My Favorite On The Go Breakfast

My kiddos are fruit eaters…I mean serious fruit eaters.  Both my daughters could seriously down a whole carton of raspberries before we even get home from the store. But I hate to say it fruit can be expensive when not in season and it hurts me to spend 4.00 on a pint of strawberries. We love to have fruit for breakfast and with meals so I have found a great recipe that allows us to have fruit all year long.

My oldest loves to grab one of these on the way to basketball practice or after a long day at the farm. These make great treats to take to the guys in the field as well. My husband can throw one in his lunch bag and eat it on the go whenever he gets a second. It acts as an ice pack as well when frozen. 

Here comes the best part. You just get a big bowl out of your pantry and throw everything into it. I do like to cut my peaches and pineapple a little smaller but other than that throw it all in and stir it up. Feel free to add any extra fruit your family might love that I missed. We usually add some banana or blueberries. If I have any bags of frozen fruit in the freezer that need used up we throw those in as well. 

The key here is get cans of fruit that are in their own juices, none of that heavy syrup stuff. That is for the birds. Include the juice into your bowl for all of those yummy fruit nutrients. I usually freeze these in small plastic cups with lids and then as I am getting ready in the morning pull them out and sit them on the counter. When I am ready to serve breakfast they are the perfect consistency of slushy goodness. 

This usually makes anywhere from 24-32 servings depending on how much fruit you include. That is 24 quick meals or snacks ready to go anytime all for around 10.00 total. 

POYEL: Slowly but surely… Introducing Our Cleaning Routine

Ok so I now it's been awhile, and I have been checking things off my list, I just have been working so hard at checking them off I have forgotten to blog about them! So as my basement is currently in a shambles (we had a water problem, more on that later) we have been isolated to the first floor during our day! Wow do I miss our playroom but in the meantime I have fallen even more in love with my cleaning routine due to the fact that we have our stuff from the basement everywhere and I am not having a panic attack because my house is a mess and I don't know where to begin (can you tell I have felt that way before)…. But after a lot of different failed attempts at a system I have found my answer….

Introducing the Home Routines App I have always admired The Fly Lady (if you aren't sure who she is google her you will be in aww). I felt like she had cleaning down to a science but I could never remember what zone I was in and what I was supposed to do in that zone or heck even where the zone was!  I could have made a really cute printable with the different zones and check off boxes to go with them but then I would have had to find that printable when it was time to clean and that is another problem in itself, but I always have my phone! The Home Routines App comes preloaded with the Fly Lady zones and it only takes 15 - 30 minutes a day! Seriously as the Fly Lady says "You can do ANYTHING for 15 minutes."

So I have created my Morning Routine which includes things like empty dishwasher, make bed, get everyone breakfast (seriously if it wasn't on the list it might not happen), lay out dinner you get the idea. All those small things that need done in the mornings to make my day run more smoothly. I also included a "swish and swipe" task in my morning and evening routine. This reminds me to give a quick wipe off in my bathroom and kitchen so that it is ready to go for the day. Home Routines gives you an example of a morning routine. I just used it as my starting point and then added a few things and deleted some to customize it for me. Included in my morning list is a task "15 minutes in the focus zone", this is where home routines is amazing. It comes with all of The Fly Ladies zones and tasks already included in a list.

Another wonderful built in feature of Home Routines is the reset feature at the end of the day (or end of the week… month… year) you can have all of your routines reset. I created a routine for my quarterly tasks that need to get done as well (see those below) I have it set to remind me after three months of my quarterly tasks and then after a week it resets the list. My morning and evening routine is set to reset each day so that I don't have to go through and tell it to do anything I just wake up and have a new refreshed list in front of me :)

I've included my older version of my cleaning routine to give you an idea of what tasks I do and how often. A lot of the weekly and monthly items are now included in my zone cleaning but the quarterly list is the exact same one I have set up on my app.

I can't even begin to tell you how much my new system has simplified my cleaning routine. In the past i  didn't even know where to begin and after using it for a few months it seems that things are routinely done and I haven't found an inch of dust anywhere since I started :) 

Through the Lens Thursday

Sometimes the sights and scenes around the farm absolutely take my breath away! I saw this sunset as I was heading to the farm after running the guys supper after a long and hectic day! Our God simply amazes me with his beauty!

To Do List

Oh my as I started thinking about organizing my entire life I got a little overwhelmed... ok maybe more than a little.  Then I started thinking what do I always do when I need to complete something.  I start with a list.  So here it is my To Do List.  I am hoping that if it is out there in black and white then I am hoping I am more adept at getting it To Done!!  Don't be alarmed at the incredible length of this list I am a teacher and a farmers wife so a few DIY projects are nothing compared to a room full of 7th graders, or a 1500 pound steer staring me in the face :)

Meal Planning

-Compile a online Family Dinning Menu utilizing menu board

-Complete 2 months worth of day by day meal plans

-Create pantry lists

-Complete a freezer cooking day putting at least 10 ready to go meals in my freezer

Cleaning House

-Create a cleaning schedule that works for us

-Create a cleaning kit for the girls

Kitchen

-New cupboards (mine are so inefficient) 

-Flooring

-Backsplash

-Lighting

-Paint

Living Room

-DVD's are organized

-CD's are organized

-Spindels are removed

Entry

-New front door

-New porch light

-Beautify entry

Bathroom

-New Vanity (ok seriously mine is plastic)

-Ceramic tile the floors

-Closet organization

-Medical supplies organized

-Nail polish organized

-Makeup organized

-Paint

Organizing

-Closets

-Create a daily schedule

-Purse Organized

-Kids files

-Hope chest

-Garage
-Girls clothes storage

Decluttering

-Play area

-Back room

-Craft area

Finances

-Utilize an envelope system

-Utilize the mint app

Computer

-Files are organized

-Desktop is organized

-Photos are edited

-Photos are organized

-Photo-books are made

Wow... ok that does come close to being an intimidating as a room full of 7th graders but just like those hormonal 7th graders this is going to be a fun challenge to take on!!!

Speaking without Words

4-H is a wonderful organization and really gives our farm kids an area where they can show off all their hard work they do around the farm. Currently J is shows swine along with his older cousin. These two work many, many, hours with their pigs and spend a lot of time together in the barns. They kind of having a way of knowing what the other is thinking without even speaking. Here is one of the favorite pictures of them, walking side by side extremely focused and with an intensity about them that we just love to see. They really put so much time and effort into raising and caring for their animals and showing that off to the judge is really important to them.  

Project Organize Your Entire Life... the beginning!

Raising three kids can be crazy enough for any momma, but for a farmers wife life can get extremely hectic even without any kids in the picture.  My husband is working extremely long days right now as we are right in the thick of harvest.  My kids have very different schedules, J is my 14 year old son who is just wrapping up football season and has already started basketball practices.  Ellie is my almost three year old diva who loves spending her days cooking, playing dress up, and "doing school" with mommy.  And finally  Bean is my precious 5 month old, all smiles, baby girl (her arrival warranted her daddy to leave the tractor and put a halt to the bean planting hence the nickname). 

As I'm sure you can imagine raising three munchkins all while helping with the day to day farming operations, including feeding the guys in the field, can get a little hectic.  Enter Project Organize Your Entire Life (POYEL for short) when I read Steph's original post at Modern Parents Messy Kids I thought to myself wow... I wish I had it all together like that. (Make sure you check out her original post it is quite the organizers dream)   Being organized around here would do wonders for helping me get homeschool done, food delivered to kids and farmers (not Pizza Hut :) , chores done, along with all the running to various extracurriculars. I was totally onboard. Join me as I attempt to organize my entire life as well as share my escapades in parenting, homeschooling, and farm wife's life. 

Photo via: Martha Stewart