It all started with an email.......

*This is what I emailed all my friends this email. I have received so many great responses that I can't keep it all to myself so I will be posting their responses over the next couple of days. Feel free to share yours also!
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Dear friends,

Since my life it seems is in utter chaos every single second, I was hoping to come up with a better schedule for the new school year. I would really appreciate you sharing what you do during the school year such as meal times, what to cook, breakfasts, school lunches, chores, anything. If you also would share your families favorite food and/or recipe. I would be forever grateful. I know every second of yours is precious but please spend just a moment sharing your ideas with me.

Thanks so very much!
Love-Amanda:)

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Hello everyone - I hope you share your ideas with me too!

This is what has made a huge difference at our house.

I'm always the first one up and I get completely ready before I wake anyone else up - well, that's the goal. That way I'm more focused on helping my kids rather than getting myself ready.

I cook two of everything. Since it is really not that hard to double your recipes I do exactly that. Then I freeze the extra one for days that are extra busy. I also bought a freezer cookbook off ebay with lots of casseroles that taste good frozen. Once every couple of months we cook for 4 hours on a Saturday and then freeze as many meals as I can. (Disposable casserole pans are cheap at Costco.) This works really good for us because I work in the evenings.

If anyone ever wanted to start a freezer casserole exchange group - I'd love to join in.

We also have a menu for each week. The kids help me with it and we really do stick with it even if it doesn't sound that great. This really saves $ grocery shopping and everyone knows what to expect.

Now if I could only figure out a better system for laundry and chores....

Hope these things help someone,
RoseAnn
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Amanda,
I so understand what you are feeling. Schedules are hard for me but so needed. My suggestions are: plan your menu for the week on Sunday. When you know what your plans are each day you can figure out what will be easiest to make. Invest in a crock pot. :) My other suggestion is on the weekend make a few casseroles, etc that can be frozen and then you can just pull it out and cook it on nights that are hard.

My mom makes whole wheat waffles that she freezes or just puts in the fridge and then you can warm them up for 30 seconds in the microwave.
School lunches I can't help you with. I am hoping Madi will eat hot lunch since we qualify for free/reduced lunch. But she wants to take lunch. just my luck.:) I have heard of someone that had totes in the fridge with everything already packaged and your kids just take one thing from each tote. Like they take one sandwich, one fruit, one treat, etc...

For me with chores, my hardest is laundry. When I get caught up I try to do a batch a day. I start it in the evening and throw it in the dryer in the morning. My biggest is as soon as it is done it is folded and put away. That is my hardest part. If I do a load or two a day I stay caught up and never get overwhelmed. I also start the dishwasher as I am going to bed and the girls empty it in the morning. I also try to do a basic wipe down every day to help not have to do a deep clean once a week. I try to do something every day. Tuesdays is Toilets, Wednesdays we do piano, Thursdays we dust, etc... I like to vacuum a couple times a week.

I also try to keep a calendar of at least a couple months on my pantry door. For me I can have a visual of what is going on. This year I am going to try to color coordinate it. Each person gets a color and when they have activities it is written in their own color.

But now that I am working part time for the next few months it is getting very difficult to keep up. I would love to hear any other ideas that you get cause I sure could use them also. I have a few good recipes that we love that freeze great also. I will send them to you when I get home. I hope all this makes sense. If I think of any thing else I will send it your way.
If you need anything let me know.
April
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Hi Amanda,

That is so funny that you sent this because I've had the same exact things on my mind today. In fact I spent a long time visiting with my friends about it. I guess we are all trying to gear up for the new school year. I have a friend who is OBSESSED with being organized. She has studied many books and tried lots of different plans, and has finally settled with one that her kids love and she loves too. I've asked her to email me her schedule, as well as her chore/incentive system for her kids. I will be sure and forward it to you.

As far as meal times, I used to buy tons of cold cereal for my kids. It was fast, easy, and they loved it, but they started eating it by handfuls all day long, so I pretty much stopped buying it. Now I buy tons of fruit, and we have smoothies or pancakes etc. Do you have a baking mix recipe? It is basically like Bisquick only way healthier. You can make quick pancakes, muffins, biscuits, pizza crust, etc. with it. If you don't have one, I'll send you mine.

Do you do Bountiful Baskets? For $15, you can fill a large laundry basket with fruits and vegetables. You can also get bargains on other food items. If you haven't heard of this awesome food co-op, go to bountifulbaskets.org. I noticed there are 3 locations in LaVerkin, and 1 in Hurricane.

As far as school lunch, we pack our own. My kids drink water (it is cheap and healthier than any other drink). I also require them to have at least one serving of fruit or veggies in their lunches. They love frozen burritos, or taquitos etc. that we buy in bulk. We heat them at home and wrap them in foil, and they're not very hot buy lunchtime, but warm enough. They can get tired of sandwiches.

I could send you lots of recipes for dinner, but I'll just tell you about 2. An easy and cheap meal we like is beans and ham. I cook one bag of dry white navy beans in water in a crock pot all day. At about noon, I add a garlic clove or two, and a ham steak cut into bite size pieces. Maybe a little seasoning as well. That's it! If it drys out, I just add more water later in the day.

For another super easy and cheap meal....I buy a fully cooked rotisserie chicken at Sam's club for $4.99. They are delicious! Perhaps you have them at Costco. They are large chickens, and there is enough meat on them for 2 dinners. You can make any kind of chicken dinners with it (casseroles, pasta dishes, etc.). My favorite is just a green salad with chicken in it.

Love,
Jenny
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Amanda,
I've been thinking about you, and wondering how you were. It sounds like you are as busy as everyone else. Hey are you still the PTO president? I feel like I need to get a little more involved but with the store I always hold back but I think I'm ready to take on a little bit (a very little bit compared to you).

We had something that worked terrific last school year with scripture reading - who knows if it will work this year! We have breakfast together and so I told the kids if they'd sit down and read their scritpures after they didn't have to help clean up breakfast. It has been our best scripture time together so I really hope it works again.

Hope all is going well!
Deletha
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Amanda my friend,

I don't have a lot of answers, but something that works for me with taking care of the house is sharing some of the work load with the kids. They each have chores that they rotate every month. Each of the older children are assigned one bathroom and one main room (family room, living room, etc...) they also are expected to keep their rooms clean (and the boys are in charge of doing their own laundry). Emma and Hannah have smaller chores that they do NOT rotate (like sweeping off the porch, dusting the banister, unloading the silverware...etc) One of the best things about this rotation schedule is that there is no argument on who has what job. They all know what their jobs are and what is expected. I have a cleaning checklist for each room and they are required to do that checklist once a week...on the other days they are required to straighten up each room and wipe down the bathroom (toilet, sink, mirror, and empty the trash). On the days they don't deep clean it really only takes them approximately 30 minutes (if that) to do all their chores. I got the cleaning checklist idea from Jami, love that girl, and altered it for my own use. This eliminates the constant "What should I do next Mom" questions which has been a life saver for me. The beauty of the chore rotation and checklist is I get some much needed help and "No chores done...No privileges" That is always a good motivator. I am attaching some of my checklists so you get an idea what I am talking about. I have more ideas with menus and such, but don't have time to share today. I would love to hear what ideas you get back from others. Hope this helps and that you are well...

love ya, becky
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First of all I think you are UBER cute!

One meal that we love is fish taco's
(and this is white girl made)
I buy the frozen battered fish fillet's and cook them up in the oven. While they cook for 20 min. I cut up some cilantro, cabbage, avacado, onion and shred some cheese. By this time it's time to turn the fillet's then I fry up some good ol' corn tortilla's. then serve it up with some salsa.

It's yummy and oh-so-good for ya. My kids will even eat it. (and this is the only way I can eat fish) Don't forget the sliced lime to squeeze on top.
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Amanda, What a great Idea!! I suggest hitting reply all so that everyone can benefit off everyone's ideas. and I say this for Completely selfish reasons. At our house we have responsibility charts that the kids fill out on their own. They are broken up into morning, afternoon, and evening, and they say things like shower, homework, practice piano, etc. Instead of having set chores, my kids have a "family chore" which is just whatever chore I need help with that day. The other thing that has saved my hide on many nights is Once-a-month cooking. I spend one day a month cooking and freezing dinner for the rest of the month. You can freeze all or part of most things and you can't even tell the difference. I don't have special recipes for this, just whatever my family likes to eat thrown in a pan and chucked in the freezer, but my family really likes enchiladas, lasagne, chicken alfredo, tacos, chinese food, basically anything. (but don't try and freeze lettuce. that wont go well!)
Hope that helps someone!
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Please, PLEASE, PLEEAAASE, share your ideas as comments. I think we all could use some help with this area. I am not sure how to add documents like the chore charts so I will mess around and see if I can get it to work. Thanks to all who shared and I hope many more will.