Reading · Dash of Delight

I sat down this morning to make my list for the day and realized we’ve started a few new things in our family rhythm that are really working for us right now. Right now being the operative phrase, ha! Things can change quickly around here. But for right now, these are working! They’re simple, silly, and honestly not THAT big of a deal, but hey, we love it when something works! And I’m always so nosy about how other people are doing all the things, you know?! So here’s my current list, mostly routines and meals and kid stuff, just in case it makes your days run a little smoother too.

And PLEASE, if you have something simple that’s working for you, put it in the comments. We’re all in this together!

The most simple but effective!

Laying out clothes the night before. Total no brainer, I know. But ever since school started last week I’ve been laying out the kids’ outfits (bows, too!) and mine right along with them. I’m still in some form of athleisure for drop off, let’s be honest, but it’s athleisure I chose. And on the days I’m not headed to the gym, it helps that I’m not doing drop off in the XL t-shirt I slept in because my outfit is right there in front of me. Lol.

Bricking my phone at night. Tbh, I cannot be trusted after 9pm.

The lunchbox is the thing that will undo my entire morning if I let it, ha!

Two bento boxes and two water bottles. I like to pack the kids’ lunches the night before, typically while I’m making dinner and the kitchen is still a mess. But far too often the afternoon got away from me and their lunchboxes are still waiting to be unpacked. Now there’s always a clean set waiting. Truly life changing!

Snack bags for the whole week. The kids take a snack to school every day and every bag has to have their name on it. So Sunday night I line them all up, fill them, and add the name stickers in one go. Doing it every single morning felt silly when two extra minutes covers me for the week!

Freezer sandwiches. The minute a loaf of sourdough comes home I slice it and make as many PB&Js and ham and cheeses as it’ll give me, cut them, bag them, freeze them. I pull one out the night before, or honestly the morning of, and it goes straight in a lunchbox! They don’t have a sandwich every day but when they do I know it’s already done. (Here’s a full newsletter I wrote about feeding toddlers… without overthinking it!)

Freezer rice. We eat very simple dinners over here. A protein, a veggie, a carb, and a lot of the time that carb is jasmine rice. So a few weeks ago I made a giant pot, cooled it on a sheet pan, packed it into gallon freezer bags, laid them flat, and ran a spatula through to score it into serving portions. Now I just go snap off a piece and heat it for a minute when we need it. This one feels genius and I’d like credit!

Fancy-ish lunch for me! I do not feel my best when I skip a real lunch. So I decided to just have the same EASY thing every day until I get bored of it, and right now, it’s working. A big bowl of leafy greens, a protein I batched on Sunday, cold cut up veggies, sweet potato or rice (see above), a whole lemon squeezed over the top, and olive oil. Super simple, but it helps, well, everything!

Small, slightly indulgent, and absolutely non-negotiable.

Red light mask FIRST thing. I’m already lying there hitting snooze for ten minutes, so I might as well make it count. I know I talk about this constantly, but seriously it’s the hack of all hacks.

Pedicure with my laptop. I bring my computer along and do a few tasks I’ve been putting off while I get a pedicure… it’s like a very productive reward!

And then there’s these sweet moments that have nothing to do with efficiency at all.

Family prayer and hug before we all go our separate ways. I talked about this last week, but we love it so much. It’s everyone’s favorite part of the morning. The kids pile into Ryan’s lap, we all snuggle up, and we pray over the day before heading into all of it. They ask for it now, which is so sweet I could cry.

Weekly date nights. We swap every other week between a night out and a night in, but either way it’s our favorite night of the week. We start counting down to Thursday on approximately Friday.

That’s it! Sweet, simple, but mean so much during this crazy season.

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