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Mary Chris
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| Posted: March 14 2009 at 9:14am | IP Logged
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I am pretty sure we have discussed this topic before.......
Just before sports season, fall and spring for us, begins I panic and wonder how I'm going to feed my gang. We have sports practice every single night!   This season all my kiddos are playing lacrosse, and dh is planning on helping with all their teams, he is the head coach for ds9.
I'd rather not feed them PB&J for dinner every night for the next three months and I definitely don't want to be going through the drive-thru.
What do you do??? Eat at 8? Eat early and have a good snack of fruit and cheese when you get home?? Skip the fruit and cheese and just have ice cream??
I'm hoping we can share some strategies, I know I'm not the only person dealing with this issue.
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mom to MacKenzie3/95, Carter 12/97 Ronan 3/00 and wife to Jim since 1/92
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Elizabeth
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| Posted: March 14 2009 at 9:23am | IP Logged
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We deal with this year 'round because there is no "off season" here anymore. If everyone will be home by 8:00 ( I know that's late), we all eat then,or whenever the earliest that everyone is home. Otherwise,we eat when we have a 3/4 majority and put a plate aside for whoever is going to eat later. Tea time is a total necessity, with a fairly substantial snack being critical before the first kids get launched in the afternoon. Mike doesn't get off the air until 6:30 and he usually goes to do the late pickups. I make a big deal of serving his plate first and putting it aside before serving whoever is eating. I also try really, really hard to fave a sitdown dinner at the table with good manners for whoever is there. It's too easy to lose the habit if the habit is reserved for only when we're all together. The key words here are "try" and "usually." It doesn't always happen, but it is the default.
If we're all going to be out super long--like a baseball game at 6:00 on a weeknight--I pack dinner for the stands. It takes some forethought, but we really can't afford to eat out very often at all.
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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teachingmyown
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| Posted: March 14 2009 at 9:31am | IP Logged
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We eat at 4:30 during baseball. Then I pack snacks for the little guys and the big kids usually eat leftovers after the game. Court never makes dinner on game nights. He coaches two teams usually and works so far away that he goes straight to the field. Sometimes I try to bring him something, a sandwich, chicken, etc. that he can eat before the game. But he is used to eating late, anyway.
I try to plan the menu around game nights. We usually on have three or four nights per week. I make quick meals with easy cleanup like sloppy joes, popcorn chicken, sub sandwiches, etc.
Tryouts are next week. Here we go!
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Molly
wife to Court & mom to ds '91, dd '96, ds '97, dds '99, '01, '03, '06, and dss '07 and 01/20/11
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: March 14 2009 at 10:43am | IP Logged
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Good snack before and eat late.. especially since Lacrosse can get sooo cold early in the season.. nothing like coming home to a hot soup in the crockpot/roaster.
I have 5 playing lacrosse, I'm coaching and my dh is spending today learning to be a ref for lacrosse
We have a small club here.. this is it's 4th year and our 3rd year. We've build up a good high school team and we're working on the younger kids. We're going to do the 3rd grade and under with "soft lacrosse". 
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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.
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PDyer
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| Posted: March 14 2009 at 11:25am | IP Logged
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We've been doing this allll winter with swimming. Practice starts at 5:30 and ends at 7:30. It's fifteen minutes one way, my daughter's practice is an hour and my son's is two hours, so most of the time I volunteer for the swim club or run errands while the kids are swimming. No sense driving home only to turn around and drive back. My husband is a tax accountant so he's not been getting home until 8, sometimes after picking up my son at practice, sometimes not.
So if I'm going to cook supper I need to cook it before we leave for practice. The kids and I usually eat before practice and have a snack later while my husband is eating his supper.
My best days I make the evening meal at lunch time and put it in the crockpot. Lots of soups, sloppy joes, taco filling for shells or salad. I have a SmartPot crockpot that switches to a warm setting after a set number of hours of cooking. I have found this warm setting to be wonderful as it keeps food from being overcooked in the loooooong period between 4:30 when the kids eat and closer to 8:30 when my husband eats. When I don't use the crockpot I also (inspired by Elizabeth) make a plate for my husband first and try to beat him to the microwave to heat it up when he gets home.
In the summer we pack picnics (lunch meat subs, mostly, raw veggies and fruit) to eat during baseball games or swim meets. This year my husband will not be coaching baseball so we'll be able to eat during the game as most of a family or in the car on the way to away games.
I try to keep a Pampered Chef Veggie Tray filled with veggies and fruit too, so we can grab and go. We keep water bottles filled and ready in the frig.
I also need to get into the habit of keeping a snack stash filled in the car. My kids are always starving after practice and have a hard time waiting to get home to eat. A pile of granola bars or trail mix in the car would help that problem, but I can never seem to pull it off. Maybe this year!
Eight more days of swimming, then I get a break until we start traveling for baseball and swimming starts again in June! Whoohoo!
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Patty
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Mary Chris
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| Posted: March 14 2009 at 12:12pm | IP Logged
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Ok so sitting down to dinner at 8, as opposed to finishing dinner at 8, is not the end of the world. That is a big sigh of relief! I know it always works out and we never starve during sports season but I still freak out the week before it starts.
This time around, I feel like we have really developed some good routines of eating at home and good healthy dinners the past three months, I don't want to lose that.
I also teach CGS two afternoons a week, so I'm not always home into to make sure they get that good snack. I'll just have to try harder. Unfortunately, those two days are our busiest. Packing snacks is possible though. I have heard of folks who keep those small plastic drawer sets in the back of the car and fill them with snacks and such. Might have to think about that.
I have one of those Pampered Chef veggie trays, the round one, and we have been talking about keeping water bottles in the garage frig. Thanks for the ideas and encouragement!
Jodie, I am way impressed that you are coaching Lax! I'm content to just be a cheerleader.  My dh on the other hand is so excited to be coaching, he played in Upstate NY in high school and college, he has been waiting since dd was born to coach.
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mom to MacKenzie3/95, Carter 12/97 Ronan 3/00 and wife to Jim since 1/92
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: March 14 2009 at 3:24pm | IP Logged
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I think you might find my feelings in a past prayer request  .. this is very out of my comfort zone.. but we're in a small town.. the only person in town that has played lacrosse before this club started is the (now only)varsity coach.. I've been watching the kids.. I helped out last year.. so I'm learning it.. but I've never been a coach, never played sports myself.. but I know more than most of the parents (I stayed and watched all the practises etc) But it's very much a case of if you want something done you have to do it yourself. My dh would love to coach but his job isn't consistent enough for that.. both in being in town at all and when he's off each evening. So this works.. my sis has said she'll help with my littles.. and so I coach and he'll learn to ref so that he can plan on specific days to help but not need to be commited to as many days/times as for coaching.
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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.
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guitarnan
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| Posted: March 14 2009 at 6:43pm | IP Logged
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We have Irish dance and Scout evenings to contend with - not sports but at the same completely inconvenient time. My crockpot is my best friend. The little one (4 qt.) died last week and I plan to hit yard sales to replace it next month. The 6 qt. will now take over.
Compounding things is my husband's work schedule - he seldom gets home before 8:00 and often arrives around 9:00. He is very easygoing about us eating without him when we need to, but it's still not fun. 
I do best with wacky schedules when I make a weekly meal plan and shop way ahead for the ingredients. Improv is not my thing (musically or otherwise). I also try to keep soup-from-scratch ingredients on hand (lentil and pasta e fagioli, mostly) so I can make dinner soup at lunch time and put bread into the machine to bake. That's a great emergency dinner.
It's very hard for me to stick with the meal plan approach but it really works best for us. If my daughter makes the dance company, I plan to bring food to her 3x/week classes - most moms get fast food - and donate a microwave to the studio so we can heat up our food!
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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sewcrazy
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My dh is never home for dinner, so that is not a consideration in my house. We eat our big meal of the day at around 2 pm. Our meal schedule is:
8 am breakfast
11 am fruit and yogurt snack
2 pm main meal
5 evening tea
Leftovers, or soup and salad as people trickle in before the end of their day.
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LeeAnn
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teachingmom
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| Posted: March 18 2009 at 10:24pm | IP Logged
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Mary Chris, I was just thinking about this today. Two of mine are starting softball next week. I was remembering those yummy homemade sub sandwiches you would bring to evening swim meets last year and thinking I'd have to do that for at least one night each week. (The one when I'll be running from before 5 until 7:45 with multiple activities.)
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Kristie 4
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| Posted: March 19 2009 at 1:43pm | IP Logged
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We eat an early dinner (say at 4)- on the good days  - and then eat leftovers, toast and toppings, or a bowl of cereal (we aren't ususally cereal eaters but we eat heaps of it as the bedtime snack in soccer season) as an after game fill up before the bedtime routine.
All year my dd has ballet and I usually leave the table set and dinner on the stove so dh and 3 boys will eat a nice sit down dinner when we are away and dd and I will grab a plate on the way out and (blush here for me) another plate or toast when we arrive at home
Basically, we try to keep it as normal as possible- otherwise those persnickity manners slide right off the radar!
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stacykay
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| Posted: March 19 2009 at 7:26pm | IP Logged
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Kind of like Elizabeth here, if we have a majority, and others are going to be too late, we eat anywhere between 7-8p (our "normal" dinner time.)
We have football, go on to basketball, and now lacrosse. Coach pitch/baseball will be coming up. Throw in "tax" season for late nights for dh.
I had to do a drop-off during my usual dinner prep time, today, so on days like this, I either do something that can roast for hours on a low temp (today it was chicken,) a crock-pot dinner, or something that is fast, like making tacos.
For game nights, we (me and whoever isn't playing) eat "early" and go to the game. Whoever is playing eats a good snack (usually a turkey sub) before the game, and then dinner after the game, if they are still hungry, which is 99.99% of the time.
I have adjusted our dinner time over the years, as dh works more hours, because I really want all of us eating together.
I usually make a fruit snack and/or popcorn for our "tea time" and do our fun reading then- anywhere from 3ish to 4ish.
God Bless,
Stacy in MI
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Angie Mc
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| Posted: March 21 2009 at 10:54am | IP Logged
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9:00 substantial breakfast
11:00 veggie snack
1:00 main meal
4:00 small meal at home or in the van
6:00 and after...snacks
Right now, we have practice M-F evenings plus tournaments on weekends. On the rare night that we don't have a week night practice, if dh is home (he works in the area 2 nights a week and often travels,) we have a sit down family evening meal and I make the lunch light. We don't do fast food because, honestly, its faster for us to do our own food...to do one more thing on the road is more worrisome to me  .
There have been seasons where we have eaten late at night, but now we're hooked on our strict bedtime routine that begins at 8:30. My dh prefers us to have lights out at 10:00 to eating a sit down meal with us.
In the van we have granola bars, fruit leather, and nuts for snacks. I sure could use some travel snack/light meal ideas...
Love,
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Angie Mc
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monique
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| Posted: March 21 2009 at 7:39pm | IP Logged
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Visit my blog for some inspiration with meals on the go! A Year Without Eating Out
So, for those of you who are eating supper at 8:00, what time do you finish, get cleaned up and get to bed?
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Monique
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Mary Chris
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| Posted: March 23 2009 at 10:09am | IP Logged
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Monique,
I saw that on your blog a while back and it inspiried me to give it a try. My original plan was to only eat out if grandparents were paying or we had a gift card. The recent Friday nights have totally thrown me for a loop though. Now, my goal is to just eat out less, which we have been doing. I sure hope I can keep it up through the spring.
I'll be back to answer the clean up questions later.
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mom to MacKenzie3/95, Carter 12/97 Ronan 3/00 and wife to Jim since 1/92
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: March 23 2009 at 11:10am | IP Logged
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generally by that point it's not a long drawn out dinner.. everyone has pretty much eaten and is done by 8:30.. and dishes may wait until morning.. my goal is everything done once a day at a minimum so if it's after breakfast or after dinner.. it doesn't matter much. So I can still get kids in bed and table cleaned off, food put away etc by 9:30ish.
But we also tend to start the day a bit later.. except for those days we HAVE to be up earlier.. the kids don't get up until between 8 and 9.
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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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vmalott
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| Posted: March 26 2009 at 8:02am | IP Logged
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Angie Mc wrote:
| In the van we have granola bars, fruit leather, and nuts for snacks. I sure could use some travel snack/light meal ideas... |
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Oh, Angie, I know what you mean. I've pretty much got the mealtimes and sports schedules worked out with the exception of those weekend tourneys in or out of town! I'm lucky enough to remember shoes, jackets, and sunscreen for everyone!
This year, though, I think I need to commit myself to getting to games with a packed cooler, even if that means leaving it in the van and going out of the park to eat between games. For those of you who don't know, many baseball parks have a "no coolers" policy...definitely a challenge for the family trying to stay on a budget and eat healthier options. 
I really like the idea of making up a couple of large subs for a light meal option. They can easily be split between several family members. It certainly beats eating a ballpark hotdog! Keeping fruit in a cooler is good for a player who needs to eat between games but doesn't need to be weighed down by a burger, dog, or pizza (the typical choices at most concession stands around here). How about some pasta salads?
Wow, I'm definitely inspired to think more about this. With a little forethought, it really isn't any different than making sure you have cash in your wallet to buy things at the concession stand!
Valerie
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Valerie
Mom to Julia ('94), John ('96), Lizzy ('98), Connor ('01), Drew ('02), Cate ('04), Aidan ('08) and three saints in heaven
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Mary Chris
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| Posted: March 26 2009 at 8:55am | IP Logged
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vmalott wrote:
For those of you who don't know, many baseball parks have a "no coolers" policy...definitely a challenge for the family trying to stay on a budget and eat healthier options.
Valerie |
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That is ridiculous!!! With the sports my kids play, we don't have to worry about weeknight games. I do need to give some thoughts to Saturday and Sunday lunches though.
I should dig up some of the old threads about eating on the go.
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mom to MacKenzie3/95, Carter 12/97 Ronan 3/00 and wife to Jim since 1/92
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JodieLyn
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a layer dip with beans no meat, cheese lettuce tomato etc. makes a good cooler lunch option.. you use chips to scoop out of the common dish so there's no need for utensils or plates
I do buy things for the weekend stuff that I don't normally get.. like those "gogurts" and cheesesticks and crackers for munchies
trailmix can be a good snack too
bagels with cream cheese (make 'em before you go so you can hand them out rather than fix them there) oh and I get mini bagels
my oatmeal bars, I make them without chocolate for sports dried fruit and or nuts are good for flavoring and one of those with a go-gurt isn't a bad meal.
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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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MelissaClaire
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Just bumping this for even more great ideas for this spring sports season!
We've got usually 3 nights a week at practices or games for soccer or tball for the next 2 months and I need all the help I can get planning.
Last year I did crockpot meals for the practice nights (when we'd get home by 7:15--game nights we don't get home until 7:45) and sandwich wraps or cold pasta salads for game nights for those not playing but this year my husband is managing and 2 boys are playing so I need to figure something else out. We did cereal before the game last week and col pasta salad after the game, but I can see that getting old quickly.
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Melissa
Mom to a dd ('02), ds ('03), ds ('05), dd ('07) and baby due 9/01/09
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4Real Forums : Our Lady's Loom, Larder, and Laundry
Topic: Sports practice and dinner??
