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I remember the days when my car was littered with fast food containers, children’s shoes/socks (usually just one of the pair), sporting equipment, trash, and toys of all kinds. With busy lives and families that are involved in a lot of different activities, containing the mess in your car can be a real challenge. While it’s not truly a problem driving a messy car, I think that it can add to your daily stress. Who doesn’t like getting into a car that isn’t at least orderly, if not clean? I would suggest that if you invest a small amount of time and money getting your car ready to really serve your family’s needs, you will feel a lot more in control.  I think the key to managing your car space is to keep things like sporting equipment or toys for the kids to use while travelling together in easy to access baskets or bins or hanging pouches. I’ve attached some links to the bottom of this post that may be useful. Using items like this may give you a better chance of knowing where everything is you need, when you need it. I suggest you add the following to your car, regardless of the ages or activities your children are involved in:

•  Wet Wipes (to clean children, spills, or whatever happens).
• An umbrella for an unexpected rain.
• Plastic grocery bags (to throw trash into, to put wet things in, to simply help you carry things from the car into the house).
• Books or small toys that are only used when in the car- that helps keep them interesting to the children. One idea is to go to the dollar tree every once in a while and pick up some “surprises” for play in the car. Even bigger kids might find something affordable that they weren’t expecting.
• Healthy Snacks that are car friendly- food won’t melt in the heat or children’s hands or can be eaten without crumbs (maybe beef jerky as an example).
• A towel (can be used to sit on, clean up, or just for several unexpected reasons).
• Music that is kid friendly. Most of us have electronics we can stream from but playing music you and the kids can listen or sing to can help make the errands goes more quickly.
• A small electric vacuum if you have the funds, to help you keep the floors and seats.

I’ve attached some items I think might help you start organizing your car. Each family has their own activities, but these might be a good starting point. Let’s see what happens with a clean car. Be Blessed.

Gail

Hanging Organizer

Amazon.com: Car Trunk Organizer, Backseat Hanging Organizer with 8 Large Storage Bag Super Capacity, Waterproof Trunk Storage Bag for SUV Car, Black : Automotive

Trunk Organizer

Amazon.com: FORTEM Car Trunk Organizer, Car Storage Organizer, Collapsible Multi Compartment Car Organizer, SUV Trunk Organizer, Non Slip Bottom, Adjustable Securing Straps, Foldable Cover (Black, Standard Size) : Automotive

Sitting around the table with your family enjoying time after our work and school days seems like something that should be fun and relaxing, but often becomes the most stressful battlefield of the day. We picture everyone smiling and talking about their days and enjoying a meal as a family, but often, this is just not what happens. Arguments about eating the food cooked, fighting among the children, and even having problems keeping everyone seated at the same table can be hard. Today we aren’t talking about those nights when your family is not home till late because of after school practice. This blog is about those days when we all are present for a meal at the same time. We are going to discuss ways to deal with crazy after-school activity schedules on another post.

For now, I want to encourage you to consider trying some of the ideas I found in the material attached called The Dinner Project Newsletter. While implementing all these ideas at once may be an overload for parents, I think picking a few and trying them may be worth the effort. The simple concept of “setting a mood” by background music or lighting candles, for example, may help children pick up on the fact that they have a set of expectations that occur when the candles or music is on. Whichever options you pick, please sit down in advance and tell your children what you expect from them. For example, “when I light the candles on the table, we are going to sit down, eat, and stay at the table until I blow out the candle”. You are trying to get the children to associate the candle being lit with sitting appropriately at the table. The same thing can be done with playing the same music every evening when people are sitting at the table.

I’ve attached a great article with suggestions on how to reduce the stress during mealtime. I encourage you to read the brief article and pick one or two to try with your family. Let’s see what happens and be blessed!

Gail

Tips for Reducing Tension at the Table – The Family Dinner Project – The Family Dinner Project

Welcome to the Tipsforthetiredfamily,com third post. So glad you are back to pick up some ideas for ways we can help reduce the stress we have in our daily life. When I talk to young families, I frequently hear that making a weekly menu, shopping, and preparing food seems to be a huge time consumer. Additionally, the stressors around the process of eating a meal with a young family (especially dinner) are often the most challenging of the day. I plan on doing several posts surrounding what we eat, how we eat together as a family, and to offer some ideas to make this whole process easier. Today’s post is just informational to make sure we understand what a nutritious meal even looks like. I grew up with the food pyramid as our guideline. However, in doing more research, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has gone through several changes in what is felt to be the best over-all diet. In 2005 the Food Pyramid was changed to a program called “My Pyramid”.  As more information became available, the newest USDA guidelines are called “My Plate”. I encourage you to do a crash course on this by watching the attached 3-minute video. Once we have a handle on what the goal for daily nutrition looks like, we can begin to develop systems that allow us to feed our family a nutritious diet without working hard to do it. I promise a little preparation right now will help a lot as we go through future posts on more specific ways to make your menus, shop, and prepare foods. This is going to be Important so get ready to change the way you think about what a healthy diet looks like, and as always, be blessed!

Choose My Plate Dietary Guidelines – Bing video