Simplifying Our Mornings Pt. 1

October 10, 2012 By 3 Comments

Click image for more posts on 31 Days to Simplifying Life

When Vera started 1st Grade in September our mornings had to get started 30 minutes earlier than in the past.  I didn’t want to have to wake the kids up any earlier than necessary, so I evaluated how we were doing things and tried to make things more efficient.

Like Stacey mentioned yesterday, the kids and I prepare their clothes a week at a time and put them in organizers in their closet.

I thought that this was already pretty efficient, but this school year we have even taken that a step further.  In the morning instead of having the kids open their closet to take out their clothes, we pull everything out the night before.  Our 3 little ones in preschool and kindergarten also have to take an extra change of clothes (which makes for even more laundry each day…AAHHH!!!), so this includes preparing their backpacks with a clean set of clothes.

By knowing that we have prepared their clothes and backpacks the night before, we are able to eliminate more stress from our mornings so that things flow smoothly and quickly enabling our kids to get as much sleep as possible before the school day starts.

How do you simplify your mornings to help you get out the door in time with as little stress as possible?

Back 2 School Survival Guide

August 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

“Smooth Transition from Summer to School !”  Sounds great, doesn’t it?  But what about getting out of summer bedtimes, and getting homework done, packing the lunchboxes, morning and afternoon carpool, expectations, grades, extracurricular activities?  I could go on and on.

Well. Susan, The Confident Mom, has done it again with her Back 2 School Survival Guide.  She has taken all her years of experience in parenting and family coaching and put them onto paper to help moms like me and you make a smooth transition from relaxing summer days and travel to the routine of school days.

Here are a some of the topics she covers in the Back 2 School Survival Guide:

  •       Put your child’s back-to-school anxieties to rest.
  •       Help your child thrive in school and at home by setting up easy-to-follow routines.
  •       Make packing lunches a snap and learn to send lunches that are more likely to be consumed.
  •       Stay on top of activities for the entire family.
  •       Teach your children how to set goals and celebrate their successes.
  •       Discover new ways to have fun together as a family.
  •       Put homework hassles to rest.
  •       Learn that letting your child fail can ultimately lead to their success.
  •       Become a savvy back-to-school shopper.
  •       Get involved in your child’s classroom through volunteerism.
  •       Prepare for the “big K” (Kindergarten).
  •       Provide guidance to help your child deal with bullies.
  •       Help develop a healthy attitude towards others at school (including classmates with disabilities).
  •       Keep your children safe while using the Internet.
It also includes tons of printables including:
  •       Student Planner
  •       Master Family Planner
  •       Routine Checklists
  •       School Information Sheet
  •       Schedule Adjustment Worksheet
  •       Countdown Maze
  •       My Favorites Lunch Planning Worksheet
  •       Grocery Planner
  •       Family Fun Worksheet
  •       Family Meeting Agenda
  •       School Goals Worksheet
  •       Classmate Contact Sheet
  •       Important Dates At-A-Glance Sheet
  •       Lunchbox Notes, Jokes, and Quotes
  •       Note to Teacher Form
You can download all this now in the Back 2 School Survival Guide for just $14.  Click here for more info and to order

Back to School Boost for Moms Sale

August 6, 2012 By 1 Comment

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been spending lots of time thinking about the upcoming Fall transition.  I told Michelle this week that I am somewhere between trying not to rush the summer away and being ready for a new routine.  With my oldest entering Kindergarten, this feels like a huge transition being a first-time school mom.  I’ve spent lots of time thinking about school lunches, our new routine, carpool, school uniforms, chore charts, meal planning, and new categories in our budget.

Well, today and tomorrow you can get an E-book bundle that deals with several of those topics and more.  The Back to School Boost for Moms bundle is written by five different bloggers and they combined forces to give us their resources for just $10.

Here’s what it includes:

  1. Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule: So You Can Get More Done In Less Time ($5.99) by Christine at I Dream of Clean.
  2. The No Brainer Wardrobe: Get Dressed with More Confidence and Less Fuss ($7.99) by Hayley at The Tiny Twig.
  3. Cupcakes: 12 Months of Hapiness! ($4.99) by Liz at Hoosier Homemade.
  4. Feast in 15: Speed Cooking Weeknight Dinners ($4.99) by Tiffany at Eat At Home.
  5. Tell Your Time: How to Manage Your Schedule So You Can Live Free ($4.99) by Amy Lynn Andrews at Blogging with Amy.

And you can get all that for just $10.  But the sale only lasts until tomorrow.  So, click over to check out the Back to School Boost for Moms bundle.

I’ll have more great resources coming this week to help us all get prepared for the Back-to-School season!

Organizing Outside Play Toys

June 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Over the years, we have accumulated several outside play toys from kids’ birthday gifts and Grammie’s great finds at yard sales and on Craigslist.  I love our fenced in back yard.  I love keeping the back door open and watching them play.  I love my kids’ friendships with our neighbors and having lots of kids in the backyard.

But I don’t love how messy our yard can get.  The toys get strewn all over the yard and I haven’t done a great job having the kids clean up before they come inside.  And with our patchy grass, it gets quite muddy out there.  The toys and slides get muddy and filled with rain water and it invites lots of creepy crawly friends (which if you know me, you know I have a big issue with bugs).

So, my dad gave me a big tarp he wasn’t using anymore and I got the idea to use it under a lot of the toys.  I love how it turned out.  We’ve had a good bit of rain this week and it has really helped with the mud.  And the tarp, in general, gives a boundary to that play area.  Karis calls it a “village” and the playhouse is now a restaurant.  I love it!  We’ll see how it holds up through the season.

 Karis was excited to pose in the pictures.  :)

What do you do to manage outside toys?

 

Guest Post from Charlie – Travel Packing for a Large Family

May 17, 2012 By 3 Comments


We have dear friends who live outside of San Jose, Costa Rica working in the mission field for Central and South America with Reach Global. When they asked us to come for a visit, my husband and I jumped at the chance. So began the planning for a 7 day trip to Costa Rica.  We were looking forward to experiencing the Costa Rican culture, drinking really great coffee and traveling to the Pacific coast for a couple of days of R&R with our friends. Oh, and we decided to take our four kids.

Planning was fun; it’s always fun to plan things, particularly trips to foreign countries. But actually putting a plan into action – now that’s where it gets tricky. Especially when you are planning to pack a family of six for seven days with a goal of only 2 suitcases total and one carry on per person. And you need to take along some much needed food supplies for your friends who are longing for some pecans and good, old fashioned stone ground grits.

I’ve figured out the best way to pack for an extended time is to portion pack the kids’ clothing. It probably seems like a lot of work (it is) and it takes longer to pack (it does), but it’s well worth it. We have two boys who are close in age and I struggle to figure out whose black soccer shorts are whose. They look JUST THE SAME to me, but alas, they are not. Not to mention tee shirts and underwear – is this one Jack’s? No, Wesley’s? ACK!

To make packing and meting out clothing easy, I buy a couple of boxes of gallon sized zip lock bags. Each bag contains one entire outfit per kid (shorts, shirt, pair of socks and underwear). I write the child’s name on the bag with a Sharpie and zip it up. When we arrive at our destination, the kids can just look in the suitcase and find a zip lock bag with their name on it and viola! They are ready to dress themselves in clothes that fit them!

This has also helped us pack more in the suitcases. We are able to squeeze out all of the air from the zip lock bags and thus put more in each suitcase. For our Costa Rica trip, the clothing for all four children for seven days including bathing suits and a gift for our host family all fit into one suitcase. With airlines now charging for baggage, it really helps to keep our baggage costs to a minimum.

Packing was a success and our time in Costa Rica was amazing. I’m feeling pretty confident now – maybe our next trip should be two weeks long instead of only one?

Charlie, as a mom of 4, has lots of wisdom in parenting, organization, and simplifying things with a large family.  Check out her other guest post here on being in a multi-racial family.

This post shared at Cornerstone Confessions, We ARE That Family, Women Living Well, and Crystal and Company.

Plan to Eat Gift Subscriptions are 50% Off This Weekend!

May 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Simple Meal Planning - Plan to Eat

 

My favorite meal planning membership is running a great sale this weekend on Gift Subscriptions.  Plan to Eat features online meal planning that lets you

  • save your own recipes.
  • get a grocery list from your menu plan.
  • stores items you already have in a “Pantry”.
  • save menus so you can use them in a rotation.

These are just my favorite features, but you might also enjoy the menu database and sharing feature of Plan to Eat.  You can read more here about how I use it every week.  If you are a current member, you can buy a Gift Subscription for 50% off this weekend only.  If you’re not a member, go ahead and join!  Then you can share the love with someone you know for half off.

Check Out a Great Giveaway and a Great Way to Organize Photos

April 28, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Lisa from The Domestic Life Stylist is hosting a great Giveaway right now.  If you’re like me, you need a better way to organize photos and you need some ideas for Mother’s Day gifts.  Lisa is giving away a FREE 8 x 8 Photo Book from Shutterfly and you can enter to win.

 

Go over and enter the Giveaway!  Then click around on Lisa’s site, The Domestic Life Stylist.  She’s got some great posts to “help moms live life at home with finesse and style”.  Also, look out for her guest post here on Getting Through the Day this Friday!

Travel Bags for Children

April 21, 2012 By 8 Comments

We have gone to the U.S. once a year for the last few years.  Next week’s itinerary is our shortest ever at a “short” 19 hours.  Coming back to China it will be about 23 hours.  Both directions are two legs, and only one layover.   Our long flight of about 13 hours is equipped with individual TV’s on each seat with some great children’s programming.  That will keep the kids busy!  Our short flight however will not have individual TV’s, and will last for about 4 hours.  I have to have something for the kids to do!

I’ve learned the hard way that we don’t want to bring any more than the kids can carry on their own.  There’s not much worse than lugging around 4 tired kids, backpacks, carry-ons, and all of their “busy” gear as well!  With all of the traveling that we do, I feel like we have finally found a system that works for us!

Each kid has:

  • Their own backpack.  We try not to pack anything for the kids that won’t fit into their own backpack.  Sometimes we slightly break the rules (more on that later…).
  • We allow each of the kids to take one small comfort item from home.  They all love sleeping with stuffed animals and dolls, so they get to choose their current favorite for the trip.
  • A water bottle.  Let’s face it, kids get thirsty, and no one wants to drag along a thirsty, tired, whiny kid!
  • A few small snacks, depending on the length of the trip.  I don’t usually buy a lot of individual snack sized things for the kids, but for trips like this, they are perfect.  Whenever mommy say, “Okay, it’s time for a snack,” they can pull out one of their snacks.
  • A pair of kid friendly headphones.  The ones we found are big, but they cover the kids ears well and block out background noise while they watch movies.  We are of course careful to monitor that the volume is not too loud. :)
  • A zipper folder of activities to keep them busy during waiting times in the airports, flights with no individual TV, etc.  Figuring out what to put in the zipper folder is always what’s most difficult.  I always want enough to keep them busy but not more than they need.  This is what I packed for this trip.

The girls each got a new art book, a butterfly sticker book, folding paper, a small notebook, and new gel pens and markers to share. I also snuck a reader into each of their bags, but I'm guessing they'll just want to create if mommy doesn't make them read.

The boys each got a blank art book (they love these!), a pack of crayons, a small notebook, a pack of folding paper (which I'm sure they will probably just shred...hey, whatever keeps them busy!), a pack of Ikea stamp markers to share, and small zoo animals.

This is where I break my own rules that the kids things must fit into their backpacks.  They boys have toddler sized backpacks that do not fit these folders.  They will carry all of their own things except for these; Matt and I will each take one for the boys.

Of course, we always need a backup plan.  We have two!

  1. The iPad with great educational apps.
  2. The computer with movies just in case we get stuck waiting in an airport longer than expected and get a little too antsy.

And that’s it.  That’s how we plan to survive during this long trip back to the States.  What do you pack for your kids when you travel?  Do you have any great tips?  

This post shared at Crystal & Company, We ARE that Family, Women Living Well , and Celebrating Family.

That Works For Me! ebook & Giveaway

April 20, 2012 By 14 Comments


I’m excited to share a fabulous ebook with you today.  I admit I’m not a huge ebook reader because I always think I don’t want to sit in front of my computer screen to read.  When I read a book, I want to get cozy on the couch with real paper.  Well, this one is a different kind of ebook.  If you’re a reader of Getting Through the Day, you’re probably looking for tips to help you in some area of your life – recipe ideas, setting up a budget, following a schedule, parenting little ones, or other ideas.

Well, this ebook, That Works For Me!, is full of exactly that – practical tips to help you in lots of different areas.  It is, from the words of the publishers, “a categorized, organized place for more than 800 practical, “aha!” tips to make your life run smoother.”  They have compiled hundreds of the best tips from hundreds of different bloggers.  It’s organized well and you can easily click around and read tips on cleaning, organizing, time management, baby stuff, cooking, being frugal, and lots more!

 

 

I’m also excited to share that Getting Through the Day is featured twice in this book AND we’re giving away a copy starting today!  Here are the ways to enter and you can have up to seven entries:

  1. (REQUIRED to enter) Subscribe to Getting Through the Day and leave a comment here letting us know you subscribed.
    Enter your email address:
  2. Like Getting Through the Day on Facebook and leave a comment here letting us know you did.
  3. Like That Works For Me! on Facebook and leave a comment here letting us know you did.
  4. Follow Getting Through the Day on Google+ and leave a comment here letting us know you did.
  5. Follow Getting Through the Day on Twitter and leave a comment here letting us know you did.
  6. Follow That Works For Me! on Twitter and leave a comment here letting us know you did.
  7. Tweet or post on Facebook or Google+ about this Giveaway and leave a comment here letting us know you did.
Don’t forget to leave a comment for every entry!  Entries are open until Sunday night and a winner will be announced Monday morning!

If you want to go ahead and get your own copy now, order here and enter the coupon code SAVE1 for $1 off the regular price.

Also, there’s a contest through the month of April to win a $150 house cleaning gift card on That Works For Me! website.  You just have to submit a tip of your own to enter.

Good luck and check back on Monday morning to see who wins!

Rotating Seasonal Clothes

April 19, 2012 By 11 Comments

With the weather slowly changing from cool to warm, I have been busy rotating everyone’s clothes.  I’ve been doing it with the kids clothes for years, but only recently started doing it with my own.

This is what my closet looked like last fall.

I had clothes for all seasons crammed into my little closet.  I had thought about under the bed storage to get some things out, but our bed sits low and I had never found boxes that would work.

My solution?


Yes, a suitcase.  Not just any suitcase, but the big, striped monster.  The big, striped broken monster that we’ve brought back to the States many times with no intention of it ever returning.  And yet, in what has become a bad family joke, my husband’s parents seem to always find a way to send that monster back with visitors.  No more!  I’ve found a use for it! :)

In the fall I took out my summer clothes and put them into the suitcase.  I also put in any winter clothes that didn’t fit properly or that I hadn’t worn the previous winter.  If I went another winter without wanting those things, then I knew it was safe to get rid of them.  Last week I took that suitcase out, and realized that while I thought it was just a storage solution, it was really so much more!

  • I was able to return to each item I had put in the suitcase and make a decision:  Did I still want that item or not?  By physically touching each item to return it to the closet I had to think about each one.  It was so much more effective than just moving piles around my closet as the seasons changed.
  • I don’t need nearly as much as I had.  I’m sort of a “Plain Jane” kinda girl.  My mom used to call me “Plain Jane” as a kid because I always wanted a fairly simple wardrobe.  I was holding onto things that I might wear once a year just to say I was wearing it, but honestly, it’s the new, fresh t-shirts that I choose to wear throughout the summer, and well, just so you know how “Plain Jane” I really am, it’s the new, fresh long-sleeved t-shirts that I choose to wear through the cooler months.  I allowed myself to purge the faded, dingy, and “bally” shirts because I knew that I would want to freshen them up with low-cost replacements anyway.
After taking out the suitcase and rotating my clothes, I had a large trash bag full and ready to donate!  Not only that, but there are still several things in my suitcase that were in the “maybe” pile.  When I pull out the suitcase next November (yes, it stays warm that long here!) I’ll be able to touch each item again, and again make a decision about whether or not I need it.  I’m hoping that this is the end of a crammed closet and holding onto things that I don’t really wear!
Just look at how much space I have in the closet now!  It’s amazing!
Would you like to know some ideas for purging unwanted items?  Stacey shared a great list here.

Do you rotate your clothes with the seasons?  Have you got any tips to share how you do that?  We’d love to hear from you!

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