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Organizing Kids’ Schoolwork

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How To Organize Your Children’s Schoolwork

School has started in many places, which means more mounds of paper clutter to keep under control. Here are some tips to help keep all of that school paperwork from multiplying, reproducing and generally taking over your home and your life.

  • Set a certain time and place to go through your kids’ backpacks and paperwork each day. Use this time to sign all those papers you need to sign, mark upcoming meetings or events on the calendar and sort through everything.

    The best time and place to organize schoolwork will vary for each family. For us, it was best to do it the moment the kids walked through the door while it was fresh on their minds. I would have a snack ready for them, they would explain the papers to me and while I was dealing with them (signing, writing on the calendar or admiring their handiwork), they would tell me about their day.

    Then I would return everything that needed to go back into their backpacks, trash the rest or put it in a special place or folder. This helps prevent things from getting tossed on the counter or table where they are eventually lost or forgotten.

  • Of course you will need a calendar and/or small bulletin board or dry erase board.

    My calendar has very large squares where I simply mark what needs to be done. If there is something very important that I must not forget no matter what, I mark it in red, but I write everything else in pencil in case I need to change it. Then I can just erase it and make the necessary changes.

    There have been times when I used a purple pen if I wanted the kids to remember something. I read about a study which found that people will remember things better when marked in purple.

    Use different colored markers or pens for different things. For example, one child’s events will all be in green, all dentist appointments are in blue or whatever works best for you.

  • If there are special papers that go with an event, I either paper clip them to the calendar page, pin them to a small bulletin board or place them in a folder, making a star on the calendar so I know to look on the bulletin board or in the folder for the paper that goes with the event.

    All my events seem to fit fine on one large square of a calendar. If your events don’t fit, you might need to look at changing a few things in your life and cutting back on some things. This could be a sign you are too busy.

  • There are many many fancy and expensive calendar systems out there. I personally find them to be more confusing and more work than they are worth but if they work for you, use one.

    I know that some of you who work away from home need day planners and other organization systems but that is another whole subject that I deal with in my e book Plan It, Then Do It.

  • Another system some people like is to have a folder for each child with special papers in it. For example, if one child is having a class party, I will mark the class party on the calendar but then place the paper with all the info about it in the folder. Once again, I would place a star by the event to remind me more info is in the folder. Once a week these folders should be sorted through so they don’t get cluttered.

  • Always keep folders of any kind in an upright position in a holder. Most folders or papers that are laid in a horizontal position get forgotten, lost, piled on or not used.

  • KEEP IT SIMPLE. This could be the most important point of all. If it is complicated and too involved  neither you or your family won’t bother to use it. Sometimes it isn’t our families which are the problem but the system we choice to use. Just because it comes highly endorsed  by a famous organizer or some such does not mean it will work for you so don’t fight it and try something different.

Well I will sign off for now. I am looking at the piles of paper on my own desk and think I might need to take a break, practice what I preach and clear my desk. : )

      -Jill

 

Photo By: magma666

Water Savings

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I am a big fan of saving money in any way possible!  We conserve water at our house.  If we are just rinsing something out we save the water to put on our garden.  If we do not finish a glass of water we put it into a special pitcher and it is given to our cats and dogs.  If we find a bottle of water we pour it on an outdoor plant. Sheri D.

 

Some families couldn’t handle this next tip but we always drank after each other so I kept a small lightweight jug of water in the fridge. The kids would take a drink out of it and pop it back in to stay cold. I never had a pile of dirty glasses and at an earlier age the kids were able to open the fridge and get a drink so I didn’t have to get water out of the sink for them to drink each time.

I guess most people now have refrigerators with the water on the door but I sure did love my jug because it saved not only water but prevented me from having to wash so many glasses and finding glasses sitting all over the house.

-Jill

Fancy Inexpensive Dinner Breads

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canned regrigerator biscuits in bundt pan

FANCY SCHMANCY dinner breads cheap…

Use a decoratively shaped Bundt pan,

a stick of butter or margarine,

3 cans of biscuits (jumbo or regular) (you could use frozen dinner roll too)

seasonings to suit the meal…for instance, serving Italian?  Use basil and Parmesan cheese

Melt butter or margarine in bottom of Bundt pan evenly. Sprinkle seasonings. Then put biscuits in on end, like stacking dimes, one at a time, to allow seasonings and butter to ooze between each one. Bake as directed on the can. Then simply turn out onto a serving plate, and VOILA! –a beautiful bread ring.  You can use cheddar cheese and jalapeno for Mexican…brown sugar and cinnamon for pull apart cinnabuns…rosemary and olive oil and olives for Italian or Greek… ANY assortment you can think of… dried tomatoes and olive oil… try it!

-Vicky B.

All I can say is yum! I am going to have to try this one!

Tawra

 

Photo By: C Jill Reed

How Do I Winterize An Outside Faucet?

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Winterizing Outside Faucet

How Do I Winterize An Outside Faucet

From: Janice J.

How do you use styrofoam to protect an outside faucet? It is getting colder and I am worried. Thanks!

I would duct tape a big chunk around the faucet. Maybe break it apart so it fits snugly around the faucet and then just duct tape away until it’s on there tightly.

      -Tawra

Depending on your faucet, I have taken 2 large styrofoam cups and put one inside of the other then taped. Be sure to get it as close to the house as you can.

This really works. I had my outside faucet freeze one year and what a mess so I don’t chance it any more especially since it is so easy to do.

      -Jill

Mike: It might also be good to stuff some rags into any places where air might get in, wrap the outside with a plastic trash bag and tape it with heavy duct tape to prevent moisture from getting in. (If it’s in a sunny area, a black plastic bag will keep it warmer in the daytime, too be cause the black absorbs sunlight.) If you manage to keep cold air and moisture out and provide some insulation with the foam, rags and/or some other insulating material, it should not freeze.

Of course, if it’s possible to turn off the water to that faucet from inside the house and then open the faucet to let any water drain out before you wrap it, that would be even better.

Photo By: rwkvisual

Easy And Inexpensive Cake

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Easy And Inexpensive Cake

I just wanted to share a quick and inexpensive tip for making cakes. Buy a box cake mix on sale. If it is a white or yellow cake, add 10 oz. diet sprite, diet 7-up, or the zero calorie sparkling water. Then cook the cake as instructed on the box. You do NOT need to add eggs, butter, oil, water or anything else to the mix, just the soda and the cake mix itself.

Diet Dr. Pepper or Diet Coke are fine for chocolate cakes, but if added to the yellow cake mix, it makes it a yucky gray color. NO added calories, no eggs, no milk, no water, no oil…. Voila! A VERY MOIST cake for .99 + soda (you can get the whole 2 liter for .99 cents and you only need to use 10 oz.)

 

Ok, I admit, this does sound strange but I just might have to give a try. I have heard of doing this with pancake mix before so maybe it would work with cakes too.

      -Tawra

For more money saving recipes and tips check out Dining On A Dime Cookbook.

 

photo by: kimberlykv

Great Things To Do With Baby Food Jars

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With a baby and two preschoolers, I don’t have the time or inclination to make homemade baby food. My Meijer grocery store puts Gerber baby food on sale frequently, and with coupons it’s the same price as generic.

One way to reuse those Gerber plastic fruit/veggie tubs is to rinse them out and put cheerios, goldfish, pretzels, and/or raisins in them for trips to the park, zoo, or car trips in the van. They contain just the right amount of snack for a preschooler, the child can get the lid on and off, and I don’t care if they get lost or are used as a sand toy!

[Read more…] about Great Things To Do With Baby Food Jars

Menu – Yankee Noodles, Bottled (Canned) Fruit Cake

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Tips:

Sometimes we tend to make our meals so much more complicated than they need to be. I was blessed to be able to watch many women prepare their meals who learned to cook during the 30’s and 40’s. Some were busy stay at home moms. Others were moms who worked away from home and some were moms who helped their husbands on the farm.

These women used some tricks to prepare their meals that made meal preparation easier and faster. Here are a few of them:

    • They didn’t worry if they had homemade biscuits or muffins for every meal. Often for a daily meal they would just place a plate of bread (not always homemade bread, either) on the table to eat with butter and jam or honey. In some homes, this was a staple at every meal.

 

    • They would keep things cleaned and ready to use for a relish dish like carrot sticks, celery sticks, olives, pickles, sliced cucumbers, tomatoes or fresh cauliflower.

 

    • Hard boiled eggs or pickled beets were kept on hand to place in a bowl at the last minute.

 

    • They didn’t hesitate to open some canned fruit to pour into a bowl and set on the table to eat by itself without whipped cream or any added extras.

 

  • Canned vegetables were a life saver for many of them. Then they could just warm some canned peas to set on the table.

 

They served some combination of all of these at most meals. Then they would add a potato dish, rice or noodles and a meat and they would have dinner.

Sometimes we read cooking magazines and see very elaborate meals on TV and think if this isn’t the kind of food we make we must have failed as good cooks. Each dish doesn’t need five or more ingredients in it to make it good. That is probably one of the places where our diets started going down the tubes. We forgot to keep things simple.

You also save money when you keep it simple because you’re not using as many ingredients or extras like whipped cream or special spices.

Just like in the old days, your family will probably enjoy an icy cold canned peach just as much as a fresh organically grown peach you had to study to determine how ripe it was before you took it home to try to peel and slice it. It’s you, mom and dad, who make the meal special just by being together with the family, not the pedigree of your fruits and vegetables.

 

Menu:

Yankee Noodles*
Relish Dish
Bread and Jam
Bottled (canned) Fruit Cake*

Yankee Noodles

From: Alice B. (I learned this recipe in junior high. It’s tasty, quick to cook, inexpensive, and dirties only one pan!)

1 lb. lean ground beef
8 oz. uncooked noodles
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 large can tomatoes
Salt and pepper (to taste)

Brown meat and onion. Drain off excess grease. Add noodles and canned tomatoes. Chop tomatoes a little bit while in the pan. Bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and simmer covered for 7 minutes. Stir. Cover and simmer 8 more minutes. That’s it!

You can add other ingredients you may have on hand like chopped green peppers, black olives, mushrooms, fresh herbs, etc. You may want to top with grated cheese. (Never cook the noodles first. They must cook with the rest of ingredients to absorb their flavors.)

I love, love, love recipes that take only one pan and this one really does! Often, people will call something a one dish meal but they end up using 3 pans, 2 mixing bowls and 1 casserole dish. (That’s the one dish, I guess.) Now you can see why I really appreciated your recipe. : )

      -Jill

 

Bottled Fruit Cake

From: Ruth P.

CAKE USING BOTTLED FRUIT – (Sometimes we have an excess of home bottled fruit and need to use it up before it gets old. This is a great way to use it!)

1 quart of fruit with liquid
4 cups flour
4 tsp. soda
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cloves
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup oil
4 eggs
Raisins and nuts if desired

Blend all of the above ingredients at the same time. Bake at 350° for 35 to 45 minutes. This makes one sheet cake or two cakes in 9×13 inch pans. This is a nice change from just using the fruit for a crisp, cobbler. or pie. You don’t need to put frosting on this, which can save time, too.

 

Photo by: Yoames

Medical Savings

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Medical Savings

We had to take my son to the emergency room again the other night. We aren’t the type to go for every little thing and usually go only for big, gaping, bleeding things but it does seem like we have to go there pretty frequently– so much so that I keep an "emergency room" bag packed and hanging by my purse. It includes snacks, sewing supplies, books to read and so on because going to the emergency room can and usually does mean a many hour wait. When the kids were little, I would sometimes have to take the child that wasn’t hurt with me, too. They would get hungry or restless and the things in my bag would help.

Recently, my son dropped a large log on his toe, cutting it and smashing it severely. (This is a hazard you don’t always hear people talk about with regard to heating your home with wood)  He is fine and needs just to be on crutches for a few days but he had a good tip for me to give to our readers.

When the doctors were fixing his toe, the nurse took out a large tube of antibacterial ointment to apply to it. He asked her "Are you throwing that tube away?" She said "Yes," and asked if he wanted it, since he had paid for it. He told me that it is a large enough tube that it contains enough ointment to last his family 3-4 years. Then she took a huge piece of gauze and cut a small piece from it. Again he asked to keep the remains.

You can ask for these things. My mom has gotten scissors that they used when putting in stitches or tweezers when they took out stitches. Also, be careful if you are admitted to the hospital to take your regular medications with you or have a family member bring them to you. These are called self administered drugs (medications which you take on a daily basis). Be sure to tell the doctor you are taking them and have them with you. Not all hospitals will allow you to do this but some will, so you might as well take them and ask if you can use your own medicines. It will be much less expensive than if the hospital provides them.

My mom had to go the the hospital and stayed there one night. They asked what regular (self administered) medications she took and she told them. The hospital staff gave the medications to her while she was there. Later, she received a bill for $529 just for 3 pills and 1 aspirin. She called the pharmacy and found out that a 3 month supply of all of the same pills together would only cost $125. If she had brought her own medications with her it would have cost nothing.

This is a perfect example of how many leaders (people in charge of hospitals, schools, government and business) are so messed up in their thinking and can’t use common sense regarding how to save money on medical costs, school costs, business costs, etc.

It isn’t that we need more money but we need to use what we have more wisely.

      -Jill

P.S. I didn’t write this to open up a can of worms about the medical issues happening in our country right now. I’m not burying my head in the sand, I just don’t want arguing on the blog. Please keep this in mind when you comment because if there is negative stuff I won’t post it. I just wanted you to be aware of some things you can do to save yourself money and to let you know not to be afraid to ask to take these things home with you.

P.P.S. I do appreciate all of the great nurses and sometimes doctors who ask if I would like to take things home because I have paid for them and they are about to be discarded. These people are a super help and kind in so many ways. Thank you nurses.

 

photo by: agacombahia

Save Money Using Gift Cards Specials

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Save Money Using Gift Cards Specials

If you like to eat out, check and see if your favorite restaurant is offering gift card specials right now.

I just drove by Applebee’s and if you buy a $50 Gift Card, you get a $10 gift card also.

At Spangles (a local hamburger joint), if you buy a $10 gift card you get a free Christmas CD. My brother and his family were going there to eat. They saw the deal, so they bought the gift cards first, then ordered dinner and paid for it with the gift card. They got a free Christmas CD to take home just for eating out that night which they were going to do anyway.

So if you’re eating out, see if the restaurant is offering any gift card specials before you order. If so, get a gift card first, then order, then pay for your meal with the gift card!

       -Tawra

photo by:  bfishadow

Fixing A Broken Hairdryer

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Ground Fault GFCI Outlet

Hi Tawra and Jill,

Just wanted to share something I learned the other day. My husband was taking a power nap on Saturday morning, and I went to the bathroom to dry my hair. My hair dryer would not turn on. I thought the breaker was thrown, so I went to the garage, but all appeared normal. I then took the hair dryer to our hall bathroom, and it wouldn’t turn on there either. I figured it broke, and tossed in the trash.

When my husband got up I told him I needed to get a new hair dryer. He said that he might be able to fix it, so I dug it out of the trash and wiped off that mornings grits.

Next I saw him going back and forth to the garage and bathrooms. Then he told me something I never knew. Our two bathrooms are GFI grounded, whatever that means. All I had to do was push the red re-set button in the hall bathroom and power was then restored to both bathrooms. There was not a thing wrong with the hair dryer.

If he had not been there to find this out, I would have probably headed to Wal-mart for a new one, spending $10-$15. So his few minutes of looking around saved us quite a bit of money. BTW, the hair dryer and curling iron were Christmas gifts from my mom. She always calls to see what I want and I like practical gifts, not things that just accumulate but things I can actually use. One year my dad got me new baking pans. Why do I need bottles of perfume, expensive jackets or purses?

Rachel

 

Photo By: Brent Kern1