So you’ve read all about how I menu plan, and how I have a meal rotation.

You might be wondering how I find new recipes to try.

Ready?

food snobs, avert your eyes. snack dinner saturday isn’t just gorgeous cheese plates.

snack dinner can be:

We’ve always done dinner themes, but @yummytoddlerfood taught me you could do a meal rotation for breakfasts and snacks, too. 🤯 AKA a system where you decide ahead of time a loose rhythm for your meals. And instead of reinventing the wheel, you repeat this loose rhytym.

The decision fatigue was killing me, so this solves, like, 473836 of my problems.

And it sounded like the ultimate way to take care of Future Haley. No more “What are we having for breakfast? lunch? morning snack? afternoon snack? dinner? etc etc ET FREAKING C!” The meal rotation has it alllllll figured out! BLESS!

Because let’s be real: the most exhausting part of menu planning is the blank slate. Doing a meal rotation gives us a starting point.

a million years ago, I was a teacher. I have the utmost respect for teachers.

and now, I love to purchase a few things off a few teachers’ wishlists.

(teachers i don’t personally know!)

just as a “hi, i see you, and i appreciate you for everything you do” little snail mail surprise.

especially in these weird times.

this year i did an all-call in my stories for any teacher who still needed help clearing their wishlist.

I took the first fifty submissions, and called them my Teacher Wishlists of 2021.

(keep an eye out for 2022 - I’ll do the same!)

so won’t you join me? even buying just one item off one list and sending a kind note goes a longggg way.

i know they’d appreciate it. and, if you’re like me, you’ll love how you feel doing it. teachers are the best.

given how much I’m either in the water, in the pool, or at the beach, I have very strong opinions about our favorite things.

like, at a bare minimum, each summer we go on an annual beach trip.

• our full list of annual traditions + rituals explained here.

• (and because I don’t always trust my brain to remember everything, our yearly tasks + expenses list reminds me to book the beach trip by March.)

we spend all summer by some sort of water.

so by now, we know what we like.

consider this our list of things that always come to the beach with us. our beach must-haves.

the loveliest request from y’all, so here it is: a full list of things I like to do before a trip to make both our trip AND coming home just a little bit easier.

and, as always, this is just what works really well for us. you do whatever works best for you!

some background info first:

• it was important to us that I stay home with KK - I’ve always wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. but, I wanted to make sure I had also identities outside of mom that fulfilled me, if that makes sense. things like florist and swimmer and reader and friend and wife and walker and home cook and and and. and I wanted to make sure I prioritized those other identities into my life to fill my cup and to recharge.

bless y’all for this blogpost request.

this is an area I love. love love love.

i want my kids to grow up and know that their mom loved her daily life, but she also loved holidays, traditions, and birthdays.

and because life is short. and i want mine peppered with joyful rituals and intentional celebrations.

so here’s my list of how we make it all a little easier, a little more streamlined, and a little more enjoyable.

This is my experience, and this blogpost is what I’m willing to publicly share. I kindly ask you to not message me about this - while I appreciate your love and support, I’m still healing (and I’m honestly at a point where I’m tired of talking/thinking about it), and would prefer to not see messages/questions/stories about it at this time. My DMs will be turned off for a hot minute, but I just wanted to explain why. We all grieve differently and I appreciate you respecting my way.