Weekly Meal Planner

For those of you who subscribe to our free monthly newsletter, you know what a big fan I am of our monthly meal planner. Even though it is a bit more time intensive at first, I love the feeling of contentment that comes from knowing that all of my meals are planned out in advance and that I won’t have to get creative on the quick. But we do understand that monthly meal planning isn’t for everyone and have recently added a new weekly meal planner for those families who prefer to plan their meals weekly rather than monthly.

The weekly meal planner comes with 52 weekly meal planners, tear off grocery lists, and plenty of storage for recipes and take out menus. It is a perfect option for busy families on the go who still want to serve nutritious meals without a lot of fuss.

Getting Back Into The Groove After a Family Vacation

Sleeping in, relaxing by the pool, spending quality time with the family, and having wonderful memories are all the great aspects of family vacations and frankly the reasons most families take a family vacation year after year. But with all of the great fun, getting back into the groove of things after the vacation can be a challenge. So to ease you back into your “family groove” after your vacation, here are some quick tips to help.

Buy Your Groceries Before You Leave - Use your monthly meal planner or weekly meal planner to plan your meals for the first week you are home from vacation. Just prior to leaving for vacation, go grocery shopping and buy all of the non-perishable things you will need for your first week back. So that the only shopping you need to do when you get home from vacation is for a quick stop for the perishable things (milk, eggs, fresh vegetables and fruit).

Sort Your Laundry While on Vacation – Catching up on laundry can be a big deal after a vacation. Make it a little easier by sorting your laundry while on vacation into large plastic bags. Ziploc® Big Bags work really well for this and can usually be found in the plastic wrap section of your grocery store. Use 4 bags to sort the laundry into whites for parents, whites for kids, colors for parents, colors for kids. If you are really motivated, keep stain remover nearby and quickly spray the stains before you put them into the bags. By the end of vacation all of your laundry will be sorted (and hopefully treated for spots) making it easier to quickly throw in a load when you return. If you are traveling via airplane, take along an extra large duffle bag to throw your bags of sorted laundry into while traveling.

Save a Day for Unpacking – Try and plan your vacation, so that you have an entire day to unpack and get reorganized before you have to head back to work. For example if you have to go back to work or the kids to school on a Monday, arrange your trip so that you arrive home on Saturday, leaving Sunday free to unpack.

Arrange for Postal Delivery of Your Mail – If you stop your mail while on vacation, arrange to have the post office deliver it to you on the day you return from vacation. This will save you a trip to the post office and allow you to sort through it quicker.