Making My Life Easier: One Snack at a Time

I hate snack time. It seems like it's ALWAYS snack time. The kids are always telling me they're hungry. Ava just learned the word "hungry" so literally, I hear "ungwy" all day long. ALL. DAY. LONG.

They wake up from nap with those groggy, low blood sugar attitudes. All they want is food but they don't want anything that I suggest or give them. Fine. You gonna play that way? I'm out. Isaac is the snack helper and is in charge of getting a snack for himself and helping Ava choose something.

No, I don't let them rampage the kitchen to find whatever their sweet tooth is craving. I give choices, but I control those choices (i.e. low sugar, non-processed REAL food). So, I made a plan. I found two baskets and filled them up with snack time options...

Basket #1 goes on the counter where Isaac can reach it. It's filled with:

• Cereal bars
• Granola bars (homemade or store bought, whatever I had time for)
• Bananas
• Mandarin oranges/Cuties
• Peanut butter crackers (pre-measured in ziplocks)
• Goldfish crackers (or whatever version I picked up this week)
• Muffins (if I made any that week)

Basket #2 goes in the fridge on a low shelf so it can be reached by little hands. It's filled with:

• Yogurt
• Applesauce
• Cheese cubes (pre-measured in ziplocks)
• Apples (I'll slice them for them if they want, but I want them to do the choosing)
• Carrot sticks/hummus (in little Ziplock containers, pre-measured)

I don't know why I haven't done this sooner. It takes a few minutes post shopping trip to put together and it'll save me a lot of trouble in the future. Booyah.