The Week of Improvements Continues...#5

So before I get to today's Sanity Saver Update I'd like to know what tender mercies have you seen in your life today?  I've been noticing the hand of the Lord a lot more since my little writing experiment the other night.  He's always been there and I've always loved seeing the little things He does for me because He loves ME but I recognize it more quickly lately.  It's wonderful.

A long time ago I blogged about how we saved time and money by buying big rolls of ground beef and cooking half as basic meat for spaghetti, strogenoff, chili etc...and the other half as taco meat.  Well that was super great until ground beef got super expensive.

Oddly enough our family has now switched over to ground turkey (from Aldi it's $1.69/pound, frozen) and most of the time we can't tell a difference.  Whenever I cook the turkey I ALWAYS add beef bullion.  I use the cubes with half the water the instructions call for.  Then I make sure and cook it until ALL the water has cooked out.   Works great in EVERYTHING you use ground beef in. :)  I no longer cook it ahead since it comes frozen but I'm ok with that.   (I do freeze bags of chopped onions and peppers to add at anytime.)

Check out my pinterest board and find some great ideas on make ahead meals and time saver cooking.  I thought I had good ideas....oh pinterest you have ruined me! ;)

Have a great day!
Keep it simple :)

The ULTIMATE Sanity Saver....peace and comfort

Nights around here are challenging to say the least.  Most of the time I do bedtime by myself and I never look forward to it.  I get so overwhelmed and tired with life by about 6:00 I can't help but count down the minutes till 7:00 when the kids can go to bed.  It used to be so easy! I would do our little routine and put them in bed and within about 15 minutes they would finally be asleep.  

Last night was not unlike most nights around here lately.  We started bed time routine at 7:00 and theoretically they should be asleep BY 8:00, right?  WRONG!  9:30 came and there were still 3 children awake!  I heard everything from, "I just need a hug" to "I need to go potty" (4 or 5 times!).   By the time they finally fell asleep I was so exhausted and drained in every kind of way.  I sat down with a spoon and some cookie dough (yes, my dear dear friend brought a sweet gift!) not even thinking about my attempt to be off sugar-sorry Crystal, and began to write in my journal.  This is not normally my solution, well the cookie dough maybe but the journal no.  

I began to make a list of all my struggles for the day.  Everything from kids being difficult, to missing my sweet hubby, to being extremely PMSed (which is probably the root of ALL of this problem!) The list was growing and I didn't like what I was focusing on but I felt like it was very important to write down my heartache.  After making this list I made another page and titled it "Accomplishments for the Day".  This was a little more challenging but I wrote things like: did dishes and cleaned the kitchen! (3x's).  Made meals for the family.  Didn't strangle my children.  The list was a decent length and it made me feel slightly better.  

The real difference came with the next page.  At the top I wrote, "Tender Mercies".  In my religion class last semester we studied the scriptures looking for tender mercies on every page.  I LOVE looking for tender mercies in my life because 1) they are such a good reminder that my Father in Heaven loves ME.  And 2) they help me look for the good.  My list began to rapidly grow.  I had forgotten how many ways I had seen the hand of the Lord during just that day.  After I finished this list I was no longer angry or exhausted, but filled with pure gratitude and a resolve to do better.  A quote from our dear prophet President Thomas S. Monson rang in my ears, (quoting  

Ralph Waldo Emerson

) "

Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow."  With the Lord's help I could have courage to try again tomorrow.

Try again I did!  I made a list of promptings from the Spirit on how I could do better. I moved the TV into a closet and replaced it with a beautiful picture of our Savior Jesus Christ.  I deleted the bookmarks on the computer where the kids find their favorite shows.  I made a plan to get up before the kids to pray and read my scriptures and put on my spiritual armor before the battle with the children began.  So far the day is good, not perfect, but I have a different attitude.  

I was glancing at pinterest this morning and I found this talk from 1997 by an Apostle in our church on motherhood.  Oh if I ever needed comfort  and advice on this topic this was the time.  This talk will be a cherished jewel in my hope chest of loving words. (and who said pinterest was a waste of time?! pshhh)   I LOVE this so much. Everyone with children should watch this, ESPECIALLY young mothers!  Enjoy! :)

"Because She is a Mother" -Click here

PS. What are some ways you have seen "tender mercies" today?  Leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you!

Improvement #4:

I agree with my little girl here, the thought of laundry makes me tired. :(  

BUT  I have improved from 3 years ago, even with adding another kid into the mix!!  Here's what works for us:

If it's not dirty don't wash it!  

I know that sounds like a "duh!" but when you have 4 kids it makes all the difference.  Unless they've been rolling in the mud MOST of the time the boys jeans can be worn a couple of times before I wash them. PJ's can be worn multiple nights in a row (unless someone pees the bed or spill oatmeal on them in the morning....)  And most of all KEEP THE KIDS OUT OF THE CLOTHES!  I can't stand it when they change clothes all day long!  They have plenty of dress ups to cure this need to change clothes.

Don't Over Do It!

With four kids it's very easy to be overwhelmed with LOTS of clothes.  We have so many wonderful people in our lives that fill our dressers with cute new clothes, hand-me-downs, and "things I just picked up".  We are so grateful for their thoughtfulness!  However, what there's lots of love like this there could be lots of piles of clothes (and in our case mostly not dirty!).  So in our house we try to only keep out enough outfits for 10 days and 2 pairs of church clothes for everyone.  Each kids typically has 3 pairs of shoes, one for church, one tennis shoe, and one sandal/flip-flop.  This method has worked amazingly well!!!  The hardest part is deciding which cute clothes to keep out at the time.  Just remember to rotate your clothes or donate them to your favorite thrift store/charity.

Fold it right out of the dryer.

My poor hubby is such a good sport.  He hates to have wrinkled clothes so as soon as they come out of the dryer and typically get moved to the couch he lays them neatly in a flat pile to be hung up.  When he has time he folds and hangs them up too.  I've tried to get in the habit of folding right out of the dryer but sometimes things get in the way...

Movie Night!

A lot of the time I spend just one day and wash the clothes all in one day (and then declare that we are never wearing clothes ever again!).  I don't get to watch movies by myself very often so I'll put the kids to bed and watch a movie while I fold the clothes.  I love to watch movies while my hands are busy.

MY VERY FAVORITE METHOD!
This is my VERY favorite way to fold clothes.  LET THE KIDS DO IT!  My 5 and 4 year old boys are really good at putting the clothes on hangers.  They put away all their own laundry which for some reason is my least favorite thing.   For the towels I have a game that for every towel/rag they fold they get a penny!  ooooooh they love it, even my 3 year old can do this!

I will post more about this next week but for today I'll just say that I'm a HUGE fan of having the kids help with the cleaning!  After all, it's mostly their mess!  One night I stood in my kitchen and could see the dining room, living Room, office, and playroom from where I stood....all I could see was a cluttered mess.  It wasn't the worst it's ever been but at 10 o'clock at night when I'm exhausted it was worse than I was willing to tackle.  It probably would have taken me about 30 minutes to clean up by myself but I just couldn't bring my self to do it.
Then a beautiful thought came to my mind, "let the kids do it!"  We had already been working on this with the kids (and I'll explain HOW later...ooo....intregue!) so I went to bed and would let them do it in the morning.  The next morning clean up still took 30 minutes but I didn't have to do it!!  As any mom will tell you, that's HUGE! :)  I was able to do the other things I needed to get done and still have a clean house.

Have a great day!
Keep it simple :)

Awesome update #3

 Aren't these canisters cute?!  I used oatmeal containers and covered them with scrapbook paper and clear contact paper.  I use them every single day!  you can't see very well but the labels say things like flour, sugar, chocolate chips, rice, etc... I first made them when we didn't have a whole lot of cupboard space in our duplex and I still use them today in our house to free up space for my kitchen gadget obsession, another story for another day.

Well one day I got fancy!  I made a set of 4 of these for my sister for Christmas.  I LOVE them!! I wish I'd gotten a pic of the whole set.  They were so cute I almost didn't send them to here...but then again NOTHING in my house is zebra stripped :)

Wrapping paper and clear contact paper is even easier than scrapbook paper! I spray painted the lids with two coats of spray paint.  Add a cute little ribbon for some flare and you're good to go.  I have all the stuff to do a bunch for my kitchen and it's even cut and ready to go I just have to DO IT...one day...

These aren't just for kitchens, you can use them all over the house.

• They are great for keeping hair accessories together in the bathroom.  Headbands even fit great around the outside.
• Toilet Paper rolls fit great in them
• keep little sets of kids toys together (I probably wouldn't use my fancy ones for this but my kids keep army guys, angry bird games, and my daughters little dolls and accessories in them in their rooms.

The possibilities are endless...what would you put in them?

Updated Sanity Saver #2

Oh how I loved this friend!  But unfortunately the pads got too expensive so I replaced them with just using a cleaning rag and spray cleaner.  It worked fine but I still hated to mop....until.....

I found this baby!!!

I got mine for like $15 and oh baby do I LOVE it!  I have mopped at least once a week since I got it (which I'm grossed out to admit it but that's a big deal!) and it just makes life so much simpler.  

BUT there's a catch....DON'T BUY THE REFILL BOTTLES!   To me they are a waste of money.  I like the scent of the swiffer wet jet sprays but they left some kind of soapy gummy residue on my tile floors.  So what's the point of having this?  Aha!  Here's the beauty, refill it yourself! 

To get the lid off:

1. Boil about 2 cups of water in a small sauce pan on the stove.
2. Dip the bottle into the water so it is just covering the white lid for about 30 seconds or so.  This will soften the plastic and allow to you to work with it.
3. Using a dishcloth or hot pad to protect your hands unscrew the lid.  It's like magic!  From now on you will be able to screw on and unscrew any time you like with out boiling the water again.  

What to fill it with:

• You can use any floor cleaner you prefer like pine-sol, just make sure you mix according to the directions.
• I prefer to keep it simple. I use equal parts of warm water and white vinegar and a couple drops of essential oil (this week I'm using lemon grass).  
• I will be buying another refill bottle to use my wood floor cleaner on.  The water and vinegar mix works fine but it doesn't leave the shine like I like from the Zepp from Home Depot.

Viola!  No gummy residue, clean and sparkly floors, and no bending over and working with a nasty mop bucket.  Instead of buying the pads I just found a rag that would cling to the velcro strip on the bottom, wet it with water, and off we go.

Beware: you do have to buy batteries before you can use the spray part, I didn't know that and I was very sad. :(

New and Improved Sanity Savers!

Hi Folks!  Remember me?  I came upon my long lost blog the other day and realized how badly I actually need this blog to save my sanity!  After reading the posts from 3 years ago it brought back lots of memories, some good, some kinda painful (ahem my cookie dough addiction...I'm over that addiction now thank goodness!).  I realized that I have come a long way since my last posts, thank you PINTEREST!  So here's some updates:

Improvement #1:

 Remember this friend?  Well guess what else you can do with it?!?  Did you know that if you fill it with equal parts white vinegar and liquid dish soap you can keep it in your shower and use it as a daily shower cleaner?!  How awesome is that?  I'm a big fan of cleaning the shower when I'm already in there...just makes sense!

Also, we found that when using it to wash dishes the concentrated dawn dish soap was too thick to get onto the sponge and it just wasn't working well.  So I dilute it with about a tablespoon or so of white vinegar and it comes out nicely and kicks up the cleaning power as well.


It's good to be back!!!  Come back often or just enter your email address on the side and you'll be updated every time I blog.

Keep it simple :)

Been a While!?!?!?!

Good grief it's been a while! May I just say I think I've had an excuse! I had a baby, bought a house, and moved all in the last 3 months.

Here's a few sanity savers for you though:

Dishwashing gloves. I never really cared for them until we bought our new house. There were a LOT of creepies in the cupboards and corners but with these gloves on it was like a super power! I had no few I could clean whatever needed to be done! Plus our new house doesn't have a dishwasher....yet, so it saves my hands.

My swiffer was AMAZING when we moved in! Did you know it works GREAT on walls? You know how when you move in to a new place and it's been closed for a while and it stinks? Well, I went through and gave it a thorough cleansing. I put a cleaning rag on the swiffer and scrubbed the walls all the way up and down without having to haul a chair around or use a stool. It was really nice and it cut down on my time too.

I don't know what the technical name for this is but it's an allen wrench that's like a pocket knife and keeps all the sizes together. I didn't know we had one until we moved! What a genius idea! I've gone to the tool box many times looking for a specific size and of course the one I needed would be gone. Problem solved!

Preparing Simple Food Ahead of Time....

(I've been trying to post this for four days now, hope it works this time!)

This week I've been very busy browning 20 pounds of ground beef! Our local Food 4 Less grocery store usually has great deals on meat! I get ground beef for $1.78/lb when I buy it in a 10 lb. roll. It's a ton of meat but it's so worth it!

We used to take the meat and cut it into about one pound sections, wrap it in plastic wrap and freeze it that way. It worked well but I still had to defrost it and cook it when I wanted to use it. We did that for about a year and now we make it just a little bit easier! I take half of the meat and make "spaghetti meat" with it. I brown it with some garlic and chopped onions and seasonings. It's seasoned for things like shepherd's pie, spaghetti, strogenoff (sp?), and anything else that uses meat like that. The other half I do as taco meat. I use the taco seasoning packets and it comes out great! After I've drained all the grease from it and it's cooled down a bit I put the meat in ziplock sandwich baggies. Some bags I fill rather full and others I put like 1/2 a pound in. Zip them up and then they go in the freezer.

It takes a little bit of time but it's not hard at all and then when I'm running late it helps my meals cook faster! I can make a shepherd's pie in under 10 minutes plus the time to bake it as opposed to like 30-40 minutes plus baking time!

Another good thing to cook and freeze is chicken. We get the boneless skinless chicken breast when they're on sale (this week at Food 4 Less I found them for $1.75/lb!) and we grill it, slice it, and freeze it. We have a George Forman grill so it makes it pretty easy. Daniel likes to marinade it but I don't know the recipe for how he does it...I don't think he does either, it's just a little of this and a little of that. We put it in little sandwich baggies like the beef so it's perfect for one meal. We use it in chicken pastas, casseroles, lots of salads, tortilla wraps, pizza, or whatever else we feel like throwing chicken into.

As I posted in an earlier post I LOVE cookie dough! So this week I made a batch of cookie dough, rolled it into balls, and froze them on a cookie sheet. When they were hard I put them into sandwich baggies and froze them together. Freezing them separately first helps them not stick together. Now I have a snack whenever I want them!! :

Super Sturdy Table Cloth

Does your table ever look like this? If you have toddlers that are aspiring artists like mine you probably do! Our poor table has taken some hits lately. One of the first projects when we move into a house is to refinish the table and make it look like new again....as for now we have to find a way to cover it up and protect it from more "characteristic marks."

I owe this solution to my Dad. Thanks Dad! :)

We love vinyl tablecloths with the flannel backing at our house! They protect the table and wipe off easily and they're cheap enough that if they do get ruined you don't feel bad about throwing it away. They make them in some really pretty designs or very festive for the holidays so you don't have to settle for anything boring. But have you ever tried keeping one in place on a table??? Good grief! It's not an easy task, especially with children sitting at the table. We tried putting heavy things on the table to keep it in place but it just got in the way and never worked well.

So, here's what we found. One day when I was little we went to a restaurant and they had vinyl table cloths on the tables, only theirs didn't move! My dad, being the inquisitive person that he is, peeked under the table cloth to see how they kept it in place. All it was was another tablecloth only upside-down! The flannel against flannel made it very hard to move. So he went home and tried it, he taped one upside-down to the table and placed one right side up on top and we've stuck to it ever since.

Try it it works GREAT!!!

(this is the upside-down one taped to the table. I just used packing tape.)

Here is my everyday tablecloth. I found this one at Walmart for $5 and it's nice but they only had a couple to choose from. Yesterday I went to Big Lots and found a TON of them for $3.50! They had a whole bunch of styles and sizes. They had a bunch for Easter too so that was fun.

Definitely a Great Help!

Thanks everyone for sharing their ideas about their ways of doing laundry. My sweet husband reminded me that our system is that HE HELPS!! Am I lucky or what? :) I didn't realize this was our system but this is how it seems to be working for us lately. We have baskets lining the laundry room, whites, lights, darks, and towels so they're all ready separated. I start the washer most of the time and he will put them in the dryer and take them out when they're dry and then lay them on the couch. He lays out every thing that needs to be hung up in a pile and folds everything that needs folding, I come behind him and put hangers in the hang up pile and put all the clothes away. He informed me sweetly that he has the hardest time actually hanging up the clothes and putting them away where as for me it's the opposite! I hate to fold them but I don't mind putting them away! He also folds all of the socks because if it were up to me they'd all just be in bucket!! I'd probably have one bucket per person but they wouldn't be matched, when you own all the same kind, style, color, and size of a sock it seems kind of pointless to me to match them. :)

My Grandma in TN, a nurse and mother of 3 boys, sent me an email that really made me grateful for the way we do laundry, just thought I'd share it with you:

"When your Dad was little, Brad 18 months behind, doing clothes was awful. I worked over 50 hours a week in surgery and was on call one evening plus weekend call each week. My washer was always in a dark, damp basement. I had to fill the washer with a hose, sort and put in clothes then time it to wash. While it was washing, I filled two tubs of rinse water. I had to put the clothes through a wringer (and becareful not to catch fingers) from the washer into the first rinse. I would stir it around in there then send it through the wringer into the second tub of water. Next it was time to wring it out and take it outside or on lines in the basement and hang it up. Grandpa didn't like for the boys to wear teeshirts so all of their shirts were little cotton ones with collars. I had to make starch, dip, wring and hang all of them.....and there was a lot. After it dried, I had to "sprinkle down" all of the starch pieces, roll them individually and put them into a basket In about 12 hours, the water was all even through them and it was time to iron them. By then I was back at work and sometimes they mildewed and I had to start all over. I ironed each little shirt and pairs of pants, pillow cases, tablechothes as well as mine and Dannnie's stuff. Everything was cotton and there was no "Downey " to make them soft and easier to iron. It was the same when I was pregnant for Brad............the clothes was just a little bigger. I think I got an automatic washer and a dryer when we moved to North Carolina.....Your Dad was starting the first grade. I only wish I could have had it sooo much sooner."

Thanks Grandma for reminding me how lucky and blessed I am to have a washing machine AND a dryer! :)

Someone Save My Sanity!!!

I'm curious, how do YOU stay on top of your laundry?

Cannisters Cannisters and MORE Cannisters....

Time for a "useful" post. Here's an idea I came up with last year that has totally helped me in so many ways!! We were building our food storage and had bought several containers of oatmeal to pour into 5 gallon buckets so that they would stay good longer. I kept looking at the mound of containers that we were going to be throwing away and wondering if there was some other use for them and here's what I came up with.

We live in a duplex with a very small kitchen. There's not a whole lot of cupboard space and we had to buy a cabinet to use as our pantry. Finding space for all the food has not been an easy task but with these cannisters it has been a whole lot easier! I have one for almost everything! :) I have one for each of the basics, flour, sugar, brown sugar, oatmeal, and rice. Then I have random things too, pasta, nuts, chocolate chips, pretzels, fruit snacks, ect.... When I do it again I will probably leave the brown sugar in its bag when I put it in the container. I've been emptying everything straight into the cannister and it's worked great except for Brown sugar and pretzels. The brown sugar gets a little clumpy and drier than I'd like and the pretzels were stale (of course it may have been the fact that we don't eat pretzels very often.) I keep separate bags of chocolate chips and nuts and anything else where there's an assortment of things in it.

To cover the cannisters to make them match my kitchen I bought a "big stack" of scrapbook paper from hobby lobby, that way the paper all ready had sort of a theme going on. I measured the paper against the cannisters, cut it, covered it with clear contact paper, and hot glued it to the container. I printed the labels from my computer and matted them on some matching paper. You'll need some super sticky double sided tape to apply it, the hot glue was a little messy on the front of the cannister.

I love my cannisters but I can't wait to get into a new house because I have other ideas for when I do them over again! :)

Have a great day!

My Guilty Pleasure.....

I must admit I love LOVE love chocolate chip cookie dough!!! A lot of times when I'm at the grocery store I will buy the refrigerated rolls to keep in my fridge for a snack...or a "Sanity Saver" Some people hide chocolate or other "normal" treats for their hard days but me, it's gotta be the yummy gooey chocolate chip cookie dough. It's just so good! My very very favorite kind is the kind from Papa Murphy's! I've never actually tried it to see if the cookies are any good but the dough is FANTASTIC!

Unfortunately I made the mistake of introducing my children to it last night and unfortunately the LIKED it!! Now they think I have to share with them. :( Oh well, one more crazy thing they like just like me, put it up there next to cold pizza for breakfast. Speaking of breakfast....hmmm Have a good day everyone! :)

Creative Notebooks

Sorry about not posting for a while. Our computer monitor died and the charger for the laptop quit working too!

Anyways, here are some ideas that I loved! I got the idea from my very crafty mom.

I LOVE to make lists! I make to-do lists, menus, shopping lists, inventory lists, packing lists, and all sorts of lists! I needed a way to keep them organized. I took composition notebooks and covered them with scrapbook paper and then covered that by clear contact paper. They look cute and they work great!! I have a main book that I carry with me that had sections for calendar, to-do lists, scribbles, and budget. The other books are for specific things like, menus/shopping lists, business endeavors, family home evening (to record ideas for and/or write down things we've done), and my scripture study journal. I went a little nutty with the books but it's fun for me!

Another idea:

Here is a page I took from my "menu/shopping list" book. It helps me so much! I make two columns on the page. On the left side I write 7 ideas for Breakfasts, lunches, and Dinners. Then I assign each meal a day. On the right side I write my shopping list according to those meals. I can either tear out the shopping list and take it with me or take the whole book shopping with me.

To keep within my food budget I try to make meals according to what I have in the house or buy only what I need for that week. I try to estimate a cost per item on the list. If the total comes out more than my budget I rearrange meals or try to cut back that way I know what I'm doing BEFORE I go to the store. It really helps.

Cheese puffs and Yogos

So we took my little Knowly (16 months 0ld) to the ER on Tuesday night to get stitches :( He was playing around and fell down and hit his head on the computer hutch. He had a nice clean cut on his forehead but it was really deep and I felt like it needed something to hold it together so it wouldn't get bigger. Anyways, so we're sitting in the waiting room for over an hour and luckily I had some change in my purse to buy some cheetos out of the vending machine. That kept him busy for quite a while. After we saw the doctor and he got his stitches I gave him some yogos that I'd grabbed on the way out of the house as a reward. It made him very happy. So I'm grateful for those two things keeping my little boy happy! :)

I only have a minute but....

I LOVE my dishwand! I wasn't sure if I would use it or not but for just a couple bucks I decided to try it. I think it does use a little more soap than I normally would use, but for some reason it helps my brain think that doing dishes is OK. I call it one of my "lazy man's tools".

Welcome!

Hey Everyone!
Thanks for visiting my new site. I love to organize and do things around the house so I thought I'd share. I do things as inexpensively as possible but still try to make cute-usable things. Hope you enjoy! Feel free to leave any comments/suggestions foe me!
Thanks