When life gets crazy?Do you ever feel like you and your kids finally get your groove, and then BAM! Something throws a wrench in it? Whether it be a new activity added to the calendar, a new milestone, where the baby doesn’t want to sleep or is teething and you aren’t getting sleep? Me too.
I was going over our budget with my husband the other day and thinking, they say it takes 3 months to get a new habit started. But I feel like we do great for 3 months and then all this craziness comes out of the woodwork. For example we plan for hiccups in our budget, car maintenance and house maintenance. But I really need to be on my game when it comes to my household. That’s more a visual example of how crazy our life is.
We get in our groove. Know our dinner schedule, what to cook and when to eat leftovers. Which one of us is cooking and taking kids here, there and everywhere. Making sure laundry is caught up.
But you know what ALWAYS happens when I don’t plan? Our house looks like a bomb went off! All of a sudden my kids don’t know where their bags, shoes, clothes, hair ties, legos go. We eat on a whim and mostly out to eat because I didn’t plan a grocery run. And then we have spent more money. Don’t even get me started on inflation prices right now. That’s a whole nother game changer. Remember when you could buy milk at Aldi for $0.99?? Ya? Me too!
My point is, while thinking about my budget, my life changes every quarter (every 3 months) If I stay on top of my routines I’ve implemented I only have to move a few things around. Am I always great at this? No, but we sure do try.
What do I do to make it easy on me? For dinner, I made a list of all the meals my kids will eat and if they fight me because they're picky it's a list of foods I’ll make them eat. Like something they can cover up with Ketchup or Ranch if they really don’t want to eat it. Not something like sushi/chinese/shrimp, that’s just mean.
Every Sunday I try to plan out my week. I divide it my week into 4 categories, Me/Kids/Work/Home Me- are for my personal goals like- work out 4 times this week Kids-I list out all their practices and games, projects and other activities like if they have a birthday party to go to. Work- My big tasks, any sessions I have coming up and what I need to do to prepare. Home- Any chores that have to get done, plus if i need to move any chores around.
Then I make a dinner plan, based FIRST on what we have on hand and make my cooking nights the nights one of us is actually home long enough to cook the meal. Sometimes we cook on the weekends if we have time, but with 3 kids in sports right now it's not happening as frequently as I’d hoped.
I also look at the kids' school lunch schedule and we figure out who wants hot or cold lunches. I then make my grocery list. And start adding items to my Aldi/Walmart and Costco list. When I’m super busy working I’ll use Instacart. If I have more time I’ll save money and do store pickup.
But doing it all online also helps me stay within my budget for our groceries, since I can check the price as I go and adjust accordingly.
I also try to do a load of laundry a day, and PUT IT AWAY! That’s the kicker! If I have a crazy week my kids know all uniforms are to be cleaned by friday so if they haven’t seen it. They need to put it on the washing machine.
Another great thing we do every night is to “close down” the kitchen. My Granny has had a routine since she was a little girl, you never go to bed with dishes in the sink. Now, let's not get crazy. I went to bed last night with 2 glasses and a plate in the sink. But the drains and the washer were full because our life was go, go, go over the weekend. However, the counters and table were cleared and wiped down. That’s a win in my book! Do I strive for nothing in the sink, Yes, but if I have so many clean drying dishes I don’t have room I’m not going to fret over it.
When my kids were babies, the word schedule stressed me out. I hated having to go by the clock all the time. So I started using “routine'' instead. It helped me relax mentally more and more. Yes I have a window of time I block off but not an alarm.
Doing these routines helps me to keep our welled oil machine of a house working. Don’t be hard on yourself if you don’t get it all done. We have weeks where we have a pow-wow of cleaning as a family to get the whole house done. It also helps me when we know we are having company over ha! Everyone moves at lightning speed. This year we as a family are working on putting items away. Not just in the room they go. It’s so easy to just toss things in a room and say you’ll get to it later, when in reality if you just took 10 extra minutes it could be done.
I hope this helps you. Do you have anything else you’d add? Let me know in the comments!
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