Meal Planning

Once upon a time I was a very organized person....NOT!!!  I try to be, but somehow I always seem to get in my own way.  Occasionally life happening also prevents me from being organized.  One of the things that I see in REAL organized people that I admire is that they know exactly what they are having for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  When I say exactly...I mean EXACTLY. 
One day when I carved some time out of my schedule in order to "meal plan", I said to myself.  I said, "Self, haven't you done this before?  Don't you have this written down somewhere where you can just reference it?"  Sure enough, I went to the spot where I keep all my cookbooks and such. I looked into my special folder of important things about food. I realized that I had about 8 months worth of meal planning already written out on monthly calendars.  I sorted them by their season; then I studied them for a while.  That's when I noticed some sort of pattern.  I wrote that pattern down, made a few adjustments, and came up with the following plan:

SUNDAY
     Breakfast: Cereal and milk (cheerios and almond milk)
     Lunch:       Whatever my husband is wanting or what our state of the week suggests. (See                                     homeschooling posts for more info.)
     Dinner:     Whatever dessert we want.

Sunday's are crazy days in the mornings.  I usually don't eat a traditional breakfast. I put collagen and mct oil in my coffee and keep it moving.   Sunday is our only day to eat dessert, and the only day that we plan to go off (Trim Healthy Mama) plan.

MONDAY
     Breakfast:  Yogurt, Fruit, and granola
     Lunch:       Meat and cheese sandwiches and         
                                   chips/pretzels/crackers
     Dinner:       Beans
     Snack:       Boiled eggs

Sundays I try and take some beans out and put them in a pot to soak in preparation for the next day.  If I forget, I use canned beans or allow extra time for the dry beans to cook.  We may have chili or some type of soup that includes beans.
I also boil about 2 dozen eggs and keep them in the refrigerator as a snack.  When the kids start singing the hungry song but it's not time for dinner; they can have an egg or two.

Tuesday
     Breakfast:  Muffins
     Lunch:       PB and J, chips/crackers/pretzels
     Dinner:      Pasta Meal (spaghetti or fettuccine or something)
     Snack:       Fruit/Applesauce  Week 1 is usually fresh fruit.  Week 2 is usually dried fruit                                      and nuts or applesauce (I shop every 2 weeks.)

Wednesday
     Breakfast:  Cereal and Milk
     Lunch:       Fruit and dip/ Vegetables and dip
     Dinner:      Crock pot meal
     Snack:       granola bar
Thursday
     Breakfast:  Pancakes and Bacon
     Lunch:       Quesadilla/turkey roll ups and side
     Dinner:      Skillet Dinner (most recently Fish cakes, sweet potato rounds and broccoli)
     Snack:       Fruit snacks
Friday
     Breakfast:  Sausage and Eggs
     Lunch:       Soup/Salad
     Dinner:      Stir-fry and rice
     Snack:         Nuts and chocolate/candy
Saturday
     Breakfast:  Oatmeal
     Lunch:       Whatever is left in the refrigerator or pantry
     Dinner:       Same as above
     Snack:        Same as above

As you can see, this is just a guide; but it does give me something to reference.  When I want some variety I can still use this for direction in my cookbooks or even when looking back at old meal plan sheets. It allows me flexibility for the changing seasons as well.  For example, on Monday for breakfast we may have smoothies or kefir instead of fruit and yogurt.  As a snack we may have jello or something.  Still I am following a guide which helps to alleviate some stress.  In this area I found that sometimes it pays to look back in order to save time in the future! 

Thanks for joining me today!

Until next time,

Coming Soon....Letting Boys be Boys!

Snapshots of our Week

"Happy" Max

The following shots were taken at church in preparation for our Christmas cards

Breakfast: Kefir smoothie.  Which day do you think that fell on?

Our Morning Routine

One thing about having a lot of people in the house - it is important for us to have some type of formal schedule to follow.  Everyone just doing their own thing until breakfast results in chaous. I considered how we normally did things, and I watched several videos on youtube in search of the best morning routine for our family.  Finally, we had a family meeting and all agreed that the following is what our morning routine would be.

1.  Grooming and getting dressed
2.  Clean your Zone
3.  Quiet time
4.  Act of Kindness
5.  Exercise
6.  Breakfast
7.  Read/Go to the "circle" and play

The kids are allowed to wake up as early as they would like; but (other than to say good morning, grab a book or two to read, and use the restroom) they may not leave their beds until 8:00.  I have said to them, more than once, that my "on light" does not work before 8:30; meaning that I do not have to be available for service until my morning things are complete...which is typically at about 8:30.

During that first 30 minutes of the day they are to greet me and the others who are awake and, as quietly as possible, begin their morning routines.

1.  Personal Grooming and getting dressed is pretty self explanatory.  Wash faces, brush teeth, change from pj's to clothes if it's not their bath/shower day.  If it is their bath/shower day, they can go ahead and include that as part of their personal grooming.

2.  Zones:  our home is divided into 8 zones.  Each person in the house (except my husband) has an area that they are responsible for keeping clean.  This must be done BEFORE they may eat breakfast.

3.  Quiet Time:  Most of the kids have a Bible or some type of "Jesus" book to read or study the pictures of as an act of devotion to God.  They must go to a quiet place with their books, and/or journals and have a time to be quiet, think about God and pray.

4.  Act of Kindness:  We have an ongoing kindness contest.  I have blogged about this before, but basically they earn tickets (it used to be beads) for doing kind things or saying kind things to/for others.  This also should be done before breakfast.

5.  Exercise:  Right now we do Cosmic Kids on Amazon Prime.  Its a yoga and story time for kids.  We love it!

6.  Breakfast:  We eat! Immediately after exercising, its time for breakfast.  If their chores are not finished, they pray with us for breakfast and then leave to finish their routines.

7.  Read/Go to the "circle and play".  Those who have not spent time reading something for 20 minutes, other than their Bibles, read.  Those who have read may go outside and play "in the circle" (my line of sight from the dining room window) until time for school.

Do you have a mourning routine?  Having this plan has worked wonders in keeping the peace in our home.  I am sure that having some sort of plan will bless your home as well.

Below are a few snapshots of our morning...in no particular order.

Sir putting things away.

Rayanna enjoying her cinnamon muffin for breakfast.

Aaliyah making her bed.

Annas reading with Cassidy.

Devoionne having quiet time.

Until next time,