SWAG BUCKS~I LOVE IT!

Take a look over to the right..see the big Swag Bucks Box?? I joined this about a year ago and I can assure you that it is no scam!! I've recieved prizes like collector sports cards for my boys amazon gift cards, movie posters and more. All you do is download the toolbar, and search through them..simple!! Every once in awhile when you do a search you'll win swag bucks!! When you get enough swag bucks you hop over to the swag buck store and purchase items. There are also other ways to win swag bucks and prizes like sweepstakes, shopping, codes, etc. Take a look and if you decide to sign up, I'd love if you signed up through my widget. Who doesn't like "free" stuff? Especially in this economy!!!!

CHRISTMAS CHECK LIST

Your Holiday Schedule!
So much to do and so little time to do it! Don’t worry it will all get done! First things first you need to make your list! Yes another list. If your hosting Christmas Eve or Christmas Day your going to have to get in your shopping, prepping, cooking and cleaning. No problem.

Friday: Start your list. What you need to do, and what day it needs to be done.
Saturday/Sunday: Make your shopping list and check it twice. You won’t have time to run out for anything at the last moment.
Saturday:

• Clean the refrigerator out.
• Go grocery shopping.
• Go to the Liquor store.
• Anything you can clean, chop, cut or slice do so before you even put it away. Like the celery for the stuffing, or the lettuce for salad. Clean it and chop it and put it in baggies as soon as you get home from the grocery store. This will save you a lot of time this week when its time to prep food.

Sunday:

• Start cleaning. Concentrate on areas that your guest will be in. This is mostly going to be your living areas. Close the bedroom doors if you can’t get to them. Put a little extra effort into the powder room and the dining room. Be sure your kitchen is clean and sparkling. No one wants to walk into a dirty kitchen and then eat food from there!
• If you have any last minute wrapping to do, get it done today.
• Anything you can prep and make now do so. Many things can be done ahead of time. If you have any questions be sure to ask me or Robyn.
• Set your table. Get it all set up and throw a sheet over it.
• Figure out all your serving dishes and serving spoons now. I’ve said before, have a “go to table”. Place all your serving dishes there. Also put your coffee cups, creamer, sugar, to go containers, etc. Anything you may need or use that day put on or under this table. This way you (or your MIL) won’t be rummaging through cabinets looking for the gravy boat.

Monday:

• Do any last minute cleaning today. If your hosting today, be sure you have fresh guest towels out and plenty of toilet paper in the bathroom. Give everything a quick once over.
• Delegate. Give everyone something to do. Take out the garbage, set up chairs, unload the dishwasher, sweep the floor, whatever needs doing. Make a list of what you need done and put someones name next to it. Let the family know that you expect these chores done by a certain time and specify that time! I usually send my husband out of the house on mindless errands like getting bread or ice. He tends to either get in the way or get on my nerves. So he is better off out of the house!

Friday:

• If your hosting don’t wait till the last minute to start things. First thing you should do is give the house a quick clean up.
• Take a shower
• Start heating up foods you’ve already prepared.
• Get your “bar” together. Put out glasses, ice, and wine. Put out your appetizers. Give yourself a glance in the mirror, apply some lipstick, put on a smile and greet your guests!
• See how easy that was! All you need is a plan of attack. Make your list and stick to it. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Relax and don’t forget to enjoy the holiday! You deserve it!

TIS THE SEASON TO BE ORGANIZED

Organization is the one thing that will get us through the season smiling and singing! As long as we stay on schedule we will get it all done in a timely manner!
With today being the first weeks of December, we really need to plan out our month. Sit down with a calendar and figure out what needs doing week by week first. Then you can break each week up into daily tasks.

Example:
1st week of December: Clean house, and decorate.
Monday: Clean and move furniture or box up non seasonal things to make room for decorations
Tues: Bring up decorations and begin to decorate all but the tree
Wed: Get tree and decorate
Thursday: Clean
Fri: Make list of anything needed like new wreath, extra lights, etc and make a trip to the store.
The key to these lists are we aren’t doing it all in one day. If we try and do it all in one day we will fall behind in our normal routines. If we fall behind in our routines the house will fall apart and we will have to play catch up. Do a bit at a time.
Each week have a specific plan and stick to it. Don’t try to decorate and make cookies and shop and wrap all in one week. Your house will be a wreck, the laundry will be a mountain, and you will be exhausted and worthless to your family. Break it down into enjoyable and doable tasks. Don’t try and do it all in one day, the rest of your chores still need to be done. Keep your list small. If you break it up into a task each day, the rest of the house will survive, you’ll have the time to still make dinner, the children will still be happy and you won’t become overwhelmed.
Try and keep your tasks all the same for the week. If your baking cookies, reserve the second week of December for baking. Know that you will have to take the time to prepare your recipe list. Search your pantry for needed ingredients, make a shopping list, go shopping and ultimately begin to bake. Remember to have storage containers and a place to store the cookies.
Save another week for shopping and wrapping and checking your lists twice! If your making gifts, set aside time this week to do it. Schedule it in.
Don’t forget to save a day each week for your cleaning. Don’t begin your holiday tasks until your daily chores are done. You will enjoy doing it much more if you don’t have 3 loads of laundry hanging over your head. Stay organized, stay on tasks, and don’t be lazy this month. We really don’t have time to lose as Christmas is now only 24 days away! Will you be ready in 3 weeks?

Dear Dawn,

I have nearly 25 guests coming over for Thanksgiving dinner. I am panicking on what to do and when to do it. Help. I’ve never even made a turkey before!

Scared of turkey day!

Dear scared,

No need to panic. Look back on the posts that I've had up and follow as many of the tips that will help. My favorite source for recipes is WHATS COOKING? Robyn will have fabulous recipes up this weekend that will impress the pickiest eaters at your table! Rob makes real food, not the too fancy, 120 hard to find, never heard of ingredients, kind of food. This is the real deal, family food, like Mom and Grandma made. Of course with a little twist of her own, but that twist is what makes her recipes sooo good!! Check her out!! Take last weeks challenge and start a Thanksgiving Planner. Writing things down and doing as much in advance as possible will assure you peace of mind and a perfect day. One thing I would recommend is recruiting the help of an older relative or your mother. Trust me they love to answer questions and share all that they know. They’ve done this many times and can help. Keep checking in here and over at Robyns blog for all you need to do to be prepared. I’ll give you challenges to complete and lists to get through. If you didn’t follow the fall cleaning schedule than take this week to really get going. Especially the rooms that your company will be in like the dining room and the kitchen. The best advice I can give is to not get stressed. No one will win. Its not a contest. Everyone will enjoy themselves no matter what. The worse that could happen is you burn the turkey. So you order a pizza and you laugh about it. It will make a great story for years to come. So relax and be thankful for your family and enjoy the holiday.

The Holiday Full Of Traditions! Thanksgiving!!

In my family we have a turkey platter that was given to my Mother from her mother. It is very ugly and its plastic. My Mother has since passed it and Thanksgiving on to me. It may be ugly and plastic but when I see it I think of Thanksgivings past. It has scratches all over it from the previous years of cutting up turkey and its turkey picture is fading fast. While I would love to get a new one, I couldn’t possibly part with the one I have. I think everyone in the family would miss it. So while I can’t or won’t get a new Turkey Platter, I do want to find something that will evoke memories of Thanksgiving in my home.

One of the things I love to do for Thanksgiving is decorate. I’m sure that seeing the same decorations each year will be memorable to my children and neices and family. I found these adorable Straw Turkeys at William Sonoma.

I also plan to give my Mother (the official pie maker), this cute pumpkin pie baking dish, and then serve it on these adorable pumpkin pie plates. Found at Lillian Vernon. There are currently many fall decorating items on sale at Lillian Vernon also. Check out the centerpieces for your holiday table!

One of the traditions I’m looking forward to starting this year is a family journal of thanks. I am buying this journal that I found on Amazon. I will have each family member write down what they are thankful for. Each year I will bring it out and we will all read and write in it after dinner. I think this will become a favorite and cherished tradition and also create a heirloom for future generations.

So start your own family Thanksgiving traditions and make memories that will last a lifetime for your children. Create an atmosphere of love and family that will be sure to stir up warm and loving thoughts of this great holiday. Your family will be thankful for it.

Thanksgiving Planner

Don’t you wish that your grandmother left you a guide to the holidays? Wouldn’t it be nice to just reach for a binder that she prepared for you with step by step instructions of how to create the perfect Thanksgiving, or to recreate her perfect Thanksgiving? Well how about we start our own guide for the children, grandchildren or your future daughter in law? I love this idea and think that it is not only useful but something that our children will someday cherish.

This week your tasks will be simple. I want you to go to the store and pick up a notebook/binder. This will be your Thanksgiving Guide. In this book you will have your guests list,menu, recipes, table settings, centerpieces, time line, dos and don’ts, Turkey Hot line number, and much more. This book is going to be a valuable resource every year. Eventually you will pass it down to your daughter or other member who takes over the Thanksgiving holiday. Its your torch to pass! You can get very creative with this.

What you need

A three ring binder

Dividers-Spend a little extra and get the thick dividers with pockets. How many you need depends on how many categories your going to have. I would start with ten.

Alternatively, you could use a large photo album. Whatever you think would best suit your needs and your vision of what you want this to look like.

Thats it! Now you can decorate it anyway you like. You may want to print some cute Thanksgiving Graphics for the cover and each section. Click on the graphics below to see some wonderful graphics I found online that you can print out for free to decorate your planner.

For you girls who scrapbook, this is a fabulous time to get your creative juices flowing. Use lace, and ribbon, or old pictures, anything that makes this personal and pretty.

We will continue to create this wonderful reference book and heirloom next week! So lets get started with just this basic task and make a wonderful legacy for our children.

Get A Schedule, Get Rid Of Stress!

With the busy holiday season we can get a lot of stress. You can relieve some of this stress by knowing what your routine is. When your home is clean, you are automatically going to feel less stress. Remember that your family feeds off your stress level too. So create a calm and peaceful environment for them. Lead by example for your children!

Make a schedule and stick to it.
There should be a time for everything and everything will be done in it’s time.
Your children have due dates on homework and your husband has deadlines that he has to meet. Well as housewives, we too have deadlines and due dates. We have projects that need completing and jobs that need to be completed. Begin by looking what we do as a job and your attitude will automatically change.


When we were out in the workforce and held paying jobs, we had responsibilities. We were responsible to complete our work in a timely manner. We took a lunch hour and maybe two ten minute breaks in an eight-hour day.

As housewives, we have more control of our time, but we can sometimes be too lax in our scheduling. It is very easy to sit around in our pj’s and play on the computer in the mornings, and then before you know it its noon. The breakfast dishes are still in the sink, the beds are still unmade, and there is nothing out for dinner. Stress starts to creep in. Now were behind on our job. We must be extremely disciplined with ourselves. We are the managers of our homes. We should be managing it just as we would any business. A home that is maintained on schedules and routines will run smoothly. Find a routine that will suit your needs. We are all in different phases of our lives. Some have infants, some have school age children and some are empty nesters.

You have to have your morning routine. Making breakfasts, beds, cleaning up, getting dressed, and general daily tasks must be completed every day. Discipline yourself to get things done before you take your break. Doing things in the same order, every day and they will become habit.

Have your children on a very specific and disciplined routine. For my boys they get up at the same time every day. They make their beds, get dressed and then come downstairs for breakfast. They then go and brush their teeth, get their backpacks and are ready to go to school. There is never a change in this routine. They know what is expected of them in the mornings and they do it out of habit. When they come home from school, they put their backpacks away, sit down, have a snack, and talk about their day. Then they get their homework done. After homework, they have one or two small chores. They have free time when everything else is completed. They know what their routine is. There are no surprises.

Here are some tips to get you into good habits and routines

Make a list of what needs to be done everyday in each room

Make a schedule of what time each chore should be done. Give yourself a deadline for vacuuming the living room, or a “due date” to go grocery shopping. Make it the same for every day and every week.

Try to schedule doctor, hair or dentist appointments always on the same day. I always try to schedule appointments on Tuesdays.

Keep calendars for every member of your house. Both boys have their own calendar as do myself and husband. I also have a master calendar that I can put all appointments on. However, with individual calendars we can do a quick glance to see what is coming up for the week. The boys put due dates for projects on theirs, sports practice, birthday parties, and dr. appointments. This is something that is personal to everyone and you need to find what works for you and your family.

Create a chore list for each member of your household, and specify when you expect each of those chores to be done.

Do not procrastinate. It is essential to get things done when needed. If you put things off, you will get behind and you will become stressed. You will not be prepared for the curve balls that life throws us. Remember its easier to keep up than to catch up! Also remember that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!

SAMPLE SCHEDULE
MON
Daily routine (wipe up bathrooms, make bed, straighten out house, load/unload dishwasher, laundry)
Clean our the refrigerator
Go grocery shopping
Do any vacuuming that may need done or mopping
Dinner
TUES
Daily routine
Go to any appt. scheduled
Project day. This is the day I will do out of the ordinary cleaning. Such as clean a cupboard, closet, or work out in the garden
Dinner
WED
Daily routine
Strip beds, and big clean the upstairs (bedrooms and bathrooms)
Dinner
THURS
Daily routine
Big clean the downstairs
Order out
FRI
Daily routine
Free day…I have it done for the weekend.
Dinner
SAT/SUN
Daily routines
Cooking, relaxing, reading, going out, boy’s games, family time etc.

This is every day every week, there is no change. I always know what I am doing and I am less stressed because of it. Remember, after doing something for 28 days in a row, it will become a habit.
Another good habit to get into is a night time routine. Have the kids pick out their clothes for the next day, have their back packs ready to go, any permission slips signed, lunch money ready, etc. Be sure they have a set bedtime and stick to it. Obviously there may be certain occasions where they stay up a bit late, but in general try and keep it the same each night.

Meal Planning! Save Time Save Money!

Save time, save money and save your sanity.

How many times have you stood at the refrigerator staring at what’s inside trying to figure out a balanced meal?

Staring and staring and not coming up with anything better than crescent rolls stuffed with onions and pickles.

Stop driving yourself crazy at meal time and plan out your week with specials.

Restaurants do this to stay on a budget and to save time, and we can learn a thing or two from the way they prepare for their dinner rushes.

Each Sunday, scan your paper for sales and coupons. If you see that ground beef is on sale along with green peppers, make meatloaf one night.

Make your menu out for the week. Of course you can hop over to my friend, Robyns blog:

WHAT'S COOKING? She has delicious and easy recipes over there to give you inspiration and a change of pace! Be sure to try her Taste Of Home winning recipe for Pasta Primavera!

Once you have your menu written out, its time to clean out your refrigerator. Believe me it’s so easy to get to the store and wonder, “do I have eggs at home?” Of course you buy them just to be safe and when you get home you find a dozen eggs. Now you just spent money unnecessarily.

So the fridge is clean, and your menu is written out. Go through and figure out what ingredients you will need for each recipe. Be sure to check that you don’t already have something hidden behind the box of cereal in the pantry. And prepare your grocery list. Monday morning, go shopping. Get it done and out of the way for the rest of the week. Yes, your produce will stay fresh for the week. Remember that now you have at least 5-7 days worth of groceries and meals. Just because you wrote down meatloaf on Monday and chicken on Tuesday doesn’t mean that you have to stick to those days, you can easily switch it up. Be sure to have at least one light and easy meal planned. Soup and sandwiches are fine for the days that you’re really busy. You may even want to make extras just to keep in the freezer for super busy, or just plain lazy days!

When you get home from the store, washing all your produce before putting it away will save you a lot of time when its time to cook. You can even chop some things up and store them in the fridge for when you need them. Anything you can do ahead of time will save you time in the long run.

Eating Together As A Family

Having dinner as a family is important. With so many schedules and time constraints I know this can be a challenge. But the benefits are so important. Studies have found that sitting together as a family for a meal is a simple, effective way to reduce the risk of youth substance abuse and to raise healthier children.

• Compared to teens that have frequent family dinners, those who rarely have family dinners are three-and-a-half times more likely to have abused prescription drugs or an illegal drug other than marijuana.
• Girls who have five or more meals a week with their families are one-third less likely to develop unhealthy eating habits, which can range from skipping meals to full-fledged anorexia or abusing diet pills.
• Parental influence and involvement is an important tool in preventing substance abuse. Regularly sitting down for a meal with your children is one way to connect with them and be involved with what is happening in their lives.

If sitting together really is impossible because of conflicting schedules there are still some things you can do. If your kids come home late from football practice, you and your husband can and should still sit with them while they have their meal. Sit down with a cup of coffee or dessert while they eat and talk with them. Use the same concept with your spouse. If he/she tends to come home 3 hours after you and the kids have had dinner, you can all sit with them at the table while they eat. Give the kids a nighttime snack while Mom/Dad is eating their dinner.

Talk with your children at the table. Discuss their day. Have each member of the family share their favorite part of that day and what was the hardest part of their day. Information and knowledge is power. Knowing whats going on in our children's lives is part of our job. Turn off the television. Get rid of distractions that take away from the discussions at the table. Talking to our children is important, but listening is just as important. Make the time special. Make it a time everyone in the family looks forward to. Here's some more tips to get you started.

Set a pretty table. Show that this is important to you. Use dishes, not paper plates. Set the table properly. This is a good time to teach your children how to set a table the proper way. You would be surprised how many kids have no clue what side of the dish a fork should go on, or where to place the drinking glass.

To set a basic table, you will need a dinner plate, glass, knife, fork, spoon and napkin. Heres a quick look at a casual but proper place setting.

• A simple centerpiece, salt and pepper along with any other seasonings or condiments your family enjoys is a wonderful finishing touch.
• Placemats or tablecloths are also a pretty and easy extra.
  
• Place the dinner plates one inch from the edge of the table. If there is a pattern in the middle of the plate, make sure that it is right side.
• Place the knife on the right side of the plate, blade inward, one inch from the edge of the table, handle end of knife at the bottom. Make sure the knife is next to the plate, not underneath the plate.
• The tablespoon is placed next to the knife, also one inch from the bottom of the table.
  
• The fork is place on the left side of the dinner plate one inch from the edge of the table, making sure it is also next to the plate verses underneath the plate.
  
• The napkin is folded in half and placed next to the fork with the crease farthest away from the fork.
• The glass is placed directly above the knife approximately one inch.

Centerpieces can be simple or elaborate, or fun and festive. Table setting themes are easy with seasonal items and seasonal napkins. Seasonal salt and pepper shakers can be purchased inexpensively. A bouquet of flowers, a ceramic object, pinecones, a toy, leaves, fruit, and almost anything else can be used as a centerpiece. Let your children take turns at picking out centerpieces or creating them! Children love making simple placemats from construction paper to go along with a theme. They can be colored, painted, or stamped. This is something the little ones can do while you prepare dinner.

When my children have friends over for dinner, almost all of them ask "do you eat like this every night?" They are amazed that we have dinner at the table, that its a homemade meal and that they actually enjoy it. I've had some of their mothers actually call me and ask how I do it with all the different schedules and time frames of everyone in the family. Simple I tell them. I make time. I am not Martha Stewart, don't get me wrong. We don't have to have a full dressed turkey dinner every night. We can even make a pizza night fun and memorable. Set your good china and stemware on your dining room table instead of the kitchen table. Get out the cloth napkins, pour gingerale into your stemware and light some candles. Pizza served in the dining room can be a fun and easy treat for your family. Its all about making the time and the effort. Sure its easier to grab some take out, set out some paper plates and call it a meal. But its not special, and its not going to create any lasting memories for your kids. Just a little more effort on your part and it will make a big difference in what our kids remember when they are older, and what they will continue on when they are parents.

Don’t let your kids just grab a plate and go to where ever they want in the house. Sitting together for a family meal is becoming a lost tradition. This is a great time of year to start getting back to the table. With the colder weather we can prepare good comfort foods, and gather around the table to share our days and to create tradition and memories for our children.

Organizing and Storage for your Kitchen!

So much stuff, and so little place to put it! This week, lets really try and purge and organize our kitchens. It’s the heart of the home.

We’ve gotten under the sink and threw out the stuff that had made a home there for several years, and we got into the refrigerator and cleaned and organized that. This week lets concentrate on storage space. What storage space you say? Trust me, you have plenty! You just need to look at things a little different, and you need to purge some junk.

Do you have a back hall closet? Do you really need it? Really? Don’t just answer yes without thinking about it. I had two closets with one off the kitchen. I didn’t need two closets so I turned one into a pantry. I simply bought some shelves and started loading them up. Presto, I had a pantry. So maybe you don’t have an extra closet. How about your cupboards. Are they organized efficiently enough? Have you looked at different shelving you can add? Or dish racks to store the dishes upright instead of flat. How about hooks to hang the coffee mugs on?

Quick Tip: if you have a service of 12 dishes, and a family of four, store the rest of the dishes on a higher shelf. Don’t waste space, use it. Now that you only have four dishes on that shelf, put the dinner glasses near them. Make the shelf close to the dinner table to make setting the table less of a chore. Keep your silverware near there also. It took me about six different times of reorganizing my kitchen cupboards and drawers before I finally found the perfect set up. When we first move into a home, we think we know where we want to put things, but really, we don’t know the flow of the kitchen yet.

Don’t be stuck into what you started with. You can move things. Try something new. You may be surprised to find a way that works much more efficiently, and wonder why you didn’t think of it before! Now back to your storage. Really do you need three electric can openers? Do you even need one? I got rid of my electric can opener a long time ago. Big waste of space. Use a hand held one. I think they are a lot easier too! Big stuff doesn’t have to go into the bottom cabinets. We automatically just put them there. But if you only use your pasta machine two times a year, why let it take up valuable space. Put it in the pantry, the garage or even the basement. I keep my two large sauce pans in my pantry. While they will fit in my cupboards, they take up too much room and are bulky. So think about other areas that you can store rarely used items. Look for different racks and storage ideas at places like bed bath and beyond, or my favorite, the container store! Check out the ads on the right for some great savings. Next to any shoe store this is my favorite shopping place!