Well, two weeks off for winter break have ended, and the chaos of working and momming is back in full force. Mother nature obviously has a sense of humor, becuase my first day back began with temps dipping to 14 degrees F this morning. This little southern girl was a walking Momcicle. Before I cracked open my notebook and started being productive, coffee was mandatory!
During the school year, I try to organize our mornings to flow as easily as possible. My sweet free spirited Tiny tends to move at the speed of molasses in a snow storm, so anticipating book bags, snacks, breakfast and lunch are a must if we are going to make it to school on time – and by on time, I mean taking the last corner on two wheels as the bell is ringing and I am desperately trying to avoid a call to child services because I didn’t come to a complete stop before I began trying to push my child out of the backdoor to avoid a (and by a, I mean ANOTHER) tardy. Not that I tend to run late or anything. Y’all know you say that same little “…please don’t let there be small children or animals around this corner” prayer too. You can admit it, I won’t judge.
For the last couple of days, I have been busily organizing clothes (more on that in the next post), meals and menus for the coming weeks. I don’t know about you, but meal prep is one of those things that has to be done on the weekend or it just doesn’t get done. This past weekend, I prepped crock pot beef roast, beef stew (from left over pot roast), and lasagna for the week to come. We’ll likely have breakfast for dinner one night, so no need to prep for that.
Then there are the breakfasts and lunches (how about that perfectly folded throw on the couch in the background)…
Breakfasts tend to be pretty easy, a waffle, applesauce and some milk and we are off.
Papa Bear and I are going to try to take our lunches more and eat out less. Not only is that better for our waist lines, but our wallets as well! Tiny doesn’t like the food at the food court at school and prefers that I make her a lunch (of course she does, because who doesn’t want a little mid day love from Mommy?). I like to prep those on the weekend as well. Mornings are so chaotic here – I’m sure I’m the only blog on the block with that problem, right? Papa bear gets sandwiches – easy enough. We simply assembly those in assembly line style, wrap and are done. Tiny is a bit more complex. She is a finicky little thing – I don’t know where she gets her strong willed preferences from. 🙂 Surely it’s Papa Bear…
For Tiny’s lunches, I get a sandwich or wrap from the fridge and have everything that doesn’t have to be refrigerated presorted into bags . The night before, I put one juice, apple, a little chex mix from the holidays and wrap or sandwich into her lunch bag and into the fridge it goes. Ready for school! Snack goes into the backpack the night before, and we are done! Granted, I’m no Martha Stewart, but I’m pretty proud of myself. I mean, if I left it up to Tiny, she would have juice, fruit roll ups and a few oreos. That kid is a gummy loving gal.
My lunches are in the back – lettuce and chicken wraps with mustard, and a kale, cranberry, brussel sprout and pistachio salad. That and a Oui French style yogurt and I have my morning snack and lunch ready to go. Yes, I pack a snack – you don’t want to see me hangry. A couple hours on the weekend prepping the week’s menus and lunches saves me SO much time an energy during the week. I love not having to think about what is for dinner or pack each night from scratch for the next day. Between Tiny and Teeny in the mornings, I have my hands full – it’s like herding hyperactive hamsters – you get one in the little round hamster ball and the others scatter. Thank God for Papa Bear, at least it keeps the game to man on man instead of having to play zone.
I would love to know what you do in the mornings to make your lives a little easier.
[…] that it would take an insane amount of time to package all of that up each morning. Catch my full lunch prep post here. So, I do it once a week with barely more time to package 5 lunches than it would take to get […]