It's that time again, for an update of the experiments we've been trying in the Archibald home. In this edition, I talk about our latest new kitchen-cleaning system, our weekly family cleaning projects, our dinner menu system, monthly check-ins with the kids, family meetings, a college tour, fall sports, my son's hat business, a home organization project, water aerobics and more!

You can find my son's hat business on Instagram @skadi-apparel

Welcome to Season 8! This whole season we'll be talking about how to teach our kids to eventually take care of themselves on their way to becoming self-reliant, responsible adults. This episode will help you take the first step: evaluating what your kids are already taking charge of and where they have room to grow.

I introduce you to the system I've been using with my own kids for years, and show you how you can use it to help your kids progress from helpers to workers to managers. Then I talk to my son and some of my nephews about what they learned from their own self-evaluations.

You can download the Self Reliance Checklist here and follow along with your own kids! And join me any Tuesday at 1:00-2:00 PM mountain time for my weekly open lab hour, where we can brainstorm and problem-solve any of your parenting and home management experiments. Sign up at this link: https://calendly.com/whitneyarchibald/open-lab-the-family-lab

Here's a tentative schedule of the skills we'll cover each month of 2026:

January: Self-Reliance Overview

February: Hygiene

March: Sleep

April: Food

May: Fitness

June: Talents

July: Finance

August: Education

September: Social Skills

October: Cleaning

November: Possessions

December: Spirituality

Ever wonder which of your holiday traditions are actually the most meaningful to your kids?

For this episode, I went straight to the source and I asked five (incredible) teenagers what traditions they love the best: from that pesky elf to the jolly old elf himself, family bonding and family fights, re-enacting the nativity, and sibling sleepovers. It's an episode filled with music and merriment.

Here are more Christmas episodes you'll enjoy!

How Beth Millward Does Christmas

How She Celebrates Christmas

How She Serves Her Community and Beyond

How She Serves Family and Friends

A conversation with organization genius Jen Martin, founder of Reset Your Nest, about how to align our home organization with our goals, values, and routines; how to set up different organizational zones in our kitchens; and how to create systems for our comings and goings, among other organizing tips.

You can find Jen Martin at resetyournest.com and on Instagram @reset_your_nest

And for another great conversation with Jen, check out:

How Jen Martin Organizes

https://youtu.be/RncC3Q-JNjs

Stuck in the never-ending logistics of running a home? It's time to shift to a strategy-first perspective so you can build systems that work.

This episode talks about how to shift your thinking. Hence, you start with a strategy, then consider all the different tactics that could accomplish your strategy, and finally think about the logistics of getting it done.

For episodes with lots of great ideas about different strategies and tactics, check out:

How She Plans Meals: https://youtu.be/MZqkD_10IVQ?si=3vUTUtrWxvFn9oQZ

Workshop: How You Do Laundry https://youtu.be/b98f6kT3sKk?si=iAF9Ra-rKTi3uKcc

Tired of meltdowns? And I'm not just talking about your kids! Emily Hamblin is here to help us deal with our big emotions and teach our kids to deal with theirs. She gives practical tips about how to talk to our kids about their emotions, how to identify the skills they're lacking, and how to teach emotional regulation and empathy. Then we both share experiments you can try at home.

For more resources from Emily, check out enlighteningmotherhood.com.

Join a coven of Halloween experts--my mother and her three sisters--for a costume parade through history as they reminisce and share photos about Halloweens past. We talk about the antics of my Grandpa, the Halloween king, and his legacy of papier mache and discuss useful skills like how to black out your teeth and create a lifelike beard with nothing but vaseline and coffee grinds. 😂

My friend Ashley McGavin and I share all the experiments we tried this summer–in Ashley's case with a brand new baby! We talk about feeding kids in the summer, keeping them entertained, summer jobs, chores, personal development, a senior trip, and how to achieve a throwback 80s and 90s summer.

We both have 5 kids, but our families are in very different stages. My kids now range from 10 to 19, and her kids now range from four months to 14 years old.

Join us at our weekly Open Labs! Tuesdays at 10:00 MT

www.familylab.com/events

What's for dinner tonight? How about tomorrow? This episode helps you answer both questions--with favorite rollover meals from me and my guests Andrea Clark and Hillary Hess. Rollover meals allow you to take parts of one meal and roll it into another meal, to save time, money, and the tedium of leftovers.

Hillary Hess shares great recipes and resources at helpingofhappiness.com

Andrea Clark offers courses and printables at apurposefulhome.com

Andrea

1. Chicken and Rice/ Hawaiian Haystacks/Fried Rice

2. Tacos (Pork or chicken) to Nachos

3. Scrambled Egg and Sausage/Breakfast Burritos

4. Rotisserie chicken with veggie, sourdough bread, or in a tortilla/leftover chicken to Thai Coconut Curry: https://everyday-reading.com/simple-thai-chicken-curry/

5. Navajo tacos- use the chili leftover for baked potatoes, cornbread

Bonus:

Meatballs: spaghetti/meatball subs

Pot Roast/sandwiches on french bread with meat and peppers

Hillary

1. Chicken with salsa/taquitos or enchiladas

2. Tri-Tip-leftovers into stir-fry or fajitas

3. Hawaiian Haystacks/chicken pot pie

4. Leftover rice/rice cereal, pudding

5. Mashed potatoes/potato cheese soup

Bonus: Watermelon/Watermelon feta salad/watermelon juice/watermelon popsicles

Whitney

1. Mashed Potatoes/Ajiaco (Columbian Chicken and Potato soup) (Link: https://www.mycolombianrecipes.com/ajiaco-bogotano-colombian-chicken-and/

2. Mashed potatoes/shepherd's pie

3. Chicken or pork/ lettuce wraps

4. Roast Beef and veggies/Ropa Vieja

5. Salmon/salmon patties with avocado

Archibald Experiments: Back to School Routine Roundup

https://youtu.be/vRngguIVeas

Transitioning from a lazy summer schedule to a back to school routine is no joke. So I went through past podcast episodes looking for experiments we've tried here in the Archibald home to make our morning, afternoon and bedtime routines run more smoothly during the school year, from waking kids up to getting them into the car, to cleaning up that car, to connecting with them during the after-school runaround.

Here are links to listen to the full episodes about our past fall experiments:

How Whitney Experiments: Fall 2022

https://youtu.be/PUdQI9vod40?si=OGwcf47XprCYXMRw

How Whitney Experiments: Fall 2020

https://youtu.be/4Af4Ae9DkAw?si=607HOeh1ozfcQ5nP

Routine Experimentation (Fall 2019)

https://youtu.be/8Zbu456GGEk?si=Xm7jKoqmMRsEfakA