November Meal Plan

Meal plans are something that have historically had a big presence on this blog. Not so much in recent years. Well, actually not very much has had much of a presence on this blog in recent years. But I digress.

Meal plans were big back in the day, because the overarching focus of this blog (and my life) at that time was homemaking and all that that entailed. Planning meals was an essential part of that.

Unfortunately, my kids were ungracious enough to grow up and I had to grown up with them and get a job, and thus, my focus has hence become divided.

That is not to say that I don’t still have to perform all of those homemaking tasks which, at the time, dominated the bulk of my focus and energy (and all that fun stuff like changing diapers and bathing children and dealing with fevers and runny noses and fighting with the never-ending onslaught of excessive toys), they just get shunted onto the back burner of my time and energy where they continue to taunt me with the guilt of having not been done well, properly, on time, or at all...

but again, I digress.

The importance of meal planning has become no less necessary in recent years. In fact, it has probably become even MORE necessary as we have all become busier. I used to always plan a week at a time, and then do my shopping accordingly. Lately, I’ve taken to planning a month at a time, and I completely LOVE it. I still do the shopping weekly, but knowing a whole month just became brainless relieves a lot of stress. I have done it list style, and like this:

I probably prefer the calendar lay out. It enables me to see what day is what, without having to figure it out based on disembodied dates. To further make things brainless (this is a big thing lately - apparently my brain function is limited and I don’t like to use it more than I must) I have several days of the week that fall into categories. Pizza happens once a week. It has been on Wednesdays, but I think we’re moving it back to Fridays. Sunday is always breakfast for dinner. Tuesday is some version of Taco Tuesday. Monday is generally something quick or something Dave can make without needing to wait for me to come home with ingredients, since I do the shopping on Mondays. And we clean out the fridge on Saturdays.

It’s fantastic every Sunday when I check the menu for the coming week and make my shopping list. Sometimes coming up with 7 meals every week seems overwhelming and repetitive. If I have a whole month in between having to do it, I find it much less tedious.

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2017–week 33

sunday: just a dog and a boy, bonding. tuesday: the completion of our hike while camping at nason creek. also tuesday: cooling off in the creek. also also tuesday: jiffy pop! wednesday: saying good bye to the creek until next summer! also wednesday: layla did not react so well to mosquito bites. a knot on her forehead, a fat lip and a crazy swollen knee she couldn’t bend, all due to bites, landed us at the pediatrician immediately after returning to civilization. thursday: dave got together after work with his cousin, who happened to be in town visiting. also thursday: i got a crazy idea that i should make homemade yogurt in my crockpot and oven… friday: after doing all the steps and refrigerating it, i tried some. it seemed like yogurt is supposed to seem, but i didn’t love it. wound up using some of it in banana bread, but ultimately threw a lot of it away. oh well. and a couple of big collages of pictures from our camping trip.

poop phobia

i'm going insane! my daughter is the most neurotic person i have ever met. not to mention aggrivating. we are now on day 3 of this particular round of what i have come to call 'the poop dance'. every 3 days (or so, depending on how long she is physically able to keep it up), we have to deal with layla's absolute insistance not to poop. when i tell people about this, they get all concerned and say that she's constipated and that we should give her miralax, because that's what worked for their kid when they were constipated. well, let me just clear this up. she's not constipated. it's not that she can't poop. it's that she won't. she flat out refuses to poop. eventually it does happen, obviously, but everytime it does, she freaks out, cries, and then apparently makes a mental note of what caused that to happen and then remembers not to do that next time. she used to say, 'i need to poop.' now, you could pay her a million dollars (or m...

week 21 in pictures

sunday: dave and micah left early in the morning to drive down to california. dave’s dad was having surgery on monday. monday: micah wasted no time getting into the pool. he’s been planning his swimming and splashing and canonballs since he knew he was going. tuesday: went to the hospital to visit papa. he and gramma had a picnic in the courtyard. apparently there was a riddle on the side of the juice box that asked “what kind of apple isn’t an apple?” the answer is the the chunk of pineapple that gramma is showing him… he informed her that he hates pineapple. true. wednesday: another track meet. shane did the same events as last week: 50 yard dash, relay, and long jump. came away with two 1sts and a 2nd (in relay). I’m also including a second picture for wednesday. I took this one while waiting for shane’s turn at the long jump and really hoping he would get done before this arrived: thursday: more sky, although significantly more pleasant. I was killing some time at the old hous...

2011 week 2 in pictures

sunday: in the book, actually have a collage of all the picture from our visit with kat and cole. this pic is part of the collage, but the collage itself is one of my missing pics. monday: layla making a dog bed in our big shelf. it’s a pet store and she’s for sale. anybody want to buy her? tuesday: snow is predicted! the kids are trying out some of those ‘old wives’ tales’ that claim to work to make it snow. pajamas inside out, spoon under your pillow, and of course, flushing an ice cube down the toilet… wednesday: it worked! we have snow! thursday: micah at NKCC indoor playground. I think it was a MOMS club event, but we were the only ones that showed up. friday: being dogs, as usual. they have food and water dishes set out on the floor. saturday: dave’s company party at hard rock café. fun night. good food. terrible weather! on the way out, the wind totally turned our umbrella inside-out! it was just like in mary poppins!

dried fruit

several months ago, my aunt gave me the food dehydrator that my uncle built. I have to admit, it is a bit big and formidable, and I was intimidated by it. which is likely why I haven’t used it until now. well, I had bunch of bananas that were getting a little ‘ripe’. since I already have a freezer full of ‘banana bread’ bananas, I decided to slice them up and see how it would work to dry them. so I did. 3 whole trays of sliced bananas and slightly less than 24 hours later, we have this: I’ve tried them and they’re pretty yummy. my kids think they look gross, so we’ll see how successful I’ll be at getting them eaten… I learned something though… if they’re too ripe for me to want to eat normally, they’re probably too ripe for me to like them dried as well. oh well. they’re just a little sweet. but I did eliminate the gag factor by drying them! always a bonus. since that was so successful, I decided to try some apples. I had some granny smiths in the fruit bowl that now look like ...

rachel's continued ramblings

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