31 Days to Becoming an Organized Mom: Day 1- Meal Planning with Pinterest

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Welcome to Day 1 of 31 Days to Becoming an Organized Mom.  In case you missed the details and the reason behind this series you can find them here.  Today I wanted to share with you how I am attempting to get organized with meal planning by using Pinterest. I feel that having a meal plan and sticking with it is one of the biggest keys to being organized.  When I have a meal plan in place it brings a whole new level of peace and order to my day.

There are about a million different ways to go about meal planning and I have attempted at least 500,000 of them.  Okay, well maybe not, but I have tried a LOT of them.  The problem they all seemed to have for me is that my (big) family didn’t care for all of the recipes or they didn’t leave much room for flexibility.  Also, if you happen to have anyone on a special diet or with an allergy a meal plan can be tricky.

Enter Pinterest.  I started pinning lots of amazing looking recipes on Pinterest but I would never get around to using them because of that darn meal plan or just not remembering them.  I use the internet a lot anyway for finding recipes and planning meals, so I thought why not make a Meal Plan Board?  Oh my goodness!  I get to make meals that I think my family will love every night, plus I get to try lots of new things and can anyone say crockpot?  There are about a bajillion crockpot recipes on Pinterest {and yes I did just make up a number}.  The crockpot is a busy moms best friend! Plus an amazing added bonus is that you can find recipes for just about any diet or allergy issue.  If you are eating Paleo, gluten or dairy free, or low carb, whatever it is, there are lots of recipes to be found for your family on Pinterest.

How does a Pinterest Meal Plan Work?

  • First I created a board on Pinterest and called it “Meal Plan.” You can call yours whatever you like but distinguish this board from your other recipes.

 

  • Next I added the recipes that I wanted to the board by either pinning them with the pin it button {see the pin it button below this post for an example} on a website or I repinned recipes from Pinterest itself {you can search for specific recipes or just see what your friends are pinning}.

 

  • When I pinned the recipes to my Meal Plan Board I would type “Meal Plan Day 1” and so on before the title of the recipe in the description box.  Pinterest doesn’t allow you to order your pins but if you only have only up to 30 recipes on one board it’s not too difficult to find the right one for each day.  I created a 30 day board and if I want to do more I will add another 30 day board called “Meal Plan 2.”  You could also do it for only a week or two at a time or even 28 days {exactly 4 weeks} if that works better for you.
  • Once I had my 30 days of recipes I made a shopping list for each week.  This takes a little bit of time but if you do it upfront then the weeks that follow will be less work.

 

  • When I went shopping I got everything I would need for the week and tonight we are having Mongolian Beef.  I can tell you what we are having for dinner for the next 3o days and exactly what I need to get to make it!

A Few Notes:

  • I made sure to think ahead to what my days are like in a month.  On days when we are busier I chose crockpot or make ahead recipes.
  • You can be as specific as adding a date to the recipe of when you want to have it.
  • This works for breakfast and lunch as well.  I made separate Breakfast and Lunch boards and am still working on completing them for the month.
  • If you are thinking “but I cannot add my own recipes” this is true but there are ways around it.  Since I am a blogger I can add recipes that my family uses and loves to my blog and pin them onto my Meal Plan Boards {and I plan to do this}.  You could also search the internet for similar recipes to the ones you know and love {I bet you’ll find something close} and go ahead and pin it onto your board as a reminder that you are making that favorite dinner recipe that day and just make it your own way.

I know the system is not perfect but I think it will be a fun way to spice up the meal planning!

What do you think?  Will you give a Pinterest Meal Plan a try? Is there anything that you would do differently? Here’s my Meal Plan Board link of you’d like to take a look at it.

Speaking of Pinterest, perhaps you should pin this post {smile}?

 

 

Filed Under: Mommy Tips, Organization, Uncategorized Tagged With:

31 Days to Becoming an Organized Mom

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Welcome to 31 Days to Becoming an Organized Mom! I have decided to jump on the 31 days band wagon this month and join The Nester for 31 days of posts.  I’ve just been getting my feet wet lately with getting back to blogging but I am committing to dive in completely this month.

Why did I choose to do 31 days to Becoming an Organized Mom?  Because this has been pressing on my heart a lot lately.  I am not writing from the place of having everything organized but rather wanting to get there.  There have been lots of babies and toddlers in my house over the past 14 years and life seemed to speed past organized to barely holding on for a while.  But I know that being organized brings me so much peace and there is a balance between having grace for yourself and doing hard work.  I am desperately seeking the balance.

One day,  a couple weeks ago, I was driving in my car and thinking about the guests we would be having over in a few weeks.  I was thinking of all that I needed to get done before they came and how much work I would be doing.  It would probably mean some late nights and early mornings.  All of a sudden I felt very convicted.  “Why aren’t you willing to do all of that hard work for your family?  Do you realize that the message you are sending is that they are less important than any guest you might have?”  Ouch!!

This is the message I have been sending to my precious family for many years.  Yes, there is grace…they have TONS of grace for the sleepless nights and jam packed days, but this is not what I want to communicate to my family.  They are the most precious people in the world to me and they deserve being my priority and any ounce of hard work that it takes to provide a peaceful home for them.

So I am digging in and getting organized.  This month I will use these 31 days to prioritize and organize and share with you here my progress and processes.  I know that deep down inside there is a very organized woman who is very anxious to get out.  I know this because I had to lock her away years ago after my 4th child was born.

Would you like to join me?  I’ll be adding the posts each day to this page so you can read them all.

Day 1- Meal Planning with Pinterest

Day 2- Where to Start Getting Organized– Your Mindset

Day 3- Where to start Practically In Your Home

Day 4- Eliminating Distractions

Day 5- Dealing with Life’s Curveballs

Day 6- Controlling Clutter

Day 7- Don’t Forget to Rest

Day 8- The Voice you Listen to {a.k.a You are NOT Overwhelmed}

Day 9- Analyzing the Problem Spots and Finding Solutions

Day 10- Eat the Frog

Day 11- Planning Ahead

Day 12-Scary To Do Lists

Day 13-Resources to Get You Going

Day 14-Take Care of Yourself Too!

Day 15- What Are We Organizing? {This one could change everything!}

Day 16- Decluttering Tips

Day 17- Remembering Why We Do It

Day 18- Beauty Only

Day 19- Quick Tackle Something

Day 20- Shopping Smart

Day 21- Intentional Fun & Rest

Day 22- A Plan for Success

Day 23- Setting Goals to Stay Organized

Day 24- Helping Kids Help You

Day 25- Kids Checklist for Chores

Day 26- Scheduling Chores for Kids

Day 27- An Ideal Life

Day 28- Printable Chore Checklists for Kids

Day 29- Doing a bit of Dreaming

Day 30- Staying on Top of Laundry

Day 31- This. Just This!

Filed Under: Mommy Tips, Organization Tagged With: , ,

What Moms Love {Weekly}

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This week I am featuring Rebekah of Your Mom Designs {she makes some fabulous kid stuff herself} and some of what she loves for Fall.  Here is what she is loving:

this week i am loving the anticipation of fall arriving, the excitement of little minds learning new things in school and the simple joy of making a baby giggle as often as possible.
1. i’m a fan of a good cup of coffee year round, but there is something about a hot cup of coffee on a cool fall morning that really starts my day off right, and as the only coffee drinker in my house i find the aeropress makes a really beautiful single cup of coffee.

 

2. with fall approaching i can’t help but look forward to cozy layers in rich colors, and love this hoody by Boden in indigo with a floral print.

 

3. my little girl wears a uniform to school, which actually seems to make our morning routine a slight bit easier, but i do think it’s important to give her some options for expressing her own style, so we are doing our best to acquire/make cute hair bows and this wool felt bow by LoftFullOfGoodies  on Etsy is such a unique style.

 

4.  i love the various products Kids Konserve sells for packing lunches, snacks and drinks, the designs are bold and graphic and safe at the same time.

How about you? What are you loving this week?

Filed Under: Uncategorized, What Moms Love Weekly Tagged With: ,

Want to be Featured on Mommy Kudos? Here’s How:

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Want to be featured on Mommy Kudos? Here on Mommy Kudos I do a weekly “What Mom’s Love” blog post and I share what I have loved about my week and include some of my favorite finds of the week for moms, babies and kids.  I thought it would be fun to also share what other moms love.  So I thought I would give you the opportunity to join in the fun.  Here’s what I would need from you if you’d like to do it:

1. What did you love about your week? You can read some of my prior posts for ideas if you want but generally it is the special moments in your week with your child(ren).

2. A picture of you (preferably with your kids or the child that is the age you are wanting to recommend items for)

3. A list of 4- 10 of your favorite baby/kid/mom items (pick a theme like an age or stage, a specific thing like nursery or diaper bag must haves, trip entertainment, safe kid toys, etc…)

4. Pictures of the items if you can find them/have them (if not I can get them)

5. If you blog or have an Etsy store or other site (not a requirement) send me the name and link so I can link to you.

Use the Subject “What Moms Love Weekly” and Email it all to me at: Kristin@MommyKudos.com.  If you are including lots of pictures please send them a few at a time in individual emails.  If you know someone else who may like to be featured please feel free to pass along this information to them.

Filed Under: What Moms Love Weekly Tagged With:

An ebook for Moms who have Lost a Baby

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I’ve taken quite a break from blogging this Summer and one of the reasons for that was to work on an eBook.  Several years ago I lost a baby after having pregnancy complications.  I ended up giving birth prematurely at 25 weeks and my son lived for 6 hours before he died.

The loss was devastating and heart breaking.  It was the hardest thing I have ever had to go through.

I wrote the eBook out of my own experience of healing because my desire, while grieving the loss of my son, was that my heart would heal completely.  I knew that I would always miss him but that it would honor him deeply if I would grieve fully and allow my heart to be healed completely so that I could become all that I was meant to be.

The eBook, Empty Arms, Hope-Filled Heart, is a prayer, from my heart, of hope and healing for the woman who has lost a child (whether that be a miscarriage, stillbirth, infant or child death).  I learned a lot during my own loss about where God is in our losses and how He sees them.  I was deeply comforted by Him and given so much hope.  I pray the same thing for you too.  God’s Word has a lot to say about death and grief and it’s full of love and comfort.

I’d love for you to check out the eBook, especially if you have experience a loss of your own.  If you haven’t you may know of someone who has and this ebook is a perfect gift that will speak right to her heart.  The book is available in both PDF and a paperback version.  Read much more about it here.

I’ll be back to regular blogging soon!

Filed Under: Loss Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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