The kids and I love making brownies together. What’s even better though is eating them together!  I wish I could say that having the kids helping me bake is always a joyous occasion in our house but usually it stresses us all out. I am not the regular cook of the house, hubby is, and he is just awesome at multitasking while cooking! The kids are usually right under foot as he cooks and everything magically comes out tasting exactly as it should. I on the other hand can get easily distracted and forget which ingredient goes next. I usually line everything up and measure it all out as I go but inevitably it happens…. something is forgotten when a child starts arguing over whose turn is next to pour what.

I finally found what works for me!  This time before the kids came in the kitchen I got all the ingredients out and measured them in individual bowls. And here I thought this stuff was just for TV and making pretty pictures! Then I had the kids come over and gave them each what they could pour in, no fuss no muss and everyone gets to lick the bowl at the end!

It’s really common sense but I think I avoided it before because I didn’t want to dirty the extra dishes. In reality it was just a few extra bowls but we all were much happier during the process! Well worth it!

Are there ways you can simplify in order to cut out stress?

Having a smaller house is certainly easier to clean! I love that it only takes me 10 minutes compared to the old 45 minutes to vacuum the downstairs. Less stuff equals less mess, who would have thought?

I have noticed one little problem though, the kids rooms are so small that when they make a normal mess it seems so much worse! In the old house you could still see the floor have room to play and honestly, just forget about it until the next day if you really had too. Not anymore! There is no room for a mess and still get around.

To fix this problem,  I got out my trusty timer and put the kids up to a challenge. I gave them 5 minutes. They had to pick up toys and put them back in their designated “home.” Whoever worked diligently the whole time and picked up as much as they could, would get a small treat at the end. Five minutes is just about long enough to get the whole room picked up if they do it without dragging feet. That is where the treat comes in. Nothing wrong with a little bribery, I mean motivation!

This works for us big kids too. Using a timer will help you stay on task for a specified amount of time. Take 5, 10 or 15 minutes and do a sweep through the house putting away out of place items. Pick a time each day to do this and you will be one step closer to taming the clutter monster.

School is back in session for us, so we have been spending some time getting things in order for the new school year. I have one child entering 5th grade, one in st and the other in preschool. I can’t believe how big these kids are getting!
Here is what we do to organize our school shopping experience:

Consolidate Your Lists
With three kids I was done shuffling multiple lists around so we consolidated everything we needed into one big list. Having a master list saved on time dramatically which is a necessity when shopping with the kids in tow!

Shop For Sales
The school supply circulars are starting to come out in the newspapers, so be on the lookout for the best deals.

Sort It All Out
Now sort all the supplies out for each child. To make sorting easier and to coral all of the school supplies I used a separate bin for each child. As we checked the supplies off of the lists we then put them in the designated bin. Now we can tuck them away until school starts and easily add the few extra things we need to pick up.

Label It
Now that you have all of your school supplies neat and orderly, don’t forget the labels! Every school has different rules for what should be labeled. Make sure you label backpacks, lunchboxes, clothing and outerwear too! After you make the investment on all of your back to school gear you don’t want it to end up lost forever!

School starts next week for our boys and I am getting them back into an evening routine before the big day! I am a huge believer in setting regular routines with the kids. In the long run it makes everyone happy. I’m not saying you can’t deviate every once in a while.  Although sticking to a plan allows your children to know what is expected from them and causes less arguments when it is time to turn out the lights.

Here is what a typical evening looks like in our home…

5:15-6:15 pm: Prepare and eat dinner.
6:15-6:30 pm: Clean up after dinner. Make sure lunch boxes are out for the next day. Oldest son loads dishwasher.
6:30-6:45 pm: I take the dog for a walk with or without the kids. This is much more relaxing without the kids.
6:45-7:45 pm: The younger kids play inside or outside, usually climbing on Daddy. My oldest son uses this time for homework if he did not do it after school.
7:45-8:30 pm: Shower time! The kids get showered up, stories read and off to bed.

I know exciting stuff right? I know routines don’t sound fun but I feel it’s necessary to give your family some sort of guideline to go on. Choose a schedule that works for you. You might prefer doing some of your morning chores like packing lunches the night before. I prefer to do them in the morning. I find that in this season in my life I prefer to wake up before the kids and not stay up as late at night. Believe me this has been a very gradual process, I am NOT a morning person. I have found that this just works better for us.

Do you ease your kids back into a school routine?

It has been a week since we closed on our new house and we are already 3/4 of the way unpacked and put away. Downsizing has been a great experience but I have to say I am missing our old walk in closets in every room. Yes, EVERY room! We had tons of extra storage available and now we have barely reach in closets in all of the rooms but the master bedroom.

This new smaller house is not only making us get more creative with storage but we are really trying to simplify everything including cleaning. Since everything is more compact I am trying to lessen the amount of products we use and the routine in which we use them.

While I was contemplating my next post here I was putting something away in the bathroom and noticed how grimy the bars of soap were already getting in the showers. I think we will all switch to a body wash instead of bar soap and use shampoo/soap dispensers which take little to no maintenance besides filling them up. Then no soap grime to clean up. One product cuts out two problems, storage and grime!

It’s simple really, whether you are wanting to streamline your cleaning or storage take a walk around your home and see what you can do to make things easier. Chances are you can come up with a few ideas to try out and see what works best for you. Don’t be afraid to try something new!