It’s been a crazy morning! After a fun filled weekend including my son’s first trip to the zoo, we’re exhausted and totally unprepared for the week. The house is a mess and i’m running extra late for our Monday, Mommy and Me class. As I go to put my son in the car seat, I realize that yesterday’s cracker crumbs are still floating around in there. So back he goes into the playpen and I pull out the vacuum to suck up the crumbs.

Ten minutes later I grab my son and run out the door. Class has already started. I get to the car, buckle him into his carseat, collapse the stroller and put it into the trunk. Just as i’m closing up, I get that sense that i’m forgetting something really important. After going through a quick checklist in my head I realize it’s my son’s lunch bag. There’s obviously no way I can go without it. Going to the park in 90 degree weather with no water or snacks is just not a good idea. Should I unbuckle him and go back to get it? Forget that! By the time I do that class will be over, so no Mommy and Me for us today.

I took my son for a walk around the neighborhood instead and thought about what I could do to make Mondays just a little less crazy. Here are some of my ideas… things I already knew, but just don’t always practice.

Meal Planning. If I knew what I was making for dinner, life would be easier.  Deciding what to do for dinner every night is a chore in itself. We often end up making unhealthy choices because we can’t decide what to eat and aren’t prepared to make something good. I know that if I make a menu for the week things would go a bit smoother.

Sunday Shopping. I know that doing grocery shopping on Sunday evenings would help.Then we would have everything we need for meals for the week and dinner time wouldn’t be such a struggle. It also means that I could prep meats and veggies in advance and cooking would be a much faster process.

To do lists. If only I would make a list of to do’s for the week in order of priority, I wouldn’t be running around like a headless chicken trying to remember all the things I need to get done in my head. Plus i’m sure there’s an app for that somewhere in my phone (if my son didn’t delete it).

Sticking to the schedule. It’s easy to get off schedule on the weekends with family activities and all. Hey, that’s healthy too right? But I realize that it’s important to stick to the schedule to some extent. Yesterday our son was super exhausted after the zoo, but he wouldn’t take a nap because he was past the point of tired, he was overtired! We probably should have skipped the restaurant lunch after and gone home so he could nap. He finally gave into the exhaustion at 4:30pm which means he didn’t go to bed till 11pm! Needless to say not much got done and we are all tired and a little grumpy today.

Relax. After thinking about all the things above that I just didn’t do this weekend, I realized I was being hard on myself. It’s great to be organized and it would definitely help a lot. But sometimes things go off track and that’s okay too.

So this week i’m going to try to take my own advice and get back on track and organized. But if a day goes haywire i’ll try not to lose my mind. I’ll take a deep breath and tackle the issues one at a time. No matter how crazy the days get, I have a smiling, giggling and sometimes cranky little boy, who makes it all better!

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