Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Snack Time!!

This is something I am super excited about... it's the little things.

I can't tell you how many times my 6 year old asks me for a snack... and then doesn't like the options I give him, knowing all along that he has something specific in mind-usually sugary.  With the coming of baby #3 I decided to give my big boy some power over his snack options. And hopefully use some of my fruit and veggies from the co-op that often get forgotten and wasted. I'll get to the co-op in a minute.

Here's what I did. I decided that two snacks a day are more than enough for my boys- one morning and one afternoon snack. I started off with 6 servings of fruit (strawberries, oranges and apples), cleaned cut and put into zip top bags, I added two yogurts for each of the boys and two bags each cereal, yes, boxed cereal. I want to add some veggies (celery, and carrots at least for Nick) but I'll have to go to Publix for those this week since we didn't get any in our co-op bins.  Some weeks there may be granola or goldfish instead of cereal, depending on what's on sale.

I put all the snack bags in a crisper in the refrigerator so there is easy access to the snacks. He has complete control over which snacks he eats when so if he eats all his sweeter snacks in the beginning of the week he will have only veggies to eat the rest of the time. Levi has smaller portions of food and his bags are labeled with his name so Nick doesn't get a double portion of sweets in any given week.  Here is a sample of what is in the snack drawer this week. We'll give it a week and see how it works.


What about this veggie co-op thing you mentioned?  I'm glad you asked. I am a member of Carlita's Bowl Fruit and Veggie Co-op. Every other week I pick up a Rubbermaid bin of fruit and veggies that have been bought that morning at the local farmers market. I have the option of getting a large bin which is 20-40lbs of produce, depending on the season and what is available and I only pay $30 for 30-ish lbs of food-AMAZING. I also have the option of getting this every week. I may have to add a mini bin 20-30 lbs for $20 during my off week if this works and I need more goodies in the house.

If you are interested in Carlita's Bowl, you can visit her page carlitasbowl.org and find all the info you'll need and if you are interested and in the Seminole Heights or Sulphur Springs area I can help you out with getting your delivery.  I've posted a picture of a mini bin that I pick up for a friend. I unloaded my large bin before I took pictures.


"He gives food to every living thing, His faithful Love endures forever." Psalm 136:25
Happy, Healthy snacking,
Cathy

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Goals for 2014

Confession time: During the latter part of 2013 I have felt like I had just been running in circles doing laundry, dishes and cleaning that never seem to get finished. I would lay down at night feeling like I had accomplished nothing during my day of running wild and then realize how much time I had actually wasted during the day and realized half of my bills this month were late because I had forgotten about them.

So, If you've read much by me, and I haven't written very much, you've seen that I once created a "Domestic Executive's Daily Planner". Said planner has been sitting in my office untouched for the past year.... ok two years.

Thanks to Crystal over at www.moneysavingmom.com I have been inspired to pull it out, touch it up, and use it once more. She inspired this reader to set goals for the year and to break them down into bite-sized pieces.

Let's get to it. What I have added.
1. A family daily schedule. This is turning out to be more of guidelines, actually but it IS helping keep me on track as to when things get done. I broke the week down into daily schedules because we do different things on different days and I wanted to account for home-school co-op days and veggie co-op days. If you are interested in the veggie co-op, that is next weeks topic.

2. A calendar. I found a free printable 2014 calendar online and printed it, punched it with my 3-hole puncher and stuck it in there. I went ahead and filled in birthdays and anniversaries for the year, I have filled in when my bills are due each month (purple ink for auto pay and red for the ones I have to pay). I have jotted the days that my husband and I will sit down for our monthly budget meeting. I also have made one of my weekly chores to check this book and see which bills are due that week and pay them that day.

3.A goal sheet-and this is where Crystal was the inspiration. I have made several goals for the year and in order to accomplish them, I broke them into bite-sized pieces. My goals for the year are;1. Read the Bible 5 times a week, 2. Start freezer cooking, 3. Read 1 book a month, 4. Learn a new skill, 5. Blog 1 time a week and 6. utilize my time more wisely.

I found a weekly goal sheet on www.moneysavingmom.com and printed each of my goals on it. It is safely inside one of my page protectors and each week I will write my bite-sized goal. This week my sheet looks like this:

Date: January 5-11
Bible reading: Psalms chapters 5-11 and Proverbs chapters 5-11 (each week I will write what my plan asks me to read)

Budget: Write and stick to a budget and hold monthly budget meetings. This was done on Sunday.

Freezer cooking: this week I plan to make breakfast burritos to freeze

Reading: this week I plan to read chapters 1-4 of  'When Godly people do Ungodly Things' I will choose a book a month and divide the chapters by 4.

(next goal I just added, try not to freak out when you get this far into a blog entry only to think you have just deleted the entire post)

Learning: This one is blank so far. I found a link to an article on 24 things you can learn online for free. I plan to learn one of these but I'm not sure which one yet.... I think that is my goal for this week, figure out what I want to learn this year. Here's the link: http://www.buzzfeed.com/summeranne/24-invaluable-skills-to-learn-for-free-online-this-year.

And Blog once a week; This goal is being accomplished today, so I can cross something off my list. My plan for next week is to talk about the totally awesome veggie co-op group I belong to...so come back.

I still have my daily docket of chores, my weekly and monthly chores plan in place. If you want to learn more about MY chores plans visit http://theandreablogs.blogspot.com/2011/04/domestic-executives-daily-planner.html, if you would like to hear more from Crystal and print off the chore dockets you can visit http://moneysavingmom.com/downloads/household-management-forms and while you are there take time to explore the rest of her site, she's got some great ideas.

Thanks for stopping by. As always, your kind comments and suggestions are always welcome.
Happy Home Managing,
Cathy

Choose my (God's...not Cathy's) instruction instead of silver,
knowledge rather than choice gold,
for wisdom is more precious than rubies,
and nothing you desire can compare with her.  Proverbs 8:10-11 parenthesis added.