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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Moms with full time jobs outside the home: how do you stay organized so weekends aren’t a cluster**** of chores, meal prep and cooking? Any tips on maximizing time with the kids (I have a toddler, but tips from all ages appreciated.) thanks! [/quote]

OP, can you give more information as to (1) your childcare situation, (2) your husband's work situation (i.e. working at home or outside the house, working 9-5 or shift work, etc.), and (3), the exact kinds of chores you're talking about?

We both work from home in 9-5ish jobs with some flexibility and we have a nanny and a maid so my answers may not be useful to you.

But a few things, for chores, we have our nanny do our kids laundry, all the beds, and all the towels. That leaves only our laundry, which I do randomly during the week as needed, which is far easier now that I work from home full-time. For cleaning, we have a maid who comes once a week, but otherwise we try to keep things neat by cleaning up every night before bed, which both my husband and I do. Generally speaking by the morning of the day the maid comes everything is picked up and ready to be cleaned, so I maybe spend 30 minutes putting some things away that have sat out a day or two. For other house, we can also generally get that done during the week now that we're home, and that's mostly my husband's area. I'm trying to think of other chores we do so any you list may encourage a response.

For meal prep, we try to have some standard meals that we cook on a regular basis, as well as things with "pieces" that allow for flexibility. For example, we like Mexican food, so about every week we have grilled chicken, ground beef, barbacoa or steak, grilled peppers and onions, guacamole, rice, black beans, plus all the fixings (cheese, tortillas, chips, refried beans, salsa, sour cream), needed to make multiple different meals (fajitas, tacos, burritos, quesadillas, nachos, burrito bowls, etc.). Then we have other staples like some kind of pasta, some kind of sauce, and some kind of meat. We change it up so we don't get bored, but that's always one dinner a week. Add in whatever vegetable makes sense or do a salad on the side. We also have an Asian dish one day a week, so that could be stir fry, fried rice, or some other meat served on rice. Then we do homemade pizza once a week with different sauces and toppings. One week it's pepperoni and sausage with red sauce, the next week it's chicken and cheddar cheese with BBQ sauce, the next week it's black beans and cheddar with salad and salsa on top, the next week it's pesto and chicken and tomatoes, the next week it's white sauce and prosciutto, etc. That takes care of most dinners and because the grocery list stays relatively consistent, minus the changing pizza toppings, it's super easy to reorder. Also, most of the sauces and toppings can do double duty, so last week's alfredo sauce can be this week's pizza sauce. This week's marinara sauce can be next week's pizza sauce. The left over black beans from Mexican food become next week's pizza topping, etc. We try to have a good mix of meals that we eat all in one sitting with no leftovers and meals that will provide leftovers that can be repurposed so we don't get bored. We also premake breakfast items such as muffins, pancakes, french toast, waffles, bacon, sausage, and breakfast burrito parts on the weekends when we have time so that weekday breakfasts are faster since we need to get to work.

In terms of cooking, breakfast as I said is generally reheated during the week and we take turns making it on the weekends (I sleep in on Saturday mornings so my husband cooks then, he sleeps in on Sunday mornings, so I cook then). If you're willing to do multiple things at once, you can actually make multiple breakfasts at one time. Lunch is something easy, either leftovers or a salad, often made from leftovers, or Mexican pieces above, or soup and grilled cheese, except for once a week when we order Door Dash. We can make, eat, and clean up from lunch in an hour (I realize we are both very lucky to be able to do that, and there are some days we can't take a full hour and need to do something faster like plain old sandwiches). For dinners we stop working at 5 unless we aren't able to and then we start cooking. Sometimes we have stuff from other nights left over, which makes it go faster. Cooking, eating, and cleaning up from dinner probably takes more like an hour and a half, but we eat a lot slower at night. When we make lunches and dinners on the weekend we do the same thing as with breakfast - make multiple things at once. So even though we may be eating tacos for lunch, I can also make the black beans, pizza sauce, and pasta sauce at the same time, since those mostly just require simmering and stirring. I used to want everything freshly cooked, but I've realized that (1) that's not realistic and (2) many things taste the same reheated if you just do it right. The things that don't work for reheating are the things we make fresh.

Finally, and I'm sorry this is so long, but the last thing we do is schedule our weekends. I know that sounds horrible, and we actually started doing it for our kids (young elementary) because they would ask what they could do and we got tired of hearing it. So now we ask them to write down three things they want to do (i.e. play in the play room, play games with mom and dad, and watch a movie), and we write down three things they have to do (i.e. take a bath, shower, walk the dogs) and then we schedule it all out so that everyone knows what they're doing and when. It allows them to feel like they have control and to not ever wonder what's next, it keeps them from complaining when it's time to do something, and it lets us schedule time for things we want to do as well. You have a toddler so the schedule would be more for you, but even when they were younger I found it helpful to know that I would be meal prepping from 10-11 on Saturday, for example, because then I didn't have to worry about when I was going to get it done/feel like it was hanging over my head the whole time. Hope this helps some![/quote]

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