Some Things That Are Helping Me

I thought I would share a few things that have been working for me and my family. Three of my least favorite things used to be laundry, meal time/planning, and bed time. I decided I needed to make some changes, because feeling frustrated, disorganized, and tired all of the time was just not making me a happy person or the person I wanted to feel like everyday. Here's what is helping me with each of those now:

Since the beginning of the year I have been trying to stay more on top of the laundry. When the twins were first born, I did at least a load of laundry a day to keep up because they were going through so many outfits in a day. As they got a little older, I went back to just doing laundry whenever I had time (or when everyone ran out of clothes.) What was happening with that, is that my kids have tons of clothes so they would just wear everything they had until I had the hugest mile high pile of laundry to tackle. Same with Riley, because he could wear two or three outfits a day between his day job and coaching. And you know what's not fun? Having to spend a whole day or consecutive days trying to get everything done and caught up. I would dread it and it was pretty overwhelming. I recently went back to doing at least one load a day and it has helped enormously. I start a load as soon as I get a chance in the morning and hopefully can get it folded and put away before lunch. I've found that if I just do a load of whatever clothes everyone wore the day before, it doesn't pile up and no one has to ask where such and such item is because it's always back in their drawer the next day. There might be a load of towels or sheets to throw in one or two days a week, but it has really simplified and paired down the process. Sometimes I can't get to it right away, but I've  noticed a huge difference that doing that one thing does in keeping my laundry room from being out of control with the floor clean and free and everything ready and clean for my family to wear again. And I've come to the conclusion that we all just have way too many clothes. When laundry is done every day, you realize the excess that is really there and how little you really need.  I've started making sure to put the clean clothes on the bottom so they all get rotated through. Probably a no brainer for most people - but something that is making a difference and then my kids are wearing those shirts and things that before were never quite making their way to the top of the drawer. I hear the most complaints from friends about hating laundry but I am getting to the point now where it is no longer a source of stress and sucking up all my time. Riley and I also recently organized our closet and paired down and got rid of lots of things that were just "hanging" out and taking up space.

Another thing that has really helped is the process of doing a two-week meal plan. I got hooked on The Food Nanny on the BYU channel and loved her method and style of cooking. I bought her cook book which is filled with the best family friendly recipes and ideas and tips for how to get back to having good family dinners {which was something our family needed to work on with everyone's crazy schedules}. It makes a big difference to have meals planned out for two weeks, I usually do a shopping trip for one week's worth of meals unless I am feeling really energetic and brave to get it all done at once. It is the best thing not to have to go to the store all of the time {except for diapers and milk which we go through like crazy}. I love having a theme night for every day of the week and it's helped me get out of my cooking rut and plan meals everyone is going to love. I try to make sure that in every meal there is at least one thing that everyone will like, {not an easy task}.

 Here is what our's looks like:

Sunday:
Family Traditions  (pot roast, roast chicken, mashed potatoes, ham and potato casserole, fried chicken, etc.) All those good things that make coming home after church and walking into a house that smells terrific worth it.

Monday:
Comfort Food ( stews, soups and rolls, french dip sandwiches, chicken and gravy, chicken pot pie, casseroles, meatloaf, etc.)

Tuesday:
Italian ( spaghetti, lasagna, tortellini soup and french bread, meatballs, bow tie pasta, chicken piccata, fettuccine, etc.)

Wednesday:
Breakfast/Meatless/Fish (french toast, pancakes, waffles, eggs and bacon, breakfast burritos, German pancakes, biscuits and gravy, baked or grilled salmon, fish tacos, tuna melts, etc.)

Thursday:
Mexican ( tacos, enchiladas, taco soup, fajitas, quesadillas, beans and rice, taco salad, fiesta chicken and rice)

Friday:
Pizza ( We do home made pizza unless we're going out for dinner or getting the kids a babysitter. Some of our favorite's to make are: bbq chicken pizza, pepperoni and olives, canadian bacon, hamburger and cheese, and we like to do build your own topping pizzas which the kids love. We'll also make bread sticks if there's time)

Saturday:
Grill Night/Quick and Easy (hamburgers, Frito banditos, sloppy Joe's, bbq chicken drumsticks, grilled steak, potato bar, build your own grilled hot dogs or sandwiches, ribs, etc.)

What a difference it has made in helping to simplify my life. The kids really enjoy having the theme nights and looking up on the menu board to see what is for dinner that night. It is a big money saver as well, and I find we don't really eat out AT ALL when we stick to it. I'm not scrambling at the last minute to think of something and I can prepare earlier in the day for things I know are going to take a bit longer. We have been sitting down eating all together on the nights that we can and dare I say, it is actually fun!

The last thing that has been helping around these parts is putting all of the kids to bed at the same time. I have to admit, bed time is my LEAST favorite time of the day. I'm just usually wiped out by that time. We used to let Kendle stay up later, but then Morgan would cry and ho hum around and then it was disruptive {since they share a room}. We were also keeping the babies up later to help them sleep in longer in the mornings, but now that they are sleeping longer stretches usually that's not an issue any more. We decided we needed a change and a better solution, so when 8:00 rolls around, it's time for bed and lights out for all the kids. We say "ok, it's night-night time" and the babies go running to their rooms to be tucked in. We bought the older kids head lamps for Christmas so they can read in bed, but they have to stay in bed. Sometimes I will find little toys and things Morgan has been playing with up in his bunk, but it's fine because as long as they stay quiet with the lights off I don't mind. Surprisingly there are few complaints from Kendle about the earlier bed time {she loves to read at night} and it has been working out great to have everyone in bed at the same time and the house fairly quiet that early. If I'm really feeling organized, I will have everyone get in their jammies and ready for bed by 7:30 and then they can just hang out until it's time.That means I usually have two hours before I go to bed to just relax and spend time with Riley {unless he's still at practice, and then I am just glad I got everyone to bed by myself without losing my temper 50 times}.  We definitely need that down time to regroup, talk about our day, plan for the next day, and get a breather. *And lest you are all thinking there is no way things can work out that perfectly every night, let me assure you we still have our nights where we get home late from visiting family or sporting events where we do a whirlwind pajama change/throw all the kids in bed method. And that works great sometimes too. :)

So laundry, meal planning, and bed time have gotten much better and less stressful around here. Three things that used to cause me a lot of frustration are now not so bad.

What are some things that are helping you lately?