Category: ORGANIZATION

HOUSE FROM HELL day 458 update

I’m still under the weather, but trying to get some things done none the less so I try to pick an inside project each day that I can come close to accomplishing.  Unfortunately I’ve entered the “Full Flare” phase of Systemic Lupus and Fibromyalgia.  These are two really horrible diseases to have to begin with, but together they equal complete misery – every joint and nerve ending are on fire between shooting pains.  The SLE makes you beg for death some days with aching joints and the shooting pain and at the very least think about staying in or going back to bed.  Then the Fibro has you crawling the walls with pain, but ironically that pain feels better if you get up and move.  My motto since I was diagnosed all those years ago has been “GET UP & GET GOING” no matter what!  Eventually I feel better as the day goes on even I do crash by 8PM. I’m doing pretty well for someone who is supposed to be living a stress free life and still dealing with this house the past 14 months.

Last year I did the “turn your hangers around and anything not worn during the year you donate” challenge.  Well, I used to have an office job – the kind that actually required nice dresses and heels. I’ve moved those clothes around with us the last several years thinking they’d be good for church and nice nights out, BUT I don’t need so many of them.  So, I went through them all today (my project for the day) as well as my skirts, blouses and slacks and was able to seriously clean out my closet by 52 gallons, four 13 gallon bags full to be exact. Since I’m continuing the minimizing challenge this year, logging everything has helped A LOT!

Tomorrow I’m thinking about doing the spice cabinet or the desk.

Hubby on the other hand worked outside and  has taken over my digging on the stump trying to get all the small roots out of the way.  It took him several hours, but he made good headway today.

We’re still looking for someone to at least chainsaw off as much as possible though we’d prefer to find someone to grind it out!

 

HAPPY HOMEMAKER & MENU PLAN MONDAY

I hope everyone had a great week and weekend.  I have not been around much, let alone on the internet. The past several weeks, er months have been chaotic to say the least.  The move here, the unexpected shambles of a house we committed too unknowingly, the massive clean out of my cousin’s things coupled with grams, gramps and even my great grandmother’s things along with my aunt’s declining health with the Alzheimers ALL before she even fell shattering her knee and ALL the ensuing surgeries, hospitalization and ICU time from the infections and stroke before her unexpected death have left me feeling a bit overwhelmed.

The past several weeks with the chaotic weather and family flying in and out have given us a break from the house for the most part, but also left us anxious to truly finish it. We are hoping to get quite a bit done this week and I’m hoping to also get back into a regular posting routine and try some new recipes too.

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE
It is warm with expected thunderstorms all week, but that’s Texas for you.

AS I LOOK OUTSIDE MY WINDOW
It’s a bit dreary and gray, but dry for the moment.

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE
Nothing as I have fasting blood work later this morning after we drop my mom at the airport. We are going to try a new Cajun place for lunch though that I’m looking forward to.

AS I LOOK AROUND THE HOUSE
I see tons to do, but will get a running start at it this afternoon after we return.

TO DO FOR THE WEEK

  • Drop mom off at airport.
  • Blood work today with a follow-up appointment for the results later in the week.
  • Clean spare bedroom and bathroom.
  • Return a chair to my uncle that my mom was using during her stay.
  • Start the sorting on the studio that is piled to the ceiling to get it all out of the rest of the house during my mom’s visit.
  • Drop off donations from the minimalization project at women’s shelter re-sale shop.
  • Drop off hundreds of magazines to the hospital for their waiting rooms.
  • Clean top to bottom.
  • Several loads of laundry.
  • Paint all the new molding hubby has been putting up. This alone will take me weeks.

CURRENTLY READING

TELEVISION / DVR
Not sure yet, need to see what the new summer shows are going to be.

CRAFTS & PROJECTS
LOL Nothing until the studio is sorted out.

MENU PLANS FOR THE WEEK
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
BREAKFAST
YOGURT & FRUIT
SCRAMBLED EGGS & CHEESE
FRUIT SMOOTHIE
YOGURT & FRUIT
MAPLE OATMEAL & RAISINS
EGGS in the CLOUDS
BACON & EGGS
LUNCH
FRUIT & CHEESE
SOUP & CRACKERS
SANDWICH
OUT
MEAT & CHEESE
LEFTOVERS
SANDWICHES
DINNER
C.O.R.N.
RECIPE EXPERIMENT NIGHT
PULLED PORK SANDWICHES & BBQ BEANS
DESSERT

ON MY MIND
As I sat at many family events this week watching brothers and sisters interact I realized that two of the most important words in the English language are PERCEPTION and PERSPECTIVE. Each of our perceptions and perspectives are developed through OUR experiences in life and OUR interactions with family, friends and peers as well as teachers and even strangers. While much of life is black and white, many a memory falls into the gray area shrouded with personal perceptions and perspectives based on age, sex, education, playground interactions, job type, public interactions at different cultural times in society, etc…  I have chosen NOT to get involved with many of the family arguments that have ensued over the years and refuse to in the future also.  Long story short, sometimes it just isn’t worth the hassle.

PERCEPTION per·cep·tion pərˈsepSH(ə)n/
noun: perception; plural noun: perceptions

  • the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses.
  • the state of being or process of becoming aware of something through the senses.
  • a way of regarding, understanding, or interpreting something; a mental impression.

synonyms: recognition, awareness, consciousness, appreciation, realization, knowledge, grasp, understanding, comprehension, apprehension; formal cognizance, impression, idea, conception, notion, thought, belief, judgment, estimation

PERSPECTIVE per·spec·tive pərˈspektiv/
noun: perspective

  • the art of drawing solid objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth, and position in relation to each other when viewed from a particular point.
  • a view or prospect.

  • a particular attitude toward or way of regarding something; a point of view.

synonyms:  outlook, view, viewpoint, point of view, POV, standpoint, position, stand, stance, angle, slant, attitude, frame of mind, frame of reference, approach, way of looking, interpretation
       

THINGS THAT ARE MAKING ME HAPPY
We finished our 30 day minimalization project this past week and am proud to say we ended at almost 3 times the expected outcome with 1182 items! This week we will begin yet again as I begin the clean out of the studio and finish unpacking all the remaining boxes!  I’m really looking forward to this and feeling a bit more settled because of it.  The goal is to reach a point where we can have the carpet installed the first week of June and then acquire the last few pieces of furniture we want and need.

FAVORITE PHOTO FROM THE CAMERA
I did not even get a chance for any pictures this week.

INSPIRATION

Be sure to link up with Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom for Happy homemaker Monday and with Laura at I’m an Organizing Junkie for Menu Plan Monday.

30 DAY MINIMALIST CHALLENGE

As you know we have been working around the clock to get things under control in this house.  Just to recap, we made a deal to come here last October and rehab my grandparent’s old place that my cousin had been in since 1993 when my grandfather passed away.  She passed away in 2014 and the house sat. Sigh. The hard part was that my uncle did not have a real clue as to how bad the house was under the “clutter” of my cousin’s things.  He was trying to work on it, still work and take care of my aunt who has Alzheimer’s disease.  So as you can imagine, it wasn’t getting done.  He told us it was going to need some cleaning out, paint and a little TLC.  Let me just say that my uncle had no real idea and that if we had not had our elderly animals with us, we would have turned around immediately gone back!

Even working long hours and at a fast pace it took us over 6 weeks to trash and donate the clutter so we could even get started.  

The house ended up needing EVERYTHING! from the foundation up.  We have now replaced ALL fixtures, electrical, plumbing, cabinets, windows and are almost done with the flooring as well as everything in between.  Our things had been in storage for several years and quite honestly we have been OVERWHELMED dealing with ALL of gram’s and gramp’s things and all of Beth’s things too as well as ALL of ours now in the midst of a MAJOR construction zone.

But the construction zone has become a home – I can cook real food and move forward with getting settled in! Our home is still full of boxes full of things that need permanent homes and I’m still a little bit overwhelmed.

Even though we don’t have a lot of stuff (we’re still currently missing crucial furniture – sofa, chairs, coffee table), we have a ton of stuff. Seeing everything piled high and wondering “Where am I going to put this?” is exhausting for both of us so we’re going to do something about it. We’ve been making regular trips to our local donation sight, but it’s NOT enough.  I’ve been setting aside anything that could be sold on Ebay, but that pile is HUGE and I want a fresh start. So this is like the shampoo bottle says, Lather, Rinse and Repeat. 

So here on day 180, our 6 month mark as a house warming gift to ourselves, we’re beginning a 30 Day Minimalist Challenge. For the last 6 months we have been living VERY basically so believe that we won’t even miss many of the things we choose to get rid of. Even though we already got rid of TONS of things, I bet I can still meet this challenge.  I originally found this idea on a blog about 2 years ago.  It’s pretty simple, and brilliant, really. Every day, for thirty days, you remove (trash, donate, or sell) items from your home.

Day 1 – 1 item
Day 2 – 2 items
Day 3 – 3 items
Day 4 – 4 items
And so on, until you reach day 30 and are removing 30 items. That’s AT LEAST 465 items we’ll get rid of. One of the hardest parts is keeping the inventory list, but I just found a clip board and put an old spiral notebook on it to keep it handy for the month to come.

Donation inventories and receipts to date for 2016 – hope to double this over the next 30 days. 

BTW that’s my new carpet those pages are laying on, do you like it?

EPIPHANIES, GOALS & RESOLUTIONS

I like the idea of having even one epiphany this next year, especially if it happens as the New Year begins. Epiphanies can lead to resolutions and my one and only resolution is the follow through it takes to make those Epiphanies come to life. See the pattern here?  A nice big circle of completion!

While I don’t make a specific resolution list as I believe these lists can be a key to failure when you don’t/can’t accomplish the individual items, I do tend to make lists of the things I need to accomplish as a whole!  This year I am NOT making a list Per Se, but committing to completing all the projects on my desk and in my pending file as soon as humanly possible.  Unfortunately and realistically many of these can only be completed with divine intervention as they pertain to the VA and all the entanglements that go along with the biggest ball of bureaucratic red tape you have ever seen. My aim though is to become the SQUEAKIEST WHEEL EVER and clear my desk!

So I am scaring myself a little (okay ~ A LOT) with this commitment, but remember the age-old question is: ‘HOW DO YOU EAT AN ELEPHANT?’ And the answer will always be “ONE BITE AT A TIME!”  Some bites will be smaller than others, but that’s okay too!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, ONE AND ALL, AND MAY YOU TOO SEE THE LIGHT OF YOUR EPIPHANY!

It also can’t hurt to start the year out with a little old fashioned good luck – Black Eyed Peas.  I am making this year’s batch with the left over prime rib from Christmas – YUMMY!

MANY people swear by starting their year out with black-eyed peas for luck.  I’m not a superstitious person, but hey it can’t hurt!
As a kid I HATED black-eyed peas, but I recently found the Trappey’s brand and they are fantastic! Hubs and I ate them plain and polished off the whole can. In fact they were so good that I can’t wait to try their other beans in soups, field peas, navy, black-eyed peas with jalapenos, etc…
BLACK-EYED PEA CHILI

1 can Trappey’s Black-eyed peas with bacon
+/- 2 cups shredded left over pot roast
1 can original Rotel tomatoes
1 1/2 cups V8
1 small HUNT’S tomato sauce 
1 tablespoon Frank’s red hot sauce
1 package Williams Chili Seasoning packet
salt and pepper, to taste
water to desired consistency*
cheese bread or corn muffins
sour cream and onions to garnish

  • Mix together everything except the bread and garnish in a stock pot.
  • Bring to a boil.
  • Reduce heat and simmer several hours until you can smell the chili calling you to the kitchen.
  • Ladle into bowls and garnish.
  • Enjoy!

*I use about 2 cups.  I like to start thin and simmer until thick (2-3 hours) to allow the flavors to blend together.

A PLACE FOR EVERYTHING AND EVERYTHING IN ITS PLACE

Several years ago I bought my mom one of those books, “What my family should know”.  She has been great about getting it all filled in though I already pretty much know where she keeps everything, but not everyone does.  It really doesn’t matter how old we are either.  If you have kids you need to be organized and prepared which brings me to my point today.  Have you seen the new Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel movie, “Life as we know it”?
I don’t think it got very good reviews, but I thought it was cute and it proves my point here.  As parents, having those ducks in a row, wills in place, insurances paid up, college funds in place, god parents chosen and prepared are essential.  OOPS, that’s kind of what this movie is about – the parents forgot to mention the plans to the god parents and get them prepared.  
In the end we can always work it out, but life moves so much smoother if we’re prepared.  So if you need a cute rental, I recommend this movie to lighten your mood and maybe it will help you get more prepared.

September Homemaking Shape-Up & Thank you

Barbara over at Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers has been hosting the Homemaking September Shape-Up. She had asked me to do some guest posts as well as other bloggers. I got this great package this morning, ON my birthday – she couldn’t have timed it better. It has a birthday card, a thank you card for a package I sent her and 1/2 of a Hallmark ornament set so we both have a 1/2, a CD of the songs to clean by and this great antique guide to entertaining (we may have to revisit some of the earlier posts on The Revival of Common Courtesy if I find some really good stuff). I can’ t wait to explore the great book.


Thanks again Barbara! I love it and it meant so much to me that you remembered.

Thank you everyone who stopped by
and wished me Happy Birthday.
It really means a lot to me.

final blog signature. ♥

Homemaking September Shape Up ~ Deep Cleaning & a really productive day

Barbara over at Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers has been helping us shape up our homes during the month of September. And while I know she will get to these things as the month progresses, I thought in the spirit of the theme, I’d share what I did today.

Last night we experienced our 4th (that I know of) frost and so when today turned out cool, brisk and clear (at least it started that way) I decided to undertake the major fall deck transformation. Here in the north woods we get a significant amount of snow so I always put away EVERYTHING versus just covering it. Thank God for the barn!

So this morning I started with:

  • Straightening the barn and making room for everything.
  • Then I tore apart the BBQ and ran all the pieces (grills, grease traps, tools and burners) through the dishwasher.
  • I picked up all the various sprinklers, hand nozzles, trowels, plant supports, rakes and shovels and put them away.
  • Then I made sure the lawn mower and trimmers were put away too.
  • I emptied the dogs pool and scrubbed it clean with soap and water and set it aside to dry.
  • Then I drug and I do mean drug (I think they gained weight over the summer) all the lawn furniture into the middle of the yard and rinsed them off.
  • While everything was drying I collected all the summer lawn stakes and bird feeders (we use only suet hangers in the winter) and put those away too.
  • I got out the fall lawn stakes and my stacking pumpkins. I’ll leave the rest of the Halloween decorations till next month. These are just my harvest ones.
  • When the lawn furniture and dog’s pool were dry I drug them up to the barn and put them away.
  • After the dishwasher finished I put the BBQ back together, covered it and stored it in the barn also.

These two didn’t help at all either – spoiled brats – LOL – this is all they did while I was out there with them.

I tracked a lot of stuff into the house and then had to vacuum too! While I was on a roll I drug out the shop vacuum and did the basement stairs and basement too! WHEW! I’m tired and it’s only lunch time.

We ended up with a surprise visitor(Eric) for the week so I’m editing my menu plan quite a bit and am making Taco Ring Salad tonight. I decided while I was at it I’d do enough meat to freeze 1/2 for the meal during the Christmas gang’s visit. So all in all it was a VERY productive day!

final blog signature. ♥

Homemaking September Shape Up ~ Family Dinners & Holidays, Organizing for a crowd

Barbara over at Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers is hosting the Homemaking September Shape-up. It’s an all around comprehensive house to home style of posts to help us get our homes and lives whipped into shape.

She asked me to write some guest posts for the kitchen section and I’m so excited to help her kick off this whole idea.

FAMILY DINNERS & HOLIDAYS, ORGANIZING FOR A CROWD

I’m going to have a houseful for the Christmas holidays so I will use that as my example.

Besides menu planning and doing everything you can to organize, my best advice is to use cutting boards to aid in stacking items in the refrigerator and use cookie sheets as lids in the oven so you can stack multiple dishes on each shelf and have room for the Turkey or Ham and all your side dishes so they’ll all be ready at the same time.

For a crowd that will be around for an extended amount of time, I also try to prepare dishes in advance and freeze them when possible so that I don’t spend all my ‘visiting time’ in the kitchen. I may have spent the better part of a day cooking now, but it was well worthwhile as it will save me tons of time while my company is here.

So to recap:
1) Menu Plan
2) Organize
3) Pre-make as much as possible
4) Stay organized or at least reorganize as necessary

for example:
12/17 ~ Spaghetti Bolegnese & Garlic Bread (sauce was made today and frozen)*
12/18 ~ Winter Soup & Beer Bread (soup was made today and frozen)
12/19 ~ Crock Pot Lasagne & Garlic Bread (sauce was made today and frozen)*
12/20 ~ Everything but the Kitchen Sink Soup & Buttermilk Biscuits & honey (soup made today and frozen)
12/21 ~ Garlic Shrimp Pasta
12/22 ~ Chicken Cacciatore (sauce made today and frozen)*
12/23 ~ Meatloaf Muffins & Cheesy Au Gratin Potatoes
12/24 ~ Pot Roast & Veggies & Mashed Potatoes & Corn Flake Wreaths & Peanut Butter Bourbon Balls
12/25 ~ Rum Raisin Glazed Ham, Holiday Carrot Casserole, Garlic Smashers, Black Bottom Banana Cream Pie
12/26 ~ Chicken Enchiladas and Chile Cornbread (enchiladas made today and frozen)
12/27 ~ CORN (Clean Out Refrigerator Night)
12/28 ~ Lemon Lime Pepper Chicken & Cranberry Rice Pilaf (Rice made today and frozen)
12/29 ~ Taco Ring Salad
12/30 ~ Out for mom’s 69th birthday
12/31 ~ Chicken Fried Chicken with Peppered Gravy & Mashed Potatoes
1/1 ~ Creamy Tomato Soup & Cheddar Cheese Biscuits
1/2 ~ Stuffed Shells & Garlic Bread (Shells made today and frozen)
1/3 ~ CORN
1/4 ~ Meatloaf with a kick & Maple glazed carrots
1/5 ~ out on the way to the airport

All the meals that aren’t already prepared have been proportioned out and seasoned before freezing so they’re immediately ready after thawing.

Now I’ve given you a rather large example, so think how easy it will be to do just a Sunday family dinner after church? All the same principles apply just in a smaller proportion.

*I’m using the same sauce on all of these so I made a HUGE batch which will save me soooooooooooooooooooooooooo much time!!

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Homemaking September Shape Up ~ Kitchen Cabinets

I’m so embarassed, but promised Barbara I’d post these. Even me, the obsessive compulsive neatnik can let things go a tad too long! I found tops with no matching bottoms and vice versa – they all went for the donation box. I put the more seldom used pieces towards the rear and in the the big tote out of the way and the pieces I use almost daily towards the front and on top. Maybe we can get it to stay this way. Yeah right, LOL.

final blog signature. ♥

Homemaking September Shape Up ~ Cooking with Kids

Barbara over at Candy Hearts & Paper Flowers is hosting the Homemaking September Shape-up. It’s an all around comprehensive house to home style of posts to help us get our homes and lives whipped into shape.

She has asked me to write some guest posts for the kitchen section and I’m so excited to help her kick off this whole idea.

COOKING WITH KIDS

My most recent experience of cooking with kids was with my girl scouts on some simple tasks or the time with Amber this summer. What readily comes to my mind is my grandma teaching me way back when. She’d let me wear her apron which she so cleverly converted into a size that fit me pretty well. Then she would bring a kitchen chair over to the counter and let me climb up on it. She would let me help her do simple measurements or read her the recipe (that she already knew by heart, but wanted me to learn to understand) or stir pancake batter. When she taught me to measure it was EXACT. You used a table knife to level off the top of the measuring cup. She also taught me how to make the best cakes with double sifting. These days they say you don’t need to sift, but I feel I get a better texture and moister cake by still sifting.

No matter how old they are, kids want to help in the kitchen and we should be glad and welcome their eagerness. Much of our life revolves around food and cooking in one way or another and boys as well as girls should learn at the very least, the basics. As Barbara pointed out, even finicky eaters become better eaters when they are a part of the process of making their own food.

You can include children of all ages in any food preparation. Just be aware of their capabilities and base their tasks on that. For example, every kid wants to wield the meat cleaver, but probably shouldn’t.

Start their tasks with simple ones like learning to measure correctly, snapping beans, washing vegetables, measuring rice, when to add the different ingredients and even simple things like cracking an egg which can certainly be messy, but every kid wants to do it! Grandma taught me to crack eggs into a separate bowl instead of directly into a recipe which turned out to be a very valuable lesson. You can always pick out egg shells if the only thing in the bowl is a single egg, but you don’t want to be doing it from a bowl with all your cookie makings in it. There was a point when I was using farm fresh eggs and let’s just say I was certainly glad I still used that separate bowl for eggs or my whole cookie batch would have needed to be tossed out. Kids can roll dough or meat into cookies or meatballs. They can use a fork to criss cross the tops of peanut butter cookies. Teaching them to clean up as they go will also be a benefit in so much of their life! If all goes well, this will also bleed over into cleaning up their toys and/or rooms.

As for that meat cleaver task at hand, you can take turns so that their tasks don’t involve the sharp implements, but yours do. Most importantly make it fun for you and them. The more fun they have, the more likely they are to want to learn more and more.

final blog signature. ♥

Homemaking September Shape Up ~ Techniques to make Week Day Meals Easier

Barbara over at Candy Hearts & Paper Flowers is hosting the Homemaking September Shape-up. It is a comprehensive house to home style of posts to help us get our homes and lives whipped into shape.

She has asked me to write some guest posts for the kitchen section and I’m so excited to help her kick off this whole idea.

TECHNIQUES TO MAKE WEEK DAY MEALS EASIER

There are many ways to make your life easy to still have made from scratch recipes every day of the week and not resort to hamburger helpers or take out.

By having a menu plan ahead of time you can get organized whenever you have the time. When I do the shopping I buy in bulk to cut the cost and since I have my menu plan ahead of time, I break down the bulk package into meal appropriate sizes before freezing when I get home. During the winter, I like to spend Sunday afternoons preparing for the week’s meals. If I know we’re heading into a particularly busy time I always make double batches and freeze half for another meal. There are times we literally eat out of the freezer for the whole week, but they are all homemade meals.

Remembering to defrost your meat is key to easy meal preparation on weekdays. The most time consuming part of cooking with fresh ingredients every night of the week is the chopping and preparation of vegetables. If you are sticking to your meal plan you can do these all at once. For example if you are going to need a 1/2 cup chopped onion for each of 3 meals, then choose a large onion and chop the entire onion, storing it in Tupperware and taking out what you need for each meal as you need it. I also gather together the seasonings for each meal and have them ready to go.

The key here is to be able to start cooking immediately and just add ingredients without having to do chopping and prepping.

To recap:

  1. Menu Plan
  2. Defrost Meat
  3. pre-chop vegetables
  4. pre-measure seasonings
  5. pre-set table when/where possible
  6. prepare double batches when appropriate

final blog signature. ♥

Homemaking September Shape Up ~ Menu Planning

Barbara over at Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers is hosting the Homemaking September Shape-up. It’s an all around comprehensive house to home style of posts to help us get our homes and lives whipped into shape.

She has asked me to write some guest posts for the kitchen section and I’m really excited to help her out.

~ MENU PLANNING ~

There is more to menu planning than just deciding what to make for dinner, at least for the average family. We’re a military family used to getting paid once a month and trying to make it last. So for me, menu planning also encompasses recipe scouring, coupon clipping (we love to read the Sunday papers and have coffee. One of the things I always go for first is the coupons to see what I can save for us – hubby always laughs when I get excited at a large coupon for something already on the list – LOL), sale ad reading and logical common sense planning. I do participate in Menu Plan Monday, but I actually prepare my menu for the entire month all at once and then just break it up for posting.

I start the last week of the previous month with checking out what I already have in the freezer inventory and then the ads for my local markets for the upcoming week. I see what meats will be going on sale and then scour my recipe file for recipes to match. One of the biggest things I do to help not only with cost of ingredients, but also waste is to make sure to back up recipes to each other that use similar ingredients that I can buy in bulk. For example if a recipe calls for 1/2 an onion for Monday night’s recipe, I make sure Tuesday night’s recipe uses the other 1/2. I also know which meals we’ll probably have leftovers for so I plan to either freeze part of it for a future meal or plan a CORN (clean out refrigerator night) within my plan if there is only going to be a little of this and that leftover. I write my list and then I match up the coupons for whatever staples (flour, sugar, eggs, butter, etc…) I need and then the luxuries if there is room within the budget. If there is a really good sale I buy in super bulk for the following month also. Now I know this sounds like a lot of work, but the whole process takes less than an hour and then it’s done for the month.

I have every scrap of a recipe I ever saved as well as many of my grandma’s too. It’s like an obsession with me. If a recipe sounds good in a magazine, I figure I can make it better based on my family’s likes and dislikes and tuck it away to try and manipulate at a later date. I recently decided it was time to clean-up this mess.

I found an old metal LP file box at a garage sale for 50 cents and dressed it up a bit so it didn’t look like a trash bin on my kitchen counter. (it was a beat up lime green with stickers everywhere). I have written 2 family reunion cook books in the past which helped some with eliminating the scraps of paper and I’m also in the midst of writing a Tastebook to use as family Christmas gifts that is helping to clean up this mess on a permanent basis.

I have a perpetual list on the counter and every time we use something or run out of something, everyone is trained (finally) to list whatever they used or ran out of on an ongoing basis.

We keep a pretty concise calendar with everyone’s activities, appointments, meetings and such on it. I also write what we will be eating on each day so they’ll know what to expect. For the planning purposes here I’ll show you the rest of the month so you can see the pattern(s). If for some reason we have to cancel a night I will rearrange the week so that the meal actually canceled is one using something from the freezer, not the fresh ingredients I’ve already purchased. When I do the shopping I buy in bulk to cut the cost and since I have my menu plan ahead of time, I break down the bulk package into meal appropriate sizes before freezing when I get home.

9/8 MONDAY ~ Meatloaf & Scalloped Potatoes
9/9 TUESDAY ~ Stuffed Shells & Salad
9/10 WEDNESDAY ~ Seafood Salad & Parmesan Rolls
9/11 THURSDAY ~ Chicken Cacciatore & Salad
9/12 FRIDAY ~ Chicken Carbonara & Salad
9/13 SATURDAY ~ Lemon Lime Pepper Chicken & Rice Pilaf
9/14 SUNDAY ~ Hot Wings and Home made bleu cheese dressing

9/15 MONDAY ~ Out for my birthday dinner
9/16 TUESDAY ~ Mexican Baja Casserole
9/17 WEDNESDAY ~ Spaghetti Bolegnese & Salad
9/18 THURSDAY ~ Sauteed Garlic Shrimp & Salad
9/19 FRIDAY ~ Meatloaf Muffins & Garlic Smashers
9/20 SATURDAY ~ Chicken and Onions in White Cream Sauce
9/21 SUNDAY ~ Beef Stew & Cheddar rolls

As you can see the theme for this month is chicken with a bit of hamburger
thrown in. Anything with seafood is made with shrimp from the freezer. The Beef Stew is also from the freezer and was made previously. By the middle of the month I will harvesting apples from our own tree and putting up applesauce for the winter. As you can see based on the previous pantry and essential ingredient posts, the only fresh ingredients I’ll be buying are the produce as well as milk and eggs.

9/22 MONDAY ~ Taco Ring Salad
9/23 TUESDAY ~ Chicken Cordon Bleu & Applesauce
9/24 WEDNESDAY ~ Orange Honey Chicken & Fried Rice
9/25 THURSDAY ~ Grandma’s Chicken and Noodles – I’m working on a written recipe for this – I’ve made it from scratch for so long – it’s hard to write it down – LOL
9/26 FRIDAY ~ Chili and Beer Bread
9/27 SATURDAY ~ Chicken Enchiladas & Refried Beans
9/28 SUNDAY ~ Stuffed Pork Chops & Salad

SO

I do the memes: Menu Plan Monday hosted by Laura at I’m an Organizing Junkie, Favorite Ingredient Friday hosted by Kathryn at Overwhelmed with Joy, Freezer Food Friday hosted by MJ at mjpuzzlemom, Scrumptious Sunday hosted by Meredith at Mercedes Rocks, Tasty Thursday hosted by Pumpkin Patch, Watchin’ What We Eat hosted by Lorie at Honey I Shrank Myself and Slow Cooking Thursday hosted by Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. Doing them all make great additions to help keeping me on track and finding so new recipes!

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