Meal Planning 101

One of the main compliants of most families is they get tired of eating the same thing over an over again. It's like getting your tires stuck in a rut and needing a little shove to get out. That's why most of the time I try to plan my meals ahead, at least by a week.

Once a week, usually on a wednesday, I sit down and figure out what's for supper for the next week. I pull out my cookbooks, take a look at what's going on that evening, and begin my meal planning.

Yesterday, an old friend of mine sent me a link, this month I may try it. This website promises to not only to cut my grocery bill each month in half, but to help organize and plan my meals according to where I shop, number of people I'm feeding, and type of diet.



I'll keep you posted next month on how it actually works out. As a mother, freelance writer, and not to forget - wife. I'm willing try anything new that might give me more time to spend with my family and cut my grocery bills, especially in today's economy.

Madness Monday

Mondays always seem to be madness in our house. It's like Saturday and Sunday aren't long enough then the alarm clock goes of and everyone is in a mad dash on Monday morning to get to the places they need to go. Husband to work, kids to school, then a trashed out to clean - left over from the weekend.

Yesterday's project of cleaning the house lead me to protecting those new laminate floors we just installed. I believe you can read the article from an earlier post. So, I spent the afternoon making felt chair floor protectors for my dining room chairs.

Being a crafty and innovated person, most of us housewives are, I was able to make these felt chair floor protectors for mere pennies, and so can you!!

Check out my article at ehow:

HOW TO MAKE FELT CHAIR FLOOR PROTECTORS

Through the madness of it all, there is progress on a monday. :)

Bye Bye Hardwood, Hello Laminate

For the past two years I've treaded softly across our hardwood floors, but not in fear of scratching them. On the contrary it has been just the opposite, so that the floor would not scratch me. Two years later, too many splinters to count, I finally had it with our unfinished hardwood floors.

This past weekend it was new hardwood cherry laminate floors that graced my home, and I did it with the help of my family.

Check out my article and discover how cost effective and easy it is for you to do yourself.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5359471_install-laminate-hardwood-flooring-yourself.html

It's Coming!

For the past several months I've been editing, revising, and putting together, by popular demand, the new 2010 Mood Organizer.

Thanks to the special talents of a man who likes graphic arts, this year's cover is fresh, and holds a lot more character than the drab flat standard cover we daubed in last year.

Although, same calender, there's a whole lot new stuff going on inside the 2010 version. The charts are still there, the calender, and the I.A.M Score (TM) is there too. But I've added new lists, a few new helpful charts, some recipes, and a tad encouragement.

The 2010 Mood Organizer is scheduled for print this coming month in September. :)

Winding Up For The Pitch

As a writer, one of the hardest things can be preparing your book to pitch to an editor or agent. You slave away for hours, months, and even years until your polished and perfect.

Then it all comes down to putting 50,000, 70,000, or 100,000 and more words down into one summarized sentence.

How do you do that?

Any experienced writer will tell you it comes with time and practice, but the inexperienced writer to get started, it's not so easy and can become faustrating.

That's why I recommend anyone trying to write a pitch line for a novel or screenplay to read this article:

http://www.ehow.com/how_5161026_write-pitch-line-novel-screenplay.html

Got your pitch line, working on your own? Post it here, I'd love to read it. I'll share my own once I've perfected it.

Preparing to Travel

Ahh... Summer, the time when we most often pack our suitcases and head off to destinations like the beach, Disney World, family reunions, and Grandma's house.

Whether you are packing for yourself or someone else, here are a few general tips to help you reduce stress, ensure you have what you need, and have a fun trip.

1. Make a list for each person you're packing for, yourself, your children, your spouse, or everyone.
2. Pull out the suitcases a few days early.
3. Aim to pack three to four days in advance.
4. If you are packing for more than one person for the trip, tackle packing one person at a time to ensure you don't over look any necessary items or mix up items in other suitcases.
5. Choose one day to do various task before you leave on your trip. Don't try to do everything in one day, or you will most likely end up frustrated, tired, and come up short with other people.
6. The day before the trip, check your suitcases against your list one final time and double check our travel arrangements.
7. Create a household schedule, such as taking out the trash, plan meals, and pet duty for anyone who might be staying home or pet and house sitters.
8. Let your house sitter, pet sitter, a neighbor or family member know where you are going, when you'll be gone, and how to reach you in an emergency.
9. Grab a few snacks and at least one bottle of water for the trip for each person going. It's amazing how fast one gets while traveling.
10. Relax and enjoy your trip.

Planning a Yard Sale Venture

Warm weather brings inside us a bug that itches until we've cleaned out our homes and once more fine satisfying relief. For many of us the old stuff we no longer need, use, or want is tossed aside to be either donated, given away, or sold on various venues such as online auction or yard sales.

If you are considering having a yard sale this summer, than here are some recommendations to plan and organize your yard sale event.

1. Pick a date for your yard sale, and a alternate date for possible rain out.
2. Choose an empty space, such as a garage or basement, to start piling your yard sale items in advance.
3. Give yourself plenty of time to sort through stuff, go through every room of the house, and find items for sell. But, not too much time that you are pulling things back out of the pile.
4. Mark items for sale by stickers or by making signs and attaching to tables. If you have a lot of clothes you may just want to make a sign saying "clothes $1.00 each" or something similar.
5. Don't forget to advertise, unless you live on a heavily traffic area, nobody will find you and your yard sale will be left without any customers. Make sure to put an ad in the local newspaper, create signs and hang at cross sections of streets with arrows pointing towards your location, and spread the news by word of mouth - tell all your friends, your church group, and ask them to tell their friends.
6. Try to lay out things on tables or hang up for the view of people going down the road past your location. Often, people will stop at a yard sale because they noticed something of interest as they were driving down the street. If you don' t have a lot of tables, ask to borrow from a friend, make your own with your significant other's saw horses and boards, or use blankets spread on the lawn.
7. Post a large sign in your yard announcing "Yard Sale Today" and even the time you plan on conducting the sale. Sometime having a lot of stuff laying out in your front yard or an open garage door doesn't always signal to people your selling it - they might just think you have a lot of junk.
8. Prices are always negotiable at a yard sale. If you have a particular item you wish to get a minimum price, mark it slightly higher in value to give your buyer room to negotiate, then they will walk away feeling like they got a good bargain. Your goal is to sell as much as your stuff you've laid out as possible, the more you sell is the less you have to drag back inside the house.
9. Keep sufficient change (money) available such as quarters and dollars. You don't want to run short and have to run to the bank in the middle of your sale, or leave your buyer hanging due to a shortage of cash flow.
10. Send your children off to Grandma's house for the day. This is especially helpful if you are selling some toys that they never play with anymore, but once they see them will decide they need them back.
11. Take off sales stickers, call your local Salvation Army, Goodwill, or Rescue Workers and schedule pick up or drop off of your unsold items. You can deduct the unsold items later on your taxes.
12. Before the sale begins, make yourself a goal, such as that household item you have always wanted and commit towards putting your yard sale profits towards that item. Later, you will have gotten something for getting rid of everything and feel good about it.
13. Have fun, invite a friend over to sit with you or bring a few items over they need to sell too.
14. Inform your neighbors of your intentions of having a yard sale, as they too may decide to have one the same day and make your street more appealing to people out seeking yard sales.
15. Don't get stressed or fret, ask for help if you feel overwhelmed with getting everything set up and running for the day.

When you plan your yard sale ahead, organize your items, and relax and have fun with what your doing it makes having a yard sale so much more enjoyable and fun.