This Friday the kids finish up school for the year. I am very much looking forward to this. The kids are tired and so am I. It will be fantastic to be able to take our time in the mornings and just see where the day leads. I have deliberately made no plans for the week before Christmas, so that I can just work with the energy of the kids and make sure that we are all well rested, to be able to enjoy Christmas fully.

I have also done a few extra things to make life a little easier for myself, so that I am calmer and won’t feel rushed. This is not something that I do well. Quite often I over load myself and choose not to take the easier option. A couple of weeks ago I found myself getting incredibly frustrated with the kids over just the smallest of things. Silly things like not putting their washing in the basket, spilling food just after I vacuumed, just shoving their belongings away when packing them up, the older kids winding up the younger ones – the general sort of stuff that happens in a large family.

After a particular poor end to a day, I realised that it wasn’t what they were doing that was the real issue. This is stuff kids do. The real issue was in fact my tiredness and busyness that had sapped my patience. Instead of reacting in a calm manner to remedy what ever the issue was, I was over reacting and exacerbating the situation.
The next day I had a chat to the kids on the way to school and apologised for over reacting and losing my cool with them recently. They were very understanding and also very sweet, with the 8 year old saying “it is a busy time of year mum”. And that it is, but how busy I am is really up to me and I needed to make some changes, to ensure that I slowed things down a little:

1. Prepared Meals

A lovely family at school runs the catering business Canister Kitchen, which specialises in homestyle prepared meals. Lucky for me they were having a sale before they close up in couple of weeks for the Christmas break and I bought a number of meals from them to take the pressure of cooking for a couple of nights of the week.

(Canister is located at 89 Riversdale Rd, Hawthorn 9819 2939 and their food is fantastic.)

2. Extra Help

We planned for Mr I to take some time off last week to enable me to work on the blog and a couple of other projects that I have on the go. The last week of school is always hectic and once the kids finish school, I only want to have to spend minimal time online, so we can just hang out together.

My dad also visited last week and he while he was here, he worked in the garden for us and had it looking great for my daughter’s garden tea party last Friday.

3. Monthly Menu Plan and Shop

I have planned out menu plans to take us well into January and did a massive online shop to stock up the cupboards. I want to avoid the need to having to take the kids to the shops, as it is so busy at this time of year. I think I actually may have over done it a little and we had to store the groceries in all sorts of nooks to put them away.

The Family Menu Plan For This Week

Very simple week for me this week!

Baking: Butter Cake

Monday: Mexibake

Tuesday: Chicken Cacciatore (from Canister Kitchen)

Wednesday: Left Overs

Thursday: Beef Strognaoff (from Canister Kitchen)

Friday: Spaghetti Bolognaise

Saturday: Chicken Schnitzel and Salad

Sunday: Sausages and Salad

For more menu planning ideas head on over to Laura’s place at “I’m an Organizing Junkie“.

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