My Raisin Family

Hey Everyone! As a busy mum with kiddos who have after school activities most of the week, planning and prepping meals is a big part of my week.  At this point, my son has futsal games on Monday and Tuesday late afternoon, and futsal training on Monday and Wednesday straight after school. Speech therapy is also straight after school on Tuesdays.  My youngest daughter also has gymnastics straight after school on Wednesday and Friday. So making sure I have meals prepped (for the most part at least) is really important for us to keep to our routines. Here are some tips I have picked up in my journey of feeding my family on a budget! Tip #1: Pre-cook your mince, chicken breast etc. We eat a few meals that use mince as the base (tacos, spag bol, savoury mince etc) and in order to make the most of my time in the kitchen, throwing a couple of kilos of mince in the pan or putting some chicken breast in the slow cooker takes little effort. Freeze in ziplock freezer b...

Hey Guys! When it comes to storing and sorting the kid's school uniforms, it seems we have FINALLY found what works for us! For those who don't know, we have 4 kiddos and my mum works at the kid's school as well, so her uniforms are also stored with the kid's uniforms.  Right next to my desk in the kid's playroom (pretty much only has Lego in it at the moment) we have a clothes rack. The only things that get put on the rack is school uniforms, shoes, the hair box (this keeps all the brushes, hair ties, head bands, etc. together in one place) and school socks.  So here is an overview of what the uniform rack looks like and then I will talk about the sections. We'll talk about hanging the uniforms first! Each person has their own colour coat hanger to make it easier for them to recognise which uniforms are theirs.  BB has pink. Knox has blue. TJ has purple. Liss has white.  Mum has black.  Yes, they are all mixed up at ...

Hey guys!  It's been a while so I thought I would give Meal Plan Monday another go! This time I will go through breakfasts, snacks and lunches and why we meal plan this way now. So here it is! Here is this week's meal plan (check out  Large Family Table  to find the meal planner). I don't have Morning Tea on there because it is ALWAYS fruit and everyone knows to choose a piece of fruit.  I also have for most lunches Make Your Own Sandwich. I don't make the kid's lunches, they do. There is always a variety of fillings/spreads available and quite frankly, I am not a slave. I have a LOT of other things to be doing at that time so they (with supervision) make it themselves. It also works better for them to make it, so that they take ownership and eat what they put in their lunch boxes.  It is not quite summer here (where I am we have about 3 weeks of "winter" and the rest of the year is just hot and muggy), so afternoon tea consists ...

Hey Guys! I have had my large size personal planner for a few years now and I LOVE it! The layout I have used changes a fair bit, but I have found a system that seems to be working for me and my family.  The inserts in this are the refills you get from Kikki K which, for me is so much easier than downloading, printing or getting some delivered from Etsy. They are just the standard weekly spread which comes with cute little decor on some pages. I like these because I can do just about anything with them. In the past I have ruled a line down one side of the section for each day and used that for tasks, meals, etc. Now I use the top line of each day to write down the dinner we are having that day. The rest of the daily section is used for general things that are happening that day and maybe a sticker or two. These stickers kits I found at Spotlight and they are gorgeous! I love the rose and teal stickers and these kits come with over 1500 stickers, so they should last ...

Hey Guys! Here is our way of getting the kiddos to help around the house! First off, this does not happen the way I would like all the time. We all have times where it is really hard getting your kids to get involved in the house hold jobs and to be completely honest, I have been having a few weeks of this not working. The kids are about to finish off school holidays so things have been different. To start with, I divided the house into 5 different zones as I have 5 kiddos able to help with the responsibilities. These are: Zone 1: Lounge room Zone 2: Play room Zone 3: Kitchen Zone 4: Dining room Zone 5: Bathroom Each of the kids are assigned one zone and are working in that zone for a week. The jobs within the zone are different for every developmental stage and changes with whatever needs to be done at that point in that zone. Jobs for zone 1 may include: general tidy, vacuum rug, sweep floor, clean the coffee table and dust the shelves. Zone 2 jobs are: pac...

Hey Guys! I have heard of a lot of vloggers that do this Monthly Favourites video, so I thought I would do a bloggers version! I will show you my favourite items in the areas of: Organisation, Kids, Books, YouTube creators, In the Kitchen, and more! Let's get right into it, shall we? I have been loving cooking in my Thermomix this month and one website I have been loving is  The Road To Loving My Thermo Mixer . I have gotten so many recipes for lunch box snacks, dinners, soaps and more from this website for a long time. The recipes are quick and easy and are a simple and healthier version of the store-brought varieties. The kids love most of the recipes I have made and even help out with them! The winner in the Organisation category are these pantry containers! I LOVE these! I keep this one filled with snacks for school lunches and it is so easy for the kids to pull out of the pantry to grab one snack from the front two bins when they make their lunches (We ...

Hi Everyone! And welcome to our blog!  Today I am going to share about our large family laundry system. Doing laundry is one of those evil necessities that I have had a love/hate relationship with for a long time. I have never really been able to stick to any sort of schedule so it always built up until there was a huge pile of washing to be done. Then one day something changed. I was able to get to the bottom of Mount Washmore and after that I was actually able to do one or two loads every day. I really don't like going outside to put the washing on the line, however the clothes turn out nicer when they have had time out in the sun. I do have a dryer and I was one of those people that said they would only use it when it was raining, etc. but yeah... I use it most of the time.  So here are the catagories I sort my washing into. School Uniforms Towels, kitchen cloths and face washers Sheets Regular Clothes Just a note: I never sort clothes into lights...