School Lunches, Snacks, Homework Stations

Can you believe school started already? As in previous years, HERE I described how I revamped my daughter's lunch box and included great lunch and snack ideas. We have consistently used her Bento lunch box and Foogo food jar by Thermos.

This year, I also purchased this spare lunch bag (she loves Sofia):

 

and this sandwich kit from Rubbermaid:

 

And here are some great organizing ideas for food.

Snack and Lunch Bins

iHeartOrganizing

Packing Healthy Lunch and Snack

Homework Organization and Stations

VIA

VIA



Motherhood Life Helpers

This month was very busy for me. We had lots of family Birthdays (including mine on 31st), packing and preparing for the upcoming 2 week vacation, plus doing some house purchases (on that later) and dealing with deliveries and some damaged items (urr).

I could not imagine my life as a mother without certain items. They are my helpers and save me time and time again. I would not be able to survive 50 years ago. Or perhaps, my life would so much simpler.

I wanted to share my top life helpers. They keep my sanity. I can trust them and rely on them every single day along with these household savers that I already wrote about.

1. My car (with remote starter and tinted windows). I am not fond of its design, to be honest I think the front is very ugly. But.  It is amazing on gas. It drives well and smooth. Excellent in winter. It never had a problem in 4 years with regular maintenance. For a small SUV, it fit so much, items you could never imagine - drywall, lots of boxes with tile, single mattress, crib, huge TV, large painting canvas, and so on.   I am a little sad to say goodbye this year (my lease is over).

2. Samsung HE washer/dryer Duo. Love you guys. You are my everyday savers. (Am I addressing my appliances?)  Love the option of time delay, you can just put laundry in, and the wash cycle starts automatically.

3. NEW fridge (by Samsung as well). We just bought it this month from Future Shop, and I cannot be happier. Seriously, this is how a fridge can make me feel. Our old fridge (top freezer) is in the garage, excellent backup storage. The old Frigidaire ("kindly" provided by our builder) was so not well designed, freezer was awkward, shelves made of wire so everything leaked from top to bottom, loud noise, and so on.  No more climbing inside the fridge by baby David.

 

I did not think I would like French door model. But so far so good. And absolutely love LED lights, bottom freezer (with roll out shelving), glass shelves, and even ice maker!

 

 

4. iPhone. Internet, email, Google Maps, Calendar, appointments, music, and so much more. I still have the old 3GS, but it works just fine. Cannot leave without it.

 

 

 



5. Did I mention my husband? My biggest life helper, cannot live without him.

 

Here are some beautiful August flowers that caught my eye today.

Credit

 

Do you have life helpers? 

You Got No Time, really?

I often hear from many, I just don't have time. I wish I had more hours in a day. I wish I had time, but family, work, and house take up all my time. And so on. And yes, we actually don't have time. We are allocated 24 hours in a day for 365 days a year. There is no way around it. But what strikes me is that people often do not see how this time is actually allocated. No "yeah, buts". I don't want to brag about myself, but I have a family with two kids, a full-time job, business, house, warm homemade dinners, and even time for my hobbies. I strategically use my time. The moment I catch myself wasting time I stop immediately. Internet is my biggest time waster.

I once have read that if you really want something, you will find time. Now lets do a little math. Assume you have a full-time 40hr/week job. And a house. And a husband (to be fed). And maybe even kids (also to be fed). Say it takes you 1 hour to get home from work. That leaves about 3 hours every evening. Weekend - 12 hours x 2 = 24 hrs. A total of 39 hours. Sounds like a lot, but not really. Lets subtract dinner time, kids activities, cleaning, meal preps, oh boy. Now it is really like 15 hours.

The "not so secret" to getting more time to do things you love and want to do is this. STOP doing other things that take up your precious time. Sounds simple right? At first some may not like you. As in, "what, are you not watching this reality show or tv series?" Or even, "no satellite at your house?" Or "you are not coming to this event?" I say, stop talking to these people. At least for a bit.

The thing is, our lives got so complicated for some reason. Do our kids need to do 5 after school activities? What about traffic time? Lineups? Commercials? Do you have to go to every event and invitation you get?

No more! Simplify your life as much as you can. Get more done every hour that you have. Turn off tv. Or even better, get rid of tv from your bedroom and extra TV set elsewhere.

Prepare lunches the night before. Hire help for cleaning, lawn, or snow. Reach out to your network, it does NOT have to be expensive.

Set strict priorities. Allocate only 30 mins for dinner prep. That's right, Internet is full of quick recipes. And only 20 mins for clean-up every night. See how you can challenge yourself and load a dishwasher in 6 minutes. Organize house chaos. Use buckets, bins for toys. Know where every single item belongs to in your house. Check out this very inspirational site (iheartorganizing.com)

Arrange your closet. Know what to wear to work the night before. Do not wear high maintenance items like silk or things that need to be ironed daily. Stop shopping for clothes! Only buy key pieces that can be worn in multi-functional ways.

Use as many multi-function items as you can. Make lists of todos. Never shop hungry.

And most importantly, always be happy in the moment. Being happy and satisfied with a specific moment will bring you a lifetime joy of feeling and getting accomplished more. You got more time and more done.

Do you agree?