I don't know about you, but life just seems crazy busy lately. With sports on our side of the coast finally opening up I have a daughter in dance and t-ball, a son in basketball and baseball, and a high school senior who works 20+ hours a week and just finished up his final year of soccer. It feels like after a year of nothing, we exploded into this schedule of never ending chaos and a very full calendar. It wasn't intentional, but with delays in sports seasons we'd signed up for earlier in the year and covid outbreak delays, it all just kind of started at the same time. On top of my kids growing extra curricular activities, I am driving my 9 year old 30 minutes away for full day school, while my daughter attends a hybrid school schedule locally. I spend a big chunk of my day driving and get a lot of help from friends. Sometimes in all of the chaos, I find it challenging to remember simple things like breakfast. One day last week I was relishing in the fact that I had enough time to do my hair and makeup only to realize as we headed out the door that I hadn't fed the kids yet. Mom brain is real and that day we settled for a muffin and hot chocolate at the coffee drive thru.
When things get to be too much I try to find easy solutions. Today was another one of those crazy days. The baby I provide care for was not having a good morning. She was really fussy and only wanted to be held. Of course I am also watching a very mischievous 3 year old, a 7 year old, and have my daughter home with me. I have to make sure that the older girls get logged in to their classes on time and help them with their school work and keep the two younger ones entertained and everyone fed. We've managed to come up with a system to get everyone logged on when they need to be, setting alarms through Alexa, but meals can still be challenging. Of course the baby was crying the entire time I was trying to cook and it was pretty apparent that she wasn't going to wait for me to finish. I ended up stopping what I was doing to make her a bottle and rock her. Luckily, she was out in minutes, but now she would be sleeping through lunch. My solution, suction bowls to the rescue! I scooped up some of the macaroni and cheese that I made (yes, in the blue box, lunches are very kid friendly around here and I do add extra cheese for protein) and placed it into the Suction-Go-Bowl. I capped it with the second suction bowl and put it in the refrigerator to save for later. It can go straight in the microwave after removing the lid when she wakes up.
Now she is awake. I added some chunks of watermelon, precut from the grocery store, to her bowl and she is cooing and happy while she eats. We have to leave in about 10 minutes to get my son. Here's to hoping that a nice nap and a full belly will make for a happy car ride.
-T
