Once again, try to do less
Yesterday was pretty great on the whole. I did some reading and planning, took a long walk, and got some good news about the kids' school and celebrated that. I made a big batch of chicken thighs, roasted broccoli, and hardboiled eggs (prepping protein really is the secret!). Then I rescheduled some meetings so I could go to my daughters art showcase at school. After which we went to the pool! The two treats each rule is working great, and once again I packed a great snack dinner (cheese, crackers, pepperoni, boiled eggs, fruit salad, and PB for dipping). Brandon got home on schedule and we all watched a movie (he made homemade popcorn which we all love).
Here's some of the showcase:
And evidence of Dory eating snack dinner:
Of course there were treats first:
Then I feel asleep in bed and he handled cleanup and closing up the house which was such a relief after doing is solo the whole week. :)
All of this did make me realize that I both have a lot of time, and that I can't do so many things in a single day. I was feeling kind of frustrated with myself because also on my list were (1) mow the lawn, (2) clean up the front entry, and (3) even more than this. I DID have the time to do these things, but I find I don't usually want to do chores ALL day, especially not major area task switching.
What probably does work for me is having a day of the week I work on this stuff (or ONE major thing a day). I basically never want to be doing multiple hour long + chores, and the big meal prep was the most I could manage. I still did millions of other chores: laundry, all 3 meals prepping, packing, and cleanup for me and the kids, etc. But those are routine, 15 minutes or less chores. It's the big ones that I really only have one per day in me.