Heavenly Homemakers

Encouraging women in homemaking, healthy eating and parenting

What to Make for a Potluck

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Need suggestions for what to make for a potluck? Here’s a great list of ideas!

Potlucks are the best, aren’t they? Tables are filled with amazing dishes full of old favorites plus new foods to try. The dessert section is usually ridiculously overloaded and the choices are so much fun.

I usually take a main dish, a side dish, and a dessert to every potluck I go to. Taking this many items isn’t always necessary for everyone. But we are a large family, so I want to be sure and take plenty of food to be sure we are supplying more than our fair share (since for most definitely eat our fair share)!

What to Make for a Potluck

I’ve been participating in potlucks for many years, and here’s what I’ve found to be the best dishes and desserts to take…

Main Dishes

Side Dishes

Desserts

No time to cook?

Here’s a quick list of ideas you can run and grab from the store to take and share:

  • Frozen Meatballs (cooked in a crock pot with bbq sauce)
  • Veggie Platter
  • Rotisserie Chicken
  • Package of Dinner Rolls
  • Package of Cookies
  • Potato Salad
  • Macaroni Salad
  • Caesar Salad Kits (dumped into a bowl and stirred to serve)

What are your favorite dishes to take to a potluck?

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How to Make Uncrustables

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Let’s talk about how to make Uncrustables and all the reasons you should make them at home!

Yum

What is an Uncrustable?

Uncrustables are a lovely convenience item found in the freezer section of the grocery store. They are pre-made peanut butter and jelly sandwich with crusts removed. Perfect for most of our kids, right?

Yes, but the cost.

I can’t let myself spend $4.18 for just four crustless pb&j sandwiches. Surely it costs much less to throw together a simple sandwich at home, right? Right.

Here’s what you need to make Uncrustables:

100% Whole Wheat Bread: $0.19/sandwich
Natural Peanut Butter: $0.13/sandwich
100% Fruit Jelly: $0.13/sandwich

Uncrustables at the store: $1.05 per sandwich (made with less-nourishing ingredients)
Cost for a Homemaade Uncrustable: $0.45 (made with much better ingredients)

Oh, and you’ll need this handy tool which is a one-time, very worth it purchase.

Don’t waste the crust!!

When I use two loaves of bread to make 20 Uncrustables, I end up with a 10×13 inch pyrex full of crusts. I can’t stand the idea of throwing them out, so I use them to make Easy Bread Pudding. My family loves this and I love that nothing goes to waste!

How to make your own Peanut Butter

Want to make your own peanut butter? It’s truly the most delicious! Here’s the recipe. It’s so very easy to make!

If you don’t make your own peanut butter, look for brands that don’t have hydrogenated oils in them. Those oils are best avoided. :)

The joy of Homemade Uncrustables

If you make Uncrustables, I recommend making many at once so that you get more mass for your mess. :) I make two loaves of bread worth each time I make Uncrustables (which produces 20). Then I freeze them to pull out for quick lunches for my kids (either at home or in lunchboxes at school). Having these ready in the freezer is so handy! And if we’re at home and want to eat them straight from the freezer, we put them into our air fryer for a minute or two to thaw/crisp up. So good!

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How to Save Time Washing Dishes

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Want to save time washing dishes?

I’ve shared with you before that my kitchen looks like this much of the time:

This is not because I rarely wash dishes. This is because we have a very full house, thus creating many dirty dishes throughout the day.

I fill the dishwasher to the max at least twice if not three times every day.

When you cook meals at home, there’s no getting around having dishes to wash. I don’t like buying and using paper plates unless we have guests (especially now as prices for paper products have gone up).

But I do have a few tips that help our dirty dishes pile just a tiny bit smaller. I certainly don’t need to waste time in the kitchen if I can help it!

How to Save Time Washing Dishes

1. If I can, I skip the mixing bowl and mix food directly in a baking dish.

This doesn’t always work, but here’s an example of what does work! If I’m making something like cornbread or brownies, I find that I can put all the ingredients into a 9×13-inch baking dish, stir it up, then spread it to bake.

My 4-year-old helper likes this method too.

This also works with just about every casserole I make.

2. Roll biscuits directly on the pan.

Instead of making a mess on my countertop or on a cutting board when I make biscuits, I spread flour on my cookie sheet, press down the dough, cut the biscuits, and bake.

3. When I cut fruit or veggies with a knife, I rinse the knife and put it in the dish drain to use again.

Fruit like apples, bananas, peaches, and such don’t make a knife super dirty. The same goes for veggies like sweet peppers and cucumbers. Save time and dirty dishes by rinsing it off and using it again the next time you need to cut something quickly.

4. Re-use saucepans for melting butter and oil.

If I’m melting coconut oil or butter on the stove for baking, I often leave the pan on the stove to reuse later if I plan to do more baking that day. It just makes sense!

Granola Cookie

5. Use muffin liners.

In my experience, it takes an extra long time to scrub individual muffin tins after baking muffins. Instead, I use liners so that the muffins pop right out and the pans just have to go through a quick rinse.

6. Make multiple batches at once.

This not only saves on dirty dishes, but it also saves time and energy. Every time I make anything from casseroles to muffins to bread to cookies – I multiply the batch at least by two but often by four or even eight! I find that if I’m going to get out ingredients, spend time reading a recipe, and dirty some dishes, I might as well get the most from my effort!

We eat the first round, then I freeze extras so that all I have to do later is pull out food and serve it or bake it and serve it. This way, I only do the prep dishes the first time around. After that, there are no extra dishes!

What helps you save time washing dishes?

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Inexpensive and Fun Valentine’s Day Treats

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You don’t have to spend much money to make this holiday special. Turn any of these recipes into Valentine’s Day Treats for your family!

Make Heart-Shaped Food

I’m not super artistic, but I can pull off most of these ideas when I use a heart-shaped cookie cutter. :)

  1. Simple Whole Wheat Pancakes
  2. Whole Wheat Waffles
  3. Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
  4. Quesadillas
  5. Pizza
  6. Whole Wheat Donuts
  7. Poptarts
  8. Quick Mix Biscuits
  9. Soft Pretzels
  10. Cream Cheese Cookie Cutouts
  11. The Easiest Chocolate Fudge
  12. Peanut Butter Honey Fudge
  13. Chocolate Chip Brownies
  14. Chocolate Chip Cookies
  15. Cheesecake Brownies
  16. Butterscotch Bars

To go with your Heart-Shaped Foods, here are some bonus Valentine’s Day food ideas, you’ll enjoy looking through these lists…

Naturally Red and Pink Treats

Sprinkles are fun, but not entirely necessary if you have naturally red and pink goodies like these:

  1. Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Breakfast Cookies
  2. Strawberry Cream Muffins
  3. Raspberry Oatmeal Bars
  4. Chocolate Whipped Cream on Strawberries
  5. Strawberry-Peach Slushies
  6. Strawberry-Kefir Smoothies
  7. Strawberry Yogurt
  8. Strawberry-Yogurt Fruit Dip
  9. Strawberry Christmas Salad (which obviously becomes Strawberry Valentine Salad on Feb. 14)
  10. Low Sugar Strawberry Cheesecake Parfait
  11. 7-Minute Strawberry Ice Cream
  12. Strawberry Creamsicles
  13. Strawberry Shortcake
  14. Strawberry Milkshakes
  15. Easy Raspberry Syrup (for your heart-shaped pancakes)
  16. Raspberry Lemon Cream Cups

Don’t forget obvious foods that are red – like tomatoes, sweet peppers, strawberries, grapes, cherries, or raspberries!

Chocolate Valentine’s Day Treats

Chocolate is always a hit on Valentine’s Day!

  1. Chocolate Waffles
  2. Warm Chocolate Soother
  3. Chocolate Whipped Cream on Strawberries
  4. No-Bake Chocolate Fudge Bites
  5. Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins
  6. Peanut Butter or Caramel Chocolate Truffles
  7. Low Sugar Chocolate Cake
  8. Low Sugar Chocolate Cheesecake
  9. Dark Chocolate Peppermint Mousse
  10. No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake
  11. Homemade Chocolate Frappe
  12. Chocolate Cheesecake Pie
  13. Homemade Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

What are your favorite treats to make on Valentine’s Day?

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Parmesan Chicken and Rice Recipe – $1.00/person!

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You are going to love this Parmesan Chicken and Rice recipe. It’s so easy and flavorful, and can be made for just $1.00 per person!

You realize that this means that your entire dinner for four people only costs $4.00? Throw in a steamed veggie and a salad and you’re up to maybe $6.00, total, for a super-amazing, delicious, wholesome meal that nourishes.

My intent with this series is to encourage all of us. Grocery prices can look discouraging right now, but I’m finding that it really is possible to keep our costs low while still eating well.

This meal idea comes on the tail of this Whole Chicken Recipe in which we cooked a chicken with the goal of making three meals with it.

  1. Whole Chicken with Potato Wedges
  2. Parmesan Chicken and Rice
  3. Creamy Potato Soup (made with broth from the chicken we cooked as described here)

Today, we’ll share how you can take the “leftovers” from the Whole Chicken you made that you saved for this meal. You’ll make rice as detailed below, then you’ll stir in the leftover chicken. This is so delicious and easy.

 Parmesan Chicken and Rice Recipe

Parmesan Chicken and Rice Recipe - $1.00/person!
 
Save Print
Author:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1 cup brown rice
  • 2 cups chicken or beef broth
  • 2 Tablespoons dried minced onion
  • Sea salt to taste
  • Leftover baked chicken cut into bites
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder (or fresh garlic)
  • ⅓ cup grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
  1. Stir rice, broth, onion, and salt into a 9x13 inch baking dish.
  2. Cover and bake for one hour in a 350 degree oven.
  3. Stir in cooked chicken and garlic and bake for 10 minutes more.
  4. Remove from oven, sprinkle parmesan cheese over the top and serve.

The rice cooked in broth with onion and salt makes this taste extra good. Now use those bones from the chicken to make broth. Then you can make Creamy Potato Soup too!

Did you get these yet?

All month long we are working our way through 30 Days of Dollar Dinners. Get the calendar filled with 30 dollar meal ideas, plus all these resources too. They are free and will hopefully save you a lot of money at the store!

Sign up here to enjoy these!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

How to Beat Inflation at the Grocery Store

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I’m here to offer some encouragement today. While prices are going up, we can still beat inflation at the grocery store.

As you know, my grocery budget for our Big Family is large. We need to spend $1,200/month to feed all of us, and with prices on the rise, I’ve wondered if I could keep it that “low.”

Currently, we feed four adults and six kids – three meals every day. At $1200/month, the breakdown equals $4/day per person for all meals and snacks. I feel great about this! But I’ve been contemplating if I’d need to bump my budget up to keep up with rising prices.

I may need to, but for now, I’m challenging myself to see if I can focus on more low-cost meals to keep from having to spend more. This personal challenge led me to put this 30 Days of Dollar Dinners packet together, and I’m really encouraged. As it turns out, we really can keep food costs low, even now.

We can buy one big pork roast and make it stretch into 5 different meal!
Join our free 30 Days of Dollar Dinners series so I can show you how!

Let’s talk about meat and cheese.

As I’ve been shopping, I’ve found that meat and cheese tend to be grocery budget killers. So I’ve changed a few things about how I shop and cook.

I’m adding less than half the cheese I used to add to dishes, and they still taste just as good. And as it turns out, I’m able to still feed us a lot of meat – I’m simply choosing cheaper meat options:

  • We’re eating less beef overall, as I’ve found that it’s much pricier than chicken or pork.
  • We’re eating more chicken legs, chicken thighs, and pork roasts.
  • If I need it for a recipe, I’m using more ground turkey instead of ground beef.

No one is complaining. No one has even noticed, actually. Our meals have been delicious and some have cost us less than I was spending before inflation. True story!

NOTE: This decision I’ve made to cut meat costs has meant that I am compromising on buying all grass-fed, free-range meats. God is bigger and I’m choosing to trust him in this decision even though I know that more sustainable meats are better for our bodies. The meat I’m buying is still a healthy, real food choice, and I’m saving hundreds of dollars each month this way. :)

I’m also trying to make time to make more of our food from scratch again. This is still a bit of a challenge with so many littles to care for right now. But I’ve been able to bake more than I used to, so this is wonderful for breakfasts and snacks. (See this great list for 111 Baking Recipes.)

Our 4-year-old likes to help me bake while his three younger sisters are napping.

30 Days of Dollar Dinners

I hope you’ve already signed up to follow along with our 30 Days of Dollar Dinners series. I’ll be posting inexpensive meal ideas and recipes here during the next few weeks. Meanwhile, get all these free resources! We’ve come up with 30 dinners we can make for $1/person (sometimes less!) And we’ve put it all – along with a grocery list and other money-saving resources – into this free printable packet.

Are we stuck with chicken legs and meatless meals forever now?

Goodness no. We can still buy and eat whatever we want. But the 30 Days of Dollar Dinners recipes and ideas packet gives us thirty meal ideas that cost $1/person. We can use this as a forever reference any time we want to find ways to cut back at the grocery store. And we can be encouraged that there are 30 great meals we can make that won’t break the bank. It’s fun and encouraging to know this!

What ways have you found to cut back on spending at the grocery store?

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Sign up here so we can send you our
30 Days of Dollar Dinners freebies.

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Whole Chicken with Potato Wedges Recipe – $0.99/person!

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It seems like a good idea to kick off our 30 Days of Dollar Dinners series with this Whole Chicken with Potato Wedges recipe. Check out this amazing meal for just $0.99 per person!

Did you sign up for our 30 Days of Dollar Dinners series yet? We have these freebies for you, detailing how to make 30 entire meals for just $1.00 per person! Sign up here and we’ll send these to you.

One chicken makes three meals

Here’s what makes this Whole Chicken recipe so great – well besides the fact that it’s easy and tastes really good. :) Your effort to bake a chicken is going to produce three meals!

  1. Whole Chicken with Potato Wedges
  2. Parmesan Chicken and Rice
  3. Creamy Potato Soup (made with broth from the chicken bones we’ll save after de-boning this chicken)

Intentionally only serve half the meat from this baked chicken at your first meal. Save the leftover meat to make the Parmesan Chicken and Rice (recipe coming soon!). Once the meat has been removed, use the bones from this chicken to make broth like this. You’ll save that to make Creamy Potato Soup!

How much does a whole chicken cost?

You can buy a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken for $5 at Sam’s or Costco. If you want to skip the baking part of this recipe idea, buy the cooked chicken for $5, divide the meat into two portions – one for this meal and one for the Parmesan Chicken and Rice. Then, make broth with the bones. This gives you three meals from one $5 chicken, making each chicken portion cost only $1.67. AMAZING!!!

OR, if you want to follow this recipe and bake a chicken at home, a whole chicken at Walmart is around $7. Then you can season it the way you like!

Here’s the recipe:

Whole Chicken with Potato Wedges

Whole Chicken with Potato Wedges Recipe - $0.99/person!
 
Save Print
Author:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1 whole chicken with the innards removed
  • 2 Tablespoons melted butter
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • ¼ teaspoon sea salt
  • ⅛ teaspoon ground pepper
  • 3 large yukon gold potatoes
  • 2 Tablespoons olive oil
  • Sea salt
Instructions
  1. Place chicken in a 9x13 inch baking dish.
  2. Remove gizzards from the cavity. (Save them to make broth later!)
  3. Spread or brush butter over the chicken.
  4. Mix spices in a bowl, then rub them all over the chicken.
  5. Bake, uncovered, in a 300 degree oven for 2½ hours.
  6. Scrub potatoes and slice into eight wedges each.
  7. Toss them in a bowl large bowl with olive oil until they are evenly coated.
  8. Lay wedges singularly on a cookie sheet.
  9. Sprinkle with salt.
  10. Bake at 400 degrees for 35-40 minutes.

Be sure to save half the meat for our Parmesan Chicken and Rice and save the bones to make broth.

Can’t wait to share more in this 30 Days of Dollar Dinners series. We’re working hard to complete our cookbook that goes along with all the freebies, so be watching for that!

 

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

30 Days of Dollar Dinners!

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Is it possible? Can we make dinner for a dollar after all the price increases we’re seeing in grocery stores? Indeed, all the inflation has challenged me to see what I can do to win at the grocery store. I have come up with 30 Days of Dollar Dinners!

Here’s what we’re getting ready to do:

  1. First, we’re going to give you a 30-Day Dollar Dinner printable so you can see all the meals we can all make for $1/person. We’re also going to give you a complete grocery list plus several other money-saving resources. See them here and get signed up. IT’S FREE!
  2. Then, we’re going to start posting the simple recipes that go along with all the Dollar Dinner suggestions on that printable.
  3. At the end of our series, we’ll have all of our 30 Days of Dollar Dinners recipes compiled into a beautiful new eBook. We’ll offer it at a discount to everyone who sticks with us through this series. Or BETTER YET, we’ll put it into our Club Membership site so that all of our members have access to it for no additional cost.

You’re going to want to be a part of this with us!

Why? Because we want to feed our families well, and we want to see ways we can cut costs without cutting nutrition. Here’s another perk to this packet: While prices have gone up, our time for cooking each day remains the same. Our 30 Days of Dollar Dinners promises to provide you with excellent and delicious real food ideas that don’t take much time to prepare.

This is like a win-win-win-win-win.

Happy New Year!!

30 Days of Dollar Dinners

Ready to get started? First, you’ll need our printables packet. (This is all free – did I mention that?)

Amazing meals we make with $1.00!

Wow, adulting is fun, am I right?

Who is so excited about all of this right now? You know you’re a grown-up when you can’t wait to download an Inexpensive Side Dish List and a calendar that offers 30 Days of Dollar Dinners suggestions.

But for real:

Sign me up!!

Then stay tuned for the recipes we’ll be posting that go along with our 30 Days of Dollar Dinners Calendar. It’s fun, it’s inexpensive, and it’s so delicious!

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NOTE:

The above freebies are for everyone and we are so happy to share them with you! Beyond these resources, in a few weeks will be complete and offer you our brand new 30 Days of Dollar Dinners eCookbook to make creating these meals much easier from here on out. We’ll put it in our shop for purchase ($20) but we think you should do this instead:

Become a Heavenly Homemakers Club Member. You’ll get our new 30 Days of Dollar Dinners eCookbook plus thousands of dollars of other eBooks, eCurriculum, eCourses, printables, menu planning guides and much more. Get more details here and sign up here!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Ways to Use a Costco Rotisserie Chicken

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We’ve been enjoying some creative ways to use a Costco rotisserie chicken. It’s so inexpensive and delicious!

First, let’s talk about the joys of a Costco rotisserie chicken.

They cost five bucks and they taste wonderful. A rotisserie chicken is a fantastic “convenience food” worth taking advantage of when you hit Costco. Enjoy it with a simple salad and container of berries and you have an amazing meal for around $10!

My Costco chicken friend

We have a dear, precious friend who blesses us with a rotisserie chicken almost every time she goes to Costco. Why does she do this? Because she knows we have our hands full of babies and a lot of mouths to feed. This is a way she blesses our family. Not only does she pick up a chicken for us: she takes the meat off the bone and delivers it in a bag, ready for us to eat! It’s such a gift!!!

Here are some ways we enjoy this gift…

Ways to Use a Costco Rotisserie Chicken

1. Serve the chicken with salad and veggie or fruit, and you have yourself a meal.

Like this, except with rotisserie chicken. I didn’t have a current picture. :) :) :)

2. Sprinkle the chicken into a salad to turn a salad into a meal.

3. Get creative with chicken in the lunchbox.

Send the chicken in a lunchbox along with ranch dressing or barbecue sauce for dipping.

4. Make Chicken-Cheese Melts.

Put chicken on open-faced buns, drizzle ranch or another favorite sauce on the chicken, cover with cheese and broil in the oven, or put them into the air fryer to melt the cheese. These are a favorite!!!

The above picture is a look at how I built our lunch sandwiches one morning. Elias and Matt were heading to their weekly prayer lunch with friends so I made theirs to send with them on paper plates. Malachi was finishing a work project with a deadline at his computer one morning so I fixed a special plate for him. The littles and I finished the rest. :)

5. Make Alfredo and stir in some rotisserie chicken. Amazing!

6. Make Chicken Enchiladas. 

This picture isn’t too exciting, but here’s what it looked like one morning when I was building a great big pan of Creamy Enchiladas to share at Malachi’s tennis team potluck. I had rotisserie chicken in the freezer so I pulled it out and used it to put this together quickly. It was a huge hit at the potluck!

The best way to eat a Costco rotisserie chicken is simply to eat it. :) But it’s fun to have these options too when thinking about creative ways to use up chicken that’s been pulled off the bone.

Do you like to buy a rotisserie chicken at Costco or at another grocery store? What do you do with the chicken?

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How I Keep Up With the Kitchen

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Wondering how I keep up with the kitchen?

I don’t. Obviously. Keep up with the kitchen. Not even close.

Now that we have 10+ kids, including so many littles, I’m finding it harder and harder to keep up with cooking and baking needs. And then there are the dishes. This is what my kitchen looks like after just one meal:

We overload our dishwasher (eeeek) and run it twice every day.

But here’s my attempt at answering:

How I Keep Up With the Kitchen

I’m not sure any of my answers will be super helpful since I’m in a unique season of life, but this is a question I am asked frequently so I wanted to share! So here’s what works for me right now.

1. Ask for help.

When our older boys were all home, we had a rotation for who would load the dishwasher, unload it, wipe down the table, sweep the floor, and wash pots and pans. We all worked together, all day long as needed, and the kitchen chores weren’t so bad.

They’ve all launched and left now – except for Malachi who is a senior in high school and too busy most days to do much except unload the dishwasher one time. This leaves me at home with six or seven littles (depending on the day) and they are ages 8, 7, 3, 3, 2, 2, and 1. They make more messes than I can keep up with, for sure!

I have been spending time teaching our 8 and 7-year-olds how to load and unload the dishwasher and they are very proud to be counted among the “big kid helpers.” Plus they are great (ok, maybe not great) at sweeping. :) Matt helps a little, but his help mostly looks like keeping kids out from underfoot so I can get something done.

So most of the kitchen and household chores fall to me. This is why I must…

2. Hire help.

I realize this isn’t something everyone can do or needs to do. But I need it and use a portion of our foster care subsidies to cover it. With so many littles and so many (mild) special needs, I truly am not able to keep up with housework anymore.

I hire three teenage girls to come to help me with childcare and housework on Wednesday afternoons and it is life-saving! I also hire two gals to come on weekday mornings for a couple of hours. I use this time to meal-prep, go to appointments, clean my kitchen, or whatever is most pressing that day. They help with childcare but are also great at grabbing a broom or loading the dishwasher as needed when they have a free hand. I am beyond thankful for this help!

3. Take advantage of any spare five minutes you might find.

All babies and toddlers are in their chairs eating or drinking? I put ten items in the dishwasher. Children are somehow magically all playing nicely in the living room? I grab the broom. Whenever I find a minute, I use it.

4. Use paper plates, paper towels, or skip plates altogether.

I don’t like spending money on disposable products, but during this season in life, I’ve found that I need to occasionally. No guilt.

Or, I figure I’m going to need to sweep toddler messes eight times a day anyway. So I might as well skip giving them a plate and hand them a muffin directly instead. There are lots of crumbs no matter how I present their food. :)

5. Embrace the mess.

This season truly won’t last forever. There are more important needs and priorities than keeping a perfect kitchen. If I have to wash a crusty pot or a pan right before I use it again, so be it. If my kitchen always looks a bit (or a lot) messy, oh well. Maybe I’m just used to it by now, or maybe I’ve learned that a sparkly kitchen doesn’t make me a “good homemaker.”

The state of my home right now shocks me sometimes, compared to the higher standards I once had for myself. But I’m beyond thankful to be raising this amazing group of kids!

Someday, in just a few years, every one of these kiddos will be capable of cleaning every inch of our house. I’ll live in the moment while also looking forward to those days! :)

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