Menu Planning—for a month

Some days I really don’t like the weather man.  Nothing personal but in the winter he hardly ever has good news.

Ice?  Snow?  Frigid temperatures?

See what I mean? 

The forecast is keeping me seriously homebound.

One REALLY amazing thing is that I don’t need to make a run to the grocery store!  Yesterday hubby & I hit Hy-vee to pick up some on sale items but we didn’t NEED any of them.  About a month ago, Elizabeth & I sat down & planned a month’s worth of meals.  She was going to be cooking the majority of the meals so I wanted her input & for her to see the process that I use to do this.

How to plan for a month

1.  Check the pantry & freezer—first I had her go through & make a list of what we had.  Those items need to be used first, if possible.

2.  Print a calendar or if you like Excel there are some great templates at Vertex42.  I use the 2 week menu planner because I plan all 3 meals each day.  You have to when you are home all day with hungry children!

3.  Decide on a plan.  Are you going to use up all the old meals first?  Do you want the same kind of meal on a specific day of the week?(ie Mexican Monday, Crockpot Tuesday etc) I knew we were going to have meals brought to us for about a week this month so I didn’t plan those days.  Then I looked at what kinds of meat we had on hand.  Lots of chicken, some pork & hamburger.  I try not to over load any one week with too much a single kind of meat.

4.  Fill in the blanks.  Don’t feel like you need 30 different breakfast, lunches or suppers.  I repeat lots!  In fact this month I made a two week menu plan and just repeated it.  Easy peasy.

5.  Make a grocery list.  Look at what you have & what you still need to put on your list.  Don’t forget stuff like chips, sour cream, etc.  The sides are important too so add what might be good with your meals.

6.  Clean out the frig & do a quick organize of your pantry.   It makes life easier when you bring home all those groceries!

7.  Go to the store(s).  Take a snack, drink & a list.  This can be a big job—go prepared.

8.  Relax a bit.  Isn’t a great feeling that you won’t have to make a grocery store trip for much?  Steve is so good about picking things up for me.  We’ve had to pick up fresh fruit, milk, eggs & things like that but NO major parts of the meals. 

This is seriously saving us some $.  We normally spend around $600 for our family of 6.  So far for the month I am $150 under budget and we have a TON of food in the freezer/pantry still.  One of my goals is to shrink our grocery bill.  I have been using coupons but not lately for various reasons.  I may need to go back to planning/shopping for a month at a time for a while & see if it helps me reach my goal more than coupons did.

We did have meals brought in for a week so that affects things.  I would say about $75-80 worth of the amount I spent was in stocking up.  I bought $60 worth of chicken for batch cooking that will last us for several months.  I also was cooking college food for my oldest that will last for a couple of months.  He loves being able to pull a meal out of the freezer rather than going over to the dorm for a meal.  Overall I am super pleased with this months outcome on the grocery budget!

A stripe scarf

The plan was to crochet a scarf while I recuperated. 

That and finish my rag rug.

As usual the best laid plans have gone awry.

Crutches make your arms hurt & making the rug does take some arm strength so the rug is on hold until the arms feel better.

I started to crochet the scarf but I didn’t like the way it looks.

My daughter Megan makes wonderful scarfs & hats with her Knifty Knitter round looms. 

So she took pity on me & I am making a scarf with her loom.  I love how it looks & it is about half way done! 

Thanks Megan!

Finer Things Friday: Initiative

I am SO blessed to have GREAT friends. 

Once a month we get together to scrapbook at church.  Since this month I am kinda homebound they agreed to come here for the evening.  I am so looking forward to some girl time!!!  Yes!

(As I look around my house) Ahhh what was I thinking? 

It is Friday—which means things have gotten really bad.  We pick up each day but things are slipping.  Sigh.

Well I guess if they are my friends they won’t mind right?

Or maybe they will help me pick it up?

On the other hand I was able to work on the kitchen counter a bit as the piles in there had gotten pretty high.  My little guy was my legs.  I hand him things & he runs them where they belong.  Hmmm good lesson for him!  We even lit a candle! 

Mmmm smells good. 

Next I will tackle the other counter & my desk area.  One tiny baby step at a time.

I was so pleased with that but then I hopped(grin) to my bedroom & discovered a little elf had made my bed. 

I still cannot do that alone.  I am pretty sure I know who did it but WOW to find it done with out asking. 

Initiative is truly a finer thing.  So are Relationships—I posted about that earlier this week & I had a hard time choosing which was my Friday Finer Thing.

For more Friday Finer Things head over to

Why I am writing here. . .

Blogging was something of an experiment.  I started this blog(almost 2 years ago) as a way to journal the “big” events in our family’s history so that I could share with family & friends who are far away.  I am so grateful to those people I know in “real” life who read these, sometimes amusing, accountings of our daily lives.  I also love that I now have several “new” friends who read along as my family has it’s adventures.

My name is Kim & I have been married to my dear hubby for almost 20 years(next week!)  We’ve been together for along time but everyday provides us with a new way to learn to grow and change in to the people & couple that God wants us to be.   We aren’t this young anymore but hey I love this picture even if is from actual film and is a bit fuzzy.

One after the other we’ve added 4 sweet children to our family. 

Ranging from 19 to almost 9 they certainly keep us hopping each day.  Just this year we saw our first child leave the nest to attend his first year of college. 

It was difficult to let go and watch him take charge of his life.  But he’s flying and we have all survived thus far.

We manage to squeeze many things in to the time that we have day to day.  Vacations to places far away happen from time to time—camping most of the time. 

Badlands

Independence Rock on the way to Yellowstone

Each year the kids participate in Bible Quizzing.  They memorize a ton of scripture & then compete once a month.  It is fun, crazy, and hair pulling.  There is NO better activity for teenagers.  It gets them grounded and plants God’s Word in their hearts.

We love to play games & do puzzles together.  Homeschooling is our method of education.  Recently I had surgery & so our current adventure involved me and crutches.  Which means my family handling a lot of things around the house that they aren’t used to doing.  It is going well but when the next 12 days of confinement are over there will be much rejoicing in the house.

Raising children, being a wife, walking the path God has placed before me sums up the journey recorded here.

Come along with me, I would love to have you follow this blog if you feel led to do so.  Sign up for posts to be sent to your email or to your Google Reader. 

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.  Micah 6:7-9

Things I love: Relationships

I am not big of rules—for myself of course. 

For everyone else they are fine.

I could just do without them.

Most of my children(notice I didn’t say all) don’t really appreciate them either.   As a younger mom, I thought that all I had to do was lay out the rules & carry out the consequences for breaking the rules.  As young children they did learn that rules are important and we survived the terrible twos and beyond. 

But now I want to see actions that are taken without me nagging.  Initiative is a great word.  When I see someone DO something without being asked I praise it over and over and over again because it means so much more.

Doing things out of love for me, their father, and our whole family means a million times more than taking an action out of duty or adherence to the rules.  That is something I didn’t know.  I could have really ruined my relationship with each of my precious kids if I hadn’t changed my way of thinking.

Sometimes God gives you a glimpse of who your children are going to grow up to be.  My abilities are small right now due to surgery. 

But it has been GOOD for our whole family. 

Sometimes nothing brings you together like a crisis.  Which this is not, but you know what I mean.   I think sometimes we don’t ask enough out of our kids.  They can do more than we expect.  I have been so surprised with how easily the house has run.  I never thought my 8 year old could do his own laundry.  I never thought my daughters could do ALL our meals on their own.  It is such a happy surprise.

I am finding it easy to be joyful when

. . . a little boy runs to get my _______(shoes, water, phone etc)

. . . daughters bravely go in to the grocery store—WITHOUT ME.

. . . meals are on the table with out smoke, tears or takeout.

. . . chores are done without reminding(much anyway).  I sure cannot see what the laundry looks like in the basement.

So I am focusing on the time I get to spend with them.  I am looking for ways to enjoy them and create that relationship with them.  It simplifies my life.  I don’t have to worry so much about who is obeying.  They seek the relationship with me and all in our family.  Everyone finds the joy in loving.

I really appreciated a post at Heart to Heart with Diane today.  It made me think & I am starting my own list of ways to “bind your children’s heart to you in love” as she says.  Her post is directed at homeschooling but I really think any parent can use these ideas with their child.

Here is my challenge to you--what things will you do today to build your relationship with your child?  I think I will go play a game . . . or two.  Sounds pretty simple to me.