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.

Comments

did these people go to school? ever?

sometimes i am just totally flabbergasted by how horribly some people write. i'm not sure if it's just that spelling and grammatical issues come easily for me, or if other people are just really BAD! i find it to be the worst in product reviews online. this morning i was reading some reviews of a chest freezer i'm thinking of getting. one went on and on about the poor quality of the 'unite'. repeatedly using the word 'unite'. seriously, people!!! here's another thing i've noticed. it's always the negative reviews too. what's with that? are people just so pissed off about the bad product they just got screwed on that they feel the need to rant (without pausing for breath or editing) in a negative product review? or is it just that people with bad writing skills are more likely to be compelled to leave a negative review? or are people with bad writing skills more likely to get screwed with the bad product? i don't get it. but ...

i’m sure i will offend all sorts people with this…

… but i just don’t get why the entire world is so torn up about the death of michael jackson. yes, he had an insanely successful career as a singer/entertainer/pop star. yes, he took a lot of that to a whole new level. yes, i remember thriller and doing the moonwalk. yes, i remember wanting one of those red leather jackets, and one of those sparkly white gloves. however… i’m also wondering why everyone else is seeming to forget how he bleached his skin (and then had a big hit stating that it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white… always wondered about that one), underwent so much plastic surgery that he barely looked human anymore, made crotch-grabbing an acceptable dance move, hung his kid over a balcony, showed up for court in his pajamas, and, oh yeah, was accused of child molestation HOW MANY TIMES??? this was a VERY disturbed man. i have never understood why being a celebrity excuses people from upholding the same morals and standards that we expect of normal people. i w...

purge.

I have a major fear of being a pack rat. I definitely have the tendencies, and that paired with the domestically challenged aspect makes me a prime candidate to wind up on that disturbing show ‘Hoarders’. What’s worse, I see these tendencies in my son as well. Yes, The Pack Mule, could easily become The Pack Rat. At any rate, I’ve been doing some major purging this past week. I really don’t like that we’re the kind of people who just don’t get stuff done. You know what I mean. There are the type of people who, upon getting an idea, or seeing a need, immediately take the steps to make it happen. Not us. We’re the type of people who sit on stuff. But… I’ve been doing really well, and I’m quite pleased with what dave and I have accomplished. Yes, I’m prodding him into this too. Here is the list of what we’ve gotten out of our house so far: 2 old mattresses (To the dump. They’ve been sitting in our garage for at least a year. That’s what I mean by not getting stuff done.) 1 ...

camping 2017 (photo heavy)

yesterday, we returned from a camping trip. it was fun and relaxing and wonderful and all that. this was our second time at this particular camp ground, since we liked it so much the first time we were there, 2 years ago. this time, we reserved a site that backed up against the creek, which was awesome. the only negatives were the burn ban that prevented us from having a fire (again), the fact that our entire family forgot to bring pillows, and the mosquitos – but i’ll get to that bit later. monday: we arrived mid-afternoon and got things set up, explored a bit, and then decided to take a walk down the road to lake wenatchee state park. we wound up finding this little trail that went down to the lake. there were some really nice views. yes, I took my enamel camp cup of moscato with me. when dave said, “let’s go for a walk”, i thought he meant just around the campground… when passing this sign, shane declared, “hey, there’s wifi!” we all got a good laugh. after our little wa...

micah's first word.

are you ready for it? "this" not very profound, i know. but he goes around pointing to stuff going, "this?" and then he'll point to something else and go,"this?" it's pretty cute. (and yes mary, reminiscent of lily. we're working on 'that'.) ... i'm taking shane to the doctor today. he's been having some random bouts of feeling like he's goint to throw up. he never does, but it's usually been at night and i'm getting tired. today's the first day he's felt bad during the day, but he was awake for a couple hours last night and today he said he wanted to go to the doctor and find out what's wrong with him. so we're going. ... i don't know if i ever mentioned that we finally got layla's doctor to refer us to an allergist. YAY! so now we've been in the holding pattern of trying to make an appointment and being unable to because they don't have all the info they need from her doctor...

rachel's continued ramblings

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