Baseball: the new routine

New routine? No, I don't have a routine, but I am in desperate NEED of a new routine now that baseball/T-ball season has started. I need help getting us through our pre-game and pre-practice afternoons and then to the games and practices with everything we need, on time, and with SOMETHING we can eat at the games as dinner. We usually get home after Son2's bedtime, and we need to get both boys to bed ASAP rather than doing dinner then. So far I have no routine, the after-school at-home time is too short, I'm beyond frazzled, we're not eating well, we end up some sort of dinner when we get home (or buy overpriced hotdogs at the ball fields), and the kids are not getting enough sleep. SIGH.

(This missing routine is my only complaint, I think. I really enjoy being outdoors in the late spring evenings, windblown under the big Oklahoma sky, watching our boys and their teams play ball, and joining the throngs of families rooting for so many teams each night. I am very very thankful that both boys' teams are on a Mon-Wed game rotation, and that the games are at the same ball fields.)

I've done a couple things already: a list of what the boys -- not me, the boys -- need to get/do before we leave (uniform, shoes, socks, water/drink, cap, sunglasses, mitt, ball); my own list (sunblock, bug spray, whatever food, water, knitting LOL); and a determination that we WILL get the boys to bed as close to their respective bedtimes as humanly possible when we get home. I'm also trying to plan the night before or in the morning, but I'm still working on that.

Now I desperately need to figure out some meals that can be eaten at games and after practices. Often the boys' games are not at the same time, so each boy has time to eat something before or after his own game. Dear husband and I should eat at the games as well, rather than at home, very late, when trying to get the boys washed up and to bed. My first thought: sandwiches. Maybe cold cuts, and whatever else the kids might eat (hmm). And for post-practice dinners, pasta salads, and anything else that we can serve from the fridge!

Time to get some recipes and plans laid down, and supplies laid in. Good thing we're in our late-week lull; I have some prep time before next week's whirlwind: Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Friday = practice-practice-games-games. And of course family arrive for a visit next Wednesday afternoon. Baseball will apparently be the theme of these grandparents' visit this year, LOL!