Hey Mamas,

It’s dinner time. Your littles are STARRRRRVING (or so they’re squealing). You set down your carefully prepared wholesome, yummy meal – with everything cut into the perfect bite-size pieces – perfectly arranged on their cute little partitioned plates… and what do they do next…

Eat it all! Happily! “Mommy, you’re the best! Thank you for preparing such a great dinner for me!”

No.

They TOSS THE PLATE. You know what I’m talking about. They toss the plate. They flip the dang thing up into the air like its some kind of Olympic sport. If you’re me – one of them starts this (we won’t name names CAROLINE) and the other(s) erupt into laughter and follow suit. Luckily Brady’s grown out of this, but Tyler thinks its awesome and hysterical.

This sends my blood pressure through the roof. Namely because a) food costs money and now its all over my maybe-clean-floor, b) because I just took the time to cook all of it and c) I actually need you to eat food to stay healthy.

For a while I continued the fight. I even bought these super expensive placemat/plate things for them to use. (They work great on our slick kitchen counters, but not on our wooden kitchen table).

Finally, I gave up. I decided that this is a stage we’re just going to have to work through. Now, when I can tell the plate-flipping mood is in the air, I move dinner to the kitchen rug.

You got it… the kitchen rug. See, we have a large kitchen rug in our kitchen, just behind the sink. When I can tell dinnertime isn’t going to go well, the twins and I sit on the rug and they eat dinner (when this happens, I just wait until they go to bed to actually eat my dinner – often with Bryan and Brady). We say the blessing, then I hold one plate full of food, with their little fork, and they sit in front of me like little birds. I feed them one bite at a time. Here’s the thing. I always dreamed of dinners around my kitchen table with all five of us happily discussing our day and enjoying our meals. But this isn’t the season for that. It will be one day (and somedays I get something similar to this to happen). But for right now, my main goal is to make sure they actually eat food (healthy food, even!). For whatever reason, sitting on the rug works. And they kind of think it’s fun! Brady even joins in on the fun with his own plate sometimes.

Grace, not perfection. I gave up the perfect (dinnertime at the table with two toddlers) for the good (dinnertime on a rug where everyone actually goes to bed with full tummies). Carry on, mamas.

 

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Happy March!! How is it March anyway. Also, WHY is meal planning so daunting. I’m newly thirty-four (as of yesterday!) and I think I’ve finally figured out the answer: We try and reinvent the wheel too often. Love to try new recipes? Awesome! Try one a week! Two a month! But a new recipe every day of the week? Ugh – not unless you’re a super chef. Ahem, I am not one of them. I learned, coming out of a really rough year (too much going on, too much stress, not enough brain space and too few healthy habits) that fueling your body (and feeding your family) is important – and not just to be sure you’re not hungry or check a box during the day. Let’s focus on breakfast and lunch for this particular post. How many of you skip breakfast because you just can’t find something that meets all your criteria: quick, easy, healthy, filling? That used to be me. Same for lunch a lot of times (shameful, I know – I was a meal skipper for a long time – NOT ANYMORE).

I’ve learned that if I’m going to really nourish my body well (and not stress out about it), I can’t reinvent the wheel every day. I need to find what I like, what works for me, and stick to it. So, for me, I have to eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch every weekday. I switch it up once I get tired of something, but having the simplest meals of the day on repeat helps a lot. Weekends are another story, but for weekdays I eat the very same thing most mornings and most lunchtimes (I jot them down in my Simplified Planner!)

Breakfast: Simple Greek Yogurt Parfait – Chobani Greek Yogurt (vanilla) with fresh berries (chop a bunch on Sundays and keep them all week long). Peel the top off the yogurt, throw a handful of berries in, add a scoop of chia seeds if you’re feeling fancy, and viola. Protien, vitamin c, all the good stuff.

Lunch: Fancy Avocado Toast with Eggs – My mom encouraged me to add some protein (eggs) to this meal and it was a good, filling idea. Pepperidge Farm 15 grain bread (toasted in my Breville smart oven – seriously this thing is my favorite kitchen gadget. I heat / cook almost everything in it) plus half an avocado and two scrambled eggs (cooked in the microwave in my little egg cooker). Add some berries on the side and sometimes a tomato with salt and pepper if I’m extra hungry.

I keep these around for snacks (almond packs, cheese sticks, fresh clementines, dark chocolate), but I’m not a real big snacker until post-kiddo bedtime when I want to eat ALL THE GOLDFISH. I digress. Hop over to Instagram and tell me about your habitual meals! I’d love to know for next week! All month long we’ll be talking about simplifying meal planning here on the blog and on social media!

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