This post is sponsored by The Hillshire Brands Company. The thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own.
For a long time I would dread the morning time. My husband isn’t around in the morning (he’s sleeping from his graveyard shift at work) and so I’m completely on my own from the time the kids get up. Mornings go one of two ways in my house — great or awful. There’s no in between! I started implementing some simple ways to manage our morning chaos a little better and they’ve been working great so far. We still have some rough mornings, but overall they’re getting better.
Eat Breakfast Together
Eating breakfast together is A LOT easier said than done. Especially when you have four kids under the age of 6. My two oldest boys share a room and often get up around the same time. My third son still sleeps in a crib, so he’s the easiest to manage in the morning because I can get everyone’s breakfast ready before he’s up and running around. But I also have a newborn now thrown in the mix which can make things a little complicated.
However, one way I’ve noticed that make our mornings run smoother is if we all sit down and eat breakfast together. It’s a short 10-15 minute window where we can all sit calmly and have a meal together and chat about what we’ll be doing for the day.
Easy Breakfast Meals
One way to make eating breakfast together a possibility is having easy meals to prepare. I usually will make a batch of pancakes for the boys at the beginning of the week and that will last us until mid-week where I’ll make another batch. Having those on hand to just warm up makes mornings A LOT easier. Add in some sliced fruit and a yogurt and we have ourselves a quick, healthy meal.
However, the only way I get to make that dream of eating together a reality is if I too have an easy meal on hand. If I don’t do a breakfast protein shake I’ll turn to another protein packed breakfast that will help keep me fueled for awhile — Jimmy Dean Simple Scrambles® breakfast cups. They have a couple new options — Three Cheese and Turkey Sausage. And the others I really enjoy are the Bacon or Sausage breakfast cups. Eggs, cheese and a protein that is made in seconds? YEP. Sign me up. It means I get to sit down with these crazies for a few minutes before our day begins.
You can find Jimmy Dean Simple Scrambles at Walmart in the refrigerated section. Make sure to look for their new flavors like Turkey Sausage that includes egg whites, turkey sausage and cheese. As well as the Three Cheese that’s filled with Cheddar, Swiss, and Monterey Jack cheese’s combined with egg whites for the perfect meal on the go. I will add these to my online Walmart grocery pick up each week to make them even easier to add to my mornings.
Kitchen Clean Up
Another sure fire way to manage our morning chaos is to clean up immediately after breakfast. If I leave lingering dishes or stuff on the counters it will haunt me for the rest of the day until it’s down. The boys are pretty good about cleaning up after themselves (if not, I will remind them to clean up their own breakfast plates and trash), so while they’re doing that I’ll start on the dishes and make sure we have a clean kitchen to start the day. They’ll go get themselves ready while I finish up and it leaves us to start our day a lot smoother.
Leave a Reply