What to Do with the Kids

When my son, C, was younger he was bored in the summer because he was too young to find a job.  I was talking with a friend of mine at that time to see what she did with her kids.  She told me in the summers we do Bachelor School (obviously Bachlorette School) for girls. I thought what an awesome idea!  I bought certificate paper and awarded him a completion of the program at the end of summer.  We actually did this 2 summers in a row.  We had a lot of fun working together learning useful and handy tasks.  Build on the skills as time goes on.  

• Laundry - based on age, younger kids can fold, a little older can move clothes from washer to the dryer and learning how it works.  Responsibility for drying and folding.  For older kids, learning how to wash clothes from start to finish, loading and adding soap, learning about separating clothes.  For multiple kids, they each take responsibility for one step of the process.
• Ironing napkins, more advanced the iron clothing.
• Removing bedding, washing bedding, and then re-making the bed.  
• Pet care.  Feeding, walking, brushing, etc.
• Dusting, vacuuming, mopping and learning about the products and tools.
• Cleaning sinks and toilets, and learning about the products and tools.
• How to fill a ball or a bike tire (if you have a compressor or a hand pump).
• Review simple hand tools.  Learn their purpose.  
• Organizing a closet or drawer.  
• How to manage the household trash and recycling.
• How to load, start and unload a dishwasher. 
• Making pancakes from scratch.
• How to cut and section an Orange.
• How to arrange flowers.
• How to bake chicken.
• How to cook spaghetti.
• How to make a smoothie.
• How to make french toast.
• How to cook bacon.
• How to fry an egg.
• How set a table.
• How to make soup.
• How to make a stir-fry dish.
• How to bake muffins, biscuits and/or bread.  
• How to bake cookies.
• How to bake brownies.
• How to bake a tart.
• How to balance a check book.
• How to count back change.
• Arrange books and movies in alphabetical order.

These are just some of the ideas I've used in the past but you can come up with your own list.  I had about 12 things on the list each summer with objectives and a brief description and we worked through the list all summer.  I think when the routine changes and it forces us to find something fun, meaningful and useful to teach, and our kids will always remember the fun parts for life.

Coronavirus ideas for shopping

I've had to do my fair share of preparing for lengthy circummstances.  AKA, hunkering down for hurricanes as well as evacuating for them.  For Katrina, I learned to let your kid eat all the ice cream in the house before you go and don't leave chicken in the freezer.  When hunkering down, even with a generator for comfort, nothing removes the fear of hearing roaring winds far above the treetops for days on end, hoping your house will hold for all the gusts that batter it.  During those periods, I learned the refrigerated and freezer goods at the groceries are not touched.  It's canned goods, snacks, bread, batteries and water.  Pretty much no baking and cooking will go on unless you can access your grill or a crawfish set up for cooking.  Power most definitely will be out for most households.  It's hot, it's humid, and everyone is miserable.    

Being holed up to avoid contracting Coronavirus is different, but I think a lot of people didn't think about what they might need, they just went shopping for stuff.  I guess they invisioned cleaning their house, and not just cleaning, but sanitzing it, and doing laundry.  That, and apparently, going to the bathroom.   

I envisioned, games, books, watching movies, watching the stock market and listening to updates on the news.  And lots of cooking from scratch.

So week 1, the household stuff was gone.  And honestly I bought a 6 pack of toilet paper 3 weeks ago and haven't seen any since.  I can get through 3 weeks give or take with what we already had, so I'll worry about it later if this situation persists.  

Big box discount stores have the beauty of easily tracking a member's spending habits since we shop with a membership card.  They know exactly what we buy, how much we spend per trip,  and how frequently or seldomly we shop there.  By using data analytics, they can easily predict correctly our needs and have the foods we collectively buy when we need them.  So in knowing this data and knowing the incoming news, their systems should've caught buying habits outside that norm - on day one.  It should've rang bells at corporate level that a member who never buys wipes bought a pallet of them.  Or toilet paper purchases far out of their normal quantities   As soon as that flag goes up, they have the ability and repsonsibility to shut it down before is begins. That very next day, they could've blasted their members by way of email and very large signs at the door with limit standards.  Each card could've been tagged with limits per member, per month.  They can further limit by allowing 1 membership per name and address.  Needing a license to open an account stops a person from opening multiple memberships in their name using other people's adresses.  No PO Box allowed.  The Big Box revenues would've been the same, just more households would've been served.  

On the flipside, they also have data on who the hoarders are and who wants to exploit people's needs by reselling their goods at a marked up price in a different market.  In otherwords, they know exactly who you are.  I personally hope they reconsider renewing memberships for those individuals.  I equally hope they raise the bar on what they expect from their data analysts and giant computer systems and next time on day one they put these stops in place to create calm and disallow runs on any products.  

Week 2 was everything else and the kitchen sink.  Pasta aisles and canned goods, frozen vegetables, soup, etc, nothing was unscathed.  

I have a sister, S, who works for a delivery company so I knew in early March online models were going to soar and that she would be busy.  I put together a list of some basics so she could work her long hours and still feed her children with some advance shopping.

So here's what I came up with:

• Medicines, have on hand what you need.  Make sure you have a working thermometer.
• Pet food and their medicine.  Stay ahead of this curve so you don't need to go out for it.  
• We all know the smoke alarms might ring at the most inconvenient time, and probably will.  Either change all the 9v batteries now or have some on hand.
• If you are going to clean and organize, have what you need.  Have a method to compile your giveaway things.
• Libraries will close, get books now ahead of time.
• This is a big one - DON'T BUY WHAT YOU NOMALLY DON'T BUY but rather stock up on what you normally buy.
• Try to discuss with your kids that just cause they see 6 packs of cookies they can not plow through them in case there is an order to stay home.
• I focused on some larger meats that give me leftovers.  A Turkey Breast, Whole Chicken, a Ham, a rack of Ribs,  a Pork Loin.  I'll have leftovers and can make soup using from the turkey or chicken carcass.  
• Frozen Chicken Strips, Wings, Potstickers, Italian Sausages, Brats, Hotdogs, Frozen Pizza or ability to make pizza, Bacon, Chicken Breasts, Ground Beef, Boneless Skinless Thighs.  From these things, I can make all kinds of meals that can net leftovers. But if I become ill, everyone else can still eat.   
• Fruit - Use those fruits that perish first keeping the longer times for later use.  Lastly resort to Frozen and Canned Fruits.
• Short Shelf Life: Berries
• Medium Shelf Life: Fresh Pineapple, Grapes, Banana, Melons, Mango
• Long shelf time: Apples, Oranges, Grape Fruit, Lemons, Limes, Dried Fruit
• Once fruit is getting too ripe, make something with it.  Smoothies and muffins, pancakes and desserts.  
• Vegetables - Use those vegetables that perish first keeping the longer times for later use.  Lastly, resort to Frozen and Canned Vegetables
• Short Shelf Life: Bagged Ready Made Salad Mixes, Spring Mixes, Lettuce, Spinach, Tomatoes
• Medium Shelf Life: Iceberg Lettuce, Zucchini, Summer Squash, Beans, Pea Pods, Eggplant, Roma and Grape Tomatoes, Broccoli, Peppers, Asparagus, Fresh Beets.
• Long Shelf Life: Acorn and Butternut Squash, Cabbage, Avacado, Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Turnips, Carrots, Celery, Onions, Garlic, Shallots, Ginger.
• NOTE:  Once you are stocked, if you continue to have access to fresh foods, eat and replenish the fresh foods.  In otherwords, don't eat your frozen pizza unless you are replacing it.  Once you are self quarantining, then go to an eating cycle in order of most perishable first.  
• Breads - Buy a variety of things to keep it interesting and maximize options. 
• Bakery breads and rolls (use these first) Bagels, English Muffins, Sliced bread, Hot Dog and Hamburger Buns, Boxed Muffin, Cake or Brownie Mix, Pop-and-Fresh Bread Products, Frozen biscuits or breads like Sister Shubert's, Pita breads, Flour Tortillas, Puff Pastry.  
• Condiments - Have all your favorites on hand.  Ketchup, Mayonnaise, Mustard, Soy,  Salad Dressing, Salsa, Vinegar, Peanut & Jelly, Honey, etc.
• Pantry and Raw Ingredients - These offer the most options for making food from scratch.  Flour, Sugar, Powerded Sugar, Brown Sugar, Yeast, Baking Powder, Baking Soda, Syrup, Salt, Pepper, Seasonings, Oil, Vegetable Sprays, Olive Oil, Pasta in a variety of shapes, Rice, Tomato Products, Broths, Canned Beans, Vegetables and Fruit, Nuts, Soups and Ramen, Tuna.  Ingredients needed to Bake Muffins, Biscuits, Cookies, Desserts, Tarts or Quiches.  
• Dairy - Milk (you can freeze milk), Fresh Juices, 1/2 & 1/2, Nut Milks (have better shelf life), Sour Cream, Cream Cheese, Ricotta, Variety of Cheeses both sliced and grated, Yogurt, Eggs (3 times the number you think), Buttermilk, Butter or Spreads.
• Vegetarian - Have on hand the specialty items needed to make your meals.  Tofu, Humus, Vegetable Broth, seasoning and sauces.
• Cereal, Snacks, Chips, Popcorn, Crackers, Cookies - Have these things on hand but again, don't allow the kids to bindge watch youtube and eat a full pack of cookies or bag of chips on day one.  Once these things are gone, make your own oven chips and make desserts from scratch.  Get them on board with the duration and the objective.  In order to keep adults healthy, they are not running to the store everyday and eventually not at all.
• Paper Products - Buy what you might need for 2-4 weeks without wasting it.  If no one in your house is leaving and no one has tested positive, there isn't a need to sanitize your counters with Lysol wipes outside of normal cleaning.  In other words,  you don't need 48 rolls of paper towels and 19 bottles of bleach.  
• Toiletries - What you might need for 2-4 weeks.  This gets tricky because if you are in my predicament, by the time I realized I may run out of bar soap in 2 weeks, I haven't found any.  I'm hoping the hoarders are broke and can't afford any more so when I go to the store again, there might be some.
• Office Supplies - Anything you might need for work or school.
• Misc - Coffee, Variety of Bottled Drinks, Soda, Mixers, Beer, Wine, and Booze.  I am aware that this line is likely the first on anyone's list after medicine and pet food, so here it is, I didn't forget about you!

To keep food from becoming low too quickly, if you get worried, eat twice a day - a very late breakfast and an early dinner.  Everyone is going to be sleeping more because the schedule is not as hectic.

Good luck!