Ways that make my life easier

Mornings are a rush for me. I have to get up, dressed, get the kiddos up and dressed and we all have to be out the door by 7:48. It used to be a real challenge. But after 3 quarters and 27 weeks of school I have figured out ways that make school mornings much easier for me.

Step 1: Have a general idea of what everyone wants to wear the night before. Takes most of the hassle out of looking for clothes.
Step 2: Put socks inside the kids shoes by the door the night before...no more looking for socks.
Step 3: Lunch making: For me this used to take up to 15 minutes, now it takes 5. Here's how I cut the time down. I buy chips and pretzels in large bags and then divide them myself. That way for $2.50 I get enough for lunches and snacks and don't spend too much on extra packaging. A bag of 100 sandwich bags costs $2.12 or roughly 2 cents a bag so that is a more cost effective way for me to send the things my kids like. I used to make a bag each morning...took extra time I really didn't have. So I decided to create a better way...here's what I do.

• While I am putting my groceries away I open the chips and pretzels and bag up enough sandwich bags to last a week. If the week has 4 days I make 4 bags, if it has 5 I make 5. I also do this with crackers and such...then I put them in my lunch basket that sits on my counter. In this basket is everything I need for the kids lunches. Chips, pretzels, crackers, rice krispy treat, fruit snacks, etc...They know that the stuff that is in this basket is only for lunches and they can't eat it unless it's in their lunch bags. Then in the morning I make the following lunches(typically it does occasionally change depending on their moods):
• Janeas lunch consists of a cold pack, 2 sticks of string cheese, a bag of pretzels, 2 mini fruit roll ups, a rice krispy treat and a juice box.
• Jaron's lunch consists of a PB sandwich(no jelly), 2 mini fruit roll ups, a bag of BBQ chips and a bag of cheese crackers, and a juice box.

This takes me about 5 minutes total, and that includes making the sandwich and putting in backpacks ready for school. It's a great time saver and I feel much less stressed as I am getting this accomplished before work!

Here's a picture of my handy lunch making basket! It's really been working for me!