Welcome to the MOMS Club® of Gainesville, Georgia!
We have compiled a collection of 299 tried and true Mom-Friendly and Kid-Friendly recipes. The cookbooks are just $15 each. 100% of the proceeds from the cookbook sales will go to benefit Gainesville's local Interactive Neighborhood for Kids (INK). For more information on INK visit its website at
And now for some of our Most Inspired Ideas
Menu Planning. A menu plan saves money, because it cuts out desperation trips to the supermarket, and it also saves time. No dash to the neighbors for a missing ingredient, no frantic searches through the freezer for something, anything to thaw for dinner. Most important, a menu plan conserves a home manager's most valuable resource: energy.
Save your weekly menu plans, tuck them away in a file folder, and use them week after week. Don’t forget to take your family’s schedule into consideration. Make a crock-pot meal on busy days and have a leftover night to clean out the fridge right before trash pick-up.
More on Menu Planning
A menu plan saves money, because it cuts out desperation trips to the supermarket. A menu plan saves time. No dash to the neighbors for a missing ingredient, no frantic searches through the freezer for something, anything to thaw for dinner. Most important, a menu plan conserves a home manager's most valuable resource: energy.
The goal is two-fold: shop efficiently to obtain food required for seven dinner meals, while minimizing expenditure, cooking, shopping and cleaning time.
Here's the overview of the process:
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Scan the food ads for specials and sales. Rough out a draft menu plan: seven dinner entrees that can be made from weekly specials, side dishes and salads.
•Wander to pantry and refrigerator to check for any of last week's purchases that are languishing beneath wilting lettuce or hardening tortillas. Check for draft recipe ingredients. Review your shopping list and note needed items.
•Ready, set, shop--but shop with an open mind. That 59-cent fryer won't look like such a bargain next to a marked-down mega-pack of boneless chicken breasts at 89 cents a pound. Be ready to substitute if you find a great deal.
•Return from shopping. As you put away groceries, flesh out the menu plan. Match it up with the family's calendar, saving the oven roast for a lazy Sunday afternoon, the quick-fix pizza for soccer night.
•Post the menu plan on the refrigerator door. Refer to it during the coming week as you prepare meals.
After you've made menu plans for a few weeks, recycle them! Tuck them away in a file folder or envelope.
TIP: Construct your grocery list according to the order you shop the store. You'll speed your way out the door in record time!
Happy (easy!) menu planning!
How to plan a week of meals:
Grocery Shopping. Construct a grocery list based on the aisles of the grocery store where you shop the most. Not only will you speed your way out the door in record time, but you are less apt to forget to add something to your list!
The Bread truck comes several times a week. How do you know which bread is the freshest? Look at the color of the twist tie. Each day they deliver has a different color tie, and it goes alphabetical. Blue, Green, Orange, White.
Organizing. When trying to find some order in the chaos of your life, homes, and schedule, don’t re-invent the wheel. There are excellent websites that give you expert tips on how to clean and de-clutter your home (www.flylady.com, www.organizedhome.com, www.lifeorganizers.com), how to always be prepared for Christmas
MOMS Club of Gainesville has our very own organizational expert, and here are a few of Kim Smith’s (stayorganized@bellsouth.net) best tips:
Items to Return. If you have a coat closet near the door you exit, use the top shelf to place items that need to be returned or given to others (i.e., the scarf Grandma left at the house, the school photos that need to be given to the aunts, the book your friend loaned you that you've completed, a belated birthday gift). Each time you leave to visit family and friends, check this shelf.
Everything has a Place. Spend an afternoon finding a "home" for everything you own. Make it a daily routine of the entire family to return things to their home.
New Purchases. After purchasing a new item, decide on the way home where this item will permanently be "housed" and always return it to this place.
Simple is Better. Simplify your organization to only what you can maintain in the busiest months. Think about the things that overwhelm you, and simplify. If you insist on alphabetizing your cans but get frustrated because you can't keep it up, only separate by category (fruit, vegetable, side dish, etc.) or be content to separate your cans from your boxed groceries. If your mail is piling up, immediately toss out junk as you bring it in the door. Place bills in a "to be paid" bin. I have a friend that organizes her medicine cabinet by type, but I am content that all my medicine makes it into one cabinet.
Monthly Bills. If filing the paid monthly bills never gets done, and you have piles of paper on your desk, then maybe your system is too complicated. Do not separate the bills by payee, dump all the monthly bills in a file labeled with that month and year. All you need are 12 file folders, and you are set. Any receipts or bills that you need to keep for that month all get lumped together.
Laundry. If your laundry is what's piling up, do not remove a load from the dryer until you have time to fold and put away that load. Laundry should only be (1) put away (2) in the dirty clothesbasket (3) or in the washer/dryer. You may occasionally have a "to be ironed" stack.
Keeping Artwork. Face facts, you cannot save everything your child brings home or creates. Try scanning the artwork or taking a digital picture, and then create a CD for each school year.
Save some of the artwork in a file folder, and whenever you need a birthday card or want to send a “get well” card, etc., just pull out one of the masterpieces, and use it to create the card. What a great way to use the art and save money!
Another mom suggests that you save the artwork in a scrapbook, and let the child help.
And yet another idea is to get an extra-large (clean) pizza box. Use the box to store your favorite papers. These boxes stack easily and take up little room.
Cleaning. Let your child “help” you clean. Give them a baby wipe or paper towel and fill a spray bottle with nothing but water. They will have a blast cleaning the sink or tub while you clean the mirrors and toilet. Use Dawn Detergent before you wash, especially on grease stains. Use OxyClean on carpet stains and OxyClean Laundry Stain Remover to clean chair cushions. Use Shaving Cream on Carpet Stains. Also try peroxide.
Exercise. Do not let your kids be an excuse not to exercise. MOMS Club moms have admitted to dancing with their child for thirty minutes a day. Others do squats while unloading the dishes and leg-lifts while folding laundry. Another tip is to use your infant as your weight and keep exercising and moving.
Sand. After your child plays in the sandbox, he or she inevitably want to run in the house tracking sand left on their feet and hands. Keep a bottle of baby powder at the door, and sprinkle some on their hands, rub them together, and poof, the sand is gone!
Healthy Snacking. When you open the Fridge, what do you see? Put all the “healthy snacks” within view and easy reach. Store the not-so-healthy things out of site in the drawers.
Please be advised that neither the International MOMS Club® nor this chapter endorse any advertised service or product. The name MOMS Club®, logo, and slogan 'Moms Offering Moms Support' are registered and used with permission.
