Menu Plan - October 1 to October 7

This past week I have been under-the-weather.  So, I have not been cooking that much.  I have made the easy meals that were on last week's plan and we ordered in Chinese which lasted two nights.  So, the good news is that I have three recipes for dinners that I can put on this week's plan and don't have to shop for.  Also, Thanksgiving is next weekend in Canada so we have a meal out and I'm cooking a big meal for Saturday night.  I have made use of the Special Occasions section of the menu planner to help plan the details.



Menu Plan Oct 4-7

Menu Plan October 1-3


 

What To Do With the Artwork

Staying organized is a constant struggle in our house. I don’t know about your kids, but mine are mass producers of artwork. When we do art projects at home, the girls go through pages and pages of drawings and paintings before they are finished. Add to that what they bring home from school and we have a major clutter situation. Some of the artwork is easy to throw in the recycling bin but a lot of it is hard to throw out.

Over the past few years of receiving art, I have come up with a few solutions:

1. Use art as art is intended: Frame it!

As we have small children and lots of expenses, when we started decorating our house we found that we had a lot of wall space and no money or inclination to purchase expensive ‘art’. When I was in Grade 4, my parents framed a pastel drawing I had done and to this day it still hangs on my wall. It’s a great keepsake and I am proud that my parents thought it was special enough to frame. When decorating Ainsley’s big girl room, I went through the pile of art we had accumulated and picked out three of her drawings and framed those using inexpensive Ikea frames. I love the look of them and Ainsley is very excited every time I remind her that she drew those pictures. I will do the same for Juliet once we have a collection to choose from. What a great way to boost self-esteem by showing them that what they have created is special.

2. Art as a Gift

To take the framing of art one step further, I have given framed pieces to my parents and in-laws. I find it very hard to shop for them as really, what do you get your parents let alone your in-laws? Whether they hang the art on their wall in the office or at home, it’s a really nice thoughtful gift that is an Original piece of artwork that is priceless. This is a great way to save the art that you don’t want to throw out but at the same time, make room in your house for new art.

3. Art as Fundraiser

This past year at Ainsley’s nursery school we did a fabulous fundraiser for the school using the children’s paintings. Both girls created a painting and it was sent to Acorn Custom Cards, a company which took the art and made cards and placemats. This was a great idea as it provided a fun art activity for the kids, earned money for the co-op school and parents were able to have cards made that showcased their child’s skills and again, the children would get a self-esteem boost by seeing their art used in a new way.

4.Art as wrapping paper and cards

Another great option is to reuse your children’s artwork as wrapping paper and as cards. I love getting home made mother’s day cards and my girls love making cards for others. This is a great use of artwork that would otherwise be thrown out and save you from buying overpriced cards and wrapping paper!

5. The Memory Book

Glow Baby has a unique new Memory Book called My Story.. A Book of Memories that has 12 gusseted pockets big enough to fit art! This album is designed to help parent store the art pieces they want to keep in a beautiful place. As there are no dates on the pages, each pocket can be used for as much as a family needs. If your children are major art producers like mine, you may have one pocket per school term. For the younger set you could use one pocket for each year. All in all, a great solution to the problem.

Surviving Summer: Barely

Summer is almost over and I have survived, but just barely. I can only thank my own organizational skills for helping me juggle the summer schedule (or lack thereof) of my girls along with Glow Baby.

This summer was particularly challenging for a number of reasons. We have just launched two new products: My Story and The Organized Family Menu Planner and with a product launch comes what seems like a never ending list of things to do. Add to that my Husband getting a well-deserved promotion that reduces his flex-time and the beginning prep of getting ready to sell our house and it is a bit chaotic over here.

What is getting me through these many changes are sticking to what schedules we have and embracing them. I am continuing to menu plan which for a mere 20 minutes each week, I think about what I am feeding the family and then I don't think about it for the rest of the week. I have called in reinforcements and thankfully have extended family who can come in an pinch hit when I need them. It's tough but I am also needing to schedule small things like accounting and bill paying on my calendar to make sure it gets done. By taking a bit of time to plan out what needs to be done during the week for running out household and Glow Baby, I am able to make sure I am using my time wisely.

I am definitely missing some down time right now, but when school starts in the fall and we have a definite schedule each week, I am hoping things feel a bit more manageable. I know right now that I am doing what I can so I've let myself off the hook for all those things that aren't getting done as often as I'd like. Like gardening and tidying. An overgrown garden isn't that bad is it?

Anyone Else Need A Vacation From Their Weekend?

Our weekends seem to be getting busier as the girls get older. With ballet for my eldest, gymnastics and music class for my youngest, plus family get togethers, playdates, birthday parties and more, I need a vacation from our weekend!

We no longer have lazy Sundays where we can sleep in and relax. Chores have replaced reading the paper or going out for brunch. Don’t get me wrong, our weekend plans are great fun. The girls love their respective activities and I love going with them. They have so much energy that if we don’t get out of the house by 10am they start to go stir crazy. We plan playdates and other activities because they love them and allows them to use up some of their endless amounts of energy. It’s also a chance for us to catch up with our adult friends. But no matter how many activities we do, they just don’t tire out!

Yesterday, even after a playdate where the girls had a dance party, pretended to be animals and literally hopped around the house for two hours, they still had energy to burn! We took them swimming after Juliet’s nap and the only people who were exhausted after that were me and my husband!

How do you get the rest and relaxation you need to recharge? For me, it helps that the girls are in nursery school in the mornings which gives me a chance to work and write. At least I get a two hour chunk of time during which I can actually sit down for awhile and get things done. I am also very thankful that my mom comes over two afternoons a week to play with the girls. Making dinner is much easier when they are occupied!

I hear parents of much older children talk about a return to lazy Sunday mornings as their children start to sleep in and don’t need them anymore. While this sounds lovely, I already know I will miss their early morning snuggles, their wrestling, their dancing and all the time we spend together. Despite how tired I find I am most of the time, I know this period will go by so quickly and I don’t want to miss a moment!

Activities, Playdates and More – Managing your Busy Family Life

Managing the many details of family life can often seem more difficult than being an air traffic controller! With my schedule, work, Brett’s schedule and the girls’ schedules to remember along with doctors appointment, dentist appointments and the list goes on; I have had to come up with a number of ways to deal with the inevitable chaos.

1.Menu Planning – By setting aside a small amount of time during the week to menu plan, you can save yourself the hassle of multiple trips to the grocery store by ensuring that all the food you need for the weeks meals and snacks are on hand. It can also save you money as you know what you need and don’t end up buying extra food that may go to waste. It can also help ensure that your family is eating healthy, well-balanced meals instead of choosing whatever is fastest at the last minute.

2.Family Calendar - The use of one master calendar for the whole family is very useful. By having all family members’ schedule in one place can avoid confusion and missed appointments. Your family calendar can not only be used for schedules but also for chores, To Do’s and for leaving notes for other family members. A Family Calendar is an easy way to keep everyone informed about what will be happening on a weekly and monthly basis.


3.Drop the unnecessary – Take a look at your schedule and see if there is anything on it that is not necessary. Is there anything that can be consolidated? A trip to the drugstore can be combined with a trip grocery shopping perhaps? Or perhaps, there is an activity that you have to convince your child to go to that can be eliminated. Are there any tasks that can be delegated to someone else? If you can cut corners with your chores and To Do’s than do it! Our family has invested in a cleaning service twice a month for those extra chores so that I can use this time more wisely on the girls or on work. It is definitely worth it!

4.Ask for HELP – There are a number of ways one can find help with the daily grind whether or not you have family around to help you. Some ways to do this is:
-Carpool/share drop offs pick ups – Find someone at your child’s school who can share pickup and drop off responsibilities. It may only save you 20 minutes at a time but this quickly adds up.
-Share caregiving – Another way to find help is to share caregiving with another parent as well. One day you can pick up their child and have them over for lunch and a playdate in the afternoon. Then you switch.
-Drop off centres – There a number of parent relief centres in Toronto run by the Ontario Early Years Centres. You can drop your child off with them for a few hours to get a break or have time to run errands. Do some research where you live to see if there are any options available to you. While the OEYC drops offs are free, there may also be paid options available as well.

5.Assign tasks to certain days – One of things I struggle with daily is the urge to procrastinate. To combat these urges I find that when faced with an overwhelming to do list (which I often have), it is helpful to assign one or two tasks to each day. For instance, I would assign Tuesday and Thursday to be laundry day. My main focus would be laundry for these days. By doing this, it helps me stay on track and focused and keeps me from being derailed by the enormity of all that must get done.


I welcome any tips you may have for juggling your busy weeks. Comments can be left on our blog post http://www.glowbabyfamily.blogspot.com

How to handle the influx of artwork coming home from school

Getting organized for the new school year is in full swing at our house. For a three and a half year old and a 20 month old (both are going to nursery school) this really only involves buying new clothes for the eldest and some for the youngest and labelling everything! While this is not the full back-to-school prep people of older children go through, there is something we all have in common once school starts and that is answering the question: What do we do with all the artwork?

I don’t know about your kids, but mine are mass producers of artwork. When we do art projects at home, the girls go through pages and pages of drawings and paintings before they are finished. Add to that what they bring home from school and we have a major clutter situation. Some of the artwork is easy to throw in the recycling bin but a lot of it is hard to throw out. Over the past few years of receiving art, I have come up with a few solutions:

1.Use art as art is intended: Frame it!

As we have small children and lots of expenses, when we started decorating our house we found that we had a lot of wall space and no money or inclination to purchase expensive ‘art’. When I was in Grade 4, my parents framed a pastel drawing I had done and to this day it still hangs on my wall. It’s a great keepsake and I am proud that my parents thought it was special enough to frame. When decorating Ainsley’s big girl room, I went through the pile of art we had accumulated and picked out three of her drawings and framed those using inexpensive Ikea frames. I love the look of them and Ainsley is very excited every time I remind her that she drew those pictures. I will do the same for Juliet once we have a collection to choose from. What a great way to boost self-esteem by showing them that what they have created is special.



2.Art as a Gift
To take the framing of art one step further, I have given framed pieces to my parents and in-laws. I find it very hard to shop for them as really, what do you get your parents let alone your in-laws? Whether they hang the art on their wall in the office or at home, it’s a really nice thoughtful gift that is an Original piece of artwork that is priceless. This is a great way to save the art that you don’t want to throw out but at the same time, make room in your house for new art.


3.Art as Fundraiser
This past year at Ainsley’s nursery school we did a fabulous fundraiser for the school using the children’s paintings. Both girls created a painting and it was sent to Acorn Custom Cards, a company which took the art and made cards and placemats. This was a great idea as it provided a fun art activity for the kids, earned money for the co-op school and parents were able to have cards made that showcased their child’s skills and again, the children would get a self-esteem boost by seeing their art used in a new way.



4.Art as wrapping paper and cards
Another great option is to reuse your children’s artwork as wrapping paper and as cards. I love getting home made mother’s day cards and my girls love making cards for others. This is a great use of artwork that would otherwise be thrown out and save you from buying overpriced cards and wrapping paper!



5.The Art Book
This is something I haven’t created yet but have hopes that when the girls get older and start drawing people and animals we can create our own books. I would love to take a bunch of their drawings and work with them to create a story to go along with them. It would be something simple but I love the stories that Ainsley has started telling me about her drawings and think that soon we will be able to start putting them down on paper. What I would do is mount the artwork on scrapbook paper and add the caption below telling the story. To finish off the “art book” we would either insert the scrapbook pages into clear page protectors and put in a scrap book or we could punch holes into the pages and bind with ribbon. I look forward to the opportunity to make our first book by Ainsley.

The other option for this is to not have a story at all and just put together a collection of art and store it in a scrapbook. This is a really nice idea as you could pick a variety of work done over the course of a school year and have a volume for each year.

Kobo - A dream for the clutter-phobic

I love to read. When I was a kid, I used to go to the library and take out 20 books at a time and read them all by their due date 3 weeks later. Yes, they were books like Sweet Valley High and did not take much to read through, but reading was my absolute favorite thing to do. This love of reading has continued through to my adult years, however, I don't exactly have the time that I used to have to read. As a result library trips are in the past. I would probably never be able to be sure that I would finish a book within the allotted borrow time. This being the case, I buy my books.

I am a huge customer of Indigo and buy my books in large lots so I get the free shipping option :). I have many, many unread books that I am dying to read but with my busy life I have to put off. As you can see, my bedside table currently has a pile of books waiting to be read and I have book shelves in the basement filled with must-reads.



For my birthday, my husband was thoughtful enough to purchase a Kobo reader. I had not even thought about getting one to be honest. I am very much a paper person (as you can probably tell by my products) and it had never occurred to me to start reading on a digital reader. I do like the feel of a book in my hands and being able to physically feel my progress. So when I got my new reader, I was a bit skeptical about whether or not I would use it. In fact, Brett started to read a book on it before I had even figured out how to use it.



This weekend, I signed up for a book club and went to purchase a copy of The Birth House by Ami McKay. I originally went to purchase the paper version when I remembered I had the Kobo and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try it out.



It was very easy to order and download. I then realized what a fantastic alternative the Kobo is for someone like me. It drives me crazy that I have books taking up space all over my house. It is a nice thought that all my books can now be stored on a tiny device to read at my leisure. No more worrying about where to put them. No more dealing with my children ripping pages out of books (yes, this does happen). This will eliminate a great deal of the book clutter in my house which is greatly needed! Now not all the books I want to read are in digital format yet, so I will still get my fix of the traditional reading experience. But in the new format, packing for vacations will be easy and I will have more room for other necessities and my luggage will be that much lighter.

I am very excited to start my first e-book! Did I mention there are accessories???

New Note Pads

I just realized that I haven't posted pictures of the new note pad series now available at www.glowbaby.ca. If you are looking for a Christmas gift for someone who likes to stay organized in style check them out.

I love using lists. They help me stay focused which is especially important when my attention is often divided between Ainsley, Juliet, my husband and the business. To make sure that everything gets done I rely on a to-do list and so I wanted to make a pretty list that would fit on the fridge so I would always know where it was and what needs to be done. It's also great for listing chores for Brett.

The Shopping list is great as I always do a list each week but I would often loose it so having the list on the fridge works well. We haven't been sick yet (knock on wood) so I haven't had a chance to use the medication pad but while it was in the design phase I desperately needed it. Both girls were sick and Ainsley can take medicine that Juliet cannot and it would have been nice to have had something to keep all this straight without having to explain this to my mom and husband multiple times.

Check them out and tell me what you think.

Have a great day!

Balancing Act - 24 hours are not enough

Life has gotten pretty busy for me lately. Glow Baby is taking off and I've had a lot of great response to "Baby's First Journal". I am now working on journal #2 "Baby's First Foods". It is pretty exciting to have people embrace my journal and my hard work is starting to pay off.

While things are getting busy on the business side, life is also getting busier on the family side. Juliet is getting older (she's 9 1/2 months already!!) and she is so much fun to be around. Ainsley is also getting older (she's 2 1/2) and she is starting to drop her nap (Booo!!). A huge part of my day is spent seeing to their needs. I'm still breastfeeding Juliet so that is added to the equation.

My days are a blur. I get up, feed Juliet, take Ainsley to school, put Juliet down for her nap, (1 hour break to work if I'm lucky). Then we go pick up Ainsley from school, have lunch, play, feed Juliet, put Juliet down for her nap. Play with Ainsley and then hope and pray she goes down for her nap. Lately, Ainsley has not fallen asleep for her nap until 3pm and then Juliet gets up shortly afterwards leaving the evening hours the only other time to really focus on work.

Trying to fit everything in is getting tough and I rely heavily on my own organizational skills and ability to prioritize to get through my days. I am feeling pretty exhausted this week. I need a vacation but will have to wait until I finish breastfeeding. If only there were a few more hours in the day then maybe I could find some me-time.