Q. I’m struggling with getting the kids to take some responsibility for all the work that needs to get done at home. I don’t want to spend all my time fighting with them over chores, but I would love some help around here!

By the time children are about seven years old, most parents have begun to think, “It’s about time she did a little work around here!” and the battles begin. “When are you going to feed the dog?” “That garbage needs to be taken out right now!” “Honey, how many times do I need to ask you to make your bed!”

It’s good to expect children to take part in the work of the household. Children are quite capable, and feel a lot of pride in a job well done. But, like us, they acquire feelings about the jobs they’re expected to do. And when those feelings are negative, children can drain a lot of their parents’ emotional capital on the way to completing their household jobs.

So how can parents set it up so that children do take responsibility for the work of the household? I think there are two main keys to keeping the drudgery out of chores for parents and for children.

All work is worthy work

Our customary attitudes about household jobs can create strong allergies to chores. Because of generations of housework being done mostly by women who were underappreciated and certainly underpaid, feelings that don’t have anything to do with the actual work of cleaning or taking out the garbage get passed on to us through the generations.

Simple jobs have their simple joys: the warmth of the suds in the dishpan and the sight of a happily feasting dog, for instance. But inherited attitudes make these jobs feel like work that isn’t worth an intelligent person’s attention. So no wonder that, when we ask our children to do those jobs, they don’t respond well. Our attitude is contagious, and children catch it as soon as it becomes “their” job. We parents need to do our best to respect ourselves as we do the work of the household. We need to do our best to notice the rewards of the jobs we do. The jobs we do are necessary. Intelligent people do them. They are worth doing well. They are worth our attention.

Do the work together

Part of the problem with chores is that as we grew up, we were made to do our chores alone. So without thinking, we expect our children to do their chores alone, and on our time schedule.

Children aren’t designed for solitary work. They’re designed for fun, for collaboration, and for being noticed. They’re designed for absorbing your presence as you notice their skills and their accomplishments. Watch your four-year-old jump from the arm of the sofa into the middle of the living room carpet again and again while company is over. Watch a seven-year-old race a friend to the end of the street, and turn around to see if you noticed how fast they both went. Your child is showing you that there’s plenty of energy for tasks when they’re fun, when the child has choice about the timing, and when someone is there to see them as they do it. Praise is less important than simply being seen and acknowledged.

So getting jobs done together works much better than sentencing children to solitary work. Rather than, “Please take out the garbage,” try, “Can you grab one end of this sack? It’s really heavy!” and opening a conversation about what might be in there. Getting pairs of family members to tackle tasks together, or having one ten-minute period when everyone does something that needs to be done in the household can keep the feelings of isolation from settling in and turning jobs into drudgery.

Connect, then work

When a child has already caught the “this job is no fun” infection, the remedy can be a short Special Time to strengthen her sense of connection. None of us work well when we feel isolated or unseen. Special Time gives a child the time and the framework in which he or she will be seen, no matter what the choice of things to do.

So around of Special Time can sometimes help a child to tackle an expected job without feeling like it’s a burden. A parent’s story below illustrates how this works.

Lead your family

When children see that the family is working together toward a goal, or working together to make life better for one or more members, they are much better able to understand that doing the work of the household is a form of power. They see that their work contributes to the good of all, that they are appreciated, and that they make life better when they pitch in.

So nightly or weekly Family Meetings, in which parents share their thoughts about the good things that happened in the last week, and the challenges in the coming week, can help children understand their parents’ thinking. It gives them a place to share their own. They see that the family is a group that has direction and leadership. They see that their voices are heard, as ideas are sought on how to handle Dad’s business trip and the help Mom will need, or the fact that Grandma needs her yard tended on Saturday, while several other things need doing too. They feel part of a larger whole. They learn that the jobs aren’t isolated tasks that have to be done by isolated people. They participate in solving problems and can take pride in their contributions.

I know a family that expects each member to say one thing they appreciated about someone else each night at dinner, or to say one thing that went well and one thing that didn’t go well for them that day. The children really come through for each other and for their parents at times during these rounds of appreciations or checking in. The fact that little things are noticed by all helps the children’s perspective on their own importance.

Here’s how children’s attitudes can change

Special Time isn’t guaranteed to turn your child into an instant cleaner-upper! Nothing can promise that result. But it may help you move from trudging through your days separately into more frequent mutual cooperation. Here’s the experience of one parent whose daughter was willing to try a cleanup activity she’d always refused, after a good Special Time.

It’s funny how Special Time helps not just your kid feel more connected with you, it also helps you feel more connected with your kid. One afternoon when I was feeling somewhat down, my ten-year-old daughter asked me for some Special Time. She wanted to wrestle with me. I wasn’t quite ready to get out of my shell, but I went ahead and wrestled with her. She was terrific. We both had a great time wrestling. She decided that I was also a bouncing machine and she bounced on me. She also decided I was a rolling machine and she rolled on top of me. And, mind you, she was eighty-six pounds then, so that’s a lot of weight! It was hard to deal with all that sheer physical force and power. She was relentless and didn’t realize the strength of her own body. But it was so much fun. We laughed and laughed and laughed. And at the end of it, I was out of my shell and she had had a great time connecting with me.

I had a pile of chores to do that afternoon, including scooping a whole bunch of dog poop from the backyard and getting laundry done. For the first time, my daughter came with me to the backyard to help me clean up all the poop. She has a strong sense of smell, so this was something that had always disgusted her, but she was able to overcome her distaste for going near the poop and actually helped me do it. I showed her how to do it so that she wouldn’t have to have any contact with the poop. And she did it! Right after that, she helped with all the laundry and we folded a lot of clothes. I attributed all of this cooperation to the Special Time we had together!

—a mother in Sunnyvale, California

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Hand in Hand is a parent education non-profit that has been helping families to build the super-protective factor of parent-child connectedness for twenty years. You can learn more by reading the Listening to Children booklet series by Patty Wipfler or by signing up for our free monthly newsletter, Connecting!

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It is time to stop mindless spending. Before shopping this year, really do YOUR homework first. It is important to plan, purge, and sort before shopping for new clothes for the 2007-2008 school year.

Plan: What do your children really need?
This past week we went through my daughter and son’s closets. Even though I was under the impression that my son was in desperate need for new pants, I came to find out that he actually only needed 2 pair! His shirts from last season still fit him just fine, so we have no need for those, today anyway! Here is a simple checklist to make sure there are enough clothes in your child’s closet. Keep in mind that this is a very basic wardrobe. From my experience though, people don’t usually err on too little clothes for their children.

Purge:
My daughter on the other hand has tons of shirts, but is in desperate need of pants. To make this more of an enjoyable and rewarding task for my 8 year old, I “bought” her old clothes from her and with this money she will be able to pick out new clothes. All total she earned nearly $50.00. It cost me anywhere from 25 cents to 50 cents per item, but I will be spending that same money regardless (and some). She did not actually receive cash for this, rather credit for when we go shopping. In turn, I donated these items to the Goodwill store. All in all… a win-win situation!

What is your budget?
Be honest with yourself in regards to how much you can spend and stick to it! It certainly helps when you know for certain what your child really needs. If your budget does not fit your children’s needs there are other alternatives. Check out ebay for some amazing name brand values! In addition, there are many second hand stores that not only offer gently used, but also some new items. Also, remember that hand-me-downs are our friends!

Do they need it all right now?
Sometimes parents get so wrapped up into the marketing of back-to-school shopping that they seem to think a whole new wardrobe is necessary in the beginning of the year. Nonsense! Many of the items that are being marketed now; will be on sale come the middle of September.

Sort:
Make sure when the clothes go into the closets and dressers that they are sorted properly. Children will tend to only wear the clothes that are easily accessible.

The first defense in riasing children to be good stewards of their money, is by showing them by example. Have a wonderful new school year!

Betsy

Download the Basic Wardrobe Checklist for Children

Stephanie, a vice president for a venture capital firm in Denver, makes it a priority to get home in time to have a family meal with her husband and 1-year old son.

“I put a lot of energy into my job and then I get into my car at 5pm and realize that I have no idea what I’m going to feed three people for dinner in an hour,” she says. “That’s when a one-pot meal is just perfect.”

One-pot meals can be the solution to quick and easy cooking when no one really has the time to cook. While one-pot meals come in various forms, they all have the common concept of putting a variety of ingredients into a single vessel and cooking them all together. There’s no fretting about getting the timing right so that your broccoli is perfectly steamed at the same time as the pot roast comes out of the oven medium-rare and the rice is ready to fluff, which is a boon for all those who aren’t wizards at culinary planning. And, perhaps best of all, rather than a sink full of dirty pots and pans to scrub after dinner, there is only one pot to clean.

One-pot meals include everything from light stir-fries to hearty skillet meals to heavy casseroles made with cans condensed cream-of soup. Typically each forkful contains a little of each ingredient in the meal, whether it’s in a slab form or bite-sized pieces. Crock-pot cooking, where all the ingredients are placed in a crock-pot along with some liquid and then simmered at a very low heat for 6-8 hours until everything has disintegrated into a stew, is another popular method of creating of one-pot meals.

The only downside to each of these methods is that they are usually not a complete and balanced meal in and of themselves. Since the definition of a complete, healthy meal includes protein, carbohydrates and vegetables, stir-fries are typically served with rice, skillet meals with pasta, casseroles with a salad, and crock-pot stews with bread.

Infuse it
To have a truly complete and balanced one-pot meal consider “infusion” cooking. Infused one-pot meals are made by layering whole foods into a closed container– either a foil or parchment pouch or a cast iron Dutch oven—and then baking the container in the oven at a very high heat for under an hour. These dinners can contain everything needed for a full and balanced one-pot meal without having to prepare rice or a salad separately.

Low in fat and high in nutrition, almost any ingredients can be added to an infused one-pot meal to meet personal dietary preferences. Infused one-pot meals prepared in a Dutch oven can even accept frozen elements without any change in cooking time or flavor.

“I love that I can make my infused one-pot meal up in advance,” enthuses Stephanie. “I put it all together in the morning, keep it in the fridge, and then pop it directly into the pre-heated oven when I get home from work. Instead of fussing over a hot stove, I get to play with my kid while our dinner cooks. And they’re so healthy and tasty that my husband loves them too!”

For the answer to the age-old question of “What’s for dinner?” consider an infused one-pot meal for a healthy, quick and easy way to feed your busy family. Here is a great recipe to get you started!

California Chicken

Servings: 2

Ingredients

1/2 cup cous cous, dry
2-3 pieces chicken
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. lemon pepper
1 avocado, firm-ripe
2 tomatoes, cored, wedges
1/2 green bell pepper, seeded, cut in wedges
1/2 cup olives, small, ripe, pitted, sliced
1/2 onion, chopped
1 tsp. celery salt
1/4 tsp. basil, dried
1/4 tsp. marjoram, dried
1 Tbsp. dry sherry
1 Tbsp. lemon juice

Instructions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Spray the inside of a 2-quart cast iron Dutch oven and the lid with olive oil.

Pour dry couscous into pot. Add 1/2 cup water and evenly distribute grains across bottom. Arrange the chicken atop the couscous. Season lightly with salt and lemon pepper.

Add layers of green peppers, tomatoes and olives. Again, season lightly with salt and lemon pepper.

Halve, pit and peel the avocado. Then, layer it in slices or cubes on top of everything. In a small bowl, combine the onion, celery salt, basil, marjoram, sherry, and lemon juice and pour into pot over everything.

Cover and bake for 45 minutes.

Tips
Be certain that your oven temperature is accurate and your oven is fully pre-heated before putting the pot inside it. An oven thermometer can help ensure your oven is on target.

For light and fluffy couscous, fluff it with a fork when serving and let sit for a few minutes before eating.

Per serving:
Cal 566
Pro 36g
Carb 54g
Fat 24g
Chol 75 mg
Sod 1465 mg*
Fiber 11g

*More than half of the sodium in this recipe comes from the celery salt. To reduce the sodium, omit the celery salt and add one sliced rib of celery at the same time as the green pepper. This will bring the sodium down to 683 mg.

About the author: Elizabeth Yarnell is a Certified Nutritional Consultant and the author of Glorious One-Pot Meals: A new quick & healthy approach to Dutch oven cooking, a guide to a guide to preparing quick, healthy and balanced one-pot meals. Visit Elizabeth online at www.GloriousOnePotMeals.com to subscribe to her free newsletter. The Glorious One-Pot Meal cooking method is unique and holds US patent 6,846,504.

This is one of my favorite times of year. Although I am not partial to the warmer weather, I love the products of warm weather – fresh locally grown fruits and vegetables. Here are some of the reasons that I love the freshness so much:

1. Local produce is cheaper.

2. Local produce is fresher: sometimes food can travel 1500-3000 miles to get to your grocer’s shelf.

3. Buying local produce keeps the air cleaner: trucks that are transporting veggies cross-country can produce up to 3100 pounds of CO2.

4. Utilizing the variety of fresh local produce available during the year enables you and your family the opportunity to eat new foods as the seasons change.

5. Because of all that is available through your local farmer’s market, it is easier to get your 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables. In fact, the CDC has a new website solely dedicated to helping Americans reach their target fruit/veggie consumption. They offer tips for cooking, recipes, health professionals, partner websites, and a fruit of the month.

6. Buying local produce supports your local economy. Your food dollar goes straight to the farmer and provides your locale with the opportunity to support sustainable food. Sustainable agriculture provides security for agricultural families, supports the rural community and offers fair treatment to all involved in the process: growers, workers/laborers, consumers, and animals.

7. Better nutrition: It takes less time for local produce to get to your kitchen; therefore your produce retains more vitamins and minerals. Out of season fruits and veggies shipped from other countries can take up to two weeks to make it to the grocery store.

So, how can we change the way we eat??

1. Start in your own backyard. Find a community garden, or better yet, start one.

2. Take a trip to your local farmer’s market. Click here to find one in your state.

3. Find out what is in season in your region.

4. Take the 100 Mile Diet Challenge – resolve to eat foods grown only within a 100-mile radius of your home.

5. If the above resources seem too much for you, you can always check the Calendar of Best Buys, and that will at least guide you to the freshest, most in-season produce in your regular grocery store.

So, enjoy the next six months or so and let your taste buds do the traveling, not your food.

“Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.” Abigail Adams

I’ve shared that quote with dozens of young Chronically Disorganized (CD) clients. I often ask them to substitute the word organizing for the word learning and read the quote out loud. Children can then see that while organization – like education – may be attainable it doesn’t come effortlessly. Students who are naturally disorganized are at a disadvantage unless we, as professional organizers, can help them by implementing systems, support, and structure. Training students how to get organized and teaching them why being organized is critical to their success is essential. Uncovering the appropriate training techniques is often an overlooked step to becoming properly organized. Most often what I see when working with junior clients (between 3^rd and 6^th grades) is that their parents or teachers have implemented a seemingly flawless organizing system for the student. Unfortunately, it isn’t the right system for that particular child. Sometimes it’s too detailed. Or, maybe it doesn’t take into account the student’s learning style.

Enter the professional organizer
We have an opportunity to provide an organizing education for families seeking help. These clients are most often kinesthetic learners and auditory learners. So, we’ll focus here on these two modalities and the techniques that I have found to be especially helpful when working with these young clients and their parents.

First things first—Location, Location, Location!
Establish a quiet place in the home where the student can be close enough to ask questions yet far away enough not to be too distracted by family members (including pets) moving around the house. Younger children need adults nearby to answer questions and help them “perform” their homework.

Bite-Sized Portions
When it comes to repetitive work (such as math problems), set the student up for success. Just as we focus on a smaller area for an ADD adult, we want to focus on a smaller portion of the homework assignment rather than the whole. For example, if a student has a page of 15 math problems to solve, it is best to have him complete five at a time. Then, an adult can check them in three separate batches to ensure that the student is understanding the directions and receives immediate feedback before moving on to the next set of five problems. Nothing is more discouraging than letting a 4^th grader do 15 problems and then discovering that he did not get one correct answer because he didn’t understand the directions or wasn’t familiar with the order of operations.

Book Reports
When dealing with a written assignment such as a book report, break the assignment into a time-line type of checklist for them. Popsicle sticks and markers are perfect for the job. On each popsicle stick write something like the following:
Pick a book to read /January 10.
Record the title, author, publisher/January 12
Read chapters 1-3/January 17
Read chapters 4-6/January 22
Finish the book; chapters 7-10/January 27

Then, after the book is read, instead of asking the student to sit down and write the report, request that the student verbally present her rough draft via a “creative report.” Allowing the student to hear her own words will help her internalize the information and make the writing process much easier and straightforward.

The following ideas for Auditory Learners and Kinesthetic Learners incorporate both Part P and Part B because they provide a child with something physical (P) to do with his hands or an opportunity to move around, while simultaneously having a mental challenge for his brain (B).

Auditory Learners are great listeners and usually very vocal.
A good opening line for an organizer to use with an auditory learner is: “Tell me about your homework assignments. . . . .” but follow up this line with a twist!

• “and pretend you’re a TV reporter on the evening news.” The child may sit at the kitchen table and use a “mike” (vacuum cleaner attachments work well as do salt or pepper shakers).
• “and act out 3 main events in your day.” The child may stand on a small rug, but the rule is not to leave the rug while they’re acting. This exercise will help children with sequencing events, something they’re often expected to do at school.
• “and chat with me while this metronome is ticking. Can you bob your head back and forth and talk at the same time?”

Kinesthetic Learners usually think best on their feet.
Try these ideas with “Tell me about your homework assignments. . . .” or for helping with memory-related homework:

• Place yardsticks or rulers on the floor. The child can explain to you the order that they should do math, reading, and spelling words by laying out the sticks (one for math, one for reading, etc.) in order.
• As the child to explain or list her assignments (or whatever it is she’s trying to learn or memorize) directly to herself by talking in front of a mirror.
• Let the child use dolls or puppets to do the talking for her.
• Play Clap, Tap, Slap. This game has proven to be extremely effective for memorizing spelling or multiplication facts. The rhythm and cadence and sing-song style encourage the facts to stick. Boys especially enjoy the military marching tune of “left, right, left, right, left . . . .” You’ve heard children recite TV commercials or radio jingles – Clap, Tap, Slap works on the same principle and you can modify it to fit all sorts of memory work. Tapping rhythms, using “hand jive” motions and claps, and having fun with sing-song chants, like the ones used for jump-roping games, can be fun and easy ways to learn facts quickly.
• Ohhhhh, Macarena! Fun songs such as The Funky Chicken and the Macarena are wildly popular with kids – put the motions to work for learning spelling words. For example, if the word is “America,” ask the child to stand up and do the motions for the Macarena dance while they spell the words out loud. You probably know of other songs that use motions that would work well, also. The repetition of the motions can help the repetition and memory of math facts, lists, dates and other such memory work.

Use positive language as a reward.
Use simple statements such as:
Wow; you’re brainy. I wouldn’t have come up with that answer.
I like the way you think!
Hey, you’re a miniature Einstein!
How on earth did you do that? Impressive!

Encourage children with such phrases as:
Keep thinking like that—I think you’ve almost solved it.
You really tried hard – I’m proud of your effort.
I can tell that this is getting easier for you. You amaze me.
You should feel really proud of yourself.

The following ideas offer some suggestions on how to organize schoolwork, personal stuff, and schedules.

Crate on Wheels or Portable Hanging File Folder
Why a crate? It’s a mini file cabinet on wheels that can easily be moved from room to room. Novelty is a must for ADD students; a moveable crate allows their homework environment to change periodically. The crate, containing color-coded file folders, is a system that most kids enjoy using once they learn how. Create both a business and a personal section.

The business section contains all things relating to school with a folder for each subject and an extra one for projects that are works-in-progress. After the project is complete, it should be filed under the appropriate subject. I suggest blue for business, for example, because the first letters match. Make sure you explain the color scheme you choose—again, teach them why you are doing things a certain way. An older child may be able to choose the colors himself and explain why he or she has chosen that particular color for a particular subject. He should have a specific reason why he relates, say, red to business. Maybe it fires him up!

The “p” for personal folders could also be “p” for pink, purple, passionate red, papaya orange, or even pepperoni brownish-red. They hold documents related to topics such as:
Memorabilia: photographs, ticket stubs and awards
Passwords: i-tune account information, PSP and Game Boy data, etc.
Sports: schedules, registration forms, contact information on teammates
Hobbies: choir, music, scouting, articles they tear out of magazines related to crafts, etc.
Religion: Sunday school activities, confirmation class schedules, youth group outings, etc. Equipment: warranty and purchase information for their personal property: bikes, software installations, calculator instructions, etc.

Calendars
A year-at-a-glance academic calendar can be a great organizational tool for children in 3^rd grade or older.

* Print a copy of the year-long calendar and highlight all holidays, teacher workdays, and early release days. Place it in a page protector and clip it to the front of their portable crate. Younger students will need to be taught how to use a calendar but once explained, using a calendar becomes a learned skill that will be incredibly useful for them.

* Most students younger than 3^rd grade don’t understand the linear significance of a calendar. It’s a surprise to some younger children that calendars are arranged in lines and rows and read left to right like a book. This concept is foreign to them. Interestingly, more than one junior client has commented that they thought calendars should be like clocks—round.

Binders can be a thing of beauty.

Pocket Folders
Pocket folders help children avoid having to dig in their backpacks and having their papers scattered everywhere. Label one side Homework and the other side Sign and Return.
Either buy a pocket folder that is already hole-punched or punch holes in one yourself and put the pocket folder in the student’s binder. Pocket folders help children avoid having to dig in their backpacks and having their papers scattered everywhere. Label one side and the other side. Either buy a pocket folder that is already hole-punched or punch holes in one yourself and put the pocket folder in the student’s binder.

Tabbed Dividers
Color-coded dividers help the student keep his binder organized because the colors make subjects easy to “read”. For example, green may represent science, blue for reading, red for writing, yellow for social studies, etc. A child may want to represent his favorite subject with his favorite color, for example. Again, encourage the child to attach some significance to the relationship of the color and the subject, but there’s no right or wrong here. Within each color-coded section, create a section for quizzes and tests. Use the same color tab and place a gold star on it; put this divider behind the first divider of the same subject. It is important that students learn to hang on to old quizzes and tests that will help them study and reflect upon what they have learned. Collected tests and graded papers also serve as progress indicators so the child can see how much she’s learning throughout the year.

[1] ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life, Judith Kolberg p4

Copyright © 2006-2007, Metropolitan Organizing ®
All Rights Reserved
All content herein published with permission and remains the intellectual property of the contributor.

This handy “calendar” gives you an idea of what foods are cheapest when throughout the year.

Download here: Calendar of Best Buys for Food

Planning a nutritious meal is important. Planning a satisfying meal is just as, if not more, important. No matter how nutrient dense your meal may be, if it’s not appealing and tempting, who is going to eat it? One of the most important keys to successful meal management is creative menu planning.

It is important to remember that we eat food, not nutrients. When people are forced into food that is “good for you” they will often resist. But “good for you” and “just plain good” can be used to describe the same foods. It is up to the meal manager to make this happen.

Planning Meals in General –

Plan several days ahead – even a week or more (see my sample Calendar of Best Buys for Food Planning avoids Wswet Syndrome (what should we eat tonight?). Planning also allows your grocery shopping to me more organized, so you can avoid shopping every night on the way home from work.

Consider the circumstances of each meal: time, equipment needed, budget, season, occasion, # of people, nutritional needs of family, children.

Avoid excessive repetition of food. Not only can this get boring, but variety is key to attaining the needed vitamins and nutrients.

Preferences of your family should be considered. But, it is a great idea to introduce new foods and preparation methods every so often. This gives your family an appreciation for flavor and an expanded palate. When introducing new flavors, try to do it with familiar foods to avoid flavor shock.

Seasonal foods offer food of the highest quality, best price and are the most plentiful. See the attached chart which highlights seasonal produce.

Leftovers are not a bad word!! Aim to serve leftovers in a new and creative way. Leftover meat or vegetables can be added to most soups to add some oomph! Save leftover bread form the year in the freezer, and by Thanksgiving, you will have just enough bread for your homemade stuffing. For more great ideas, visit LeftoverChef.com.

Nutrients are in every food, make sure you plan for adequate intake. For instance, you need Vitamin C every day, Vitamin A every other day.

So, I have left you with a few things to consider as you begin planning meals that are nutritious and pleasing to your family. Hope this gets you started. Next time, join me for some tips on planning individual meals!!

Happy Planning,

~Emily

Use this document to track your monthly bills, due dates, payees, amounts due/paid, and reference numbers.

Download here: monthly_bills.doc

A downloadable list of pantry essentials for the person who lives to cook.

Download here: a-well-stocked-pantry-uber-gourmet.doc

A downloadable list of pantry essentials for the person who loves to cook.

Download here: a-well-stocked-pantry-pantry-professional.doc

A downloadable list of pantry essentials for all kitchens and all types of cooks.

Download here: a-well-stocked-pantry-pantry-primer.doc

Use this document to track your charitable donations for tax purposes. NOTE: We are not tax attorneys. The sole intent of publishing this document is to help track your donations. Consult your own attorney with any questions.

Download here: charitable-donation.doc.

Download Emily’s monthly meal plan to get ideas for your own meals.

Download here: emilys-sample-monthly-meal-plan.doc

A one-page downloadable file to help you plan your meals for an entire month!

Download here: monthly-meal-plan.doc

Download a Monthly Chore and To Do list from the Clutter Busting column that you can customize for your household.

Download here: monthly-chore-checklist.doc

From Betsy’s Clutter Busting column, download a sample chore list for children to customize for your own children.

Download here: Sample Chore List for Children