Getting ready for the school year through domesticity

Getting ready to begin teaching, especially in this crazy year 2020, feels overwhelming, but right now, before my kids have started school, I'm still in the doldrums of August. And yes, I'm gathering homeschool materials oand trying to join a learning pod and getting school supplies.

One thing that I think many parents overlook during this time is domestic organization.

I am no particular fan of domesticity. I'm messy, I hate cooking, mail piles up. But every August, I spend a week or so trying to front load some organization so that the school year itself is not so difficult.

This is a habit that started when I was about to have my second kid. The one thing I recalled from being a new parent was how any domestic process that had not been organized ... it failed. So we set up our bills to auto-pay. We started grocery delivery, and I pre-loaded lists that would cover our usual items. I made a month of meals. I put alerts on my phone for things like sorting mail or paying property taxes. 

Those domestic wunderkind out there may already have this stuff handled. I am a domestic failure, so this is my annual re-up. That time when I make large batches of food and check my bank statements and call handymen for all the things I've forgotten (only some of which I ever actually make happen).

So today? I'm starting the big batch cooking. Vegetarian chili, Split pea soup. Lamb barley stew. Pulled Korean beef. Onion masala sauce. 

There's nothing like having a busy day and feeling overwhelmed, only to realize that dinner is done, you just have to heat it and serve. 

For big-batch cooking, here are some things I love:

  • One pot meals: truly, the pleasure of "heat and eat" cannot be overstated.
  • "Pulled" meat: I make a lot of meat dishes to freeze, things like Korean beef, carnitas, chicken cacciatore, bbq chicken. The trick for me is pulling the cooked meat so that I don't get weird freezer texture. And pulled meats go beautifully over carbs.
  • Rice cooker: All those pulled meats are amazing on rice, and I'm not mad at having a machine that makes it a 2 minutes process to make and 1 minute to clean. Or that can be used to steam vegetables at the same time.
  • Good freezing solutions! I used to hate freezing big batches because things just got lost in the freezer. Now I freeze everything into either 1-cup bricks or 1/3 cup pods. The bricks stack beautifully in quart freezer bags and the pods work great in large ziplock box containers. This is truly the life hack that I was waiting for. It's amazing! I know, I'm using exclamation points. That's how much of a life changer these were.

  • Nobody wants to cook in August. So I set up my Instant Pot outside, and voila, no more suffering the heat. Without cooking outside, I'm pretty sure I'd fail at all of this.
  • Sauces: a good flexible sauce can be the basis of a bunch of different meals. These are very much a matter of personal taste of course. But one I recommend entirely is the onion masala sauce, which is a base of tomatoes, carmelized onion, and Indian spices, that provides the base for like 15 other meals. 
Anyway, that's a long way of saying, my life will be easier in two months if I get some of this stuff done now. Bored children can be wrangled into helping. 

Alleviate boredom by getting a jump on organization. It goes against every fiber of my being, but it works.

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