Thanks for the suggestion about freezing ham/turkey on a cookie sheet. I hadn’t thought about that before. They do eat ham. Turkey is kind of iffy. I have given some thought before to cooking a big ham or turkey on the weekend and then cutting it up for sandwiches for all of us for the week because I really don’t care to purchase processed lunch meats. I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. However, it didn’t really occur to me to freeze it. It wasn’t so much of a problem until recently when both of my kids classrooms became peanut free. I used to always be able to just pack them PB or PB&J……now it’s not so easy. Maybe I”ll give freezing thin slices of ham a try!

@Cara- I like the idea of splurging on little things that make us happy, reminding us that there is abundance in the universe. If bottled water makes you happy, why be stingy on it? Martha Beck wrote something about this (possibly in Finding Your Own North Star) – buying lots and lots of good chocolate if you like it (you wind up gaining less weight than you’d think because once it’s no longer rare you start going easy on it), or flowers, or stationery or what have you.

@Hydrangea –
Yes, any cooking that requires too much two-hand work is just not going to happen!

@Emily- Thanks! There is nothing more frustrating than being on the way out the door and realizing that neither your wallet nor your keys are in your purse because you decided to take a different purse yesterday.

Another thing we do is always keep the day care access card in the car with the car seat installed rather than let it go into the house in a coat pocket.

Now, if I could just streamline the lunch packing process. My kids daycare does not offer lunch; we pack it and send it every day. They require the following things in each lunch and, if missing, they supplement for your child and send a note home to you (and then you feel really embarrassed, at least I do): 1 protein, 2 fruits/veggies, 1 dairy and 1 starch/grain. Now, as much of a pain as that can be, it is actually one of the reasons we chose that daycare. I love knowing that my kids are getting healthy lunches that I’ve sent for them and not bologna sandwiches twice a week (which seriously was on the menu at one place we toured, and my kids have never even seen bologna). That nutrition, though, is a priority to me, so I make the time to make it happen. I do think I could be better about getting things ready on Sundays for the whole week, because I do spend way too much time each week night getting lunches together.

We have made mornings leaving for and afternoons coming home from work/daycare easier by creating places in our entryway for everything to go. This is actually still a work in progress, as I am still trying to learn what works best for all of us, but at least as of right now, we all have a certain place to put our shoes, coats, bags and keys. The kids also know to take their lunchbags directly into the kitchen for their dad to unload everything into the sink. OUr routine is far from perfect, and there are still several things that I spend too much time doing, but thanks to your book, Laura, I”ve recognized those things and am slowly working to change them.