I don’t know about you, but if I hear “new normal” one more time…..The phrase has really started to irk me. I think it’s because it’s another reminder of all the changes, constantly trying to adjust to a covid way of life.
Rather than continuously thinking about how it was and aiming to get back to that, I’ve taken the perspective that this an opportunity. The prime time to make my schedule work for me. I’ll define my days and run my schedule, rather than allow my commitments and schedule run me.
The biggest change I’ve made in our daily routine is cooking lunch rather than supper. I don’t know about you, but when supper time rolls around, I dread having to pull out groceries and cook a meal. It’s such a consuming task at the end of a full day. We’re going on week three of our big meal being in the middle of the day, and I can say that I love this change of pace!
I spend my mornings at Cottage Grove getting my work done there and try to wrap up any errand before noon as well. With trying to step back from popping in places so often, it’s been nice to get errands done in the morning when locations are usually less busy.
I get home between noon and one to begin cooking our meal. This midday break has been so good for my husband and me. He is working from home and, perhaps you can relate, when you’re constantly in your office, it’s hard to walk away for a true one hour lunch break. By having a big meal in the middle of the day, he comes up to greet me and when I start cooking, it usually gives him an estimate to know it’ll be about twenty – thirty minutes when lunch is ready. We sit down at the table and it gives us an opportunity to catch up and see how each other’s day is going.
Once I clean up the kitchen (and can I just say how nice it is to have the kitchen sparkling by 2pm?!), I spend a few minutes to re-group and figure out my afternoon. Do I have any errands that need to be done? Do I need to devote some time to chores that I didn’t get done in the early morning? What vintage projects do I need to work on? What computer work do I need to do?
Another perk–if I hit a roll on working on a project in the garage (i.e. painting furniture), I don’t feel the pressure to quit by supper time. I’m still able to take advantage of the longer days and keep going.
So what meals do I cook? I still meal plan like I did before, but it’s anything I would have prepared for dinner, I just make it earlier in the day now! Also, I think it’s probably better for our metabolisms to eat a bigger meal earlier in the day. Sometimes when we have lunch around two, all I want for supper is some leftover veggies.
If you’re looking to make the best of a new normal and re-define your days, I encourage you to try having lunch instead of dinner. It took us a little while to get used to it, but it’s been a wonderful change!
