Menu Plan for the Week of March 14

 

Monday: grilled chicken with veggies

Tuesday: turkey tenderloin with veggies

Wednesday: chicken fajitas without tortillas

Thursday: turkey tenderloin with veggies

Friday: more chicken and veggies

Saturday: baked fish with veggies

Sunday: chicken with veggies

 

Veggies that I have to use this week include: spring salad mix with spinach, green beans, onions, peppers, mushrooms, broccoli and cauliflower, carrots

 

This post is linked to Menu Planning Mondays.

Oh How We Love Our Timer!

One of the best purchases I have ever made is my timer. I've always had one for cooking and baking, but a couple of years I ago I found Flylady from an Elizabeth George book and I really liked her idea of doing anything for 15 minutes and using a timer. I believe I purchased mine for $5-6 at Wal-Mart, but I have also purchased them for $1 at Dollar Tree. Those are particularly great for school, where I use it to time my students on how many words they can read correctly in one minute. We also use them to see how many basic math fact problems they can do in one minute. And then there is the one minute "swish and spit" fluoride rinse! I have even given my kids a timer.
Some other useful ways that we use timers:

• Let your children set a timer to make sure they read long enough each night (my daughter has 20 minutes of reading that she needs to do each evening and a timer helps ensure that she reads long enough.)
• Set it for time-outs.
• Give your children a time-limit on showers or baths and use the timer to get them use to that amount of time.
• Set it to let your children know how much time they have until you leave the house each morning. (That one has been a life-saver recently!!)
• Set it for 5 minutes and let your children see how many toys or belongings they can put away.

As you can see-WE LOVE TIMERS!! They are so multi-purpose. If you don't have one it is one of the best purchases I have ever made. It really helps my time-management skills. If you want to know more about using timers definitely check out Flylady.

A Little Catch-Up

 

 

Well, except for Sunday Morning Thoughts and a menu plan I have been kinda MIA around the blogosphere. I really like it here, but the real world of being a married single parent keeps calling my name. Sometimes it gets a little overwhelming! I have a newfound admiration for single parents who do it all the time or for longer stretches than I am going to do it.

Anyhoo…here is what has been going on in the Brooks household for the past few days…chores, Netflix, an impromptu trip to the new playground down the road with Nana and Papaw and cousins, more Netflix, a trip to the shoe store for dd7 and ds6, school, homework, more chores, writing letters, phone calls from my husband…oh yeah—almost forgot the furnace trouble. Yes, my husband goes out of town and we run out of fuel for our furnace!!! Until Friday I had NEVER dealt with the oil company except to pay our bill one time several years ago. My husband usually orders fuel, pays for it, and calls the repair man if we need maintenance. Not this time…the repair man left a few hours ago. It is so nice to know that you have heat even when it is a little warmer outside than usual. Until today the Edenpure and a couple space heaters filled in. They are just right in cool weather—not COLD weather!

I had always considered myself a fairly independent gal, but now I am understanding the meaning of independent! I guess during this next few months there will be lots more life experiences that I have never had besides dealing with the oil company!!

I Joined "A Bowl Full of Lemons" Weekly Challenges!

I am getting my house clean and organized...OK, I started on this a few weeks ago, but now my husband isn't home (since he is at basic training), so the kiddos and I are going to get serious. Wouldn't it be cool if he came home to a (almost) different house! I think so.
I've got a bunch of organizing bins, drawer organizers, and lots of ideas...now I just need more money--lol!

This Is The Way We Do Our Chores…

  

We have tried so many systems for chores in our home (most of them involving some sort of chart). The system that we currently use is very simple (once it is started). A while back I found a notepad at Target in the dollar section that had an entire week blocked out. It also had a convenient magnet on the back so that it hangs nicely on the front of my fridge. I LOVE the dollar section at Target (that’s where I got my grocery list notepad hanging at the bottom of this picture).

Since I have three children I tear off three pages. I write each child’s name at the top of their sheet. Then I just plug in different chores that need to be done around the house either that they like to do or that they are able to do. Some chores (like cleaning their bathroom counter and sink) need to be done almost daily. Others need to be done just a few times. Some chores I am teaching them to do properly so they will not be done each day (like emptying the dishwasher and putting the dishes away without breaking them ). We also like to assign at least one helper for the day. That child will help either my husband or myself do anything extra that needs to be done. For example, all of our children can get clothes out of the dryer, put clothes into the dryer, or fold clothes and put them away. We found out that it doesn’t work to put this down as a chore for us, so we just have the helpers do this on their helper days.

On Sundays we do not have time for chores while we are going to church  and having family time and resting, so we just have the kids help as needed. Usually this just means get clothes and backpacks ready for school the next day or take clothes out of the dryer or pick up 5 toys or something quick.
Again, as in the previous post, we want our children to be self-sufficient adults. I honestly did not know how to wash clothes until I was married; my husband taught me (no kidding!). I want my children to have that skill way before marriage.
Here is a list of the current chores that our kids do (a few are not on the charts):

• clean baseboards (with a damp cleaning rag)
• vacuum
• clean the bathroom sink and counter
• swish out the toilet (only our oldest daughter and only with gloves and “green” toilet cleaner)
• empty the dishwasher
• sweep bathrooms
• sweep kitchen
• clean the kitchen table
• wipe down kitchen counters
• empty the bathroom trash into the main trash can
• gather dirty laundry throughout the house and take to laundry room
• put clothes in the dryer and turn it on
• Our oldest daughter is learning to sort laundry and put it in the washer
• fold towels and put them away
• fold and hang up their clothes and put them away
• make their beds
• put groceries away after a trip to the store
• help their daddy do yard work
• water the two living plants that we still have in the house