Thread: time management
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Old 06-16-2015, 10:37 AM
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julifish julifish is offline
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I work full time (sometimes at home and sometimes outside the house) and often I have meetings that run later. I have a few strategies that work for me, but honestly if the house is a mess and I'm busy that is my last priority unless we are having someone over.

1. Dinner- cook once and eat twice. I make double batches of meat and some side dishes. So I cook a couple extra chicken breasts that can be used for tacos, salad, or just another night's dinner with some kind of different sauce on it. I do the same with ground beef and steak- but never fish or shrimp. Same with long cooking side dishes I make 8 baked potatoes instead of just 4. Then we can cut them up and fry fast or reheat and put toppings on for a different night's dinner. Same thing with sides like Mac & Cheese either go with boxed and eat half one night, half another or make homemade on the weekend and then freeze it to use later.

Another strategy is just keeping it simple. When we went low carb our choices dropped. So I do a meat, a veggie (zucchini, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower) and a salad and that's it. I add fruit for the kids and sometimes a potato for them. (The Simply Potatoes brand potatoes and mashed potatoes are a big saving grace here!)

As for cleaning I find that if I give the kids the same chores each week then we have a good routine - so Monday they always do the same thing, same on Tuesday. Also, if we do a big clean becasue someone is coming then if I can have everyone throw in 15 minutes before or after dinner to just clean up today's mess that helps. A cleaning service is not going to pick up and organize. They will just clean and frankly paying someone to just move my stuff over to dust and sweep does not help a whole lot - we get stuff all over the place. The mopping, sweeping,etc has to be done more than once a week anyway - so I'm wasting my money on cleaning services.

Ce is old enough to help out with lots of things including putting dinner in the oven for you if you prep something. Turning off the crock pot, setting the table, doing chores. Put that kid to work (even if he doesn't like it b/c one day is future wife will thank you for teaching him how to do all this stuff!).
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