Back to School: Week 3 Routine

During the summer we go to bed at 10pm, wake up at 8:15 am.  Sometimes we wear our pjs all day and the pool counts as bath time.  Not anymore.  This week back to school routine is in full effect.

Our routine looks like this:

                 Kids                                                                      Me

Our Morning: 
6:00                                                                          Wake up and
                                                                                 HAVE COFFEE!!!!
                                                                                  get dressed
6:30 Wake up and get dressed                     Make breakfast and lunch
7:00 Eat breakfast and pack lunches         Pack my work bag
7:30 Off to school                                              Off to work


Our Afternoon:
2:00                                                                         Leave work to pick up kiddos
2:30 Give mommy a big hug                           Pick up kids
2:35 Start bickering with sibling in the back seat car  Try not to stop car and let kids walk home
2:45  Snack                                                             Go through school folders and put in a load of laundry
3:00  Start HW                                                     Work on Blog ( help w/ HW)
4:00  Play/Read/Whatever                                  Start dinner and put laundry in dryer
4:30 Dad is home, the kids cheers!!!                        

4:35 All heck breaks loose, kids start bickering AGAIN!     I go hide in my room and let dad deal with it 

5:00 Alex sets table                                                   Dinner is ready

5-7:00 Family time.  This changes once sports start.

7:00 Bath time and Chores                                    Fold laundry
8:00 Family Time
8:30 Bedtime/Read/Study                                     Scrapbooking
8:45                                                                                Cleaning Chores
10:00                                                                              Bedtime!!!

Wow, that looks really good written down.  This off course changes as the year goes on. Eventually, Josh will start basketball, Alex will start gymnastics, Jack usually coaches, and I teach stamping classes once or twice a week.  It is good to have a basic routine and more importantly expectations.   Our routine is not written in stone and is pretty fluid, but our basic needs are laid out and taken care of :)

Spring Cleaning 101: Car Chaos

I love to clean.  Yes I know that sounds weird but I do enjoy my clean and organized house.  I especially look forward to spring cleaning.  My house never looks as good as it does on a bright sunny day with the smell of Pine-Sol in the air. 

I have a list for everything and everything on a list, and the first thing on my spring cleaning list is my car.  

With the weather being crazy this time of year; one day it's snowing and raining, the next its bright and sunny, my kids and I tend to have impromptu trips to the park.  My kids love these trips but the very first time we did it I learned we can't just stop at the park we have to be prepared. So every spring I get my car "park" ready.

 I start be emptying and vacuuming the car. I like a clean interior and after a winter of not being able to clean the car in the driveway, it gets pretty gross in there.  The kids are in charge of decluttering their sides. The rule is "If it is still there when I vacuum it is going in the trash".  The kids hate this part but I especially love when my kids clean their side of the car and find things they have been looking for all winter.  We find toys, books, socks and shoes (yes SOCKS and SHOES, I am not even sure how that happens) 

My super cute spotted bag, and not so cute black bag

Once my car is nice and clean, I refill the trunk.  I know that sounds weird but my trunk is separated into zones: shopping and play.

 

In my super cute spotted bag I keep all the reusable and thermal bags we use for grocery shopping.  I clean out the bags and throw out any that have wholes in them.  I also only keep ten bags. Honestly, if I didn't put a limit on how many bags I have I would buy I new bag every time I went to store and that just defeats the whole purpose of reusable bags.

Super cute First Aid kit in the not so cute black bag.

In the not so cute black bag I keep our very important First Aid kit. The trips to the park can get dangerous with fearless a 8 and 10 year old.
The First Aid kit is in a super kit bag :).  The bag is actually one of those fold out cosmetics cases, but I don't wear that much make-up (just blush, mascara and chapstick) so in the interest of being green I repurposed the bag.

This bag is the perfect size to fit a First Aid kit.  I take this time to clean out the kit and replace anything that has been used or expired.

The other thing I have is a clean up kit.  This is also super handy to have when they eat or make a mess.  The park doesn't always have bathrooms that should be used by humans so I have them clean their hands in the car. 

And last but most importantly we have a basketball, jump rope and blanket in the car.  The blanket is for me to sit and watch my little angels as they go have fun.  

My car is ready for spring!  Now we just need nice weather.

I linked in at what-we-accomplished-wednesday #9l 
http://myuncommonsliceofsuburbia.com/tuesdays-treasures-128/and
http://www.abowlfulloflemons.net

Bathroom Chaos: Waste Not, Want Not

Sometimes it's the little things that make take the longest time to decide.

In my case it was the waste basket in the downstairs bathroom.  

 We are in the process of redoing the downstairs bathroom. We have new walls, tiles, tub, commode, my dream pedestal sink (yes, the sink makes me smile) 

 Well new everything, EXCEPT for the wire basket that is just WAY too big for the space. I had to tuck it under the sink ( yes, under my precious baby) because it was the only place it would fit. Worse is the fact that because of where it is, you are forced to stare at it while you did your business (sorry that's as delicate as I can put)  It just was not cool.  (Yes, NO WIRE BASKETS! was constantly screaming in my head)

 Don't get me wrong, I like the wastebasket, just not in this space.  For this bathroom, I knew I wanted something smaller and white.  So of to Amazon.com and I an 10 minutes later found the waste basket of my dreams. 

( I know I have a problem :)

Isn't it cute. It's small, it's white and fits nicely NEXT to the commode.  It's not screaming "Look garbage!"and best of all I don't have to look at the trash anymore !!! 

My new view is nice and garbage free.

What happened to the wire basket, you ask?  It has found a new home in the bigger upstairs bathroom. 

Responsibilty Chart

This post is an extension to a previous  Getting Organized post. 

Thank you to Leisel for asking to see more about our Responsibility chart. She wrote:

Leisel

I'm interested in your responsibility chart. I'd love to see a post on that.

In the previous post I showed how I try to keep my family organized everyday. With four people living in one house heading in all directions, we need to know who has to be where and doing what.  We are lucky because we have two children, one boy one girl; so we have man to man to defense in our house :)

So here it is. This is what our fridge looks like:

We don't have a fancy stainless steel fridge so I don't mind putting stuff on it.

Our responsibility chart is the most important chart in the house. I found the chart at Target .  I chose this chart because I love that the first column is for things we do everyday, and I don't have to write it over and over again.

The everyday chores are written in wet wipe marker, so that I don't have to rewrite it every week.

On this chart I put everything that is going on for the week, ie, school, sports, classes, etc.  

It's a slow week.
 I write the weekly things in dry erase marker so that it is easier to erase and change.

This is a usually a jumping off point for the family.  We keep track of four main things on this chart:

1. School-  My children's school has a website where I can see there homework, test dates and projects.  I go there on Mondays a fill out the chart so the kids know what subjects they have to study for during the week. 

2. Sports- My children play basketball and my hubby coaches both teams so this where we keep track of games and practices.

3. Work- We put any meetings or classes on this list too.  This helps me know when hubby will be late from work.  I teach stamping/scrapbooking classes from my home, so this gives my husband warning what days the house will be full of women scrapbooking.

4. Family-  This is also where I post any plans we have for the weekend.

The chart is great because it keeps everyone in the know.

New Year's Resolution Time: Get Organized

An organized mind means an organized life.

1. I start my year with a brand new planner. It's a sickness really. I scour the ends of the earth looking for the one that will work for me this year. (somehow it's previous planners fault that I can't keep it together :) )
A planner can be paper and pen or digital. Right now I have a paper one but I am looking into getting a digital one for my my iPad, more on that later.

Here is the one I found at Staples.:

It is Martha Stewart brand and it's a little pricy but well worth it, so far ;)



2. I create a comand center, actually I have two; one in the kitchen and one in the office/craftroom upstairs.

This is the command center in the kitchen.

I write everything the family needs to know here. I put chores, sports, test, project due dates, dinner menu, etc...   There is no reason why anyone should not know what is going on.



The command center in office/craft room looks like this:

This is the REAL command center. This is where I do ALL of the planning then transfer it downstairs as needed. Here everything is color coded and on post its. The calendar has BIG grids to fit multiple things in one day. I love my zone. It makes me very happy.



I hope this helps you create your own command center or improve on the one you have.

Posted with Blogsy

Lunch Time!!

One of the most chaotic times in our house can be packing for lunch.  It can become a long stream of "Where is the this? " "I can't find that."  I have a few tricks I have developed over the years of making and packing lunches.  I can get my 2 school age children( grades 4 and 2) and myself out the door in 30 minutes. Yes, 30 minutes from wake up to out the door.  Yes, they eat breakfast :) Yes, they pack their own lunch.

It's all about organizing the chaos :)

First, we have stations.  This is one of the most important parts of our house.  Here is where I corral the morning and afternoon chaos. Most importantly, this is where they keep their lunch boxes.  No more of the   "I can't find my lunch box", which, yes, happened in this house.

Each chair is labeled.  They would fight over which chair belonged to whom.  I found these magnet letters at Target for $1.  Those $2 are worth a million, let me tell you :)

After school they are responsible for cleaning out their lunch box.  If there is anything they didn't have time to eat, they put it away to use at another time. (unless it is something that shouldn't be out all day, for example, cheese sticks)

A little planning goes a long way to making lunch time packing easier.  We usually grocery shop Saturday or Sunday and I let the kids pick a fruit and veggie that they want to take to school for snack. I buy 5 of what every they pick so they have enough for the week.  Anything that comes in big bags is portion out when I get home, for example, baby carrots.  If it has to be cut, I cut it up and portion it out too, for example, celery. I  have a bin in the fridge where I put it all.

Here is the bin when I am finished:

This week the options were baby carrots, plums, apricots, grape tomatoes, and cheese sticks.

Another bin I have in the fridge is the sandwich bin.

I am looking for mayo packets to add to this bin.  The mayo jar doesn't fit :(

Here I keep everything the kids, my husband and I will need to make a sandwich. Here is where I put the cold cuts, cheese, wraps, etc... It is great to just take out the bin and have everything at our finger tips. 


I also portion out "dry food" like gold fish, cookies, crackers, cheerios, etc...  and we purchase some pre-packaged snacks as well.

I keep these bins in a cabinet away from the pantry.  This keeps my hungry monsters from eating their school snacks at home :)

The ritz packs are mine, I LOVE them :)

We do have leftovers whenever possible.  So we have a station for that too :)

That is my lunch box on the right.  I don't have a chair :(

This basket has everything you need to pack your leftovers.  We have thermoses for hot food and containers for cold food.

Here is where I keep the color coded containers.  We each have a color and it is easy to tell who did not bring their container back.  I also keep the water bottles in here.  Keeping the bottles in one place is more for around the house use.  They were to high before and the kids couldn't reach them.


I hope this inspires you to organize your lunch time chaos.  I am going to go eat lunch now :)