Here we are on May 31st and it's been about two weeks since we started summer vacation. And I don't know about any of you, but I am not at all conditioned for summer. I'm not talking hair care, bathing suit ready, or exercise. I'm talking about the day in/day out lazy days of summer! As I've mentioned before, I'm not a schedule following mom. I don't have our days planned out or play dates on the calendar. I wing our days, weeks, and months leading up to the first day of school and sometimes my lackadaisical approach to things isn't family friendly! With a new month dawning tomorrow, I'm thinking ahead about how to make my summer a little more organized but still a little lazy!
Meal Planning: How many of you out there plan out your meals for the week? I generally try to have some kind of idea when heading to the grocery store, but by Thursday, we haven't always had what I thought I might make that week. Busy schedules can get in the way. But at the same time, I'm super tired by the end of the day and don't really feel like whipping up a family dinner! And with summer here, I definitely don't want to spend all my evenings at the stove. So I'm going to start doing a little meal planning. What's my plan, you ask? Freezer meals for one. I'm going to try and carve out one day a week where I spend some time making meals to have on hand in the freezer. My mom and I did this last year and it was so incredibly helpful. All I had to do was decided what was for dinner the night before, put in the fridge to the thaw, and then bake it for dinner! This way, if I find that we're still at the pool at 5:00, I'm not scrambling to throw a crappy meal together, not leaving the fun early because I have to make dinner, and everyone wins with a hearty meal! And it doesn't always have to be a freezer meal. Just having it on the calendar helps. As of right now, I'm planning to make spinach quiche one night for a two night meal. With it I'll serve a fruit salad and muffins. A saw a yummy chicken tostada meal in the Food Network Magazine that I'm planning to make as well. My goal on most weeks is to make a two night meal so I'm not cooking every night.
Blogging: I'm not sure if you noticed, but I haven't been blogging daily. Why, you ask? Because I don't have the time! I'm not conditioned to have my posts planned ahead, which isn't really authentic to who I am as a blogger, and I certainly don't have that much time at night to sit down and blog. But, I'm going to make the time! How can I call myself a blogger if I'm not blogging! So, I'm going to try and think of fun topics to share, but keep them as real time as possible. I like to pride myself on the fact that I'm blogging about what's really going on around here when it happens. And, I'm going to try not to always have DVR time after McKinley goes to bed, but instead focus on chatting with you guys as often as possible! Speaking of topics, got any?
House Keeping: I'm a horrible house keeper. Just ask my husband. Clutter doesn't bother me as much as it does him. I've always been one that will clean when I've had enough. However, I cleaned last week for a Stella & Dot styling session I hosted and my house never looked so bright and shiny! Okay, it's looked that bright and shiny before, on several occasions, but you forget when you're trying to live life! So my plan this summer is to take one day a week to do the deep cleaning. Vacuuming and dusting will be the main thing as I'm trying to keep a goal for myself of picking up clutter daily! Honestly, I think the mess makes the house look dirtier than it actually is! What do you do to combat a dirty house? Do you clean daily or weekly?
If I can tackle these three areas all summer, I think things are going to go swimmingly well over here! I think it will help me be a better mother because I won't be so worried about time management and just live in the moment. It will help dinner time run smoothly and come together quickly when everyone is starving. And the house will be presentable in case we do have a spontaneous play date! Nothing worse than trying to tidy up when your house needs a four hour deep cleaning.
Are you summer conditioned at this point or are you still making adjustments? What is working for you? Anything new you're trying? Old tricks of the trade you are willing to share? I'll keep you posted on the happenings over here!
XO,
Andrea
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