My Raisin Family

 Hey Everyone! Yesterday I posted a declutter challenge both here and on the old IG, and today I have completed my task for the day! As I homeschool our youngest daughter, we have one of those rolling carts with the drawers and it gets VERY cluttered on top. So I spent 10 minutes clearing down the top. It isn't perfect, but it holds all of the stationary we need during the homeschool day. Decluttering the drawers are being saved for another day... I kind of spaced a bit and forgot to take a Before photo so here is a pic of the During stage: I use a lot of glue sticks, however, I had no idea I had so many... I think I found at least 4! And in the back compartment, there were so many old whiteboard markers and pencils that just got lost among all the bigger stuff in there.  So here is the final product: Like I said, not perfect, but at least we can find everything we need quickly. How are you going with the challenge? Thanks for reading!  J xxx

Hey Everyone! Some may know that about a year and a half ago, we moved our family of 7 into a much smaller house. A lot of decluttering happened at that point, and then again at the beginning of this year we cleaned out the garage which had been choc full of boxes. This was only meant to be a temporary house while we looked for a bigger house that suits our needs more. This has not happened and we are pretty happy with where we are now.  However, once again we have found ourselves dealing with a bunch of clutter. I don't exactly feel like my best self when there is a lot of clutter around me which makes it hard to keep things clean and tidy.  So here is my idea: Decluttering one area every weekday and posting it on here, not only to keep me accountable, but also for you to follow along at home! I don't particularly want to have a set area to delutter every day as this will not go well with my ADHD, so the plan is to pick one SMALL area per day. This could be one drawer in the ...

Hey Everyone! As some people may know, our youngest daughter has been diagnosed with something called PANDAS syndrome. This means that in order to help her with some of the issues stemming from this syndrome, she has had to eliminate Gluten from her diet. It has taken a lot of trial and error to try and find some gluten free things she likes, but here are some of her favourites to pack in her lunch box for school! 1. Popcorn. We try to just make the air popped popcorn in the mornings, that way it is fresh for the day. But sometimes it is well worth the $3 for the Woolies homebrand popcorn that comes in packets. They also have the sweet and salty flavour that is always a hit in our house. 2. Mini pancake muffin bites. These are super easy to make and don't take long. Our daughter loves the Coles home brand I'm Free From Gluten range, so we just buy the pancake shaker bottle in that brand and pour them into a mini muffin pan. We add things like blueberries, chocolate chips etc to...

Hey Everyone! We have had a pretty rough start to the year so now here I am, getting back into everything including meal planning! This week I am doing things a little differently and planning out my kiddo's lunches as well. This just helps me know what it is they want to eat (I get them to give me some hints as to what they want and include them as well) as well as what I will be making (I much rather make snacks than buy them). So we will start off with dinners for the week of  Monday 16th until Sunday 22nd of March. And here is this weeks school lunches! Keep in mind that I do pack fresh fruit and some other kind of snack (what snack it is depends on the kids choice that morning) in their lunch boxes as well.  I am always looking for suggestions for lunch box fillers so if you have any, please leave it in the comments! Thanks for reading! Jacqui xxx

Hey Guys! Wow! Have we had a massive December or what?! This December for us as a family has been huge! Early December saw us taking a fantastic and much needed holiday to visit family for a couple of weeks, so that is our number 1 favourite of December! The kids and us had a blast going to theme parks, taking a ride on my brother's boat on the river, the beach was amazing and generally just hanging out and spending time with family we don't get to see very often. December favourite number 2 was our doTerra Touch rollers. We took the kids kit on holidays with us and I just put some others in with it that we use regularly. Here are the rollers we took: Lavender touch (great for mozzie bites and sleeping babes) Peppermint touch (headaches don't stand a chance) Tea Tree touch (in case of sickness) Adaptiv touch (anxiety sucks, this makes me feel better) Tamer (kids line - helps with tummy issues) Calmer (my niece loved putting this on her feet at be...

Hey Guys! So Christmas is the day after tomorrow (as I am writing this), so this post is all about what we got the kids for Christmas! Our kids are 14, 13, 11 and 9 so they are not interested in toys as such. We also just came back from a 2 week holiday so that was the main family present. So we only got the kids 2 gifts each from us. They do get more from grandparents and friends so I don't feel bad for not getting them a lot of things. I'll start with a family gift. We wanted to get something that will get not only the kids outside playing, but us parents as well. So this set was perfect! 8 in 1 sports set Lyss's gifts include a new phone and a bullet journal with a couple of pens that were recommended. She has not been having a great time with her current phone (her Dad's old one) so we decided to spend up and get her a decent new phone. This Oppo AX5S is the one we chose because it ticked all the boxes and the price was pretty good. It is a...