|
I like to keep things in my life simple. I
try to keep my home and my schedule in order. By keeping
things organized we have more time to spend with our family making
memories. Here are a few
of my solutions that help me do this.
New
Solutions Added
Food/Kitchen: Pop Up
Pancakes (09/04/08)
I found a recipe for pop up pancakes (also known as German Pancakes) on
this blog
http://www.makeandtakes.com/. I made them for my kids and they
devoured them in a matter of minutes and begged to make them again soon.
Since then we've made them for breakfast, lunch, and dessert. They
taste a little like crepes and french toast combined. The batter
pops up in the oven. You can see in the photo below how they look
when they come out of the oven. You can top them with anything you
want. Our favorites are syrup with powdered sugar and fruit with
whipped cream or powdered sugar. You could also top them with
chocolate or honey or anything else that sounds good to you. You
can make them in any kind of pan, but muffins are fun. We love
them and they are super easy to make. The recipe I saw was good
but I added a little vanilla and sugar and now the recipe tastes great!
Pop Up Pancakes 1 cup milk
1 cup flour
6 eggs
1/4 cup melted butter
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
dash salt Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Grease 24 muffin cups
Mix all ingredients in a blender then pour into muffin cups
Bake 15 minutes
Food/Kitchen: Muffin Tin
Meals (09/04/08)
I read about "Muffin Tin Mondays" on the blog
http://sycamorestirrings.blogspot.com. Each Monday this woman
(and several moms who have joined the trend) serves her children lunch
from a muffin tin. I tried it and my kids love it! I use a
mini muffin tin that holds a dozen muffins. In each spot I put a
different food. In the above photo I have food like peanut butter,
crackers, ham, green peppers, carrots, spinach leaves, cheese, raisons
etc. I also took a cookie cutter and cut a butterfly out of bread.
My kids got to decorate their butterfly and then eat it. They
loved it so much I bought more cookie cutters. We now have a
circle they can make a face from, a girl, a boy, and a bear (build a
bear!). They love it and I do too because I don't have to cook
anything. I just toss in different things from the cabinet and
fridge.
LDS: Family Home Evening (06/08)
One of my favorite time savers are fully prepared
Family Home Evening kits. I have participated in several swaps
where everyone prepares multiple copies of the same Family Home Evening
and then we exchange them. We go home with several different
fully prepared Family Home Evenings. The kits we exchange are
complete lessons with visual aids, stories, games and activities.
They are great because when Monday rolls around all I have to do is grab
a kit and read over it quickly. The above photo is a Family Home
Evening I received in the last swap I participated in. It's nice
because I have so many great lessons now. It's a lot easier to
come up with one creative lesson and swap with others, than to come up
with several on my own. Since I have started swapping kits we have
had Family Home Evening almost every Monday night. Because the
lessons are so creative my kids love them. I have hosted several
swaps as
Home, Family, and Personal Enrichment activities. I've also
joined a few online swaps where we have mailed them.
Here is a copy of my swap rules and a sample lesson
that you can download.
FHE Swap Rules
FHE
Lesson Prayer
Children: Puppet Theatre (04/14/08)
For Christmas I made my kids a puppet theatre. I
saw several very expensive versions in catalogs and decided to make one
myself. I bought inexpensive fabric and sewed it together like a
curtain. You do not have to be good at sewing to make this.
Believe me because I am not a good sewer! All you need to do is
sew a straight line. Fold the fabric over at the top and sew two
straight lines where a curtain rod can fit through. Fold the
bottom up and sew a straight line for the hem. Use an adjustable
spring curtain rod and it will fit in any doorway.
Food/Kitchen: Zip'n Steam
Meals (04/14/08)
I finally tried these Zip'n Steam bags and love them! All you do
is throw your food in your bag and microwave. In a matter of
minutes you have a great steamed healthy meal ready to eat. We
like them because we can each have our own individual choice of what we
want to eat. We throw in either a frozen chicken breast or frozen
fish fillet and then our choice of veggies like broccoli, zucchini,
carrots, potatoes, etc. Then we throw in our choice of spices like
garlic and herb Mrs. Dash mix or dry ranch dressing powder etc.
Then we microwave them. The bags even have the microwave time on
them. The best part is there's easy clean up-just throw the bag in
the trash. The kids love it too because they get to pick what they
want to eat and can help make it. I love it because it's quick,
easy, and healthy.
Children: Waitress Kit (03/11/08)
For my daughter's birthday this year I made her a
waitress kit. It was very inexpensive and she loves it! Most
of the items in the kit we already had at home. All I had to do
was buy a few items at the dollar store and make her menus which cost
less than $5! I gathered the apron and fake food that we already
had. I made her a menu with words and pictures of the food in the
kit. I put the pictures on so her little brother can play too.
I also put prices for each food item so she can learn about money.
I made a smaller version of the menu that she can use to take our order
on. I laminated them both and gave her a dry erase marker to use
on the order card. I purchased fake money from the dollar store
and the tote that the kit is kept in. The lid of the tote doubles
as the serving tray.
Here's a copy of the menu and order pad. They
are both two sided.
Waitress
Kit
Holiday Ideas: Christmas Tree Skirt
(12/05/07)
I thought I'd share my easy Christmas tree skirt idea.
I found this round tablecloth on clearance one year after Christmas.
I cut a circle in the center and now use it as my tree skirt. See
the diagram below and cut along the red line. You could sew the
cut edges but I didn't. I also purchased a rectangle tablecloth
that I sewed into two table runners to match. Very easy!
Photos/Memories: Family Journal
Jar (12/05/07)
This year I had my family over for Thanksgiving.
It was the first time in a few years my brother and his family have been
in town for the holiday. I planned a few activities for us to do
throughout the day; but, our favorite was a Family Journal Jar that I
made. We each drew out a question about ourselves or a family
memory that we had. We spent a few minutes writing our answers
down and then we shared them with each other. It was a lot of fun.
We learned about why I like being the oldest child, a time my husband
got his car stuck in the snow in my parents driveway (on purpose) when
we were dating, my sister's weirdest dream, my brother's favorite
general authorities (LDS), my sister's opinion on each family member, my
sister-in-law's goals for the future, my mom's biggest bargain, and my
dad's favorite toy growing up. There were such a variety of
questions and we learned a lot about each other. This was fun to
do on Thanksgiving but I will definitely be pulling our the journal jar
anytime we are together.
I am keeping our answers in page protectors in a
notebook so we can read our family journal whenever we get together.
I made my journal jar out of an empty small paint can from the hardware
store. I used scrapbook paper to cover the can. I collected
all my questions from several different internet sites, printed them
off, and cut them out separate.
Here are the questions I chose along with the pages we
recorded our answers on for you to download.
Family Journal Jar Questions
Family Journal Jar Pages
Food/Kitchen: Meal Preparation (12/04/07)
I believe that meal time should be a time to bond and spend time
with your family. It should not be a time to stress over what to
make for dinner, finding time to make it, or dealing with a huge clean
up. With a little extra preparation, meal time can be a lot easier.
Plan your meals out for the week and do the prep work like cutting
veggies, browning ground beef, etc. earlier in the week or earlier in
the day. I love meals that can be fully or partially prepared
earlier in the day when I have some spare time so I can can throw it in
the oven or in the pan quickly before dinner.
In the photo above you can see how I do this. These are all the
veggies, garlic, and ginger cut up ready to be used in a stir-fry for
dinner. I cut them up earlier in the day and had them ready.
I have a large cutting board that I love! I cut up the ingredients
and leave them separated on the board until they're ready to throw in
the pan. You can also see my cookbook and a trash bag. If
you've ever seen a Rachael Ray show, you know she keeps a garbage bowl
beside her work area where she throws all her scraps and trash.
Well, I've always used a plastic grocery bag so I don't have another
bowl to clean. I keep it right by my cutting board and all my
trash goes right in. It's great for cleanup. All you have to
do is dump the bag.
Fun Tips: Swaps (10/11/07)
I love doing swaps with people online. You send
someone a fun package and you get a fun package from someone. It's
a lot of fun. This was a package I got from a recent swap.
The swap was organized on this blog:
http://stephmodo.blogspot.com. We were supposed to send some
of the things that we really love to our swap partner. My package
was sent to me from Christy. Here's her blog:
http://www.craftyconservative.blogspot.com. I love my package!
She sent me a craft magazine, a cd of her favorite songs, lip gloss,
handmade cards, ribbon, and a rubber stamp. What fun!
Holiday
Ideas: Fall Table Decoration
(10/11/07)
I'm not much of a decorator, but this is one of my
favorite fall table decorations. I just took a footed glass plate
and put fall beads (I got on clearance from Target a few years ago) and
some gourds I got from a local pumpkin patch on it. It's quick,
easy, and cute.
Food/Kitchen: Grocery List (09/25/07)
Something that has made my life a lot easier is my grocery list. I
have it arranged by aisle for my Kroger grocery store. I keep it
on my refrigerator during the week and anytime we use or eat anything,
we mark it on the list to replace. I go to the grocery every two
weeks and it only takes me a few minutes to finish my list because
everything is already marked. It also helps keep my pantry and
food storage stocked and I never run out of anything. I also spend
less time in the store because I am so organized. Since it's in
aisle order I never get to the end of the store and realize I forgot
something in another aisle. The best part is if I have to send my
husband to the grocery. He doesn't go very often but when he does
go it's not that bad because he knows exactly what I need and where it
is. Here's a copy of my grocery list you can use as a
template to make your own grocery list.
Grocery List DOC
Grocery List PDF
Holiday Ideas: Halloween
Trick or Treat Bags
(09/23/07)
Here are two trick or treat bags I made for my kids to
use this year. I let them pick out their clipart images so they
are very excited to use them. You can purchase these bags in the
craft section at the store. You'll also need to purchase iron on
transfer paper from the office supply section. Design your bag on
Photoshop or any other design software. It is very important that
you flip your design horizontally before you print it so it won't be
backwards when you iron it on. Then you print out your design on
the iron on transfer paper and iron it on your bag according to the
directions on your iron on transfer paper. Very simple,
inexpensive and cute!
|
