What I learned this week....

Earlier this week, our truck broke down. Unfortunately we were out in it at the time. We do have AAA. The truck overheated so we just let it cool down. We made our way back home; we were about 5 miles away. It took us almost an hour to get back home....pulling over every few minutes to let the truck cool down. Ooooh, the kids were annoyed and had little patience with this.
I learned that when you do not have a vehicle, you can save money! At least we did. There was no where to go to spend it. We still had a good time. We like to be home and spend time together.
We organized, cleaned, got the house in order. Sometimes when you are busy spending time outside the home, you neglect to take care of your home. That has happened recently to us. I'm not sure that we were spending so much time outside of the home. We were just busy and not taking the time to care for the house. Having this extra time of being still, gave us the time to give our home some love.
We didn't exactly clean it the Flylady way. The kids and I started with the coffee table, a place where they often do their studies and activities. We cleaned off the clutter and put things back in their spots. I realized the coffee table is their "kitchen sink." We organized. Then hubby and I split the chores of vacuuming and mopping. He has been working from home the past few months. While on a break, I asked him which he would prefer - to vacuum or mop. He responded that he would vacuum. That's how it is done! =)
He vacuumed and I mopped. We decided he would vacuum the bedrooms tomorrow and I will mop the bathrooms then. It is so nice to work together as a team.
Now that I had given some thought to the kids' kitchen sink - the coffee table, I let them know this would be there daily project - to put the things away on the coffee table every day and keep it neat and clean.
We wrapped up the day by baking cookies and watching the Little House on the Prairie pilot. We shared a nice day together. House is clean and we all worked together as a team.

Monthly Meal Planning

After reviewing our monthly expenses, I'm determined to save money on food. I figured planning monthly meals will help. It will give us a plan for the entire month and will save us money at the grocery store. I'm a little nervous to shop at the grocery store for a month's worth of groceries. Minus an extra trip or two fto replenish our milk and fresh veggies.
Family fun offers this calendar for monthly meals. In addition to having a list of meals for a month, you also can click on each meal and it brings up the recipe. I like the idea of themes for each day of the week. Plus it may also give you some ideas of new things to try.
I also stumbled upon this site in my search - e-mealz. There is a small monthly fee of $5. It includes a list of meals, list of ingredients and cost depending on where you shop. While I hesitate to spend any money on something I can do myself, this option does look interesting. If I am able to stick to a plan, $5 a month is nothing compared to the amount of money I would be saving.
I believe Leeanne Ely, Flylady's friend, has her own site, Saving Dinner and Menu Mailer program for a fee as well.

Flylady

When I decided to simplify, I searched for resources....online and in the library. I didn't come up with very many. Wasn't anyone else looking to simplify? I finally found Flylady. You can visit her at http://www.flylady.net/. She is amazing! Her website is absolutely free. If you check on her site at this time of year, she has a section on Back-to-school and getting organized for students and teachers. I love that she includes almost everyone in her teachings. It's not just for teachers but also students.

Two big principles I took away from her website are "blessing others" and use of the timer. By "blessing others" I really took a look at what was in my house and what I actually needed and used. The other things, I got rid of and "blessed" someone else with them. It was very liberating! I also took things out of drawers or closets and USED them. If I couldn't find a use for it, it blessed someone else. No more saving things for special occasions.

The second principle is the use of the timer. What a great concept! In our multi-tasking nation, we are not use to focusing on one activity but doing three things at once. I love the timer! I realized it help me de-mulit-task (is that a word?) and focus on one thing at a time! It also helped me realize how much time it actually takes to do something - a task or a chore. So say I set the timer for 15 minutes and my daughter and I clean up her room. It's amazing to both of us when we finished in 7 minutes. Wow, that's all it took! It's such a simple concept and that's why I like it!

I don't want life to pass by me while I am multi-tasking. I want to take time to focus on one thing and enjoy it. I am finding it takes less time that way and I am happier!