Horray! School is back in....

My boys went back to school last week. We all couldn't be happier. Mr. Matthew starts kindergarten this week so he has less than thrilled to not have his buddies to play with. He will join in the celebration this week.

As I watched FB I wondered if I was an enigma.

Unlike my friends who were missing their kiddos within the first hour, I was thrilled to have the quiet at home.

I had a reason to get up earlier. (Quite the deal when you work nights.)

Chores were done first thing.

I didn't have to field video game questions all day.

My house stayed clean (until 3:30).

I got my own chores done.

I even had time to myself to craft.

Uh, yeah, I was wondering if I was missing something. But I must say my boys were thrilled to get back as well. They enjoyed seeing their friends and new teachers. My oldest (nearly 14) enjoyed the added independence of being away from home. In fact, I still haven't gotten the "first day of school" photo. Gonna add that to my list for morning.

So with my celebration comes time for organization. I love structure. I love clean lines and spaces. I love organization.

Last year I shared how I fix lunches for my brood of 4 boys plus dad. I thought I would share a couple of other ways to have lunch made in a sec.

I work full time nights. It's tough going without sleep but it works for my family. I am able to be there for my boys when they need me. It does mean that I need to have be organized. Some mornings are better than others. I have a wonderful 13 nearly 14 year old who enjoys cooking and actually prefers to make his own lunch. (I know you're all jealous, don't hate me) He is wonderfully helpful with little brother lunches too. I try to plan things out to make those rough mornings simpler.

Several years ago this is what I used. I bought several stackable bins. I had a bin for sides such as fruit cups, desserts such as pudding, and drinks such as Capri Sun.

 The morning of school I would proceed to make the sandwich or whatever while the boys ran downstairs to pick out the rest of their lunch. It worked great. They got the choice but I had a bit of control over it. They knew they had to pick one from each bin. During the summer they could also pick their snack out of the bin. It worked great. 

Here is a link to Amazon to the bins I used. They are perfect.

This is an easy system to put together and the kids have fun being involved. The downside is things have to be prepackaged. I can't cut my own vegi's or have my divide up my own jars of fruit. The dessert is easy to fill but I have to be a bit more creative for the "sides". You can put crackers etc in snack size ziplock bags and toss in the bins. Even do this with crackers.

Check back tomorrow for another option. Then let me know which system you are using.