photo by Jacob Bøtter

I recently posted a status update on my Facebook saying that I was ‘meal planning’– I never thought such an innocuous comment would spark such and interest from my friends.  Newlyweds, friends with kids, and friends without kids all seemed fascinated by this!  They all seemed to want to know what my ‘secret’ was. What would guarantee them success.

So, I thought about it.

I am new to meal planning myself, I have often tried in the past (and stuck to it for a week at most) to plan my meals, but I found I lacked inspiration, felt like I was making the same things every week, and was too busy to try something new.

A few things have inspired me to try again, and to make a more diligent effort.  One, I desire to be a better, more organized homemaker, and in turn a blessing to my husband.  Two, I am learning to live on one income and become more frugal with my cooking (I used to cook whatever I wanted with little thought of the cost of ingredients).  Three, it is just easier!

So, here is what I have done:

•    I made a ‘Master List’ of meals I know how to make, know my husband likes (I am only cooking for two at the moment as my 9 month old baby’s palate lacks sophistication!).

•    I started a file of recipes I have collected (from magazines, the internet and friends) and want to try.

•    I then take a sheet of paper, write the days of the week down one side, and the meals I plan to cook, along with any sides (bread, veggies etc.).  I make sure to cross of days when I know we are going  to be eating out, or my husband will not be home for dinner.

•    I make it so that the list is flexible, for example, if Monday says risotto, but it is really hot that day and I don’t want to stand over the stove stirring, I may choose to go with a more simple meal of burritos.

•    I try to include one of the meals from the ‘want to try’ pile to keep some variety in my cooking, and expand my master list.

•    I am also trying to use my crock pot once a week, this allows me to plan for a day when I know I am busy and may not be home in time to prepare a lavish feast and also helps me use inexpensive cuts of meat.

I have found this has simplified my shopping and helped my budget.  I now try only to go to the store once a week with a shopping list written from the meal plan, use coupons and store circulars to buy things on sale and plan my meals accordingly.

By no means is this the definitive meal planning guide, and I have not perfected it yet, but I hope this inspires you and gives you a place to start!

Emma is an aussie pastor’s wife living in California with her husband and adorable daughter. She blogs about her family and loves to craft.

Tagged as: frugal, meals, organizing, planning, simplify

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I think that I am living with Jekyll & Hyde. Seriously. It seems absurd that in the time span of .0003 seconds the mood between my children can go from loving each other wholeheartedly, stroking each other’s faces with fairies flying above their heads sprinkling “happy dust” to a scene from Kujo where the dog is hunting down people and snarling and biting and breaking through windshields to get to them. It is actually unbelievable! And, it is no longer just fighting over toys (we have about 30 cars in our home, and the most coveted one is whatever one the other kid is holding!), it is as though they are fighting over who gets to breathe first. They fight over who gets to open the front door when it is time to leave, they fight over who gets to the car first, they fight over who gets to brush teeth first, they fight over which bar stool to sit in. Yesterday, I witnessed these two precious children fighting over my cottage living magazine, which neither of them cares about at all. It was just the only thing within arms reach when the “selfish moment” kicked in. I mean, seriously?

Tagged as: contentment, kids

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We just raked up about a million leaves in our backyard, and it was a fun and very autumn-ish activity!  Here are just a few spots I recommend you surf over to! I’ve been keeping up on my reader pretty well, surprisingly, must be all that procrastinating I’m doing when I should be writing for NaNoWriMo!

• Win an amazing Epson printer from Simple Mom! I hope I win, but if not, this may have to be my next printer anyways, it seriously does everything!
• Last week and this week I wrote a series on Weaning from the Pacifier at The Lily Pad.
• Freshly Baked had a good article on the Power of Mom Bloggers– Go moms!
• Here’s a cute printable chore chart from flipflops and applesauce.
• To go along with that, List Mama Blog gives us lists on chores for toddlers and chores for preschoolers- very helpful indeed!
• Here’s a great post on starting new (and often random) family traditions from Sara at On Simplicity.

Tagged as: links

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Binders: My #1 Home Organizational Tool

Today I want to share the best way I’ve found to organize my house. Granted, this only organizes a part of our home life, but it definitely saves a lot of time and frustation. I keep several binders, each one for a different purpose. Here are the binders I currently have in use; I’ll elaborate on them below:

1. My Home Management Notebook, this one is my main lifeline!
2. Coupons
3. Recipes
4. Inspiration

1. My Home Management Notebook, or as I affectionately call it, the Bennett Binder. I’m not going to reinvent the wheel here, because you can find out everything you want about this idea from my inspiration, Simple Mom, where she has a whole series on building your notebook. But I will tell you a little bit about how my binder works for me.

Just for fun, here’s a look at how I scrapbooked the front and back (I used an EcoVue binder which has clear slots for inserting paper and is made from recycled materials)– click to enlarge these thumbnails.

I keep random little bits in the inside front pocket, like thank you notes or little items that don’t really belong in a category, but everything else I fit into one of these categories.

• Calendar (including my day’s to-do list, which is Simple Mom’s Daily Docket, and printed out versions of my Google Calendar for the week and month)
• Contacts (includes stamps, address labels and an Emergency Contact list)
• Budget & Receipts (including a page for Account Information (i.e. logins/passwords for various websites, and a zippered pouch for receipts that need to be reconciled)
• A category for me (includes notes/idea pages for each of my blogs, books I want to read, etc.)
• A category for Moondoggie
• Kid stuff (including a Family Babysitter Guide- I’ll have more info on this later!)
• Gift Ideas
• Other
• The back pocket houses an envelope for tickets (upcoming games/events, discount movie tickets), and my weekly dairy order form

Here’s a glimpse at one of my sections. I love these pocket dividers for rounding up loose papers in each section.

2. Coupons used to be kept in the back of my main binder, but they were making it too full. So I now keep them separately. Note that these are not my grocery coupons (those are in an expandable file); these are restaurant and store coupons. I keep them in plastic sleeves in a similar 3-ring binder. You never know when you’re going to need one of those millions of Bed, Bath & Beyond coupons they send out, so this keeps all my store coupons organized and handy.

3. Recipes: In an effort to simplify, I have finally gotten rid of the last few years’ worth of Martha Stewart Living and other magazines I had saved, but not before ripping out pages with dog-eared ideas or recipes. I keep a 3-ring binder where I house all my recipes taken from magazines, categorized by type of recipe, and I try to make a new recipe each week. I figured out it’s much more efficient to tear out pages as I read, and then save what I want to to try to make, rather than keeping the whole magazine, as pretty as they are.

4. Inspiration: In the same fashion, I keep a binder for any craft, project, or decorating inspiration that I find in a magazine. I categorize these in a 3-ring binder as well, with sections like sewing, quilting, home decor, kids, etc. This binder also has a section for my sewing machine, where I keep the quick-reference guide that it came with. I either hole-punch the pages I find, or if it’s a small piece of paper, I’ll slip it into a plastic sleeve. I even keep my own designed project ideas and patterns I’ve drafted myself on tissue paper, folded up and slipped into a plastic sleeve. I started this binder a long time ago, but recently reorganized it and find it much more useful now.

I hope this inspires you with how useful binders can be, and I’d love to hear how you use binders and notebooks to organize.

Tagged as: binders, home, inspiration, organization, simple, the absolute ultimate

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Three Easy Steps to a Bountiful Harvest

Although the harvest season has recently ended, it is never too easy to start planning for your vegetable garden. There is truly nothing as satisfying as a ripe red tomato fresh from the vine in the middle of summer or a warm cup of yummy tomato soup in the cold of winter created using tomatoes canned from your very own garden. If you have never experienced the pleasure of these treats, perhaps now is the time to learn how to grow a vegetable garden. The great thing about gardening as a hobby is that it can be as simple or as involved as you want to make it. It can involve growing a single tomato plant in a pot on your back porch or creating multiple raised vegetable patches in your backyard. You can decide how much time and effort you are willing to put into learning how to grow your own produce and your hard work is sure to reap the benefits of a bountiful harvest you and your family will truly enjoy!!

Step One- Plan your Garden Early

Planning your vegetable garden early is a great distraction from the cold, gray days of winter. The local library is a great place to find books on the different types of herbs and vegetables available in your area and what they require to thrive. Seed catalogues begin arriving in mailboxes shortly after the first of the year, allowing even more time to dream and plan. The first step in planning should be to select a space in your yard that receives sufficient sunlight and test the area for available irrigation which is vital to healthy plants. Then you need to decide which items you want to grow, keeping in mind those that will work well in your climate and that will produce the harvest that you desire.

Step Two- Prepare your Soil

As soon as you can get outdoors and begin to work the soil, it is important to do so. A big part of the growing process is figuring out how to create the best environment for your plants, giving them the opportunity to thrive. Proper soil preparation is the key. You can begin by tilling the dirt to break up any large clumps and get rid of any small rocks or roots you may come across. If you are concerned that your soil might be lacking in good material, you can easily create raised beds that you can fill with your choice of garden soil. If you prefer, you can simply add any of the following to your soil to help strengthen the mineral base: organic matter, peat, or fertilizer. This will ensure your plants have the best possibility of growing and thriving in your garden.

Step Three- Plant your Seeds

While many gardeners of the past used to plant their gardens in nice neat little rows, there is now a new trend in the gardening world. Planting your seeds in small bunches allows for better pollination and is easier maintenance for you when caring for each individual group of plants. Once you have planted your seeds, all that’s left is watering, weeding and fertilizing until your beautiful crops are ready to harvest!! Eat them now or can them for a later treat!! Enjoy!!

Photos provided by Everystockphoto.com

Jenn is a busy mommy to two little ones and the wife of the sweetest, hardest working man in the world. She blogs at www.OneHouseSchoolroom.com about her family’s journey of lots of laughter, a few tears and tons of adventures.

Tagged as: food, gardening, guest posts

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My kids like to eat, and they like to eat good food. I don’t know whether to attribute this to luck or my parenting skills, but I’ll err on the side of giving myself credit any day! Here are my top five tips to help children learn to appreciate good food.

1. Eat good food. I know that I’m a good cook, but sometimes I’m a better cook than others. When the food is good, the kids eat up, accompanied by lots of lip smacking and ‘mmmms’. Even if you don’t like cooking, having a few stock meal ideas on hand will help your kids learn to appreciate good food.

In other words, master a few good dishes, rather than trying to do a whole range halfheartedly. Roast chicken, scrambled eggs and toast or a quick and easy lentil soup are usually crowd-pleasers.

2. Eat different kinds of food. Five different variations on pasta, five nights a week can make anyone turn their nose up. One night make breakfast for dinner, the next lasagna with zucchini, the following tofu in spinach sauce. And yes, my kids eat all three dishes.

3. Propose it often. I’ve heard that it takes a new food being offered fifteen times before a child accepts it. One of our favorite meals is leek and potato pie. My children didn’t like it at first, my now they scarf down every bite.

4. Let them help. My older two children love to cook. They stir the batter or cut things with a plastic knife. Or they help me carry things to the table where we do the preparation. If they’ve made it themselves, children are much more likely to try something new- even Endive Gorgonzola soup

5. Don’t force them. I never make my children finish what is on their plates. On the other hand, they know the rules about eating quite well; this helps them to gauge when they’re hungry and how much they want to eat. Our rules? If they don’t finish dinner, then they don’t get cheese or dessert. If they get down from the table then they are finished eating. No snacks, except for right after school. They can eat as much as they want at meal time, of all the different choices, but I don’t cook special foods for them.

Again, I don’t know if it’s through luck or the things I do. But I do know that my children love good food as much as I do- good thing, considering that we live in France!

Kelly is a blogger, mom and graduate student. She lives in France with her three kids, four cats and handsome French frog of a husband. You can find her at Almost Frugal and Almost Frugal Food.

Tagged as: food, guest posts, kids

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Well, I’m writing away (make sure you check Gidget Loves Language for NaNoWriMo updates; you can click the blue button in my sidebar to see my word count progress!), and therefore not doing a thorough link love list.

Just wanted to point out this week that I have a fun little giveaway on Gidget Loves Language for a children’s Spanish word book!

And here are a few things from my reader this week…

• Freepeats, a network where you can offer/receive free baby, kids, & maternity stuff is offering free lifetime membership this week!
• Check out Kiddio’s fun list of ways to occupy a toddler!
• Here’s a fun & crafty “sandwich” found at Neatorama.

Tagged as: giveaway, links, nanowrimo

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photo by faith goble

Happy Halloween!

Tomorrow starts a very exciting month! I’ll be participating in NaNoWriMo (and posting updates on Gidget Loves Language), moving back to California, and amidst all that, attempting to make some Christmas gifts (wish me luck!).

For you, readers, I have a special treat up my sleeve in the form of several guest posts! I think you’ll really enjoy hearing from these bloggers & friends of mine, on a variety of topics. I plan to keep up with It’s the Absolute Ultimate posts on Friday (I’m taking a break today), and possibly some Weekly Surf Spots, although I’m hoping to spend more time novel-writing and less time reading this month, so we’ll see.

Thanks for reading Gidget Goes Home, and while I’ll be popping in here and there, I’ll be back in full force, California-style, in December!

Tagged as: guest posts, nanowrimo, news

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I started this series with a story about how God has brought special friends into my life at just the right time…

This has probably happend more times than I can count; in fact, I believe that all of my closest friends were hand-picked by God to be used in my life in some way or another. Sometimes God uses them in subtle ways, other times more overtly.

For some odd reason, some of my most kindred spirits have been girls named Kelly/Kelley/Kelli/Kellie. I’m not kidding about this! Part 1 of this series talked about one Kellie, and here’s another.

I met Kelley a few years ago, when my husband joined our church’s softball team in Orange County, CA. We happened to start talking in the stands one evening. Oddly enough, it turned out that we both had thoughts of moving to the Denver area, and specifically, Highlands Ranch. We were considering it for a job transfer, Kelley had randomly found it on the internet when searching for places to live outside California.

Neither of us really were sure these moves were going to happen but it spurned the start of conversation, and eventually a friendship. We later found other odd things in common~ we both have February birthdays, and are 8 months older than our husbands, who have October birthdays. Not to mention the fact that it turned out, that semester, her younger sister was in the Spanish class I was teaching.

Fast forward a few years, and here we both are living in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. They’ve been here a year longer than us, and thanks to Kelley, I’ve been involved in the most wonderful moms’ Bible study since the week we moved here. Now, next month we are going our separate ways, as their family moves east, and ours moves west. But I can’t imagine our year in Colorado without Kelley’s family. Their friendship has been such an integral part in our being here.

I love looking back a few years, and seeing the way God designed a certain story to unfold. Stay tuned for at least one more Kindred Spirits story.

Tagged as: colorado, friends, God, provision

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