Vendredi V - Set It and Forget It Edition

Guess what I'm doing!

Ummm...blogging?

YES!!

[???]

Guess what I'm NOT doing!

Ummm...painting The Boy's toenails?

Well, that. But also...I'm NOT cooking. Or cleaning. Or doing any of those bazillion mundane things that suck my time in this witching hour between getting home from work and suppertime.

Know why?

Because they're already done!!!

Now, while I generally don't mind most household management tasks, I do find their quotidian nature somewhat wearying at times and get very tired of performing them day in and day out. However, I also get very antsy when things are left undone, so just not doing them isn't an option for this recovering perfectionist.

The solution, I've found, is to front-load my effort. Do a bit of extra preparation while I've got the time and reap the benefits later. To wit:

My Top 5 Go-To Make-Ahead-and-Make-Your-Life Easier Solutions:

1. Kitchen equipment with timers.

Behold the triune awesomeness:

My* breadmaker, crockpot, and coffee maker all come equipped with timers. Well, the crockpot technically doesn't. Since I leave for work far too early to start it when I leave and hope for non-totally-overdone food, I leave a "please set to low before you leave" note for The Husband. This version of a timer works 99% of the time.

(It didn't work once. [It won't happen again.])

It's rare that I don't have something bubbling in the crockpot at least once a week (there's beans in there right now! Homemade refried beans for Taco Fridays, hooray!). And I set the breadmaker before we leave for church every Sunday so I can come home to fresh bread for Sunday lunch. And the coffeemaker? Nothing entices me out of my warm, cozy bed like the drip-drip-drip of fresh coffee that I got ready the night before.

2. My** pasta maker.

Our family is pretty big on homemade pasta. The Boy constantly requests my famous fettucini alfredo, and we've had it for Christmas dinner three years running. So Monday night is pasta night. (Not alfredo sauce each time - that much butter and cream isn't good for anyone. Although, it would be very good.) As easy as it is to mix dough and crank it through the machine, it can be a bit time-consuming. So I hit upon an even better idea.

Once a month, I pull out a dozen eggs and the bag o' semolina and make a ton of dough. Then I make two meals' worth of ravioli. One we eat that night, and the other goes into the freezer along with two leftover balls of dough that are each big enough for another meal. One mixing bowl = a months' worth of pasta Mondays!

3. Sacrifice Thursday night.

As hard as I've tried, I can't figure out a way to clean the house without actually cleaning it.

So, knowing that it's got to get done, I try to get it done in one fell swoop. Thursday night is NOT a good night to call me (heh - who uses the telephone anymore?) as I'm usually pretty grouchy storming through grocery shopping, toilet scrubbing, laundry folding, floor mopping, etc.

But the carrot awaiting me once I've run the gauntlet of that stick is walking into the house after work on Friday and knowing that I've got nothing that I have to do in terms of home maintenance over the weekend. My cupboards are stocked, everything is shiny, and we will not be naked. (At least, not because we didn't have clean clothes.) That, my friends, is a rocking feeling. Definitely worth going through the grocery lineup at 9 pm on a weeknight.

4. Lay it out the night before.

How is it that showering/finding clothes/making a lunch/making coffee takes 45 minutes in the wee hours of the morning when it takes only half an hour the night before? I don't understand it - something about the time/space continuum, I suspect. Jean-Luc Picard would know. All I know is that if I get my stuff together the night before, I don't miss my bus. And that is a good start to a day.

(Except today. When I was there, but the bus decided it didn't feel like stopping and cruised right past a lineup of 20 people. But at least I was on time).

5. Get the homework done and in backpacks on Friday.

I hate homework. But it needs to be done. It's so, so, so hard to haul those kids upstairs every night and tell them to figure out what needs to be done and make sure they do it. (They're pretty independent once they get going, but it's tough to get the momentum going.) I would far rather just leave them happily watching TV.

But if I don't, then we end up doing it Sunday night, tears flowing, clock ticking, "I'll do it in the morning" bargaining. Which is a fantastic way to finish off a weekend.

So, one of my most difficult, yet important, disciplines is to make sure we do a little bit each night. That way, by the time we sit down to homemade refried beans in our clean, clean house on Taco Friday, we've got Monday morning already figured out:

* As I've mentioned before, the breadmaker belongs to my mother. But possession is 9/10ths.

** Also my mother's. I figure that since I'm letting her store it here, I might as well put it to use. Please also to note the Hunky Bill's in the background. It is great - it swings both ethnic ways and makes perogies and ravioli equally well.