Making Grocery Shopping Great

Hi! I'm here today to make your life a little easier. What? You are always looking for things to be easier in your life? Well great! You've come to the right place. :)

A long time ago when I was a blissful newly-wed my husband and I used to do our grocery shopping together. We'd meander up and down the aisles buying what was on our list and anything else we wanted. Time was never important. We enjoyed our bonding time at the super market. Fast forward to us five kids later and that happy time has come and gone. I cringe if I have to take all the kids to a store and even shopping with my husband has lost its appeal. Bottom line-- Grocery shopping is a chore. I dislike it. Somehow having five kids and very little time sucked all the fun out it.

Being an organizer like I am, I decided the only way I could make grocery shopping a tad "funner" was to add some organization to it. Here's how I did it:

First off I started with this cool doo dad. It's a dry erase board on my refrigerator. I really can't take credit for this brilliant idea. My sister-in-law has one in her house and I copied her. Thanks, Michelle! So anyway, the purpose of this board is for everyone in the family to write down grocery items as we run out. I try to avoid in-between visits to the store and like to only go once a week if I can help it. This doesn't always work out but training everyone to write down what we need helps tremendously. Hmm, apparently my son wants some car stickers and I need rubber gloves. Random? Yes. Typical? Yes. :)

This past year I have had a new baby at my house and trying to think of meals that A) my family would eat and B) were quick to make was becoming increasingly difficult. So I decided to make a table of all the meals we liked to eat and divide them amongst the days in the month. I tried to come up with at least two for each day so we could have more options. This has worked out great and it has taken all the guess work out of meal planning. Plus, my kids don't have to ask me what's for dinner anymore. :) Oh and in case you're wondering, yes, we do eat breakfast for dinner every Sunday. My husband cooks that day and he only knows how to make breakfast. Yummy!

With my handy list as my guide, I then turn to my kindle fire. Using ColorNote I type in all the menu items needed for the week as well as the things that were written on the dry erase board. Since my meals don't change from month to month I can save the list and reuse it the following month for the same week. Brilliant! I usually put all the items that are found on the same aisle on the same line for added convenience. One quick tap and the item crosses itself off. It's very cool. I can also move items up and down on the list so I can arrange my list by order of the aisles in the store. And yes, I do that. I am that geeky, er organized. ;)

With these three simple ideas grocery shopping has become slightly more enjoyable and much quicker too. Here's one more tip: Become an early morning shopper. If you can get to the store before 9 am you will shave at least 15 minutes off your trip. 

Use that 15 minutes to have a piece of chocolate while you read your favorite book. You've earned it!

New Year's Resolutions 2014

First and foremost, I would like to say how deeply sorry I am to myself and my loyal followers (if you haven't given up on me) that I can't seem to get into a good habit of regular blog posts. I am a mother of five children now and that has thrown everything out of balance. Now that baby boy is nearly one things should settle down a bit and I am hoping to get back into the swing of things. Which brings me to my goals for this year:

• Get back onto a regular cleaning schedule for the house. I created an awesome schedule for myself a couple of years back and I am resolved to get back on the schedule with a few modifications. For example: I no longer have to vacuum the main floor of my house because our pet Roomba does that. :) I also have two less bathrooms to clean and less dusting to do because my two big girls are old enough to do those things now. I instituted "10 Minute Pick Up" for my kids where we take the last ten minutes before it's time to leave for school and pick up as many things as we can. It works great. Finally, I cut down on the amount of cleaning I do. I opted to do a deep clean of the kitchen every other week as well as the bathrooms. Why? Because I can and I refuse to let all my free time be filled up with cleaning. The kitchen will still be dirty in another week as well as the bathrooms. :)

• The other goal I have for myself is to try one new meal a month and one new dessert. I have a recipe keeper where I like to clip out recipes and save them for later. One problem: later never seems to come. So this year I want to finally get around to trying all the recipes I've clipped so I can stop storing them if they are gross or keep on using them if they are a hit with the kids.

Finally, this has nothing to do with my own goals but just something I want to say. If your goal is to be more organized this year then I hope you can find ways to do it! Refer to this blog for some tips and I promise I will try to update it more regularly. :) So many people look at me and my house and say" Wow. She really has it all together." The only reason I know this is because people tell me that. I promise you I have many days where I don't but I have learned that having a place for everything, teaching my children how to pick up after themselves (and then holding them to it), and managing my time wisely have made my days run so much more smoothly. 

With my new goals I hope to be an even happier homemaker. I hope you reach your goals too. :)