Saving Time: Meal Planning

I wish I was able to add about 6 more hours to my day, every day.  Unfortunately, I cannot! Right now, I am constantly looking for ways to find more time with my family and for myself.

One thing I have been doing for a long time that has really helped is meal planning.  One night every week, I sit down with my laptop or tablet (sometimes both) and go through Pinterest and my Pepperplate account to plan what we will eat the following week. 

My son is on a gluten free diet and Pinterest is a wealth of recipes and snack ideas... LOVE IT!  I look low calorie snacks and gluten free lunches and diet/workout ideas!  There are TONS!!!

Then, I use the Pepperplate bookmarklet to import the recipes I like or want to try into my Pepperplate account.  I use a Microsoft Word template I created to fill in what we will eat and when.  This includes my lunches and my son's lunches and snacks for Monday through Friday.  From Pepperplate, I can automatically build my shopping list from the recipes and presto-chango, I am good to go.  I take my tablet to the grocery and shop away!  Now if I could find an app to automatically shop, put away the groceries, and cook for me, I would be in great shape! :)

The majority of what I cook is done in the crock pot which lets me bank even MORE time!  My son and I spend our Sunday afternoons packing snacks for the week and throwing things into the crock pots (yes I said crock...pots, as in multiple! LOL!)

I know this may not work for everyone but it works for us.  If you have any tips you use to add more time to your day, please feel free to share them in the comments section below. 

And so it begins!

For the last few months, I have been going through what I have to admit must be a mid-life crisis!  UGH!!!!!  I am happy about many things in my life... I have great kid... a wonderful and supporting boyfriend... a good job... wonderful family!  Even with all of that, I have some areas that I am just not happy with.

Lately, I have been feeling like a person does when they walk into their living room, look at the furniture arrangement and think how great it looks while wondering if it could be better.

So there are a few things I would like to rearrange in my life... nothing major, I just want to "spruce" things up! What are they? Well, here is my current list:

• My health
• My weight
• My finances
• My family's experiences 
• My time management

So what  does this list mean? Is this all there is?  Well, this list is just a way to get down on (virtual) paper the things I want to fix... as of right now.  I am sure this list will change.  No, this is not all there is... I am sure of that!

This post is not all-inclusive.  I will reveal more about me as time goes on.  This post is like the first step to establishing a journey.  The scary part is now out in the open... I have spoken the things I want to change.  Now I have to be held accountable for making this happen!

So here goes!