Sunday Scaries – yuck, am I right? I think we have all had the experience of dread as we realize the weekend is wrapping up and we are embarking on a brand-new Monday in just a few short hours. In a house of seven people, we are all over the map on our Sunday into Monday feelings – some of us (me) embrace the chance at a fresh start. To me, Mondays are like a clean, crisp piece of paper in a notebook just waiting for my ideas to spring onto it. For others, like my teens and husband, Mondays are a day that you head back to the grind of work and home balance, homework and responsibilities. Mondays for me mean back to afterschool practices, lunches, homeschool teaching for my youngest – definitely more than I’m doing on Saturday and Sunday, but I have found doing a few things routinely on Sunday makes the Monday not feel as overwhelming. These six things have made my Sunday into Monday flow a little easier, give me a little motivation to keep moving throughout the week and sometimes prevent little things from becoming big problems! Your list might be a little different from mine, the important thing is to think about where your stress points are on Monday. Always forgetting something? Pack what you can the night before. Never know what to wear? Try on the outfit the night before. Organize the kids’ clothes for the week. The kids like to drop last minute things on Wednesday night that they need Thursday morning? You are covered. Make this list your own, give yourself a few weeks to develop a routine and don’t be afraid to adjust where you need to – this should work for you!
1. Update your calendars with all the events for the week. Make sure you double check school closures, dentist and medical appointments, carpools and afterschool activities for any changes. Include notes on who’s going to drop off and pick up if that changes from week to week. Make a note of anything you need to pick up for the activities of the week. Check your texts and emails. It seems like a lot, but once you get into a routine of it, it honestly takes less than 30 minutes for me to update our family Google calendar on our Echo (https://amzn.to/3PcJGvp) and our paper planners. Make sure you ask teens for work schedules – we have ours send us a text when they get their schedule each week so we can update it when we need to.
2. Make your menu for the week. While you have your planner out take note of who is going to be home for which meals and which meals you need to plan to grab and go! Slow down your tendency to eat out if that’s one of your goals by writing out all your meals, and making a list of needed things that you can grab at the store or add to your grocery order. Try to combine meats to save money – sometimes buying 4 lbs of something is cheaper than smaller packages, so using something across multiple meals is a money AND time saver. Cook up a batch of hamburger meat and simply season it for tacos, add it to tomato sauce for spaghetti, make a meatloaf and more. Another great time saver is freezer meals – search Pinterest for options that your family will love, double the recipe and stick one away for one of those future crazy nights!
3.Prep the food you can – Cut fruit, make some cookies, bake up a batch of pancakes for the freezer. Save time in your week by preparing ahead. My teens will skip breakfast in a heartbeat if it’s not easy for them to grab in the precious few minutes they have in the morning. My junior leaves for the bus at 6:20am, a shower in the morning for him is a non-negotiable for his functioning and he loves his sleep – all thing working against him in the breakfast department. I have found that making burritos, a batch of pancakes or waffles helps give him something he can heat and eat on the way to the bus stop. Even if you grab some heat and eat meals (He loves a breakfast bowl when I get them on sale!) from the store, having options ready to go always makes those mornings easier!
4. Water the plants… It seems silly but watering the plants that need it on Sundays helps me not kill them 😂 The routine has saved many a life at this point! It’s something so simple, but I found myself always forgetting it. By making it part of my routine I am now the proud parent of several thriving plants!
5. Prep the Kids and Yourself – clean out backpacks, make sure papers are signed, get everything ready for that Monday morning rush. Gym class day at school – make sure the clothes are clean and sneakers are either part of the outfit choice or packed and ready. Pack your briefcase, laptop bag, gym bag – wherever you are headed the next morning should be ready to go. Make sure devices are charged for school or work, cords are packed.
6. Laundry – check and make sure any special needs are ready to go for the week – sports uniforms, school spirit, days, work clothes. I try to do laundry throughout the week on rotation, but Sunday is for catch up on what people need for the week. It doesn’t always work out through the week depending on how heavy our schedule is, and I like having Sunday to do the must haves!
Another helpful note, teach your family as you do this. This shouldn’t be a one-person job – it’s meant to be shared and taught along the way so everyone can take an active role. Younger kids can help clean out their backpack and pack it up and as they get older just supervising as they do it. Teens should learn to manage their own things – I make sure to check in with them as Sunday progresses and check on their status. Sometimes feeling the “crunch” of a Monday makes the routines seem a little more important and we learn by not having what we need. One of my kiddos is notorious about waiting for the last minute to bring his laundry to the basket – he generally does his own laundry now on Sunday nights. He knows I’m not going to do it if it’s not where it should be and he’s okay with that. (If it’s in the basket, I will do it for him on my rotation.) If he needs something in particular, he’s responsible for making it happen. In the beginning, we would fight over this constantly – why could he just not put it in the basket? But I’ve come to realize that we all have things we procrastinate on, things that aren’t necessarily as important to us as they are to a family member, or a friend and laundry is his. I could keep fighting him and going in circles or I could leave the responsibility (and more importantly, the consequences) to him. My oldest son drives my car to school frequently so part of his Sunday routine is to clean it out and fill it up with gas. Make this routine what works for you – the most important part is making one. This routine – minus laundry which is done in the background of the day – takes a small amount of our day but can make the week SO much easier. No one is forgetting to pick up someone at an activity, no one is asking what’s for dinner (who am I kidding..they still ask, and I still say food, but it’s a lot easier since I really know already! ). Give it a try and remember, don’t be afraid to be flexible and makes changes to the list as you go!
Good luck!
