Another day (month? year?), another attempt to get this blog off the ground. Today is the first day of the new school year for my son (who attends a cyber charter school, from home) and for me (I attend college courses both online and in person.)
The challenge, as always, comes down to organization. How can I keep up with my schoolwork, help my boy keep up with his, run after the toddler, and maintain some kind of order in the house?
Recently, I've begun flexible meal planning (thanks to my good friend Misty!) Writing down dinners for the week and then shopping for the ingredients, then picking which thing to cook on each day. It sounds simple, but it really makes a huge difference to not be staring into the freezer at 4pm every night thinking "oh, crap, I don't have any food that goes with anything else." The really great thing is that it doesn't have to be set in stone -- like saying "Thursday we're having a chicken and veggie stir fry" and then finding myself too tired/busy/stressed to want to chop a bunch of fresh veggies. I can still pick an easier meal, but I already know I have the ingredients on hand, which makes a world of difference. No more running to the grocery store at 4:30!
I'm also on a pretty good schedule with the kids as far as getting up, mealtimes, naptime (the baby, not the 12yo!), and bedtime. This is a HUGE change from what I've always done, and again, sounds simple, but has made a huge difference. I'd really like to get even more scheduled so that I have a set time and day for laundry, cleaning, etc.
On a sort-of unrelated note, my neighbors moved out this past weekend. The house next to me is one of those classic Northeast Philly horror stories -- the people who bought it live hundreds of miles away and don't care about the property, so they rent it to people without doing a credit check or making sure that the people maintain the property. The property went to hell in the two years that the most recent tenants lived there. Worst of all, their loud, rude, obnoxious teenagers were always out front cursing and playing loud music -- despite how many times we asked them to keep it down for our kids' sake. Now that they are gone, I feel like I finally have my outside back... I don't have to keep my windows shut for the noise; I don't have to stay inside to avoid them. Yay!
So, goals for this month: get on a schedule for cleaning/laundry, stick to the meal plan, and spend more time outside on my patio/front lawn. Let's see what happens. As always, I do mean to update this blog... not that there's anyone reading it just yet....
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