Oops. Forgot the picture!  I already told you about my unrecommended practice of keeping purchased water bottles in my van.   Here is what I’m doing to not need those. Each of us has a distinct water bottle. There are five us and they easily fit in one wine bag. I’ve bought these inexpensively for…

Ugh. Snacks.  I’m so glad my kids seem to be mostly aging out of the practice. You will likely be the snack mom once per season for each of your children’s teams.   First issue: remembering to purchase snacks – usually a drink item and a food item. Second issue: remembering to take them to…

I am very blessed that my extended family lives close and gathers on Sundays for dinner most weeks.  My mom feeds as many of the 19 of us who show up and we enjoy the afternoon together. My children and their cousins are very close, and I’m relatively close to my siblings and their spouses…

We actually eat when we get home.  Our family’s non-sports season practice is to eat dinner together around 7pm. I know this is late by most standards, but we chose that time so we could always eat together once my husband gets home from work. When the children were younger, I occasionally tried feeding them…

Double meals are akin to Planned Overs.  In this case, a portion of a meal is planned with freezing in mind and can be used in different ways than the original use. I already posted one of these about meatballs in my The Crockpot is Your Friend Post.  Another old freezer meal trick is to…

I always try to do planned overs.  These are leftovers I plan on.  If you’re afraid they won’t be left, only serve what you want eaten for that day! One of my favorite planned over is to make a pot roast for dinner one night.  Load your crockpot with the good things you like –…

Maybe even your best friend. I have two crockpots. During sports seasons, they generally work every other day. We may have pot roast in one onone day and Potato Soup in the other the next.  Food that is hot and waiting for us when we get home from the fields is perfect food and I’m…

Grocery shopping is the hardest thing for me. When it isn’t a sports season, we meet my husband after work at a Whole Foods half an hour away. It’s beer tasting night (with food! The kids eat through the store) and I get an extra pair of hands to help with the shopping.  The children…