I often have difficultly planning meals.  I seem to go back to the same old recipes when I really want to try something new.  Fortunately, I have come across four great sites that offer meal plans (and one site where you can print a blank meal planning sheet) to help me with ideas.   If you need help organizing and planning meals, these sites will help you with the task.

• Organizing Junkie tells us her menu plan every Monday as part of Menu Plan Monday.  Stop by every Monday to get some ideas for meals for the week.  You can also look at her previous Menu Plan Monday posts for even more ideas.
• This Week for Dinner also provides a weekly meal plan.  The best part is that others leave comments with their meal plans as well, giving you plenty of choices to create your own meal plan for the week.
• E-mealz is a subscription service that I have used.  There are many different menu options to choose from (such as low-fat, low-carb, gluten free) and you can even choose the store that you shop from.  The menus come with recipes for every day of the week and a shopping list.  The plan is very affordable at about $5.00/month depending on the plan.
• Another subscription based service is Menu4Moms.com.  These menus include full-color photographs and plans for leftovers.  You can get a trial for only one penny for two weeks.  If you decide to continue the price is $7.95/month. Every week you will receive a new menu with recipes and grocery list in a PDF file.

You can print a  free printable Weekly Meal Planner sheet from Organized Home.  Organized Home offer tons of great free printables to help you with home organization.

Now that the new year has started, are you looking for new ways to keep your home organized? I know that I am trying to keep things better organized and one way that I do that is instituting a Chore Chart for my kids. GoalForIt.com is a great place to create these Chore Charts. You can create a chore chart for younger children and a different one for tweens and teens. It is easy to create, simply choose the chart you want and then add the chores. Each chore can be awarded points for completion, plus you can choose which days you want the chores finished by. You can also add rewards. As each job is finished, the child earns points (you decided how many points for each job) and as the points add up they can cash them in for rewards. For instance, I set up a reward of a movie at 500 points. When my child reaches that level in chores, then he can choose the movie of his choice.

The best thing for me about this program is that you can choose to let the child see their chart online or you can print off the chart! I love having the option of printing the chart and then completing the online chart at the end of the week. You could sit down with each child, input their progress into the computer, and watch their points add up. This is a great program for Cub Scouts who have to complete the Wolf Requirement of keeping a chart of healthy habits for two weeks.

GoalForIt.com also offers goal setting charts, behavior charts and to do lists.

I don’t know how many different times I have created a job chart, jar, bucket, etc. for my children. I always start out strong, but then I end up dumping the system because it is not exactly what I wanted. I have always had the mind set that kids and responsibility are two words that go together well and teaching them how to manage homework, chores and fun is my responsibility as a parent.

Since kids online are also two words that go together at my house, I was thrilled to find an online job chart that is FREE! My Job Chart is an easy way for parents to assign chores to their children from an online interface. After signing up for My Job Chart, you can create a profile for each of your children. Then you are ready to assign jobs. There is a list of jobs you can choose from or you can create your own. You can also decide if the job needs to be done in the AM, PM or AM and PM and what days of the week the job needs to be done.

Each job is assigned a point value. As your child finishes his chores, he get points. You decide when the total amount of points is worth a reward. There are different rewards to choose from. Family Rewards include such things as Dad Time, Computer Time, Ice Cream Cone or Gas Card (great for your driving teen!). Retail Rewards lets you choose items from Amazon.com for your child. You can also make your own Custom Rewards.

A Job Summary is provided for each child as well. This is easy to printout and serves as a reminder to your child which jobs need to be completed for the week. As your child completes their chore chart, they can login to their account and check them off. They will see their reward points add up and know that they are working toward something that they want.

I have started to set up my three kids for this system. It is so easy to use and navigate. I am certain that this will be a great system for us to use in our house to become more organized and responsible!

Watch this introduction to My Job Chart to see how you can get this program started in your home:

This is a sponsored post and I received compensation for this post. All opinions are 100% my own.

We live in a digital world. We have so many digital files and yet we sometimes don’t think about how to protect those files. Digital pictures, documents, videos and music are just a few of the digital files that we deal with on a daily basis.

Trend Micro™ SafeSync is an online service that allows you to store your files in a safe place that you can access anywhere. You can also choose to share you files with your friends, family and c0-workers Your files are securely and automatically backed up within moments of saving them. connects these two aspects of your life, enabling you to store your files in a safe place you can access from anywhere. You can access your files from a web-enabled device such as a desktop computer, laptop, iPad, iPhone or Android device.

You can even post to your Facebook, Twitter or on you blog. You information is secure due to the included virus scanning and file transfer encryption services built into the software.

I recently install Trend Micro™ SafeSync on my laptop computer. It didn’t take very long for the software to back up my files. I was able to share photos on Facebook right from a web interface on my desktop computer. I was also able to easily transfer files from my laptop and desktop! This is truly a convenient piece of software. Now I don’t have to worry about all my files getting lost if something happens to my computer! Truly worth the investment.

I am a BzzAgent and received a copy of the product to review. All opinions are my own. I really did love the SafeSync!

I volunteer for a number of organizations. This past year I was involved in my older daughter’s soccer and basketball parent organizations and I also volunteer for PTO events at the elementary school. Next year, I will be the President of the high school girl’s basketball parents association, so I am looking for ways that will make it easier for parents to volunteer. Here are five things that I think would make volunteering easier.

1. Assign Specific Tasks. I found that I get more volunteers when they now exactly what they are volunteering for! Asking for volunteers without letting them know the tasks involved seems to garner a lower volunteer rate.
2. Be Organized! Not only be organized, but make it look nice. When you pass around sign up sheets, type them up neatly and include all relevant information. Jooners.com has some great online signup sheets.
3. Reminders. Everyone forgets occasionally. Send email reminders frequently.
4. Have a Back Up Plan. There will always be times when someone has to cancel. Ask for volunteers for an emergency committee. Don’t make any one feel bad if they have to cancel.
5. Be nice. I hate volunteering and then finding out that the organizers treat you like bad employees. I am giving up my time to help, please treat me with respect.

If you are lucky enough to have volunteers that all have email addresses and are willing to use an online tool, I would highly recommend Jooners.com. It is a great site to keep track of volunteers and tasks.

This post is part of a blogging contest from the TwitterMoms community. There is a chance this post could be randomly selected to win a $50 Amazon gift card, so wish me luck! For more details, you can view the contest page here.

As I try to get organized this month, I found that Avery is offering a free sample of their Avery Label Pads. These are self-adhesive file folder-sized labels which are stacked conveniently in a pad—just write, peel and stick.

These work great for file folders and other items that use labels. I love to use them for my kids toys!

If you are planning on throwing a holiday party this year, or becoming more organized for the holidays, you might want to try the Christmas Countdown offered by Organized Christmas. The program starts on Sunday, October 26th and is a free six week program to help your organize preparations including holiday invitations, gifts and giving, baking and cooking and decorating!

Use this link to start the process of becoming more organized this Holiday Season!

Well, it has been almost two months since the New Year – how are you doing on your New Year’s Resolutions? I did put in a new filing system that I love. It comes with pre-printed tabs for your folders and makes it easy to organize your files. I haven’t done much on the weight loss goal, but have returned to the gym and researched top rated weight loss pills.

Another thing I want to do is save more money when I grocery shop. I have been searching the internet for coupon sites and have found a few good ones. I will post some reviews shortly!

Need help with Holiday Scheduling? I just subscribed to a free e-book course called Holiday Countdown that gives you weekly hints on how to prepare for the upcoming holidays. The course started October 1st, but you can still sign up. It is offered by The Household Helper and includes:

Shopping tips and coupon codes
Decorating tips
Snacks and meal ideas
Party planning tips

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