All Business, Some of the Time

Happy Wednesday! If you are near my location then it is a rainy, cold day with a slight chance of snow tomorrow. Unusual for Georgia but it boosts the business at the grocery stores because everyone makes a mad dash to buy milk and bread. Kind of funny. As for me, I hit Costco for hot chocolate mix and bananas.

 As I sit upstairs with Bumpit, she loves watching the kids play outside in the rain, I am trying to get down to business.

Business entails paying bills, compiling a meal list for the next month and also writing out a list of what areas need to be de-cluttered and organized next.
I have so far held to my goal of going through a room or area a week to get the mess out and organize. Over the weekend I decided my studio needed to be organized. It is an area where I sew and quilt and keep some of my fabrics and current projects at hand. I also put Indiana's new sewing machine in there so I could be close to her while she created projects.
It took me a long time to find the best spot for my studio, but I finally found a place close to the kitchen where all of the chaos majority of the days' happenings occur.
Studio sounds grand doesn't it?

Meet my studio, aka the laundry room!!!! (This is my keepin' it real photo of the day!)

 Here it was before I tackled it. I know, I know it's a small room with my laundry equipment, but when you have 7 kids you take whatever space you can manage to find.

 Goodness, sewing is a total mess sometimes, and I really let this space go because I have been so busy with home schooling and sewing little foxes and bunnies.

 It didn't take long to clean the junk out and straighten up the rest.

I got a bit smaller table for Indiana's machine so that there is a little more wiggle room. This week I might tackle my bathroom closet or one of the kids' rooms. It's an ongoing project that is constantly being perfected and tweaked. If I had no children or maybe just a couple of kids I would be able to de-clutter and keep things fairly neat throughout the majority of the house. 7 kids makes it more difficult because kids are constantly growing out of clothes and toys or , like my kids, collecting things such as rocks and sticks. You would be amazed at the number of "shiny rocks" we have in this house!

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Another business essential for us with so many kids is my meal planning. I try and keep my grocery budget in check, although some days I find myself at Costco on an empty stomach and the budget suffers:-)
I have tried many different ways to keep meals going and easy such as once a month cooking, Emealz, and couponing. Our needs change sometimes month to month depending on if I am pregnant (and consumed with morning sickness) or caring for a newborn. The last year or so I have resorted to the old fashioned method of making out a menu and planning shopping trips accordingly.

My husband is paid once a month, so I make a menu for the entire month at a time. I write the dates down and put  a star by the days Devin will be working. I do this because he does not eat meals with us on those days (he works 12 hour shifts) so I sometimes choose my smaller, more simple meals on those days such as pancakes. I also try and not repeat a meal within the month. This can be challenging sometimes. I actually typed up a list of meals I make so that I can refer to it when I get "stuck" thinking of a meal. I also change meals sometimes during the month if there is a deal at the grocery store for things such as roast or chicken.

 Speaking of menus and recipes, I have a stash of recipes scribbled down on papers that I need to type up and place in my recipe binder. It is a notebook with most of the recipes I use typed up and in page protectors. This keeps me from having to flip through cookbooks to find recipes we use often. It was a big project to tackle but has been worth it.

Do you see this recipe? Fried pickles are so, so good and I bought everything to make these this weekend. I will let ya'll know how they turn out!
That's business at my house! How do you plan your meals?

Hope your mid week is as good as fried pickles!