Time to Prepare

There is no denying that we have a busy life; it's great but it is busy. What does that mean? It means that I need to be as organized as possible with time management and household management. That's why I have been attempting to get as much of the "junk" and unused stuff from our house as possible...less clutter to clean and maintain.

I have also been realizing that it takes an extra 5 or 10 minutes to make a week's worth of sandwiches for the 2 kids who eat sandwiches and stick them in the freezer all prepared and ready for the week. I took 15 minutes and made 14 sandwiches for the school week plus extra if we have to run out somewhere to a meeting, etc where the kids will have their schedule interrupted. When I was making their sandwiches nightly it would take almost 10 minutes to get 2 done: by the time you get things out and organized you may as well start an assembly line and get them all done. So, that's what I did today. Sandwiches are done and it is one less thing to take up time in my day, one less thing to need to make sure gets done, one less thing to "concern" myself with every day. It feels good.

I also mixed up a big batch of trail mix and have it all sorted into snack bags for lunches and to throw in a bag for those "I'm hungry" moments when we are out running errands or going to or from different events.

Next on my list is to get some more Breakfast Burritos made up, especially for Rush as she runs short of time in the mornings to eat and they are GREAT to eat on the go. Jellybean likes them too so I'll be making enough for her as well. Bug will most likely be sticking to his Cheerios every morning but that's ok too. Another thing the kids like and saves on time is when I boil up a bunch of eggs. Great as a quick snack or a grab and go breakfast (even an addition to lunch); it takes just as much time to boil a dozen as it does to boil one or two.

Rush, Bill & I eat a lot of salads for lunch so I will mix up a big spinach salad in between tomorrow's 2 church services (we are having a special evening service) and it will be nice to have that handy for us to take at least for Monday and Tuesday.

So, from now on I will be taking some time on Saturdays to prepare lunches, get fruits and vegetables into snack bags to go along with lunches, sort out other snacks, and prepare breakfasts, if needed, for the coming week. It will be an incredible time saver for us and the kids can help out too. Not only will it relieve some of the time crunch after just wanting to rest a bit after work but it will allow for more family time, prayer and devotional time or music practice time.

I think all in all this is a great start to my getting this household and our routines running smoothly. As it is revamped & tweaked I will update as to what works for us and our busy family of 5 (at times 7).