Posts Taged holidays

10 Quick Ways to Make Your Kitchen Holiday Ready

Holiday Kitchen

During the holidays we use our kitchen more than any other time of the year. We will bake cookies. We will host family and friends for dinner. Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s Eve give us plenty of opportunities to use all our dishes, kitchen gadgets, cookbooks, appliances, and panty items. This makes it a perfect time to make decisions about what kitchen items are still relevant, needed and useful.

  1. Check your pantry supplies. Use website stilltasty.com to determine whether your spices or other pantry staples need to be replaced. Make a list of staples you need to replace.
  2. Will you use fine china for special dinners this holiday season? Many don’t.
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Get Help for the Holidays: Outsource, Delegate, Simplify!

Holidays

The taste of Halloween candy is still fresh on your lips, but you’ve already begun feeling the stress of the upcoming holidays. The next two months will be a whirlwind of shopping, planning, hosting, traveling, and celebrating, all on top of your already frenetic life. This should be a joyful time of year, but with all that is on your to-do list, it feels overwhelming. Instead of hiding under your covers until January, tackle the holidays with this three-prong strategy: Outsource, Delegate and Simplify.

You deserve help – who says you need to tackle the entire holiday season by yourself?

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Planning and Budgeting for the Remainder of 2016

planning and budgeting

As we wind down summer, we are thinking about back to school. We also need to be planning and budgeting for the next four months. Here are some things to plan for now, so that you feel on top of things later.

 

Back to School Planning and Budgeting

  • Purchase back to school supplies:
    • Inventory what you already have in your home before you go shopping.
    • Print school supply list to take with you while shopping.
    • After shopping put all the new supplies together in one spot; like in a new backpack.
    • Take kids with you to shop for clothes and shoes. This will prevent having to return clothes and shoes that don’t fit.
    • Resist buying more that you need.
    • Don’t stress if you can’t find it all. Students don’t need everything day one.
  • This is a great time to inventory your child’s clothing and purge outgrown or worn out items.  Purchase new school clothes or school uniforms and shoes. Do fall sports shoes fit? Is there a PE uniform that needs to be purchased?
  • Schedule any overdue medical, vision or dental exams for your children.
  • Complete any school medical forms.
  • Budget for beginning of school year PTA, school and sports fees.
  • If you are planning on applying to private schools for the 2017-2018 school year:
    • Research potential schools.
    • Sign up for informational meetings and open houses.
    • Research test preparation courses.
    • Register for entrance tests.
    • Begin contacting teachers for letters of recommendation.
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