This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure here.
If you’re a human, you’ve probably found yourself in a hard season. Sometimes you have advance warning—such as the arrival of a new baby, a scheduled medical procedure, or maybe it’s even a time when your kids will be out of school and you just want to make things easier! When you do, it can be helpful to try to think ahead a little bit. Even if you just do a couple of these tips, I think you’ll look back on your past self and be grateful!
10 Tips to Survive a Hard Season
Have a loose plan
Either use an app or digital calendar, or your Notes app, or print out a calendar that covers the period of time that you think will be the most difficult. The plan can change — but having a place where you can note things about what you’re planning to eat or other things to remember will serve you well if you’re feeling overwhelmed.
Think about breakfast and lunch components you can make ahead of time
Dinner isn’t the only meal! Peanut butter and jelly and other sandwiches can even be made in advance. Think about muffins, banana bread, and other baked goods you can make ahead of time. This is also great time to take advantage of markdown items at the grocery store bakery department!
Ask for help!
Depending on what kind of hard season you’re facing, consider whether it might be helpful to ask a friend to set up a meal train. People can either bring you a meal or donate a gift card for you to order food. Don’t be afraid to be specific about your dietary needs! Be honest about picky kids or dietary preferences or even specific needs when nursing or post surgery.
Be willing to do takeout if needed
When you’re making a plan, don’t worry about planning in frozen pizza or picking up a large platter of Chick-fil-a nuggets for dinner!
Tackle the biggest pain points in your house
You don’t have to deep clean your whole house. But do you have those areas that are currently bothering you a lot? For me, that was recently our fridge and freezer. They needed to be deep cleaned. Doing that one task, although it took several hours, made me feel so much better. Maybe it’s dusty bookshelfs, or the inside of your microwave, or some items of clothing that need to be mended.
Let dinner be the plan for lunch
You don’t have to plan all the meals for every day. Cook extra at dinner and let that also be lunch the next day.
Load up your grill and freeze the extras
Whether it’s someone grilling during those weeks or ahead of time, it’s not that harder to just grill double the meat. You can use this for later meals, for lunches, or freeze it for future meals.
Prep meal components
You don’t have to prep the whole meal – just prep components. You can marinade chicken breasts, cook up a bunch of taco meat,
Look at your whole family calendar together
Things can change last minute, but taking a look at the whole calendar will make sure everyone is on the same page. Think about the logistics of kid activities, grocery shopping, and running errands. Maybe you need to pull back from some things you previously had said yes to.
Find a balance and give yourself grace
Here are a few permissions: Your family can eat frozen pizza several nights in a row and they’ll be OK. Your house won’t burn down because it’s not super clean. You are allowed to rest and survive this hard season–it won’t last forever!
Some other posts that might help:
11 Survival Mode Meal Ideas
Survival Week Meal Plan
