Back To….Already?!

I know, I know.

It’s August. Already.

I know some have already started heading back to school, but where we are, we’re starting to wind down the last couple weeks of summer.

{counting down, if I’m being completely honest. This summer has kicked my butt!}

And in just a couple weeks, my two oldest kiddos will be heading back to school. One to middle and one to second grade.

{I might still be in a bit of denial about the middle school thing…}

Which, of course means thinking about getting all that school gear together and checked over and assess what will still work and what needs to be replaced.

And lunches. Lunch containers and bags are pretty well used around here, so durable is a must.

I have to say, as far as lunch containers go, THESE have been a favorite. We’ve actually used them for the past three years and they have been FABULOUS! Especially for my little one with special needs. I get asked about them often, so I figured I’d just write a post about them and share why we love them so much.

{and in absolute full disclosure, this is not a sponsored post, just me simply sharing things I love that have been helpful for my family…there are some affiliate links, but it costs you nothing to click and helps add a little extra to my sanity…err…coffee fund}

These actually fit well in the pottery barn kids lunch box my daughter uses. She’s pretty hard on her lunch bag and backpack and we’re about to enter year three on the same backpack AND lunch box, so I have to say it’s been worth the investment. And the Easy Lunch Box containers have endured as well. Bonus!

Probably one of my favorite things, other than that my daughter can open and close them easily herself, is that I can make up her lunches for the week and stack them neatly in the fridge and VOILA! Lunches made for the week easy peasy. They store well, too, when not in use and don’t take up much room. The lids stack nicely and then I stack the bottom part of the containers on top of those. Seriously makes school lunches way easier for us.

And I am ALL for things that help simplify my life!

Here are my Real Life pics of how I store them when not in use:

And when in use ready for the week:

I’m actually able to stack two rows of these for both my big kids. My oldest makes his own lunches (woohoo!) and stacks his up in the fridge.

And, thankfully, these lovelies helping to simplify things a bit more, leaves me more time to try and finish my hot coffee before my twin toddlers tackle me!

Haha! Just kidding. I’ll still be reheating my coffee for a few more {ever} years….

Souper Supper! {lifehack}

So, it’s been chilly around here lately. Well, cold, then like 70, then back into the 30’s. Then back into the 60’s…Texas is bi-polar with weather. Really.

It’s why we never really put summer clothes away and rarely take out our winter coats…and WE NEVER DRIVE IN SNOW AND ICE AND DON’T KNOW HOW! So, please, don’t be too hard on us my northern friends. It’s not our norm. Not in Central Texas anyway…

My sister is, of course, LAUGHING at this post I’m sure. Because, well, she lives in Ohio now and is experiencing her first seriously snow filled winter. It’s a whole different kind of life I hear. But, she totally gets it….she understands how unprepared we are here BECAUSE IT HARDLY HAPPENS. As in, it snowed when I was six years old and then not again until I was a teenager…see? RARE.

Anyhoo…so, cold. Cold weather means soup weather! I love some soup. All kinds of soup. And today I thought I’d share one of my very favorite life-hacks.

I’m sure there are TONS of different ways to freeze soup, but this is just how I have found to do it that makes my life THAT much easier. For real. I love it.

You ready?

I make a big ol batch of soup, sometimes two, over a weekend {or whenever} and then after it cools, I ladle it into silicone baking cups that I’ve lined up in a clear baking dish.

Then I just pop them in the freezer for a bit {overnight works too}, then easily pop them out and store in a ziplock freezer bag labeled with the type of soup and instructions on re-heating {obviously this pic is from back in October…}.

I think my favorite thing about this is how when we have “soup night”, I usually have about 3 or 4 soups already stashed in the freezer and everyone can just pick out their favorite and heat it up. We typically serve with a french baguette or some yummy crusty bread of some sort. Makes dinner on a crazy weeknight so much simpler!

And I know we ALL could use a little more simple in our lives, right?!

It’s also a great way to do a “make one/freeze one” weeknight meal. Make a double batch of soup and take the leftovers and freeze them. Then, you’ve got another weeknight “soup night” ready to go, or a grab and take to work meal too. Many possibilities.

Do you have a favorite life-hack that just rocks your world? Please do share!

The Quest For Enough

It’s just not working…

I had this idea that I’d gotten rid of so much stuff.

We’d purged plenty, really, so much we’d given away, donated, passed on to others that could use it. Yet, there are still mounds of *crap*

WHY???

I had this idea that we’d unload the truck, everything would go in it’s place, I’d find the time to hang pictures or get the craft and play area set up while the twinnies took naps…

{Ha! That’s really funny}

But…things have not exactly gone as I’d thought.

And we moved SIX months ago.

Granted, I had surgery, my husband had a kidney stone {in the middle of the move}, the twins got sick…and that was all in the first month of having moved.

So yeah, working on that whole GRACE thing here.

And here we are, six months later and I just counted laundry baskets.

Random, I know.

How many laundry baskets do you have?

I mean, it seems we have a rather excessive amount of them hanging about here and I think I should be embarrassed at just how many there are. Even with being a family of six, I just think there are too many…

And they are NOT all filled with laundry!

I intend for them to be filled with laundry. Two of them are.

A couple of others are filled with clothes, but not clothes that are being used. A lot of it are clothes the twinnies have outgrown that I am processing through to give away and pass on.

But, it still bugs me. The stuff.

Not that I am not grateful for the stuff. I am. I am very thankful for all the clothes passed to us from others and it’s been great.

I think it’s just the actual volume. Looking at so much stuffed into unused laundry baskets.

It reminds me of the excess we are trying to simplify in our lives. To rid ourselves of.

It’s a process, I know. And I know we are in a season in our lives of constant change and rotation of clothing for our kiddos that grow out of things faster than I can sort through for them to wear!

Which brings me to more simplifying. There is only so much room in their closets. In all of our closets. And I do not intend on maxing it out.

I simply do not want to. Nor do I want to do that much laundry!

But it’s not just laundry. So many things in our lives are just stuffed too much. And unused. And I don’t like it.

I don’t want unused things taking up space. I want what is in our house to be used and loved and have a place to go when it’s not being used.

My Gramma always said the old saying of “use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”.

Yes. I absolutely agree.

The quest for “enough”. My word for the year. Working on E N O U G H . Not more, not less, but enough.

How about you, are you trying to simplify things in your life? Any tips you can pass along?

What Easy Button?

Here it is. The last week of school and a week-ish before Christmas.

And no matter how hard I’ve tried to keep things simple, I’m still overwhelmed.

I think it’s the two separate holiday parties at two different schools for my two older kiddos that is probably stressing me out the most.

Both are important. Both are significant. And there is absolutely NO WAY for me to make it to both…because they are at the exact same time approx. 15 min. away from each other.

Yeah. Oy.

Thankfully, I planned ahead a bit and have most all the “thank you’s” for all the teachers and therapists for the kids done. But even that, as simple as I’ve tried to keep it, is overwhelming! It could be that my oldest daughter has OT/PT/Speech privately as well as AT school. So, that’s several people right there. And then her teacher, and assistants….there are a LOT of people that do a LOT for my daughter and other kiddos and I am so so SO grateful for them. They are amazing. But, if we were to buy even a simple GC for each, it would completely bust the budget. So, a simple thank you of peppermint bark and a hand written note is going to be it for this year. Because….ALL of them does not even include ALL the amazing teachers and people for my oldest son.

I know. See? Overwhelming.

Making things more simple, means working really really hard behind the scenes at home to pull it all together.

Like meal planning and then actually making those meals/freezing/crockpotting and all that goes with it. And truly, it’s not difficult. It’s just insanely difficult when you have twin toddlers wanting every waking second of your time to hold and snuggle and cuddle them.

Which is AWESOME. But, they also are interested in mama cooking. Also AWESOME. But, they want to be held to SEE EVERYTHING. And one is refusing to be worn of late…I can still get her in a wrap or carrier, but it’s not exactly calming to anyone else…and it’s a fairly decent workout.

So, sometimes dinner takes like three thousand hours to make.

And sometimes my husband wants to make it easier and says “hey, let me pick up something on the way home” and I so desperately want to say YES! Please! But, it’s not so simple with a family of six. And definitely nothing quick is going to be uber healthy and nourishing to my littles.

We have definitely had to learn that the “easy button” is no longer really a viable option for us as it was when we were a family of 3 and then 4. It was easy then to go grab something where kids eat free and us share a larger meal or something. It wasn’t the cheapest, but it was doable. Now with 6? Oh lawdy…it is more work to just GET to a place that will cook and clean up for me than it is to power through tandem baby wearing and take three thousand hours to make dinner. And way cheaper.

Yeah. I liked that easy button. I’m learning that button doesn’t really exist for our family anymore…not in this season. What I have learned is that “easy button” is actually mom working super crazy hard in the in-between moments getting muffins bakes and frozen and figuring out how to make a large batch of mac & cheese {made Gramma style, not the stuff from the box} to last for two meals. And as the twinnies grow, I’m realizing SOON, this double batch will soon be a single meal for us. Unless the parents just don’t eat?

I dunno.

We’re keeping it simple. And I am learning that that means sometimes it’s harder. No, we’re not going to ALL the places for Christmas lights and holiday shows. No, we’re not making it to ALL the parades and pageants and such.

We are choosing some things to go to. And we are doing Advent and spending time watching holiday movies while drinking hot coco and sometimes popcorn.

And watching Doctor Who with our oldest, because he can now, so we’re catching him up on it. And it’s kinda awesome.

{I know…that is not at all holiday related. Unless you count the Christmas specials…}

So. Easy Button? Right now, hard work and simplifying things is my Easy Button.

It’s a season. And as we continue to simplify our lives, I know it will get slightly easier. Or different.

{So next year? Candy canes. Everyone will get a candy cane!}

Do you have an Easy Button? Or a “de-stress button”? Oooh…tell me about a de-stress button! And where can I get one?