Tag: Planning

Back to the Basics (Or How I’m Planning Our Best Summer Yet)

Exactly how it is that the school year is just about over is baffling to me.  Maybe its because spring never really happened here this year and the transition to summer is coming rather abruptly.  Or maybe it’s simply due to the fact that I’m getting older and time is moving faster.  Regardless, the imminent end to my kids’ school year has forced me to start thinking about our plans for the summer.

As much as I want to plan the most magical wondrous summer filled with excitement at every turn, I also realize, that after a year filled with busy-ness, albeit the best kind of busy-ness, we are all ready to slow down and really take a break from it all.

Rather than get wrapped up in planning each day of the break, I stripped my summer planning back to the very basics; what do I most want to do with my kids in the summers that I have left with them as “kids” AND what do the kids most want to do in their precious summer?

So what is it that I most want to do with my kids in the summers that I have left with them as “kids”?  I want to teach them – teach them how amazing it is to have a love of reading, teach them how to take on more and more responsibility, teach them how to cook on their own, teach them how to grow things in the garden, teach them how to work towards their goals in sports, and of course teach them that hard work will, in the end, always pay off.

I also want to show them that life can be magical – that magic can be found in the routines of everyday life, AND that life can have magical surprises waiting for you when you least expect them.

What do the kids most want to do this summer?  Well, that was a question only the kids could answer.  So we sat down and compiled a list of everything they wanted to do this summer.  This is actually an activity we do before every major school break.  All of our lists are in one notebook, and it’s fun to see how the lists change as the seasons change, and as the kids change and grow up.

Some highlights from the list this for this summer:

  • Create a family band and make a song together
  • See the new Toy Story movie
  • Go on a road trip

Because I am a planner at heart, and feel ever so much better when I have a plan in place, I’ve come up with a way that I think will help us get everything we all want out of this summer.

So here’s how we’re going to get it all in.  Each week will follow the same format.

Movie Monday

Kids Make Dinner Tuesday

Field Trip Wednesday

Adventure Thursday

Fun Friday

Movie Mondays can happen either at a movie theatre, or in our house.  Since movies also aren’t a huge time commitment, the kids will plan and make shopping lists, and likely even shop, for the items they need for the dinner they will be making on Tuesday.

Kids Make Dinner Tuesdays is fun for everyone; the kids get to choose foods they really want to eat and/or make, they learn to work together and they learn to cook.  These days also often include the making of menus, and of course, setting the table and helping with the dishes.  And of course, I get to teach them what I know about cooking and baking.

Field Trip Wednesdays, Adventure Thursdays, and Fun Fridays are how I am able to work in the “magic” part of the summer.  Field trips can be educational (to the museum, the art gallery, or other cultural institutions) or they can be fun (amusement or water parks, or other fun destinations around the city).  Adventures can be to explore new parts of the city (like Underpass Park, or the Harry Potter Store).  And Fun Friday . . .well that can involve anything from a trip to a new ice cream store, to sleepovers to an amusement park visit, to creating that family band and writing a song together . . .

What I most love about this kind of schedule is that it can be changed on the fly (the kids don’t find out about what we are going to do on Wednesdays, Thursdays or Fridays until that morning), so I can plan according to how we’re feeling, the weather, or spur of the moment plans with friends.  Some weeks can be busier.  And others can be more relaxed.

I started this all by talking about how much I want to teach the kids this summer – and so far all I’ve talked about is having fun – not that teaching can’t be fun . . . but . . .

As the kids get older, I want them to take on more responsibility and to be held accountable for the things they do.  Which means, that before we have screen time, or other forms of play time in a day, the kids are expected to compete a certain number of “must-dos” each morning.  These include getting dressed and ready for the day, making their bed, and reading a novel for 30 minutes (I’ll talk more about our summer reading plans in a later post).   I have found it is far easier to get all the chores done before screens make an appearance than to try and take the screens away when it’s time to get ready for the day.

And now that my plans are in place, I can relax and start enjoying what I’m certain is going to be our best summer yet! (Which is fortuitous as one kid is already done school for the year, and the other one is done tomorrow!!).

 

 

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30 Minutes on Sunday So I Can Have Weekday Sanity & Make Sure We’re All Eating to Nourish Ourselves

“I just don’t have time” is always the response I get when I talk about how easy it is to cook nourishing foods at home without relying on prepared, packaged, or processed foods.  And how it IS possible to find nourishing foods that even the pickiest eater will tuck into.

After my post yesterday, in which I relayed my rather strong feelings on how we should be eating, and the consequences we can expect when we repeatedly subject our body (and that of every member of our family) to inflammation, I thought I should maybe try to tackle this “I don’t have time” issue . . .

Here’s the thing.  YOU DO HAVE TIME.  I promise!

I know.  You’re busy.  I get it.

So . . . . how do you make more time?

Start by blocking off half an hour on Sunday.  Preferably in the morning.  Preferably when the whole family is home (this of course depends on the ages of your kids).

Go through your fridge – toss out anything that needs to go.  And figure out what food you need to get you through the week.  It’s at this time that I menu plan for the week – my kids both have lunch programs at their school, and the Husband and I eat salads each day for lunch – so I plan breakfast and dinners for the week.  From there, I make a grocery list.  Depending on what we’re having in a given week, I may schedule in a mid-week grocery shop as well.  But since we’re in the dead of winter, there isn’t much exciting fresh produce in the stores, and I am happy to have frozen meat in the freezer for dinners (especially now that I have an InstantPot, but that’s a story for another day), I can go from Sunday night through Friday night with one grocery shop on Sunday.  It’s at this point that the Husband usually heads out to the grocery store, but if that isn’t in the plan for the day, I have my list ready to go for Monday morning.

Once I have taken care of the food planning side of things, I tackle the calendar for the week.  I make sure everyone knows if there’s something special going on that week – from field trips to appointments to nights the Husband will be working late.

Then I tackle the school bags.  Since my kids are still young, I make sure that both their bags are emptied of garbage and any other detrius that accumulated during the week.  I also make sure that they have everything in their bags that needs to be in there.  As my son is getting older, I have him check his school schedule and help pack any gym clothes, winter clothes, or homework that he needs for the next day.

Next up is the activity bags.  I get the dance, skating, swim and hockey bags ready for the week.

I also make sure that my purse is cleaned out, that my gym bag is ready to go, and that I have everything in order for my week.

I print out the charts for the week for the kids.  (Sure, this may seem a bit tiger-mom-ish – but, most of the things on the charts are things they have to do anyway, like homework and practice piano.  These charts simply transfer the responsibility to them to ensure that they get the work they need to get done, done.  And if we get extra work done . . . well, then that’s just a bonus!  I also sometimes add in incentives for them in case they want to do more work.)

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And then I sit down to plan out my week, what things I want to get done and when I’m going to do them.  I am absolutely LOVING using both my Powersheets and my Simplified Planner – between these two tools, I have been able to spend the last three weeks chipping away at my to-do’s and my goals, all without feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of my to-do list or my long-term goals.

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Ok . . . I know what you’re going to say . . . but . . . YES, you can do all this in THIRTY minutes!  You can take longer if you want . . . but it really can be done in just half an hour!

So, how does this save my sanity exactly?  Well, first off, come tomorrow morning, when we’re jolted back to the reality of the work/school week, I know that at a minimum, the whole family is on the same page with breakfast, and there will be no last minute running around trying to find/pack what we need for the day!  Repeat that for each day of the work week, and you’ll be amazed how much more relaxed you are!!  When the mornings go well, the rest of your day seems to magically go well too . . .

I also know, come Monday morning, exactly how my week is going to work.  I know that I won’t have to make unnecessary (and time-wasting) trips to the grocery store.  I know that there will be no last-minute panics with the kids needing something.  And I know what I can expect to get done each day.  Of course, I also know where I have pockets of time to fit in anything unexpected that might come up during the course of the week.

And how does this mean we’re all nourished properly?  Well, first off, by menu planning, I can see at a glance what our food intake for the week looks like – making sure we’re not eating too much of one thing, or too little of another.  Secondly, I know what to take out of the freezer in the morning so I’m never caught at 5:00 with nothing to feed the family, and I’m never in a situation where I have to resort to eating out / packaged / processed / prepared food.

Sure, we have nights where we don’t get home until 5:30, and the kids are still young enough to need dinner at around 6.  So on those nights, we have quick-to-prepare dinners – things like pasta sauce on quinoa pasta, or a meat that can be quickly grilled on the barbecue.  And on those nights when we have more time at home, we can have dinners that take longer to cook – things like roast chickens.

Taking it one step further, I can also ensure that there are enough “intentional” leftovers that I have tasty things to throw in my lunchtime salads (I am quite certain that there is nothing better than left over roasted sweet potatoes in a salad . . . but that’s just my opinion).

We’re now so used to this routine, that the kids are taking part in the menu planning, and helping to cook the dinners as time allows.  This is adding yet another layer to my sanity as dinner is taking less time to prepare at night, the kids are FAR more willing to eat what they’ve cooked, and we all have more time to do the things that we need/want to get done.

So . .  . I know it’s now Sunday afternoon .  . . but maybe try even just packing your kids’s or your own bags for tomorrow and making sure that you have everything you need for the week.  See how even just that little change can make your weekdays go so much more smoothly . . .and if you can, add in the menu planning!

I promise, not only will you have some sanity back, you’ll also feel better from feeding yourself better!

(And of course . . . the real bonus . . . check out how your kids’ behaviour changes when they start eating more whole foods . . . yet another sanity saving tip!!)

Happy Sunday!

 

 

 

 

 

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33. How Do You REALLY Feel? And A Delicious Sugar/Gluten Free Peach/Blueberry Crisp

Right now, I’m feeling pretty fantastic.  How are you doing?  What do you feel like as you move through today?  Are you rested?  Happy?  Satiated?  All of the above?  None of the above?

I was super lucky this morning as my parents took the kids out for a long boat ride, giving me some time to myself.  I look a yoga mat, phone, laptop, planner, and some water up to my most favourite spot in the whole world, with the intention of finally laying out some concrete plans for the fall.

The yoga mat was so I could do a short yoga practice (via Yoga Download) to help clear my mind, and the rest of my accessories were there to help me with my planning project.  As I looked at calendars and commitments, and thought about how to structure our lives this fall, all I could think about was how I wanted to feel through this next season.  Yes, Danielle LaPorte has been popping up a lot lately, which may explain why I keep being drawn to how things feel.

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But I digress.  Over the past few days, in the in the past few posts, I’ve talked about how, for me, having little sugar and alcohol helps me to feel physically better, how I want to listen to my gut more, even if that means going against popular convention, and how having down time / quiet time helps me centre myself and allow my to hear what my gut has to say.  When these three things happen . . . well, I feel fantastic.  Sort of like how I’m feeling now.

So the planning continues . . . how to schedule things to allow for all of the above, but still allow for some spontaneous fun.

Sadly, this was pretty much as far as I got in my planning process today – the kids came back from the boat ride, lunch needed to be made . . . and from there, some chores, some dinner preparations, and of course, my new dessert.

As this is the last long weekend of the summer, we’re in a race to use up as much food as we can so we don’t have to take much back to the city with us.  With all the gorgeous peaches we have, and a giant bowl of blueberries that was just about to pass its prime, all I could think about was a fruit crisp.

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My aforementioned desire to consume little in the way of sugar meant that my traditional favorite crisp recipes were out.  So I started a search of the internet.  Was there a crisp that was going to taste good that didn’t include sugar or gluten?  I’m sure there are some somewhere, but I didn’t find them.  Sure, there are tons of recipes like this, but the majority of them consist of some fruit baked with almond flour mixed with a little melted coconut oil on top.  A crisp this does NOT make.  A crisp to me is a bottom layer of juicy, sweet fruit, topped with a crispy, buttery oat topping.

So I returned to my favourite recipe.  Was there a way to make it sugar and gluten free?  Armed with maple syrup and tapioca flour, I gave it a go.  And the results were surprisingly good.  (*note that this is based on the Strawberry & Rhubarb Crisp recipe that appears in the Gourmet cookbook.  If you have never made this on an early summer’s day when the strawberries have just come in and the rhubarb is on it’s way out . . . you MUST do so, sugar and gluten and all.  It is DIVINE!).  This recipe keeps the oats and the butter, but does away with the flour and all the sugar!

And once that was done . . . it was off to to get in some fun by the water before dinner!

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Sugar-Free, Gluten-Free Peach Blueberry Crisp

  • Servings: 8-10
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

 

Ingredients

  • 5-6 peaches, peeled and cut into small wedges (I cut each peach into sixteenths)
  • 3 cups wild blueberries
  • 1/4 cup maple syurp
  • 3 Tbsp tapioca flour
  • 1 1/4 cups organic gluten-free oats
  • 4 Tbsp tapioca flour
  • 1 1/2 sticks cold butter
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup

Directions

  1. Preheat your oven to 350.
  2. Put the peaches and blueberries into a medium sized bowl.  Pour in the maple syrup and 3 Tbsp of tapioca flour.  Mix until all the fruit has been coated with both the syrup and the flour.
  3. Pour the fruit mixture into a 9×9″ baking dish (you can grease this with butter beforehand for an easier clean-up if you wish)
  4. In another medium-sized bowl, combine the oats, 4Tbsp of tapioca flour.
  5. Cut the butter into small cubes and add it into the oat mixture.
  6. Pour the remaining 1/4 cup of maple syrup in and stir so that the oat mixture forms small clumps.
  7. Pour this topping mixture over the fruit.
  8. Bake for about 40 minutes or until the peaches are tender (you can check this with a thin paring knife) and the topping is browned and crisp.

 

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Sometimes, You Just Have to Laugh

So, I was up at 4:30 this morning.  To work on a spreadsheet.  For our vacation.  Not a spreadsheet on what to pack (I did that last week), and not a spreadsheet with a general itinerary (that was done months ago).  Nope.  A spreadsheet outlining everything that I have planned for us on each day of our vacation.

And as I finalized the formatting and hit print . . .

I laughed.

We are visiting the most magical place on earth, and here I am, STILL trying to plan exactly how, when and where we will have magical moments.

And then there were tears.  I thought I was supposed to be letting go, surrendering to what is, what could be, what will be, enjoying the moment.  And yet I can’t stop planning what we’re doing (and what we’re going to wear while we’re doing it) on our vacation.

Then there was frustration.  Really, have I not absorbed any of the stuff that I’ve been reading/talking/blogging about lately?  Did I not learn from the post where I talked about “over-planning killing magic”????

So I did the only logical thing I could do.  Set my son up with a lego set, set up daughter up with a bin of magnatiles (her current obsession), and gave myself a time out to stop, to think, and to compose myself.  And while in that self-imposed time out (really, I was putting away laundry . . . but it was a few quiet moments to myself to think), I got back to that place of laughter.

Really, it’s time to stop taking all this so seriously.

“To laugh at yourself is to love yourself”
-Mickey Mouse

And on that note, I’m going to smile my way to the gym, where I’m sure there will be lots more laughs.  And after that . . . well, I’ll do my best to keep on laughing.

Speaking of which . . . I made a fantastic dinner last night.  It was super easy, took next to no time to prepare, and the leftovers taste even better.  So here goes . . .

Pork Tenderloin with Maple Applesauce

  • Servings: 4-6
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients

2 pork tenderloins

4 apples (I used 2 granny smith and 2 honey crisp – use whatever you have in the fridge

1 shallott, minced

1/3 cup maple syrup

3tbsp butter

3tbsp olive oil

salt, pepper, cinnamon to taste

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 425.
  2. Heat a large cast iron or oven proof skillet on medium/high heat.  Add the olive oil, making sure the bottom of the pan is well oiled, and add in the pork tenderloin.  Let the pork brown on each side (about 4 minutes per side).
  3. When the pork is browned, remove it from the pan and add in the butter, and turn the heat down to low/medium.  When the butter has melted, add in the shallot and apples.  The pan will still be hot, so turn the apples frequently so they don’t burn – they may get a bit browned, but that’s ok.  Once the apples start to get soft, add the pork back to the pan so that it is resting on the apples.  Now pour the maple syrup all over the pork.
  4. Put the pan in the oven and let the pork cook until it registers 145 on a meat thermometer (or until it is just barely pink when you cut into it).  This took about 12 minutes for one of my tenderloins and about 20 minutes for the other.
  5. Once the pork is cooked, the apples should be nice and soft.  Serve by slicing the pork and putting a heaping spoonful of the apples over the pork.
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