I survived my first two weeks back at work. Since I was super organized, everything went extremely smoothly. Now that it’s already my third week back and I don’t really want to spend every Sunday planning and shopping for the coming week, I’m trying to tweak my routine a bit to make things easier.
- Laundry: I’m changing laundry from Sunday to Friday with an optional load on Sunday. I’ve always done laundry on Sunday but now that I work from home on Friday, I have the availability to just throw in a load. Or two. Or three. With the addition of DS3, we more laundry so taking care of as much laundry as I can while I’m home anyway will allow for more free time on Sunday.
- Weekly Menu Plans: I used to only plan our Shabbos menus. Our nightly dinner was just planned a day in advance, which can work, but can also be frustrating since I don’t always have the ingredients I want on hand. By planning the entire week, I want to have a more balanced menu as well as minimize the amount of shopping trips we need each week. I’ve decided to plan from Monday-Shabbos, since our menu really depends on what is leftover for Shabbos. Sunday dinner will be planned that day, since we aren’t always home and can easily have leftovers (if available) or take-out.
- Night-time Prep: This isn’t really a change from what I used to do, but I just want to be really strict about packing everyone up for school/daycare/work the night before. My mornings run so much more smoothly when I don’t have to worry about this. Night time activities include: packing lunches for everyone, checking the weather and setting aside clothing for everyone for the next day (especially if the laundry isn’t folded!) and finding the kids shoes. I also have to remember to pack empty bottles for my bag so I have something to save my pumped milk in.
- Grocery Shopping: I’ve noticed that we have been doing small shopping trips more often as opposed to one large trip to one store. For now it’s working, since we can’t always shop at night like we used to. It frees up time on Sunday and we can take advantage of the deals in different stores, based on what’s on the shopping list. It also allows me to quickly run into a store with whichever child is with me… this way there’s always enough room in the cart, since the list is usually shorter.
As I’ve done in the past, I updated our weekly to do list as a reference. It isn’t color-coded anymore, but is a good reminder for what needs to get done. It’s especially helpful if I’m not home one night and DH needs to know what to do… just look on the list!
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I know that as time goes on I’ll get more used to this hectic schedule. I’ve done it before and I can do it again!
Until next time,
Shaindy
