Oh-Bla-Di

I think someday Matt & I might look back on this part of our lives and wonder just how we managed to do it.  Sleepless nights, two people working outside the home, and two little kiddos makes for busy days.  We’ve also started to add exercise and more eating at home into that mix, so that adds a little more complexity to the “get home from work” routine.  In an effort to make more time at the end of the day to hang out as a family, we’ve created a routine that seems to be working for us.

We started counting our Weight Watchers points six weeks ago and so we’ve been carefully monitoring how much we eat.  That means that home cooked is easiest and healthiest.  It also means no lunches out while at work.  But, since evening time is limited, we do most of our prep on the weekend.  Dinner is cooked fresh every night, but can be on the table 15 minutes after we walk in the door.

Each weekend, I cook a big batch of oatmeal for my breakfast all week, a big batch of brown rice or whole wheat rotini pasta, and Noah’s oatmeal cereal for the week.  Then, I spend some time slicing up veggies for the dinners and for my lunches and making Noah’s vegetable purees. Finally, I slice up either chicken breast or pork tenderloin into 1 oz. chunks and dump some marinade over it (it gets stashed in the fridge and doled out over the week).

Dinner prep is as easy as cooking a measured portion of meat in the skillet, cooking a vegetable (fresh or frozen) in the same skillet, and warming rice or noodles in the microwave.  Whoever isn’t cooking feeds Noah dinner and then he gets to sit with us at the table while we all eat.  Dinner this way is yummy, it’s easy and, maybe the best part, Ava eats every bite.  No more dinner time squabbles and everyone is eating a super healthy meal.

To make the rest of the work week evenings go more smoothly, lunches are packed every Sunday and go to work on Monday morning for the whole week.  I also carry a thing of little yogurts, a bunch of apples, a bag of baby carrots and a bag of string cheese.  It sometimes looks like I’ve got the whole grocery store with me on the way in on Monday, but this way I only have to remember my lunch once a week.  Since sleep deprivation is such a powerful thing, only having to remember once a week is key here.

I also prepare Noah’s breakfast and lunch for the whole week on Sunday.  They get labeled with dates and then stacked in the fridge in order.  Then, when I do bottles each night, I only have to grab one dish off of each stack of food to add to his bag.  One less thing to think about in the hurry of the evening.

As far as exercise goes, we don’t have time to get to a gym so we’re making workout time family time whenever we can.  Since we added a double jogger to our stroller arsenal in October, we can all go together when the schedule doesn’t allow time for Matt & I to run separately.  I’m in week six of the Couch to 5K running program and, while it wouldn’t be challenging enough for Matt on its own, it’s tough enough when he’s pushing two kiddos in a stroller to make it possible to go together.

Of course, all this healthy living can get a bit tiresome and we like to break from routine on weekends.  We usually just cook a more involved meal from the Weight Watchers cookbook, but Sundays nights will often see us gathered around a non-supper at the coffee table rather than seated at the dining room table. (Twizzlers were a very special treat for a finicky Mommy this weekend…and most of the bag is still hidden in the pantry.  A major feat for this sugar shover!)

And, this weekend, Matt and I had date night right here at home.  In spite of a pukey pre-schooler and a baby with a cough, we managed to get two kids to bed at the same time and then made ourselves a fancy steak dinner.  Loaded baked potatoes, sourdough bread, a nice bottle of wine and some yummy asparagus made our place the place to be on Saturday night.  We even broke out the fancy dishes!

The company was pretty good too.

So, we’re six weeks in and things are going pretty well.  I can see this being a plan that we stick with long term.  But, Matt & I agree on two very important keys to success – we all do the same thing together (no prepping multiple meals for different groups of family members) and it’s ok to take breaks if we need them.  We keep each other on track and either of us can step in to get the family gathered ’round the table at dinner time.

I hope that when we look back on these days the bustle of it all fades a bit and what we remember is the time we made for sitting down, sharing a meal, chatting about our days.  I think that will make for pretty good memories.