HOW TO

Too many people have asked this question via email lately to ignore it. I want to share my tips and tricks for success in the home, which ultimately leads to a great feeling of satisfaction in being a "Stay At Home Mom." Feeling successful at getting it all done leads to satisfaction, but having a plan is 90% of the battle. I challenge you to make a plan and stick to it for one week. You will be thrilled with how smooth things run, how nice it is to have the paper thinking for you and just glance and know what you need to do/cook/etc.

1. I have 3 lil spiral notebooks labeled

• Schedule
• Budget
• Meals

I will start with my Schedule Book-p.1 is the WEEKLY MASTER CLEANING LIST.

Monday-wash cloth dipes/mop/6 loads laundary(yeah I still have the teeny old washer and dryer.)

Tuesday-Wash Kennas Laundary(I do baby laundary seperate til around 8 months old??)/wash cloth dipes/5 loads laundary/clean whol kitchen(microwave, walls, stove, fridge)

Wednesday-5-7 loads of laundary/deep clean living room(vacuum under couch coushins and under couches, wash walls and clean drapes if needed!)

Thursday-cloth dipes/ 5 loads of laundary/bedroom cleaning day***kids clean theirs, I clean mine/mop

Friday-Kenna laundary/5 loads laundary/deep clean bathroom/go get car cleaned out and vacuumed

Saturday-clean all windows and mirrors in house, Strip everyones beds and wash/cloth diapers/prepare the crockpot or pan full of something for Sunday nights dinner so I dont have to cook on the Sabbath.

Sunday-keep the Sabbath and go to church. Family Home Evenings.

Everyday I also homeschool and do a regular clean up at 4pm before dinner. My kids each have a chore

Kayla picks up all the laundary in the house and seperates it in our laundary sorter in the garage

Wyatt picks up all trash and throws it away

Everett picks up all dishes/toys laying around

Tanner cleans up everyones shoes and throws them in the shoe basket by the front door.

I vacuum and do dishes and fold laundary thats left from the day.

Dinner is serve promptly at 5 and we say a prayer each night and eat together. No TV or computer on during dinner.

2. P.2 of my schedule notebook has my monday schedule broken down to include everyone up and dressed, my workout, homeschooling, chore time and whatnot. Page 3 is Tuesdays plans, 4 is wednesdays and so on. So any day of the week, I can flip open to the day and have a general idea of my daily chores I want done that day and what stuff we do for homeschooling that day.

3. Lastly I have a page with a daily broken down schedule that is very general but a very good guideline for how our day is run each day.

• Budget- I have a notebook labeled budget. I fill it up with all our paychecks each 2 weeks. I write down what Nate will be paid and then I subtract all the bills. I give myself a loose grocery/living expense/gas budget and subtract that and whatever is left goes to paying off our car to get out of debt. I do this every 2 weeks and also if we get any extra money I put it in there so I can always look back and see what went where. I keep a register too, but this is my master budget book because I am add/subtract/scribble/erase and change things in it.


• Meals- I have P. 1 with

Monday-Italian

Tuesday-Mexican

Wednesday-Simple, throw it together

Thursday-American

Friday-Chinese

Saturday-Pizza or take out or steak

Sunday-Crockpot for after church

below this I have LUNCHES

Monday-Betty Crocker homebakes meal

Tuesday-Mac and Cheese

Wednesday-PBJ sandwiches

Thursday-Kids frozen meal(they love this day and I plan my gorcery trips every 2 weeks and I buy 8(1 for each child each week) frozen kid meals just for thursdays.

Friday-Kids frozen biscuit pizzas(I tkae pilbury biscuits and stretch them and then toss preggo on them and cheese, bake at 375 for 10 minutes and wala!

Sat- spaghetti and garlic bread or some other pasta.

Sun- hotdog biscuits and fries and peaches.

I bake snacks for the week on Saturdays. I just bake all I want and freeze it all. So page 2 is the snacks I will be planning for the next two weeks. I write them down so I know what ingrediants I will need from the grocery store.

Page 3 is the nexxt week and what meals we will be eating. Its planned based off Monday is Italian so maybe pizza, etc. Then the next page has the meals all planned for the following week. I use those 2 weeks worth of meals and baking to write out my grocery list.

THIS is how I stay sane and organized. I write all my appts on the calender and have lots of fun in between what seems really rigid isnt and is just part of a completely natural routine now in our home. Keeps everything running smoothly with so many little ones! Off to hang my dipes on the line to dry! (I line dry them when its sunny like today!) I recently heard and loved this, "Clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy!"