The Back to School Countdown Begins

in , , , , , by Linda A Kinsman, Monday, July 08, 2013

Happy Monday to you! Did you have a great fourth of July weekend? I hope so.  

We had a most excellent weekend, taking a less-is-more approach to it all.  We didn’t plan a thing, except to be together, cook good food and have fun.

This approach worked so well, that we all agreed that our 4 day weekend was like a much needed vacation.  Our souls needed this break in the action and we aren’t even a fast track family. 

It’s a good thing that we had this respite, because now there are only 32 days left of summer vacation. Oh my. The powers that be (the school board here in middle TN) have decided that a start date in the middle of some of the hottest days of summer would be A-Okay. 


bus

Pitching a fit is a waste of time. Planning now for a smooth back to school transition in our home is a much safer bet. 



Here is my plan of action:


1. Start the bedtime routine change now.

 If you are like us and take a more lenient summer bedtime routine, it’s time to nip it in the bud.  Don’t wait until there is a week or two before school starts or everybody will be tired and crabby all day.  Parents: this means we have to go to bed earlier too. No more late night TV.

2.  Set a dinnertime.

Make sure dinner time is early enough that food is digested before bedtime, but not so early that your family has powered through what they ate and need a snack right when they should be brushing their teeth. This is especially tricky for me with a growing teen and tween. They are always hungry! (Yes, girls are always hungry too at this stage.) I aim for 6:30pm to 6:45pm.

3. Clean out their closets.

 Do this early, if you haven’t already AND make them try on every piece they want to keep. With my girls, I go one step further and ask them to see how many outfits they can make. This is a true sanity saver when you are back to school  clothes shopping and they are looking at all the cute jeans when you know they really need tops.

4. Clean out or prep our drop zones.

Every family is different, with a different system in place, but I have found that having the kids place their backpacks, incoming papers, permission slips etc. in specified places daily works for us.
For instance, backpacks must be cleaned out, repacked for the next day and be sitting by the front door for the morning. Period.

5. Listen now.

School can be stressful with some years more stressful than others. Both my daughters happen to be entering a grade that is particularly stressful: 9th and 5th respectively. You can probably relate to the freshman nerves, but may be wondering about little 5th graders. Trust me: this is the year the cattiness and cliques start.  I have set aside private time and chatted with both my girls about going back to school.

They were very illuminating conversations that helped me map out this first plan of action, but I know it won’t be the last this year.  I still need to plan my back to school supply shopping strategy and then there is this biggie to think about:

there is only 169 days until Christmas. 



When do your kids go back to school?


Weekly Photo Challenge: Nostalgic

in , , , , , by Linda A Kinsman, Friday, July 05, 2013




challenge
My sweethearts

If I could go back in time, just for a day or two, I would go back here. When both my girls fit on the same seat and gladly shared their days and ring pops. This was a magical, happy time in a home we all adored.

Wordless Wednesday- Red, White and Blue

in , , , , , by Linda A Kinsman, Wednesday, July 03, 2013

 Wishing you and yours a happy, safe, FUN Fourth of July!



fruit
Red, White and Blue


Thank you General Mills for offering this opportunity through My Blog Spark and for supplying the prizes listed below to facilitate this review & giveaway. My WAHM Plan did receive free product(s) in exchange for my honest review. My WAHM Plan isn’t responsible for shipping of prizes.


June is in our rear view mirror and it’s time to welcome in July! If your family is anything like ours (and I’m betting it is), you have several outdoor BBQ’s, picnics and celebrations to host and attend, starting with a biggie: 4th of July!


Make your life a little easier by whipping up one of Suddenly Salad’s yummy Pasta Salads. 

Suddenly Salad


My Mom used to make the Classic Pasta salad, which is still one of my favorites, but recently I made their Bacon & Ranch salad. It was a hit with my family members who love Ranch on anything. 


Bacon Ranch

Suddenly Salad
Bacon & Ranch Pasta Salad


Suddenly Salad has several varieties to choose from. 

options


The great thing about these pasta salads is they are so easy to work with. Going from side dish to main dish easily. You can add extra veggies or meat to any one of the Suddenly Salads to truly make it your own. There are several yummy recipes available at the Suddenly Salad website for even more options. You can also learn more about them by following them on Facebook and Twitter.



The Giveaway:
gift set
Your gift pack will contain:
One pack of Suddenly Salad- Classic
One pack of Suddenly Salad- Bacon & Ranch
One Cooler with Blanket
Retail value: $ 56

Enter using the Rafflecopter form below. Open to US residents 18 +. Ends July 15, 2013.
a Rafflecopter giveaway



Good luck!


And from our home to yours: We wish you a happy and safe fourth of July! 



Disclosure - I received a free sample to facilitate my review.  No monetary compensation was provided.  All opinions are 100% my own. My participation is voluntary. I am disclosing in accordance with FTC 16 CFR Part 255.  The information and prize pack have been provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark.  My WAHM Plan is not responsible for shipping of prize.

Cleanliness is next to Fitness

in , , , , , by Linda A Kinsman, Friday, June 28, 2013

I’ve been catching up on my cleaning this week. First I got into my closet and let go of a serious amount of clothing I am never going to wear again. Not all these bags came from my closet, just the big bags. 


donate
Donation time

Good news: lots of the clothes were too big or just didn’t hang right on my body now.

Bad news: I still have bins of cute, classy clothes I can’t fit in. I sigh as I write this because I know the solution is simple: eat smart, move more.  But, I am a blogger and home office administrator who sits to work.

BUT, I am also a homemaker who loves a neat, clean home. The solution, or at least part of the solution for me getting into those cute clothes is to clean more, sit less. 

I set this in motion right away, planning wahm that I am, by giving my floors a good scrubbing. 

No Swiffer action here, no ma’am.

I’m talking old school, double sweep, double mop with bucket, ringing out the Lemon Lysol water type scrubbing. I even cleaned the baseboards while I was at it. That’s a perk of mopping floors old-school, you get clean baseboards too.

By the time I’d completed the kitchen, foyer and three baths I was sweaty. No lie.  Like I’d completed a good fast walk. Clean floors, good smelling house and I broke a sweat? 

Win! 

kitchen
My clean kitchen floor. Bare feet bliss.

I felt so good about it; I had to check how many calories and hour or so of scrubbing floors burned. According to Fitness Magazine, I burned 112 calories per 30 minutes. I worked for about an hour, so my total would be 224!

Next time I’m feeling bad because I didn’t work out, I’m going to get up and clean something!

How about you?

Do you count household chores towards your fitness goals?

Zaycon Foods helping smart families Save big

in , , , , , , , , by Linda A Kinsman, Wednesday, June 26, 2013
I participated in this campaign on behalf of USFG for Zaycon Foods. I  will receive a product sample to facilitate my  upcoming review. This post contains a referral link to Zaycon Foods, which may lead to monetary compensation should you sign up using my referral link. All opinions are my own.


Everybody I know is trying to make their money stretch as far as possible. We are no exception. With more than two-thirds of Americans living paycheck to paycheck, I knew sharing Zaycon Foods services would be beneficial. 



About Zaycon Foods:

Our Value Proposition:  There is a reason people are talking about Zaycon Foods. For FAMILIES, we represent the GREATEST VALUE in the food industry.  

I like their simple motto: Fresher, Faster, Cheaper.


Foods
Courtesy: Zaycon Foods

How does Zaycon Foods provide such high quality super fresh meat and produce to its customers at such low prices? The answer is strength in numbers. And not our numbers, yours!

Zaycon Foods can sell its products at bulk rate prices to individual consumers and families because our unique sales event business model brings lots of people together, adding all their purchasing power into a combined bulk food purchase. And when you buy as part of a group that’s committing to such a large purchase, the power is in the hands of the purchaser! It’s the ultimate group buy in terms of both price and consumer empowerment.


How It Works:

You can pre-select exactly what you want to order from a given Zaycon sales event – sometimes you may want to stock up on our amazing meaty back ribs and sometimes it might be all about the Zaycon bacon – and then, on the day of the sales event, you and a whole big bunch of your neighbors will find yourselves in a nearby parking lot watching as an entire tractor trailer’s worth of high quality natural food is unloaded into all of your cars.

You will be amazed at how quickly one of our refrigerated trucks goes from being filled with natural, fresh chicken or hundreds of gallons of grade A non-homogenized milk to being empty and back on its way to the farm.

Short Wait time:

A Zaycon Foods truck sales event often lasts less time than you would spend on a trip to the grocery store, yet you will leave with a whole lot more food than you’d get at the market, and for much better prices, too!
When you use the Zaycon Foods sales event as your preferred place to purchase meats, milk, and any of our other fine products, you get advantages even beyond the bulk pricing that comes with our special sales model. You also have the peace of mind of knowing exactly what you’re going to get! A trip to the grocery store can involve wasted time wandering around looking for various foods spread out across the store; at a Zaycon Foods parking lot meat truck delivery (or milk or berries or fish delivery, too!) you have pre-ordered your foods, so all you have to do is show up and wait for our friendly staffers and volunteers to load up your car. 

Pricing:

Unlike in the grocery store, the prices you will pay for a Zaycon Foods product are locked in on our website, so you will know how much you are going to spend before you have committed to a purchase. 
At a supermarket, you might pay one price for chicken on one day, and then a higher price on another day. With Zaycon, you decide that you want to order a case of our fresh boneless skinless chicken breasts, you check the price and then you commit to it, knowing that from that moment on, we are committed to getting you your fresh, natural food!

Foods
Courtesy: Zaycon Foods
Want to learn more? You can watch this informative video , where Zaycon Foods was featured on Good Morning America.

Sound good? Ready to sign up? I would Love for you to sign up using my referral link! Just click HERE.

As always, thank you for your readership. It is my hope that you found this post helpful. If so, please consider sharing it with your family and friends.


Disclosure: I participated in this campaign on behalf of USFG for Zaycon Foods. I  will receive a product sample to facilitate my  upcoming review. This post contains a referral link to Zaycon Foods, which may lead to monetary compensation should you sign up using my referral link. All opinions are my own.


Wordless Wednesday - Summer Blooms

in , , , , , , by Linda A Kinsman, Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Summer is here without a doubt. It is hot and humid, so flowers have to work extra hard. 
Thank you Shade Coleus and Dianthus for hanging in there are bringing your A game. 



Coleus
Shade Coleus





flower
Dianthus


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