So is just us, or are meals becoming more and more of a struggle?
Last year, I, sort of, figured out our weekly meals. I knew the dance schedule and I knew Adam's travel schedule and I knew when we'd be grabbing food on the go and when I could plan a dinner at home. In reality, I knew we were eating out way too much, and we were picking up take out way too much, but I kept saying it was just until we finished the crazy dance schedule.
Then we finished the crazy dance schedule six weeks ago and I never totally got our groove back. Adam's travel was spotty and hard to plan, and I was just out of practice. We were doing a lot of last minute runs to the store and more take out than we needed. Like, way more than we needed.
Now the crazy dance schedule has started again for the summer, and I'm just ready to tear my hair out. I was going through it with Adam, talking about how many "on the go" nights we had, and I mentioned that it's only for the next six weeks while summer dance is going on. He, good naturedly of course, laughed and said "it's really cute that you still think that."
I'd get mad, but he's totally right. I think that I need to just get us through a tough stretch of fast food and take out, but realistically, the girls aren't letting up on their dance schedule any time soon. Adam's travel isn't letting up any time soon. And I need to figure out a way to have us eating at least SOMEWHAT healthy meals, even if we aren't all together to eat them.
I mean, if I can figure out how to get us eating well on road trips, I can certainly figure out how to get us eating well IN OUR OWN HOME.
Obstacle One: Planning.
I have sworn to myself that I WILL get better about planning. I have to. I can't remember that I'm the one responsible for dinner at 4:30 or 6:00 or when I'm dropping someone off at dance. Adam and I made a deal to sit down together and talk through the week, noting who is where when and what we need to do about it.
Obstacle Two: Preparing
I have no idea how I got out of the habit of a weekly grocery shop with sale planning and coupon matching, but I did. I go to make a quick meal that I know I can tackle in 15 minutes, then realize I don't have several key ingredients.
Obstacle Three: Executing
I blame the heat and humidity right now (ignoring the fact that I did the same thing in the cold), but I need to take some responsibility to ACTUALLY get home and cook. If I come home from the pool, or from driving kids around, I'm hot and sweaty and I want to sit on the couch for just a few minutes...and then it's 7:30.
I've been there before, and I know that with some good attitude and a little help from the other humans in the house, we can scale these obstacles and get a handle on dinner again!
