Plotting and Planning

It's Sunday night here and I'm about to go to bed. About this time every Sunday I sit and think about my plans for the week. It helps me plan out meals, figure out who is probably going to be tired on what day and generally organize my week. I don't write much down, but the ten or so minutes I spend thinking about things really helps me get ready for the craziness.

Big Stuff:
Annika's Spring Break starts on Thursday. I think. I thought it was later in April, you know, around Easter, but someone told me that it starts this week.
Sam's speech therapy was moved this week. Just have to remember.
Annika's school has a Literature Parade sometime this week, I'm assuming before Thursday. She mentioned something last week about needing gray clothes. We have no gray clothes for her (she's a 5yo little girl for goodness sake) so I might be making a quick run to WalMart for sweats.

Regular Stuff (in no particular order and with no dates or times attached):
Harry's classes: 3 hours of freeish time for me
Sam's classes: 3 hours of freeish time again
Annika's dance
Emma's dance
Chess Club
Annika Daisy Scouts
Sam Scouts (I'm the leader, so it's mine too)
Harry Scouts (not the leader, thank goodness)
Piano lessons
Sports class

I think that's about it. It looks like a lot more than it really is. A lot of the kids' stuff is packed into just a couple of days so I'm not driving crazily hither and thither too much. Also, we host as many classes here as I can just because I'm lazy on the days I can be.

I've also realized in the last few months that trying to cook a full meal every night is impossible. I end up being cranky and irritable and just wanting the kids to go somewhere else while I cook in peace. So, I'm not cooking the full fancy meal every night. I'm still making dinner, but I want to enjoy the hours between 5 and 7 rather than dread them. I'm doing as much prep as I can in the morning, using my crock pot and I've vowed not to open  a cook book most nights. I need to make dinners that are easy to make and easy to clean up instead of the perfect osso bucco Martha Stewart recommends in the latest issue of Whole Living.

Now I'm making things like spaghetti and stir fry and saving the cool, fancy dinners for the weekends. It really makes a lot of sense. Something had to give before my sanity did and dinner is the only thing that worked. And it's not that I'm not feeding my family good food in the evenings, I'm just trying to do it quicker and easier.

Wow, justify much?!