So I have a hard time convincing myself to blog these days. I like to blog, but blogging from my phone requires so much editing that it gets frustrating. For those who missed that post, my dog pulled my laptop off the table and shattered the screen. My sister and her husband had a desktop screen they weren't using so they are letting us use it. The thing is, it is in my room on my desk and it can't get the neighbor's internet from there. So... That means I still have to do my blogging from my phone, which is slow going and frequently interrupted... Like after that sentence I had to go get Luke in bed and then it was 2 days before I got back to this post. So I think you might understand why I haven't posted anything for a while.
I have been trying to organize my life a little more because trying to take care of Luke, Dax and two dogs, plus keep the house clean enough to function is time consuming enough that if I don't have in mind what else I am going to get accomplished then it won't get accomplished. This includes dinner. Everyday I was saying ”what should I make for dinner?!” and I couldn't think of anything and I didn't have everything I needed when I came up with something and so I kept not making dinner ( I don't count making PB&J or pizza) If I didn't make dinner, then there were no leftovers for Tyler to take for lunch at work... which meant he would have to buy something and it wasn't likely to be very healthy.
This was causing frustration for me and financial stress for us. I had heard of making a meal calendar before but I just kept thinking, that won't work, we would get sick of the meals if I remake the same stuff each month. But then I realized it didn't have to be a one month thing. I could make 2 calendars and have it repeat every two months, that seemed more reasonable. So I took something like 4 hours one day a few weeks ago to go through my recipe books and pick entrees that we like, organize then in columns according to the meat used in it or lack there of. I then made a 4 week calendar and started placing dinners for each day. I couldn't just stick them anywhere though, because I have harp students some nights which makes dinner time complicated, especially because Tyler's work hours change so I never know when he will get home. So after strategically placing the meals so we wouldn't have chicken 3 days in a row or Mexican twice a week, and choosing sides or vegetables to go with each I had to put it away and take care of the kids who were now walking up from their naps.
Having that calendar has simplified dinner time like I would never have imagined! The only thing is that I got to the end of the calendar and I still have to come up with the next 4 weeks and I am dreading it and swamped with other things. Still, I will take the time to do it as soon as I can because it has made a huge difference in our lives. There is always enough left over for tyler to take some for lunch and often there is even enough for Luke and I to have it for lunch the next day too. That means that it makes my lunch decisions easier too... Not to mention more healthy... (lets just say I stopped buying hot dogs and frozen chicken nuggets which were my go lunch for a while because Luke doesn't like bread for sandwiches very often). Tyler and I have both lost weight since I started this calendar thing too which makes us both feel better about life.
Anyway, I still have a lot of things I want to do to organize my life more but this has made me feel more motivated to put forth the effort. I attached a picture of my simple little calender that is on the side of the fridge... I'm working on the 5th week right now.
Also, look how big Dax is getting!
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