Summer To-Do Jar

2 days left of school and I am so excited, but also a little worried the kids will get bored sooner

 than they did last year. So, I made a Summer to do jar.

 There are all kinds of cute summer lists around like these

this one also has a printable!

And some more simple ones



And a bucket list in a lunchbox! Cute, and free printables!

I did a jar for a couple reasons, the first is I don't have any place big enough for a big list that the kids can't reach, especially the little one! And I think my kids will also like the surprise part of it, not knowing what the day will be until the paper is picked! 

I have 4 different colors of paper, the purple there are not as many of because they are things we will have to keep for the weekend when Daddy is home, stuff like baseball games, the aquarium and fishing. Stuff I am not doing alone with them or that I know he would want to do too! The pink ones are smaller things that I won't take out once they pick them, they can go right back in, those are for busier days where we have less time, stuff like the library, park or going for an ice cream.

The rest are all ones we could probably manage any day this summer!

I asked the kids to tell me some things they wanted to do this summer and I added some other stuff that they either didn't think of, know about or don't really want to do but needs to be done. I am pretty sure you can figure those ones out!

go get an ice cream

go to the beach

sidewalk chalk

make s'mores

ride bikes

do a craft

splash pad

plant some seeds

go fishing

go to the pool

camp out nap in the backyard

go to the movies

go bowling

play at the park

write letters to cousins

zoo

aquarium

baseball game

water balloons

drive in

carousel

blow bubbles

make paper airplanes

go for a nature walk

stay up late for sparklers

have an Otter Pop

swim in little pool

have cousins over

golf

pick berries

make jelly

run at the track

go to the park

make hot dog's on the firepit for lunch

bike ride

shop for pencils (I have one excited almost preschooler)

sort Lego's

sort Barbie's

go through Finnley's toys

go through Ramsey's toys

go through Carsyn's toys

25 jumping jacks and pick again

clean out mommy's car and pick again

pull weeds for 20 minutes

craft project

Chapter of Harry Potter and a treat (they love Harry Potter themed treats!)

make graham crackers

make granola

make trail mix

 

That is not all of them but a good portion and I am sure there are some more I will add to it too!

 

We also have plans to visit Grandma and Poppop's cabin for a week, see a concert at the State fair (and a  bunch of animals!)  Watch the parade at our local Corn Festival

 

I think we will start the jar next week, taking Friday off to recover from the last week of school sugar high and so I can make sure we have everything!

 

And I am LOVING this song, it is so sweet!

 

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Managing Monday!

Today I am working on this weeks meal plan then the kids and I are putting together a list of some of the things they want to do this summer, counting down the days until school is out (3!!)

This week for dinner we are having

Pork Roast~gotta love the crock pot on busy nights!

Tacos~Also good for busy days since the chicken is done and in the freezer

Spaghetti~I try to do 1 meat free meal a week
Meatball subs~using leftover sauce
Salmon~Since hubby will be out of town, he doesn't like it but the kids do!
And I just bought andouille sausage for the first time, not sure what to do with it yet!
And Pizza out on Saturday

I have to know ahead of time what we are having the whole week or I
think we would be eating pb&j every night!

There are soo many good meal planning sites that helped me figure out what worked for us!
Once a Month Mom has great recipes and a plan to do the majority of the cooking all at once.  I don't cook ALL at once, but we do buy ground turkey, and chicken in bulk and I cook a bunch of that all at once and package it into meal size bags for the freezer.

A Year of Slow Cooking has a TON of crock pot recipes! I LOVE the slow cooker, some days we can be out of the house from early in the morning until dinner time and there is no time to cook dinner.

There are some cute meal planning forms here!

How do you all meal plan?

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Organzing Friday's!

Things are slowing down here (yay!) and I have all kinds of drawers, cabinets and so on that could use some attention! I am trying to get back in the habit and starting with the kitchen drawers. I have a tiny little major obsession with sprinkles, so much that they have taken over almost 1 entire drawer.

There are all kinds of random cupcake/cake stuff in there but I think it is mostly sprinkles!

 I decided since I was going to empty it out anyway I might as well do all the drawers and move some stuff around, like our silverware, I think it needs a new drawer and I have random stuff in some drawers that would probably be better somewhere else, and I am sure I have a few things I can get rid of! I am hoping to empty at least 1 drawer for just summer things! Chalk, sunscreen, sunglasses and that kind of stuff, as close to the backdoor as we can get!

Then while I was working on a new spot for the sprinkles and stuff in the pantry I realized how unorganized it is. There is a huge bag of lunchbox stuff, lunchboxes, containers, baggies, all that kind of stuff and it was hard to get to so then I started on that and it ends up being a a whole process of moving, purging, tidying and sorting!

See the plaid big bag on the bottom left? FULL of lunchbox stuff!

SO embarrassing how bad it WAS in there!
So much better now!

and the white cd boxes from ikea on the top is where I moved and sorted EVERYTHING from the sprinkles and stuff drawer!

Lunchbox drawer before

all kinds of randomness..

After

 

No more rushing to find a container lid or baggie!

I was able to get 1 entire drawer empty to make a summer drawer, now to find all the sunglasses and other backyard summer stuff!

And I purged my huge stack of cook books!  I worked at a bookstore for a while and with the employee discount on their clearance books I was getting a bunch for just a couple of dollars. I don't want to keep the whole book for just a couple of recipe's so I picked my favorites and copied them down or found them online and have a stack to donate!  More room in the pantry even after I added all the sprinkles and stuff!

So glad I could get this done today, feels better in the kitchen already! Next week I need to re organize the closet with all our cd's and stuff again! It's only been a few months but it hasn't been kept up very well. I will probably work on it a little each day next week because I don't think Friday will be enough time to do it all since that is the first day of summer break and the kids have a HUGE list of all the stuff they want to do!

Off to enjoy the sunshine the rest of the day!

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Something I wish I was better at as a wife was making sure things were mellow and clean (enough) and happy when hubby gets home. But honestly, some days that just seems impossible.  There are a bunch of great ideas HERE on how to welcome our hubby's home.

Some things I do are

~Having a drink ready for him when he gets home. Water, coffee or whatever he likes!

~Sometimes if dinner is going to be late or take a while, or be after a t-ball game,

 I try to have a small snack ready.

~Happy kids make a huge difference! Can't MAKE them be happy, but they usually pick up on our attitudes. Being cheerful even if we are doing the 10th load of laundry that day or cleaning up all the toys we cleaned up 10 minutes ago AGAIN. Being grumpy about it just doesn't help.

And who wants to come home to a grump?

~The one I am for sure most guilty of is having kid shows on when he gets home! We don't let them watch many cartoons, most days that is the only one, but I am sure coming home and hearing Yo Gabba Gabba is not his idea of peaceful. Having the TV on a channel hubby would enjoy,

or turned off and the radio on instead would probably be better.

This is what I am working on, making it a routine and something I put effort into.

There are 6 days of school left here and I can't wait for it to be over! The big kids and I are working on a list of all the things they want to do this summer. So far visiting Grandma and Grandpa's cabin and eating otter pops seem to be the most popular with Ramsey and Carsyn is SO excited for school she is already talking about pencil shopping!

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