A Look Inside My Brain (You May Want to Avert Your Eyes)

May 31, 2011 By 6 Comments

I actually had a post already written for today, but I think I’ll put it off until tomorrow.

Feeling the need to  . . . Bleh. 

In case you aren’t familar with this term, it could probably be defined as: The point at which thoughts come tumbling out of my brain with little rhyme or reason but (hopefully) in the end come together and make sense.

Hopefully.

Here’s the thing.  Anonymous commented with a wonderful question on yesterday’s post about a simplified summer checklist for my kids.  It’s the same question I’ve been asking myself over and over and giving myself many different versions of answers.  I tried to respond, and it turns out that lovely Blogger is not allowing me to comment on my own blog. 

Here was her/your/I-guess-it-could-be-a-his-but-I-picture-all-of-my-readers-as-women comment:

“So Nony, are you *keeping* your kids’ chore charts? Are you saying your are focusing more on daily maintenance/pickup than deep cleaning of bathroom, etc? I read you’re LAST summer’s posts and was all set to follow what you did! LOL Seriously, was just sitting down to print a copy of your chore charts. :) I’m still going to and we’re having a family meeting later where I’ll explain them. We’ve got to start with *some* kind of structure. My husband is a teacher and a slob, combined w/ myself a slob and 3 slobs in training…well…bad goes to worse quickly during the summer here. Thanks, Nony, love the blog, feels so good to have found a kindred spirit”

Here is my “bleh” response:

Random Thought #1:

Last summer’s Summer of Clean WAS a success.  My kids learned how to clean.  That was our focus, and I feel confident that if they were put into a situation where they needed to clean a bathroom, do their own laundry, or sweep a floor . . . the adult in charge might not even guess that their mother is a slob.

Random Thought #2:

My kids are in public school, but I view myself as their primary teacher of life skills. 

While I think I’ve done a decent job on many things, I had not taught them how to clean.  This was because, pre-blog, I was so random in my cleaning that even though I did hand them a cloth to help me on occasion, the cleaning was so inconsistent that they never had a chance to develop any real skills. 

Random Thought #3:

At the beginning of last summer, I was reaching a point where my own cleaning skills were developing, and I wanted to use this newfangled concept called Consistency to teach these skills to my kids.

Random Thought #4:

Because I am a slob, and was petrified last summer that I would lose ALL traction in my deslobification process, I had to choose a focus.  A steely-faced, scary-eyed focus. 

I chose to make that focus our weekly cleaning tasks, with the additional motivation of teaching my children  cleaning skills.  Additional motivation is very helpful for me.  I don’t like depending on only one motivation.  I need a back-up plan. 

Random Thought #5:

Teaching my children to clean is not my main goal for this summer.  That was accomplished last summer. 

I’ve reaped the benefits this year.  On a Sunday night, I can say, “OK, I need your laundry!” and they are able to sort it into piles for me.  Over Christmas break, I handed the task of bathroom cleaning over to them while I worked on the special goodies for our Christmas Eve celebration. (Which I then forgot to take with us, but that’s not the point.)

While they obviously still require direction and supervision, last summer’s success means we don’t have to have the same focus.  We need to learn new skills.

We’ll still use the Bathroom Cleaning Checklist from last summer on Tuesdays.  I’ll still have them do the vacuuming on Thursday, and we’ll still work together on Laundry Day. 

Hopefully, the kids will be comfortable doing these things, even if they don’t wake up excited about them. 

THIS summer, I want to teach my kids the life-changing potential of daily tasks. 

I struggle . . . big time . . . with daily tasks. 

Especially when my routine gets altered.

So, while my FOCUS was on teaching my kids basic cleaning skills last summer, my FOCUS this summer is on training them to keep a home livable through developing daily habits.

And I hope/wonder/believe that because they know how un-fun bathroom cleaning is, letting them skip it one week because they’ve done so well on their daily wipe-downs will be a life-lesson that has the potential to make a real impact. 

I’m setting us up for some teachable moments here, people.

Random Thought #6:

I’ve been encouraged several times lately to start giving advice.  To tell other new-to-their-own-deslobification-process slobs what to do. 

Here’s the reason I hesitate to do that:  I don’t like being told what to do. 

Perhaps it’s just me, but I prefer to see/hear/read ideas and then decide what I want to do with them. 

So I offer you these things to consider:

Where are you in your deslobification process?  Have you developed some daily habits that are helping your home run more smoothly?  What are the skills you most want your kids to learn?   Can you use the task of teaching your kids certain skills to help you maintain your own focus? 

I’m not changing my focus because last year’s focus wasn’t good.  I’m changing it because I’m in a different place now, and I need a re-focus. 

There you go.  This is what is going on inside my brain.  Confused?

*****  And while we’re on the subject of comments not working . . . . I need to let you know that I will soon make the move to WordPress, hopefully in the next week.  Nothing to fear, things will be the same, with the same format, at the same web address.  It will just look a little different.  I’m excited because I love the new design, and the move should make it easier for you to comment and for this Slob Club to keep growing!   Just don’t be alarmed if one day soon you land on what appears to be a totally different blog! 

Filed Under: figuring myself out, Summer | 6 Comments

A Summer Version of My Kids’ Daily Checklist

May 30, 2011 By 4 Comments

As I’ve been looking forward to summer, I have evaluated the success of last year’s Summer of Clean.

My kids learned valuable life skills and gained an understanding of what is required to keep a home clean.  It was far more successful than any of the other quickly-abandoned-summer-housekeeping-plans we’ve tried.

Overall, it went well.

But at the end of the summer, the house was teetering on the edge of chaos.  Even though the television was dust-free, my daily checklist was oft neglected.

As I’ve worked in the boys’ room for small slivers of time over the past week, I’ve been thinking.

Summer is routine-free.  Summer is fun.  Summer is a naturally a little chaotic.

All of my slob-struggles are amplified by these wonderful qualities of summer. 

summer kids

 

The more I’ve thought about it, I’ve realized I need to go back to the basics.  The beginning-of-the-blog basics.

When I began this deslobification process, I had no idea where to start.  I just had to do something.  I focused completely on daily habits and didn’t even worry about weekly cleaning tasks for the first six months.

And it worked.  The house was under control for the first time.  Ever.

I realized that my goal for the summer is just that . . . to keep the house under control.  To be able to have the kids’ friends over and pack for vacations and host an occasional impromptu cookout.

My advantage now over the beginning-of-the-blog is that I know what the basics are.  I’ve created a list for my kids to check before they ask to watch TV or play the Wii.  The list has four questions.

  • Is your bathroom clean?
  • Is your room clean?
  • Is the kitchen clean?
  • Is the living room clean?

Those are the basics.  Before our summer officially starts next week, I’ll create instructions to print out for each of these tasks.

I’m not saying that we will completely throw out our designated cleaning days.  Clothes have to be laundered, and if there’s dusting to be done, we’ll do it together.

But I know from experience that if all the fun stuff happens to fall on Bathroom Cleaning Tuesdays, we’ll be a lot better off if we’ve been concentrating on our basic daily tasks.

And, as always around here, I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.

I’ve also created a totally un-fancy printable version.

Filed Under: kids chores, My Survival Techniques, Summer | 4 Comments

Chicken Parmesan Sandwiches – And a Double Dose of Picnic Fun

May 30, 2011 By 7 Comments

Last Monday I admitted that I cheated by letting the little toga-guy provide our picnic supper for the week before.

I more than made up for it.

We had TWO picnic suppers last week. Every single baseball game was at 6:15. Although that means we can get the kids to bed almost on time, it also means that supper is crazy-rushed.

On Monday, I made chicken fried rice, which is always a favorite. Even though I can get it ready in less than 15 minutes, I still mis-judged the timing.  Rather than eating it at home at lightning speed, I decided to pack it up in a hodge-podge of containers and take it to the ballpark.

Great fun for everyone . . . except maybe the kid who’s playing and has to watch the rest of us eat while he covers first base.

Oops.

But I didn’t stop there. No-sir-ee. I was determined to make the totally-made-up-but-I-was-sure-they’d-be-a-hit Chicken Parm Sandwiches that were on my menu plan.

I was right. They were fabulous. (This is big, since I’m not always right about these things.)

I’ve made Chicken Parmesan for years, since seeing it on the Food Network a long time ago. I no longer consult the recipe (shocker) but I know that I originally combined aspects of a home-cook recipe and some tips I heard from Martha Stewart. I decided that turning these into sandwiches would make this meal a little more portable!

Ingredients:

Chicken Breasts (One large breast per two servings)

Italian Seasoned bread crumbs

Garlic Powder

Salt

Pepper

Olive Oil

Butter

2 eggs

Spaghetti sauce

Mozzarella

Yummy sandwich rolls. I think I paid 1.19 for a package of six at Wal-Mart.

Directions:

The first step is one I would probably skip if trying a new recipe. Don’t skip it. It makes a huge difference. Every time I make this recipe, I realize that I should probably do this every time I make chicken.

But I don’t.

Place one chicken breast at a time on a large piece of plastic wrap, and fold the wrap over the chicken, sealing it in (ish). (Ish means it doesn’t have to be perfect, but the more it’s sealed, the less chance you have of chicken nastiness splatting out onto the counter.)

Pound the chicken with a meat pounder, using the flat side. Pound it on the thicker end of the breast, until that side is the same thickness as the thinner one. Make sense? Doing this makes it sooo much easier to cook the chicken evenly and reduces the chance that you’ll overcook it. It also makes already-large chicken breasts monster-sized. This allows me to cut them in half and make two servings from one breast.

The next step is essential. I really think it’s what makes people go crazy over this dish. I season each chicken breast on both sides with garlic powder, pepper and salt.

Set up a breading assembly line. In the first dish, beat two eggs. Pour bread crumbs in the second dish. Put the chicken in the egg first, and coat thoroughly. Then, drag it through the breadcrumbs, coating on both sides.

In a large skillet, put a smidge of olive oil and a dab of butter. Once the butter is melted, and you’ve stirred them together, put your chicken breasts in.

Brown them on both sides, until they’re wonderfully crispy and golden. While they’re browning, pour some spaghetti sauce in the bottom of a baking pan, just enough to coat the bottom well.

This is a good time to toast your bread. I put them under the broiler. (If you’re like me, you might want to set the timer for one minute at a time to keep from letting them . . . blacken.)

Once both sides of the chicken are golden and crispy, place the chicken breasts in the pan and place in the oven at 400 until they are cooked all the way through.  I use a meat thermometer to determine when they are done. Remove from the oven and spread one spoonful of sauce on each breast and then sprinkle with mozzarella.

Return to the oven for five minutes or until the cheese is melted.

I put the chicken on the toasted buns, and wrapped them in foil to keep them nice and warm for our picnic.

And then I took a really bad picture.

These things were fabulous! And I can officially report that they are still fabulous when eaten cold the next day. The one that was left was perfect to grab when we met Smockity Frocks at the park on Thursday.

Love that Smockity! (If you’ve never read her blog, you should check it out. That mama of eight is hilarious!)

And now it’s time to create (as I’m typing) our menu plan for THIS week. It’s guaranteed to be crazy with all of the last-week-of-school activities, so a menu plan is essential.

Monday – Grilled Chicken, baked potatoes, and corn on the cob.

Tuesday – Round Steak in the Crock Pot, served over rice.

Wednesday – Burritos (our picnic supper for the week)

Thursday – Beef Stroganoff

Friday – Eat out!

Saturday – Homemade pizza

Go check out more menu plans over at Orgjunkie.com for Menu Plan Monday.  I’m also linking up at Life as Mom’s Ultimate Recipe Swap featuring lots of picnic ideas!!!

Filed Under: Menu Plan Monday, recipes | 7 Comments
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