Let's Talk Chores

I feel like my daily life is nothing short of a three-ring circus....literally. 

My husband is all about nutrition, us eating healthy, and getting his exercise in. The kids are all about sports, friends, and themselves. Little man is all about moving around in a circular motion causing non-stop destruction. Me- I am super happy if I go to the bathroom by myself. 

Goals, right?! 

The hubs spoke with me about giving the girls allowance....I am not keen on 'giving' them allowance for being cute. So we compromised on giving them the opportunity of earning money each week. I wanted to come up with little things that were a pain in my butt and things that could easily be done by the girls. My new chore chart will be a work in progress for sure. 

My husband wanted the girls to get about $10 a week each. I played with the amount on these chores to make that amount at the end of the week. Each kid initials the chore once it is done. Sundays are pay days for our family.....mainly because we grocery shop then and I can grab cash! 

The first week one kid earned $11 and the other earned $1.50. Welcome to life kiddos! You don't work, you don't get paid! 

Week 2 of this chart is a little more balanced.  The kid that wants the AirPods is doing the most work.....and I am ok with that! I hope that after working for these things for weeks on end, that she won't lose them. 

I would love to hear some more chore suggestions for kids that are 9-10 years old! 

Can I tell you how nice it is to walk in to the dishes put away....without having to ask, beg or do it myself?!!!!

Life with Kids....Stain Removal

I spend a lot of time...and money on clothes for these dang kids. The amount of laundry around here is endless and the cycle never ends. My girls have always been super amazing about bringing something to me and telling me they had a spill or whatever, so I could 'fix' it. The little man has no mercy on clothes. Everything he wears looks like it has been put into a blender with chocolate and spaghetti sauce. Seriously....

I only do laundry on the weekends, so I usually find this mess on Saturday or Sunday. It has sat on the clothes for days at this point. What is my magic trick to 'fix' this madness? 

A neighbor (thanks Kate!) told me about this magic bar about 5-6 years ago. It has proved to be a lifesaver more than once! I have bought countless bottles of spray stain remover, but this stuff is ahhmazing! It used to be less than a buck when I started buying it....dang inflation! A bar of this will last you a year! 

I throw the clothes on the counter and wet the bar of soap with water. Then I give whatever stain a good scrub with the bar. Next stop is the washer....or sometimes the laundry basket for another day! Either way - this stuff is magical! 

Here is the shirt post wash and dry....just like new again! 

I have used Fels Naptha on Matilda Jane for years, but these boy clothes really put it to the test! The girls are just starting softball, so I'm sure it will get a lot more love this season! 

Healthy-ish Eating with Shrimp and Sausage Pasta

Once upon a time, I was following the Trim Healthy Mama lifestyle/diet. Today, I do my best to cook the most fresh, unprocessed food for my family. I don't necessarily focus on cutting carbs or keto lifestyle...I just focus on making better choices. This recipe happens to be the most requested dish in our house...by none other, than my kids! This is the original recipe that I used, Mrs. Criddle's Kitchen. 

We have made a few adaptations to work for our family along the way. I do try to buy organic when available.....but we grab whatever is available! 

INGREDIENTS: 

2 packs turkey sausage

1 lb. of small shrimp 

1 cup grape tomatoes

1-5oz pack of baby spinach

1 pack portobello mushrooms

1 red bell pepper

Dreamfields Penne Pasta

1-8oz pack Parmesan Cheese

6 cloves of garlic

1/4-1/2 cup heavy cream

half a stick of butter

The first step is prepping all of the food. We go into teams for this in our kitchen! I have one kid that cuts the grape tomatoes (cut in half) and bell pepper (diced), while I cut the sausage. The other kid pulls the tails off the shrimp. This usually takes us about 10 minutes to knock everything out and we are ready to cook. 

I start the pasta first. I use Dreamfields because of the carb friendly-ness of it. I brown the sausage in one pan by itself while I prepare the shrimp in another pan. I run my 6 cloves of garlic through my press into a new skillet with the melting butter. 

Once it is all melted and smelling amazing, I throw the shrimp in and saute' it. As the shrimp finishes, I start throwing in my spinach a handful at a time. It looks like a ton until it cooks down. 

Now that the spinach isn't taking up the whole pan, I throw in the bell pepper, mushrooms, and tomatoes. 

You can now throw all of your browned turkey sausages in the pan too. Next, you put in the heavy cream and one cup of the parmesan cheese. I let this simmer for about 5-10 minutes...depending on what havoc is breaking loose in my kitchen at the moment! 

You serve this on top of the penne....and top with remaining parmesan. This recipe serves our family of 5, with plenty of leftovers for lunch the next day. I hate to admit, but it is even better the second day! 

From start to finish, this recipe never takes us more than 20-25 minutes. This is one of the many reasons I love it! I don't have time to spend 20 minutes prepping food and then another 30 cooking. 

All three of my kids love this! Did I mention that I managed to trick them into eating like 3-4 veggies?! 

I hope you enjoy one of our family faves! 

Welcome to my Crazy Life!

Many people have asked me why the switch from MultitaskMommy to Tres' Chaos...so here is the reason to my madness. I let the MM blog/website lapse back in 2015 when I realized it wasn't a priority. This summer Lance bought me a book called Business Boutique by Christy Wright (a Dave Ramsey employee). It really inspired me to move in a direction that I am passionate about. 

I have always loved creating/crafting, but making money while doing something you love is a whole different ball game! My friend and I started looking into reviving my old blog and webpage only to find out that it would be close to $1000 to buy it back. That just didn't seem fair for something that I built myself! It took me a couple of days to come up with an alternative name for my madness and the more I thought about it, Tres' Chaos was the one that stuck! We were lucky to find out that I could get the domain name, emails, and social media pages too! I ended up drawing the logo on a scrap piece of paper - thus avoiding any graphic and font licensing. 

I have big plans for this space! I hope to share some of my thriftiness, healthy-ish eating recipes, crafting ideas, teacher madness, parenting fun, and maybe even a few of my absolute favorite things! The shop portion of this page will be up and running soon - we have a few things to square up to make Uncle Sam happy. Feel free to poke around and tell me what you think! Make sure you follow the blog to see all of the latest posts!