Making Life Work

In this current stage of life I am involved in helping my husband run his business and I work about 30 hours a week for a software company.  In addition to these two jobs, I am a full-time student, a part-time blogger, and a volunteer at church.  As you can well imagine, life is fun and it takes a lot of planning to get everything accomplished.  Here are some things I do to make my life work:

Write a to-do list: - It is very important to prioritize and list out what you feel needs to be accomplished each day, week or month.  I have daily lists, weekend list, weekly lists, and even monthly lists.  This may sound overwhelming, but it frees up brain space because I know I will not forget anything.  Having a dedicated notebook or planner for your to- do lists will help keep you organized.  A hundred sticky notes on your fridge will not de-stress you.  When writing my to-do list I also take note of items I’ll need on different days. If I need to pickup dry cleaning, I put the dry cleaning ticket in my planner.  If I need to go to the grocery store, I put my list and coupons in an envelope in my planner.

Create a schedule – Some people groan at this because they think that it will be just one more added pressure to their already hectic life!  Take your to-do list and break it down into your schedule. When you write that schedule, you will realize that you are not superwoman and you have to weed out some tasks.  Is it more important to sleep at night or to finish dusting the house?   The dusting can always wait. J  It is liberating to walk past a messy bedroom and know that you have “clean bedroom” at 2 PM.  It prevents distraction and encourages productivity!

Plan for leftovers – When life gets busy, the first thing that most of us start to skip is cooking at home. Unfortunately, this can dramatically affect our budget quickly, because eating out is not cheap or healthy!  When I cook, I plan for leftovers.  When I make spaghetti, I cook enough ground beef to use for dinner and to freeze for a future dinner.  If I make rice, I make enough rice for two meals and just plan to make two rice based dinners.  When I make a pot of soup, I will make a double batch and freeze the second half for a few weeks out.   This cooking ahead principal takes no additional time, but it allows me to have a freezer full of options for days that just don’t allow for kitchen time.

Talk and work – I try to save up my personal phone calls for the part of my day that I tackle household chores.  I put a headset on and catch up with friends while I clean the kitchen, fold the laundry, straighten up the house, or wipe down the bathrooms.  This allows me make time for my friends and keep my house in order!

Learn to say no – this one is hard for me and my husband.  We both love to help people and to spend time with people, so “no” has been a hard lesson to learn.  But it’s very important to realize that we are all human in 24 hr day constraints and there is only so much that we can do! Release yourself to say no sometimes!

I found this quote a few months ago and it resonates with this stage of my life, “Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.”  Our life won’t always be this busy, but during this season it has been a necessity and thankfully we have tackled it with the grace of God!

What are some things you do to save time?  

Menu Planning

I am a planner.  I like to know when, where, who and why for just about every situation I plan to encounter.  Which is why it is a tad bizarre that I haven't planned our menu in many months. I just look in my pantry, note what I have the most of, pick about 4-5 easy meals and call it a day.  Breakfast/Lunch are comprised of whatever was on a serious sale (oatmeal, cereal, etc) and lunch is leftovers or frozen veggies/rice.  Sounds pretty appetizing, huh?  Not. 


I have vowed to get better about this!  When I menu plan I save additional money and I waste less.  Plus, I'm not irritated at 5 PM trying to figure out what to feed us.  Seriously, if this is a problem now, what will I do with kids?  "Johnny boy, don't complain that dinner this week has consisted of cereal, cereal and more cereal. You do realize that there are starving children around the world that would love some CEREAL, right?"  Is this situation likely? Of course not. I would never call my child Johnny Boy.  Geez.


Anyways.  I sat down tonight, for the 4th time this week to come up with a plan.  My lack of motivation in this area is pathetic.  Part of my problem is that Caleb and I are planning to start working out on a regular basis and I need to make sure we're getting some good nutrition.   I know this will mean buying more fruits/veggies/meat and truly, I'm a pasta girl.  All of my default, easy meals include pasta.  One of the recipes I chose was for Lasagna Soup.  My next thought was....ohhhhhhh, I'll make lasagna TOO!  Ahem, no.


So now I've whined, complained and procrastinated enough.  Amazingly enough, I did manage to come up with meals for the next several days.  Hallelujah!


Homemade Pizza
Bean and Basil Quinoa Salad (if this is good, I'll share the recipe!)
Sushi
Lasagna Soup
BBQ Chicken, Rice and Veggie


Breakfast will consist of oatmeal, fruit, yogurt
Lunches will consist of some leftovers, salads with meat or beans
Snacks will consist of nuts, fruit/veggies and Shakeology


My goal this year is to try one new recipe a week.  Also, I'm planning to begin transitioning back to using much less white flour and sugar.  And last but not least, I need  to dramatically increase my water intake.  :0)


If you have any tips/suggestions on how to make menu planning easier, feel free to enlighten me. Please.

DIY: Fix a clogged drain!

A couple of weeks ago, our bathroom sink decided to start draining really slowly...so on  my mental grocery list I put Draino. Then I thought to myself, "that stuff isn't very environmentally friendly and it costs money."  Which reminded me that I've seen this handy trick around the blog-o-sphere lately and thought, "it's worth a shot!" (I bet you all are hoping this "Courtney's thoughts" stuff stops soon)

Anyways, on to the point!

Take 1 cup of baking soda and pour it down the offending clogged sink.  It won't all go down, because 1 cup is alot, but work with it.  Then, pour 1 cup white vinegar.  You'll feel like you're conducting a science experiment in your bathroom sink Now walk away for 20 minutes.  Next, pour 4 cups of boiling water down the drain.  That's it! Our drain is as good as new, environmentally friendly and free! :)

Saving Time In The Kitchen

I love to cook, but contrary to popular belief, I have days I don't feel like cooking too!  I try to plan ahead for these types of days, by doing some cooking ahead of time.  


For example, when I am cooking a pound of ground beef for chilli, I go ahead and cook another pound of ground beef at the same time to freeze. This can easily be thawed in a pot on low heat with some tomato sauce for a quick dinner of spaghetti!

Or if I plan on making chicken enchiladas, I'll also plan on making a roast chicken.  One of our dinners will be roast chicken with sides and another one of our dinners will be chicken enchiladas with the leftover chicken from the roast chicken dinner. Since I only cook for two, I usually have enough meat to use on top of a big garden salad!  3 dinners from one chicken.

Just tonight, I made some rice for a casserole, but I made a double batch to use for black beans and rice later in the week.  This helps make great use of my time, by saving me prep time on future meals.

What are some tips you use in the kitchen that save you time? 

Washing Machines

Over the past week, my washer machine has started to smell really sour.  After I wash clothes, I'm taking them out immediately and it still smells sour!  So yesterday I researched how to deodorize a washing machine and found this traumatizing statistic. "In 1999, Dr. Charles Gerba, a University of Arizona professor, conducted a study on the cleanliness of Americans' washing machines. After washing a sterile washcloth in 60 homes, he found evidence of fecal matter and E.coli in approximately 25 percent of the machines."  Gag. Choke. GROSS!


To deodorize/sterilize they recommend running a load with either white vinegar or bleach.  I opted for the white vinegar route.  It helped a little.  So then I tried borax, because it's supposed to be a deodorizer as well. Didn't help.  So now my theory is that those "disappearing" socks have all ended up in the bottom of my washing machine and are a huge moldy mess.  Isn't my imagination amazing?  So Caleb is going to take apart the washer machine this weekend to see what's causing the disturbing smell and subsequent bizarre theories.


Has this ever happened to your washer? How did you fix the smell? It's making all my laundry smell bad!


You can read the rest of the information I found here: http://www.ehow.com/how_5650730_deodorize-washing-machines.html


While we're on the topic of washing machines, check THIS out!

(http://bathdecor.wordpress.com/)

It's a washing machine AND a toilet. Now doesn't that sound like it smells good? :)