2010 – Week 2 of 8 Weeks to a Frazzle Free Christmas

Welcome to week 2 of 8 Weeks to a Frazzle Free Christmas 2010!  This week we are focusing on adding ideas to our Gift List, updating our Christmas card list, discussing and finalizing our family traditions and activities, scheduling reservations and appointments, and continuing to update our Buy List.  If you haven’t already done so, be sure to download the ebook at http://www.familieswithpurpose.com/frazzle-free-christmas.html.

Tips for Grocery Shopping

By Jennifer Ascher of Organizing without Limits

Love it or hate if you want to eat, you need to go grocery shopping.  Here are some tips to make this time consuming task more organized and efficient.

Keep a running list on your refrigerator. Write items down when you are running low; don’t wait till you are completely out. To speed things up at the grocery store I recommend grouping like items together. You can search on line for grocery list templates or make your own.

Before going to the grocery store make sure to do the following:

1. Check your menu plan and add any ingredients you don’t have to your list.
2. Go through the sales flyers and coupons to ensure you are maximizing your savings.
3. Clean out and organize your refrigerator and freezer.
4. Eat. If you go shopping on an empty stomach you will spend more money.
5. Decide what you budget is going to be. Allow for a little bit extra in case you discover a great deal and want to stock up.

Try to go grocery shopping during slower times of the day. Avoid the grocery store during the 5 o’clock rush.

While shopping stick to your list and budget. Keep a rough running total in your head.

If an item is on sale and it is not available. Make sure to ask for a rain check so you can get the sale price next time you go grocery shopping.

By planning ahead grocery shopping will no longer be a sometimes dreaded task, but something you might enjoy.

Jennifer Ascher(better known as an Organizing Geek) is a professional organizer and the owner of Organizing Without Limits in  Oakland County, MI. She began this business because of her  passion for organizing and helping others. Being a busy mom and business owner, Jennifer understands the importance of getting and staying organized.  You can reach Jennifer at http://www.organizingwithoutlimits.com or at http://organizingwithoutlimits.typepad.com. You can also find her on twitter @Organizing_Geek or on Facebook.

CONNECT for Positive Parent – Teacher Relationships

By: Laura Rolands of My Attention Coach

The key to developing a good relationship with your children’s teachers and schools is to CONNECT with them.  Follow our steps below and a fruitful relationship will be yours to enjoy!

Communicate:  This is the most important thing to do.  Whether your child has any special needs or not, you want to communicate with his or her teacher(s) early in the school year.  If you have not done this yet this year, it isn’t too late.  Send a quick email or make a phone call to initiate the communication.

Offer Suggestions: (Not demands)  By offering suggestions, you signal that you are both an advocate for your child and you are open to other ideas that may work in the teacher’s class.  Ask the teacher for suggestions as well.  We know our kids best, but the teachers know their classroom and curriculum the best.

Notebook:  Keep a notebook of things you need to communicate and questions you have for teachers and other school staff.  Not only will this help you document what has already been communicated, but it will help you keep track of multiple children, teachers and even schools!

Nightly:  Go through your child’s backpack with them every afternoon or evening.  Going through the backpack will help you be sure that you are receiving all information from your child’s school and help keep those communication lines open. As they get older, you will need to give children more independence on this.  If you are able to start early, you will learn more about your child’s organizing style (or lack of one) so you can coach him or her on ways to improve their organization.

Email:  Even though phones are available in most classrooms these days, teachers seem to prefer email communication.  This is such an effective tool for quickly relaying information and checking in teachers and parents.  Be careful though.  Feelings and tone can be misunderstood in writing.  If you are frustrated about something or confused by expectations of your child, it might be best to call and/or schedule an in-person meeting.

Check-in:  Whether by email, phone or in person, it is important to periodically check in with the school and your child’s teachers.  This  helps to prevent crisis communication.

Teachers enjoy teaching:  If you get frustrated with your relationship with your child’s school, remember, teachers chose this profession for a reason.  They enjoy teaching and want the best learning for all of their students.  A positive relationship between parents, schools and teachers is the best way to ensure this positive learning environment for all of our students.

How do you CONNECT with your child’s school?  What works well?  Share your ideas here to continue the learning!

Laura Rolands is the founder of LSR Coaching and Consulting, LLC. She is a coach whose passion is to support, lead and inspire independence and success for people who have either been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD or who are facing other attention-related challenges. Her clients include individuals with attention-related challenges and/or their parents. If you have any questions or more suggestions to add, please visit her website at www.MyAttentionCoach.com.

The Right Questions to Ask Your Child’s Teacher

By Susan Heid of The Confident Mom

We are approaching the annual Back to School Parent/Teacher Conferences in many parts of the country.  This is an excellent opportunity to get information about your child from the teacher as well as give information to their teacher, but I think many times parents miss this opportunity.  They go into the conference just to listen to what the teacher has to say and then leave, rather than having a two way conversation about their child.

Parent/Teacher Conferences and communication in general with your child’s teacher is critical – but most importantly now with the budget cuts that are forcing teachers to work longer for less and with more students.  You as the parent have to step up to the plate and be part of the solution so your child can succeed.  One suggestion I have even before the Parent/Teacher Conference is to get into the classroom to meet the teacher.  Don’t let the conference be the first time you meet.  This doesn’t have to b a big production of a meeting, even if you are just dropping or picking up your child from school, pop in before the bell rings to say hello for 5 minutes.  We have always emailed ahead of time too, which helps the teacher know you are coming!

Here are several important questions that you want to be sure to ask your child’s teacher:

What are my child’s academic strengths?  What needs improvement or attention?

You may think you know what areas your child is proficient in, but the teacher may see something different.  By hearing what the teacher observes in the classroom you will have a better idea of the BIG picture regarding your child.

What specific things can I do to support my child at home to reinforce what he/she is learning in the classroom?

Always a great question that provides practical ways that you can “help” at home.  I don’t know about you, but I am not a teacher, nor am I very patient – so when I can get specific ideas from the teacher about what I can do at home, I love it!

What is my child’s current achievement level and how does it compare with what is expected at this grade level? What are students expected to master by the end of the year?

Often time’s parents want to know how their child compares to other students in the classroom rather than what is expected for the grade level.  Honestly, I am not the concerned with how he/she compares to other children, but I am very interested in knowing where they fall with regard to grade level expectations.

Does my child make a good effort on assignments and turn in neat and completed work? How are my child’s work habits?

This is one of the best questions you can ask the teacher!  Knowing how your child’s teacher perceives the effort being given is key to knowing if your child is just doing what he needs to get by, not doing enough or surpassing the expectations.  Depending on the age of your child, you may already know their own personality traits which can determine how they manage themselves in completing assignments.

Does my child stay on task well or need frequent reminders? Are there any behavior issues that need addressed?

Knowing how your child operates in the classroom will be helpful if/when there ever becomes an issue with behavior.  You can certainly share this information with your child and help them make better choices in the classroom.

How much time should my child be spending on homework each night?  Is there a way that I can stay aware of my child’s assignments online?

The homework question – always a great one to know if your child is spending too much or too little time on their assignments at home.  You can then help them gauge where they are spending too much time or perhaps they are struggling more than they should be with a particular subject.

How does my child do working in groups and working independently?

This will help you perhaps develop some areas in your child that will help him in future years.  Both of these areas are ones your child will experience during all their school years, so if you can start when they are young developing skills in an area they may be weaker in, you are setting them up for success!

What is the best way to communicate with you?  Email, written notes my child brings in or telephone?

I would also suggest that you share any information with the teacher that may be helpful.  Do you have any changes at home that might affect how your child behaves?  Giving the teacher this information will help him/her keep their eyes out for any uncharacteristic behavior.  Confirming how the teacher likes to communicate will make things easier for everyone!

By actively participating in the time you have with the teacher during a conference you can start your child’s year off with just the right tools they need to do their best.  Parent involvement makes all the difference in how a child does in school, make sure you are involved and asking just the right questions!

Susan Heid helps moms get the BIG picture on how their home is functioning and then helps them gain relief with a personalized plan of action to give life changing results. Susan’s training as a PCI Certified Parent Coach. a Certified Family Manager Coach and a ScreamFree Certified Leader gives her a unique combination to encourage and support busy moms in the art of Home and Family Management. Empowering Moms and Strengthening Families is her passion. Are you ready to make positive changes that will impact your family for generations? You can start by visiting The Confident Mom and requesting her FREE ebook, “Getting Kids to Cooperate and Become Team Players – 10 Essential Strategies and Solutions“.

Thanksgiving Game Idea – Taking Pictionary to a Whole New Level

Here is a family fun idea for Thanksgiving this year (or any family get together) that we had a lot of fun with last year.  We played Pictionary as a family (I think there were around 18 of us playing) by dividing into two teams.  One team was called Team Pilgrim and the other Team Turkey.  All you need for this game is the Pictionary game, two table top flip charts (you can buy them at your local office supply store) and a few markers.  Optional are the team t-shirts that I made in advance.  They added to the fun, but if they won’t fit in your budget or if you don’t have time to make them (I bought blank tshirts online and ironed on the decals), they you can easily skip them.

2010 – Week 1 of 8 Weeks to a Frazzle Free Christmas

Welcome to 8 Weeks to a Frazzle Free Christmas 2010!  This week we are focusing on finalizing Thanksgiving plans, updating our family calendar, setting a spending budget, starting our Buy List and Gift List, and discussing the Christmas traditions and activities that we would like to do this year.  If you haven’t already done so, be sure to download the ebook at http://www.familieswithpurpose.com/frazzle-free-christmas.html.

The Art of Discipline

By Sandra Huber of the The Soulful Parent

Today, discipline and punishment are two words often used interchangeably by parents, care providers as well as teachers and even health care providers. And although they both involved how we interact with our children when they are not behaving the way we want them to, they are not the same.

It was until my daughter was no longer a baby that it became clear to me that the differences may be subtle but they are still significant especially if I want to be the calm parent that she needs me to be. My mantra for parenting is “Only one of us can be having a meltdown at a time”!

What I appreciate about explaining to the moms I work with what discipline can be in their families, is the focus on it being a method of helping our children learn how to have self-control and confidence. On the other hand, punishment is one of the many methods that can be used to “discipline” children. We punish our children when we spank them, hit them, isolate them, withhold love or shame them in an effort to get them to behave.

The important thing to remember is that in order to be in charge and connected to our kids at the same time, we need to remain cool and make decisions from that place. Discipline means that we help our children learn about behavior that is not OK. It means that we have established rules which have been discussed in advance (if at all possible) and our children learn what to expect from us and what is expected from them.

Discipline is a powerful learning tool that only happens when parents are in control of their emotions allowing the consequences to do the disciplining. Punishment takes place many times out of anger and frustration, where we find ourselves losing our cool, yelling, and bribing or imposing inappropriate consequences for our kids’ mistakes.

As one mom shared with me during one of my workshops, “I totally get now the difference between discipline and punishment for my boys: discipline means they have consistent, predetermined consequences. Punishment teaches them that they better “not get caught” next time”!

Where do you think you are parenting from?

Sandra is the “soul” and “coach” behind the Soulful Parent. She has worked in Early Intervention, Special Education and has supported many families in the road to successful parenting. She became a PCI Certified Parent Coach® because she’s deeply passionate about changing the world, one family at a time. Sandra believes that life becomes a more enjoyable journey when you lead from your strengths! She can be contacted Sandra {at} thesoulfulparent(.)com and www.thesoulfulparent.com for more information about seminars, presentations and individual coaching services.

BOOtiful Halloween Crafts and Eats

By Beth Engelman and Jenna Riggs of Mommy on a Shoestring

This Halloween, scare up some holiday fun with these clever craft ideas that are easy to make, even at the last minute!

Recycled Bag Luminaries

(Thanks to the folks at www.iparty.com for contributing this idea)

This easy and affordable craft is perfect for last minute decorating. It’s also a great way to reuse paper grocery bags.

Materials:

• Paper grocery bags
• Light Sticks (available at most craft and hardware stores).

Directions:

• Use a black marker to draw a face onto the middle of each bag (I recommend using the side that has no writing).
• Use sharp scissors to cut out each face (this should be done by an adult).
• Place light stick inside the bag.
• Place luminary in a dark area and enjoy.

Helpful Hint: This craft also works well with plain brown paper lunch bags.

Glue Ghosts

This craft is perfect for young children who love to pour glue all over everything. Be sure to make these ghosts a day in advance, as they need roughly 10-12 hours to dry.

Materials

• Glue
• String, yarn or pipe cleaner
• Waxed paper
• Craft stick or plastic spoon
• Googly eyes
• Construction paper (for the mouth)

Directions:

For each ghost, lay a piece of string in the shape of a ghost onto a piece of waxed paper. Be sure to leave the bottom part open.

Have your kids pour glue to cover the entire ghost area. Use a plastic spoon or craft stick to make sure the glue is spread evenly. Note: the thicker the glue, the longer it takes for the ghost to dry.

Add personality by placing googly eyes and a construction paper mouth onto each ghost. Let dry for about 10-12 hours.

Once dry, peel each ghost off the waxed paper. Trim rough edges if necessary.

Poke a hole at the top of each ghost with a pushpin and thread a piece of string through the hole for hanging! Bootiful!!!!!!!!!

Glow-in-the-Dark Creepy Crawlers

(Thanks to the folks at www.iparty.com for contributing this idea)

Delight your kids with these easy to make crawlers.

Materials:

• Ping Pong Ball
• Styrofoam Cup
• Mini Light Stick
• 3 Glow Bracelets
• Mini Light Stick
• Tacky Glue

Directions:

Paint cup and let is sit until dry.

Poke a small hole in the ping-pong ball. (I recommend using a pair of scissors or pushpin). Use a black sharpie to draw the creepy crawler’s face.

Push mini light stick into the hole of the ball.

Glue the ping-pong ball to the bottom of the Styrofoam cup.

Poke three small holes on each side of the cup and slide a glow bracelet through each hole.

For maximum effect, place creepy crawlers in a dark area and watch your kids face light up when they see them glow.

Candy Wrapper Bowls

Once Halloween has ended, don’t throw away your old candy wrappers! Instead use them to make this “sweet” bowl.

Materials:

• Newspaper ripped into small pieces
• Mod Podge or PVA glue
• A bowl with a smooth bottom (to be used as your mold)
• Aluminum foil

Directions:

Wrap the outside of bowl with aluminum foil.

Begin wrapping bowl with newspaper pieces dipped in Mod Podge. Be sure to smooth out each piece and overlap edges. Continue process until you have wrapped the entire bowl, in 3-4 times. Note: The more layers of newspaper, the sturdier your bowl.

Arrange the desired order and pattern of your wrappers and carefully glue on them on your bowl with Mod Podge. Cover the entire bowl with an additional layer of Mod Podge to ensure everything is sealed.

Let stand for 48 to 72 hours until dry.

When your bowl is completely dry, pull the original bowl out from under the paper and remove the aluminum foil.

Paint the inside or outside if desired.

Note: This bowl is for decorative use only! It is perfect for holding school supplies, wrapped candy, and trinkets. Do not use it for serving food.

How about a few treats?

There is nothing “tricky” about these treats that come courtesy of Bean Sprouts Café in Madison,Wisconsin. Be sure to visit their website for more information! (www.beansproutscafe.com).

You will need:

• 6 whole fresh strawberries
• ½ cup white chocolate chips or vanilla candy chips (melted)
• Chocolate sprinkles or mini chocolate chips
• 6 lollipop sticks (available at most craft stores)
• Wax Paper

Directions:

Dip entire strawberry (except for the stem) into the melted white chocolate.

Place berry on a plate covered with wax paper. Make sure the pointy end of the strawberry, which will be the top of the ghost, is facing up.

Add eyes and a mouth with chocolate chips or sprinkles.

Repeat with remaining strawberries.

Place “ghosts” in freezer for 8-10 minutes, or until coating is solid. Use a table knife to cut off the stem and place a lollipop stick in the bottom of each strawberry.

Bean Sprouts Pumpkin Pops

This tricky treat adds a nutritious boost with whole-wheat flour and chickpeas but all your kids will notice is its sweet flavor.

For the vanilla cupcakes you will need:

• 2 1/2 cups wheat flour
• 2 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 2 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 6 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp. white vinegar
• 1/2 cup pureed chickpeas
• 1 1/4 cups water
• Cupcake liners

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Line a muffin pan with 12 cupcake liners.
• In a large bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and baking powder.
• Stir in olive oil, vanilla and vinegar.
• Fold in pureed chickpeas, slowly add water and stir until smooth.
• Divide the batter among the muffin liners and bake for 16 to 18 minutes. Let cool

For the pumpkin coating you will need:

• 2 cups white chocolate chips or vanilla candy chips
• 2 tsp. milk
• Natural orange food coloring (available at health food stores)
• Mini chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup pretzel sticks
• Lollipop sticks
• Wax paper

Directions:

• When the cake is cooled, place it in a bowl and mash it up into tiny pieces.
• Add milk until the cake becomes sticky.
• Form 1-inch diameter balls using the sticky cake.
• Carefully slide a lollipop stick in each ball.
• Place on a plate lined with wax paper and put in the freezer for at least 8-10 minutes, or until the cake hardens.
• While the cake balls are in the freezer, melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time, so as not to burn the chocolate. Stir until smooth.
• Add food coloring and stir until the chocolate is pumpkin color.
• Dip each cake ball in the orange chocolate coating and place on wax paper. Add eyes and a mouth with mini chocolate chips. Top off with a “pretzel stick” stem.
• Repeat with remaining cake balls.
• Place in freezer for 3-5 minutes until coating is hard.

Jenna Riggs and Beth Engelman are the creative talents and owners of Mommy on a Shoestring, a website and weekly radio show chock full of ideas on how families can live creatively and large on a small budget.

3 Simple Ways to Create Family Unity

By Susan Heid of The Confident Mom

By now, everyone is back in school and schedules are a little crazy.  Do you find yourself passing each other as one comes in the front door and you go out?  Are you lucky to find time to eat a meal together during the week or even all be in the same room at the same time?  It takes constant work and intentional thinking to keep a family focused and connected and honestly the job lies on the shoulders of moms.

Over my years of working with families and especially overwhelmed moms, I have come up with a few key points that allow this task a little easier.  If we don’t step up to the plate, then who will?  Our role as Keeper of the Home is to create a place where our family can rest, be renewed and feel connected, but if we are never in the home all together how will this happen?

Be at Home – a big concern I have with how families are operating today is that parents are feeling this overwhelming guilt to offer all kinds of activities for their children.  It is rampant!  When a mom comes to me and I ask her to describe her day to me and she proceeds to share a day of taxi driving kids from one activity to another, it is no surprise she is feeling overwhelmed and having a hard time juggling it all.  We are under a false sense that we must provide multiple opportunities for our kids to do “everything” or else they miss out.  Don’t take this the wrong way, I am not saying your kids can’t be involved in an activity, but you have to limit that involvement for the benefit of the family unit.  There is no other way.  If you are continually just passing through your front door and not spending time within its walls you are creating the opposite of what I think most moms want for their family.

I don’t care what size of a family you have you must create some boundaries and guidelines concerning outside activities.  If you do not, then they will control you.  We have a policy in our family that you are allowed one sport/activity per season.  At a few different times music lessons were permitted during the same time a sport or activity was occurring, but it was only when the lesson took place in our home (no driving for me) or at school.  I cannot tell you how this preserved our time as a family.  Although with 3 kids and each doing a sport in the same season, it was difficult and I wanted to change our position, but we made it work.  I was fortunate because none of our kids did a winter sport, so we had an entire season ‘off’ and it was something I could look forward to.

This fall we have only one participating in a sport and the fabulous part is it only takes place on the weekend.  I cannot tell you when I can remember that every day after school my kids are together in our own home.  This also then overflows to us having dinner together, which brings me to another item I am very passionate about.

Meal Time –  The research is there and still we wonder of the value of eating meals together as a family.  For example:

According to a new (2005) Columbia University survey, teenagers who eat with their families at least five times a week are more likely to get better grades in school and much less likely to have substance abuse problems.

A survey of 1,000 teens by the National Center Addiction and Drug Abuse at Columbia University (2008) found that nearly half of teens thought dinnertime was the best time to talk to their parents about something important. More than 80% of the teens in the same survey said they preferred having dinner with their families to eating alone.

The Home-School Study of Language and Literacy Development, a joint project between Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and Clark University, found that the discussions that take place at the dinner table are important to children’s speech development. Lively discussions of current events or explanations make a bigger contribution to children’s vocabularies than just saying “Pass the peas.”

So, better grades and less likely to have substance abuse problems, greater opportunity to connect with your teen and better language development.  WOW – I don’t know about you, but we all have to eat so why not make this a priority in order to reap these additional benefits?

If family meal time is missing from your daily or weekly schedule, start incorporating it in.  Take the time to plan dinner, have it be something your family looks forward to, invite some interesting conversation topics (a great resource is Family Table Topics, our family loves this!) talk about your day, ask open ended questions, not the typical “how was your day” instead say, “tell me about your day”  “what was your favorite part”  “what was the worst part”, you will be amazed at what comes out of those simple questions.  Talk about what is in the news depending on the age of your children, just get everyone talking.

If you need help getting a plan together for dinner, check out Emealz or Beyond Beans and Weenies – two great sites that help moms prepare and deliver dinner with less stress!

Laugh Together – Now, this one is often combined with having meals together at our house!  We get into some great conversations that end up making us all laugh and it creates a bonding that nothing else will.  When you can be a little silly at times and share in that laughter, it ignites a different level of connectedness for you and your children.  You can do this at meal time, while playing games, while doing homework, really most anything.  Let your imagination come out.  When your kids see you in a different light rather than always the serious side it changes dynamics for the better.

So what suggestion here can you incorporate this week in your home?  What speaks to your heart and you feel compelled to change?  The intentional action steps you take to make a change for the positive will be well worth it.  You might be met with some resistance at first, but still with what you know in your gut – creating that family unity is one of the primary goals of a mom.  Take it seriously and intentionally and your kids will be blessed!

Susan Heid helps moms get the BIG picture on how their home is functioning and then helps them gain relief with a personalized plan of action to give life changing results.  Susan’s training as a PCI Certified Parent Coach. a Certified Family Manager Coach and a ScreamFree Certified Leader gives her a unique combination to encourage and support busy moms in the art of Home and Family Management.  Empowering Moms and Strengthening Families is her passion.  Are you ready to make positive changes that will impact your family for generations?  You can start by visiting The Confident Mom and requesting her FREE ebook, “Getting Kids to Cooperate and Become Team Players – 10 Essential Strategies and Solutions”.

Menu Planning for the Busy Mom

By Jennifer Ascher of Organizing without Limits

When working with moms one of the biggest organizational challenges they have is the age old question. What’s for dinner? With crazy busy schedules, we all know there are days when you simply don’t have time to cook or the dinner hour snuck up upon you catching you unaware and you end up going through the drive – thru or order carry out. There is a simple solution for this called menu planning. Let’s first look at all the benefits of menu planning and then explore simple steps you can take to make it easier.

Benefits of Menu Planning:

• Saves you time, energy and headaches
• Having taken the time to plan you avoid going through the drive –thru
• Your meals are healthier and more balanced.
• You know what to take out the night before to defrost
• You always have the ingredients on hand, avoiding trips to the grocery store in the middle of the week. Huge money saver there.
• Your family knows what meals are coming up and will stop asking you what’s for dinner. Simple refer them to the posted menu on the fridge.
• It will increase and improve your family time. When you plan ahead it is a lot easier to get the kids involved in helping you cook. Which in turn also teaches them valuable life skills?

Initially when you first begin you will need to do some prep work before you even get to the menu planning part. However after that is done and you have been menu planning for a while you will wonder how you ever survived with out it.

Here are some helpful tips and tricks:

• Don’t overcomplicate the process. (Think simple meals)
• Take inventory of what you already have in your freezer, pantry and fridge.

Make sure to throw out what is expired and organize the rest.

Start a list of staple items you may need to get next time you go grocery shopping.

• Plan your meals according to your weekly schedule.

On days when you know you simple will not have time to cook because you

have a million things to do during the day and the kids have extra curricular

Activities after school those are the days where you plan to eat leftovers (a lot

healthier and cheaper than the drive-thru)

• When you cook double and triple the recipe so you can freeze the extra. Another huge time save for those busy days.
• When planning your meals don’t forget to plan for the lunches the kids take to school. No more last minute grocery trips the night before because you don’t have enough snacks, juice boxes etc.
• Make sure to plan around the weekly sales ads and utilize coupons. Stock up on items you use often. Just make sure to rotate your freezer and pantry stock and add the items to your inventory sheet.
• Start a folder or binder where you keep your menus from previous weeks. After a while you will have a good stock pile and all you need to do is rotate the various menus.

I hope some of these tips are helpful to get you started with menu planning. Next time we will explore the art of grocery shopping and ways to make it more efficient and less time consuming.

Jennifer Ascher(better known as an Organizing Geek) is a professional organizer and the owner of Organizing Without Limits in  Oakland County, MI. She began this business because of her  passion for organizing and helping others. Being a busy mom and business owner, Jennifer understands the importance of getting and staying organized.

She most enjoys showing other moms and dads how to set up and run an efficient household. Jennifer is currently the Oakland County Organizing Examiner as  well as a regular contributor on various other sites. . Her articles focus on organizing and local resources. It is her belief that organizing goes beyond pantries, closets or even time management. It’s about creating happier and healthier parents and families.

Organizing Without Limits helps organize every aspect of your life and offers both hands-on and virtual organizing services. Short term and long term help can be secured for an affordable rate.

You can reach Jennifer at http://www.organizingwithoutlimits.com or at http://organizingwithoutlimits.typepad.comFacebook You can also find her on twitter @Organizing_Geek or on

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