school is back in session & lunch packing tips

I popped up out of bed this morning full of joy and excitement because school started today!

Although, now that my kids are in school, I am a little sad. Really sad actually. I miss them terribly! As I am sitting here typing this I am laughing at myself, because for the last week I have been eagerly awaiting today and now that today is here I am not at all feeling the way I thought I would be feeling.
Oh well…on with the day we go!

I would like to share the newest organizational tool I am trying out in my house, I actually got the idea from this post at Iheart Organizing, she is so full of great ideas!

I revamped my already snack bucket that I keep in my pantry.

Now it has one side for deserts and one side for snacks. In my fridge I have two plastic containers, one for fruit and veggie snacks and one for lunch stuff, everything in the containers is prepackaged by me and ready for a quick grab.

I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS!

I knew that this year was going to be a bit crazy in the mornings since my kids are now in different schools and we have to leave 45 minutes earlier than last year, so this idea makes the task of making lunches about 6 minutes faster and allows the kids to pick their own lunch goodies. Instead of having to drag each individual item out to make the lunches all I have to do is grab the basket. After I make the sandwiches I put them in the lunchboxes and let the kids grab their own desert, fruit or veggie, snack and drink.

How I make it work:On your grocery day, prepackage in small zip lock bags individual serving sizes of the goodies your kids like to eat. Fill small plastic containers with your condiments, I filled mine with ranch, mayo, mustard and cream cheese. In one basket place all your fruit and veggie snacks with side dressings in the small containers for easy grabbing. Fill the other basket with all your sandwich stuff and containers filled with the condiments. And then in the pantry basket fill it with the individually packaged dry goodies and deserts your kids like to snack on. It took me about 30 minutes on Friday (my grocery day) to get everything packaged and in the bins. I can happily spare 30 minutes once a week if it saves me 6 minutes at 5am in the morning! Just fill your baskets every time you go to the grocery store and this should be a huge success!

Do you have any early morning lunch tips or tricks to share?

Sports have hijacked my life!

Do you ever wonder where you own life goes? Find yourself sitting back thinking how did I get here? Realize that you love someone else more than anyone in the whole world, but that someone or someones are less than 5 feet tall?

I have, and am currently right there! I have been blessed with 2 boys who are sports inclined and love with an intense passion the game of baseball!

One, two, three strikes, your out at the ol' ball game...

We have played a wide variety of sports since our boys we able to toddle on the field. Soccer at 3, baseball and football at 4, basketball at 5 and then have consistenly played football and baseball every year since they were able to play. After we moved the boys decided they wanted to give up football (frowine face) and play year round baseball (happy face) so that is what we did. We played 2 seasons in a new organization and decided real quick the people in the city of Azle have no idea how to play a real game of baseball (their youth program SUCKS!!) So this season we made the decision with our kids that we were going to play select ball. Both the boys were lucky enough to make select teams and away we went. It hasnt really been to bad thus far with only practices going on, but HOLY COW last week we started games too.....AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!  This was our schedule last week....

Monday: practice 530-630, home by 645

Tuesday: game at 6 and at 745, home at 11

Wednesday: (normal day for us to go to church) game 745, home by 11

Thursday: practice 530-8, home by 830

Friday: OFF, PRAISE GOD!

Saturday: leave house at 9 home by 4. scrimmage from 10-12 and then batting practice from 1-3

Sunday: get up go to early church service 830-1030, practice 12-2, then pictures 430-630.

Is that insanity or what?

The really crazy thing is we have done this so many times with two kids, yes its a bit busier being in a select league...normally practices stop when games start, not here we practice...when we dont have games,

but its our life and we have become accostumed to this life and we LOVE this life.

Running in two directions and meeting in the middle, gathering as a family when ever we can. When the odd chance happens that we only have one at practice, the other doesnt stay home, no heck no, we enjoy it as a family and cheer each other on.

Our friends think we are nuts, that we need to find a league that is less competitive...WHATS THAT YOU SAID??? LESS COMPETITIVE??? That is insanity! How could our kids really enjoy this they ask...isnt it too much?

Believe me when I say I have asked them, we made this decision to go select as a family and they love it every minute of it. What kid doesnt want to stay up late on a school night anyway? Hear their name chanted from the stands or stand firm protecting their plate while knocking another kid over and call it a baseball play. My kids love it, as a family we love it. So yes maybe we are a bit nuts, but it works for us. Our kids are learning team work, what it feels like to loose and to win, comradarie, balance and they are having fun!

Sports have absolutely hijacked our lives for now, but I know come July we will be back to normal for a few months and my kids will have taken so much from this experience.

And that keeps me going when my eyes feel as though they are going to fall off my face because I am so tired. It keeps me excited to sit in the stands when it's 102degrees or 62 degrees.

So now of coarse I wanna know...

What sacrafices do you make for your family? Is anyone else out there crazy involved in some sport or youth function? I wanna hear from you!!! But please no bashing, if you dont agree that is fine, but respect that this is our families decision. Share in fun and relation to our experiences, what did you do as a kid, what do you do with you kids???

Jen

Dirty Little Secrets of a Mom

I am linking up today to this new party called Real Moms Real Laughs! It is a new idea out there that as moms we need to break down the barriers and be real. We spend so much time blogging about our house and crafts and how to organize that it's easy to make others think you have this perfectly amazing life and nothing ever goes wrong. But LET'S BE REAL! Things to go wrong, so today in light of the new linky party I am spilling the beans on my 5 ooops when it comes to my kids. I hope that this reminds you that life is not perfect ANYWHERE for ANYONE!

ooops #1: My oldest son Chance talks...alot, he takes after me, (but I dont think I am as annoying as him) he talks about random things that he has already talked about or things that I just don't care anything about, but I realize the need for him to talk I just sometimes stink at filling his need to also be listened to. I have to admit when he starts talking I usually tune out. Sometimes he catches me with a question and I have to give a really generic answer because I have NO IDEA what he is asking. I try to listen but I don't always suceed.

ooops #2: I make them clean their rooms and make their beds and then when they go to school I do it again for them. They just suck at chores! And I have a certain way I like it done, I am a bit OCD like that. I want their bed to look a certain way and their closets to be clean and their cloths to be neat and orgainized in their dressers so when they go to school, I do it all again. The biggest problem this causes is that I am trying to teach them responsiblity so I enforce their chores, and there have been times they have been in a rush to get to school becuase of the chores and then I just go and redo it.

ooops #3: This is kinda gross, but if you have boys kids I am sure it has happened to you....they rarely flush the toilet. I don't know why but more often than not when I venture onto their floor and go into their bathroom there is something in the toilet. I get so mad sometimes I yell and I have even spanked. Well for the first time EVER, right after I yelled at them both for not flushing, I was caught not flushing by my husband who so obnoxiously announced to them MOMMY FORGOT TO FLUSH! Then I lied and said I did but the toilet must have not gone down all the way so avoid embarrasment.

ooops #4: My follow through for discipline is HORRIBLE! I talk a big talk but my walk is so small. And I have even talked my husband out of punishment for them because I felt bad and didn't want them to be in trouble. (No wonder they don't flush! I will do it for them and they wont get in trouble.)

ooops #5: When I am busy and they ask for something I say "ok in a minute" except usually that minute winds up being like an hour all because I just don't want to do it right then. I feel bad. I know they are thirsty or hungry but can't they see I'm blogging!

Ok friends, so now that all my dirty little secrets are out what are yours???

Jen