It seems impossible, and yet this is pretty much the last week in May. School is nearly done. Camp is on the horizon. My parents’ move is imminent. All sorts of good things – and yet instead of happy and light, I am feeling scattered and overwhelmed.
A lot of this is due to the fact that May has been cram-jammed with social events. In the last week alone I have attended: THREE school concerts, a playdate, a skating party, a birthday dinner, and a school event. Plus I went out to an impromptu lunch with a newish friend. Plus I got my hair cut and colored, which is wonderful but also involves more than an hour of chatting. Even chatting with my very lovely and hilarious hair stylist is exhausting. Plus it was a call week.
Up next, I have: a parents association event, my twentieth college reunion, a visit from my grad school best friend, and my parents’ arrival. Quickly to be followed by Carla’s birthday and subsequent party (which I still haven’t planned yet, because Carla has been dithering; I think we FINALLY have the details set, now I just need to book the place and send out invitations).
Like I said earlier, this is all good stuff! Happy, fun, wonderful things I am excited about and have been looking forward to! And yet, THIS IS TOO MANY THINGS.
One of my gentle aspirations this year was to get together with two friends a month, if you need a sense of my typical level of social interaction. This is so far beyond the typical that I am I am waving the white flag. I am standing on the prow of the ship, shouting “Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!” into the storm.
What do you do when you have too much going on? I am coping with walks – ALONE – when I can, and by sitting on the couch – ALONE – and watching episodes of Jeopardy! and reruns of Psych when I can. So far, these strategies are not helping a huge amount, mainly because my alone time has been severely limited. Because, of course, these Fun Extra Events are all being squeezed in and around Carla’s continued roster of activities and my regular duties of attempting to be a human. So I feel like I have little to no time to sit in a quiet room and decompress before bravely facing all the people and the talking once again.
Well. There’s no way out but through. Let’s think about food instead of about making small talk with a million more people. Yes, that’s right. Meal planning is the less onerous option here.
Last week was a sheet pan success, even though I only managed to make two of the meals I planned, so I’ve got a couple of sheet pan items on the menu again as well as a couple of leftovers. (The sheet pan tandoori chicken and cauliflower was my favorite, by the way. Very similar flavors to my old shawarma standby, but in a different and delicious form.) (Instead of sticking to the things I had planned, I also tried a balsamic chicken and veggie bake. It was okay, but the balsamic sauce ended up overpowering the meal. I might use the sauce only for the chicken if I make this recipe again.)
Dinners for (practically) the LAST WEEK IN MAY OMG:
- Summer Chipotle Chicken Salad with Cilantro Dressing: I did not manage to make this last week, but I have been thinking about it with longing. So back on the meal plan it goes! The only issue is that it calls for strawberries, and the berries on offer lately haven’t been particularly appealing, especially because they are also wildly expensive. To be fair, I don’t think it’s quite strawberry season. But maybe I’ll swap in blueberries? I haven’t decided if that will taste right with the cilantro dressing. Follow Up: This was underwhelming. The cilantro dressing was fine, the blueberries were fine (or, at least, I couldn’t see how strawberries would have been better), but the whole dish was kind of one-note. I think it could have benefited from some chunks of fresh mozzarella. When it comes to chipotle chicken, I VASTLY prefer this recipe.
- Chicken Fajitas: A couple of people mentioned sheet pan chicken fajitas last week and I built up quite a craving.
- Mediterranean Chicken and Veggies: I think this was a backup for one of my options last week, and I didn’t make it or the meal for which it was a backup. But I have lots of cauliflower leftover from the tandoori sheet pan meal and I have some zucchini ready to go, so I think this is a done deal. Follow Up: This was delicious! I used cauliflower, zucchini, red onion, and chicken. The recipe doesn’t make a huge amount of marinade, but it was just right. The tahini sauce was fine, although nothing special. If I’d had hummus on hand, maybe thinning that out with some lemon juice would have been better (and quicker). I did drizzle the veggies and chicken with leftover cilantro dressing from the chipotle chicken salad, and combined with the tahini sauce, it added a delicious zing.
- Sheet Pan Sausage and Veggies: This is my reach meal for this week. Sarah recommended it, and it sounds delicious, but maybe more importantly, it sounds different from what we normally eat. Here is where I admit that I have never once cooked a sausage in my life. I’m not opposed to sausage. We ate kielbasa semi-regularly when I was growing up. But it wasn’t my favorite. I guess I feel about sausage the way I feel about meatloaf: totally something I am fine eating, but not necessarily something I would choose. But maybe that’s why it is the perfect choice! Maybe I will realize that I have been missing out on a delicious and easy protein source! At the very least, it will be a pleasant novelty compared to all the chicken we eat around here. If I can get past the abundant variety of sausage options and just CHOOSE one, I think I can make this happen.
I get you. That’s too many social things! My goal is one a week and if I go over that, I FREAK out.
Also, our dinner options this week are very boring and that’s sad because it’s an awesome time of year! Why can’t we branch out? (Answer: Food is hard.)
Yes. I am FREAKING out.
I’m sorry food is so hard for you guys. But it’s so great that you have found options that work.
I love fajitas but don’t like cilantro so you know which meals I would enjoy! Without curtailing Carla’s activities or yours, there is no way to be less busy if there’s a lot going on. If you could eliminate some of the events, which ones would you want to skip?
I would literally skip all of them, Margaret! I mean, I want my friend to visit and my parents to be here, and they are all introverts so I think they understand, but… in an ideal world, all these fun things would be spread out over many months!
I hear ‘ya about wanting to do less but then finding yourself up to your eyeballs in doing things. I hope you find a way to enjoy some of the activities. Balance is a tricky thing to create in life.
It always seems to be drought or downpour, you know?
Suzanne, that is a LOT for one week. I’m generally ok with being busy, but even for me, that is too much!
I’ve also been thinking about the Summer Chipolte Chicken salad since you shared it last week. I just emailed myself the recipe (again) so I can make and enjoy it as well!
I hope this week is quieter, but boy do you have a lot of good stuff in the works!
Yes! Let’s have dinner together this week, Suz!
My palms start sweating by just reading how full your schedule is right now… although I wish I had some more social opportunities sometimes, I need a lot of me time to compress, too. I feel you.
I just need things to be doled out more judiciously. Alas, life doesn’t work that way!
Oooooh that is a LOT of stuff going on. I would even venture to say it’s Too Much Stuff. Even if all that Stuff is good, it’s still a lot. There are just so many hours in a day, you know?
Good luck to your parents on the move. I was thinking that this is going to be such a huge change for them! I hope it goes really smoothly and they love their new surroundings. And, of course, it will be wonderful to have them so close.
Food related: well, there are some exciting things on the roster this week. J has his grad ceremony on Friday, and Friday afternoon we are attending a big lunch for him and his friends and all their family members. Not sure what we will do for Friday night dinner. Saturday I have lunch with a girlfriend – a belated birthday lunch for me – and then Saturday night I am going to a dinner theatre with all my neighbourhood mom friends, as sort of a going-away thing. It’s a big week for me, clearly, since I normally have very little going on! Oh, and I am taking photos of J and his friends in their caps and gowns on Thursday after school, which will be fun.
That is A Lot going on too, Nicole! Such an exciting and busy and stressful time!
Oh gosh, that is A LOT even for a really extroverted person. I would be feeling overwhelmed, too. 3 concerts?? WHYYYY! That is too many! I need to check out some of these sheet pan meals. The sausage one sounds promising for us as we do like sausage, especially chicken sausage. Aidells is our favorite brand. For meals, I’m planning to make corn chowder with leftover ham from Easter that we froze, ground beef tacos and pineapple and shrimp skewers with Asian-style rice. The first part of May was a bit busier than usual, but not bad. Not having kids in school helps but next year we’ll be experiencing our first “Mayhem” I’m sure. We have an open house at Paul’s elementary school that we plan to attend with another family on our block. And then this weekend we will celebrate my MIL’s 80th birthday party! Memorial Day weekend can have really crappy weather but it looks like it will be gorgeous this weekend!
Oof. I thought MY May was crazy, but yours is worse. We just had a houseguest for 4 days/5 nights and even though he was the sweetest, most easygoing person in the world, I’m completely worn out. I just want to stay home alone for several weeks- too bad we have middle school graduation this week which will be a zoo. Well… good luck with it all. I’m eying that sausage and veggie sheet pan dinner- we have a bunch of Beyond Sausages I could use for that, and it looks easy.
The end of the school year is one of those crazy times where no one with children should have any ambitions besides survival. My way of coping with times where everything is bonkers is to just wait out the clock. There are only two more weeks of school for us and then life goes back to normal (whatever that is…I don’t remember at this point).
I FEEL THIS WITH MY ENTIRE BEING. I happened to come across an old calendar from 2015, when I had a seven-year-old and a sophomore in high school and my calendar was JAM PACKED. I literally laughed out loud. In horror. 🤣
I’m making those fajitas.
That is a lot. It’s not surprising it feels a little overwhelming.
We got back from a long weekend away (Noah’s graduation) late last night and I have no menu plan for this week, except an intention to make egg roll bowls tonight because it’s a family favorite and the graduate will only be home for one dinner before he takes off again. So I guess getting the ingredients for that is on my to-do list today.
I get panicky with even two things in the same week, so I can imagine how you feel stacked and strained. We have both boys and their SO’s staying at the lakehouse this weekend, so I’ve got a ton of grocery shopping and planning, AND I’ve got my 92-year old (Alzheimer’s) mother staying with me this week thru Friday. The struggle is real. We just have to hang in there.
That’s a lot! The introverted me would want to crawl into a hole! I refuse to be sucked into social obligations and say no to pretty much anything that doesn’t bring me joy or is absolutely necessary (i.e a dentist visit for cleaning, helping a friend, etc).
I like this question -> What do you do when you have too much going on? I crawl into a hole (example, our bedroom or my office), plan and ruthlessly delete activities. I also meditate and journal to “get all the crap out of my head.”
I hear ya, sister. We’ve had a lot going on too, though I feel like perhaps not quite as much as other Mays… in part because we opted out of a couple of swim meets that would have taken us far away in exchange for some more local soccer games. 😉 But we’ve had band concerts and athletic banquets and next week I’m chaperoning a big school field trip and then my son graduates from middle school (they do a formal ceremony where the kids have to dress up, etc.) one evening soon too. The calendar has been FULL and I often feel very overwhelmed juggling that + looking around my house/yard at things that need doing this time of year. Like we need to get our patio furniture out, we need to re-seed a few areas, I like to purchase and plant some flowers (which takes time, and effort), there are some other home maintenance + spring cleaning type things that should happen…. ahh.. so much! But the weather is beautiful here this week and I’m still hitting my workouts, which makes me feel good, so I’ll focus on that. 🙂 Hope things cool down for you as well, soon!!
That Chipotle Chicken Salad is calling my name. YUMMMM. I’m thinking a lot about food because I’m trying intermittent fasting this week and omg I get so hungry before I can eat at noon! P.S. You have had too many things to do, I’m so sorry!
Oh my god, Suzanne, reading about your schedule made ME anxious on your behalf. I just remember how irritated and overwhelmed I was during the 10 days in April where I had one thing going on every single day, and I don’t have a small human to take care of and a marriage to maintain, too! I hope you are able to carve out small moments for yourself in the midst of all of this craziness. And just try to find the light at the end of the tunnel when things will calm down. (Unless… that is so far away the light isn’t even a speck?!?! AHHH.)
We have a LOT going on at the moment. I wish it was social stuff, because I think I would prefer that. Meal prep and thinking about cooking has not been a focus, which is unfortunate because 2 college kids are home and TANK comes home Sunday. My grocery inventory is struggling to keep up with the demand. Coach grilled tonight, which gave me a much needed break. I ended up making chicken strips to round out leftover yesterday. A true sign of a dire situation.
That is a lot of stuff! I hope that it goes well and you get a chance to curl up with a book alone at some point. I know that I for one usually have to schedule “alone time” even when I am around lovely people, or else I will go a little bit ballistic, which is not fair to them!
I am freaking out at your description of your schedule, Suzanne. I would be in bed (or maybe under it), hiding from the world. I’m impressed that your meal plan is not “Take out, Take out, Take out…”. (Maybe it shifted to that, though? ;>)
Hang in there. I hope you’re through the insanity by now, and that you have a bit of breathing room. <3