Easy School Lunches Need Two Things: the Right Container and a Plan

August 24, 2017 Leave a Comment

Making school lunches is a chore no more with a plan and the right container.

If you are like me, the first day of school hits and I repeat over and over in my head “YAY! School is back in session! The kids are not driving me nuts anymore” That lasts all of 2 minutes. Because it hits me now: I have to make lunch for those munchkins because for one reason or another – school lunch is not an option in our family. Making school lunch is the bane of my morning. It is SUCH a chore! I have one school-aged child who will eat sandwiches – great! Easy school lunches. I have another who won’t touch sandwiches.

It’s important for me to make sure these little ones receive the right nutrition. I am not getting into a nutrition debate here, but let’s just say it is important to me that they receive a variety of foods in different colors. But ugh I have to think of things to pack for them. That was the big issue for me. Then I need to remember to keep a variety of the things they like stocked up in my pantry. I’m pretty sure they like a variety of choices instead of eating the same thing day after day.

The Motivation

A few years ago when my oldest was starting Kindergarten, I tried to have him just each lunch provided by the school. That lasted all of a week. His teacher called me and begged me to send his lunch from home because he hated the school lunch menus so bad. So I started sending him lunch in baggies. But my goodness, those are expensive! I saw an idea where a mom would use a hard plastic sandwich container and separate the food with cupcake liners. Great idea, but whoa those sandwich containers though: $3-4 each and not readily available. I couldn’t justify spending that much on each container with the high risk that it would not return home. So I thought of a cheaper alternative – just small, rectangular, shallow plastic containers with lids then I add cupcake liners to separate the food. I am not going through hundreds of baggies each school year. YES!

This helps with portion control – so I don’t overpack. The kids have a short amount of time to eat lunch and before I developed this method of packing lunches, there was always a lot of wasted food each day. I feel like I am pretty darn innovative for adapting these “bento lunch boxes” for my kiddos.

School Lunch Mind Map Page Layout in My Bullet Journal

Now if it would only get up before the sun rises and pack the containers for me…I guess that is where weekly meal prep comes in. Sigh another time, another place.

The other problem was planning the lunches. I now have two kiddos in school taking their lunches – with my middle starting kindergarten this year. Keeping ideas in check and supplies stocked would be an issue. I got even smarter this year and included a Mind Map page in my Bullet Journal so I always had a comprehensive list of lunch ideas while I am shopping.

To make a Mind Map: Start with a central idea expanding out and becomes more detailed as you go.

In this case, I started with the sketch of the school lunch and expanded outwards as in the picture below. Mind mapping has always been a favorite exercise of mine since I am so visually inclined. You can expand even further if you wanted (for instance under protein, I could have listed nuts and had another branch that listed all the types from there).

I use this technique for the family when we need dinner on the go. Usually when I am taxiing the kids to karate. Bonus: maybe now I can enjoy the structured nature of the school year because packing their lunches just got easier and my kids can focus on packing their brains full of information.

What tips and tricks do you have for packing school lunches for your kids? Leave me a comment below and let me know.

Pin this tip and then Follow me on Pinterest for even more tips, tricks and great ideas for your creative life journey.

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What did I use for this post? I’ll tell you.

Leuchtturm1917 A5 Dotgrid
Papermate Flair for the color
Micron pens for the lines
Tombow Fudenosuke brush pen for the lettering – buy a bigger pack – I LOVE these pens and have made all the difference in my hand-lettering journey
Water brush pens for blending
Energel in purple (because I love it) – these are my go-to pen for general writing.

This post contains affiliate links. The cost is the same to you, but I will receive a small commission to help support my blogging and creativity habits. 🙂 All opinions expressed were solely mine and from my heart.

Eclipse/Space Layout – Shield Your Eyes!

August 17, 2017 1 Comment

The Eclipse is Coming! The Eclipse is Coming!

Warning: Shield your eyes from what you are about to see or make sure you have the proper viewing spectacles for your eyes.

Nevermind, you can look.

Monday is the eclipse across North America – and we are very near the total coverage area in the south. We are checking the kids out of school and trekking our way to a better viewing area. Thank goodness we have family in the area and don’t have to find lodging. If I owned a hotel, I would crank up prices because people would pay them to see this once-in-a-lifetime {for some} event. I am not a hotel owner though.

Perhaps I should make a calendar of when the next eclipse will be and where so I will be more prepared the next time. Well… if I’m still around on this earth. I should learn more about them. I’m sure that I just cursed myself – it’s predicted that my kid’s future science fair project is probably on eclipses. Great, can’t wait for that karma. That doesn’t lessen my excitement about this eclipse, though. So now, enough with the chit-chat.

Here is the layout for next week in honor of the Eclipse!

First off, I have to tell you that I didn’t have a compass of any sort in my possession, but I wanted to make circles. I actually wanted imperfectly overlapped circles, so it looked like the eclipse either coming or going.

I scouted around my kitchen for two glasses with different size openings. One needed to fit inside the other – but just so I could make the circles pretty close to overlapping. I offset them just slightly. On the first page, I wanted the emphasis on Monday, which is when the eclipse was happening. I chose to do a repeating pattern for the facing page. Watercolor was so much fun on these pages!

I left a large area for notes since we are making a big deal of it for our kids, I plan on recording the events here so I can tell them about the adventure in years to come. Maybe you will have more patience than I did to splatter white paint across the pages to make it look more like stars.

Did you miss the eclipse but like the layout? This layout could be used for space/celestial/cosmos theme.

What layouts did you do for the eclipse? Anything special?

What objects have you used in a creative way?

Pin this layout for later (and follow me on Pinterest for more ideas!) I’m on Instagram too, @ChocolateMusingsCreates. Follow over there for bullet journal ideas/layouts art and hand lettering.

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Here is the layout with a couple of close-ups.

Leave me a comment below and let me know what objects you’ve used in a creative way.

Minimal Open-Side Square Weekly Spread

August 15, 2017 Leave a Comment

Minimal Open-Side-Square Weekly Spread

{with Monday Start}

Great layout for a minimalist design
the names on the side added variety to change-up the layout.

The day-to-day planning is down the center of the page (except Sunday) and all the other planning is on the edge of the pages.

I left a big part of the page on the right for a quote or to do list. You’ll notice that the week starts on Monday. Not typical for the calendar I use, but I’ve really been liking the Monday start to the week. Whether it’s in my head or not, it makes me feel like my weekend is not disjointed…and possibly longer? Whatever extends the weekends right?

I tend to lay things out in pencil before adding color or pen, it reduces mistakes. After getting it drawn out, I decided the sides would be the best place for the days of the week names. Below is the video of me lettering the names. Yes, I forgot to cross the “t” on Saturday and dot the “i” in Friday – what in the world was I thinking?! Details! I discovered it later and added them as you’ll see in the final layout.

To create this layout:

Start from the center – and leave one dot to the center of the book, you could move it closer if you wanted, but it makes it easier to add tasks and notes you don’t have to write into the center of the page. I have tried to allow for white space in my bullet journal. (And let’s face it, white space in my life too!)

I always leave 2 square heights for the meal planning – it just makes it seem easier to plan meals that way. I like to have a place to jot down miscellaneous ‘next week’ items. On the right side, I included a square for blog posts and “to do” for those tasks that are not assigned to a day. But in that space, you could have: To Do Lists, Shopping Lists, a place for notes or journaling, mini-calendar, a weekly habit tracker or a myriad of other things! I love having space ‘as needed’. If you were making your own, you might decide to mash Saturday & Sunday into a “weekend” box instead. I think I might do that next time.

Pin these layouts for later (and follow me on Pinterest for more ideas!) I’m on Instagram too, @ChocolateMusingsCreates. Follow over there for bullet journal ideas/layouts art and hand lettering.

Pin this layout for later!

Leave me a comment below and let me know what you think.

Eliminate the Same To Do List – Create a Master Project Checklist

August 13, 2017 3 Comments

I love ‘to do’ lists. They help organize my brain.

Once I get it down on paper, I’m free to think of other things that could be put down on a different list.

But to do list-ing (is that a thing?) is tedious if you record the same ‘to dos’ for every project.

In an earlier post, I showed you how to set up a habit tracker in your bullet journal – tasks done every day to form habits. Read the post here. I thought about that layout and decided to transform the same format into a framework for accomplishing tasks that have the same group of “to dos”. But instead of tracking daily tasks, check off a to do list on projects. For instance, my blog posts have similar tasks before I can post each one. I found that I was writing the same tasks over and over. (And taking up a lot of room to do it!)

Here’s the first part of my to do list for a video + blog post:

Start with a topic
Brainstorm
Plan ideas
Layout
Create content
Video
Audio recording
Music
Edit video
Edit pictures
Write post
Edit post
Schedule Post
Etc.

That’s not even half the list! I was spending more time creating the list than I was doing the tasks on the list. The kicker was they were the same tasks over and over for every project!

So I set up a Master Project Checklist.

For more efficient project tasking sharing a common to do list, create a Master Project Checklist.

The size of your to do list vs. number of projects will help you decide on a vertical or horizontal layout. I opted for a horizontal checklist as I needed more room for the ‘to dos’ for each project. I counted down 4 dots from the top of my A5 Leuchtturm1917 and 8 dots over. After squaring all the boxes in the to do list, I added the task lines at an angle (which allows more room to write). I filled in my tasks grouped by the typical timeline. Since this is a ‘master page’ I knew I would return to it, so I added this fantastic feather and *To Do* washi tape to the edges of the page as a marker (I found it at Michaels at a steal), but if you want to know what the set looks like -here is a link.

This will do nicely. I can check that off the list!

Let me know what you think in the comments below. Subscribe to my newsletter and follow me on Pinterest for more ideas! Be sure to pin this for later.

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Four Ideas to Supercharge Your Habit Tracker {that you may not have thought of before!}

June 20, 2017 4 Comments

Implementing any of these 4 items could increase your habit tracker effectiveness – and help you achieve even more!

Ever heard the quote “What gets measured, gets managed”? Logging month-to-month totals and/or percentages creates a quick overview of your habits each month. Use it to supercharge your habit tracker.

Implementing any of these 4 items could increase your habit tracker effectiveness – and help you achieve even more! Ever heard the quote “What gets measured, gets managed”? Logging month-to-month totals and/or percentages creates a quick overview of your habits each month and facilitates improvement. Want to know how to set up a habit tracker? Here is my step-by-step instructions on setting-up your own habit tracker.

You’ve been tracking your habits, and making some progress! (Good for you!) I know that my habit tracker in my bullet journal has helped me make some major improvements in my life, simply because I like filling it out every day, and I can’t fill it out unless I do the things that are in the tracker! This practice has boosted my motivation, and I have seen a difference in making positive changes. It really helps to hold myself accountable.

Would you like to see more progress or easily compare last month’s tracking numbers without flipping back and forth pages? Here are some super simple ways to help you keep track of your past ‘tracking’.

Idea #1

I have seen some yearly or extended trackers for each habit, but even a double-page spread is simply not big enough to accommodate multiple months with multiple habits. So one month ends and you start a new month with a new habit tracker. The past is in the past right? But aren’t you trying to create a habit? If you don’t know where you came from, then how do you know when to improve? Wouldn’t it be good to see your progress from the previous month?

Bullet Journal Habit Tracker Percentage Chart — Track percentages in your bullet journal habit tracker

Supercharge your habit tracker Idea #1:

Add a “Last Month” Totals Column. Track the same habits over and over again? Add a column at the end of your tracker showing how many days you accomplished your habit last month. Competition with yourself? Yes, please. But no smack talking.

Idea #2

Idea #2: Add a “This Month” Totals Column. {Or a ‘Last Month’ vs ‘This Month’} Prefer not to carry forward the numbers? Add a column for “This Month” or “Totals” to the end of your tracker. When you flip back in your planner to see how you’ve done, you have a quick reference. You could always add a ‘last month’ column and a ‘this month’ column at the end of the tracker – creates a great comparison month to month. An end of journal reflection (because seriously, who can use a single journal for a whole year?) will show improvement at a quick glance month-to-month.

Idea #3

Idea #3: Track Percentages. Really serious about the improvement of your habits? Include a percent field. (To figure the percent – take the total number of days you did your habit – say 13 and divide by the total number of days in the month = percent.) Hate math? no problem. I’ve created a graphic for your reference.

Idea #4:

Idea #4: Cross out days for seldom-tracked habits. Do you have a habit that you want to track, but don’t do it every day – cross out the days that don’t apply for that habit so you don’t become discouraged for only having completed 3 or 4 days in the month.

Use these tips to help change not only your habits but change your character. After all, “it’s never too late to be who you might have been.” -George Elliot

What gets measured, gets managed - Peter Drucker

Leave me a comment below – let me know of any tips or tricks you might have for your bullet journal habit tracker. I’d love to hear from you, and try out some things you like to do too.

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