The school week is going very well! Ethan reported being “tired” when he got home last night, which is not surprising. I am actually not sure if he meant physically (from soccer), mentally or just sleepy; probably a combination of all three.
He continues to be very positive overall. Wednesdays and Thursdays are their block schedule days, which means they only have 4 classes instead of 8, but they are longer 75-minute periods. They also start late on Wednesdays at 9 a.m. to give the kids a little mid-week “sleep in” break. (Normal start time is 7:50 a.m.)
When asked what he thought of the block schedule, he shrugged and said, “fine” but that it kind of gets a little “boring” to be just in one class for so long. I’m sure it will be more interesting once all the first week admin stuff is out of the way and the actual lectures, etc. start up. Or not. 😜
On my end I’m trying to get a handle on some semblance of what our general routines will look like this year. It’s hard right now, because Asher is not actually in school yet. His soccer isn’t on the normal schedule yet, either, nor has the fall season of swim started yet.
There are a few things I’m trying to take into consideration:
1) I want to be better organized with our meals. While we can be fairly loosey goosey around here about dinnertime (i.e. we are not a “must all sit down at the table at the same time every day or else the world will implode” family), it is important to me to have dinner ready when Ethan gets home. During soccer season, his days are LONG and full and active, and he walks in the door famished.
So, specifically Monday- Thursdays I want to have a clear plan of what we are eating and how it is getting ready before he gets home. It’s different when he used to come home from school, raid the cabinet for snacks and then go off to soccer later in the evening. Now, although he can pack snacks, of course, it’s just not the same.
It is not always easy for me to have time to cook at a set time every day, though, depending on my work schedule, driving Asher places, chiropractor appointments/etc. and attempting to fit in my workouts!
Considering:
- cooking something ahead on Sundays so Mondays are at least taken care of
- compiling a solid list of super quick meals that everyone likes so I have more “go-tos”
- incorporating some meal prep into the mornings while I’m puttering around in the kitchen anyway during breakfast time before E/A leave for school
- trying to be more strategic with leftovers (and just meal planning in general! I’m soooo inconsistent with this).
2) Thinking more about gym time. These last few weeks, I have been very consistent in the gym. BUT, this consistency has had a price. At least some days, I’ve been fitting in my workouts in the evenings. Which during the summer, hasn’t been a big deal. The kids are “around” a lot, so I generally see them plenty. They also stay up later in the summer.
But now, Ethan’s home hours are really only ~6:45 until 9:30/10 when he goes to bed. I want to be available to him! And I want to see him. It is not lost on me that we are down to FOUR YEARS left with him at home, probably. FOUR YEARS!
So, I really don’t want to regularly schedule evening workouts. Maybe 1x/ week or something, sure. It’s not like I have to sit and stare at him every evening, lol. But I just don’t want it to be a regular practice to be gone a lot, if I can help it. Maybe he’ll still have questions about homework (?) or otherwise need my assistance, and besides, I just like to hear about his day.
3) Along the same lines, I’m also thinking about mornings.
He leaves for school by 7 a.m., with a current wake up time of about 6:30. While he does not “need” me to make him breakfast, I find his breakfasts tend to be more balanced and filling if I’m at least in the kitchen. I also do really like chatting with him while he eats and gathers his things. He commonly will tell me about things coming up in his day, or we’ll catch snippets of the morning news together, etc.
Part of me has long considered totally scratching any involvement in the morning and just using that time for workouts or work (if I just started really early and worked straight through, I could be done much earlier!!), but I think…ultimately I just really don’t want to do that. (Though I will often get up early and work for a while before he gets up; not opposed to that at all and front loading a bit can be very helpful.)
Again, the years are short and this is part of why I wanted a flexible job! So I could be there to see the kids off, etc.
It will get a little trickier once Asher starts, because he doesn’t leave until 7:10-7:15, so that extends my “involved time” a bit…. but we’ll see.
I’m feeling a little bit like I’m starting to wall myself in with unreasonable expectations. I’m aware. Hahaha. (“Must have dinner ready by 6:30! Spend time with kids in the evenings! Always see them off in the morning! But don’t slack on your workouts, either, or housework or, god forbid, WORK! Attend all the soccer games! Help with the homework!” Etc. etc, you get the idea. 😉 )
Obviously, the blogosphere has taken a little backseat already lately, which is fine.
I can plan a lot in if I’m strategic, but I realize there are limits, too. And I’m not THAT good at planning, honestly. I feel like I have some lacking spatial awareness skills or something to really “see” my whole week, sometimes. I feel like I have good intentions and start down the right path, but then…I don’t know, I get tripped up somewhere with all the unknowns and varied schedules and then it just doesn’t always work out right and I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong. Haha.
Does anyone have any tried-and-true favorite SUPER quick recipes, cookbooks, meal ideas or other resources??
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for fresh, green grapes. I went grocery shopping yesterday and the grapes I got are SO GOOD.
GRATEFUL KAE 
My kids don’t start school until September 5th (and me too – at the university I work at) so I’m very behind you, but am feeling ready for that change. My boys are at a day camp that ends today, but my daughter (13) could REALLY use more routine. She did some stuff here and there but it’s over – the next 2 weeks will be a mix of stuff with the Grandmas, camping with Dad (and – not me !!!! yay for them, yay for me – I am not a camper), and then a week of not much planned (yikes).
You do at least have a pretty long window of available time when they’re at school/activities but it does seem like it’ll require more planning to make sure everything gets done. I’m for sure a meal planner – can’t imagine how we’d function without it! I personally believe it not at all overcomplicating things UNLESS you truly WANT to make something more elaborate.
We basically rotate through a few things we know everyone likes and are basic – crockpot chili is always a winner, we have 3 varieties that we all love and no nighttime prep is key. Tacos, spaghetti/salad, many different soup varieties (also easy to prep ahead and put in a crockpot or to simmer on the stove), a salmon pesto pasta EVERYONE loves, all are really quick and hits with everyone. Find 10ish of those and …. just rotate them. No need to make it harder than it needs to be!! Good luck with the transitions!
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Thanks Erin! These are all great thoughts. I definitely want to keep our meal planning pretty simple. I am not big on making all sorts of fancy recipes, and it’s tricky because my husband leans hard toward preferring Mexican style stuff (and he is not a big fan of most processed type meals or even sometimes things like crock pot meals or casseroles which can be easier! But he grew up with a totally different food culture.) he does like chili though and there are quite a number of Mexican style meals we all like that really are very easy. He/we are also pretty happy repeating certain meals fairly often so that helps too.
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Interesting thoughts! I’m also at that period of my life where I want to be available for my tween but… they don’t really want to just be with me, haha.
My cooking tip is that I use a meal service that delivers healthy & delicious meals that I just need to heat up in the oven or in boiling water. Mine is very local but maybe there’s something like that where you live – a lot of caterers switched from doing events to doing home-style cooking during the pandemic. Maybe worth a look! I found that with grocery prices being so high, it’s not that much more expensive, and so much more convenient.
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Haha well, I am sure my son doesn’t want to exactly be with me either all that time. 😅 But I guess I just want to sort of be “around”, even if I’m not directly doing stuff with him always exactly.
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I’m starting to think about dinner/snack plans that will support Sofia’s 4 times a week swim practice. we probably won’t have sit down dinner during the week (MWF) so I’ll have to pack her dinner and a substantial snack before her swim practice. Yesterday I made super power muffins and they turned out great. I’m planning to try few more others things that are easy to pack and nutritious before September 11.
We have many quick dinner staples (I don’t usually meal prep dinners); fried rice (with chicken/shrimp or just egg), quesadilla (just cheese) paired with some veggies, dumplings, pasta with frozen sauce that I make once every two weeks and freeze, teriyaki chicken which takes 10 min to make.
I definitely will try to be around the girls as much as I can, that’s why I run before they go to school 5;30am departure so I can still see them before they go and pack their lunches, and go to home 4pm to spend 3-4 hrs with them. I am counting the years left for me.
I wonder if you can workout during lunch break?
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Can you share the power muffins recipe?? I was thinking some kind of muffin that he could take with him to school to snack on before practice. Also I like the idea of things I could make ahead and then freeze in individual servings, like maybe little bean/cheese burritos or things like that.
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sent you via email 🙂
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First of all, I suspect your kids (esp the HS one) will not want to be with you that whole window 6:45 – 10. Some of it, of course! But all of it, probably not. Second, I there could be some gradations here 🙂 Maybe you don’t want to be gone every night, but perhaps you could do something like:
Monday – AM workout
Tues – PM workout
Weds – AM or lunch workout
Thurs – PM workuot
Fri – no formal workout, just AM walk or dance video
weekends – workout around kid activities/etc
I *do* think going into each week with a plan for when you will do workouts and what dinner is is a great idea!
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Thanks Sarah!!! You’re a million times better planner than I am, so I will always take ANY advice you have!!! 🙏🙏🙏
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I found myself nodding along as you described your expectations/desires and then noted how it might not be possible to squeeze everything in. It’s so hard, isn’t it??? I love your plan to meal prep in the mornings and to come up with a roster of super quick meals. I am terrible at “super quick.” I think my two quickest meals are a) tacos, which takes about 20 minutes start to finish or b) crockpot pulled pork, which takes about five minutes in the morning (and that’s with chopping an onion) and maybe five more minutes to make coleslaw (which you can buy, instead!) and another two to shred the pork.
It is really sobering when you start counting down the years you have left. I have EIGHT years left, which seems on the surface to be a decent number… but then when I consider how the past ten years have gone past in a lightning flash, it seems a whole lot shorter than meets the eye. The years ARE short.
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We all do love pulled pork too! I have a great recipe that isn’t super complicated but also could be quicker. I should look for a slightly quicker version. My kids like the basic ground beef tacos which are SO quick, but, surprisingly… my husband doesn’t!! Haha. (He calls those ground beef tacos “American tacos”. Haha.)
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We are settling into new routines here, T went back on Wednesday but my teaching doesn’t start til the 11th. Today, I went through and populated the calendar, including who is doing dropoffs and pickups for the month of September. It looks like I’ll be gone early – 7pm or so on Wednesdays and Fridays, and I figure if I’m going to miss bedtime anyway, I might as well try and go to yoga on the way home.
Do you have an instantpot? This is my best quick meal: https://foodiesterminal.com/instant-pot-salmon-pasta/
Or instant pot/crock pot macaroni cheese. Or a substantial quiche that you could make a big tray of and eat for a few days. I wonder about a roast chicken which takes ages in the oven but is hands off?
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I do not have an instapot! But we have been talking about those. Thanks for the ideas! My husband also said we should get an air fryer.
Love your idea of just tacking on yoga to your already long day. Might as well take advantage of it!!
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I have to laugh at Evan saying the block schedule is ‘fine’. That is such a teen move! My parents actually would not let us use the word fine to describe anything. They had a rule about it! Kind of funny huh? They wanted more info and fine just doesn’t cut it. Flash forward and fine is probably a word Phil uses most often to describe things. Me: How was your day? ‘Fine’. Me: Just fine? ‘Yep’. He is a man of fewer words. What can I say. 😉
I hope you find a schedule that works. Would it help to use your excel spreadsheet to design an ‘ideal’ week? I feel like that can be a reality check on what we do v what we think we can/should do. Maybe some days you do an at home workout instead of the gym although that might not give you all that much more time since the gym is so close. But it might save you like 15 minutes which on some days can help?
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I have tried the ideal week thing and I do think it’s helpful, but also kind of not.. because we just seem to have so many darn variables all the time. And then I get frustrated when my actual schedule doesn’t really look anything like my ideal one! Ha.
Haha about your family and fine!! 😅😅 It is annoying when kids answer like that. Ethan is famous for also answering “good” in texts. “How was the first day?” “Good”. 🙄🙄
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For me “fine” and “good” were not allowed LOL
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I’m a huge fan of prepping food on Sunday. I try to make our meal for Monday night which we also eat for leftovers on Tuesday night. I’m a huge fan of freezing things, too (soups, chili, homemade pasta sauce). But I set the bar VERY low with meals and 100% fly by the seat of my pants. I sketch out a rough plan in my mind based on what’s on sale. I’d like to do more formal meal planning this fall, though? Maybe on Sunday after my grocery order I can sit down and plan for the whole week instead of just a few days. Or, go back to my old method which was: soup on Monday, leftovers Tuesday, full meal (meat, veg, rice sort of thing) Wednesday, easy Thursday (because of extracurriculars – leftovers from the freezer, egg wraps), homemade waffles on Friday.
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I do like the idea of theme nights! I used to do that when the kids were younger, but things were very different then. I just find the whole thing kind of overwhelming when I’m not always really sure what exact certain days will ACTUALLY look like, etc.
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I know what you mean about spending time with the kids. Sometimes it’s just being there that is so important. As for quick recipes, my fastest one is wraps. I slice up avocado and veggies, and then the guys add sauteed chicken and cheese. Top with salsa, voila. Dinner!
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Oh yes! I know… all of this. Part of the reason I changed my work schedule, so that I could fit in workouts, was that I want to be there with my daughter in the morning before school. I’m pretty sure if I didn’t make her breakfast,
she wouldn’t eat anything (and I’m not okay with that!) My husband has pointed out that on some days, she could take the bus to school. The bus comes at 6:30 am- I just can’t imagine sending her off in the dark, so I can… run? I couldn’t feel good about that. Yes, this was all much more complicated when both my kids were home, with two different school schedules. Dealing with one kids is simpler.
We also have a block schedule, but it’s every day. On “odd” days they have periods 1,3,5,7; on “even” days they have 2,4,5,6- period 5 is every day, but a normal length- all the other classes are double class periods. I’m not sure how I’d feel about that! I guess it depends on the class. I don’t think I could take a double period of algebra.
I’m not much help with it comes to quick dinners (I always struggle with it.) But if you can swing it, meal prepping on Sunday might be the way to go.
I’ll be interested to hear how this all works out!
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I recommend “Real Life Dinners” by Rachel Hollis and “How to Cook for Teens” by Julee Morrison (used copies on Amazon). We’ve made almost every dish in both of these.
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I subscribed to PrepDish based on certain bloggers/podcasters recommendation 😉 and I really like it. About an hour of work on Sundays and then during the week I can have a whole healthy meal on the table in about 15 minutes. I often also make a full rice cooker of rice or a pound of pasta in addition to stretch the meals since I have a tween boy that eats a lot.
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I did too but didn’t really like many of the recipes! Trying to find an alternative.
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I love PrepDish! I actually REALLY DO use it. I agree the recipes lean ‘healthy’ but sometimes we sub (ie – salmon for cod or something) and the whole thing still comes together well. Literally about to do my PrepDish shopping list now for next week 🙂 I wasn’t sure Kae would like it b/c she really tends to lean on flavors that aren’t as heavily featured in PrepDish but Kae you should check out the free trial. It is VERY good for getting in good protein, too.
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Love the ambition on both the personal and family sides. One perspective from reading your blog is you do like to plan but you (and your family) don’t like it to be too restrictive and like some spontaneity i.e. going to a movie on a random weeknight. I’m in the same boat so when it comes to meal planning, I often get groceries for 3 meals and then as the week goes by, figure out when to have them vs. committing to something in case something changes or you want to shift. So I’d think of building in some flexibility. Same goes for evening time with the boys, some nights they will want to talk and hang out, others not so much so what other “optional” things could you do with that time. Otherwise you might feel pressure that you are there all night and you’re waiting to be needed 🙂 Some nights you get some quality time in and other nights you get to read or walk or watch TV with Ivan.
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Yes, Megan!! You’re exactly right- super restrictive plans don’t really work for us, for many reasons. In part because I just don’t always even KNOW all of the details. Things seem to “pop up” or change a lot around here. Also, Ivan is not a super rigid type person, so I have to keep that in mind. Sometimes what looks good or sounds good on paper ends up unraveling, because he just doesn’t always operate the same exact way, if that makes sense… ha. And totally agree on shifting the meals around. Every time I try to schedule meals to an exact day, something inevitably changes.
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I submitted a request to Laura for the BOBW Patreon to ask the community about meal planning/recipe inspiration because I’m going crazy and desperately need a new system.
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Ooh, I need to check that out, too!
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I’m in the same boat! Six kids—three in high school with busy activity schedules. I worked a lot on meal planning last year during swim/volleyball seasons. Our family’s favorite make ahead recipe is this: https://www.sixsistersstuff.com/recipe/baked-creamy-chicken-taquitos/
I almost always have a bag of them in the freezer for easy snacks/dinner!
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I LOVE the idea of pre-making things that can be frozen, like taquitos or burritos, etc. Make them once and then reheat! I can’t even imagine how you do it with 6 kids. Can’t EVEN imagine!!! Give me all your tips!!! haha!
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I commented on this yesterday but somehow when I posted it, it disappeared… i only mention it in case two comments somehow show up here (I’m sure it’s something I’m doing wrong, ha.)
Anyway, YES. I only have four more years with my daughter at home (sob) and I want to make the most of it. I want to be there in the mornings before school- partly because I’m pretty sure if I didn’t make her breakfast, she wouldn’t eat anything which is NOT OKAY- but I also just want to be there. Same thing with evenings- although, i’m sure if I actually had the energy for it (no) one or two evenings a night would be fine at the gym. It’s not like she expects me to be home for any specific reason, but once again I just want to be there. I’m pretty sure I’ll never look back and wish I had spent LESS time with my kids!
I’ll be interested to see what you come up with for dinners. I’m always struggling with it myself. The best routine I ever got into was last year when I cooked big dinners on Sunday and Wednesday, which meant leftovers Monday and Thursday. Friday is always takeout… it still left a couple nights but it worked pretty well. i haven’t gotten anything like that going this year though, yet.
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I love the podcast Didn’t I Just Feed You for food ideas! I find they have a lot of easy and creative thoughts on how to get food on the table.
Also- the Lazy Genius did an episode called “How to fix dinner when you are never home” I thought it had some great framing for how to think about meal times for busy kids and parents.
On my end, I do a lot of food prep in the morning since I usually don’t leave for work/school until 9am. I mean the Husband is perfectly capable of making dinner, but on nights when I know I won’t be home until after bedtime, I feel like making dinner in the morning is a way to be present in the evenings…
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Thank you for the Lazy Genius podcast rec!! I listened to that one this weekend and also another one she had about planning fall schedules; I think it was the episode prior. Both really good!!
I am thinking more and more that morning window could be a really useful one for cooking/ meal prep. Especially once Asher goes back to school too, there will be a good chunk of time that I could lean into and just decide to use for cooking/ meal prep instead of attempting to work or walk or workout etc. during that time. Then I could accomplish something very useful while still seeing the kids/ being available to them.
I need to check out that other food podcast too!
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Hi Kae, a few thoughts. I teach on a block schedule and IMO it’s better for the kids because once the formal instruction starts, you can go deeper into the material, switch activities more, and just get more done with fewer interruptions. I have a feeling it will be “fine” 😉
Meals… Like Elizabeth, I pretty much take out protein, veggies, and starch. Thank you and goodbye. OR we use a crockpot and make a chili or a beef stew that lasts 2-3 days. Boring but we survive and are all fed.
Workouts… I have been doing a 20-minute yoga routine in the mornings but that’s pretty much it so no advice here.
Although my kids are much smaller (3 and 5) I, too, feel the pressure to be there for them. Public school is rigid though be there at 7:30 leave by 3PM (contract). So I have to work around it.
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Yes, I totally, totally see the benefit to block schedules! I think the way they have it set up seems really great- 3 days of the regular schedule, 2 block days. It makes a lot of sense. I often think the regular class periods seem pretty short, and I have wondered how they can even accomplish much sometimes in that time period!
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May I suggest some extra hours in the day? Hahahaha…. I wish, and I understand that your schedule is much busier than mine and even I could use some extra hours.
Having said that, I think finding quick and easy meals that everyone loves is key for more flexibility in the evenings. I usually don’t cook anything that takes longer than 30 minutes during the week.
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Hahaha!! LOVE THIS SUGGESTION! That’s it, it’s decided. I’m just adding a few hours in from now on. 😉 LOL!
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