Category: Motherhood

  • Prep Your Kids for Summer

    Summer is fast approaching and now is the time to shop for all the items you need while the store shelves are full and the selections plentiful.  It is hard to think about bathing suits and shorts right after putting our winter coats away, but advanced planning will save you from the stress of running around trying to find necessary items the week before summer camp starts or the day before you leave for your summer vacation. Prepping your kids for summer now will also save you money.

    Flash back photo of my kids from 2010
    Flash back photo of my kids from 2010

    Here is the list of items that you must check in your supply:

    • Bathing suits: 2-3 per child except if they are doing summer camp. In this case, you want to have at least 6 (2 per day from Mon-Wed, laundry on Wednesday to get you through the rest of the week).
    • Beach/pool towels: I recommend buying one nice towel per person and then if your kids go to camp, buying cheap towels that you won’t stress about if they get destroyed or lost. You can buy a 6 pack of hotel towels at Sam’s Club or Costco for around $25. Also, Five Below and Target often have towels for $3-$5 per towel. Personally, I have towels in two colors (one for each child), so I know who loses what.
    • Goggles
    • Water shoes/flip-flops
    • Sunscreen
    • Bug spray
    • Life-vest (for younger non-swimmers or boaters)

    If your kids go to camp, you will need to label all of their clothing. I recommend Lovable Labels . They are self-adhesive and last all summer through washing and drying, so they are worth the money. To save a few bucks, you can get the mini-dots.

    I recommend that you let them use an old backpack for summer camp. They sit all day with wet bathing suits and towels and often get muddy and gross by the end of summer (even if you wash it regularly). Regular washing and rough handling by your kids will break down the material and most of ours end up with holes by the end of summer. Save your money for a new backpack for school in the fall.

    If you are one of those people that throws away 15 tubes of half used sunscreen every year because it expires, then maybe it’s time to plan a little better. Sunscreen is expensive and if you are throwing away 15 half used tubes, then you are also throwing away money. With the cost of sunscreen between $6-15 per tube, you could be throwing away $50-100 worth of sunscreen each year. Or, if you are using expired sunscreen, it could result in sunburns that could ruin your day, your vacation and harm your or your child’s health.

    How many tubes of sunscreen do you need? This will vary depending on how much your family is outdoors during the summer, where you vacation and if your kids go to summer camp, but here is my calculation to give you an idea of what you will need. AND, most places have sunscreen 20% off right now, so take advantage and stock up, but don’t overstock!

    • 1 bottle or tube per child for camp (labeled and in their daily camp bag
    • 1 for the car (just in case you didn’t put it on before you leave the house or need to reapply)
    • 1 face + 1 body in the kitchen to put on in the morning (I use separate ones for body 30 SPF and face 50 SPF)
    • 1 face + 1 body in the pool bag
    • 1 face + 1 body per week, if you are going to somewhere sunny for vacation

    Advance planning will give you more time and money to enjoy all the fun summer brings with it.

    If you want to read more about prepping your kids for summer day camp, please read our blog post on Summer Camp Organizing.

    If you liked today’s post, you’re welcome to use it in your own newsletter or blog as long as you include the following blurb: Tara Rudo, Life Strategist, helps working moms and families focus on what is important. Get our FREE weekly tips and advice at www.NoMorePiles.com.

  • Meal Planning Made Easy

    The winter is upon us and it is the perfect time to work on your meal planning.  The days are shorter and full of school (or snow days), work, sports, homework and activities. The fast-paced afternoons and evenings, which leave us little time to make dinner every night. Even for those of us who love to cook, getting dinner on the table every night can be a challenge.

    The hours between 4pm and 7pm are often referred to as the witching hours. Babies are fussy, kids are grumpy and grown-ups are tired. Now, add hungry to that mix and you can see why they call it the witching hours.

    Often many families find they are scrambling at the last minute trying to decide what’s for dinner. Unfortunately most will find that they lack the proper ingredients or simply the lack of time or energy to make dinner. This leads to…you guessed it, take out.

    Maybe one of your new year’s resolutions was to cook healthier meals for your family.  Now is a great time add more vegetables or try new recipes.

    Meal Planning

    Meal Planning is key to cutting down on the stress and confusion during the dinner hour.

    1. The first step in meal planning is to clean out and organize your pantry and kitchen. Make sure to check expiration dates. It’s important to know what you have and to have the right things on hand. Organize your pantry the way you eat. Keep the pasta with the tomato sauce. This way when you want to have spaghetti you only have to check on place for the ingredients.
    2. Create a list of meals your family eats. Be sure to get input from everyone. This gives you a great place to start. Now pick one or two recipes you want to try. I recommend saving them for the weekend when you have a bit more time to focus.
    3. Sit down with your calendar and plan your week. If you know you won’t to be home in time to make dinner consider making a crock pot meal that day. Or using a meal from the freezer.
    4. Once your meal plan is set, make your grocery list. It’s a lot easier to shop when you know exactly what you need. Make sure you also have the ingredients for your “simple go-to meals”. Always have a shopping list and always take it with you when you shop! Make your own essential list and create a template so all you have to do is check off a list and leave room for the additional supplies.
    5.  Write it down so you don’t have to answer questions.  The first thing my and Tara’s kids ask every morning as soon as he wakes up is, “What’s for dinner?”.  Having a Write N Wipe Weekly Dry-Erase Calendar on the frig eliminates these questions.  Below is Tara’s calendar of meals this week.  She uses the word “Smorgasboard” instead of leftovers since kids (and husbands) often don’t like the idea of leftovers.  But, pulling all the leftovers out of the frig and letting the kids choose which items they want to eat sounds great!

      Magnetic Dry Erase Weekly Meal Calendar
      Magnetic Dry Erase Weekly Meal Calendar

    Meal planning is just the start. In a perfect world we would make a plan and follow it with no problems. But in the real world kids get sick, cars break down and you forget to pull the meat out of the freezer. So it’s just as important to have a plan B and sometimes even a plan C.

    • Simple go-to meals: Always have the ingredients for one or two simple meals on hand. A perfect example is spaghetti. A jar of tomato sauce and dry pasta can sit on the shelf and can be made in a flash. You can add whatever veggies or meat you have on hand. Find a few recipes that work for your family and always be sure the ingredient are on your shelf.
    • Try to prep ahead when you can schedule time after your trip to the grocery store to wash and prep you veggies for the week. If you have more time consider getting a head start and cooking a meal or two or at least chopping items ahead of time so you have them handy on the nights you need to get dinner on the table quickly.
    • Freezer Meals: Spending on day in the kitchen once a month can save you time and frustration several nights a week.
    • The 6 O’Clock Scramble: Still need help with meal planning. Consider signing up for an online meal planning service such as The 6 O’Clock Scramble. Every week you are sent a list of 5 recipes and the grocery shopping list. The website even let’s you customize your meals for what your family enjoys or for dietary needs.
    • Meal Swap: Consider joining or starting a meal swap group. Make one meal several times and swap with your friends.

    Hopefully this will get you on the right track. In the next few weeks we will discuss Freezer Meals and Meal Swaps in further detail. Also be sure to check our website and Facebook page for quick and easy meals.

    If you liked today’s post, you’re welcome to use it in your own newsletter or blog as long as you include the following blurb: Joan Robinson, helps working moms and families focus on what is important. Get our FREE weekly tips and advice at www.NoMorePiles.com.

  • Top 5 Tips on Organizing for Summer Camp

    There are only a few more weeks of school and then summer is upon us.  The kids are thrilled that summer is almost here, but personally, it brings me another set of ‘to dos’ in the form of prepping for summer camp.  Whether your kids are going to one summer camp for all 9 weeks or they are switching camps week-by-week, these tips will help make your summer run a little smoother.  Here are my top 5 tips for organizing for summer camp:

    1. Buy enough of each clothing type so that you don’t have to do laundry mid-week.  Most kids need swim suits, towels, shorts, socks, sneakers, water shoes, etc.  My recommendation is that you go find 10 towels, 10 bathing suits, shorts, socks, t-shirts, etc (not shoes, but at least 2 each of those).  Trying to do a full load or two of laundry on Wednesday just to ensure that you have enough clothes for Thursday and Friday just adds more stress to

    Over-the-door-pockets
    Use this over-the-door organizer to keep things at your fingertips.

    your week.  You can find cheap towels in a 5-6 pack at Sam’s Club or Costco.  Hit the consignment stores for bathing suits since they won’t last more than one season anyway.

    2. Label Everything!  I can’t stress this one enough, unless you have unlimited funds to replace all the items of clothing that will get lost if you don’t.  Lovable Labels has great self stick labels that adhere to the tags of the clothes and stay on even through the wash.  They even have a camp pack that includes labels for water bottles, shoes and clothes.   https://www.lovablelabels.ca/     Enter code TaraRLB1 to get 10% off your order.

    3. Make lunches easy.  There are 9 weeks of summer, so if your kids are in camp 5 days per week that means you have 45 lunches to pack for the summer.

    a. Pre-label all 45 bags (our camp requires disposable lunch bags) with your child’s name, bunk and other necessary information.  If you want to get fancy, use 4×4 shipping labels and just print a few sheets of them to affix to the front of the bag.

    b. Pre-pack 5 bags for the week with all the non-perishable items: snack, fruit leathers, spoon/fork, napkin, water bottle, etc.  This way you will only have to add a sandwich or main course.

    c. Don’t over pack. Our camp tells us that 50% of all packed lunches end up in the trash.  Only pack what you think your kids will reasonably eat while having a fun lunch with their friends.

    4. Streamline your morning routine.  There are so many things that need doing in order to get out the door in the morning, so make your life as easy as possible.  Hair needs brushing, ponytails put in, sunscreen on, bug spray, back packs packed, etc.  Keep all the items you need to get this done in a bin in your kitchen or mudroom or get an over-the-door hanger with pockets to keep everything at your finger tips.

    5. Prepare for summer first aid.  No matter how great the camps are at supervising our little ones, there will always be sunburn, bug bites, bee stings, cuts, scrapes, water in the ear, red eyes from chlorine in the pools and any number of minor first aid situations.  Make sure you have a good stock of all the necessary cures on hand.  Whether you like to use aloe, Calendula, peroxide or cortaid creme for whatever ails your little people, stock up now before the need arises.

    Summer is a time for the kids to step away from the books and enjoy all that summer has to offer, just make sure that you are ready to handle the the changes before they hit.  By getting organized for summer camp, you can ensure that both you and your kids have a fun-filled and stress free summer!

    If you liked today’s post, you’re welcome to use it in your own newsletter or blog as long as you include the following blurb: Certified Professional Organizer and Life Management Expert, Tara Donohue Rudo, helps working moms and families focus on what is important. Get her FREE weekly tips and advice at www.NoMorePiles.com.

     

  • Oops…I Forgot My Underwear

    You know how it happens. As mothers, we are in charge of packing everything for a vacation. We pack for our kids. We make sure that the clothes are all cleaned before we leave. We pack the food and entertainment for the trip. We make sure that the mail gets collected, the plants get watered, etc. AND….we have to pack for ourselves. Years ago I made a packing list for a basic trip. Unfortunately, time has passed and I am married with two kids and I have never sat down and updated my list. I made a new list for the kids and their stuff, but I never updated my own list. So, as I unpacked the suitcase of my stuff and the kids stuff when we arrived at Great Wolf lodge last week, I was shocked to find out that I didn’t pack a single pair of underwear for myself (LOL, right?).

    What makes this even funnier is that I never put underwear on my list. I never put it on the list the same way I never put ‘contact lenses’ on my list….they were a no brainer! What I have learned in this adventure (had to find a mall and buy some new underwear, pronto), is that with my mommy-brain in full swing there is no such thing as a no-brainer. Here is the valuable nugget that I want to pass along to all of you: Don’t depend on your brain!

    Lists exist so that you can idiot proof the packing process. They exist to take the stress out of remembering what you need to do. Here is a great basic site that you plug in a little information and it will give you a packing list: https://upl.codeq.info/. My recommendation to you is that you take this basic list and add or subtract anything that you notice is missing as you pack. Save that list and then you will have a template for your next trip. This will help you avoid the embarrassment of forgetting your underwear!

    If you liked today’s post, you’re welcome to use it in your own ezine or blog as long as you include the following blurb: Certified Professional Organizer, Tara Donohue Rudo, CPO, helps families, solopreneurs and mompreneurs focus on what is important. Get her FREE weekly tips and advice at www.NoMorePiles.com.

    Image: Suat Eman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

  • Great Article on Mompreneurs

    I am excited to announce that there is a great article about me and some fellow mompreneurs in this week’s Jewish Times. The issue will be on newsstands tomorrow, but if you want a sneak peak….https://tinyurl.com/4k8kwss

  • I Can’t Do It All By Myself!

    My husband regularly makes fun of me for always having my ‘team’ of people that I need to run my life. My ‘team’ consists of quite a few people in various categories and I feel that their contributions make me a much happier and successful businesswoman, mother and human being. I have a chiropractor, acupuncturist, house cleaning duo, several babysitters, a virtual assistant, Terri (my right hand organizer), massage therapist (a.k.a. my mother), marketing guru, my group fitness instructors at the gym and probably a few others that I can’t remember off the top of my head. As far as I am concerned, my husband can make fun of me all he wants because I LOVE my team!

    In today’s hectic society, with two working parents who also want to have a life outside of their home, I feel that having a team is a necessity. I can’t do it ALL by myself! I have learned and embraced the Law of Delegation. I am not sure where I learned this and have searched to find out whom I should credit but have had no luck. So, here it is:

    The Law of Delegation: If someone else can do the task 75% as well as you could do it yourself, delegate it.
    The way I see it, there are two ways to delegate. You can delegate up. For example, hire a marketing guru, chiropractor, acupuncturist who is an expert in something you CAN’T do for yourself to tell you or teach you how to achieve your goals in the most effective and efficient way. Or, you can delegate down. For example, hiring a babysitter, house cleaning duo or virtual assistant to do something that you COULD do for yourself, but you choose to pay them to do it so you can spend your time and efforts elsewhere.

    You can’t expect perfection or to have something done EXACTLY the way you would do it, but it will be done and that is more important than perfect. I think that learning to delegate is a difficult skill for both business people and parents alike. You know that some things won’t get done well the first time. Accept that there will be a learning curve as you teach someone else to do these tasks. But, if you are a little lucky and thoughtful as to which tasks you delegate and which people you bring on your team, you can achieve amazing things. You can gain TIME. You can gain better health. You can gain a stronger marriage. You can earn more money.

    If you are a parent and choose to delegate to your children, you may gain some extra headaches in the short term while you teach and train them to take over tasks. But, in the long run, you will gain the knowledge and pride that comes from knowing that you are raising your child to be a self sufficient and responsible human. This is a slow process that starts with toddlers helping clean the playroom, sort socks and set the dinner table.

    My advice: Delegate early and often. The GAINS are worth it!

    If you liked today’s post, you’re welcome to use it in your own ezine or blog as long as you include the following blurb: Certified Professional Organizer, Tara Donohue Rudo, CPO, helps families, solopreneurs and mompreneurs focus on what is important. Get her FREE weekly tips and advice at www.NoMorePiles.com . Photo is courtesy of www.freedigitalphotos.net

  • Microsoft Outlook Saved My Marriage

    Any of you out there in a relationship or married have probably had the following conversation.

    Person 1 – “I have a long work day today and I won’t be home until late because I have a meeting with the bossman at 5:30 p.m.”
    Person 2 – “What do you mean you won’t be home until late? Johnny has his school play (or insert other event) tonight and we were going to that and then out for pizza with the Johnsons.”

    Person 1 – “Johnny’s play is tonight? You never told me that! It’s not on my calendar. I can’t cancel my meeting with my boss!

    Person 2 – “Don’t you remember we talked about it last week?”

    Fight continues and yelling begins…if it hasn’t already.

    After spending several months having these ‘discussions’ with my husband, I was sick of it! I began searching for solutions. I was already using Microsoft Outlook for my email and contact management and discovered that for each calendar event I could ‘invite attendees’. This meant that the calendar event was emailed to hubby and he could either accept, tentative or decline the event and I would receive a response back. Easy, peasy.

    If he accepted, it was automatically put on his Outlook calendar. If declined, he could put a response in the email back to me so we could discuss the scheduling problem. The other great feature here is that if one of us changes the times on an event or deletes it off our calendar, it requires that you send an update to the other ‘attendees’. This has been a MARRIAGE-SAVER!! No more fights about scheduling. No excuses for not know what is going on and when. I LOVE IT!

    If you don’t use Outlook, but want to have similar features, check out Google Calendar. You can set up multiple calendars, so you can have one for your personal stuff and set up one for ‘Family’ events or set up one for each of the kids schedules and they can be shared with others. You can also set up the notifications so it would have similar features to what I mentioned above in Outlook.

    If you are not a computer person, you can use the pen and paper method. Just make sure that a family calendar is posted in a high-traffic area of the house like the kitchen where it will be easily seen. That it is big enough to easily see events.

    No matter which type of system you use there are a few things you will need to do for it to be successful.

    1. Always put events on your calendar! The system only works if you are diligent about entering events on it.
    2. Every week you need to have a quick family meeting to make sure that everyone has their events on the calendar and knows where they need to be when.
    3. Don’t overbook your calendar! This is the most important rule. If you jam pack every minute of your week, you will feel stressed, rushed and things will fall apart.

    Calendars are one system that EVERY family needs to run smoothly. They also give every family member accountability and help you avoid the stress of conversations like the one at the top of the page.

    If you liked today’s article, you’re welcome to use it in your own ezine or blog as long as you include the following blurb: Certified Professional Organizer, Tara Donohue Rudo, CPO, helps families, solopreneurs and mompreneurs focus on what is important. Get her FREE weekly tips and advice at www.NoMorePiles.com .

  • The Mom Spiral

    You woke up this morning after 8 hours of undisturbed sleep with the sun shining and the birds chirping. You take a hot shower and get dressed for work. You skip into the kitchen and pour yourself a cup of coffee (or tea, in my case) and make breakfast. Just as you finish your cup of tea, the kids come down for breakfast already dressed and ready for school. Your morning goes off without a hitch and you even get to work 10 minutes early!

    Then, at 10 a.m., you get the call. Johnny is projectile vomiting and you need to come pick him up from school. You grab your bag and rush to your car. Your shoe gets caught in the sidewalk and you break the heel off your shoe. You run over a nail in the parking lot and get a flat tire. AAA fixes your tire and you make it to school to pick up Johnny (albeit an hour later). On the way home, Johnny throws up all over the back seat. Your day has spiraled down into the dark abyss of motherhood that you can never prepare for… you have entered The Mom Spiral.

    OK, so there is nothing you can do to stop days like this from happening, but you can do a few things to minimize the pain (emotional, physical, work loss) that these days can cause.

    • Make sure you have an emergency back up plan. What if you are at a client site on a day like this and you are 2 hours away from your child’s school? Make sure the school and you have a list of people that you could call (with all their contact #s) at your fingertips to pinch hit for you.
    • If you work from home or from your car, create an “Office Day” folder or task list. This would be all the phone calls you need to return, the memos or emails that need writing, reports that need reviewing, professional reading or all the things that you could do easily while sitting home with a sick kid all day.
    • If you work in an office, find a way to have remote access to your computer or if you work on a laptop, bring it home. Create a “Grab and Go” folder of all those same types of things listed above. Don’t wait until a day like this happens to create this folder!
      Create a cold/flu season kit. Keep it stocked with all the things you would use while sick: pain reliever, throat lozenges, thermometer, nose squeege, super soft kleenex, pedialite or gatoraide, etc.
    • Create a kids sick day kit. A couple of new DVDs, coloring books, crayons, sticker books, books or other things your child can do easily unsupervised or with little supervision so you can still get a few hours of work in.
    • Keep some easy-to-eat-while-sick foods. When your kids don’t feel well chances are they won’t want to eat the leftover Italian sausage hoagies from last night’s dinner. They want apple sauce, grilled cheese sandwiches, chicken noodle soup or just some plain noodles.

    We know that these days will still happen, but by following these few simple steps you can set yourself and your child up for sick days that are a little less painful and at least slightly productive for you. And, don’t worry, this too shall pass! There is always a chance for a perfect day tomorrow!!

    If you liked today’s article, you’re welcome to use it in your own ezine or blog as long as you include the following blurb: Certified Professional Organizer, Tara Donohue Rudo, CPO, helps families, individuals and mompreneurs focus on what is important. Get her FREE weekly tips and advice at www.NoMorePiles.com.