Let’s be honest. Life can be super chaotic! This week, after an extremely busy weekend, I slept through my alarm, for TWENTY MINUTES, before I finally awoke at 5:15 am to Scarlett crying because she wet her bed. I missed my 5 am running date with my girls and was forced to run in the rain by myself (for only thirty minutes instead of the full hour I wanted to run because I was short on time). No huge deal (we are certainly not talking about losing one’s job here, I realize) but too many of life’s nuisances add up, making a perfectly wonderful weekday feel miserable. I was grateful that I had taken some simple steps the night before, so my day did not totally de-rail.
Here is my Top 10 List To Maintain Monday (or any day) Mojo…
- Always prepare what you will need for the next day the night before. If you have dry cleaning, a baseball game, gymnastics and two overdue library books, lay out everything that you will need in a basket by the front or garage door! I also like to have back packs ready and all school papers, signed. I have learned all of this the hard way…
- Keep a fresh package of wet wipes in your car at all times. I consider wet wipes a form of a catch-all, paper towel. You never know when you might need to wipe a sticky “unknown” off the car seats, clean the muddy footprints off the seat backs, or wipe a drippy nose.
- Designate a section of your closet for two or three pulled together outfits that you love. If you are like me and work part-time, create one or two casual looks for your days off and one or two professional wardrobe choices. It is a huge time saver and BONUS, you will actually like what you are wearing!
- Meal prep in advance. Stay tuned for a coming blog post on week day meal prepping for helpful suggestions!
- Keep all electronics in the same spot in your home. There is nothing worse than running out the door and realizing that your cell phone battery is almost dead! This also prevents chargers and cell phones from frequently getting lost.
- Always keep the items that you use often or that you love (Cerave cream, necessities such as toilet paper and body soap), well stocked. There is no reason for late-night or last minute trips to the store for items such as toothpaste and deodorant. It is time-saving and FAR less stressful to have back ups on hand in case you run out (you inevitably WILL run out) and if there is ever an Armageddon, you will be ready.
- Keep a bag of pre-packed healthy snacks in your pantry at all times! Having random stashes of food packed “for emergencies” would have sounded like utter insanity to me BC, or Before Children. Now that I know what a snack emergency looks like (and it aint pretty), I keep items such as raisins, peanuts, granola bars and apple sauce on hand. So many days I have been granted permission to run “one more errand” if I was able to produce a bag of hidden snacks for my people. Truth be told, I too have avoided personal melt-down-mode in aisle five because I had a few salted almonds to tide me over until the next meal time. I use a recyclable bag (Lululemon makes a great bag) to haul our snacks but you might choose a cute tote or something more stylish!
- Steam and press clothes before you need them! Picture day? No problem.
- Run and unload the dishwasher every night before bed. There is nothing more frustrating than wanting to load a small handful of breakfast dishes only to discover that the entire dishwasher needs to first be UN-loaded. After school is not going to be any more convenient and who wants to come home to dishes piled in the sink? So much of maintaining mommy mojo is remaining two steps ahead of our little people.
- Have baby and children’s clothes for the NEXT season, already on hand. Two falls ago in Missouri, it actually snowed in October. Who knew that was going to happen? I didn’t get the memo until it was time to catch the school bus and we all looked outside. My oldest son had no snow boots or winter coat. Fortunately, my middle son lucked out because he had some hand-me down boots and a winter coat but I had to send my oldest to school wearing two sweatshirts. Life is all about surprises. When we are prepared, we can happily enjoy most of them!
Cheers,
Sara
mothermojo 