Meal planning and chalks

precious kisses from Oliver!

Today I went back to my scheduling. This makes it what day 3?  Well thats a record for me.
Just kidding... kind of.
I had it in my mind today that I was going to do the one thing that I am horrible at- meal planning.
Some women are so wonderful at this. They love love love getting into charts and lists and little details.
Me on the other hand, well I would rather have a book of images to browse through and choose what we'll eat that way (hence, go to the store and buy for the week by what I see then make meals at home, which equals another trip to the store to pick up a couple things I missed....and so on).
I'm such a visual person. I guess thats why I loved Pinterest almost immediately, it's so inspiring and feeds into my way of learning and thinking.
But thats another post to come.
So, for meal planning, I have figured out that I love to buy what is in season first- which means half of our groceries each week are produce. I like to make meals that are nutritious, whole foods based which means not using processed and refined foods.
Now I am not 100% unprocessed. We still buy condiments, salad dressings, pastas and breads, and a variety of other things. But I have learned to be conscientious about what the ingredient list is, and this helps me narrow down our choices even further, because I opt for things that don't have heaps of sugar, high fructose corn syrup, lots of soy product and weird chemicals. We are not all organic. Hardly. If I could swing more organic items into our weekly groceries I would in a heartbeat, but I am okay with buying seasonally for our foods because it has the most nutritional value anyways. Yes maybe some pesticides too, but I have realized I have to compromise somewhere and right now in this season in our lives it's going to be there.
I have realized how quickly you can be obsessed with food choices when you switch to more wholefood all natural items. The more you learn about food, where it comes from, how it's made can completely consume you. I have to take baby steps in this area, pray for wisdom in the decisions I do make, and guard my eyes, and time in the matter.
With that being said, I sat down and made a point of finishing this huge chore! I prayed my way through it too, knowing I have a tendency to get discouraged and overwhelmed at the task before me.
Soooo, what did I end up doing?
My first item was to organize my menu binder I keep in my kitchen. It's a 3 ring binder that holds printed recipes that I know we like and I know I'll make again. I got this idea from a friend of mine that keeps one in her kitchen for her 2 week rotating meal plans. I liked that idea and saved it for later- and later was today!

my little tabs- I plan to make real tabs, these are just tape

I took some time to type up recipes I had written here and there on scrap sheets, and then decided that my best approach for recipes keeping was to provide seasonal ones. Right now we are in summer so I have an organized book filled with ones I have really liked this summer. I then organized them further to be in categories: chicken, beef, veggies, side dishes, snacks, dessert etc.
My plan is to switch it out with fall recipes as we enter that season, and as the foods change in the store. So, once I had that to my liking I then started on my meal plan. Yes the dreaded meal plan.
Instead of doing a full 2 weeks, I kind of cheated and only did one full week, and plan on doubling the recipes to freeze and eat the next week. Because it took so much time just for one week, I'm glad I did this.
I found a handy dandy little sheet to write out our breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. You can find that here: money saving mom
I used the seven day meal planner that has a square for each category. So handy, and not something I would have come up with myself.
I used my menu book to choose my recipes, and also loved that there was a place for snacks on my list so that I can include this in my grocery shopping. I have a tendency to be a snacker, and Oliver gets one snack a day too, so this was great to think of.
Once my menu was done I then decided to make an itemized grocery list. Are we feeling like we are in home ec class now?

But once I had that done, I was glad to have made it. NOW I can compare what I need to what is on sale in my grocery stores and what coupons I can use to match up to them. Useful sight for that: southern savers. Sorry to all you northerners, I don't think you have the stores listed on this sight. I wish there was something like this for all those that shop in different parts of the country.
Is it all worth it? I am hoping yes. I plan to keep this finished menu and list for future use, when I can rotate it back into our meals. I would like to make another 2 week menu and just swap them back and forth.
I did all this while Oliver was napping. I was also able to get some dusting, vacuuming and mopping done. It's an amazing thing this scheduling stuff.

our beautiful masterpiece

Oliver and I had some creative play with sidewalk chalks! He wasn't so sure about them, but enjoyed being outside, and would occasionally try to eat the chalk. But it was a lot of fun. I haven't used chalks in a very long time! I found a great site that offers little printout sheet for 'tot school' which I am eager to try out. I am trying to be more intentional with our play time together, but without going overboard. He has plenty of time to just play and learn alone too.
I have really been enjoying being home with this little guy. It's challenging, thats for sure. We are working on NO quite often, and it can be tiring when you again have to say no to something that you JUST said no to a minute before. I am praying over each day, and as the weariness sets in and I feel a little undone, I pray again. Truly God is helping me as I train up this little man. And then Jonah comes home. Yah!! It's wonderful when he walks through the door and Oliver smiles adoringly up at him and says, "da da". Precious are these days.
Our little baby is no longer, he's now a boy, a toddler and I am loving this stage. He is so smart and learns so quickly I am amazed to watch it all. No walking yet, for which I am kind of glad. I know that once he gets up on those rolly thighs, the baby-ness will be gone. Savoring these days!

love this boy. please excuse the window that NEEDS to be cleaned!