Spices Over Yanda Blog (Previously Allyson's Attempt at Domestication)

I'm trying something new this week in my attempt to be a better "on-the-go" mom. I am moving our dinner time most nights to 7:00 pm. No one seemed very hungry or willing to eat in a hurry at 5:00 pm and I wasn't coming up with very many good ideas for food on the go. We tried this Saturday night and it worked nicely, so we'll see how the rest of the week goes. This also makes it nice, because the girls are always hungry when they get home from school around 4:00 pm and I never wanted to give them much when we would eat dinner an hour later. Now, they can have a decent snack at 4 and then be fine and ready to eat at 7 pm. Friday - we had dinner out - a friend gave us a family coupon to Sweet Tomatoes for $19.99. It was a great deal and very yummy. We made a family outing of it and went to costco. Saturday - Sloppy Joes - basically I made the sloppy joe meat ahead of time, stuck it in the crockpot and it was waiting for us when we came home after the soccer g...

I recently started a new chores and allowance system for my children. It has been about a month and I *think* I might have found a system that works. I wanted to give it a running start to see if it worked before I posted it, and since a comment was made about what chores my kids do, I decided to go ahead and post it. It's long so only read if you are interested to: We have the following posted in the playroom in a picture frame down low for all of them to see. Here are their daily chores: 9 year old Daily Chores · Unload dishwasher in morning · Take out trash on Tues, Thur, Sat · Clear Dinner table Mon, Fri, Sun · Set Dinner table Tue, Thur, Sat · Empty house trash with sister every Tuesday Allowance $4.00 per week -0.40 tithing -1.60 savings = $2.00 spending TOTAL SAVINGS PER YEAR = $83.20 6 year old Daily Chores · Sort dirty clothes · Take out trash on Mon, Wed, Fri · Set Dinner table Mon, Fri, Sun · Clear Dinner table Tue, Thur, ...

It's kinda boring this week, but that's ok. Most of it is repeats, but I need to stock up on meat.... Monday - carnitas on tostada shells with black beans Tuesday - goulash Wednesday - shredded chicken on tostada shells with salsa and brown sugar Thursday - sloppy joes on homemade rolls That's all I have planned so far!

Well...I'm back down to only one child with me during the weekdays...which means...really I don't have any more excuses again for not having a clean house and a well scheduled day life! I have soooo many projects - inside and outside - that I really want to get done this fall. However, usually what happens is that the day to day stuff gets shuffled into last place while I do my projects and my house becomes a wreck! I seem to only be able to do ONE thing well at once. So I've put a lot of thought into what and how I want to accomplish it ALL! I think what I'm gonna do is get my organizing projects done first which will make those areas easier to keep clean and then I'll have the time to get the other projects done. It sounds GREAT in theory, but I wonder if it will really work? Only one way to find out. For instance, I want to re-decorate the kids rooms and the playroom. My 6 year old's room doesn't "work" very well. She doesn't like t...