Be Ready for Back to School

It’s that time of year again; it sneaks up on parents, children, and teachers everywhere like the changing of the seasons. The welcomed yet dreaded first day of school! As this day approaches, there are small things you can do to ease the stress.

Begin preparations for the school year by planning a calendar. The easiest way to start is to get a twelve month calendar of any kind, but with boxes you can write or type in. Then go to your child’s school website and fill in all the applicable dates. This calendar will be your roadmap for the year; keep it in a place where it is easily accessible, so you can add to it as new activities or appointments come up.

The second step to prepare for the start of school is purchasing school supplies. This can be a big burden to many, so here are my ideas on how to make buying the supplies a bit easier. Go get the list as soon as possible from Walmart or Staples. Take the list home and see if you have any supplies on hand. Then split the list up by how many pay periods you have till the first day of school. If you have two pay periods, then split the list in half and so on. When dividing up the list, be sure to pair pricey items with less expensive items to make this purchase easier on your budget. Also, check store adds you may not frequent regularly; such as,  Walgreen, Kroger, Hyvee, and Menards. These stores often have a section for school supplies, as well.  If you happen to have some extra money, be sure to stock up on extra supplies for your home or to give as gifts. Crayons, scissors, pencils, baggies, and folders are the cheapest for name brands this time of year. If you can stock up; it will save you money in the long run. Now that you have all the supplies for home and school, take the time to pack the school supplies up and put them in a safe place. As for the home supplies, designate a specific spot in your home to keep them. This place could be a kitchen drawer, a cubby, or a stand-alone container. To keep the pencils, markers, crayons, glue and scissors organized buy them separate supply boxes that will fit into the larger container. Having all the supplies organized will help your child complete their homework in a timely manner and alleviate the need for you to pester them to hurry up and get started.

Lastly, find a day a week or two before the start of school to put together freezer meals or fast meals. As the school year begins, your evenings will be very busy. Having meals that are already put together and only need to be heated in the oven will save you time. Many freezer meal recipes can be found online by using a search engine or Pinterest. Not to mention, many of the meals you fix every day can be assembled ahead of time and frozen to be cooked at a later date. Don’t delay and put a few together, so you aren’t spending more money running through a drive thru at the last minute.

Back to school time is a stressful time for us all. It is definitely a welcomed, yet cursed time of year. Kids and parents alike want to have the structure that going to school provides for our lives, but having to prepare to make that transition from the lazy days of summer can be daunting. I hope I have provided you with some suggestions that will help you make the switch easier.

Clever Container: Organizing Made Fun, Simple, Affordable

Clever Container is a fairly new direct sales company with a focus on helping people organize their lives with specific, cute products at an affordable price.

The company was started in 2006 by two friends. One of the women was a stay at home mom, while the other was a professional organizer. They teamed up and created Cleaver Container! In 2007 the company launched their first consultants and currently there are about 3,000 consultants nationwide. So far the company is doing well. 

As a mom who works part time, I had been looking for something I could do from home to provide some income to help pay off my student loans. It has been 10 years since I graduate, yet I'm still paying. In my search for a direct sale company, I stumbled upon ClevenContainer. At an instant, I was hooked. I knew this was the company for me. I love to organize spaces. Setting out to arrange things in my life and accomplishing the task to help simplify things is very empowering to me. I signed up about a month ago. So far, I am in the beginning stages of getting the word out about Clever Container. You see, since this company is fairly new, most people have never heard of it, so right now, my primary focus is  advertising. Although, through the support of my friends, family, and new friends I have sold just over $1,000 worth of product! As a consultant, I make 25% commission on all sales. I'll let you do the math and figure my profit for a month. In the future, I would like to take this journey to the next level and become a professional organizer. It would bring me a lot ofjoy helping   others organize their spaces.

Let me get down to the nitty gritty. Here are some of the products Clever Container has to offer!

For more products, discriptions, and pricing go to http://www.mycleverbiz.com/janicepenning/ 

DIY Powdered Sugar

I Yesterday I decided to make cookies with the kids. I had read the directions for these cream cheese cookies and thought I had everything. I rarely check to make sure I have enough of each ingrident. Hence all my substitutes for recipes. 

Misses and I are just plugging along mixing dry ingriedents. When I realized we were 1/2 a cup sort on powdered sugar. I instantly searched the handy dandy internet to see if there was a substitute for powdered sugar. Do you know what I found?! Powdered sugar is just ground up sugar. What? Who knew? I sure didn't but it makes complete sense.

Here is how you make powdered sugar if you find yourself in a pinch.

Put the amount of sugar you need in a blender, food processor, or coffee girder and turn it on the highest setting. Let it grind until you get a nice powdery sugar. That's it! Now, my powdered sugar wasn't the exact same consistency as the store bought, but it did the job. 

Simple Crock Pot Freezer Meals

Life is hectic. It is especially hectic for families with children. Often we find ourselves rushing from here to there and eating as we go. This scenario is not yet the case for my family, but my children are still pretty young. However, Tuesday nights are busy for us because Misses has dance class. On many of Tuesday nights, I find myself serving up less than healthy meals. These fast tasteless meals needed a pick me up.

Freezer meals have gained popularity in the past year or so, maybe longer, I sometimes fall out of touch with trends. Lets be honest, I have no idea what's trending. I don't know how to work Twitter. But a friend of mine, started hosting freezer parties. As a woman, I know that when something goes to the home party circuit it's a trend. This particular trend is here to stay, I believe. Such as in the instance of my friend, her business has taken off, and she now has a store front in her town. You can check out information on her freezer party business here https://www.facebook.com/PrepFreezeCook
I recommend you check it out. All the hard work is done for you. All the shopping and chopping are done by her. All you have to do is show up with your form of payment and a laundry basket ready to have some good conversation and assemble the meals into the storage containers. Sounds like a good time to me!

I have not been able to attend a party, and I have a picky eater. No the picky eater is not one of my children. It is my husband. He will not touch a cooked vegetable. So I went on a search for meals that would suit my family. I halved almost all of the recipes. I am feeding two adults and two small children, so a 4lb roast will leave too many left overs. It never fails that my kids will like it one day and hate it the next. Does anyone else have this problem?

Here are the recipes:

Garlic Beef Stew  
http://everydaypaleo.com/garlic-beef-stew-and-savory-cauliflower-mash/?_

Slow Cooker Balsamic Shredded Beef
http://www.shugarysweets.com/2013/05/slow-cooker-balsamic-shredded-beef

Slow Cooker French Dip Sammies
http://www.shugarysweets.com/2011/10/slow-cooker-french-dip-sammies

Orange Chicken
4 Chicken Breast
3/4 c. Sweet Orange Marmalade
3/4 c. Sweet Baby Rays BBQ Sauce
2 tbs. Soy Sauce

All of these recipes can be paired with a vegetable and/or salad to make it a balanced meal. It was easy to get this done, but it would have been more fun with friends, without the shopping, and without the chopping. :)

How to Kick a Cold Fast

With it being cold and flu season, again. I thought I would post how I kick a cold with some over the counter vitamins and the good old hot toddy.

The first day I started to feel crummy was on a Sunday. That day I just kind of took it easy. On Monday I knew this was becoming a serious cold, but not just a head cold. My throat was feeling scratchy, too. Before I had my coffee, I mixed up my cup of E-mergancy-C. This stuff is a fizzy drink mix packed full of vitamin C, vitamin B, and lots more. It helps boost your system with vitamins and the B-vitamins give you some extra energy. I went to work and came home worn out. This is when I knew I would have to do something before bed.

Just before bedtime, I made myself a hot toddy. There are many variations to this recipe, I use hot black tea, whiskey, honey, and lemon juice(when I have it). To make: fill a coffee cup half way with water and heat. Add about a shot of whiskey and two tablespoons of honey. If you have it, add a tablespoon of lemon juice. Drink it up while it's hot and go to bed with an extra blanket. The whiskey helps you sleep and sweat. The honey sooths the throat, and the lemon is packed with antioxidants. I did this ritual of E-mergancy-C in the morning and hot toddies before bed through Wednesday. I also tried to rest as much as I could. With work and two young children the rest isn't easy. On Wednesday I felt so much better. I wasn't overly tired; I felt like I could accomplish something.

So if you are feeling like a cold is coming on, try drinking a hot toddy before bed. Hey if it was good enough for my grandma, it's good enough for me. Happy Holidays!

Summer Bucket List Final Update

With summer coming to a close, I thought I should give a final update on our bucket list. We didn't get to all the things on the list, but summer was a blast!

Original List:

1. Have a sleep over with friends.
2. Make a back yard splash pad.
3. Plant a garden
4. Run a lemonade stand
5. Short stay-cation
6. Go to local carnival
7. See the animatronic dinosaurs at the zoo
8. Go hiking
9. Have a picnic at the park
10. Visit friends

What we accomplished:

1. Sleep over
2. Back yard water mattress instead of splash pad
3. Garden
4 Went to 2 carnivals (We love Carnivals!)
5. Visited friends
6. Had several picnics in the back yard.
7. Short stay-cation

Our stay-cation was the most expensive item on this list. I would like to share with you how we did it on a budget. We went to Chicago for 2 nights and 3 days. Initially we were going to stay in a friend's condo, but we had to change the date at the last minute and stayed in a hotel. I used hotels.com to book our room. I highly recommend this site for booking hotels. We stayed in the Best Western at Grant Park. We went to the aquarium, the Willis Tower, the beach, Buckingham Fountain, and Lincoln Park Zoo. As you can see we crammed a lot into a few days, but the beach and Zoo were free (you pay to park at the zoo). I prepaid our tickets to be able to bypass the ticket lines at the Willis Tower and aquarium. I didn't think Bubba would do well standing in long lines.

As for food, it is difficult to find a inexpensive hotel in the city that offers any kind of breakfast, so we brought our own. I also packed the individual drink mix packs and water bottles for the kids. This saved on drink costs. Whenever possible, we (the adults) would share a meal with the kids. We did have one nice meal out with friends at Gino's East. Our very generous friends paid. A big thanks to them for that fun dinner. I did splurge on Starbucks coffee since there isn't one where I live. I was in heaven for a few minutes everyday.

Whenever we could, we walked to our destinations, however, that isn't always feasible with two small kids. We did take a taxi three times. The kids thought that the taxi was so cool because they didn't have to sit in car seats!

For all this fun we paid just under $1000.00. This price in includes everything from gas to my Starbucks. However, the best part was all the fun we had together.  

Zucchini Lasagna - They Will Eat It

Every summer my parents grow a wonderfully large garden. Since it is just the two of them, they always have extra vegetable to share with family and friends. I love getting free stuff, so I am always happy to reduce my grocery bill by taking some extra veggies off their hands. However, I don't always know what to do with veggies like zucchini. My kids are little, so they are hit or miss when it comes to food. My husband thinks he might just die if he (knowingly) eats a vegetable, and I think zucchini bread is disgusting.

I turned to the Internet to see what people do with this vegetable. I found several posts on how to make zucchini lasagna. Everyone in this house likes lasagna - well actually if red sauce is put on it we will eat it. After reading about four recipes, I chose the one that seemed the easiest and began making the delicious dinner.

I used this recipe: http://www.skinnytaste.com/2009/02/zucchini-lasagna.html , but changed it to fit with what I had in my pantry because I wasn't about to run to the store.

Here's what you need with my changes to the recipe:

• 1 lb 93% lean beef                                                                 (I used venison.)
• 3 cloves garlic                                                                        (minced garlic)
• 1/2 onion
• 1 tsp olive oil                                                                         (vegetable oil)
• salt and pepper
• 28 oz can crushed tomatoes                                                   (Jar of Ragu)
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil                                                     (Didn't use )                                                    
• 3 medium zucchini, sliced 1/8" thick                                     (1 large)
• 15 oz part-skim ricotta
• 16 oz part- mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1/4 cup Parmigiana Reggiano                                                 (store brand)
• 1 egg

Steps:

1. Slice the Zucchini and sprinkle it with salt. This will dehydrate the zucchini some so it won't be so watery.
2. Brown the meat with the garlic and onion drain the fat.
3. Put the meat and the sauce back in the pan and warm it.
4. In another skillet, place 1 TBS olive oil and heat up. Place the zucchini in the hot oil 2 minutes on each side.
5. Once all the zucchini is seared,  mix together the ricotta, reggiano, and egg,
6. Place a layer of sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Then layer with zucchini and ricotta mixture. Sprinkle with cheese. Repeat till you run out of ingredients and top with shredded cheese.
7. Cover and bake at 375 for 45 minutes.
8. Freeze left overs.

I hope your family likes it as much as mine!