Remember lazy weekends before kids? Those carefree days where nothing more than dust bunnies demanded attention, and you lounged around watching movies, reading, or catching up with friends on the phone. Not much got done. Even showers. You could have chips and salsa for lunch, or ice cream for dinner.
Ah, memories.
Well, we had a somewhat lazy day this weekend. With kids. And they sort of change a few things. Thankfully, it seems that everyone enjoys chilling in pajamas all day, although they did think we’d gone crazy when there were two movies in one weekend. We all had a great time playing a lot of board games, including the original version of Outburst! (which we quickly realized was seriously outdated when we came across the “Stereo Components” category).
Then they got hungry. And we didn’t have a lot of food around the house. We usually have lunch out one weekend day and that was “planned” for today. Thankfully we were good on breakfast. but our typical “snack lunch” looked pretty weak: almonds, carrots, grapes, cucumber, hummus, veggie chips. Healthy, yes, with lots of fruits and veggies, but maybe not so filling.
They pleaded for more snacks within an hour. As hard as I tried to convince them that they were just thirsty, and to drink some water and wait, it didn’t work.
Lesson learned: plan ahead. Being better prepared for a lazy day will help keep it lazy.
So, come clean, does your pantry or fridge start to look pretty bare or boring towards the end of your week? We include weekend meals in our weekly meal plans but often underestimate good snacks. Especially lazy-day-snacks.
Here’s a few ideas that I came up with to be better prepared for a lazy day…what would you add?
- Make sure our pantry stays full with good snacks – both healthy ones and some “munchies” like Kettle Chips, rice crackers, granola, or crackers.
- Keep a few ingredients always on hand for muffins, cookies or other treats. We seem to always be short one important item!
- Add a snack plan to our weekly meal plan. I think this will also help with lunch making during the week by having a good variety.
- Incorporate slow cooker meals for one weekend day – one less thing to even think about until it’s mealtime!
We’re also explaining to the kids what a lazy day means. You know, like that a meal doesn’t have to look like a meal, but that doesn’t mean we snack all day long. That we can wear pajamas out back to harvest potatoes, but not to school.
These days, more than ever, kids (and parents!) need those lazy days – free of activities, errands and “must do’s”. Looking back, I wish we would’ve headed out to jump in puddles or track down the biggest spider but I haven’t pulled out wet-weather gear for the season.
That would have taken planning.
My Lazy Day Girl
Image: Feed Our Families
8 Comments
Love it! And thanks for the lazy enabling. This goes hand in hand with my ‘Guilt-Free Non-Suppers’ post.
I’m adding this to my weekend link love. Thanks!
We had a couple of those this weekend too! We always have the makings for bean/cheese/whole wheat quesadillas, boxes of Annie’s Mac and Cheese, turkey sandwich makings, hummus, and some canned soup, tuna. So we were good for breakfasts and lunches. Took the in-laws up on dinner at their place Saturday night – so that was a meal I did not have to plan or make. I had lots of leftover chili so I made veggie, chili, cornbread “muffins” for Sunday.
Thanks Aimee! Looking forward to that post too.
Courtney – I’ve got a little pantry envy. I plan on Sunday for the week so all too often there’s not much that’s exciting or tempting come the weekend. I’m definitely going to stock up on a few things now.
Last year, I made sure the girls and I had at least one day a week called “don’t get out of our pj’s day” but this year the schedule is so crazy. My husband is not much on lazy days but I think I hear one calling our name soon! Love this post!
Lazy days are hard for me too! My wish list of projects and fun activities usually has us going non-stop. During the summer break, the kids don’t mind, but during the school year, they appreciate any time they can just hang out at home and play.
Lazy days are so good for all of us.
We keep a variety of freezer snacks for just such an occasion. Particular favorites are birds nests and gyoza from Trader Joes and edamame from Costco or TJ’s. We don’t have too many lazy days but they sure are nice when they happen.
Nice! We need to plan more lazy days.
I agree, both Costco and Trader Joe’s have some great lazy day options.
Keeping frozen “snacks” or appetizers on hand for lazy days is a great ideas and there are plenty of good ones out there. We keep frozen veggies on hand for those dinners where we realize “Yikes…no veggie!”.