Category: Time management

Freezer Full of Meat

An open freezer houses two ice cube trays, ice cream, and multiple bags of frozen foods.
It tastes better than it looks, I promise.

I hate casseroles. They’re just gross. When I think of casseroles, all I can think about is how a day’s worth of calories is packed into a starchy, fatty, brown cube that can be consumed in three bites. I love efficiency, but come on now. They also remind me of my 80s childhood mealtimes—something to be fondly remembered but never revisited. (Nothing personal, Mom! It was the times, not you.) Casseroles are the reason that I have largely avoided freezer meals. Every time I decide that I should get organized and explore freezer cooking, I abandon the enterprise when I realize that everyone who does it eats casseroles.

However, recalling more recent memories of how the family cruised into the end of last semester on fumes and fast food, I thought that I should reconsider. Not casseroles, of course. Just freezers. With casseroles being out and vegetables not being the most freezer-friendly foods, the most obvious option for making my life easier was to freeze massive amounts of meat. Over the summer I experimented with a few things, so when I placed my grocery order at the first of the month, I bought seven pounds of ground beef, a value pack of chicken breasts (about 6 breasts), a value pack of chicken legs, a pack of hotdogs (yay Labor Day!), and a pack of bacon. I also bought two Aldi pizza that I freeze, one for every Friday night. We rounded out our Labor Day feast with some great venison burgers with meat that a friend gave us.

It’s worked out beautifully so far. I’ve been cooking less often and saving scads of time and dirty dishes. We’ve all been full, and very little except some Labor Day hotdogs has gone to waste. Now we have multiple meals in the freezer to pull out on busy days, like the three evenings a week I get home around dinner time. So what did I make with all of this meat?

Chicken

Frankie marinated and grilled the chicken breasts and legs on Labor Day. We ate some for leftovers the next few days, and I put some in my salads for lunch. I chopped about half of the remainder and added it a variation on my favorite corn chowder recipe. The corn for the chowder was bought in the last wave of summery goodness at the farmers market and frozen. The grilled flavor from the chicken was a fantastic addition to the chowder, so we will probably keep grilling with this particular marinade, even throughout the winter. We ate most of that and froze maybe two bowls’ worth. Then I chopped the remaining breast and a half and froze it. I will probably use it in a stir-fry or something similar—maybe warm it in a pan with olive oil, artichokes, lemon zest, and white wine and serve it with rice and plain Greek yogurt. I have some frozen onions that I can thaw and add.

Ground Beef

Sunday lunches are always a challenge for us with Frankie being a pastor. The whole family gets home from church late after the entire congregation has cleared out. Sometimes Frankie hangs back longer to meet with someone and we beat him home. Most weeks we all get home around lunch time good and hungry. The absolute last thing that I want to do after church is cook with a bunch of tired, hungry, antsy children under foot. The slow cooker is OK, but it requires me getting something going around six in the morning (I’ve been tired lately, so not the best option). A freeze meal seemed like a better solution. Shepherd’s pie sounded like a good, hearty meal that could be frozen but not quite a casserole. I made two, with a pound and a half of beef each. We reheated one today, and I whipped up a super fast gravy because the mashed potatoes do dry out a little bit when frozen and rebaked. This one is a keeper. The only change I might make next time is to spread it over four smaller casseroles so that we’re not eating leftovers for several days.

With the remaining four pounds I made a double batch of an already-large chili recipe. It made an absolute ton of food. Frankie and I ate several meals from it before I froze two gallons. Two gallons. This will be a great food to pull out for company or when my family visits for Bear’s birthday. The chili was too spicy for the kids’ taste (beware when eyeballing cayenne pepper), so I will have to plan a separate dinner for them when I thaw this. Unfortunately, that’s not an usual occurrence in our house. They will probably be happy with some cornbread, fruit, and cheese. Bug is a starchivore anyway, so the extra cayenne won’t result in any starving children. This particular recipe was nice and soupy and will soak into cornbread well.

Other Leftovers

This is going to sound stupid after I just talked about all of the food that I froze, but when I looked at what was left of the grocery budget until payday, I panicked. Then I remembered all of the stuff that I had in the freezer. Duh. Even with only $65 or so for the next week, we’re set! After school tomorrow I plan to hit Aldi for a refill on the kids’ lunch stuff—bread, string cheese, fruit, cheese crackers, apple juice, and maybe some meat for my salads if there’s any money left. If not, I’ll just pull something from the freezer. Tomorrow I’ll be making the easiest ever ham and bean soup in the slow cooker with a frozen ham bone (stay tuned for the recipe). One night will be out for pizza for the kids at a church thing (from the “fun money” budget category, not groceries), and dinner out for my birthday.

A week from Monday starts a new pay period, but I doubt that I’ll need to buy, cook, and freeze quite as much meat. Maybe I’ll aim to use half of the freezer stash during the second pay period and cook a bunch of meat during October’s first pay period. We’ll see. It depends on the sales and my schedule. I’m not going to sweat it until next week, but I can rest easy knowing that I have a freezer full of flexibility.

Jumpstarting the Semester

Our family has just survived our first week back to school. In a wonderful stroke of scheduling luck, the girls’ school started the same week as mine, and I was able to get Boy back in daycare that same week. After carefully coordinating the cars (only one has carseats at the moment), packing lunches, laying out outfits, and several calls back and forth about who would be getting the children and when, we’re kicking off our long weekend by doing pretty much nothing on what is surely one of the most beautiful evenings of the year.

Luckily for me, the first week of school is a little slow academically, which gives me the chance to start off right. What does it mean to start “right”, and how do you do it? For me, it means getting organized: getting all of the stuff you need, getting everything on your calendar, and getting down to business with reading and homework. Falling behind on an easy week is a very, very bad idea. Don’t do it.

Put in on the Calendar

I’ll go into more detail later about the stuff I use for school because it’s not as important as the scheduling. You can buy new school supplies or switch out your backpack mid-semester. It’s much harder, if not impossible, to catch up mid-semester if you fall behind. Obviously I’ve known my class schedule since registration last spring, but there will always be some adjustments as well as assignment dates to note. For one thing, I learned this week that one of my labs only meets every other week (we have online assignments on off weeks). Not only do I get an unanticipated three extra hours of library time every other week, I also know for sure that I’ll be able to pick up the kids on those days. Frankie will be happy.

The first thing that I do for all classes is put my exam dates on the calendar. All but one of my professors has given us exam dates and stated that they try really hard to stick to them, which is awesome. Classes are rarely cancelled in the fall for weather, so the odds of exams being moved are slim. Finals definitely don’t move, so they’re on the calendar, and I’ll share them with Frankie when we go over the schedule this week. One professor does not advertise dates in advance but gave a vague week for when an exam would probably be, so now I know to reschedule a doctor’s appointment. You might want to put other important dates on there too, like the end of add/drop periods, fall break if you get one, and major project deadlines. Share the dates with people close to you. Frankie has already agreed to drop the kids off on days that my 9:00 class has exams so that I don’t have to stress about being late. Frankie is awesome, if you haven’t already gathered.

Make Lists

Now this is a personal preference of mine, but I choose not to clutter up my planner with every single assignment, reading, and due date. If you’re a traditional student without family responsibilities, this might not be an issue for you. A normal academic planner will probably suit you well. But my planner would be a cluttered mess if I added all of my school stuff to an already-full personal calendar with the kids’ and Frankie’s comings and goings. What I do instead is keep a running to-do list on my iPad. You could use a notebook or a document on your computer for this—whatever works for you. I personally like keeping the list on the iPad because I have the advantage of hand-writing with the pencil while also easily editing the same document over and over without fear of losing it or confusing myself with multiples.

A computer document displays a to-do list with the headings Quant, Orgo, ODE, Physics, Due Dates, and What’s Next. Each heading has a bullet list of readings, assignments, and tasks under it. Some items are crossed out.
My list of lists keeps me organized.

My to-do list is actually several to-do lists on one sheet of paper. One sheet is all that I allow myself because I edit the document daily, and I want to be able to see everything at a glance. I start by making a heading for each class, and under each heading I put everything that I need to do for that class in the next few days to a week: reading assignments, homeworks, online quizzes, practice problems, stuff to buy. Everything. Then, although this is redundant, I make a separate list of upcoming deadlines, generally in chronological order by due date. This way I can easily see everything that needs to be turned in for points without having to scour each individual class’s list. Finally, I have a “What’s Next” list. If you can see the image here (and I have limited alt tags if you can’t!), you’ll see how much stuff is on here. And it’s just the first week of class. This is the least amount of stuff I’ll have to do all semester.

The “What’s Next” list helps me to focus my energy on my upcoming tasks in the most efficient way possible. This is often by deadline, but sometimes it’s not. For example, I have a chemistry homework that’s worth as much as an exam due on the 6th. It’s a big, important assignment, and it would be stupid to save for closer to the due date. I need to work on it now. So I push some easy assignments closer to their due dates to prioritize the big thing with a later due date. Likewise, I got my differential equations book late and was a little behind because the professor jumped right into the new content—and I haven’t had calculus in almost twenty years (I spent all summer reviewing!). So last night I made sure to read the math book and try a few problems until my brain just gave up. And other nights I might have important stuff to do but be so tired that I knock out some of the easier things like mindlessly making flashcards of functional groups or reading the safety section in my lab manual. You get the idea. The “What’s Next list is extremely fluid and allows me to plan the best use of my time in the moment. I intentionally make it flexible and have no guilt about changing it up.

Right now the best use of my time is having dinner with the family and enjoying this weather. We only get a few evenings like this a year, and I don’t want to miss it

Snow Days!

A laptop, graphing calculator, notebook, and chemistry textbook rest on a desk in a home office.
What the cool kids do on days off.

Today is our second snow day in a row and the third or fourth of the semester. Technically today is an ice day. There’s no new snow accumulation, but the roads were slick as all get out this morning. Leaving the house was ill-advised. The weather report predicted this, so I made sure to set my alarm for 5:30 to start checking the alerts from daycare, the girls’ school, and the college. Daycare is nice enough to call, and they started with a two-hour delay. If daycare is delayed, then you know that the schools are. After confirming that the college was on a two-hour delay, I turned off the alarm and went back to bed.

Normally I like to get up early and “beat my day into submission,” to quote my father. But sometimes our bodies need rest, and I had to admit that today mine did. For the past week I’ve been trying to shake a nasty cough that could give a weaker person a hernia. Frankie says that I sound like I’m on a TB ward. He blames it on my frigid office (there’s a reason I keep the electric blanket down there), my mom blames it on pushing myself too hard, and I blame it on Boy. He started it with a nasty cold last week. Whatever the cause, I was worn down enough on Sunday afternoon to nap for two and half hours, which is unusual. Falling asleep instantly for a nap is a sure sign that I’m under the weather. I would be stupid to pass up this rare chance to sleep in.

Because of the cold, I’ve fallen a little behind on school work. Colds don’t sound that bad until you actually get one. With a stomach bug, you’re immobilized for about 24 hours, and everyone understands that you’re incapacitated and they stay far away from the puke germs. Colds are different. You’re able to get around and do most things, but you’re stuck operating at like 50-60% capacity for a solid week. You can lose a lot of ground in that week, like three chapters of microbiology that go in one ear and out the other.

Part of me is bummed about the snow days because I was really looking forward to making my agar plates in micro yesterday and doing the math for my chem lab today. The other, bigger part of me is relieved that I’m getting the chance to make up lost ground. Getting behind early in the semester and staying behind is a sure recipe for disaster, so these days are a real gift. Yesterday the kids only had delays, but I had a cancellation! You know that I dropped them all off, headed home, and got down to work. I knocked out the post-lab for last week’s chem lab and did the prelab for this week’s (now canceled) lab. Then I reworked my flash card system (Anki all the way!) and listened to my micro lecture. The professor doesn’t want to lose ground on snow days and records his lectures online. He’s hardcore, and I like it. His high expectations push me to do my best.

Today I got in a whopping solid five-hour block of studying done. I’m caught up on chemistry and making headway on micro, having finished my reading and flash cards on bacteria and having reviewed my notes on archaea. Then I did some math to clear my head. All in all, it was a good day. But then it got better! My micro professor sent an e-mail this evening saying that this week’s test has been moved to next week, and lab is canceled tomorrow. Canceled lab means that I have a two-hour block to catch up on reading for biomedical ethics and my sociology class. So tonight I get to relax with some Grey’s Anatomy.

Oh, but now I got an e-mail saying that the girls have a two-hour delay, which means missing chem lecture and a quiz because Frankie won’t be free to watch the kids. Maybe the college will have a delay with some luck, but I’m not holding out hope. Whatever. It’ll all work out. At least I get to sleep in again tomorrow, right?

Ouch

Take that, Old Man Winter. You can’t stop me.

I was surprised the other morning when I had significant difficulty getting out of bed. My entire upper body hurt—back, shoulders, arms, you name it. Even my armpits hurt. What on earth had I done to myself?

Then I remembered: I had exercised.

I’m not going to lie, it had been a while. Like many mothers, I used to be kind of athletic and enjoy exercise for fun, but then life got in the way, schedules got busy, and I let the exercise slip. Right now I’m just not in very good shape, especially after being something of a recluse during my winter break. I’m not walking around campus with my giant backpack, and it’s too cold and icy outside for a walk anyway. After a disappointing Christmas weight gain, I begrudgingly dusted off the pedometer and forced myself to be honest about my activity level. It wasn’t pretty.

To be clear, exercise isn’t just about weight loss for me. It’s about feeling well, functioning well, and minimizing health risks. I miss running, and I want to be able to play on the playground with my kids and get up off the floor without groaning. I’m too young for all that. My other huge motivation is having the energy to get through med school and residency. Let’s face it. People in their 20s are exhausted by their medical training, and I’m on track to do it in my 40s. The last thing I want is to die of a heart attack or have to drop out because I didn’t take care of my health when I had the chance.

Part of the problem with my recent decline in fitness was moving to a smaller house. It’s a lame excuse, but it’s true. My daily activities aren’t substantially different from before we moved, but they’re happening in a much smaller space. I shouldn’t have been surprised because I had always noticed the opposite when visiting my parents—they have a big house, and I get a lot of steps in there. So what now? I do the only thing I can do and dust off the bike.

Making excuses for not exercising is so easy, but thankfully I’m a bit of a grouch and love to play devil’s advocate. I shot down every excuse I could make.

Excuse: There’s no room to set up the bike.
Rebuttal: Make room. It’s winter, and nobody will be using the sun porch for several months.

Excuse: It’s too hard with the kids. They get in my way and will stick their fingers in the spokes.
Rebuttal: You can see the toy room through the sun porch window. Plop them in front of the TV while you ride.

Excuse: It’s boring.
Rebuttal: So do something fun while you ride. You’re always complaining about not having time to read your library books. And you’re taking 17 credits this semester—kill two birds with one stone and do some homework.

Excuse: I’m out of shape. This is going to hurt.
Rebuttal: Yup, it probably will hurt at first, but you’ll get over it. You always do.

Excuse: I don’t have time.
Rebuttal: That’s just a lie, and you know it.

Excuse: My bike shorts are dirty.
Rebuttal: Who cares? You’re by yourself; no one is going to smell you. Or you could actually do laundry.

The final kick in the rear was a visit to the doctor last week where I had to admit, once again, that I kind of hadn’t lost weight. Even though I lost five pounds in January, I had gained seven over the holidays, making it look like I hadn’t made any progress. They even had the nerve to weigh me with my snow boots on, further hurting my cause. I still have eleven pounds of baby weight after a year and a half, and I’m tired of telling my doctor every visit that I really want to lose weight and am trying. If I don’t start seeing results, he’s going to think that I’m full of crap—if he doesn’t think that already. I don’t want my doctor to think that I’m full of crap.

After a week back on the bike, I’m feeling good and seeing an increase in my fitness level. My long-dormant winter cycling gear, which survived the Marie Kondo purge, has served me well during our recent snow storm and polar vortex. I’m riding for longer in a higher gear and actually enjoying it. My armpits and quads are no longer uncomfortably sore. And now that I’ve publicly proclaimed that I’m going to exercise, I must. I’ll report back to you all in a month to let you know how it’s going