Operation Organization

Well, I'd like to say that I spent my weekend organizing my chore list & schedules and menu planning, but I sadly (well, not really sadly) did not. My husband & I took the kids out in the joggers (we have a double & a single) for a long run on Sat morning, then he & I had some time to ourselves that afternoon & early evening. Yesterday was church and then we had a good family day.

However, I did figure out laundry and found that if I start it on either Friday or Sat evening, it is done within 24 hours (as long as I stay on top of it). I prefer to have 24 hrs of laundry to spreading it out over the entire week. I do have an awesome new detergent for workout clothes & towels that I'll share in another post - I'm going to start buying it in bulk. It's AWESOME!

Now for menu planning/dinners. I organized our meals & prep as below. The red beans & rice for today & Wed are already in the crockpot. Going to the grocery store on my way home from work was wonderful! I was in and out in less than 45 minutes!

Monday: red beans & rice (prep was soaking the beans, & chopping onions, etc). Now, the beans will cook all day and I'll fix rice when I get home (shouldn't take more than 30 minutes for me to get dinner on the table tonight)

Tuesday: this is a freebie this week b/c we're going out w/some friends who are moving.

Wednesday: leftovers from Monday - this will have to be quick b/c we have about an hour from the time we get home until we leave for church

Thursday: baked chicken & ceasar salad. I'll do all of my chicken prep before work (that should take about 20mins) so that all I have to do is put the chicken in the oven and make the salad while it's baking. This will be about 45 minutes from home to table b/c the chicken has to bake that long

Friday: pineapple baked ham steak & lemon sauteed green beans (both of these receipes are from the awesome Weight Watchers cookbook - love it!). I'll trim & cook the green beans while the ham steak is in the oven. Should take about 45 minutes from home to table.

Okay - so we'll see how meals for this week work out. My next task is to figure out a way to get in longer workouts in the morning before work. This is going to be tough but the answer is easy - get up earlier....sigh. I'll tackle that next week! ;)

A Swimsuit Snafu & Dinner Dilemmas

The transition to full time work has gone wonderfully. The kids, it seems, haven't even noticed. Now that I am at the office more, I no longer bring work home and feel more caught up. It has been great!

However, since I gave up the "catch-up" days that I used to get organized, prepare meals, do laundry, etc, it has been a new challenge to fit them in. In general, I like to do "chores" during the week so that our weekends are free and open for fun. Balancing the chores and keeping all our activities straight has definitely been more of a challenge.

The lack of organization manifested itself in a swimsuit snafu that yesterday when I mixed up the "water play" days of my older two kids' classes at school. My son was ready to spash and play (he was very excited), and my girl was dressed in school clothes. When dropping the kids off, my husband did some quick thinking when he realized my error and put my son's swim trunks & t-shirt on my daughter and dressed our son in the extra clothes he had brought (much to my son's disappointment - he was NOT happy). In the end all was well - my son had a great day and is back in his swimsuit this morning for water play, and my daughter participated in her first and ONLY wet t-shirt contest in a very cool dinosaur t-shirt and Lightening McQueen swim trunks.

Meal planning and dinner prep has become harder since my time to fix a meal in the evenings is more limited. In addition, our family doesn't eat out much and doesn't like frozen dinners (at least, my husband & I don't)...so most nights I cook from scratch. What seems to take the most time is the prep - chopping, measuring, etc, not the actual cooking.

My goal over the next couple of weeks is to come up with a regimen that works well for both meals and organization- I'm going to try the following to see what works:

• chopping & prepping on the weekends so that all I have to do is cook on the weekdays
• planning for more leftovers so that there are fewer days I need to cook
• finding some more good crockpot recipes
• consolidating all the different calendars into one calendar/planner - seems I have 2-3 different calendars going at once, my work one, home/school one, and workouts/training schedule - they all need to be consolidated so I can see all our activities on a given day at a glance. I'm not sure if a paper or electronic format would be better.

I'll never have everything perfect and will always have a frozen pizza in the freezer in case of emergency, but I hope to have to use it less and less. :) We'll see!

Relationships

Yesterday a man walked into a solar plant office building and shot 6 people before turning his semi-automatic hand gun on himself. Three are dead (including the shooter) and 4 are injured. The motive was a domestic dispute and the man went after his girlfriend and her friends/coworkers.

This incident happened a stone's throw from my kids' preschool. Thankfully they were at home yesterday and were not impacted by the tragedy. The school deserves kudos for the quick and efficient way they locked down and secured the school and got the kids out as quickly as possible. My husband was out of town yesterday and his absence combined with the incident really got me thinking. What would I have done if one or more of my kids had been affected or injured? Who could I have called? And on the other note (being that I teach at a university where crazy stuff happens more often than I would like) what if something like that happened here?

Although we love where we live, we definitely experience those moments of stress that comes from not having a great support system. Mostly it occurs when a child is sick or a car is in the shop. But it also occurs when we would love to share our joy. For my husband and I, it was very lonely after the birth of our first son when we were so excited and proud of our sweet baby boy and had few to share him with until my family arrived a few days later.

When tragedies happen, and I think that could have been me or my family, my thoughts go to the relationships I have with people: my husband, my kids, family, and friends. In the end it will probably be those relationships that we think of right before Jesus calls us home.

Craig's List

Recently, I discovered the gold mine that is Craig's List (I know - I'm WAY behind the curve). We knew it was time to start piano lessons with our oldest but did NOT want to spend a lot of money on the instrument given that 3 rough kids will be banging on it over the next few years and that all 3 may decide that they loathe it. After searching around town for used pianos and coming up short, I tried Craig's List. The first time I looked, bam - a used upright piano being sold for $400. I went and saw it that day and it was in our house the next. My son had his first lesson 2 weeks later. VERY gratifying!

After the piano luck, I started browsing for dining room furniture since we wanted some eventually but were expecting it to be a while. After scrolling through the newer posts, I found an old one advertising a Thomasville dining room table & 6 chairs for $675 or best offer. Thankfully, the owner had been out of town for a few weeks and had gotten no bites until our call a few weeks after she posted it. Needless to say, I hastened to see it and snapped it up for less than the asking price. I absolutely love it and love that since it wasn't too $$$ I don't mind my kids being messy kids around it. It will be used!

Now, with Craig's List, there are a few things I have learned.

1. Only look for what you need - if you regularly browse you will inevitably start buying things you don't need just because they are such a DEAL! 2. Shop local - that's my conservative opinion b/c we have several friends who were scammed when buying from other locations. 3. Go see each item in person - pictures only tell you so much. 4. Be conservative in your product/$$ exchange. We were really old fashioned and handed the sellers cash after the item was safely in our home or on it's way to our home.

You better believe the next time we are looking for anything, I'll probably check Craig's List first. Happy Hunting!

Changes and New Challenges

This week is technically my first week to be working full time. Since having kids, I have either worked from home or part-time. Initially, my plan was to start working full time next year when my oldest started kidnergarten; however, several changes at the College made the time increase necessary this year. Needless to say, I am nervous!

Thankfully, I have a flexible job (that I love!) and also have the option of staying home. I truly admire all the SAHM's out there b/c I tried it the year after my first was born and had a really hard time. I became a better mom, wife, etc, when I started working outside the home (I'm sure that sounds crazy to some of you). This is one ball that I choose to juggle even though it's weight is about to get a bit heavier. Below is a picture of some of my fellow junior faculty members and I at graduation this year. We love what we do. Here's hoping that the changes and challenges ahead will lead to good things.

A Home Arrival, Visit, and Race

My sister came into town from LA last Wed, and my husband arrived home from work travel on Thursday. We all had a great time with my sister - she is so great with the kids and is such a fun gal. Since we both love to run, we always do a race together when she comes to town and this visit we ran a 4th of July 4-miler. It was a great race! I placed 4th in my age group (don't be impressed - it was a very small race) and ran a 9:15 pace coming in at 36:59. I actually was pretty disappointed when I saw my time as I was hoping to break or get close to 36 minutes. Oh well - next time! The fun over the last few days more than made up for the sickness of the previous week. So thankful for good health and great family! Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!

Keeping Our Heads Above Water

My goal for the summer is to have both of my older kids swimming independently. My son is making fantastic progress and even swam back and forth between my sister and I today. His sister, not so much. She can't seem to conquer her fears enough to let go and learn. Regardless, we are enjoying spending lots of time in the pool. No better way to beat the heat!