Finding ways to de-stress my life has become important to me. I become overwhelmed pretty easy since living with lupus. The evening times are my anxiety prone times. In those few hours my daughter comes home, dogs are more active, homework helping, and fixing dinner and eating dinner.

I had to reduce my stress level, so we started planning meals ahead of time. A lot of our recipes come from All Recipes. The site has a lot of simple recipes and an added plus is they are economical. Finding simple recipes is important while dealing with chronic illness. We plan our meals according to what is going on that day. If I have a doctor’s appointment it’s usually crock pot or eating out. On the days, my daughter has tae kwon do we either prepare meals ahead of time, or you guessed-crock pot. We put our menus on the refrigerator to remind us to pull out the meat.

Another thing, that’s helped me, is to only shop for 2 weeks of groceries. It takes less time to shop and takes less time to put things away. The putting away is my least favorite part of grocery shopping. I’m usually exhausted by the time we finish one shopping trip. I’ve had to teach myself not to over due things. It’s easier said then done.

The last thing, we do is avoid the rush hour shopping times. The busiest time here is early evening on weekdays and Saturday nights. During the day on Saturday’s is sudden death because everyone and there grandmother is out. In the evening on a Saturday night are the slowest times in my area.

All of the de-stressors have made my life easier. They have been a real life saver when dealing with a lupus and a teenager with ADHD.