A sustainable lifestyle can often be portrayed by perfection: matching mason jars and reusable straws, canvas tote bags and empty countertops, pantries without a single piece of packaging in sight. But life isn’t perfect, and the best of intentions can be forgotten in times of stress. Today I’d like to share with you a few ways I make my life easier for when times get tough.
I homeschool my kids, but we still have busy mornings. Lately I’ve been feeling drained by the idea of making breakfast each day. Many families just buy several types of cereal and maybe some frozen breakfast options, but that’s not something I’d like to do. I understand why people opt for convenience items, but my kids seem to get hungry quickly after eating those foods, and convenience items usually aren’t cost effective or low waste. Instead of buying such foods, I like to make a few easy breakfast options so they are available on busy mornings.
This week I decided to make waffles for breakfast on a Saturday. Instead of making a single batch like I normally do, I made a quadruple batch to freeze for later. It dirtied the same amount of dishes, and made about a week’s worth of breakfasts for later on. It may take a month or two to eat all that I made, but it will be healthier and much cheaper than if I had just gotten frozen waffles from a grocery store.
There are other ways I’ve made breakfast options easier in the past. I’ve baked several loaves of bread in one morning to last us all week. I’ve made multiple batches of muffins for quick and portable meals. I’ve gotten fruits and vegetables ready to be blended into smoothies the next morning. I’ve portioned out the dry ingredients for overnight oats into small containers and added the wet ingredients to the mixture the night before a hectic morning. And every time I make pancakes I put together the dry ingredients for an extra batch of pancakes and save it for when we need food fast.
I know that life gets in the way sometimes, and I think everyone deserves grace when it does. But by allowing ourselves to have easy options for when times are difficult, we help ourselves to keep doing the things that we find to be important through it all.