Monthly and Weekly Meal Planning

Recently, I decided to get back into a habit I had several years ago partly because it was so much better for my budget but also partly out of desperation.  I was soooo tired of hearing the question, "Mom, what's for breakfast?"  or "Mom, what's for lunch?"  I figured the best way to get them to stop asking me what they could eat was to provide a list of items for them to choose from.   Originally, the plan was they had a list of 5 items each week to choose from for breakfast and 5 items for lunch.  Once they chose an item for that week, it was no longer an option and they had to choose from the remaining items on the list.  That worked at first, but then one would choose sandwiches when the other chose frozen burritos and they'd forget, lose track, or lament their own choice.  It became a burden with PadaThree because she wanted what BOTH of what the boys had and then she wouldn't eat half of either item.  Clearly, this was NOT working.  So while I was coming up with a monthly meal plan, I decided to implement breakfast and lunch in there as well and provide the whole family with meal lists.  We are week 5 and so far, this is working beautifully! 

{I got into a conversation with a friend on Facebook about getting new ideas for meals and creating a list and I promised her a more detailed description of how I do this and how I rearrange my month (or week) when activities pop up.  So, this is it!}

First, I started by listing out all of our favorite meals...including the standard go-to meals I always fix (and that we're getting sick of), the Pinterest recipes I wanted to try, the once-in-a-while favorites that we enjoy but I forget to make, etc.  When making this list, I didn't stop until I had more than 30 meals listed so that unless we wanted to we would never have to have a repeat meal in any given month.  Then I got out my 3x5 cards (and to make it fun, I used the colored ones I've been saving...) and I put one meal on each card.  You can see there are a couple of aspects to each card:

~~The name of the meal is at the top left, followed by the list of ingredients required for that meal.  This is typically *not* a recipe for me because I so rarely follow recipes.  However, there are a few cards in there (my Pinterest ones) that actually have a recipe on it.  I cook mainly using methods rather than recipes so I list out whatever is needed to make the particular dish.
  
~~To the right of the title is a capital letter.  "S" is for Stovetop, "C" is for Crockpot, "O" is for Oven.  This mainly helps me in the next phase of my monthly plan so that I can quickly pull out all the "C" cards for the days I know I'm going to need a Crockpot meal and choose easily from those cards.  {Thinking about this after-the-fact, I realize it might have made sense to use the color of the card to indicate which style of cooking is required for that meal and then I could pull based on color.  If you choose to do this method of meal-planning, that might be the way you do it!}

~~In the bottom-right of the card (and in a different color of ink) I list out the standard side dishes we like to have with that particular meal.  So with spaghetti or lasagna, I always have garlic bread, but also have salad, corn, etc...because what I choose to go with that main dish will be determined each week by my schedule.  (You'll see how this comes together in a bit.)

~~The binder clip on the top stack of cards is the current month's meal stack so that each week when I make the plan for the family, I just pull from the clipped stack and leave the others alone.

~~On the Pinterest recipes that are new to us...I particularly like having the 3x5 cards for this because if we hate the recipe I can toss the card.  But if it's one that needs changing or one that we think would be better with xyz spice, I just make a notation on that card for the next time I make it.  Then when I plan that meal, I adjust accordingly.  Once we have a meal/dish to revamped to our liking, I just write out a new card with the list of ingredients needed for how we like it.


Next, I printed out a standard calendar for the month.  Blank.  Black and white.  I didn't need anything too fancy.  (I chose to print out a year in advance, but you wouldn't have to.)  I sat down with all of my cards, my family's activity calendar, and a pencil and started filling in the days that I knew we would be home for an evening meal.  I do this in pencil because I often change my mind mid-plan and rearrange the days.  I try to alternate beef, pork, and chicken so that we don't get too sick of any one meat through the week.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  {sorry for the shadow on the pictures....}

~~Based on our schedule (that I know ahead of time) I plan out the month.  On the days that we need a faster meal, I put one in place that is either a one-pot-wonder or a meal that comes together quickly for me.  Above, we had an evening that was a Bible study so I put Stroganoff in that spot because I can throw that one together in about 30 minutes.  Easy to do after a long day of homeschooling!

~~Notice in the first week there's an arrow that switches Tuesday and Wednesday.  This happened because of a last minute activity that was planned and I needed to switch the two meals based on the amount of time I had to prepare the meal.

~~Also, in the first week, there is an item circled (Ham and Beans...YUM!).  That one I circled because we never got to have it that week.  We had enough in leftovers in the first 3 days of the week that we had a Must-Go night (where everything in the fridge "must go!") so I didn't cook that night.  Yay me!  

The next thing I do is print out this weekly meal planner (there are several available online, just find the one you like).  I print this out each month x4 so that I have each week ready to fill in on the weekend.  Incidentally, ALL of these things I have printed out and stored in a folder on my desk so they are all within easy reach.  I love being able to fill this out so that the kids know what they can have for breakfast without asking me and I can spread out their favorite foods throughout the week.  A few months ago I had taken away cereal because they went through it soooo fast (who can just eat ONE bowl of cereal??) and because of the sugar.  However, by doing this method, I get to toss it back into the mix for them to offer a fast breakfast on mornings when we're in a hurry.  Score for mom!  I place this paper on the island in the kitchen or on the fridge (if I can keep it high enough so PadaThree doesn't take it down and disappear with it!) and then everyone can find it.

 

    

 The last step in my weekly/monthly planning is to print out my shopping list.  Now, this list is something I developed on my own when PadaOne was just a baby (and he'll be 13 soon!!  Waaaaa!).  I typed up a list of our "standard" purchases.  Being the OCD person I am...and thinking that shopping needs to be done in a logical, organized fashion in order to save time *and* money...I organized the list into not only the "aisle order" of my local WallyWorld, but also in the order that I shop.  When I walk in, I immediately go to the left (toward the pharmacy) and basically "circle" the store......you know:  pharmacy/beauty, home stuff, toys, electronics, clothing/baby, cleaning products, and then grocery.  Everyone else does this, right?  (Don't answer that!) 

Anyway, this standard list has changed a LOT over the years.  When I started it, we had a little one on formula and in diapers.  We used a different kind of soap...shampoo...deodorant then.  I bought a lot more "convenience" foods and hadn't yet learn to make many of them from scratch.  Plus, in the ever-changing world of marketing, the aisles have changed through the years and I've had to adjust my list accordingly.  I typically only update it once or twice year.

When I print it out, I have it handy (on the island in the kitchen) so that whenever I discover an item that needs to be purchased that week I can either circle it (if it's one of the standards) or write it onto the page in the approximate location of that item in the store.

Now, it all comes together.....

Once a month, I create the monthly meal plan and clip the cards together for that month.  For the new month, I pull meals first from the stack that is not clipped (from the previous month) and fill in as much as I can that way.  Only then do I dip back into the meals we ate the month before.  I don't always have to do choose from the previous month, but sometimes I want to because it's a food we like to have regularly.  (Time needed:  15-ish minutes, depending on how many times I get interrupted by the Padas.)

When I'm at the point that I am ready to plan for the next week and do my shopping (this varies from week to week based on schedule and weather), I take a look at the family schedule for the next week and see if I need to do any tweaking to the meal plan.  If everything is good to go, I copy over the week's meals to the Weekly page and add in breakfast and lunch items that we want to have.  In doing this, I also pull out the cards for that week's dinner meals and make notations of what sides I feel like cooking with that main dish.  (It is all up to me, right? :D)  I add these side dishes onto the Weekly page so the kids know what is going with each meal...again, remember the plan is for them to have the responsibility of checking the calendar and not having to ask repeatedly what we're having.  While I have the cards out, I take inventory of what's needed to make each meal and circle items on the shopping list that I *know* I will need to purchase.  If there are items I'm unsure of, I just use a sticky note to keep track of that.  Once I get this all finished, I check the pantry and make sure I have what I thought I had and adjust the shopping list.   (Time needed:  eh...maybe 30 minutes?  I really don't think it takes me that long now, but it might.)

The last thing to do is go shopping and put it all away.  Thankfully, I have the Padas to help me with this chore!  :)

Now, what happens if, on Tuesday of a week, I get a call and we have to be somewhere at 6 and the meal I had planned will take me longer to prepare than the time allowed for that day?  Easy.  I have a couple of options:

1) Take a look at the meals for the rest of the week and see if there's one I can switch around with this one.  If I've shopped correctly, I should have everything on-hand and this shouldn't be *too* hard to accomplish.

2) If I have the meat thawed out to use that works well in another, easier dish, and I have the ingredients on hand to make it, just switch it out.  I try really hard to have enough "extra" ingredients on hand to make a throw-together meal without too much difficulty.  Sometimes this easier dish might be from later in the month.  Not a problem...just switch it out.  Make a note on the monthly calendar of it and it all works out.

3) Always have an easy meal, that is shelf-stable, in the pantry for days such as this.  I almost always have tuna packets in the house and in a pinch I have no problems mixing up tuna salad and we have sandwiches.  Then if I use those packets, I add them to the shopping list for the next trip to the store so I can restock that easy meal.


Reading back over this, it looks quite daunting at first.  I admit, the initial set up is a bit time consuming.  But the original list of 30+ meals I created while the kids were doing a youth activity at church and I had a few minutes to sit and chill.  And really, in the end, once you get the initial set up complete the rest is pretty easy to keep up. 

Now, time to finish up school for the day so we can get the rest of our chores done and make some etouffee!  ;)

Happy planning!

Amanda

Getting a New Schoolroom....

So, we're finally getting the basement finished.  It's been 3 1/2 l-o-n-g years, 2 contractors, almost twice the money planned for, buckets of tears, and many months of tension to get us to this point....but it's here.  We're moving things downstairs this weekend.  We've been without a school room since before Alivia was born...our old school room started out as being her bedroom until she decided at 6 months old that she didn't like her room and needed to sleep with us.  (Of course, how could she like her room?  It was filled with boxes of papers and books, a very large bookshelf, and a desk with a computer on it...I never got to make the room up for her because the room was still crammed with all of our school stuff!  A vicious cycle for sure...)  Right now, that "old school room" is home to the same boxes, bookshelf, desk and computer, but also my oldest and his cot.  He decided several months ago he needed his own room and his own space and would be happy to sleep on a cot to get that.  So we rearranged a bit and got him his own little space where the cot fits in that room.  (This room will be his own room when things get downstairs, but for now he's sharing it with all the other old school stuff.)

We finally have the basement mostly finished (aside from a bit of trim, a built-in bookshelf, a stair rail, and a cabinet in the bathroom), but the schoolroom is to the point that I can move things down there and start setting up shop.  Now comes the hard part:  organizing.  I have so many ideas and thoughts on how to do it and what I need to purchase and my mind is just spinning with all that has to be done when I start unpacking all those boxes of curriculum and supplies!  Terry will get the big stuff moved around for me and get our school desks brought back over from storage, but I have so much to still do when that all gets here.

So I wonder, what are your favorite items in your homeschool room that you are happy you spent the money to purchase?  Is there an item or a couple of items that you can't do without?  Is there something you didn't buy that you wish you had?  I figure this is my shot to have my room set up the way I want it so I want to make sure I have thought it through.

But, in the end, I have learned a few lessons from this last 3+ years and I wanted to share some of them with you.

1 -- I am a much more patient person than I (or anyone else!) thought I was!

So many times through this process, I've felt like a 2nd thought or an after thought.  I've been quite frustrated and sadly, I've vented my frustrations to a few people when perhaps I shouldn't have. Thankfully, I have vented to friends who were trustworthy and sympathized with me, but also encouraged me as well.  At one point, during this pity party I was having, my sister asked me, "What would you do if Terry came home and said that something happened and you'd not be able to get the basement done for at least 10 years?"  That really made me stop and think about how *I* was handling myself and how much patience I was offering my husband.  This was no picnic for him either...after all, he is the one who ends up with a then-2-year-old's feet in his back every night because she slept crossways in the bed!  God was offering me an opportunity to increase my patience and it was up to me to grasp that opportunity.

2 -- I am actually pretty good at this submission stuff!

Terry will laugh at me if he ever reads that (which isn't likely!) because he is always telling people I'm the boss in the family and that I wear the pants in our relationship.  But we both know that I only make most of the decisions in our family life because he isn't able to from a but-I'm-always-at-work standpoint.  I decide on things that need immediate decisions.  However, when it comes down to it, I defer back to him.  Always.  If he says "no" (flat out) to something, I obey.  {Yes, girls, I did say the word OBEY....look it up, it's in the Bible....we're to obey our husbands!}  If he wants something handled a certain way, I oblige.  Never has that belief or principle been tested more than in this basement project!  Several times throughout the last 2 years of waiting and dealing with a deceptive contractor, I asked Terry if he wanted me to call the guy or step in and deal with the situation.  Every.single.time he said no and said he would handle it.  His way of handling it often consisted of not doing anything for weeks.  I had a few people that said, "You're better than me!  I would have ignored what my husband said and just called the guy (or dealt with it all) myself."  Really!?  How can you do that in good conscience!?  Knowing what the Bible says about marriage and obedience and the wife's place, how can we?  Now, I realize that the Bible is speaking of spiritual matters and I've had several women who say, "Oh, I'll do what he wants me to when it comes to spiritual matters."  But would you really?  If you don't obey and follow his lead on things that aren't spiritual in nature, then why would you on spiritual matters?  And why would your husband think you would?  Why would he even try to lead you on spiritual matters if you buck his authority on everything else?  And really, when it boils down to it, isn't obeying your husband in general a spiritual matter simply because God told us to do it??

So....

February 12, 2014....

Here it is, all these months later and I'm just now coming back to finish this post.  The above portion was written back in August of last year!!  Truthfully, I forgot my password and had to track it down.  HA!  But my mind has been mulling over this whole post and I really wanted to come back and finish it.  We are in the basement and fully out of storage now...we completed the basement and began the process of getting the remaining items out of storage in October.  We finished the storage portion in December and finished the year of 2013 by being all in one location! 

The one last item I think I've learned greatly through this process has been:

#3.  I am a forgiving person, but it takes work.  

I have greatly struggled with the deception of the contractor we had hired.  It's something that I didn't like even having to go through...WHY was God putting us through this?  We only tried to help this person and here was how we were repaid?  But I slowly came to a point that I had to let him go out of my mind and focus on what *I* could learn through it all.  What was God trying to show me?  I think I learned to forgive and to really forgive.  I had to tell myself what I am always telling my children:  I am the only one in control of ME.  I control how I respond and how I react to things.  My not forgiving him, or holding a grudge, would not make it better for anyone within my house.  It wouldn't change him.  It wouldn't make a difference on whether or not he does the same thing to someone else.  He controls himself, I control me.  So, I had to make myself let go of that grudge and that anger so that it wouldn't spoil the good that was happening right within my own home.  I needed to refocus my energies on what I did have control over instead of the areas I didn't.

So in a nutshell...that's where we are.  We are IN our new schoolroom.  We've been using it for a few months and we love it.  There are multiple issues that we deal with (more in a new post!) here in the basement, but the kids and I love having our school area separated from the rest of the house.

My baby is turning 3!!

The day she left the hospital...MAD because we put clothes on her. 

She *still* goes to sleep this way.  Oh.my.goodness. How adorable!

 3 years ago....it seems so long ago, but also such a short time.  This bundle of joy...the smallest of my three...arrived and brought with her a whirlwind of emotions and circumstances.  Daily I am amazed by her and what she's teaching me, even at her young age of 3. 

Just a few months old at the Pumpkin Patch.

First pumpkin carving!

Happy times...look at how little my babies are!  They have grown and changed so much!

Thanksgiving...

Alivia learned to walk so early (9 months...earlier than B or C) and that was *such* a blessing!  So many people told me to "not wish for her to walk because I would regret it" and they were so wrong!  The poor child was so attached to her Mommy that if I walked into another room she would cry and cry and cry like I had abandoned her and it was so emotionally stressful on both of us, that I was grateful when she started walking.  She still cried when I left the room, but she quickly learned that she could follow me and keep up with me.

Outdoor fun...riding a bike...time with the boys.

 Ah...Daddy.  The person she has neatly wrapped around her little finger.  :-D  He calls her "Princess Cupcake" and will do just about anything for her.  There's nothing like the relationship they have.

Almost 2. 

*sigh*  Just so beautiful!

I am amazed at the beauty she has, already at this age of 2, both inside and out.  She is polite and emotional and friendly (to women, anyway!) and fully of energy and smiles.  My heart about explodes when I catch her in a moment of being still and contemplative...her beauty takes my breath away.  I thank God for her every day of my life.

"Mom, it's hot!"

One of the very rare moments when she let me put her hair up and she actually kept it up!  

Playing with the Photobooth settings on the iPad.  She loves to make silly faces.

 She's silly....she's beautiful...she's full of life and energy...she's my girl.  And she's 3!  Happy Birthday, my Munchkin!!!  I can't wait to see what you do with this world and what God has in store for you!

I've missed you....

It's been several months since I've done any blogging, and even then it wasn't the blogging I was wanting to do. I enjoy writing and I enjoy sharing my daily life and kids with family. But, life takes over and the blogging got pushed out! :( I've decided that I'm going to try to blog more often...even if it's just a written one that doesn't include photos. (I kept waiting for a time when I had the time to upload the pics, and that time never came, so I never did anything!) I do have a couple that I'm uploading right now....hopefully it won't take forever! My goal is to restart the blogging aspect of my life as a creative/writing outlet for myself. Something for me. We'll see where it goes...

Lately we've been just trying to get through the day-to-day life. School and housework, what I can do of it, just takes the whole day. Keeping the kids from fighting (normally the oldest and youngest, oddly enough!) takes about 1/4 of the day, school takes 1/2, and the house stuff takes 1/2....Oh, wait, I'm a 1/4 of a day over! HA!

Recently, a very kind lady from church gave me a bag of clothes that her granddaughter can't wear anymore (for Alivia) and the night I went through them, these are the items A picked out. She wanted them put on immediately, and then paraded around the house in them. :) How could I not take a picture!? Crocs, a ruffly skirt, and a fuzzy winter hat...Precious! The only thing here that we already owned was the shirt. :D

Several weeks ago, we made a radar for science (LOVE Apologia Press!!!) and I was taking taking pictures of the process. The camera can't be out (or the phone camera) without her saying, "Cheese!" and then immediately it's, "Baby...Baby"....she's wanting to see the baby picture. :)

One afternoon, I was helping one of the boys with their schoolwork and she kept coming to me and saying, "Night night" and pointing to my shoulder, wanting to lay her head down. I couldn't stop at that moment and told her to go lay on the couch and I would be with her in a few minutes. Well, the math work ended up taking longer than I expected and when I walked into the living room this (below) is what I found. She *never* goes to sleep on her own. E.V.E.R. (And she hasn't done it again since!)

Last week, I decided to make breakfast. This may not seem out of the norm for most moms, but it is for me. I don't make breakfast or lunch at this point. The boys know how to make a few things so they typically do their own thing for both meals. But this particular morning, I was wanting to try something new with biscuits. I had seen something on Pinterest (LOVE that site!) where someone made cookie cups by baking the cookies on the bottom side of the muffin pan. Combine that with a meal I had over a year ago at Bob Evans that was called a Biscuit Bowl (a bowl sized biscuit filled with eggs, ham, fried potatoes, onions, etc...topped with a hollendaise sauce!! YUM!) and I had an inspiration. Clayton decided to take pictures of the process and Alivia had to get her chair up to the counter to help. :-)

They didn't turn out too bad....but need some work before I'm satisfied. But it was fun, regardless. I still want to try the cookie cups though....

Time to go. Time to figure out what we're having for dinner and get it made before T gets home!

Halloween 2010

Well, due to the craziness of our lives after getting back on my own, we didn't get to carve our pumpkins until the day before Halloween! LOL The boys still had fun and they *insisted* we do one for Alivia too! This little one is hers...

For whatever reason, the boys wanted pictures of the insides of their hollowed out pumpkins...I just kept hoping that we saw the face of someone (the Pope, Bush, Sarah Palin) somewhere in there...but no luck. LOL

And then the boys wanted a picture of the "innards" of the pumpkins...which I cleaned up and soaked in saltwater for a couple of days and then baked. Terry said this years pumpkin seeds were the best ones I've ever done! Woot! Brent also felt the need to take a few pictures, and of course, had to get me from a weird angle. LOL Oh well...we were having fun!


Below left: Brent's Pumpkin that he carved. Below right: Clayton's pumpkin that he carved. (And both boys actually carved their own pumpkins this year. They used that little kit thing and did the little holes all around their design and then went back and finished it up. They did really well, but their hands were TIRED when they were finished!


Below left: Alivia's pumpkin, which *I* carved for her. (For some odd reason, she couldn't do it?? LOL) And then to the right is all three of their pumpkins on the porch.


All three kids together with their pumpkins:

Brent decided to be a sheriff for Halloween and was practicing is "swagger" the day we carved the pumpkins..., swagger and his mean face. LOL


Alivia was a pumpkin for Halloween, but oddly I don't have a picture of her in her pumpkin suit?? Hmm....

Clayton made up his own costume. That's kinda a story in itself. He had this grand idea/scheme of what he wanted to be and what he wanted me to do/make for him...none of it made sense to me and all of it involved probably15-20 hours worth of work on my part. Which normally I wouldn't mind...I've always enjoyed making their costumes for them. But after the summer/fall we'd already had up to that point, and with dealing with a little girl who cried a LOT, I just didn't have it in me to do all that for his costume. So, one night when I was out of ear shot, Clayton started in on all this stuff he needed me to do and Terry was the one listening. Apparently he came down kinda tough on Clayton for not "seeing" that I was extremely busy and didn't have all the time to sink into his costume. So the next morning he woke up and told me that he had it all planned out that he would make up his own costume and I wouldn't have to do a thing for him. (Bless him!) He used the 3-Musketeer's smock from last year, a belt, and a toy sword to become this Ninja-Musketeer-Soldier thing. *shrug* He was happy with it so it made me happy! :)

Brent and his sheriff guns...making more faces for the camera. I think the one on the right is my favorite:

Brent's Birthday and Youth Trip to the Zoo

I'm still trying to get some blogging caught up, so I'm going back to the spring when we celebrated Brent's birthday! ;) He had a few friends over for his first-time-ever "sleep over" party...he was SO excited! Had such a great time, stayed up ALL night with his friends and then proceeded to be sick the next morning! We quickly figured out that his sick feeling was more due to exhaustion and low sugar levels. They had eaten junk food through the night and his body just didn't handle that well. After getting some juice into him (to raise the sugar levels) and then getting some real food into him, he started to feel better and within an hour was outside playing with his buddies while I made his lunch meal: BBQ chicken and homemade mac and cheese. :) He LOVES my mac and cheese! Anyway, this picture below is the only one from the party I can show because I don't know how the other moms feel about me showing their kids on the 'net.

A week or two later, we had Brent's family birthday when my parents and Terry's family could come down (I couldn't travel to them this time because of being so close to having Alivia). Brent had said he wanted a NASCAR cake, so I had him pick out a track from the NASCAR tracks and he picked out the Richmond track. (Please don't go look at that track and then critique me on what I did wrong...do you KNOW how hard it is to cut and mold cake!?!? LOL) At the very last down there is the finished product, but I didn't get the last and final shot that I wanted...we had ONE car that he specifically wanted, a Jeff Gordon race car. We had one, but didn't put it on until we were ready to do candles, then I had him close his eyes and I put Jeff Gordon crossing the finish line...winning the race, of course! LOL Anyway, I don't have a picture of that one, but it's okay...

Later in the summer, the Youth Group at church planned a trip to the zoo and since I was down after my surgery, I couldn't take them like I did last year. So, Terry took the boys up and they had a lot of fun. He got some really good shots too! :)