Tips for Handling Home, Family and Nursing School

Jen2 · Jun 3, 2003

Just wanted to say first Good Luck. Recently I have been fortunate enough to move back home. Prior to this I lived with my fiance. A few things that I found to be very helpful is to get a personal planner and live by it. It sucks to have your entire week planned out, or even month, but after awile of following your planner, it will become routine. If the fam likes pasta, I found that making a huge pot of homemade sauce and freezing it in ndividual serving freezer bags works wonders. This way they can make as little or as much as they need. You can even have noodles already cooked in the fridge and bring them back to life by running hot water over them. It's a home-made meal with little hasstle. Last semester, I worked on Mondays from 5:00a.m. until 1:30p.m.. Then I had chem lecture from 2:00p.m. til 3:15p.m, chem lab from 3:30p.m until 4:45p.m., and art history from 5:15p.m. until 7:45p.m.. Talk about hating Mondays. My Monday would start at 3:00a.m. since I had to be at work at 5:00a.m.. I made sure I had a bowl of healthy cerial, and a large glass of O.J.. It's sometimes hard to eat at work, so I kept cerial bars, fresh fruit, in my backpack and I found that if you freeze a bottle of water the night before that it will be cold by the time you need to dip into your stash. Having these things avail. to me stopped me from going to the drive thru many times. Especially because you can eat them on your way to class or even on the way in the car. Stocking up is a great idea. Just remember, as long as you can find your car keys, your house is clean enough. Don't stress about the small stuff, the mess will still be there regardless. My motto was always " A house can be cleaned, clothes can be washed, but a bad grade can't be changed." Sorry so long, but I hope it helps a little. I wish you the best of luck.

nursebucky · Jun 3, 2003

Colleen, that is a start. Here are mine...

The small bills I paid up for 3 months.

I bought winter church clothes, 5 pair of jeans and Tommy shirt sfor school.

I purchased my nursing shoes/uniforms/nurse pac, etc

Instead of spending $700-1000 on a vacation this year, we went back in Feb - Valentines Day instead of going late in the year.

I purchased 2 pair of new white tennis shoes.

I purchased a freezer so I can buy hubby Lean Choice meals to cook.

ok...and don't laugh at this one. I went to the Dollar Tree and purchased all of my family members really nice gifts for this Xmas.

I make baskets out of those gifts.

I have also asked inlaws, step-daughter, parents not to visit longer than a day or not at all beginning in August on weekends for my first semester. They normally ask to stay an extra day and it drives me up the friggin wall!!!!!

I took the long distance off of my Bellsouth phone.

I removed the HBO shows off of my cable, but kept my Directv account.

That is about all for now...

kjseam · Jun 3, 2003

Originally posted by Jen2 Just remember, as long as you can find your car keys, your house is clean enough.. [/b]

I love this. I think this will be my new life motto:chuckle

BunnyBunnyBSNRN, ASN, BSN · Jun 3, 2003

As far as food, I started cooking on Sundays and frezzing/refriging the pre-cooked food. Also, I buy ground hambuger meat by the pound and brown it and freeze it. That way, the simple meals like Hamburger Helper and spag only take 1/2 the time to cook in the evenings.

As far as the house cleaning goes, I'm having a hard time letting go of this one. My husband and kids are great about helping out, but I have to keep telling myself that it doesn't have to be done my way to be right...if I can keep from having a panic attack over how he does laundry and dishes, I think I'll make it.

marilynmom, LPN, NP · Jun 3, 2003

Those are all great ideas! I really like the website http://www.organizedhome.com it is *awesome* and has such great organizing, cleaning, saving money, etc ideas.

My biggest problem is dinner and eating out. I normally make a 2 week menu and buy from that but when I do not do that (and lately I have not been) we end up eating out fast food (which I LOVE but its way to expensive for us 4).

I am a terrible housekeeper, one thing I am doing when I get out of school is get a cleaning lady to come in once a week. Its not that my house is dirty I just have to much stuff and junk it seems! We are in an aparetment right now as well and really need a house.

But the more you can do now the better off you will be. When I go to the store anymore I buy 2 of things we need instead of 1, saves me a bit of time.

Also when I buy ground beef I cook it all in a big pot with onions and garlic, then I divide it all up into ziplock bags and freeze it....that way when dinner time comes around you dont have to cook the meat, just heat it up saves me a TON of time and mess. You can also chop up and freeze onions and bell peppers and all sorts of stuff. But check out organizedhome.com it has given me some great ideas.

M

Bevi · Jun 3, 2003

ooooooook.... i'm starting to feel a little bit disorganized reading what you all have done...

what HAVE i done? hmmmmm...lets see,

i uh.......i......i think i have to get my butt in gear!

I'm sure i'll be borrowing many ideas from you all

seriously, all i've done are nursing school related things, order uniforms, buy books, order name pins, schedule cpr,etc.

OMG (;

happystudent, RN · Jun 4, 2003

Wow-- you guys are super!

Let me tell ya sista, I have 3 kids and the most amazing hubbs!

I am soo lucky. He pretty much does it all! Laundry, dishes, clean the house take care of the kiddies.. the only thing I do is cook dinner. Small sacrifice ANy way I dont have any organizational advice except maybe I could Lend my Hubby out to do chores... teeee heee so bad, sobad

Happy

HannasMom · Jun 4, 2003

Hi! I just checked out organizedhome.com, it's really a great site. Happystudent, I lucked out too, my husband doesn't mind doing the dishes, wash clothes, clean the house etc. But, he was single for many years before we married, so I got him already well trained. LOL. He's great though! Plus very supportive of my career choice.

PJMommy · Jun 4, 2003

Just a couple more ideas...

Get a slow cooker and come up with some good meals to make in it. You can throw everything in the slow cooker and start it in the morning...come home to a hot, good dinner.

Children...I have four. Get a plan A, plan B and plan C lined up for who is taking kids and picking up kids. Definitely have backup plans for when one of the kids ends up with strep throat or pinkeye or otherwise comes down with something. And I'd recommend training them also. Give them a list of chores they can "practice" over the summer so they can pitch in with the housework also.

Get ALL your foreseeable medical appointments done for you and your family. Go in for dental checkups, immunizations, eye exams, yearly pap...anything you can think of and get out of the way. You won't have time and won't want to do it when they call to remind you the kids need to get in for a dental checkup.

I had to really lower my clean house expectations! It just gets progressively worse through the semester...and then I clean like an insane woman over semester break. Ah...how relaxing, huh? But here's the cool thing...no one has fired me as the mommy if I only clean the toilets once every two weeks or if fingerprints stay on the patio door for 3 months.

Finally, I'd recommend a chat with the kids. Prepare them for what's coming up. Explain you may be busy and it might seem like you aren't much fun - but that you love them and they still need to come talk to you if something is bothering them. It helped my rugrats a lot for me to explain why I wanted to be a nurse. I think it makes them respect you for doing what you love and wanting to help people. My 4 y/o son then asked..."but how are you going to still be my mommy and be the other people's nurse?" He didn't realize they were not mutually exclusive. Gosh...I love that little guy!

Good luck,

Pam

Bevi · Jun 4, 2003

PJMommy, great tips.....

i do love my crockpot, last semester i used it quite alot, it was so nice to come home on a cold blustery day and walk in to the warm smell of home cookin,

i would prepare it the night before (to let the meat marinate and the flavors blend), put the crockery in the fridge, and take it out when i woke, and turn it on before i left...

another thing we did was have an order out night, usually on my busiest day...we still set the table and all ate together, just someone else did the cooking....lol

mealtimes with family become quite the bonding thing when time is of the essence.....

fnimat1 · Jun 5, 2003

Thank you all for these wonderful tips!!! I think I'll be a little more prepared come September.

Thanks again,

Fatima (who's waiting for her letter.... )