Tami Fox

Getting Organized with a Slow Cooker Summer

Posted on June 19, 2015 by Tami

The day after I did my grocery shopping, I put together meal bags for the freezer. I assembled twenty-three meal bags with help from my family. I used the Summer Freezer Plan from the blog Who Needs a Cape. I will note in the recipes where I made alterations in the ingredients. The biggest part of the process was chopping vegetables. There were notes in the shopping list to help me decide how much I needed to chop. I just worked my way through the list, and two hours later, I had all of the vegetables ready.

When I started pulling out the meat from the freezer, I worked with one type of meat at a time. I made notes and check marks in my recipe book, so I would know which recipes I had finished. All recipes can be found on the Who Needs a Cape Blog.

Slow Cooker Chicken Lettuce Wraps

I used chicken tenderloins for this recipe. I put enough in the bag to serve a family of 6, so it probably had a little more meat in it than the original recipe called for. I have never used Hoisin sauce before, and it was quite delicious. I found it in the Asian cooking section at the store. I served it with rice cooked in the rice cooker and lettuce. We did not make wraps out of it, but we ate the lettuce on the side.

This is a recipe we would cook again.

If you have not done bulk cooking in the past, this whole project might be bigger than you want to start with. What I would suggest is that you choose recipes for one type of meat at a time. You can make 5 or 10 meals at once rather than 23 like I did.

I hope you are enjoying this summer series! I am having a great time with it.

Getting Organized Week 3 Day 5

Posted on June 19, 2015 by Tami

Congrats! You have made it to the end of the third week of getting organized. I hope you are seeing progress and are encouraged that you can do this.

Friday – Set your timer for 15 minutes for the Home Assignment and 15 minutes for the School Assignment
Home:

Make your bed when you get up.
Brush your teeth and get dressed to the shoes.
Swish and swipe.
Fill your water bottle.
Have a 2 minute Hot Spot Fire Drill.
Start a load of laundry.
Pamper yourself for 15 minutes.
Start the laundry.

School:

Read your homeschool encouragement book for 15 minutes.
Put away any books that have arrived from the orders you placed.
Check on the status of your other orders.

Family Fun:

Go swimming or pick another water activity to do as a family.

Enter to win an autographed copy of Giving Your Children Wings

Posted on June 18, 2015 by Tami

This giveaway has ended. I have notified the winner. Thank you for entering!

You can LIKE my Facebook page or Follow Me on Twitter.

~~~~~~~~~

One person* will win an autographed copy of my book, Giving Your Children Wings Without Losing Yours.

Do you wonder if it is possible to homeschool and have an organized home? In this book, I talk about raising my children giving them a love for taking care of their homes by blessing it. I also talk about how routines helped my family through tough times. It is possible to have an organized home while homeschooling. In my book, I give you tips on homeschooling and home organization using fun techniques and simple routines.

By using the Rafflecopter entry, you can get up to 3 chances to win. You can LIKE my author page on Facebook, FOLLOW me on Twitter, and/or sign up for my email newsletter.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

* Contest is open to those with a US address or military APO address. I am unable to accept International entries at this time.

Homeschooling and Home Organization with The FlyLady and Tami Fox

Posted on June 18, 2015 by Tami

Join Marla Cilley and Tami Fox in a recorded session on Homeschooling and Home Organization — You Can Have Both!

In a did a speech we did together for a homeschooling audience, we can help you get organized this summer so you can be ready to homeschool this fall. We have a great time. We did questions and answers at the end of the session. Run time is just under 1 hour.

Check Out Family Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with FlyLady on BlogTalkRadio

In this session, Tami will talk about ways to raise your children to be prepared for life after homeschool. Learn strategies on home care, organization, team work, planning, and your homeschool. She will encourage you to find a way to put a positive spin on teaching and training your children. She will help you examine your life goals for your children that goes beyond their childhood and will impact your family in future generations. Break out of negativity and perfectionism and find abundant living and learning together.

Summer Organization Using The Slow Cooker

Posted on June 18, 2015 by Tami

Summer is a busy time of year for playing for my boys. We also have lots of different activities that we don’t have during the school year. I wanted to find a way to save time, money, and energy used on our electric bill this summer. I found a blog called, “Who Needs a Cape” with a summer menu plan to make 30 freezer meals to thaw and use in the slow cooker each day. There are 15 different recipes that have to be doubled to make 30 meals. I printed the recipes and shopping plan, and I made my grocery list after checking my pantry at home. I am cooking for six people each day, and two of them are teenage boys. So I knew that some of the recipes might need to be made a little bit larger than the recipe called for. I kept track of my time spent doing the various parts of the process, and I will share that with you. I also kept track of how much money I spent on groceries. I will keep track of my food prep and additional food expenses for our perishables. I have a lot of pictures to share with you. So be prepared for a lot of scrolling.

Most of you reading this know that I have a large family. We have six children, and we still have four boys at home, so I am used to cooking in quantities. I am also used to large grocery store trips. Typically, I spent 30 minutes a week making a menu and a grocery shopping list. I shop at Aldi’s, Sam’s Club, Wal-mart, and the bread outlet. For this shopping trip, I did not go to the bread outlet, but I did shop at the other three places and the local butcher shop. I spent a little longer planning the 30 meals than normal. I probably spent closer to an hour because I printed off the grocery list and recipes and set up a binder. I also went through my pantry and pulled items I had on hand. But I spent about the same amount of time shopping. It took me 3.5 hours for this shopping trip. Most weeks, it takes 3 hours. I added a stop at the butcher shop for this menu. It made the most sense for what I needed, and I am very familiar with Sam’s Club meat prices, so I knew my best prices. I did get a few meat items at Aldi, too.

The printed grocery list and my hand-written list. I tend to remember what is on my list if I write it down. I write it down by aisle in Aldi.

Receipt from the butcher shop.

Shopping cart at Aldi. A few items are not a part of the freezer challenge, but they are a part of my menu plan.

Receipt from Aldi’s. (Close to my typical amount spent in a week.)

Cart at Sam’s Club. (The rolls and mints are not a part of the freezer plan, but they were on the list.)

Sam’s Club Receipt

Cart at Wal-Mart. (More than I typically buy at Wal-Mart in a week.)

Receipt from Wal-Mart

The trunk of my van.

The pantry items I pulled out for this menu.

My kitchen island is clean and ready to use.

My sink is shiny.

I will post more pictures of the day I put the freezer bags together. It was quite the production, and I took a bunch of pictures of the whole process. As I cook the meals, I will take pictures and review the taste for you.

Getting Organized Week 3 Day 4

Posted on June 18, 2015 by Tami

How are you doing today? You are almost at the end of the week. Are your habits turning into little routines? I am working on my routines right alongside of you this summer. I am doing the things I am writing about each day. Please comment and post questions!

Thursday – Set your timer for 15 minutes for the Home Assignment and 15 minutes for the School Assignment

Home:

Make your bed when you get up.
Brush your teeth and get dressed to the shoes.
Swish and swipe.
Fill your water bottle.
Have a 2 minute Hot Spot Fire Drill.
Start a load of laundry.
Pamper yourself for 15 minutes.
Move the laundry to the dryer. Make sure you set the timer, so you can fold or hang it. The final step is to put it away. Try to get this load done before lunch time. On a good day, I can get two loads completely done by lunch time.

School:

Start another load of laundry if you need to.
Set up an action file for school. You will need this once school gets underway.
Read a homeschool encouragement book.

Family Fun:

Fold and hang up clothes and put them away before the fun activity.
Pick a fun activity to do at home today.

If you are struggling with planning meals, I have a few suggestions. The first one is easy. Keep a log of your meals for the rest of the month. Then you can start a menu rotation in July.

Check out Leanne Ely’s Saving Dinner site. I love her cookbooks and ideas to help YOU Save Dinner for your family. I have read her new book, Part-time Paleo, and I have read her Low-Carb cookbook. Both of these have been great resources for me.

Have a wonderful day!

Getting Organized in Your Home and Homeschool Week 3 Day 3

Posted on June 17, 2015 by Tami

Welcome to the middle of the week! I enjoy Wednesdays. They are busy days for me since we usually have our mid-week prayer meeting on Wednesday, so I have to make sure we get through our routines a little bit earlier than normal.

Set your timer for 15 minutes for the Home Assignment and 15 minutes for the School Assignment

Home:

Make your bed when you get up.
Brush your teeth and get dressed to the shoes.
Swish and swipe the bathroom.
Fill your water bottle.
Have a 2 minute Hot Spot Fire Drill.
Start a load of laundry.
Pamper yourself for 15 minutes.
Get your grocery list ready and your grocery bags.
Pack water bottles and snacks for the kids.

Do you know that taking 30 to 60 seconds each morning to swish and swipe the bathroom will help you save time on weekly cleaning? I have been swishing my toilet and wiping down my shower and sink area daily for many years. When I am out of town, I always come back to a longer cleaning process in my bathroom to get it clean again. It can take 15 to 30 minutes to get it all clean. If I spend one minute a day for seven days, I am only spending seven minutes a week cleaning my bathroom. Try it for 30 days, and see what you notice about your bathroom’s clean factor.

School:

Reboot your laundry.
Purge any school papers that you still have on your desk.
Set up Bill Pay Files and file them in a handy place near your desk. (This is going to help your over all organization when school starts back up.

Family Fun:

Fold or hang your laundry and put it away before your leave the house.
Pick a fun activity to do on your way to the grocery store.
Take your snacks and water bottles.
Take your box of children’s books to donate while you are out.
Plan a stop by the library if you did not go earlier in the week.

Getting Organized Week 3 Day 2

Posted on June 16, 2015 by Tami

Establishing habits takes time. One of my goals with this summer series was to help you establish habits before you start your school year gets rolling in the fall. By breaking down your school planning, you are not going to burn out the week before you start school with organizing and planning. If you are looking for a great program to use for planning and tracking your school year, please take a look at Homeschool Manager. My friend, Elizabeth Bennett is one of the owners. She understands the needs of a homeschool mom. She grew up going to homeschool conventions across the country, and she is now a homeschool mom.

Homeschool Manager

Tuesday – Set your timer for 15 minutes for the Home Assignment and 15 minutes for the School assignment

Home:

Make your bed when you get up.
Brush your teeth and get dressed to the shoes.
Swish and swipe the bathroom.
Fill your water bottle.
Have a 2 minute Hot Spot Fire Drill.
Start a load of laundry.
Pamper yourself for 15 minutes.
Purge paper for 2 minutes.
Start a new menu plan and grocery list. (You are going grocery shopping on Wednesday.)

School: Purge your craft supplies and start a list of craft supplies you will need for the new school year.

Family Fun: Plan a fun water activity at home or go somewhere.

Remember that rewarding your children for completing tasks is a big part of motivating to learn things around the house. Everyone in the house should have a habit of cleaning up behind themselves throughout the day.

Getting Organized Week 3 Day 1

Posted on June 15, 2015 by Tami

Welcome to the third week in this series. If you are just getting started, just jump in with us. You can read the previous weeks, but it is not necessary. I want to help you build small, attainable routines into your day. I don’t want you to get overwhelmed and burn out.

Monday – Set your timer for 15 minutes for the Home Assignment and 15 minutes for the School assignment.

Home:

Make your bed when you get up.
Brush your teeth and get dressed to the shoes.
Swish and swipe the bathroom.
Fill your water bottle.
Have a 2 minute Hot Spot Fire Drill.
Start a load of laundry.
Pamper yourself for 15 minutes.
Pick one stack of paper and purge for 2 minutes.

School: Go to your children’s rooms and purge their bookshelves. Start a new box of books to donate.

Family Fun: Go on a nature walk and take a blank drawing journal for each of you, pencils, and colored pencils. Plan on spending 45 minutes to an hour outside observing nature and drawing what you see. This activity is fun for all ages from preschoolers to adults.

*** An alternate plan would be to go back to the library to get new books.

If you haven’t signed up for The FlyLady’s emails, go to her site and do it now. She will encourage and mentor you.

Getting Organized This Summer – Week 2 Day 5

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Tami

Here’s a picture of my school cabinet at the beginning of the school year. I will post a current one as soon as I have it ready for the new year.

Friday – Set your timer for 15 minutes for the Home Assignment and 15 minutes for the School assignment

If you haven’t subscribed to The FlyLady’s emails, do that now: www.FlyLady.net.

Home:

Make your bed when you get up.
Brush your teeth and get dressed to the shoes.
Swish and swipe.
Fill your water bottle.
Have a 2 minute Hot Spot Fire Drill.
Start a load of laundry.
Pamper yourself for 15 minutes.

School: Set up student planners. I recommend www.HomeschoolManager.com. You can also use a blank composition book for each child and start a rough plan in it.

Family Fun: Go to your local science center and explore what they have.