  I also watch for them at yard sales, which is part of why I start thinking no later than the end of July, rather than waiting until the beginning of September when schools start up around here.  As a last resort, I'll buy the things we absolutely need, but if I can hold out until after schools start up, I try to so I can cash in on back-to-school clearance sales, rather than paying full- or even regular sale prices for things!

To keep puzzles organized, I labeled each piece and the puzzle with a number and put the pieces in a plastic bag in a bin out of the reach of the toddler, so he can't just knock the puzzle holder with all its puzzle pieces on the floor for an instant mess.

So there you have it, my thrifty guide to not going back to school.  It is not the only way to do things and I don't claim it is "the best" but it works for my family.  That's one of the best things about homeschooling: we can always do what's best for our family.

Early Spring Cleaning Challenge--Cleaning out the freezer

Ugh!  My husband picked up some groceries the other day and the silly man just shoved things into the freezer and pantry without any thought of where they might actually go.  Oh, well.  I guess it was due to be reorganized, since the last time I did it was deer hunting season  Just like my other food storage areas, I like to keep my freezer and refrigerator organized so I know what is in it at all times (in theory, anyway!).

I actually have two freezers:  the one attached to the refrigerator and a small chest freezer.  I try to keep things ready to grab to make meals in the refrigerator one and use the other for more long term storage of meats and veggies.  Here is how I tackle cleaning these out:

1. Pull everything out of the refrigerator and organize in some fashion that I can see pretty much everything in there.  If there is any old, gross, or mystery things, I dispose of them.  No sense taking up space with things you'll never use.  I use storage containers to help keep things stacked up neatly
2. Pull everything out of the chest freezer, grouped in piles by type.  Ready to eat meals (if there are any) go in one pile, veggies in another, chicken in another, venison in another, etc.  If there is anything gross, I throw it out.  If something has been in there a long time (possibly forgotten about), I either will move it to the top/front to ensure it will be used quickly, or if I decide that we aren't actually going to use it (family didn't like or whatever), I'll list it on Freecycle, being completely honest about what it is (homemade, opened, expired), how old it is (properly frozen food never actually goes bad, but the quality will suffer eventually), the condition it is in, etc and see if someone else can use it.  I've actually made people cry with joy by giving them food from a freezer clean-out because it meant they had something to eat for a few days!  If the freezer needs to be defrosted, I'll put all this food in coolers and do it now.  If not, I go on to the next step.
3. Wipe down the seals and outside (as well as the interior if it was defrosted) with vinegar to prevent mold growth and/or kill any mold that may be lurking.
4. Put the food back in the freezer in some organized fashion.  This varies depending on the exact contents of the freezer at the time, but I will designate the basket for something, the section right under if for something I don't need to access very often, and will use bags or boxes to keep the rest organized.  Because of this, I can easily get something even from the bottom of the freezer.
5. Incorporate any discoveries of things that should probably be used up soon in the meal plan for the next week or so.  If it has been a long enough time since you've cleaned out the freezer, you may be able to skip a week of grocery shopping!

So here is my challenge to you:  clean out your freezer like I've described here.  Leave a comment with any interesting or unexpected finds you discover and how you handled it.  Also, if you found something you'd like to use up, but aren't sure what to do with it, leave that in the comments too, and maybe I (or the other readers) can help you figure something out!

Making a Meal Plan & Grocery List

It occurred to me that if someone had never made a meal plan before, that they may have no idea how to do it.  Since I need to do this before going grocery shopping today anyway, I figured I might as well take you all with me to see how it is done.  There are lots of ways to go about this.  This is simply my thought process to do it today.  Since my husband gets paid every two weeks, I try to do our main grocery shopping done on the weekend of payday (this weekend for example), so that way I don't have to worry about running out of food if we run out of money before the next payday.  If money permits, I'll do a supplemental food run the off-pay weekend as well, to add more fresh food and possibly even some treats.  If you are just starting to make meal plans, you may want to strictly take it one week at a time though.

The first thing I did was pull out my Master Meal List out of my "Brain" to see what looks tasty.  Tacos, roast chicken with potatoes au gratin and some sort of vegetable, chicken teriyaki, chicken fajitas, chicken stew with dumplings, shipwreck (a dish involving ground meat, potatoes, kidney beans, and tomato soup), chili, Mexican egg rolls, meatball stroganoff on rice, black beans & rice, a chicken broccoli rice casserole (new recipe idea I had the other day), and pseudo-French bread pizzas sound good.  I find that about a dozen dinner ideas is usually sufficient for a two week period, since we'll probably end up having at least one leftover night, be invited to someone else's house for at least a meal, or possibly even eat out once.

Next, I checked my fridge to make sure there wasn't anything in there that needed eating up soon that wasn't covered by these meals.  The only perishables in there that need used up in a meal soon are tomatoes and lettuce that I picked up last week for tacos (a meal we didn't end up getting around to eating) and some bread dough (in the bucket on the bottom shelf) that I mixed up for the bread with the corn and potato chowder last week, but some of that will be used for the pizza and I'm hoping to try to make bagels one of these days, so that should take care of that.

One of my "helpers" assisting in my inventory

Then, I checked my planner to make sure there weren't special concerns with time on any of the days in question.  In this case, two of the kids have tap dance class one evening a week, but our round trip to there, the class time, and the trip back, with extra time thrown in for kids not wanting to change shoes or put their coats on or getting into their car seats without a fuss is still under an hour and a half, so I could cook the chicken dinner (approximate cooking time 2 hours) one week and let the chili simmer the whole time.  In both cases, I'll start dinner before leaving and it will be ready shortly after we get home, thereby eliminating the temptation of running out for some fast food after class, a savings of about $25 each time we don't grab fast food with our family size.

The last thing I checked before making my list is the ad flyer for the grocery store I'll be going to, to make sure there aren't any super deals I couldn't pass up that might influence what we eat for the week.  I need to make sure before we go because, if you recall, if it isn't on the grocery list, I'm not going to buy it.  Period.  Actually, we might cheat on that this week since my husband will be going shopping with me his week and he's horrible about slipping extra goodies in the cart, but I'm going to try to budget in some wiggle room for him to do that without sending us over budget.  If I was running really short on food and on a super tight budget this week, I would have started with the ad flyer and built my menu up from that, but since I have a fairly healthy stock of a lot of things and a looser budget this week, it isn't as crucial.  Nothing really jumped out at me for meals that will influence my menu this week, but I did mark several items on my grocery list that I wanted for general supplies that were on sale, as well as some good produce deals that I want to grab for snacks for the kids.

Lastly, I went through my menu for the next couple weeks and figured out what I have on hand to make it and what I need.  The tacos, I don't need anything because I was planning on having that this past week.  The roast chicken and potatoes au gratin, I don't need anything because that is all super basic ingredients that I always have on hand (I stocked up on chickens humanely and healthily raised by Amish people in the fall, before the season for them ended).  I continued down my list I made and discovered the only thing I need to buy for this cycle of dinners is some egg roll wrappers, which usually run about $1.50 a package.  This frees up almost my entire budget to stock up on supplies that are on sale, items for breakfast (lunches generally consist of dinner leftovers), and any goodies my husband wants to slip in!  After marking those items (except my husband's "surprises") on my list, it looks like the "real" groceries will likely be somewhere between $20-$30 for two weeks, depending on how many of the desirable sale items are in stock!  Since I think I remember reading somewhere that the average food expenditure for a family of 4, a smaller family size than ours, is upwards of $155 per week in the United States, I'd say a little planning can save a lot of money!

A Truly Free Market

Just some of the random finds at the giveaway at the homeschool Valentine's Day party

I found a wonderful surprise when I took the kids to the day late homeschool Valentine's Day party yesterday.  Along the back wall, someone had set up a table with all sorts of things on it and taped a sign to the wall saying something along the lines of "If you can use it, you can have it."  There was everything from food to toys to a vacuum to books to computer games and all sorts of other things on the table and a couple boxes by the base of the table.  I wish I knew that was going to be going on before I had gone, since, just yesterday, I took about 4 boxes of things out of my house to the garage awaiting the chance to give them away at just such a thing.

I've long been a fan of these kinds of giveaways, often going to them as part of various Freecycle "Free-4-All"s, or through the similar ReUseIt Network (don't know if they have an official cutsie name for them though), and even helping organize a Free-4-All in conjunction with a local community college as part of their campus Earth Day celebration a couple years ago.  Last summer, I started to organize monthly "Really, Really Free Markets" at parks around Jackson, MI, but those have not been running the past few months since the weather got too cold to have them outdoors and we couldn't find a free place to have them inside.  Hopefully, they'll regain the momentum they were gathering before winter struck when the spring arrives.

The first Jackson, MI Really, Really Free Market--August 2010, Cascades Park

Jackson (MI) Really, Really Free Market--September 2010, Loomis Park

I've gotten a lot of really great stuff at giveaways, regardless of what you call them, just about anything you could imagine, really--anything from clothes (some even brand new), household items, furniture, purses, toys and games for the kids, a stereo, books, videos.  More importantly, I've been able to get rid of a lot of things that I didn't need, that were cluttering up my life and draining my energies just by being there.  Let me tell you, it can be quite a sanity saver to have less stuff (don't get me wrong, we still have a ton of stuff...this is an ongoing process to "destuff" our lives!) since it means less stuff to worry about getting out of place and cluttering up the house (especially true of kid stuff), less stuff to clean, less stuff to worry about someone stealing or breaking.  I know this is counter what is advertised on television, with the commercials constantly telling you that you need more stuff, specifically whatever stuff they are trying to sell you.  They lie.

You probably know this intellectually but really take it to heart--there is nothing advertised on television that you need.  So rather than spending your hard earned money, probably earned doing something you weren't too thrilled to be doing in the first place if your job is like most people's, on this junk, save it for stuff you really do need, like maybe keeping a roof over your head, or spend it doing something with someone you care about.  And what if instead of supporting a "free market" that costs us all in the time it takes to earn the money we are supposed to spend on this "free market" (not to mention potential environmental damage or societal damage it creates in the long run--a topic for another day), instead we support a gift economy that is a truly free market, where we all share our stuff we don't need, our ideas, our talents, and work toward building more of a community than holing ourselves up, isolated with our stuff?

These kinds of giveaways are easy to organize.  Pretty much everyone has stuff that they don't want or need anymore, so it is simply a matter of setting a time, a place, and promoting the heck out of it.  Promoting can be word of mouth, email, through email groups, Facebook, through Reallyreallyfree.org, or even old fashioned flyers around town.  As Mahatma Gandhi said, "You must be the change you want to see in the world."   Personally, I'd like to see people be less focused on stuff and more focused on each other, so that's what I'm working toward.  In other words, like I always tell the kids, "Share!"

Eliminating Food Waste

Waste not, want not, right?  According to research, the average family of 4 throws away 14% of their food purchases, or an estimated $590 worth of food a year!  I don't know who these people are, but I know I certainly don't have that kind of money (or even worse, the $786.67 it would be if you adjusted it for my family's size!) just to throw away.  In my house, darn little food goes to waste, so today, I'm going to share some tips on how to prevent a lot of this atrocious waste!

A pantry arranged so everything can be seen at once and everything is kept in its place

The first step is to make a list before you go to the grocery store of exactly what you need and make sure you really need it.  To figure out what you really need, figure out a meal plan for the week and look at what you have on hand to use in those meal plans before adding to your grocery list, so you only add the items you actually need.  This most easily done if your food storage areas are organized in such a way that you can see exactly what you have.  Organize your pantry area, so everything has a place and all labels are facing forward so you can see what you have at a glance.  For many things, like rice, flour, or cereal, I like to store them in airtight storage containers so I can see exactly how much I have left of that item.  Out of all the storage systems I've seen for this kind of thing, I've discovered I like the Lock & Lock brand square storage containers, since they stack nicely for easy organizing, have an extremely tight seal for freshness, and they come in a variety of sizes so you can use the size you need to maximize your space.

Keep an eye on when you need to restock things like sugar, flour, rice, and cereal by keeping them in clear storage containers.

When figuring out meal plans, you also want to take into consideration when things need to be used up.  For example, if you have fresh produce you bought the previous week, you will want to plan to use that up before eating something else.  Or, if you cooked up a chicken as talked about in a previous post, you'll want to make sure to use up that chicken before it goes bad.  Incorporate you leftovers into your meal plans as well, either by cooking up the leftovers into a new dish (like mentioned in the "Dealing with Leftovers" post) or having one day be a designated "leftovers night".

So now you have your shiny grocery shopping list in hand, ready to go shopping.  Before you go, eat.  Don't go grocery shopping hungry.  It makes it a lot harder to stick to your list.  And that is key:  stick to your list.  If it isn't on the list, don't buy it.  Period.  And double check your list before getting into the checkout line to make sure you got everything on the list.  It would be bad if you went to make one of your carefully thought out meals and discovered last minute that you were missing a key ingredient.  You may have to run out to the store last minute to get it, thereby spending more in gas and probably impulse buying at least a couple items, since you were at the store anyway.  If you discover you have problems sticking to your list, start calculating how much just the items on your list would be and just take enough cash to cover them to the store with you, leaving any other forms of payment at home, so you have to stay within your budget.

When you get home, rotate your stock.  If you've ever worked in any sort of food service or food retail business, you know what this term means, because it is crucial in that sort of business.  It is crucial at home too.  When you bring something new home, or have fresh leftovers, put them behind the older stuff on the shelf, so you use the older product up first.  This makes it much more likely that you will use everything before it is expired.  Do this in your pantry, freezer, refrigerator, and any other cabinets or shelves you might keep your food.

You also want to make sure you store your food for optimal freshness.  You probably already know to keep bananas on the counter and potatoes in a cool, dark place, but make sure you know how to keep everything you use, so it keeps as long as you need it to.  Things like snack crackers, cereal, and chips can also be kept a lot fresher depending on how you store them.  That's another reason I love those Lock & Lock storage containers--they keep things as fresh as when I initially open the package!  I actually tested this a couple weeks ago by just using a chip clip to close a bag of tortilla chips on one package and keeping another package stored in the container designated for tortilla chips (this wasn't actually on purpose; my husband opened a second bag of tortilla chips, not realizing there were already some in the storage container).  I then tasted both and was amazed at the difference.  The ones still in the bag (which was actually the more recent package) didn't really taste stale, but the taste and crispness paled in comparison to those in the storage container!  They may seem kind of pricey, but they are well worth the price in the long run, since they ultimately will save you a fortune in food freshness, and if you get them as gifts like I did, they are an especially good deal!

Opened packages of chips and snack crackers stay much fresher when sealed in a storage container

My Personal Cookbook

For years, I struggled with finding a way to organize my recipes.  This was made worse by the fact that I have a tendency to hoard recipes like I do books.  Despite having all these recipes around, I could rarely find the new recipes I wanted to try because they were always so scattered...and I often couldn't find recipes that we had already tried and liked because they had gotten mixed up with everything else.  For a while, I tried copying favorite recipes onto index cards in a little binder, then another time in a recipe box, but it was such a pain to copy the recipes into the correct format!

Finally, I realized I needed my own cookbook.  I found a large binder, about 3-4 inches thick that wasn't being used for anything.  I found some dividers and page protectors and put them in it.  I then filled the page protectors with the recipes, filed by recipe type, in alphabetical order by what I actually call them (which may or may not be the same as what the page actually says...that is an area for improvement, since it makes it harder for others to use, if anyone else actually ever used my cookbook!) that we liked as I found them. The dividers I found have pockets in them, so I put recipes we haven't tried yet that I'd like to try, sorted by category, just like the recipes that we have tried.  If I don't feel like photocopying a recipe from a cookbook, I can just put a page in the book that says the name of the recipe and the book and page it can be found on.

This system lets me keep all my recipes, regardless of the source in one convenient location.  It also lets me make important notes, such as who in the family likes it or doesn't like it and any variations or alterations that I've made to the original recipe.  Pictured here is a recipe I originally printed off the internet, but if you look, you can see that I've made a number of changes to it to suit the ingredients I typically have on hand and my personal taste.  Using a binder also gives me flexibility to add recipes or remove them as we make new discoveries or the family's tastes change.

One of the other bonuses of this system is that it is going to help me give the kids a meaningful gift as they move out of the house.  When they grow up and move out, I plan on making duplicates of this binder for each of them, so they can have "Mom's cooking" where ever they go in life.  That's a long way off, so I may need to improve the system more before then, but it is a way I hope to be able to maintain a connection to the kids forever.

Dealing with leftovers

For a long time, I hated leftovers.  There was never enough for everyone to have some another time and I strongly dislike preparing special meals for anyone that couldn't have some of the leftovers.  I'm not such a fan of eating the same thing day after day anyway.  I came up with a few ideas to manage leftovers though, so now we almost never have leftovers go to waste.

1) Send the leftovers as lunch:  This works best if there is someplace to reheat it, but even if there isn't, it may be possible to use a wide-mouth Thermos to keep something warm until lunchtime.  This is my favorite way to handle a single serving of a leftover meal.  It also works very well for larger portions of leftovers that freeze well.  I freeze individual servings in reusable freezer containers to be used as homemade microwave meals for my husband to take to work as needed.

2) Have one or two dinners a week be "leftover" night.  If there are a lot of leftovers over a few days, I'll set them up buffet style on the kitchen counter and let everyone pick out what they want on their plate.

3) Use components of previous meals to make a new different meal a different night.  For example, last night we had baked chicken, rice, corn, and carrots.  I cooked up a whole chicken to use over several meals and I made a lot of extra rice so one of those meals will be chicken fried rice (chicken recipes will be for a future post).  Another example is our dinner tonight--a couple nights ago, we had tacos and, since the taco meat isn't or family's favorite part of the taco, we usually have a lot of leftover taco meat.  Rather than having to splurge on taco shells twice for one week (or freezing the meat for next time we want tacos), I'll frequently make another recipe involving taco meat.  I have two such recipes right now, so we have options.  Tonight, I'm planning on serving "Mexican egg rolls".  They are neither truly Mexican (since I invented them and am not Mexican), nor are they probably truly egg rolls (what actually makes an egg roll an egg roll anyway?), but they use an egg roll wrapper and leftovers from taco night, so that's what I call them.  My oldest son is kind of a picky eater and doesn't care for any sort of egg roll, so when he's here, I use my other taco meat leftover recipe--soft taco casserole.  I really like using these "planned leftovers", since it cuts down considerably on prep times for homecooked meals for the family and makes it easier to consistently get good food on the table!

Since we are dealing with leftovers, all quantities in these recipes are approximate.  Adjust according to what you have available and/or taste.

MEXICAN EGG ROLLS

1/2 lb taco meat

8 oz cheddar cheese

1 onion, diced

1 green pepper, diced

1 pkg egg roll wrappers

water for sealing wrappers

vegetable oil for frying (optional)

Combine the first 4 ingredients in a medium mixing bowl.  Place 2 to 3 tbsp of the meat and cheese mixture into the center of an egg roll wrapper. Use a spoon, basting brush, or your clean finger to moisten the corners of the egg roll wrapper. Fold the bottom corner of the wrapper tightly over the mixture, then fold in the sides, then the top corner. Repeat with the rest of the egg roll wrappers.

Pour vegetable oil into a deep frying pan to a depth of 3 or 4 inches. Heat to 350 degrees (or until a wooden chopstick stuck into it boils almost immediately). Carefully place egg rolls into the hot oil and fry until golden brown. When removed from oil, let drain on paper towels.

For a healthier variation (that my family agrees doesn't taste nearly as good), lightly spray egg rolls with cooking spray, place on a baking sheet and bake at 425 degrees for 10-15 minutes.

SOFT TACO CASSEROLE

1/2-1 lb taco meat

5 tortillas (sized to fit casserole dish)
1 can refried beans
2 cups cheddar cheese
1 cup salsa or leftover tomatoes from taco night (or both)

 Layer half of the prepared taco meat in the bottom of a round casserole dish. Layer a tortilla, half the beans, a tortilla, half the cheese, a tortilla, the rest of the meat, a tortilla, the rest of the beans, a tortilla, and the rest of the cheese. Top with salsa and/or tomatoes. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the casserole is bubbly. Serve with sour cream, taco sauce, and/or lettuce.

My "Brain"

My planner, affectionately dubbed my "brain" by my oldest son since it holds all my thoughts, is sooooooo crucial in my life and my thriftiness that I think that would be the best place to start this blog.  I save a fortune by avoiding late fees, only buying (or otherwise acquiring things we actually need), remembering to get everything I need, not losing important papers by keeping them all in this one, neatly organized space.  I also eliminate a ton of clutter, since no papers have any business being anywhere other than my brain, so it saves a lot of sanity!  My organization system actually consists of several binders, so in essence, they are all part of my brain, but today I'll focus on the core binder--my daily planner--since that is the most important one.  I also have a binder for recipes, one for my garden, one for homeschooling lesson plans, and will be starting a family spirituality one soon, but those are topics for another day.

The binder itself is just a plain, old green 1, maybe 1 1/2, inch binder I found somewhere.  It may have been something leftover from my college days, an old job, or I may have gotten it with random other stuff from Freecycle at some point.  I honestly don't remember...and I really don't care.  It does the job and that's what's important.  Same thing with the dividers that separate the sections--they work so that's all that matter.  If I couldn't find actual dividers lying around, I would have cut manila folders in half, used cardstock, or even a few chopped up cereal boxes to divide the sections.  It doesn't have to be cute (although even the cereal box idea could be cute with the right embellishments!), it just has to work.

The first section of the binder is my calendar.  I printed month-at-a-glance calendars off the internet for the next 6 months or so, then I keep blank papers with a date written on top to serve as daily pages for about three months or so.  The month page goes right in front of the daily pages for that month.  I rarely use the month-at-a-glance part, since all the good stuff is on the daily pages, but it still nice to have when scheduling things, since I can see what specific times are available very quickly that way, instead of flipping between pages.  Behind the calendar pages, I have my oldest son's (the only child that actually goes to school!) school calender, so I can easily cross-reference it with my other pages as needed.  On the daily pages, under the date, I write all the information I need for that day.  On the left side, I include anything that just needs to be done sometime that day.  This includes due dates for library books, anything that would go on a daily to-do list, deadlines, or anything else like that.  On the right side of the page, I write anything that needs to be done at a specific time, whether it be an appointment for anyone in the family, a class, a playdate, or even a favorite television show that can't be missed (that last one is extremely rare in our family, but it could happen).  The to-do list itself consists of four parts in my book:  daily housework, such as dishes or laundry; special tasks such as cleaning tasks that happen weekly or less often or a special project of any kind (and now writing blog posts will be showing up in that area!); what I'm feeding people for dinner that day; and, since we homeschool, our school to-do list for that day. 

The second section is labeled "Goals" and includes things like a running to-do list, and information about projects I'd like to do sooner or later (like a page that lists projects I'd like to do someday).  The running to-do list includes anything that belongs on a daily to-do list at some point, but isn't going to happen soon enough to land it on a daily to-do list yet.  Right now, it includes things like doing our taxes, making bread, mixing up little bottles of homemade taco seasoning and cajun seasoning, making mass quantities of meatballs for freezing, filing a box of papers I discovered when we moved, and a bunch of random cleaning or organizing projects that I'll get around to...someday.

The third section is called "Special Data", but really, "Random Crap" would be a better title for it.  This is the most individual section of such a binder, since what sort of "special data" one person needs may vary a lot from what someone else would need.  Mine includes a brainstorming page for the book I'm working on about how to raise kids for free, things that I need to acquire when I can find the funds for them or can find them on Freecycle, songs that I'd like to download into my MP3 player when I find it (it is believed to be in one of the boxes in the garage that still aren't unpacked!), invention ideas (my husband's idea, but it still gets used!), gift ideas for various family members, books I'd like to read, upcoming book releases to watch out for at the library or to ask for as gifts in some cases, favorite authors to watch for new releases from, holiday ideas (I'm thinking of expanding this one into its own section), motivating thoughts and quotes (this page is actually blank.  lol  Maybe I should pull this one out, since it doesn't seem to be something I use!), birthdays and anniversaries, recipes for "bad guy go away" and "monster spray" essential oil blends to calm children that don't want to go to sleep in their own rooms at night, a church member directory, information about our vehicles, some account information (not the kind that would be devastating if the binder was lost or stolen though), a map of the neighborhood, and a brainstorming page for lawn/garden ideas so I don't have to take my garden binder with me everywhere.

The next section is "Food."  This includes a master meal list of all the meals I make, organized by type of entree (vegetarian, poultry, fish, ground meat, venison); a chart of seasonal availability of fruits and vegetables in my area; information about WIC including the brochure of what foods are allowed and what benefits I still have available for the month; and a few copies of a master grocery list that includes everything I might want to buy, organized by location in our usual grocery store, so I can just check off things as I need them.  If I just had a few recipes I wanted to try, I'd include them in here as well, but since I always have a huge stack of them (I'm almost as addicted to recipes as I am books!), they go in my recipe binder instead.  Eventually, I'd like to find a clear zippered pouch that could go in this section to hold coupons as well.  Right now, my coupons are clipped together in the front pocket of my binder.

The next section is "Housekeeping Helps." This section tends to be the most static in my book.  Basically, I went through each room of my house, thought of absolutely every cleaning task I might ever need to do and figured out how often I needed to do it.  Then I made a page for "daily chores", "weekly chores", "monthly chores", and "semi-annual" chores.  I can refer back to this section any time I need to in order to help make my daily to-do lists.  This section is also a good place to keep things like thrifty cleaner recipes or cleaning tips.

The final section is "Homeschooling Ideas."  Obviously, not everyone is even going to need this section, but since it is a lot cheaper to homeschool kids than send them to school (REALLY!), as well as being better for the kid in the vast majority of cases, I hope more people will start to need it as this blog goes on.  In this section, I have things like report cards I've put together (to show relatives how they a progressing...or to get free tokens at Chuck E. Cheese), blank report cards, a list of webpages to go to in order to find nifty worksheets, placement tests for any curriculum that I'm considering, book lists, flyers about area homeschool events, and a wish list of things I'd like to get for the kids' for their education.

I also keep a few things in the front and back pockets of the binder, although I really have to watch these parts or they become a real kipple magnet!  As I already mentioned, I keep coupons in the front pocket, but I also keep any forms I need to fill out and return somewhere (without holes punched in them) in there, in order of when they need to be done.  In the back pocket, I currently keep my mailing label pages, but once I get ones gone in the parts I want to punch holes in, I'll be holey punching those and putting them in the "Special Data" section to get them out of the way.

That's it.  That's my main brain.  It keeps me pretty organized, since I only have to handle any papers that come into the house once, in order to file the information somewhere, then I can permanently dispose of the paper itself.  I don't know how often this thing has saved my sanity in the roughly six months I've been using it!