Happy Thursday, friends! I'm linking up with Patti for the February edition of Monthly Musings. I'll jump right in!
1. Paper planner, digital calendar, or other options? Yes to all of the above! I have a planner that I keep at work to keep up with what I do with students each day. I think for next year I'll get one that's a lesson planner/calendar combined, but it really does help me remember what I do everyday. For my own life, I use the calendar on my phone. I don't love that method of things, but I'm a realist, and it's something I always have on me. I need the reminders constantly! Another thing I use my phone for is an alarm; I have so many set for work! I'm all over the building all day, so I have alarms set to tell me when I need to start walking. I also set alarms for the five minute warning when a class is about to be over.
This is what I use at work; I love that there's a monthly and weekly spread. I use both! I use the notes section at the end of each month as my gratitude journal.
2. Meal planning, meal prep, or wing it? I sometimes do all three, but at the very least, I try to have a game plan in place every Monday. I order my groceries to be delivered while I'm at work, and then I'll cook at least two nights each week so that I can have the leftovers for the rest of the week. A lot of times, Chris will come eat with me, and I'll send him home with food for his lunches at work or dinner for a night when we're not together. I try to shop with all the meals in mind: for breakfast I always have a protein coffee drink, I try to do easy (cold) lunches for work each day (because hot lunches make me sleepy), and then easy dinners.
3. Do you choose your outfit the night before? Sometimes I do, but I don't usually. I do always look at the weather, though, so I won't be too hot or too cold. I have an easy rotation of pants for work, so I base what I'll wear on the pants situation. I will typically do jeans for a day, some flowy pants for a day (either khaki or pink), black pants, and then two days of leggings. I usually wear leggings on Mondays and Fridays as my reward for showing up to work faithfully everyday. I'm so glad I work somewhere that I can wear leggings! I will say that I always pair them with a cute/professional top, so that it doesn't seem like I'm wearing leggings.
4. Tips for managing laundry and ironing? When my sons were little or all at home, my advice was to do one complete load of laundry every single day. This meant washing, drying, folding, putting away. I don't buy things that require ironing; I use my dryer for that. I'll wet something with a water bottle and toss it in the dryer for ten minutes to get the wrinkles out sometimes if it's bad. Now that it's just me that I do laundry for, I wash once a week. I'll use weeknights for my clothes and towels, and a lot of Saturdays I'll do my sheets.
5. Grocery shop in store or online? I prefer shopping online for groceries, or shopping with someone in the store. I've done a lot of grocery shopping with Chris lately, and I love that we can give each other ideas for work lunches and easy dinners. He's a great cook, so we like to stay home one night each weekend to cook/dance in the kitchen together. As far as online shopping goes, I've found that I don't spend as much money when I shop online for groceries. When I went back to work full time last year, my treat to myself was joining Walmart + again; it's wonderful showing up at home after work on Monday with my groceries on the front porch! Sometimes I'll pick them up at the store; if Chris needs to go as well, we'll go inside.
This is usually what we look like: he's got the basket and is pulling me along behind him.
6. Best tips for getting out the door in the mornings without chaos? Wake up early! I started doing this after the first winter break (at Christmas). I was waking up before that at 5:30 each day, but after the break I started waking up at five. I'm such a morning person, that I love having extra time in the mornings. I do this because I don't like to rush. I spend that extra time in the mornings reading blogs, writing blog posts for my own, and lingering over the best cup of coffee of the day each day of the week. I allow myself to sit until 6:30, then I get up and start cleaning up, making my lunch, and going upstairs at seven to get dressed for the day. I leave at 7:30-7:40 everyday. This has made my mornings so smooth this year!
7. Share your easiest dinners for crazy weeks. On the crazy weeks, I default to a favorite soup or pasta dish and then I eat the leftovers. On Tuesday night night I made potato soup in my crock-pot, and have been eating on it all week.
I changed the soups to two cream of chicken, and two potato; I also add in cream cheese and instead of water, I use one box of chicken stock.
8. Best tips to keep your house organized during the week? Put things away! I've told all of you this a hundred times already, but when I cleaned out my closet in January, I've been able to keep it clean since, because it has made it easy to do so. Having cleaned out spaces is motivating! Your future self will always thank you for this, trust me.
9. Share your easiest breakfast. My go-to weekly breakfast is a protein shake with coffee and a splash of creamer. It's delicious! I use the Premier brand chocolate peanut butter and the brown butter cookie dough creamer. My easiest breakfast is when I'm out and about, but that doesn't happen all that often.
10. Share your best overall tip that we haven't covered yet. Consider making your bed every morning. I know that's not everyone's thing, but somehow, doing that one thing motivates you to move onto other areas in your home. It's so nice getting into a made bed every night!
I always love reading these, so I'm excited to read your answers today. Thanks for reading my blog, friends! Love to all.
Jenn
