OS with young kids - tips & advice

Bluegreen143

A thought - re chores. One thing that can help me do upstairs is I pop Monkey (my 4yo) in the bath with a spray bottle of soapy water and a cloth. He will sit spraying and wiping for ages. I need to go over it after but it’s worth it as he will sit in there for 20 minutes and I can whizz round doing stuff in the other rooms. Not sure if that would work for your two but maybe an option? I do the same in the kitchen, give him a spray bottle and a cloth and ask him to clean the fronts of the cupboards while I then go and get other stuff done round the kitchen.

Bluegreen143

Just popping on quickly. We’ve had a lovely day with a visit from my dad and papa (dad’s dad). Dad took us all out for lunch so very MSE for me! And papa brought me a bunch of stuff from Costco like toilet roll, wipes and washing detergent bless him (he likes to bring bits when he does his Costco shop to help us out which is so kind of him). Just paid for parking today though it was over £6. Red did go and get some bits like light bulbs and bedding for the chickens though so will square up with him later.

We spent about £145 in Ikea yesterday which was budgeted for - lamps, a Kallax unit and a couple of wee bits like candles.

Bluegreen143

Need to sit down with Red & square up all our spending for the weekend - that’s our downfall, we have good plans/budgets but then forget to review them & forget how much we have already spent!

However I did make some chicken nuggets and a batch of blackberry & banana muffins last night. Nuggets were chicken blitzed up with apple, carrot and onion and breaded and turned out very nice (plus good way to get veg into the kids!) so we will have for dinner tonight.

The muffins are ok, a low sugar toddler recipe so nothing to write home about if you like giant chocolate muffins from coffee shops :rotfl: but the kids will eat them. I’ve invested time and money stocking up on easy snacks this weekend as we are weaning Bambi from the breast (probably will take over the next few weeks to totally finish) and I’m temporarily throwing loads of snacks at her every time she moans to postpone each breastfeed. Did buy some bought snacks like oaty bars and baby rice cakes which I wouldn’t normally spend money on but I think is worth it for now.

Will write up and post the four muffin recipes I have in the Ella’s kitchen cookbook in case of interest, they would be very easy to bake with a toddler too. I’ve frozen half the batch for next week.

Bluegreen143

Still need to sit down & properly log our spending so far. Red isn’t feeling well so I let him off the hook tonight... he’s bought pittas today & for some bizarre reason oven chips?! Even though I make our own and he makes a mean fried chip when we are having something special. And chips aren’t even on the mealplan this week.

The homemade chicken nuggets weren’t a success with the kids - I think Bambi is teething, she has refused to eat both lunch and dinner today. Actually in fairness Monkey did eat his nuggets, just nothing else on his plate... glad I whizzed all that veg into them!

Tonight I made 2x tubs of overnight oats (each tub will feed the kids and I breakfast for a day). One chocolate peanut butter flavour (less indulgent than it sounds) and the other blueberry vanilla. Recipes below:

OVERNIGHT OATS (feeds me & two greedy little ones alongside some fresh fruit, could do two moderate adult portions)

Mix all ingredients in a tub or jar, add flavourings and leave in the fridge overnight.

1 cup oats
1 cup milk
1/2 cup yoghurt
1-2 tbsp whizzed up seeds (very optional as I don’t often bother - can use any seed I’d imagine) or chia seeds can be left whole (they are pricey though)
1/2-1 banana mashed (depending how sweet you like it, I use a whole one)

FLAVOURINGS
Chocolate - add a tbsp or 2 of cocoa powder depending how you like it

Chocolate peanut butter - as above + a tbsp peanut butter

Blueberry vanilla - add 1/2 tsp vanilla and a cup of frozen blueberries. In the morning give a quick whizz with a hand blender to incorporate the berries

Strawberry vanilla - as above with frozen strawberries

Apple cinnamon - replace the banana in the base mix with a large grated apple and add a tsp cinnamon. It won’t be as sweet so add honey to taste

Mango - use a cup of frozen mango and whizz up a bit to incorporate in the morning

Bluegreen143

Posted before I’d finished! Also made up some French toast sticks tonight to trial freezing them for snacks. Could be a good way to use up some of the egg surplus now the chickens have started laying more again so hoping they do freeze as well as the recipe says.

Bluegreen143

One thing I’d like to do is start a simple & realistic housework routine - I’m finding that an element of being organised is key to surviving with tinies around :rotfl:

Does anyone have any routine that work for them? I tried the Organised Mum Method but it was too organised for me

I’m fairly good at my daily chores:

- keeping on top of dishes/kitchen after meals
- sweeping the kitchen floor and under the dining table
- making the beds & quickly tidying the bedrooms in the morning
- doing a proper living room & toy tidy up each evening so that it’s nice for us to sit down in

(I should add that Red and I alternate who does evening chores based on who’s bathing the kids - it’s not all on me)

I really want to start a weekly routine for the kinds of things you don’t need to do daily but I’ve yet to find the perfect one.

My latest attempt is this:

MON - washing day (start on Sunday night tbh)
TUES - upstairs (clean bathroom, hoover, put away all the clean clothes, change bedding, anything else I have time for)
WED - downstairs (clean downstairs toilet, deep clean kitchen, hoover & mop etc)
THURS - food shopping & related stuff like cleaning out fridge
FRI - catch up day or do some decluttering

In spite of having a catch up day I’m struggling to actually stick to this too. Today all I did from my job list was hoover the upstairs... there must be a better way.

buildersdaughter

Bluegreen, it isn't easy to stick to stuff like this - regard it as an outline rather than definite. I like the fact that you've scheduled in a 'catch up day'.
My own way of dealing with this was a sort of traffic light system 'MUST be done today' 'WOULD LIKE to do today' and 'IF EVERYTHING ELSE IS DONE....' (which I'm not sure ever happened!

I came on to the thread to add something that occurred to me as I was cooking for the family. My own children were what others politely call 'good eaters'! But my grandchildren rather less so, and like a lot of young children are not so fussed about meat. So when making stews of any kind (useful because you can use the slow cooker, batch cook, re-heat easily etc) I add a few sausages. My butcher does a good range, and today I am adding 'Moroccan' sausages' to a lamb tagine. They get served up to the kids, who also get the flavours from the veg and sauce. Adults get the meat (cheap cut of course, and stretched with lots of veg - we are MSE!)

Bluegreen143

Great tips Buildersdaughter. Monkey used to be the best eater - seriously the toddler equivalent of a dustbin :rotfl: but sadly since he turned 3 he’s been quite picky. Not so much as some kids & he does begrudgingly get a reasonably varied diet with all the food groups as I refuse to pander and serve him junk, but it’s a bit wearing when he was so good as a baby and toddler. Even more sadly Bambi seems quite picky from the go! Hoping as she has less milk she will become more adventurous.

Meals today:

B - chocolate peanut butter overnight oats & cherries
S - I had the other half of Bambi’s banana, which she had with milk. Monkey snacks at nursery.
L - lentil & bacon soup, bread and salad veg. Monkey has lunch at nursery but as he was home by the time we were eating I gave him a bowl of cut up veg too.
S - kids had homemade banana & berry muffins (with milk for Bambi)
D - HM cottage pie, lots of veg & lentils mixed in, topped with sweet potato/potato mash and with broc/cauli on the side. Not popular with the kids but Red & I enjoyed it

One little thing that really helps me with healthy snacks for the kids (and me too) is keeping tubs in the fridge with chopped up mixed fruit and another with salad veg (carrot, cucumber, peppers, tomatoes etc, my kids won’t eat actual leaves). That means at snacks, lunches etc I can just pull the tub out the fridge and serve alongside whatever we are having. Mealtimes with two little ones can be hectic enough so I find having little bits organised & chopped in advance really helps & makes sure we all get our 5 a day they aren’t good with cooked veg except in soups or sauces so at least if they’ve had fruit and salad through the day it makes me feel better! I also keep a couple of tins of fruit (the ones in juice) like peaches and pears for opening up quickly if there’s nothing else. Probably obvious but it took me a while to sort out this system!

I do bake for the freezer for the kids’ snacks and also keep a big sealed tub in the cupboard with breadsticks, oatcakes and crackers in for serving with cheese or hummus and again it just means there is something filling and easy in and we are avoiding eating cake all the time we almost always have cheese, yoghurt and peanut butter in, and I make hummus each week, so that’s how we make sure we’re organised for snacks round here, saves money on crisps and bars etc and is healthier too.

Bluegreen143

Ooooh forgot to mention too, buying some ice lolly moulds is a godsend as I can whizz up fruit, sometimes with yoghurt, and freeze and they both love that for snack or for after their dinner.

cupcss99

Don't be so hard on your self lovey, no person can function properly with small individuals who don't sleep to cope with 24/7 and till they do start to form a routine you simply should do what you can and survive it! We've got all been there and felt precisely the identical 'Oh my phrase, life need to be higher than this!' emotions. Do the fine you may with the time you 'do' have and do not attempt for an ideal domestic, comfort meals is made for just such instances as those and thank goodness for itoo[/URL]. You might not continually be worn-out out and demoralised however you can't be superwoman both, now not simply yet, possibly it'll show up in the future but there will come an afternoon when you suppose' nicely this is a chunk more like it' and discover that mojo again.