Organizing on My Mind

Snowy South Portland, Maine :)

I woke up this morning at 5:40 a.m. (and it's Saturday!) thinking about all the things I want to get done today to get organized. My poor family is innocently sleeping with no idea of what my plans might mean to their day (mwaaa, ha, haaaa). ;)

Cleaning Around the House. It won't be too bad for my right now sleeping family but I do need them to help me race through the house and set things to right. We need to put everything back where it belongs, vacuum, give the floors a quick wash, then wipe down and windex our world. With all five of us working we can get things shining within an hour.

Usually I try to get the cleaning done during our week, splitting it up over the days. But once in awhile (and also whenever company is coming) we need to get things done on the weekend. And this weekend I am trying to get through some stuff I have been procrastinating. It'll feel good when I am done (that thought will get me through!).

Grocery Shopping. I conquered the Menu Planning for this coming week. WAHOOOO!!! Yesterday I visited the websites of my local grocery stores and looked at the sale flyers and made my plans. Since I love looking at other peoples' menu plans on their blogs, I'll show you mine. :)

For breakfast I buy each their favorite breakfast food, and unless someone feels like making us a big breakfast we each make our own. My present favorite is to take strawberry yogurt and mix in fresh strawberries (and blueberries when I can afford them) and then sprinkle granola on top. It's awesome!

Saturday:
     L: Chinese Buffet (We get it *to go*. To sit in the restaurant is $60+ but if we get it to go and they weigh it, then we average about $25. That's quite a difference! We can sit in the car and keep our $35, thanks!)
     S: Seafood Chowder and Bread

Sunday:
     L: Sandwiches or even snacky food since we'll have an early supper.
     S: Spiral Ham, potatoes, cabbage, rhutabegas, carrots

Monday:
     L: Spaghetti Soup
     S: Pork Loin (tomato based homemade bbq sauce on it), rice, corn, salad

Tuesday:
     L: Zippa Toscana Soup (don't know if I spelled it right!)
     S: Steak (soy sauce based homemade marinade on it), baked potatoes (sliced because they cook faster and brown nicely), green beans, sliced cucumbers

Wednesday:
     L: Taco's for kids. Sylvia's Mexi-Chicken Soup for Robin and I (Not sure the kids will eat it so they can just try it. But I know Robin and I will love it!)
     S: Teriyaki Chicken, stir fry rice noodles, broccoli (which I'll probably put right in my noodles)

Thursday:
     L: Penne and Marinara Sauce
     S: Beef Stew and biscuits

Friday:
     L: Sylvia's Beef and Barley Soup
     S: Pancakes and Bacon (or maybe leftovers)

I am hoping to be really ambitious and precook/freeze some of these ingredients to make my week easier. I was thinking of putting the dry ingredients for the biscuits and for the pancakes into freezer bags and then I'll only have to add the wet. Then I can fry up the hamburger for taco meat, precook chicken (Rachel has chicken taco's), premake marinara sauce. Any soups or stews will go in the crock pot in the mornings.

One of our challenges is that Rachel has to eat dairy free. She's really not the only one though. There are others in the family who need dairy free but they are in denial (they know who they are *wink*). She is casein intolerant too (the protein in milk) so that means she can't have vegetarian cheese. She also can't have Lactaid milk. I never realized how much I relied on dairy until I discovered I needed to stay away from it!

College forms. I really, really, really want to get all College forms and applications in the mail Monday (for my firstborn's fall semester 2011). There's some components I have procrastinated and I want it DONE. It's within reach so I just need to FINISH already. It's easy to procrastinate when you'd rather not admit your sweet baby is all grown up...sniff...sniff...

Homeschool Organizing. I had to tweek our schedule because we took some extra time off over the Christmas break. I had originally planned just one week off but we took two. In some subjects we have to do double duty to catch up, in others it's not necessary. So I am reorganzing their schedule notebooks. I also need to do some photocopying and get some study guides ready. I've let this go through the month of January and we've been plodding through in an unorganized fashion but it's TIME... (This is a good sign that I am coming out of the January slump. *smile*)

If I can get all that done and also make sure the towels are washed and ready for Sunday, if Robin can get to the dump, then I'll be surely ready for the week!! Is this a working weekend for you or a resting weekend? What do you hope to accomplish? Do tell!!

P.S. I'd like to thank my visiters and especially those who have decided to follow my little spot on the web! :) It's nice to have company...