Manic Monday - Bottle It Up

My Monday was yesterday. And it wasn't too manic. In fact it was rather lazy - hence this post being up on a Tuesday! But I hope everyone had a lovely Easter with your families...

My tip for this week is about something that used to drive me crazy. Do the kids cups seem to multiply in your house? Turn your back and suddenly there are 7 of them, with various levels of various drinks still in them, littering around on every surface - and just waiting to be spilled?

I used to feel that unless I was constantly 'patrolling' the house, the cups got out of hand within minutes! But who was filling up the cups and giving them to Naomi and Ryan? Umm.... me! Enter behaviour modification, exit crazy cup explosions, multiple types of drink and regular spills.

Each of my children now has a drink bottle (Ryan's has a baby sipper top on it, rather than the sports type top). That drink bottle is all they get during the day, filled with cold water (I don't mind doing this - I don't like tepid water either). Naomi also gets a proper cup for meal times. One cup, which is rinsed out after each meal, and then used for her bedtime milk.

What are the benefits of using drink bottles?

• No more cups scattered around the house, for me to collect, so reduced washing up.
• I know how much each child has drunk, just by checking the level in their bottles... I don't have to guess how much they drunk from each different cup.
• Greatly reduced the requests for drinks other than water. Only water goes in drink bottles! Naomi has watered down apple juice in a cup, when she is sitting at the table for meals. Otherwise, it is water all day. This is saving us money too.
• In a family with several children, no more arguments over whose drink it is - write their names on their bottles and that is it.
• And my all-time favourite --- no more spills of sticky juice, or water, or milk... With Ryan cruising around the furniture and reaching for everything, this was driving me crazy!

The photos of drink bottles are examples I found at The Kids Store - how cute are they?!

Manic Monday is my way of sharing tips that are helping me to survive this parenting journey. Feel free to join in - just leave a comment to your own blog post, in the comments below!

Manic Monday - Saving on a small scale

From little things, big things grow... but it can be hard to know how to start saving. Here is my method of small savings, made easy. It is amazing how quickly the loose change in your purse will add up to useful savings!

Step 1 - Decide where the savings are going. I have 4 groups - one each for the kids', one for charity and one that is 'Mum's Sanity Money'.

Step 2 - Find a container for each category ... (I use 2 little money boxes and 2 pretty tea cups. I have a tea cup fetish. You could use any basket / box / cannister, but not too big - you want it to fill up fairly quickly.)

Step 3 - Choose your frequency. Are you going to clean out the coins in your purse every day? Twice a week? Weekly? The more frequently you do it, the faster the savings will add up.

Step 4 - Sort your coins. I do this as follows -

Gold coins (our $1 and $2 coins) in one tea cup. This is my sanity stash.

Regular silver coinage is divided between the 2 money boxes, one for each child.

Finally, the smallest coins (5c pieces) are put in the other tea cup. This is a collection for charity, organised by our church.

The 'Sanity Stash' is my spending money. If I am having a crazy day and want to get take-away for dinner, I can do so without any spending guilt. Or if I just need to get out of the house for a while, I can take the kids for a milkshake, without dipping into weekly funds. There is no guilt attached to this money - do whatever you like with it, because it is not in the regular budget.

I take the kids' money boxes to the bank, when they are just about full. Naomi loves to watch the teller count the money in the machine, write it in her bank book and stamp the entry. I think it is a valuable lesson for her in saving.

The charity collection gets taken to church, when the tea-cup is full.

I feel like I am achieving 3 very important goals, with this system - teaching the kids about good money management, contributing even a small amount to charity, AND giving myself a little nest egg for small treats. All from coinage that I don't really miss from my purse, anyway.

Manic Monday is my little way of sharing tips that help me survive this mothering journey. Feel free to join in, leave a link to your own blog post in the comments below!

Manic Monday - Shedding some light....

I very grandly call my little office room "the workroom", or "the fabric warehouse". Or "the craziness that I try to get some work done in".

It is a small room, with dark corners - which just never felt particularly inspirational. But all it took was some new lighting! The addition of a simple desk lamp really improved how I felt about the room... now I just have to work on the clutter! (LOL - oops, did I just admit that?!)

My Manic Monday tip is to make a list of quick, easy, inexpensive ways that you could bring some order, or peace, to just 1 area of the house or office.

Some random ideas -

Add a basket, to collect bits and pieces together.

Get a paper tray, to organise receipts.

Tidy a space and move a pot plant to it, so that you can't put 'stuff' back there!

Add a lamp, or light to brighten a corner or work space.

Use rubber bands to tidy up electric cords (you know, fold them up into a bunch and put the band around to hold it together).

If you just make the list today, then you can start thinking about which ideas you might like to put into action. One little step at a time - today, just make the list.

Oh, and I have to tell you, because I am very excited... If you want to shed some light into a dark corner of your house, come back on Wednesday for some exciting news about a great way to get lighting, online at http://www.buysterlighting.com.au/ !

Manic Monday - Maximising Nap time

Aaahhhh... the peaceful bliss of nap time, or quiet time. There really is nothing like it - but I somehow find myself with a long list of things I want to achieve ... "Oh, I'll do it at naptime" ... but never get everything done, don't have time, or don't make time to just relax by myself for a few minutes.

So my Manic Monday tip for today is to maximise nap time, (or 'quiet time' play, for older kids). I try to do this by:

Eating lunch with the kids, at around 11.30 am. At first this seemed just too early for me. But I think it sets a good example to sit down and eat a proper lunch with the kids, and it is also one less thing that I have to do (or forget to do!) during nap time.

Do as much as of the work as you can with the kids, before nap time. Some jobs I can't get done while the kids are awake... like computer work. But I can sweep the floor (Ryan loves chasing the dust balls while I sweep), wipe the kitchen benches, dust, put the laundry on, etc. I can also usually get fabric cut at the table, while the kids play nearby - one less thing to do at nap time.

List down the things that you want to do at nap time, in order of priority. Custom orders to make? First. Computer work for the shops? Second. Quiet time cup of tea and reading a book? Third. General creativity, playing around with new ideas etc? Fourth.

Set a timer for doing non-essential things. I ALWAYS get sucked in to surfing around my favourite blogs, chatting on Twitter, or in the Etsy forums. Fun to do, but when the kids wake up, I feel like I haven't actually achieved anything. So set a timer (with a quiet alarm ring!), if you are doing stuff that you enjoy, but which isn't on your priority list. At the end of the allotted time (I usually allow 15 minutes), just stop and think about it - do you want to keep playing (which is fine), or do you really want to get something else done?

I have had an uphill battle with Naomi (now 3), trying to get her to accept that if she chooses not to have a sleep, she must still play quietly in her room for a while. She is not good at entertaining herself.

But usually, if I firmly explain that Ryan and Mummy both need to have a rest, and that she can play quietly with any of the toys or books in her room, she will play happily for around 20 minutes. After another firm explanation that this has not been long enough I can generally eke it out for another 20 minutes.

Frankly, that is all I feel can be expected of a 3 year old who is not good at being by herself anyway. But I do persist with quiet time, because I think it is important that we all have a break from each other in the middle of the day, so that the afternoon can be more pleasant for everyone.

What do you do to make best use of your time, when the kids are asleep? Leave a comment, or a link to your blog post, playing along with Manic Mondays!

Manic Weeks!

Well, things are certainly never dull around here.

In the last week -

* Both children have had the 'flu. Brad now has a sore throat too.
* Ryan has cut 4 teeth
* We are dog-sitting for my Mum, who has travelled to Brisbane to be with Nan; and
* my Nan (who is 90) is currently in hospital awaiting test results.

So sorry for the interruption to your regularly scheduled programs! I have a couple of great organising tips that are planned to blog about soon.... when I can organise the kids to both have a nap at the same time and let me do some blogging!

Hope your homes are a bit less crazy than mine, at the moment.

Manic Monday - Oven is not a dirty word!

Well, my Monday has definitely been a little crazy (here I am at 9.40pm doing this blog post!) -- but I did get dinner on the table at the regularly scheduled time. And why? Because I am very very good friends with my Oven!

I love the oven. I used to pan-fry most of our dinner meats - time consuming, hot, spitting oil and difficult to do when holding a child. Even the griller requires frequent checking, and turning, of whatever you are cooking.

Instead, my tip is to invest in a good quality roasting dish, preferably with a rack tray insert, so everything is up off the bottom of the dish. I oven cook all the usual casseroles and roasts, but also sausages, chops, chicken legs, even fish (sprinkle with your favourite herbs & spices, then wrap in foil). I can't remember the last time I pan fried meat for dinner.

I can concentrate on veges, side dishes, and trying to get Ryan to eat his dinner instead of smearing it in his hair, without having to also constantly check on whatever is in the pan!

Oven baking most of our meats is certainly making for a happier Mum in our house, at 5.30pm!

Do you have anything that you love to oven bake? Want to leave a tip to help us all make Mondays (and every other day) a bit less manic? I love to read comments and links!

Manic Monday - What's for Dinner?

"Just another Manic Monday.... "

Now, as much as I would like kissing Valentino by a crystal blue Italian stream, I am not a big fan of Mondays. Kissing goodbye to hubby, as he goes off for another long week at work, and realising that it is just me and 2 lovely, but sometimes crazy, kids, for the next 11 hours... and the next 5 days!

I am not the queen of organisation, and I am certainly not a model parent! But I would like to devote Mondays on the blog to sharing one small tip that just might help to make your Mondays, and every other day, slightly less manic.

Menu Planning on the run....

Menu planning is fantastic, I always feel so much more in control when I have a menu plan, for the week. BUT if this is too much trouble, (and for me it frequently is!), the best tip I have learned is to at least menu plan for the day. This involves 1 simple thing --

Decide what you are doing for dinner, by 10.00am at the latest.

Write it down if you want, or just keep it in your head, but either way mentally decide on your evening meal, before you sit down for your morning cuppa. That way, you have time to defrost meat, time to fit in a trip to the shop for extra ingredients, time to do that long slow-cooked casserole, or whatever it is. And you avoid the 5pm - "Oh, Lord, what I am going to do about dinner?" prayer that I used to frequently cast to the heavens.

Anything you can do to make the end of the day 'Arsenic Hour' more bearable is well worth it, in my humble opinion!

Please feel free to join in with my Manic Mondays - leave a link to your own blog post or tweet of an organising tip. Together lets make Monday more about kissing Valentino, and less about craziness!

Incidentally, if you do want to give weekly menu planning a go, check out this fantastic pre-printed planner and shopping list, available from Paper By Forget-Me-Not!