I’m finally getting back on track with my blog! I did make meal plans for the past 2 weeks, but did not get around to posting them here. Sorry if you were looking forward to them! I will try to do better! 🙂
Sunday, May 28
It’s my Dad’s Birthday today, so I’m not cooking! We are getting together as a family!
Monday, May 29
Happy Memorial Day! We are going to try to have a little cookout! Let me know if you want to join us!
We will be eating our last 2 cans of deer meat with this meal. I am a little sad to be finished with it! We won’t be able to have these meals again for a while!
Saturday, June 3
Pizza
We will be attending a wedding this afternoon, so the plan is to just pick up some pizza after the wedding.
What’s for dinner at your house this week?
FREE PRINTABLES!
I have a FREE printable meal planner that I designed in January. I am LOVING using it each week to plan my meals, and it looks cute on my fridge! There are also printable recipe cards for a few recipes on this page, that you can download.
Last week I was able to spend a lot of time minimalizing our things! I now have 2 large boxes and 3 trash bags of things to donate this week, and another quite large stack of things to sell in our next Consignment Sale! There’s something about getting rid of things that really is so freeing! This week I tackled clothes, and as odd as it might sound–I am now the person in our family who has the LEAST amount of clothes! I finally whittled my wardrobe down to a true minimal wardrobe of 37 items or less! I will probably do a post this week on my new minimal wardrobe, and which things I kept. Minimalism is seriously changing my life, and I still have such a long way to go!
This week I hope to continue the trend of de-cluttering our home, although I do have a couple of plans this week, like attending the last MOPS group for this year! I will miss going this summer, but I’m also feeling like this means summer break is starting, and I am super excited about summer and all that it holds this year!
Okay, enough about me! On to our family’s meal plan!
Meat Lover’s Pizza! *I’m actually SO excited for this pizza! A local Mennonite church sold these in a fund-raiser, and we will receive this pizza ready-to-bake on Friday! We are a pizza-loving family anyway, so I can’t wait to try it!
I have a FREE printable meal planner that I designed in January. I am LOVING using it each week to plan my meals, and it looks cute on my fridge! There are also printable recipe cards for a few recipes on this page, that you can download.
This week, I have NO “extra” plans! We have church, of course, and I’ll also be getting together with a sweet friend, but nothing “extra” in our schedule! No big events or dinner parties, no Doctor’s Appointments or meetings….I’m super excited! Hopefully this time we will all stay healthy, and it will be a wonderful week to focus on homemaking and our family! (And get back to more blogging!)
Sunday, April 23
Beef Stew
*Recently I made a typical roast for dinner, and afterwards we cut up the pieces and froze it, including the broth. All I will have to do is dump the bag into my crockpot on Sunday morning, and add a couple of ingredients to it! Hooray for an easy dinner that will be waiting on us when we get home from church!
I have a FREE printable meal planner that I designed in January. I am LOVING using it each week to plan my meals, and it looks cute on my fridge! There are also printable recipe cards for a few recipes on this page, that you can download.
This week is the WORLD’S BIGGEST FISH FRY in our county and I’m so excited! We’ll get to see the Brett Perkins Band LIVE on Wednesday night, and I’m so excited about it! Brett, minus his band, came and led worship for my husband’s youth group about a year and a half ago, and he was fantastic. On top of being an awesome singer and Spirit-led worship leader, he was also a really great guy that both my husband and I really enjoyed getting to know. It will be awesome to get the chance to see him with his entire band!
Of course we’ll also take the boys to the carnival Thursday night (and their very first experience with carnival rides!), and attend the parade Friday morning. There are TONS of other events going on as well, but we’re just going to stick to the basics (except we aren’t really fish-eaters, so we’re just going to ignore the whole “fish fry” part of the festival, Ha!).
It looks like we’ll have super warm weather and lots of fun! I’ve planned only two full meals that will require much cooking, one meal that’s already in my freezer, and then several quick and easy meals to get us through the week. Thursday before the carnival, we’re going to make some quick tacos and then hopefully enjoy some cotton candy and funnel cakes at the carnival! I’m sure the boys will LOVE that, LOL!
I have a FREE printable meal planner that I designed in January. I am LOVING using it each week to plan my meals, and it looks cute on my fridge! There are also printable recipe cards for a few recipes on this page, that you can download.
Happy Resurrection Sunday everyone! Our church is having a Sunrise Service this morning, and then our family will be hopping over to visit my family’s church for their Morning Worship, and having lunch and an Easter Egg Hunt at my parent’s house with our extended family. It will be a full and fun day! Also this week is my son’s third birthday, his 3-year well check at the pediatrician, and our monthly MOPS (Moms of Preschoolers) meeting! And…..lots of rain and thunderstorms in the forecast. Maybe that means we’ll get a lot accomplished in the house? (We’ll see!) Since it’s raining though, I did plan for what I hope will be my last “soup day” of this spring! Check out our menu for this week, and let me know what you’ll be making this week!
Sunday, April 16
Happy Easter! We’ll be visiting with my family and enjoying my Mom’s yummy cooking! 🙂
I have a FREE printable meal planner that I designed in January. I am LOVING using it each week to plan my meals, and it looks cute on my fridge! There are also printable recipe cards for a few recipes on this page, that you can download.
So much for last week being “slow”…. I think God just knew that my schedule would need lots of flexibility! Ha! Needless to say, I didn’t get a lot of things accomplished for our home, but it was still a fruitful week. We were able to have some friends over for dinner one evening, do some planning for our upcoming Easter Sunrise Service, and we attended a banquet for a local Christian School. This next week we have my son’s THIRD birthday party (What?!?!?!), our church’s Easter egg hunt, and we’re attending an Easter play in a nearby town. We’re excited to celebrate the Resurrection!
I have a FREE printable meal planner that I designed in January. I am LOVING using it each week to plan my meals, and it looks cute on my fridge! There are also printable recipe cards for a few recipes on this page, that you can download.
This week I finally have a “slow” week! Outside of church, we only have one thing on the calendar for the entire week! I’m excited because I hope to get back to doing all of my routines well. With Revival and busy weeks leading up to Revival, I am behind on laundry & on decluttering. This week I’m making the home my top priority!
Sunday, April 2
Barbecue Pulled Pork Sandwiches
*The last time I made this I slipped some pulled pork into a freezer bag and stored it away in my freezer. Last night I moved it to the fridge, and it’s defrosted and ready to go this morning! Super easy meal!
We are attending a banquet for a local Christian School!
What’s for dinner at your house this week?
FREE PRINTABLES!
I have a FREE printable meal planner that I designed in January. I am LOVING using it each week to plan my meals, and it looks cute on my fridge! There are also printable recipe cards for a few recipes on this page, that you can download.
This week my church is having Revival! I’m so excited to get to sit and listen to God’s Word FIVE times in the same week! We’ll also have the guest pastor & his family staying in our home one of the nights (They’ll commute the rest of the week.), so setting a plan for our meals was a bit different! Some of these meals will be prepared for lunch instead of dinner, but it’s still so helpful to sit down and make a plan–and at least know what to expect in that one area of our world!
Sunday, March 26
Church Potluck! Since it’s a busy week, I’m keeping it simple and taking some corn flake chews and some rolls.
Venison Steak Diane
*I made this a few weeks ago, and my husband called it “gourmet”! I knew I had to make it again! I do replace the brandy with apple juice. I was supposed to make it this past week, but our schedule changed and I wasn’t able to.
Baked Potatoes
Green Beans
Rolls
What’s for dinner at your house this week?
FREE PRINTABLES!
I have a FREE printable meal planner that I designed in January. I am LOVING using it each week to plan my meals, and it looks cute on my fridge! There are also printable recipe cards for a few recipes on this page, that you can download.
Last week was as busy as expected, and one of my meals did NOT go so well. That’s alright, though. I’m not giving up! I will try those chicken and dumplings again, but I’ll probably wait a month or so just to make sure I’ve fully recovered from the failure. This week is my favorite Consignment sale, and I decided to try out selling my stuff there this year! Hopefully I’ll make some good money back to put towards all the clothes I buy.
Sunday, March 19
Leftovers- “Clean out the fridge.”
Monday, March 20
Salad
Spaghetti
4 Cheese Herb Butter Braid
(We bought this from a local school’s fundraiser, and they are so delicious!)
Pulled Pork Sandwiches
*We have some already in the freezer, and I’ll combine some of Wednesday’s leftovers with it.
Fried Potatoes
Baked Beans
Saturday, March 25
Venison Steak Diane
*I made this a few weeks ago, and my husband called it “gourmet”! I knew I had to make it again! I do replace the brandy with apple juice.
Baked Potatoes
Green Beans
Rolls
What’s for dinner at your house this week?
FREE PRINTABLES!
I have a FREE printable meal planner that I designed in January. I am LOVING using it each week to plan my meals, and it looks cute on my fridge! There are also printable recipe cards for a few recipes on this page, that you can download.
On Wednesday I woke up feeling….tired. I just needed a nap. BUT I had way too much to do for that to happen. I was behind on laundry. The house was a mess, and the boys were unusually disobedient. And then I realized we were out of milk, because Nathanael has suddenly developed an obsession with drinking “mooook” and needs soooo many cups per day. And we needed it for dinner. My normal shopping day is Thursday, and since the store is a 22 minute drive one way, I didn’t want to go 2 days in a row. So, I set out to do next week’s meal planning and shopping list a day early. Once I had that finished I headed to the store and did all my shopping.
I got home and went back to attacking my consignment sale items that needed to be entered by Friday. I delayed on the laundry and cleaning, but at around 4:00 I was pumped to start dinner. On the meal plan was chicken and dumplings–my absolute favorite! All through the day, whenever I felt stressed I would just tell myself, “It’s okay because I get to eat chicken and dumplings tonight!”
I hadn’t attempted chicken and dumplings in over FOUR years, after failing miserably at them when I was a newlywed. Now, I wasn’t even worried about them. I’ve gotten so much better at cooking meals over the last couple of years, and I figured I’d be able to handle it–no problem. Or so I thought. I started the chicken, and then the potatoes that would be a side. When the chicken finished, I pulled it from the broth, used a little broth to make the dumplings, and then thickened the broth up. So far, so good. And then I started dropping the dumplings in. I dropped 7-8 into the pot, and then lost them. Like….they disappeared and were magically absorbed into the broth. I couldn’t find them in there anywhere! The broth became so thick it wasn’t even usable.
As I gave up and just left the kitchen, I had used half a gallon of milk, half a bag of self-rising flour, all the broth from cooking the chicken, and half of a store-bought container of broth. I had failed, again. Even more miserably than the last time. I cried. I texted my husband big long teary text-messages, and he came home and saved the day.
He came home, dumped my disaster into the trash, and then made chicken and dumplings from start to finish. Because unlike me, he CAN make them. I have no idea why I can’t, and HE can. But I’m just going to go with being thankful that he saved the day, because otherwise I’ll just feel pathetic.
We barely had time to eat dinner, get ready, and get to church. I was 5 minutes late for church, and I was supposed to be teaching the preschool class. Sigh. What a LOVELY day.
After church I needed to come home and clean the mess of a kitchen, but I just. didn’t. feel. like it. I turned on a TV show, and laid on the couch for 2 hours. We didn’t put the boys to bed until after 10:00. And then I looked at the kitchen. I felt paralyzed. I did NOT want to even touch it. Couldn’t I just go to sleep and leave it for tomorrow?
Yes, there was even food splattered on the bottom of my sign.
I could. I knew I could. But then I looked at my “Shiny Sink” reminder sign and felt a twinge of guilt. I remembered something a friend had sent me that came from the Fly Lady.
“When I procrastinate, it’s as though I am punishing the future version of me…..As though the person who will live in my body tomorrow is a totally different person. One who either really loves doing dishes or someone I just don’t like–and therefore it’s a good idea that she have a kitchen full of 2-day-old dishes to take care of. Amazingly, though, it was always still me that had to get up the next day and face the ugly kitchen, the dirty floor, piles of clothes, etc.”
As I reflected back to this quote, I knew that I did NOT want my Thursday to start off just as badly as my Wednesday had gone, and I decided to bless the me of tomorrow by giving “her” a clean kitchen to begin “her” day.
So, at 11:00 at night, my kitchen looked like this:
Left of the Stove
Stove Top
Right of the Stove
Left of the Sink
Sink FULL of dirty dishes
Dishwasher Full of Clean Dishes
Table still has our dirty dishes on it.
Yuck. It stresses me out to even see these pictures. I started by putting away all the clean dishes. Then I re-loaded the dishwasher as much as possible. I scrubbed and rinsed the remaining dishes, and then cleaned the counters. It sounds quick to say it like that, but it took me TWO. FULL. HOURS.
At 1:00 am I headed to bed, and my kitchen looked like this:
Ahhh….. Breathe. I literally stood in the kitchen when I finished, just breathing. It was like for the first time all day, I felt peace. I breathed, and then I headed to bed. And I slept wonderfully.
And the best part? Thursday’s version of me woke up to a house that was ready for my day. I was busy with THAT day’s chaos, which we all know–is enough for the day. I’m so thankful that I didn’t have Wednesday’s chaos still hanging over me.
I’m so incredibly grateful that I remembered the Fly Lady’s wisdom in that moment, and was able to bless myself with a better tomorrow, and give my family a more peaceful mother and wife.
My Self At Home 