Working Mommy Journal

I am so proud of my eldest son, who not only made the Select U9 A Team but also made the Toronto FC training academy!! He has been really big on goals lately and this was a goal he had set for himself to complete by the time he turned twelve, so he is ahead of the game! I haven’t told him yet, but I’ve been looking at the personalized koozies from US Imprints for his soccer team. They’re basically personalised bottle holders, that I could personalise with the team badges, but we’ll see!

He loves to play soccer and to be honest I love watching him play. He has a knack of reading plays and is always at the perfect spot at the right time. And he loves the sport with all his heart. He is kicking a ball from the moment he wakes up to the moment he goes to sleep (my poor living room is turned into a soccer field more times then I wish!).

The only hard part is how much soccer he now plays. The commitment is four nights a week plus matches! Which is a lot between school, work, organizing both boys, doctor appts, etc…It was becoming so overwhelming and stressful. It took a while and I had to look up some pointers from other moms but I think we have finally come up with some strategies that work for us so that our family life and his school work does not suffer.

Here is what we are doing:

1) Crock pot meals! How I have become in love with my crock pot! I never used to use it (I actually have two and did not touch them for six years!). Toss the ingredients in in the morning and as long as it is turned on by noon it is good to go!

2) My son has a designated soccer bag that contains multiples of four of everything (four pairs of socks, shorts and shirts,etc.). We keep one pair of shoes in there, as well as an extra pair in my husband’s car.

3) One soccer ball in each of the cars (sometimes plans can change and you become the designated driver!!) along with a pump.

4) He has four novels in each of our cars so that he can keep up with his reading to soccer practices. I really do not want his school work to suffer because of soccer and this was the best way to keep up on his reading skills for us.

5) Package of wipes and diapers in each car (saves having to stock up a diaper bag every time we go out) along with a bag of toys that stays in each of the cars for our youngest.

6) Packing extra snacks the morning of for our youngest to distract him during the practice.

7) Soccer schedule on the fridge with lots of highlighting 🙂

Our routine is by no means perfect but it has helped make our hectic life so much easier! What other ways do you organize or prepare to help make the night/school routine easier if your child participates in sports?

I was recently given a chance to review Gay Lea Foods Real Whipped Cream with half the fat through the Divine.ca Review squad. It is still made with real cream but half the fat then the regular whipped cream.I decided to turn this into a great opportunity to have a baking day, who doesn’t love baking days?!.

My eldest son loves to bake and to be involved in the kitchen (the youngest just loves to watch and beg for food!!). I let him chose the ingredients for our pies and he decided he wanted to make a chocolate and banana pie (I can not complain – anything with chocolate is great!!).

I prepared the chocolate filling on the stove for him and once it was done we transferred it over to a ready made pie shell (love the ready made pie shells – allowed me to just focus on having fun with my boys). Once it was chilled enough (roughly four hours later) the real fun began.

My eldest put our whipped cream topping on and he loved being able to make designs on the pie. A lot of the whipped cream ended up in the mouth of my youngest (was he ever in his glory!!). Once the pie was fully ‘decorated’ with whipped cream, they enjoyed the rest with the left over bananas and strawberries that were in the fridge.

The whipped cream was delicious. It tasted so similar to the regular whipped cream that even my picky husband could not even tell it was half the fat.

Here is our final product:

Well we had good intentions, we really did! Or well this Mommy did!! We lacked in some areas but did really well in others.

For our nutrition goals I am pretty pleased with how far my children (and hubby dearest!) have come. I now put many different types of vegetables in every meal I prepare and there is no fuss (a bit from my eldest but trust me he has come along way!). All meat that I have purchased in the past month has had the Canadian guarantee on it! It was not that much more expensive (I think that was what had always stopped me prior to this, I had this notion that it would cost that much more then the packaged meat that did not have the Canadian seal on it). I also tried many new cuts of meat and a greater variety (turkey, veal, lamb and ox tail!).  I swapped in some turkey mince into my meals that used to be solely mince beef and my boys did not notice the difference! We never actually tried quinoa – my boys just refused it and so did my husband. But c’est la vie!

Our physical activity goals I was super impressed with! We got out of the house for 45 minutes a day, be it either walking or playing at the park. It was such a great bonding opportunity with my children as I have been missing them greatly since I have gone back to work. I think we all needed this part more than anything else.

My own personal goals were left in the dust. I made it to the gym maybe three times in the whole month which led me to re-evaluate the whole gym membership idea – it is costing me way too much a month not to go! I have been trying to find a way to make my personal and work life balance but finding it way too hard! I have tried every organizational tip and strategy and can not find one that works!! Any tips are appreciated 🙂 I have two calendars, my Blackberry and a to-do book but still feel like I am spiralling (I have even managed to give myself stress induced acid build up in my stomach and a good warning from the doctor that I need to try to de-stress unless I want to make it worse and be off for more days from work)

Overall, I am pretty happy and plan to continue to implement all of the changes we have made so far into our daily routines – my personal goals will have to come with time I think.