Crazy Week...

This week I decided to try to get organized...a recipe for disaster! Seriously, I know that you all know people who are organized, and have things all together, and their house runs smoothly, and their kids all have jobs, and it's like living with June Cleaver--let's just say that I'm about as far from having June Cleaver as a mother as you can get! (Do you remember Roseanne? I'm probably closer to her...sad huh?) First of all, a few weeks ago I let my cleaning ladies go. I have had them helping me off and on for a few years now, and they were seriously my favorite people in the world--I might have even loved them more than my own children...no, seriously. They did the jobs that I did NOT want to do--especially TOILETS, UGH. And they never complained, or whined like my children do when I need their help. Lately, though, I've come to the realization that I am not having my children help enough around the house, and I need to teach them to work more, and do less for them. Plus, we are trying to cut some spending & save our money not knowing how this new business will go (scary...starting over...). This is hard for me--I am a control freak. If something isn't done right--I will do it over, and they know that. Half the time they do it wrong on purpose, or do a crappy job, just so I will do it for them. I see this all the time with the older kids, and it's driving me crazy. The other thing is how they will just leave things EVERYWHERE...like I find one kids shirt on the counter by the sink, shoes right by the refrigerator door, and yesterday Emie seriously pulled a pair of Josh's underwear out of the drawer we keep the towels in in the kitchen. SERIOUSLY?? They were clean ones, but still. My kids just leave things wherever they want. Yesterday I put the following note on a chalkboard in my kitchen:
Dear family,
Clean up after yourselves, I am NOT your maid.
Love,
Mom
Today, I came home to this note, written by Erin:

Charming, huh? Our maids??? Little ingrate...
So as if that wasn't enough, I have also been slacking on dinner over here. Dinner is always insane at this house. We're running to games, or mutual, or pack meeting, or wherever, and it's always like 5:00 before I start thinking about dinner. By then it's always easier, and sometimes cheaper (ummm...Sonic 1.49 Wacky Pack Wed.) to just go buy something. So I decided that this week I'd put some freezer meals together, and at least have some dinners to eat the next few weeks. I always forget how CRAZY cooking day is when you want to finish 30 dinners--you'd think I would remember, since I blogged about it HERE (notice how this was almost exactly a year ago...funny!), but somehow, I always just remember the convenience of HAVING the dinners, and forget about the CHAOS that ensues when I'm cooking them. I picked 5 chicken, 5 beef, and 5 pork dinners, and doubled them to make 30 meals. It did take some time on Tuesday shopping and preparing, and 10 hours to actually finish them on Wednesday--since I was distracted like 30 different times, but they are DONE! Aren't they pretty? Okay, they might look gross to you--but these were a labor of LOVE! YAY!



Here's what I made:
Crockpot Enchiladas, Italian Meatloaf, Sloppy Joes, Delicious Pot Roast, Beef Stroganoff, Baked Chicken Dijon, Cashew Chicken, Ziploc Chicken, Chicken Pot Pie, Chicken Noodle Soup, Asian Pork Roast, Teriyaki Pork Chops, Citrus Herb Pork Loin, Crock Pot Pork Chops.
Then I just rotate through them so we mix it up each week. We really use only about 5 meals a week, so they will last for 5-6 weeks. That was worth the work. Now if only I could be more organized and do this more than 2-3 times a year! I have had people ask for recipies, so you can find some of them by clicking HERE, or HERE, or HERE--and I will post some more recipies tomorrow--but tonight I am TIRED! We are still getting up at 5 a.m.--and I am so exhausted--but I am getting STRONG! I can even do 1 pull up--that's right 1! Hey, that's more than I could do 6 weeks ago! This gym is kicking our butt--the workout Wed. was 100 pull-ups, 100 push-ups, 100 sit ups, 100 squats. You had to finish one before moving on to another. Oh, man! I have never been so sore in my life--OUCH! Maybe if I was going to bed earlier and not blogging at 11:48 it would be easier to get my big butt out of bed in the morning! Another day...blah.