Home Routine: Part II
"Bless the food before us, the family beside us and the love between us." Amen
A couple of years ago I was at a friend's house, and right there hanging on the fridge was a calendar of the entire month and what the dinner plans were for every night. I was impressed! But I thought to myself, "I could never be that organized!" As I stated in Part I, I don't take to routine well. I thought that having a meal plan wouldn't allow for spontaneous cravings or nights of going out for dinner. Oh how I was wrong! I've learned that having a plan doesn't mean that you can't choose to eat out, but it does prevent the frantic trip to the store after working 8 hours only to get home and realize you have to go back to the store for the forgotten main ingredient! And for those of you that don't live 2 minutes from a grocery store, I'm sure at this point you have to scratch the whole dish and opt for PBJ. Not ashamed to say I've done that too!
Last year my husband and I sat down for a financial meeting which we do from time to time and were shocked to see how much we were spending eating out. After discussion and deliberation, we came up with a budget. Again, me being a very go-with-the-flow person, this was a huge but necessary step! One of the pieces of the budget is groceries. We figured that we would spend $200 every two weeks on groceries. One trip to the store for $200 and that's it for two weeks at a time! I had to get it together and figure out how I was going to make this work. Enter MEAL PLANNING !! Inspired by my friend that has been doing this for years, I knew I could do it too. I got a whiteboard that hangs on the side of the fridge. It has a list of all the days in the next two weeks and what we will be making for dinner each night. And guess what, if we decide to go out to eat one day, we just push that meal off to the next week. It all works amazingly well. I was probably the most surprised!
Another part of this meal planning is the grocery shopping which is all online. I make up the meal plan, make the grocery list for all ingredients and then plug it in online. I have items stored in a favorites list so the things we buy regularly are already grouped together. Our order is ready the following day and we pick it up at the N 16th Street Walmart here in Council Bluffs. Bada bing, bada boom. Done! I love that the kids get to be a part of planning and executing. My oldest helps plan and grocery shop. Both kids are able to look at the menu and know what we're having each night. My daughter is able to help with the cooking here and there, and we love getting to spend that time together.
More than anything, creating a menu has taken a huge burden off our backs. I hated the days when I would call my husband and we would have the run around about what we want for dinner only to realize that we don't have any meat thawed out so it's take out, again! Now we look ahead a day, lay out anything frozen that needs to thaw or prepare the crockpot and ingredients so the next morning is a piece of cake prepping for a slow cooker meal. We have a list of meals that we rotate through. I have made this process as easy as possible. Every few weeks I try to throw in a new recipe to try but other than that we stick to the tried and true.
Family dinners are now stress-free and so enjoyable. I know that my husband and I are providing the kids with a home-cooked meal made with love and they get our undivided attention. (no phones at the table and TV gets turned off). It's the best part of my day.
This routine-resistant mama is learning that structure helps out in so many ways. Life is all about learning what works best for you and your family. I love sharing what works for us.
Much love ~ S
