Never one to be outdone, I have now become the worst. mother. ever., thereby beating Pauline.

You see tonight was, well, chaotic. Michael ran out and picked up Subway and Marco’s for dinner (we can never all agree on one restaurant, it seems). As is our norm on nights like these, we let the kids set their little lap desks up in front of the TV and serve them their dinner in the living room.

He came home, we rushed around the kitchen plating up the subs, pouring drinks and delivering everything to them. Then we sat down in the adjacent dining room to eat our meals. Normally, we would have sat on the sofa to eat, but it was too piled up with folded laundry, so we sat in the other room.

Part way through my meal, Leah, who doesn’t like Subway very much, asked for a second helping of Wheaties Fuel, a new cereal that she apparently liked enough to ask for seconds, which says a lot about this cereal that contains 5 grams of dietary fiber per serving. But I digress.

So, I refilled her bowl. Two trips into the living room. First with the cereal, then with the milk.

Back to my dinner.

A bit later, Leah asked for a third bowl of the cereal. Third trip to living room for cereal refill. While I was there, Noah asked me to bring him the rest of his sub when I came back with the milk. Sure thing!

Fourth trip to living room…milk. check. Noah’s sub. check.

Then I saw Sarah. Dear little 2 year old Sarah. Sitting at her little desk right between Leah and Zachary. Her little empty desk. I FORGOT TO FIX HER ANY DINNER!

worst. mother. EVER.

Time savers, money savers, energy savers (both electrical and human), maybe even sanity savers.

I have a couple I thought I’d share with you, but I’m selfishly hoping you’ll share yours with me.

Fresh and Free Bread Crumbs

I’ve always thought it was a huge waste to throw the ends of the bread away. But I don’t want to eat them either. My solution? I keep a bag in the freezer and everytime I finish off a loaf of bread, I toss the ends in. When I need bread crumbs for a recipe, I pull a couple out and put them in the food processor, blender or Magic Bullet. In just a couple minutes I have fresh bread crumbs that didn’t cost me a dime. Sometimes I add Italian seasoning or some cheese to spice up the flavor. I’ve saved money and reduced waste.

Natural and Inexpensive Multi-Purpose Cleaner and Odor Eliminator

If you’re not using vinegar all around your house, you’re missing out! The first place I started using it was in the laundry room. I have four young children. Diapers leak, they get sick, they wet the bed. Their clothes and bedding get smelly. My towels were smelling musty too. I used to buy Febreze Laundry. Effective, but really expensive!

Now, I keep a jug of vinegar next to the washer. I add a half cup to a cup to the loads that are stinky. Works like a charm! And, no, the clothes don’t smell like vinegar. I also use it as a liquid fabric softener and more in the laundry.

I also use vinegar to clean my kitchen and bathroom. It wards off mold and mildew. It doesn’t disinfect, so it’s not the only product I use in those rooms. But I use it a lot. And, no, my house doesn’t smell like vinegar. It also doesn’t smell like chemicals.

My best tip related to vinegar? Take an old baby wipe container and fill it with equal parts vinegar and water. Fold some clean rags and place them in the solution. I actually filled mine with two cups water and marked a line on the outside of the container with a magic marker, then added two cups vinegar and made another mark. Now I don’t have to measure my equal parts.

When you’re ready to clean, take out a rag. If you need another one, don’t dip the dirty one back in, just pull out a new one. No paper towels! Again…saving money and reducing waste. When you’re finished cleaning, toss the rags in the wash. The vinegar they’re soaked in helps freshen the load.

There are so many other uses for vinegar! Give it a try. You’ll be over the smell in a couple days.

Organizer for Coupons

I wrote an entire post on my coupon strategy, but the key is really how I organize the coupons using a mini photo album and Post-It notes.

There you have it. Three of my time and money savers. What are your favorite tips and tricks?

I’m kicking off my Books We Love series with Fancy Nancy. Before I begin telling you why we think these books are so wonderful, let me tell you how we were introduced to her.

When he was in first grade, Noah came home with a paper he had done in school. It was a picture he had drawn with the sentence, “It reminded me of my mom.” So the ensuing conversation went like this:

Me: “What reminded you of me?”

Noah: “Mrs. Farnan read us a book today.”

Me: “What was the book?”

Noah: “Fancy Nancy.”

Me (beaming with pride): “Do I remind you of Fancy Nancy?”

Noah: “No, you remind me of her mother.”

Me (still hopeful): “Is her mother fancy, too?”

Noah: “No, she’s very, very plain.”

Me (crushed): “Oh.”

I may have been crushed, but I was also intrigued (that’s a fancy word for curious). We read the first book and we all enjoyed it, but my daughter (who was 4 at the time) and I were hooked!

Here’s how I would describe Nancy. She’s not a princess or a fairy or a ballerina. She’s a bright girl who loves all things, well, fancy. She loves french words–because, “everything in french sounds fancy.” She has an extensive vocabulary–after all, big words make what we say fancier. And when it comes to accessories and decorating, her mantra is “more is more!”

Here’s how Leah, now 6, describes Nancy. She’s fancy. Her whole name rhymes–fancy Nancy Clancy. I like her because she really likes fancy stuff and she wears her hair all up on her head. She also likes how it’s written in “cursive.”  (She asked the other day if I thought “they” got cursive writing from Fancy Nancy.)

The author, Jane O’Connor is one sly lady! Through her use of “fancy words” she’s building the vocabularies of young girls everywhere! She also sneaks in fun facts and little life lessons along the way so the readers are learning without even knowing it.

Among the many lessons, young readers learn:

• not to leave their homework until the last minute
• how to work together with someone who is very different from themselves
• the importance of sharing…even sharing your best friend
• about constellations like the Big Dipper
• map and exploring skills
• about nature
• how to make a pine cone bird feeder
• etiquette
• how to improvise and overcome disappointment

• and, maybe the most important lesson–ice cream is perfect whether you’re celebrating or soothing disappointments!

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the captivating illustrations by Robin Preiss Glasser. She has captured the essence of Fancy Nancy beautifully!

Leah and I highly recommend any and all of the Fancy Nancy books as a magnificent supplement (that’s fancy for great addition) to your library!

Maybe it’s the mother in me, but I truly delight in serving a meal to someone who enjoys it. But with a busy family of six, it’s sometimes difficult to find the time in all the chaos.

My favorite recipes are those that require relatively few ingredients and are quick to prepare. There are exceptions of course, but our day-in and day-out favorites are both quick and easy to fix. Oh yeah, and it’s helpful if at least two of my four kids will eat said dish!

One of the worst parts of my “household duties” is coming up with a menu day after day, week after week and month after month, coordinating the grocery list, finding the recipes, etc. It’s hard not to get stuck in a rut of eating the same seven dishes week after week.

I’m always looking for new dishes to try and know many of you probably are, too. I’m also looking for some way for the recipes, the planner and the grocery list to all magically “talk” to one another so I don’t spend hours on the process. I came across a great site, thanks to The Organized Mom, that comes as close to this magic as I’ve found. It’s called Kitchen Monki.

KitchenMonki.com is a recipe sharing site, but it’s so much more than that! You can plan your meals using your own recipes or one of the ones others have shared. You can also create your grocery list from the recipes you choose. The items in your list are automatically sorted by grocery aisle and you can sort them by the different stores you shop. You can add notes for a specific brand or the details of the coupon you have for a particular item. Once you’re done, you can send it to your phone or print a PDF and take it with you. Like the sound of all of that, but don’t want to share Aunt Mildred’s secret recipe? Choose to keep the recipe private. You still get all the functionality described above, but no one else can see your recipe.

On top of all that, if you’re a blogger like me, you can easily embed the recipes you share on Kitchen Monki to your own blog–no formatting required! So now, I can share my recipes with my readers, thereby making my blog more interesting. Check out my “Last Minute Cranberry Relish” below. Yummy!

So now we have the birth of a new category: “Recipes from the Chaotic Kitchen.” I’ll share some of my favorites with you. If I find other tips and tricks for making planning and preparing family meals easier, I’ll share those, too. If you have tips or suggestions, let me know in the comments.

Together, maybe we can make the process less chaotic and a little more blissful!