Meal Planning

The last several days have been spent putting together my Monthly Menu for October as well as the Master Shopping list to go with it. We started using a monthly menu and doing a once-a-month shop in January of 2009 and we love it! Even though we spend more upfront doing it this way we definitely save in the long run.

To begin with, I mapped out a theme for each night of the week:
Sunday- Easy, Cheesy Casserole: Any kind of casserole or one-dish meal such as lasagna, poppyseed chicken and rice, chicken spaghetti, Mexican, etc. Since we have church every Sunday night, it works best for us to have a casserole (prepared ahead of time) to pop in the oven just before heading to church. Then, when we come home, all I have to do is throw together a salad and toast some bread and our meal's complete!

Monday- Quick Chick: Any dish calling for boneless, skinless chicken or chicken tenders.

Tuesday - Big Family Meal: Any of the "fancy" suppers when we have "all the trimmings" (mashed potatoes, homemade rolls, etc). This could be Roast chicken,Roast turkey breast, roast beef, Chicken Cordon Blue...I think you get the point!

Wednesday - For us this is always "open" because we eat at church on Wednesday nights. I try to get a list of the menu ahead of time so I can make sure we're not already having a similar dish at home.

Thursday - Simply Salad: Grilled chicken, shrimp, tostadas, Mexican Mountains, and (our very favorite!) Ultimate Salad (a combo of left over smoked turkey breast, grilled chicken, and roast beef). As winter comes, this will probably progress into "Simply Soup" :-)

Friday - Totally Turkey: Any recipe calling for lean, ground turkey.

Saturday - Fabulous Fish: Any of our many seafood favorites! We have several shrimp recipes we enjoy as well as fried and baked fish. This month we are adding a new recipe to the menu - Blackened Salmon Fillets. I'm excited!

After planning out the theme, I worked on putting together a Master List of all of our family favorites. This way I don't start with a totally blank page each month. Now, during the last week of each month I pull out my Master List, grab my calender, and start adding the meals. Jason is a true "meat and potatoes" man so, with the exception of Sundays, I try to have a meat, two veggies, and a whole grain with each meal.

After the menu is complete, I go through each recipe and make sure that I have all of the ingredients on hand. Those that aren't already in the kitchen end up on my Monthly Grocery Shopping List. I have a Master Stock List saved on my computer. This lists all of the things we buy throughout the year, along with the price we paid. I try to keep the prices updated. That way, as I plan my menu and shopping list I can keep a running figure in my head and (hopefully!) stay within the budget. This also lets me see at a glance if a sale price is really a good deal.

When it's time to do our shop, Will normally stays with his Mam-Maw and Jason and I have a quiet evening to ourselves. (Well, almost to ourselves...Allison is joining us now!) We do most of our buying at Sam's and Wal-Mart, although we watch the ads and pick up specials at Kroger or one of the local grocery stores.

We do shop for milk and fresh produce weekly but other than that everything we need for a month's worth of meals is in our car when we come back home!

I know it wouldn't work for everyone, but it's what works for us and I LOVE it!!!

Time for Two

When I found out we were expecting Allison (an hour before Will's first Birthday Party!) a few people commented that it would be hard to divide my time between two babies so close in age. Now that Allison is almost ten weeks old, I have to say that the time-factor has worked out well! Currently, our day looks something like this:

5:00 - I get up, get dressed, do my devotions and weight-training

6:30 - Allison wakes up to eat. I nurse her, take her to the potty, and then we enjoy some one-on-one time together

7:00 - I start breakfast and get Will up and dressed

7:15 - Breakfast

7:30 - Walk (both babies in double jogging stroller). Jason's cousin and her little girl usually join us for our walk. "Walk with Naomi" has quickly become Will's favorite part of the day!

8:45 - I take a quick shower while Will watches one of his little Leap Frog DVDs ("Letter Factory" or "Math Circus") and Allison sits in her bouncer

9:00 - I give Allison her bath and then nurse her while Will finishes his video

9:30 - Sibling "play time" for Will and Allison. Will loves playing with baby sister!

10:00 - I put Allison down for her nap and then we start Will's nursery school. He loves it!

10:45 - Free playtime for Will while I take care of house work

11:00 - This used to be a continuation of free playtime but we have recently added a new activity to our day - "church time." During this time Will and I sit on the couch and "practice" being quiet "just like church." Will looks through a little stack of books and maybe plays with a few quiet toys. I'm hoping that all the practice pays off!

11:30 - Lunch time for Will while I finish any house work that needs done

12:00 - Story time for both while I nurse Allison

12:15 - I put Will down for his nap and Allison has "tummy time" while I eat my lunch

12:30 - This is when I get to spend special one-on-one time with Allison!

1:30 - Allison goes down for her nap and I spend some time working on special projects. If I am seeing patients, this when they come

2:30 - Will gets up form his nap and we get to spend some one-on-one time together. Sometimes he just wants to cuddle, but usually he's wide awake and ready to play with mommy outside :-)

3:30 - Nurse Allison while Will has "blanket time" (more on that coming in a seperate post!)

4:00 - Free playtime for both babies - Will usally enjoys joining Allison on her little floor gym or else we may walk around outside

4:30 - Jason is usually getting home about this time so Will often joins him outside while Allison sits in her Bumbo seat and watches me start supper

5:30 - I nurse Allison while the guys continue to busy themselves outside

6:00 - I put the finishing touches on supper while Allison sits in her bouncer and Will plays in the den

6:30 - Supper time!

7:00 - I clean up the kitchen while Will has independent playtime and Jason entertains Allison

7:30 - Sometimes Allison is napping at this point. If she's not, Jason continues to play with her while I give Will his bath

7:45 - Story time for Will

8:00 - Bedtime for Will and feeding time for Allison. There are still occasions when we have company that Will may stay up a little later but that's the rare exception!

8:20 or so - Put Allison down for a nap. I will wake her up somewhere between 10:00 and 11:00 for one final nursing. After that, she'll sleep through the night!

So yes, my day is full, but I am loving every minute of it!

Growing by Leaps and Bounds

Allison is almost ten weeks old and is getting bigger every day! She is such a sweet, contented baby. Her wake times are getting longer and she is really starting to pay attention to everything that goes on around her. Her little Bumbo Seat is fast becoming her favorite place to be since she can be upright and watching what's going on around her.

A is for....

Part of the A Beka nursery school is learning letters and the sounds that each letter makes. They suggest to focus on one letter per week so this week we've been working on the letter "A." Monday we learned all about apples - the shapes, colors, and parts. Tuesday we were supposed to learn all about ants and we did...just not in the way I had planned! Since Jason was off, Will was enjoying spending his morning following daddy around the yard. He was so cute because he kept insisting he was "helpin' da-da." At some point, though, he managed to step in a large fire ant bed. That poor little guy was stung all over! Today we learned about astronauts and how they were people who dressed up in special clothes and rode in a rocket to get through outer space and even walk on the moon. Since I still had Will's snowsuit from last year hanging in the closet I dressed him up in that and we made "rockets" by blowing up a balloon and letting it go. He had a blast!