I learn to be more flexible with things (yes, even with a routine), learn to really multi-task, and to work with pockets of time.  It’s a bit like guerrilla warfare.  For example, when Damien goes for his blessed nap, I rush around doing things, like cooking meals, which cannot be done with him awake.  Some chores I will deliberately ‘reserve’ for time when he is awake.  Thankfully, I am a rather ‘organise and plan’ sort of person by nature.  I do a lot of CPA (critical path analysis) in my mind when I go around doing my chores.

As for meals, this is how I try to minimise work : I seldom cook on weekends, and even if I do, it is not a problem because there is Richard around to watch the kids.  This leaves the 5 weekdays.  I don’t cook lunch.  I cook more for dinner and keep leftovers for lunch the next day.  And for the weekday dinners, out of the 5 days, we schedule 1-2 days to visit our parents and have dinner with them.  This further cuts down my cooking to only 3-4 days a week.  On days that I do not have leftover dinner for lunch, I either buy back or eat simple.  Dominic has his lunch in school.  Although I try to make him eat a light lunch at home to make sure he gets his nutrition (obviously not trusting school meals much), on days that I really don’t have lunch, I give him snacks like cheese sandwich and don’t feel bad about it because he has had lunch in school.  I also make jars of homemade pasta sauce which I keep in the fridge. Sometimes, I toss macaroni in the pasta sauce for him on no-lunch days. 

Apart from these, nowadays, whenever I cook porridge for Damien, Dominic gets a share for lunch also.  As for Damien’s porridge, I cook in batches of 2-3 days worth and freeze.  On the average, I cook every other day for Damien’s meals.

For meals, I try to cook simply.  I usually only cook 2 dishes – one meat dish, one veggie dish.  Although I like to cook, I don’t have time for complicated dishes anymore.  When Damien was younger, I had to cut everything the night before so that the next day, I don’t have time-sensitive to-do’s to stress me out.

As I mentioned, Damien is a very sticky baby.  A large part of my day is spent just carrying him around.  I end up doing housework with him in one arm.  Sometimes, I even have to cook with him in one arm. (The seasoning is bound to be a bit off when I have to cook while carrying him.)  Even if I don’t carry him, he would be playing on the kitchen floor.  If you have a sticky baby like mine, you have to have a major mindset change and be flexible enough to do things that you won’t dream of doing, like letting your kids play on kitchen floor, or cook with baby in arm.  As part of the ‘package’, you will have to put up with naysayer, typically the older folks, who will scream hell when they find out what you have been doing.  But what they don’t know won’t hurt them, so you don’t have to tell.  I smile whenever my mother-in-law ‘praises’ me in amazement that I manage to cook the baby’s meal to bring out.  What she does not know is that the meal was probably cooked the day before, froze, and re-heated.