As it turns out Thursday’s is my busiest day, so a slow cooker dinner has been a life saver. It starts at 6am (unless I sleep through the alarm after being up half the night with Miss One), involves an insanely rushed morning of trying to get washing hung out, kids dressed, making a breakfast I can take in the car with me, lunch for Mr Good and myself and dinner going. I’ve learnt my lesson with the slow cooker and have everything ready the night before so it’s usually just a matter of putting whatever it is I’m cooking into the pot and turning on the machine. Alternatively I cook the meal overnight, turn it off in the morning and put it in the fridge ready to reheat when I get home. Then we have the childcare drop off which, of course, is in the opposite direction from work and over the railway line. In all it takes me 45 mins to get the girls there, signed in, settled and then me to work. Thursday’s schedule at work is full-on, morning briefing, form assembly and then six periods of Geography, including three periods of the SAME Year 10 class! After school I correct any work I’ve collected, plan my classes for Monday and do my photocopying or other administrative tasks, finally walking out the door around 5pm. Then it’s the half hour drive back to the childcare centre, pick up the girls both of whom have a tendency to burst into tears when I arrive, drive home and attempt to get dinner on the table before 6pm. It’s a BIG day, but it sort of just works. I think when you have that much on you do just get on with things don’t you and it certainly helps that I have dinner mostly done.
Tonight it was spaghetti bolognese, a all-time classic and one of the very few dishes that Miss Three happily, even delightedly, eats. All I had to do when I walked in the door was cook the pasta and reheat the sauce, in all it took fifteen minutes to get dinner on the table. This was my first attempt at bolognese in the slow cooker and it was only because of the this appliance that I would ever consider serving this dish on a day where I’m out of the house for most of it. In my opinion bolognese is only worth doing when you can give it lots of cooking time to allow the flavours to develop. I used my usual recipe – I’m sure everyone has their own tried and true recipes – with a little bit less liquid (though I could cut that down even more for next time) and cooked it overnight for eight hours (on low). Thankfully it was as tasty as always and lapped up by the two girls as well as Mr Good and myself.
Today was the first day I’ve felt like I’m in the right headspace at work, I enjoyed all my classes even the tricky one, and the juggling act worked better than it has been. Days like today make me think that I have done the right thing going back to work and finishing the day with happy kids and a peaceful family dinner just capped it off beautifully. The one thing missing was a full night’s sleep – perhaps that will come next week.
The New Good Life 
Reading this post brought back many memories , its such a hard juggling act being a working mum (and not feeling guilty about it) but it sounds like you are very organized and with Mr Goods and the trusty slower cooker to help out too. I suppose thats the trick on the nights your late home from work you have the reliable meals you know everyone will enjoy and leave the new recipes for the non working days.
The weekends must have a new meaning for you……………………..Take Care and don’t work yourself to hard. X
That’s exactly how we manage it Andrea, organisation, help from Mr Good and his mother (who has taken over the ironing, bless her!) and the slower cooker! And only trying the new meals when I’ve got time to fiddle around with them is a hard and fast rule too. It will be tacos and spag bol for the other nights.
I still find the weekends pretty busy between swimming, groceries, footy and whatever else crops up. But Fridays I savour, we can sleep a little later, go to the library for story time and then spend the afternoons at home. Today we read piles of books on the couch while the rain fell and then baked an orange cake, it was a lovely way to spend the day.
Oh Lord the same class 3 periods in a row hahaa. It’s not funny is it.
I’ve heard a saying along the lines of “if you want something done, get a busy person to do it”, and here you’ve proved there’s some merit to it! Good Thursdaying Mrs Good 🙂
No it’s definitely not funny and that particular class has a double period of maths before coming to me so they’re really loving Thursdays!
As for the being busy part, I have this kind of insane determination to just keep fitting more into my days so I can still do everything I had been doing plus working. Not sure how I will go long term, at the moment the thing I seem to be sacrificing is sleep. Possibly not a good solution!
45 minutes for drop offs and commute is good – mine takes a good hour and a bit, but then I do take the train for part of it, and I always manage to just miss it. I was obnoxious in year 10 so i do think surviving 3 periods of Year 10’s is enough to be proud of let alone 3 periods of the same class…
Yes, Liz the 45min commute is good, the school I work at is relatively close to home – though the traffic is much worse than when I left three and a half year ago. I used to be able to get there in under fifteen minutes. What is kinda frustrating is that I have to drive back past my own front door to get from the childcare centre to work, and that damn railway line can cause some delays in the morning. I use to work in the city and had the childcare drop off then a 35min train trip followed by a 15min tram ride and a final 10min walk, but it was kind of peaceful, I could read or listen to music. The drive I now have is not at all like that, my car CD player isn’t working, I seem to hate every commercial radio station, I’m too old for Triple J (used to love it now I hate the music they play) so I settled on 774 and feel REALLY old.
As for the Year 10s, there’s one or two obnoxious ones, but mostly they’re lovely.
I hate having to retrace my steps so I know what you mean. But as I’ve been listening to 774 for years I challenge the old? well I don’t really but I feel I should…I remember Jon Faines first radio show – now that’s old…