I am busy, you are busy, any homeschool mom with several children is busy. So, sometimes finding a minute to sit down and write out a plan to streamline and simplify our days can be difficult. But, it’s necessary.
So, the things that eat up my time are:
- Laundry
- Cooking
- Cleaning
- School
- Television
- Blogging (hush up!)
I have already said more than anyone cares to read on the topic of laundry. New system works like a dream.
So, now we’re gonna move on to COOKING. I own most and have read all of the “monthly cooking” type of books that I have ever heard of and yet I don’t do the monthly cooking. None of those plans ever fit the way we live.
We grocery-shop weekly and I do what I can to keep the meals very simple, cheap and easy. Part of the freedom of homeschooling is that we can write our own rules. Government school families have to eat breakfast early and supper late or their day won’t work. I don’t hafta do it that way, whew!
Aboard this ship we don’t make a big deal out of breakfast. My Very Dear Hubby is not much for breakfast, hallelujah. So around here it’s barely a meal. Hubby and I have a green smoothie. I keep some cereal (only the really cheap, plain stuff) on hand and try to keep bread in the house and the Pirates just grab a quick bite of something. Somebody helps the little two get fed. And that’s it.
Lunch is a hodge-podge of leftovers and sandwiches and fresh fruit.
Supper is my big effort for the day. I cook (and by I, I mean one of the big Pirates) anyway, someone will cook all of the meat for the week on the day it’s bought (sometimes the day after). We brown all the ground beef and drain it and let it cool a bit and put it in freezer bags in 1 lb packages. Ditto the sausage. The chicken usually gets baked and cut up into cubes or left in whole pieces. (I buy boneless skinless thighs) Chicken also gets bagged and frozen.
It really is worth the effort to get it all done at once. I only have to clean up once. And I love the convenience of going into the kitchen at 5 o’clock, spending 10 minutes putting a casserole together and in the oven. Then I have another chunk of time to do other things until it’s time to start a vegetable or a salad.
Of course, we don’t eat a casserole every night. Sometimes I use my crock pot. I never liked my crock pot as a time saving tool until I got the best crock pot cookbook ever.
You won’t believe this, I just looked it up on amazon and you can get one for $0.24 plus shipping. I select my recipes in this book by the number of ingredients. The fewer ingredients, the quicker I’m outta there and on to other things.
Now, I do, on occasion, make meals that are a little more complicated. But, for the most part, I need time-saving-simplicity.
Be sure to check out the other frugal tips at Biblical Womanhood Online.
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