Lunches

Tomorrow marks the big schedule change for our Ohana. Stephen starts his new early morning shifts at his new position. And James starts childcare. We are really blessed and fortunate to try out childcare for James with our friends right across the street. James gets to be with his best buddy every morning now! Ms. Kate just started home schooling her son Aaron and is willing to take on James, which will be great for him before he starts school in August. So I picked up a preschool workbook that James can work on while Aaron works on his home school curriculum. I also thought it would be good for him to practice hand writing his name and found this great site to print out handwriting practice sheets. I pray that James behaves well for Ms. Kate and that he enjoys his "school" and play time at our friends while daddy and mommy are at work.

So now that I will be at work a couple more hours each morning I thought I'd invest in one of these "cups". Any of you buy these trendy drinking cups? Got mine at HEB for $4. My work is also going green, no more foam cups or plastic water bottles being provided. I'm also going back on my water kick again, not sure if I will do a water-only fast again for Lent but I definitely want to start drinking more water. I found the best water flavor packets....passion fruit! Taste almost like passion fruit juice minus all the extra sugar and calories that juice comes with.

Growing up my mom always packed my brothers and I school lunches as well as my Dad's lunchbox for his graveyard shift at work. I guess I follow in her footsteps. I too have packed Madeline and Stephen lunches. But I always had time to pack Madeline's in the morning when I woke up and to pack Stephen's in the afternoon before he went to work. Now I have 4 lunches to pack since James needs one and so do I. Well Stephen will now leave for work super early, and I will be frantically getting myself and BOTH kids ready in the early morning...I thought it best to pack lunches every night.

To make things a little easier too I can make all of our sandwiches for the whole week on Sunday and just freeze them in ziplocks. One of Madeline's favorite sandwiches is hazelnut cocoa spread on wheat bread. Super easy.

Both my kids love PB&Jelly sandwiches. A tip to keep these sandwiches moist with the jelly: spread both slices with peanut butter so the jelly won't soak through the bread but be sandwiched between the peanut butter.

I also can't stand when my mayo or mustard soaks through the bread. So I use the same concept and put my spread on my lunch meat and then put cheese on top before putting my top slice of bread on.

Added some lunch chips, fruit and yogurt....

And our lunches are all ready and in the fridge. Should make for less stressful mornings. I'm excited to see how this new schedule works for our Ohana. :)