Enter Motivated Moms.  I’ve used this calendar for several years now. I have at times fallen off the motivated wagon but Motivated Moms always makes it easy to jump right back on.  Reasons why I love this calendar:

• It has a daily list of chores.  Things such as laundry, making beds, feeding pets, and emptying trash cans.  Sure this is stuff that we do everyday but it feels good to check something off the list, and it helps remind me to get the laundry going early or the dishes.  They are also chores that I can assign to a child.  My 3 year old empties the bathroom trash cans.  He can also change kitchen towels.  The girls can help make beds.  Everybody makes the mess so everybody should be accountable for cleaning up.
• It includes things that I would never think of doing regularly.  Things like dusting the dining room light fixture or washing the windows in one room.  It gives you easy tasks that you can do quickly.  Just the other day it said “clean living room glass”.  I have no mirrors so I took the opportunity to wash the three windows in the living room.  It took me 30 minutes of time and it looks so nice.  And I know that the other rooms will come up eventually.
• It reminds me to set aside time to plan ahead for birthdays the next month.  It also reminds me to do those household chores like cleaning the dryer vent and changing batteries in the smoke detector.
• And most important of all, you are never behind.  Motivated Moms was written by a homeschooling mom.  She understands that there are days where you are “grounded” on the couch nursing a baby. Or there are days when the stomach virus has turned the house upside down.  Or days when you go out and end up staying out all day.  No sweat!  Just skip that day and pick up the next.  You aren’t “behind” with this cleaning schedule.  Promise!

There are many styles of the calendar to choose from.  I choose the page per day with bible scripture.  I’m able to scribble notes on it as needed, write in appointment reminders, write in what I’m planning for dinner, and anything else I shouldn’t forget.  I don’t worry about using a page of paper per day because at the end of the day I toss it in the drawer with the coloring books and it gets used again for decorating before being recycled.  I print one page per day.  You may want the half size to fit in a Franklin style planner.

Fairy Smoothies

1 to 2 cups of frozen berries (strawberries, rasberries, blueberries, blackberries, etc)

1 cup of plain yogurt

2 cups Silk Vanilla Almond Milk

2 handfuls of fresh baby spinach

1 banana

I layer the ingredients in my Ninja blender starting with 1 cup of berries, yogurt, spinach, and the banana.  I pour the almond milk over the top.  I start blending on speed 1 to get it going and then kick it up to 2 briefly and then 3 to really liquefy the spinach.  When it’s all blended together you’ll have a thick, creamy smoothie that you can’t even see the spinach in.  Makes about 4 cups.

The Original Chex Party Mix

3 cups Corn Chex® cereal
3 cups Rice Chex® cereal
3 cups Wheat Chex® cereal
1 cup mixed nuts
1 cup bite-size pretzels
1 cup garlic-flavor bite-size bagel chips or regular-size bagel chips, broken into 1-inch pieces
6 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons seasoned salt
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder

Oven Directions Heat oven to 250°F. In large bowl, mix cereals, nuts, pretzels and bagel chips; set aside. In ungreased large roasting pan, melt butter in oven. Stir in seasonings. Gradually stir in cereal mixture until evenly coated. Bake 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Spread on paper towels to cool, about 15 minutes. Store in airtight container.

While there today, I also picked up Little House on the Prairie.  I’ve been encouraging our first Princess to read it, but she is not the most enthusiastic reader and the thickness of the book intimidates her.  I don’t remember reading the books when I was younger so I figured it would be a good read aloud book.  I do however remember the TV series with Michael Landon as I’m sure many of my peers do as well.  This will be an awesome book to map out the United States.  And I’m thinking a game of Oregon Trail might be in order.  :)

Tonight we read chapter one, where they pack up their little cabin and head west.  We can relate to the talk of Kansas going on forever and ever as we’ve driven through Kansas – flat land as far as the eye can see!  I stopped because Prince K was asleep and Prince S was wanting to nurse and go to sleep.  I encouraged Princess M to read chapter two to Princess C.  I figured knowing that she didn’t have to read the entire book by herself might ease her into such a long book.  She seemed apprehensive when I closed their door so we will see what happened in the morning.

This sourdough sandwich bread from Whole Foods is awesome.  Recently, they were on sale so I wanted to buy multiple loaves knowing that we had company coming over and it makes a really great sandwich or panini. The bakery case was empty so I asked the lady in the bakery if she had more coming.  She explained to me that they arrive at the store par baked and frozen.  So then the store finishes baking and puts them out in the cases.  I told her I wanted about 4 of them and she gladly retrieved them for me, packaged in tie up plastic bags.  She also commented on how smart it was to buy multiple loaves while they are on sale and throw them in the freezer.  I agree!

This is a great way to save money at Whole Foods.  It is possible to eat whole, natural, foods on a small budget!  You just have to plan plan plan ahead!

As each child gets older, there is an expectation of a little bit of independence in their studies. My oldest does her phonics lesson on the computer, and she can go in and start the program and knows what I expect her to accomplish each day. In fact, some days while I’m making breakfast she asks me if she can get to work on that. They know that quick, efficient work will ultimately lead to more free time to explore and play as they choose.

The other added bonus is that now the older children are helping teach the younger children. Now, I’m definitely not sending them off to cover an entire lesson, but just like Daddy can be a better science teacher than Mommy, an older sibling might have a different perspective and be able to help her sibling understand the concepts. Just this morning my oldest helped her sister with some addition problems. And of course, since my 5 year old thinks that her older sibling is the best thing since sliced bread, she was willing to listen and accept the advice her sister had. And of course, those first borns really like feeling important.

But we all like eating out.  And everyone loves a good egg mcmuffin now and then, so I tried to recreate them at home.  The problem turned out to be the egg.  How do you get the perfect shaped egg to sit on top of your english muffin?  So I bought a tiny skillet like this. For years I would see those in the store and say “who buys those silly little kitchen gadgets?”  Well, as it turns out… me.  And the funny thing is, I LOVE this skillet!  It’s the perfect size for lots of things like melting butter to go on top of popcorn. And it makes the perfect size egg to go on top of your english muffin.

So after talking with my husband who said that we just needed to expect it and maybe I should shop for meals daily (ack!  not only does that make me shudder at the thought of going to the grocery store everyday with all of our children, it is most definitely not budget friendly!)  I came up with the idea of the snack basket.  Each morning I put out a new basket full of snacks on the dining room table.  They are welcome to eat anything in the snack basket that they desire during the day, but when the basket it’s empty – that’s it.  No more snacks.  So far I haven’t had anybody whining at 3pm because they’ve eaten all the snacks.  Somehow knowing how much they all have keeps them from binging.  Also they have been pretty good about making sure not to eat everything of one thing except the cookies.  My son has a cookie problem.   The contents of the basket are subject to change.  There is healthy in there was well as “treat” foods.  Currently in this basket there are 3 PB&J oatmeal cookies (found at the bread thrift store for an excellent price!), 3 apples, 6 individual portions of peanut butter, 3 individually packaged pieces of 9 grain bread, 3 individually packaged slices of cranberry cinnamon swirl bread, & 3 portions of colby jack cheese, and 3 little baggies of stick pretzels.  Now some might think “she’s leaving CHEESE on the table all day?” I reassure you that these were gone first thing.  Also, included in the basket is 3 IKEA kids knives and 3 IKEA kids spoons.  The reason is that you need a little knife for the PB to put on the bread.  And you also need spoons to eat the PB out of the little cups (a trick my husband taught them).  The “re-user” in me does cringe a bit at the packaging waste, but I thought it the best way to keep everything fresh (no hard bread) as well as making them realize how much one portion is.  And the cost of the baggies/cups still make it a savings over the entire fridge binging they were doing.  I also set out 3 IKEA cups on the table and they can fill those with water from the fridge door as often as they please.

And so far it has worked!  I think their snacking has actually been cut down a bit which is good because to much snacking is just not good.  They have control over what they are snacking on and when they are snacking.  I have a bit more control over the contents of the kitchen and freedom to meal plan again.  It’s something we all feel good about and they eagerly look forward to what is in the basket each morning.

About a week ago, a new magazine showed up.  This time National Geographic Kids.  And this time it had Kevin’s name on it.  We were up early one morning starting our school work and Kevin was asking for something to do. So I dug out his magazine and he sat for a good 10 minutes (which is like an hour or more in Kevin-time) looking through the pictures, “reading”, and telling me all the sounds the animals make.  Definitely a hit!