• cleaning buket filled with cleaning supplies
    Cleaning

    Cleaning Routine

    Wouldn’t it be wonderful not to have to spend an entire day cleaning your house? This article will teach you how to incorporate a cleaning routine into your schedule so that you can maintain a clean home without having to devote a whole day to cleaning. I am sure you have heard the saying. ” Divide and Conquer. ” Well, this is the concept that I use to maintain a clean household. I have a series of routines that, when put all together, keep my home clean, decluttered, and organized. There are three routines; Daily routine, a Weekly routine, and a monthly routine. I incorporate them into my schedule by…

  • pot roast with mashed potato and carrots
    Recipes

    Pot Roast by Design

    Ingredients 2lb lean boneless chuck roast 1lb of carrots cut into 3 inch pieces ( I use baby carrots no need for cutting) 2 green bell peppers, cut into 8 wedges 1 large red onion, cut into 8 wedges 1/4cup ketchup 1tbsp olive oil 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano 1/2 tsp kosher salt 1 10 ounce can of tomatoes with green chiles Instructions slice roast into 6 pieces in your pot pour olive oil, then layer in the carrots, onions, bell peppers, meat, salt, oregano, ketchup, and can of tomatoes with chiles. cook : in Instant Pot on high pressure for 1 hour or in slow cooker for 8 hours.…

  • beautiful home kitchen
    Organizing

    10 Kitchen Items to Declutter

    This past week I finished a deep decluttering of the kitchen. In order to keep my kitchen as clutter-free as possible, I have a few steps that I take. First, I keep my countertops clutter free by clearing them off every night. Second, I do a fridge and pantry declutter weekly. On the day that I sit to plan my menu for the upcoming week, I clean out the fridge and the pantry as I take notes of what we have in order to plan for grocery shopping. Third I do a deep kitchen declutter once a year in January. This annual step, is how I keep my cabinets and…

  • desk, computer, calendar and coffee mug
    Organizing

    Digital Calendars

    Last blog post I wrote about how to use an agenda and a planner. This week I want to share how and why I also use digital calendars. There are a few digital calendars to choose from and each one has it’s own set of features. Here are a few to consider Any do – calendar app for staying organize (Android – ios – web) Apple Calendar – best for storing data on apple devices (ios – mac os – web) Cozi – best for managing family schedules (Android – ios – web – windows) Curago – Good for big families (ios) Fantastic 2 – (ios – mac os) FamCal…

  • apple i pad and keyboard
    Organizing

    New Year New Agenda

    schedules and time management Hello Friends and Happy New Year! Since we are in the first week of the year, it is a great time to tell you how I manage and keep track of everything going on in my life. I have been using an agenda (an agenda is an appointment diary or a planner) since I was a teenager. I love the feel of putting pen to paper, so I still use an agenda even though I also use digital calendars. More about digital calendars in next week’s blog. I have tried and used many different agendas throughout the years. Some of the ones I have liked the…

  • red Christmas ornaments on a red background
    Entertaining

    Christmas Traditions

    Since it is Christmas Eve I thought a would share my family’s favorite Christmas traditions with you. We have a few and through the years some of them have been modified to fit our growing and changing lifestyle. A fun one was buying, hiding, and wrapping my daughters’ gift. Waking up in the middle of the night and being extra quiet so we could place the gifts brought by Santa under the tree without waking her up. This was fun it was like our own Elf caper mission. This tradition has long passed, these days the roles have reversed and the one playing elf is my daughter. She goes shopping…

  • Noel hanging bauble
    Nitty-Gritty

    Noel

    I was out Christmas shopping a few days ago and while I was looking at some holiday house decorations, I overhead a little boy ask his mom what does Noel mean. The mom told him she didn’t know but, “It has to do with Christmas”. By the time I got home, I thought I would do a little research and find out a bit more information about Noel the other word for “The Christmas Season”.  Noel is a noun and it has three meanings: The Christmas Season; yuletide (lowercase) a Christmas song or carol a male given name Noël the noun is Anglo-Norman and Middle-French and ( Modern French) there…

  • Recipes

    1-2-3 Enchiladas Verde

    Enchiladas made from scratch would take about 2-3 hours. The following recipe is my shortcut to getting it done and on the dinner table in about 30 minutes. This is a great recipe to use up leftover chicken. You can also make this dish with pulled pork instead of chicken. I usually make it with a rotisserie chicken.  serves 3-6 Ingredients 4 cups of cooked shredded chicken 8oz cream cheese 1 cup of fresh pico salsa (you can find it in the produce section of your supermarket) 6 corn tortillas 1 16oz jar of salsa verde (you can find it in the international aisle of the supermarket ) 1 cup of shredded Mexican cheese (or any…

  • Organizing

    The Christmas Toy Edit

    As I sit here and plan what I need to get done for Christmas I realize that it has been a few years since I have had to do our Christmas toy edit. The toy edit was one of the ways that I kept the enormous amount of toys that my daughter would obtain as birthday gifts, Christmas gifts, or just because she has loving relatives who get joy from spoiling her. To be truthful my husband and I also enjoyed buying her toys, I mean, to be honest, it is fun to buy toys for kids. I began the toy edit right after her first Christmas. She received so many gifts…

  • collection of mailboxes in a row
    Organizing

    You’ve Got Mail: The Daily Incoming Clutter

    I recently was asked, “How do you deal with the incoming mail?” Dealing with the incoming mail is simple, all you need to get organized is a couple of tools, and about 5 minutes a day to deal with this chore. Mail is part of the managerial role of running your household, and as such, you need to handle it like you would do so for a company. You must put in place a system to keep it controlled and organized because it is vital to keeping your household running smoothly.  Nowadays, we have to deal with paper mail, the stuff that comes into your mailbox, and digital email, the one…