Dinner Planning

I think I've got a system that is going to work for our family for dinner planning! Hooray! (Only taken me 13 years...) This might be a way that works while we've got a large busy family with all the kids at home. This is kinda following the Food Nanny's System by having the recipes and shopping list together on one paper, only this way I have more flexibility and am not committed to a theme night (I had a hard time committing myself ~ don't want to make something Mexican if we might not in the mood for Mexican that night, also sometimes if I wanted to make something I couldn't figure out which theme it would best fall under.) Here's how this system works:

I've got a clipboard in the kitchen in a convenient spot for me to see and reference when I'm in there. 

My spot is the little cupboard wall between the microwave and spice cupboard. (Also makes it so it's not visible when people walk in the kitchen, which is nice for keeping it looking uncluttered.)

On the clipboard is my dinner planning paper. I plan out the meals for 2 weeks and what ingredients I need to buy. There's room on the list for dinners and desserts, then I look through the pantry and what's I've got on hand and write out the ingredients I need to buy on the paper, so I've got my shopping list all ready. To keep things simple, I try to just do grocery shopping on one day (Thursday works nice for me), and I usually just go to Walmart and Costco. I look through whatever recipe books and then choose the dinner and dessert recipes to make. I write the meal and then reference it with book and page number so I can find it when it's time to make dinner. For example "Lime & Honey Salmon, Ray #253" for a recipe in a Rachel Ray's cookbook on page 253.  I also have my own recipe book for recipes from online or from magazines that I print up and organize -

Those are referenced by tab and page #.

I keep a sheet for next week on the clipboard too, so if there's a meal I know they kids want next time I can write it in, and I write down anything else we need from the store on there.

One month into it and it's working so far! We've had a sit down dinner ready everynight. :)

Chores During the School Year

During the school year, my kids have 4 jobs each day:

• Make your Bed
• Bedroom clean
• Clothes in closet or drawer neat and organized
• 2 After School chores

After they leave for school in the morning, I take my little clipboard with each kid and category marked and I check off who did their morning jobs. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place on the chores get a surprise on Monday night following the work week.

As for the 4th job there of 2 after school chores, I have a list of 12 chores that I just put on the fridge and when they come home and they each have to pick 2.

That's a change from the 6 chores I have them do each day during the summer. The kids aren't home as much during the day, so they don't make as big of a mess and I don't feel like they need to do 6 household chores each day. :)