Thursday, January 1, 2015

New Year, New Plans, New Resolutions

 Yes, today is the first day of a new year! Who can believe that it is really 2015? I know that I can't. Time keeps going along, my kids keep getting older & so do I! PDC is going to be 5 in three weeks! That one makes me stop & think. Then again, Bubba just turned 16 the beginning of December! I can still remember the day I brought him home from the hospital like it was yesterday. Time flies when you are having fun, & being driven insane by your kids, that's for sure.

 I have spent the last week or so working out a lot of details on how we are going to try to make things run a little smoother in our house this coming year. I made a daily schedule for myself, found a bunch of great downloads for helpful forms & plans from some great web sites. I have also decided that PDC needs to have a chore chart & allowance starting today, I am so tired of having to pick up behind her everyday & then everyone else in the house thinks that I don't do anything all day! :( I am also revamping how we do our menu every month. I do make one up at the first of the month so I know what to buy for groceries, but it is just a loose planned one, not one that actually tells what the dinner is really going to be that night. I decided this month to take the time to actually make it right & assign what is going to be for dinner that night.

 We have a schedule when everyone is supposed to make dinner each month but that also never seems to work out every day either. Bubba is supposed to make dinner 2 Wednesdays a month, Stitch was supposed to switch off the other 2 with him (but try making a nearly 21 year old who thinks that just paying rent to live here is all that is expected of him, & I don't have the backbone to just kick him to the curb either.) I make dinner Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, & Fridays, while DH makes dinner on the weekends ( I still think I am getting the short end of the stick here but since I stay home...) :)

 My wonderful in-laws gave me an electric roaster for Christmas that I have a feeling is going to be my new best friend, along with my crock pot. I have been trying for the last few months to tighten up our grocery list seeing as how prices in the stores are going up & our budget for food isn't. I have about $600 a month to feed 5 people ( one of them eats like two & another eats enough for at least three people.) All that combined makes it hard to work out every month but hopefully with the new roaster & the tried & true crock pot it will all work out a little better.

 I also have tried to work out a way to better spend my days & hopefully get every thing done without feeling like a chicken with my head cut off. I am looking at starting to work with PDC on preschool stuff a couple times a week too. She will be heading off to kindergarten this next fall, so I want to make sure she is ready (although I am not sure I am going to be 100% ready for that.) Hopefully all of this combined will make life in my crazy little world a little bit easier.

 I will share some of the ideas that I have found as we go along & see how they all work out. I know from the sites that I found that they seem to work for other people pretty well but I don't want to endorse anything on here that I have not tried myself & found to work well. I have been saying that I want to take this blog slightly in a different direction & not just have it be about my scrapbooking (although that will always be the original reason that I started it.) That is not the only way that I have to escape my crazy life everyday.

 So here is to a New Year & please join me for the journey that I have with all the new plans & new resolutions. Maybe they will help you as much as I am hoping they help me! :)

 Thank you for joining me today,

 Kim