I must say that I am more pleased than I ever have been with the way things are going in the mornings.

It is a little easier because my son no longer goes to school, he’s working for this year (which is a whole other thing because he often has a later shift so is home in the am’s – that boy can talk trucks I tell you!)

But every morning my youngest daughter gets up, takes her dog out – a BIG deal – you can guess the consequences when she doesn’t – they don’t smell very good.

I have been making her cream of wheat for breakfast and helping her to get her lunch.

STATIONS IN THE FRIDGE…

Prepared fruit and veggie stations in the fridge can take your family’s health – and yours – to a whole new level.

Our fruit is washed and in the fridge, in tupperware fridge savers, it stays fresh pretty much until it’s gone this way – and so are her little containers to put it in for her lunch – they’ve been done with the dishes – which she did last night – a bang up job! Mostly because she is forgoing the dishwasher and enjoying the warm water and bubbles.

She takes a bun with deli meat most days for a sandwich and a cheese string and 1 snack – this week it’s been mini ritz with cheese filling. I don’t count that as a good item, but she is eating her fruit and her sandwich and a good breakfast, and sometimes takes homemade cookies

She has even been baking – as long as I let her do it her way. She’s been quite successful I may add and she doesn’t even measure or use the recipe half the time – maybe she’s a natural. She doesn’t get it from me, except the not following recipes part :0)

STATIONS IN THE CUPBOARDS…

Anyway, the point is, the other morning I realized that it’s been really going smoothly because I have been setting up work stations throughout my home without even realizing it.

When I cleaned the cupboards, I put all of her school containers in one shelf, all of the other storage containers on another. Her snacks go in a basket.

The cream of wheat is in a container, the molasses and brown sugar that she uses are in the same spot. The Pyrex measuring cup and 1/4 cup measuring cup are together.

So it takes under a minute to get it all together.

I’m starting to take on an eerie resemblance to a clean freak. Who would have thought?

It sounds easy but I well remember the days searching for measuring cups, boxes of cream of wheat (opened in the cupboard for who knows how long – scary!) etc.

It is so much more pleasant now – especially when the dishes are done the night before too.

HERE AND THERE A STATION…

I thought I’d mention it because it’s something that you can probably do to make your morning go more smoothly.

What do you use regularly. What can you group together?

That’s basically all that a station is, a place where you group like things together. This way you can complete a task without having to gather things.

You can make…

• a sewing station
• a hat and mitt station
• a smoothie making station
• a hair/make up station
• a ‘things to grab before you leave the house’ station
• a workout station – equipment, work out cd’s or printouts, music, water bottle etc…
• a craft station

Anything you can group things together for, you can have a station for. And it’s fun too.

You may need to enforce the law – meaning no one moves your stuff!

But they will see how much nicer it is when you’re happy and they are well fed and be sure to leave it alone :0)

Small kids especially enjoy stations – of their own AND yours!

So let’s do it.

Stations Everyone!