This won't win me Mother of the Year, but it works . . .

I work full time (actually, now at work with all that we've got going on, it's overly-full time).
I have a 16-year-old daughter who, thankfully, drives now and has her own car. She goes to school, has extra-curricular activities, works out at the gym, takes voice lessons, babysits . . . she's all over the place.
I have a big dog who, rightly so, needs lots of attention.
I have a home, yard, and my own fun projects and interests that keep me busy when I'm not working.

Weekends are our true commitment to mother/daughter time, when we enjoy eating meals together, shopping, going to the movies, lying in bed just talking and laughing. Harleigh is just plain ol' fun to be with and I wouldn't want any remnants of our chaotic and stressful week to creep into OUR weekend time.

One thing that has gotten totally out of whack has been our weekday dinner time. As a meal shared together, it is close to non existent. Which I can deal with. But I really started feeling guilty about us not eating a balanced dinner. Left to her own devices, Harleigh's dinner would consist of a handful of doritos washed down with an energy drink. Mine would be eating corn out a can while standing at the kitchen counter going through the day's mail.

So I went out and bought divided plastic containers. And for the past two weeks have taken an hour on Sunday to make up meals. Neither one of us cares about eating the same thing every night, so I stick to two menus, which makes it really easy. Last week it was black beans/rice/chicken and meatloaf/rice/squash. This week it is salmon/mashed potatoes/cauliflower and broccoli and chicken/mashed potatoes and gravy/green beans. I change the combos around, stick to steaming the veggies, using fat-free gravy, buying fresh fish and chicken . . . the dinners are good for us and taste good too.