Preparedness - 15th Day of Gratitude

Being school holidays here in NSW, I have been a bit distracted from my usual schedule, which I am easily distracted from most days anyway.

But having my two wonderful boys home with me all day, every day, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, 1440 minutes a day, well you get the picture, brings about a whole new level of distraction.

On a school day I will get up, make sure they are fed and clean and off they go. I pack lunches, or they do, we make sure they have enough fluids readily available for the day to avoid dehydration and that is it.  Six hours later, they are home, and again it is my problem to make sure they are fed, so they make it through to the final meal of the day.


So when it comes to school holidays, what I don't get, is this ... When they are at school, they take enough food for one meal and a snack, and they are fine. Being at home on school holidays, it seems requires only one meal, that starts at 9am, shortly after breakfast has been inhaled, and continues, with only short interruptions for toileting and fights, until 5pm, when the question is asked "What's for dinner Mum?", where the first united front for the day is witnessed.

During school terms I have a food plan, which I may not stick to strictly, but it provides me with a valuable prompt to remind me what I have in the house already half prepared or what I might need to pop to the shops to enhance the look of the last supper. And so, I am prepared! And it works.

The last 48 hours I have been grasping at straws as I try to fill the very large black hole of food inhalation that has taken place in my home and so I have found myself having to think on my feet!

IT. IS. EXHAUSTING!

And so, this afternoon when I found myself out of the house with only one child in tow, I was thankful that not only did the older one have some homework to do, but that as far as shopping went, I had been able to rely on some of the meals that WERE PREPARED.

Sure I was out and had to go to the shop, but as it was LJ I had in tow, it also meant having a toy guitar in tow and keeping a close eye on what was going in the shopping basket. It was such a blessing to know that I had a complete meal for LJ already defrosting at home along with the bolognaise sauce for which I only needed to purchase some spinach fettuccine ... and dinner was done!



So wish me good luck as the holidays role on and I find myself having to write gratitude posts every day! I am sure I will be fine ...

Today I am grateful for preparedness.