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mom2mpr
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| Posted: June 24 2013 at 10:51am | IP Logged
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I have been totally spent for about a year now. Trying hard to come up with ideas that will help me "rest" and rejuvenate. So far, in my action plan I have:
Send HS aged ds to a co-op for most courses next year. He needs that peer time and I am not a good teacher for these years. I am paying for this so have no class responsibilities, just parent of the day once a month or so.
Exercise, I try to get to the dismal basement each morning to exercise and do some of my PT. Not sure if the the setting is helping, but I do think the exercise does 
Try to find a sitter for dd so I can get a break every other week or so, or get some alone time with ds for talks. This is hard. Prayers please.
Figure out some healthy, easy and quick meals for a night off from cooking and dishes. Decent frozen pizza or raveoli perhaps.Problem is I am trying to switch to vegan and everyone else eats everything.
Get to daily mass and/or adoration once a week.
For the first time ever we are taking the summer off(once ds finishes algebra and dd finishes spelling  ). The decreased workload seems to help some.
What ideas do you have for when you are struggling? It seems I still need more 
Thanks......
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Anne, married to dh 16 years!, ds,(97), Little One (02), and dd (02).
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Rebeccca
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| Posted: June 24 2013 at 12:44pm | IP Logged
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AMDG
I would like to make a couple of cooking suggestions. When I get harried, this is what I do.
1. SOUP! Now, I realize that it's summer and you may not want to heat up the house. Use a crock pot instead if you like. I like to cook two batches of soup at once. One goes to the fridge for us to eat through the week and one goes into pint jars and into the freezer (to do this I place the jars in the freezer with the lid just sitting on top. When frozen, I put the ring on.) These make lunches and suppers that are simple and wholesome. This is good b/c when I get harried, we turn to restaurants and those never cook as wholesomely.
2. Baked Potatoes! Again, use the crock if you don't want to heat up the house. A baked potato is such an easy and filling meal. I serve everyone a potato on the plate and serve the toppings on the counter. I require everyone to take a protein and green and otherwise, we top at will. It's nice with a salad and then the green is a given. I often just put out smoked tempeh, (fake) cheese, broccoli, salsa, and gk yogurt (my husband's fave). This is so simple and cheap.
3. Beans on Monday! Beans on Monday means, for us, that we have a crockpot full on beans (on Monday) and simply serve that with a side or two. On Tuesday we have, maybe, a homemade tomato soup. I make a big pot and separate out enough for supper and add the herbs we like. Sometimes we love this with sandwich or something. Then on Wednesday we might have a toss of beans, tomatoes, basil served on top of polenta or tossed with pasta. Thursday we might have something completely unrelated to tomato soup or beans. Then on Friday I caramelize onions, add cilantro and the rest of the unseasoned tomato soup, cook it down to a sauce, and use it for bean enchiladas. It's a lot to type out and read but it is a very simple meal plan to execute. OH, and any left over beans make an delish pasta e fagioli.
4. Assign a cooking day. If a kiddo can do algebra, she can make a pasta salad or simple soup or sandwiches. Simplest Pasta Salad
While (ww -- be good to yourself!) pasta is boiling, prepare the following into a bowl:
Frozen or fresh broccoli to steam on top of pasta.
1 box cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
1 can chickpeas, drained, rinsed
2 (or so) jars of marinated artichoke hearts, marinade and all.
Toss everything with the pasta and broccoli.
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Rebeccca
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| Posted: June 24 2013 at 1:15pm | IP Logged
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AMDG
Oh, you specifically asked about pizza. Kashi has a whole grain crust pizza. You can get three in a box at Sams. They are smallish and not tremendously filling but better for you than many others.
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Erica Sanchez
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| Posted: June 24 2013 at 3:04pm | IP Logged
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I love your ideas, Rebecca, and am printing them now. We are in a bad way regarding food, so this is very very helpful.
Would you please tell me how to do baked potatoes in a crock pot?
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Have a beautiful and fun day!
Erica in San Diego
(dh)Cash, Emily, Grace, Nicholas, Isabella, Annie, Luke, Max, Peter, 2 little souls ++, and sweet Rose who is legally ours!
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Rebeccca
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| Posted: June 24 2013 at 9:00pm | IP Logged
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AMDG
Super simple, Erica! I wash them and put them in the crockpot just with the cling water; nothing else. Lid on and cook all day with my old one and several hours with my new one (brand new crockpot and I still prefer the old one with the broken lid).
there are (about to be) ll people in your family. Pot lucks aside () I've never cooked for that many people so I'm not sure how helpful my two-pots-of-soup-and-freezing-by-pints idea is for you. We can put a pot of soup in the fridge and eat it all week. Still, it really, really, isn't much more work if you make two pots at the same time.
I also forgot to mention Bean Bowls. Super frugal and my family likes them. A scoop of brown rice, a scoop of beans, and top away! We do a regular medium grain, and black beans topped with shredded lettuce or spinach, cilantro, diced tomatoes . . .
or
a short grain and edemame topped with romain tossed with an asian style dressing
or scoop of rice and scoop of pinto beans topped with shredded spinach, diced tomatoes, avocados, diced jalapenos . . . basically salsa ingredients.
rice, ckpeas topped with a salad tossed with lemon and olive oil, salt and pepper, and maybe tomatoes and feta.
And another pizza idea. This is super simple. Baguette, halve length wise and cut into individual serving sizes. top with sliced tomatoes (or jarred sauce), toppings of choice, cheese or soy cheese as desired. Under the broiler for a short time and voila! Whole grain baguette is a bit more but keeps us full longer.
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Rebeccca
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| Posted: June 24 2013 at 9:07pm | IP Logged
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AMDG
Now this is just getting embarrassing . . . Can you tell I tend to get this way sometimes.
When I feel overwhelmed I discover that I feel like I'm doing everything and everyone else is doing nothing. Sometimes it's true and sometimes it's not. When it is true, it's time for a family meeting. When it's not, I need to appreciate what is getting done and then I still need my people to understand that I need a little extra help just now.
Mostly when I feel overwhelmed, we're out of the home too much in the evenings and we need to pare down. Evenings at home in unstructured relaxation is KEY!
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mom2mpr
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| Posted: June 24 2013 at 10:34pm | IP Logged
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Thanks for the responses so far. Love the bean bowl idea. And I will look for the kashi pizza.
Part of my burn out is related to activities and I am working on that but this family NEEDS that. Being homeschooled in a rural area, a small family with kids 5 years apart(sometime I wonder WHY did it turn out this way-it is HARD) and being VERY social and outgoing, we have many evening activities to help with that. My current phrase is that they are living " a vacation." It seems to be sinking in having just come back from a vacation  And I am learning it relax about their activities and assignments. Drive my self crazy for their 4H assignments? Why? So, that is a project in progress. Wish me luck
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Anne, married to dh 16 years!, ds,(97), Little One (02), and dd (02).
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Erica Sanchez
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| Posted: June 25 2013 at 6:33pm | IP Logged
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Anne,
You sound like you are doing great. The things you mentioned in your first post are things I need to start doing. :)
I love the bean bowl idea, too, Rebecca. I think for me at this time the cooking and preparing of food is not going well so these ideas are giving me hope. I have two crockpots so I will figure out something. I want to invest in a large soup pot to make bigger batches now that we have a deep freezer. I have all kinds of ideas for that from a previous thread. :)
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Have a beautiful and fun day!
Erica in San Diego
(dh)Cash, Emily, Grace, Nicholas, Isabella, Annie, Luke, Max, Peter, 2 little souls ++, and sweet Rose who is legally ours!
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Rebeccca
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| Posted: June 25 2013 at 7:40pm | IP Logged
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AMDG
Erica, do you think you could borrow a large soup pot to see if you like it. I find that it takes all day to make something that can be made in several hours in two smaller pots. Really, I only use my large pot to serve at the homeless shelter. I make whatever I'm making in several smaller pots and then transfer them to the large pot.
Now, my large pot is really large. My smaller ones hold about 12 cups apiece. I have 4 of them and put one on each burner when I cook large -- like 1st Saturdays for the shelter. I honestly can't wait around all day for it to heat in that great big pot. I can fit at least 6 of those into my biggie.
I'm pretty disorganized, though. If you are more organized and can plan better, you may have better luck.
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: June 25 2013 at 8:23pm | IP Logged
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ERika... go for the the big electric turkey roaster... it can be used very much like a crock pot.. needs a bit more watching since it's not as tightly lidded... but I cook 5-6pounds of dry beans in mine. And baked potatoes are done just the same way as mentioned for the crock pot.. but set it at the same 350* as the oven and they're done in the same 1 hr as the oven.
I love mine in the summer because it can go outside and not heat up the house when making soups and beans and such..
learn to cook from frozen.. I can think of a meal early enough in the day to cook meat from frozen (generally takes 1.5 times the normal cook time) but odds are not good on me thinking of and remembering to pull it out soon enough to thaw.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: June 25 2013 at 8:53pm | IP Logged
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Burn out idea.. I'm short on time right now.. but I need to MAKE myself take a break. And that means not even thinking about the stuff I'm taking a break from. If I take a break (anything from hiding in my bedroom or taking a shower to a meal out with my dh.. breakfast or lunch can work if evenings are full up) I can't be worrying about stuff.. it's like not getting a break at all. If I'm really worried that I won't remember something that just occured to me.. I keep a notebook handy and jot it down so I don't keep thinking about it.
So I guess just make your break be a real break.
I remember when my dh was traveling a lot for work.. we'd moved to where I knew no one.. had all small children.. I'd leave everyone in the house to walk across the yard and get the mail.. and I'd swing my arms and take deep breaths and look up into the sky and NOT think about anything in the house.. it was maybe 2 minutes (probably less) but I made the most of every second as a break and really did feel refreshed from it.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: Burn out ideas?
