Every June, moms everywhere let out a sigh that they do not have to deal with school lunches for a while. You pack what you think they need but the kids don’t eat it. Mine complain about lunches and either bring the uneaten lunch home or throw it out at school depending on the kid.

I have used a system for a couple years now and I find it works really well. It involves some prep work every Sunday and supervision but I do think it saves time and kids eat their lunches. Each Sunday I arrange the fridge and pantry full with choices from each food group. Each kid has to take 1 food from each food group and can take 2 of some such as fruit and veggies or grains. I put each food group in baskets and for the first year, I labelled them all. On a poster in the kitchen, I wrote out each food group and ideas for lunches from each group. It took a couple weeks but the kids caught on quickly.

To start I went to the dollar store and got a bunch of small bins. One for protein, dairy, fruits and veggies in the fridge. Then I got one for treats and a big one for grains in my pantry. Now you just need to load them up with options. Here are some ideas

School Lunches

Dairy                        Protein                          Fruits and veggies                    Grains                   Treats 

cheese                      sausage                        grapes                                       rice cake                rice crispy treat

yogurt                      sandwich meat           cucumbers                                  bread                     granola bar

milk                          hot dog                         carrots                                        hot dog bun            bear paw

pudding                   pepperoni                   apple/orange                              crackers                 cookies

smoothie                 Chicken leg                 sliced peppers                             muffin                    popcorn

Every Sunday I ask, what fruits and veggies do you want this week? What protein? You then have to go shop, go home and package everything in individual portions. You can do this 2 ways. You can cut up or portion your fruits and veggies into ziplock bags and place them in the fruit and veggie bin or you can cut them up in containers and have your child pack them in a reusable tray. I found lunch kits with divisions that work quite well. My older kids can pack their own portions ziplocks  because they are too cool for tupperware. Even with the shopping and portioning, I still feel less stress when making lunches. You just do more work one day then each day.

Now LEFTOVERS! Here is the trick, I keep alternates like left overs and soups for the kids that hate sandwiches. Some of these might count as protein and a grain, for example spaghetti. My daughter points out the tomatoes can be a fruit and veggie but I say that does not count. Your house, your rules!

Tips: You need to supervise them or do a lunch check for the older ones or they start packing whatever they want.

I feel that this helps them learn how to make a balanced meal and it also gives them control over what they were eating. My daughter especially was more likely to eat something that she picked.

I hope this enough to provide you with some ideas and to get you started.

I would love to hear your lunch solutions…please share.

Since I am already out of my comfort zone with this blog, I feel like I might as well move onto a personal topic: Holding onto anger and forgiveness.

I am a pretty fun-loving person and I work really hard at being positive. I like to accept people for who they are, to appreciate and focus on their good qualities. This works for me really well. Over the past year, I have been really struggling with letting go of anger towards one person. No matter what I do, I can not seem to let it go.

I have a little bit of experience with this. In the past, I had to forgive and let go of my anger towards my ex-husband. He had done some things that took me a long time to let go of, so I was very angry for a very long time. One day, I realized that he did not know I was still angry. He did not care that I was angry. The only person the anger was affecting was me. The anger I was feeling had negatively impacted me but not him. It prevented me from being happy and caused negative thoughts. At this time, I let the anger go. I have forgiven him, but I will never forget it. I moved forward away from anger, so I could be healthy in mind and spirit.

Now this particular person I am working hard to forgive hurt my children not me. This person caused enough harm that my daughter has PTSD. I feel anger towards this person daily when my daughter is hiding in a closet screaming in fear. I feel it when she is crying in my car or worrying about her future.

My first barrier with forgiveness is that she hurt them and not me. I worry about the future, how this has affected them and what will happen in certain scenarios. I worry how their experiences will affect other relationships in their lives. I could forgive and let go of the anger easier when it was me someone hurt but it wasn’t. I feel very protective of my children.

My second problem with forgiveness is the constant reminders from my children of what she did and how deeply it has affected my children. There are melt downs and then they just need to talk about it, a lot. These kids have suffered, and she keeps moving merrily on with her life. It is hard to let something go when others bring up the subject every day.

So this leads me back to the beginning. How do you let go of your anger towards someone and forgive their actions? In my mind, I know I have to do this, I know this anger is harmful. Unfortunately, I have not accomplished it. I am working on it…..

I have shared these very personal feelings in hopes that it opens a conversation. I would love to hear your thoughts or solutions to forgiveness.

I have been trying to lose the baby weight. I feel like I have been doing this for 13 years…well I have been I guess. It’s a long term battle for me. I will lose a few pounds and then Christmas or a vacation will come around and they creep back on. I actually started running so that I could burn calories to allot to wine. I need to factor the calories in. This week, I just got back from vacation and gained back all the weight I had lost in the past bit.

No matter where you are on your calorie intake, we have days where we overindulge. Maybe you have a few too many drinks at a party and then have hangover McDonalds. Maybe you go to your favourite restaurant and order 3 big courses and enjoy every second of it.

I had a friend that used to plan when she could over indulge. The entire day before, all she would do is eat vegetables. She would cut them up into a giant ziplock bag and carry it around. That takes extreme will power, especially if you have kids you are serving mac and cheese, cookies or garlic bread. I could never do it.

My problem is, I eat something extravagant, and then I immediately feel guilt for overeating. Why? I should be able to simply enjoy my extravagance, but I think I have been on a diet so long that I have trained myself to feel guilt. This guilt can lead to many decisions, but I find there are 2 big options I see.

1.    To say screw it and keep eating badly. I have already blown it. Its too hard….I feel fat…..might as well eat…

2.    To accept the indulgence, we need to live life and enjoy it, to be thankful for the treat and to keep on your calorie/consumption goal. I need to believe I am good enough for a treat but not let it derail or sabotage me.

This seems like there is an obvious right choice but when faced with all your friends eating hamburgers and fries while you look at a salad with grilled chicken, it all goes to hell in a hand basket. Often time, I waffle back and forth between the two choices or feelings.

My point to this story is that we as women beat ourselves up. We want to be skinny because that is what we think is pretty. I once went two years without eating a whole chocolate bar. Some might call it will power but I do not think so. I think we need to give ourselves a break. I think we need to be a woman and eat a nice meal, cake on our birthday and drinks in Mexico. No, we do not need to give ourselves heart disease by letting it all rip but we need to enjoy life. It’s the every day decisions we make that add up not the one meal. A simple habit of making your dinner portions slightly smaller each day is more helpful then not eating a hamburger once and a while.

I could get hit by a car tomorrow and I do not want to go out without chocolate. What I need to learn is how to balance it all! A well-balanced diet and exercise has to be the way to go. I do not care if I fit in someone else’s mold. I want to live and enjoy life! I wish this for us all.

Do you have any tips, tricks or stories? I would love to hear them.

I am coming up to another Birthday Party for my daughter. Remember when birthday parties were at your house, you rented a movie and had a sleepover? Well no more! Most birthday parties cost at least $300 and involve quite a bit of parent work. My kids start planning their next birthday party the day after their last one. They get so excited that it is well worth it, you just have to be prepared

After hosting quite a few birthday parties, I thought I would share some of my favourite birthday party ideas or tips.

If you are staying at home for the party, the upside is you can save some money. The downside is you need to clean your house and entertain the kids. Usually, up until Kindergarten, parents stay with their kids for activities so keep that in mind.

At home birthday parties can be simple, you have presents to open and cake to eat but you need to kill more time. Some home birthday party activities that keep the kids from going wild are

• Make own pizzas
• Decorate cookies or cupcakes
• Slip and slide
• Park date with games planned
• Costume party
• Canvas Painting
• Handprint Art
• Dance party
• Face Painting
• Themes (pirate, princess, paw patrol)

Now, you might not have a very big house. You might be allergic to cleaning it. Here are some birthday parties ideas for younger kids.

• SPCA
• Build a Bear
• Indoor Gym
• Gymnastic Club
• Bowling
• Swimming Pool
• Park/Playground
• Movie theater
• Zoo
• Bouncy Castle

When kids get a little older, there are a million party ideas. My favourites might cost a little extra but we keep the party small. I tell the kids they can load up the van with friends, so usually 4 friends. Then I drive them all to the big venue, often West Edmonton Mall waterpark where we spend the afternoon. I drive them back to the house for presents and cake and then the parents pick them up. I have also had some great parties at local businesses. Here are some older kid birthday party ideas.

• Amusement Park
• Waterpark
• Pottery Studio: my favourite is Glazing Pot Studio in St Albert!
• Trampoline Park
• Laser Tag
• Virtual Reality Games
• Party Activity Bus: gaming or gymnastics
• Swimming Pool or Gym
• Skating or Sledding
• Movie Theater and sleepover: my son prefers this every year
• Rock climbing

Birthday Parties: The Extras

The Loot Bag

The first year I did loot bags, it was exciting buying all those little gifts and surprises. Then I priced it out and realized I spent a lot of money! The second year, I tried to do it cheaper, but the kids ended up with garbage that every mom dreads to see come home. Some moms do a candy bag from Buk Barn which I personally like. A $5 gift card from McDonalds or Dairy Queen is also a nice idea. There are a group of moms that do no do loot bags anymore and that is fine with me too. Loot bags are a big hassle.

The RSVP

Here is the real deal. People do not always RSVP any more. If you know the group of moms, they usually do but it is very common to not know who is going to show up. Something to remember; if a child has parents who are divorced and the child switches weekends at each parent’s house, the wrong parents might receive the invitation and not pass it on. This can create a problem. Just keep it in mind and follow up with those kids earlier!

These are my tips. I would love to hear yours. Please comment or contact me with your ideas!

I never considered myself a negative person, I tried to roll along with life. What I know now is that I just did not train  myself to be positive. Quite frankly if you had told me five years ago I would be either blogging or writing about positivity I would laughed my ass off. What I have recently discovered and am still learning, is the Art of Positivity.

Lets face it, bad things are going to happen to everyone. We have all heard the expression “its how you handle hard times” that determines the kind of person you are. The problem is when you are having a hard time, you are having a hard time. It is hard to be positive. I learned that its an attitude you have to train yourself to do. Once you do, it actually makes life easier.

My road to positivity started with two friends, who I met through my business. These two were constantly vibrant and positive. They were encouraging and supportive but just did not dwell on the negative. So Step 1 for me was to surround yourself with positive people and spend less time with negative people.

People are drawn to positive people. Did I want to be a person people enjoyed being around? I decided to work at being positive. This lead me to Step 2. This was an intentional decision to try to be positive, to change my mindset. I really had to work at this. Reading good books with positive messages was  helpful. When I was being too negative, I would stop myself and refocus my thoughts. I could talk to these two friends who would always see the positive to make me feel better. I would stop every night and think of one thing that went well that day and one thing I was grateful for. This takes time but is worth it.

I feel like I was successful in changing my mindset last summer. I had a very early morning flight. For some reason, my alarm did not go off or I slept through it, I do not know. I flew out of bed and raced to the airport half thinking I had missed my flight. When I got to the baggage counter I said “Wow, how awesome is my morning? I slept in and still made my flight. This is going to be a great trip”. Now a year ago, I probably would have thought “This trip is doomed. I started my day by almost missing my flight, grump, grump”. My day continued on but I was happy and thankful I made that flight instead of flustered and grumpy. I understood that all my work in Step 2 had finally paid off. My mind naturally went the positive direction without me having to redirect it.

Now how does this effect real life? Lets say that you are working on losing some weight by eating well and exercising. Its Sunday morning and you go to breakfast with your husband who orders the big egg and pancake meal. You look at the fruit and yogurt but pick some eggs, toast, bacon and hash browns instead. As soon as you are done eating, you feel sick, you feel guilty, you feel like giving up and ordering dessert. Well what is done is done, you need to move on with your day. The best way to do this is to think of the nice meal you had with your husband, to appreciate the experience with him and your joy of eating it. You can count the meal as your cheat day and refocus your energy on having a good balanced dinner. You can’t change the past so “just keep swimming” a Dory would say.

I challenge you all to try this. Even actively trying to change one negative thought to a positive thought once a week will greatly benefit how you feel! I would love to hear about your experiences, please feel free to share them with me. I would love to hear from you!