What Do YOU Do? : Groceries/Meal Planning

I have recently decided that this summer shall be dubbed “The Summer to Get Organized” (I was going to call it “The Summer to Get My Act Together”, but “The Summer to Get Organized” has a more positive ring, don’t you think?).

What’s in store to get organized? Our house. Our stuff. My systems for organizing said stuff in said house. My systems for cleaning/laundry/etc. Schedules. Communication. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Oh yes, and the fun task of food planning/shopping/etc.

Bottom line: I need to come up with a system for planning/shopping that is somewhat simple *and* cost-effective. As much as it pains me to say it, having my groceries delivered to my door, while handy, is proving *not* to be the most cost-effective option each week.I definitely need to tighten up the ship in that area…but I don’t know how.

So I’m wondering…What Do YOU Do?

Do you plan meal menus? If so, how far in advance (a week? 2 weeks? a month?)

How do you handle your grocery shopping (how often to you go; do you get your dry goods at one store & produce/perishables at another, etc?).

Have you found any good, healthy (read: safe), reasonably-priced options for organic food (produce, etc.?)

Do you utilize coupons?

You get the picture.

Now I turn it over to you, and I BEG you for your answers encourage you to tell me true:

Just What Do YOU Do?!

Mmmmm: Taco Soup

My boys’ favorite meal is taco soup. I’m making some right now. Here’s how you can do it, too:

2 # ground beef, browned

2 c frozen corn

2 cans black beans, drained/rinsed

2 cans diced tomatoes

2 packets ranch dressing

2 packets taco seasoning

4 c water

Put all of these things in a crockpot.

Set the crockpot to “high” for 3-4 hours.

Serve topped with shredded cheese, tortilla chips and sour cream.

Finally (the very best part…) Eat half of it tonight and freeze the rest for another meal!

Yum-o!

(Thanks to Bethany R. for the recipe from so long ago! :))

Why I Haven’t Done the Laundry in 2 Days

This is our laundry hamper.

Now take a closer look:

Two days ago I was removing laundry from this green canvas hamper, when I saw this pleasant little friend.

So I immediately suspended my laundry activities and ran into the other room, hence the crumpled hamper with jeans falling out of it.

I haven’t returned since. I don’t do bugs, you see. Not big, juicy ones that look like they might jump on me, at least.

However, now that it’s been 2 days…and the bug is still there…and now that I’m noticing the brown gunk on the rim of hamper (bug guts?), I can’t help but wonder if the bug is dead.

Or if it’s not a bug at all, but some sort of leafy thing.

I’m not feeling brave enough to check.

Yuck.

The Joy of Purging

Don’t worry, I’m eating just fine.

I’m referring to the purging of STUFF. Yesterday I got a little taste of it, and…wow. It’s a rush.

I cleaned out the cabinet underneath the sink in the bathroom – which until yesterday contained all sorts of candles and candle accessories – used candles, broken candleholders, wall candleholder thingies that I got on clearance & will never use, cheap candles that I got as white elephants, etc. Too many candles, especially considering the fact that with a small child in the house, I don’t burn candles very often anymore! The unwanted candles are now at home in a bag marked “garage sale”, while the rest of them are safely tucked away in a box.

What’s funny is that even though I DREADED the thought of digging into that cabinet, it felt SO good – so FREEING to just get rid of stuff!

I felt the same way with my closet when I cleaned that out recently (though that was a little more depressing, since I had to give away most of my pants, which no longer fit). A high!

This summer one of our projects will be to clean out the pink room. The pink room is a room in our basement that serves as a storage room, pantry, scrapbooking room, & exercise room. It works well right now, but someday our office upstairs will have to become a child’s bedroom, which means that the pink room will need to become the office (and studio/scrapbooking room…we’ve got plans :)). So this summer we are going to go through the boxes in the pink room and….PURGE. It’s a little scary, since we already purged last summer, which means that this time around we’ll be purging things that we once decided were not purge-worthy…but I’m up to the challenge.

And I’ve decided that one thing I’m going to do to make it even more fun is to sell the unwanted stuff at a garage sale at the end of the summer, and give the money away…maybe to Rafiki…maybe to Compassion to buy mosquito nets for children in malaria ridden countries…who knows. Just an incentive to make the purging a little more sweet…

bring it on!

In Defense of My Pick-a-Pile

It has come to my attention that there are some who feel that my previous pick-a-pile posting did not feature anything that constituted a true “pile”. In reviewing said pick-a-pile, I can understand where they are coming from. There were only a few items on the table, after all, and it didn’t take me long to clean it up. However, I would also ask you to bear these facts in mind:

1). There are 3 people who live in this house: 2 adults and one not-yet-mobile child. There really is no excuse for a pile of any size, unless it is of baby toys.

2). Why I feel the need to defend my ability to create piles, I don’t know. Nevertheless, feast your eyes on this horrific pile that was our bedroom at the very same time as the table pictures, approximately 2 weeks ago* – and note that there is no “after” picture! (cue “Psycho” music):

*I should admit that this is what the room looked like after I holed up in it like a sick dog for several days. It’s recovered since then (as have I)…though at present there are a couple of actual piles in there.

Yes, indeed…rest assured that this house regularly contains more than one true pile to be picked. One of these days I’ll pick another one. (Actually, my darling hubby has picked a few really bad piles over the past couple weeks for me…he just didn’t take pictures).

 

Deeper

I’ve lately found myself frustrated that I have nothing even remotely deep or profound to type about in this little blog. I suppose you could call it a “dry spell” of sorts – but I don’t think it’s due to a drought; I think it’s due to a lack of just “stopping to drink” – or feeling able to stop and drink.

Many of my days seem to be filled with a multitude of tasks that, while simple in and of themselves, furiously run together, one after the next, until they fill my day to (and over) capacity: waking the baby, feeding him every 3 hours, changing diapers, doing laundry, folding laundry, putting away laundry, putting baby down for his naps, cleaning at least one room of the house (my goal for each day), washing dishes, working, planning for co-op, trying to stay in touch with friends…all the while trying to ensure that I get the meals that I need, a shower (though blow-drying my hair is optional), and (oh yes!) that I love and pour my life into the beautiful little boy God has entrusted me with.

(and then, of course, nine nights out of ten I find myself – like tonight – sitting in a house with several baskets of laundry yet to be put away, a couch piled with stuff I’d meant to clean up today, a kitchen that is still somehow messy even though I just cleaned it this morning…etc).

What I’m discovering is that, if I’m not careful, I can get so caught up in the flurry of duties that fill my days that I forget why I’m doing them…Who I’m doing them for…until a week goes by and I feel like a hollow shell of a person, performing menial tasks…and I can’t quite remember why!

The truth is, I have one of the most rewarding careers a person could have – but I’m not “self-employed”. I was hired by God. He’s my boss. He’s given me quite a workload, at the moment, but it’s one with a purpose: to glorify Him. To raise a baby to glorify Him. To keep a home so that my husband can have a place where he can relax each night so that he may go back to work the next day glorifying Him. Colossians 3:23 – Whatever you do, do it with all your heart – Unto the Lord, and not unto men.

In fact, no matter what our earthly career is, as Christians we are all “hired” by God, aren’t we.

When I start to forget Who I’m working for…when I inadvertently begin working for no one but myself…this is when that feeling of emptiness hits.

The tasks aren’t going to go away – Heaven knows they need to be done, but maybe if I keep myself reminded of why I’m working, even thanking God for the chance to do it – even as I clean up another poopy diaper or scrape the inside of another dirty cereal bowl – I will find more joy in what I’m doing. Maybe I’ll become just a little bit more of a Mary than a Martha. Maybe this is the key, for one so busy, to ending those “droughts within”.

30 Minutes with the Seavers

Whenever I’m feeling like the house is a mess and I’m in a crunch to get things done, I think of my favorite episode of “Growing Pains” (yes, “Growing Pains”. Hear me out.) It’s the one where they are throwing a fancy party (which Donald Trump is going to be at), and realize that the date on the invitations was misprinted and they have a half an hour to get the party pulled together. Amazingly — they do it!

So this holiday season, if you find yourself stressed out with all that needs to be done around the house with not much time to do it in, do what I do: remember that if the Seavers can do it, so can you (and ignore that voice in the back of your head that keeps saying “It’s just a TV show”…)

A Christmas Message

Thanks to my friend Kim for passing this forward along my way:

 I CORINTHIANS 13 – A CHRISTMAS VERSION

If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love to my family, I’m just another decorator.  If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime, but do not show love to my family, I’m just another cook.

If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home and give all that I have to charity, but do not show love to my family, it profits me nothing. If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties and sing in the choir’s cantata but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.

Love stops the cooking to hug the child.  Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the husband.  Love is kind, though harried and tired.  Love doesn’t envy another’s home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens. Love doesn’t yell at the kids to get out of the way, but is thankful they are there to be in the way.  Love doesn’t give only to those who are able to give in return but rejoices in giving to those who can’t.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never fails.  Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust, but giving the gift of love will endure.

Merry Christmas and lots of love to you and yours!

Choup Recipe

It’s been requested that I post the choup recipe, so here it is! I doubled it & got a good 10 good sized servings out of it. So we still have 4 more choup meals in the freezer!

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Rachael Ray’s Creamy Harvest Corn Choup

Ingredients:

-2 TB Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

-4 slices bacon, chopped

-1 onion, chopped

-1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped

-1 lb small potatoes, cut into small chunks

-1 10 oz bag frozen corn

-1 med or 2 small zucchini, finely chopped [I couldn’t find any zucchini at the store – is it out of season or something?]

– 5-6 sprigs thyme [I cheated & just used the seasoning :)]

-1 bay leaf

-1 tsp paprika

-3 TB flour

-1 32 oz container (4 cups) chicken broth

-1 c milk

-1 c heavy cream

1/2 c chopped flat-leaf parsley

Salt & Pepper

DIRECTIONS:

In a med soup pot, heat the EVOO, 2 turns of the pan, over med-high heat. Add bacon & cook til crisp at the edges. Add the onion and pepper and cook til softened, about 4 min. Add potatoes, corn, zucchini, thyme, bay leaf and paprika and cook for 4 min. Sprinkle the flour into the pot, stir & cook for 1 min. Gradually stir in the broth & simmer until thickened a bit. Stir in milk, cream & parsley and simmer til potatoes are tender, about 8 min. Season w/ salt & pepper and enjoy!

Snow Days, Coffee and Choup

Well, in spite of the fact that my performance last night at Northwestern had to be canceled (to be rescheduled), it was a good weekend. Aren’t snow days fun? We stayed inside (well, except for my wonderful husband who snow blowed the driveway), I made poppy seed chicken (our favorite dinner), did a bit of Christmas decorating, played with Will, and watched “The Nativity Story” (good movie!). I loved it. There’s something so fun and (ironically) “freeing” about being snowed in – it frees you to simply stay home and not feel compelled or obligated to go anywhere. I think more days should be snow days (if not in reality, then in the heart! :)).

The middle of the night, however, was rather odd, as both Mark & I awoke to a rhythmic “thump…thump…thump….” sound – the source of which was (and still is) a mystery! We spend a good half hour in the middle of the night trying to determine it’s origins. First it sounded like it was coming from the garage…nope. Outside? Nope. The furnace? Nada. The attic? Don’t think so. Hmmm. So – we’ve determined that our house must be haunted.

Anyway, today was great too. Will & I started off the day meeting my friend Kelly and her adorable baby Caleb for coffee. It was especially fun, since the last time Kelly & I met for coffee, we were both sporting large pregnant tummies! We then met Mark at church, followed by spending another day cozied in at home, where I made “Creamy Harvest Corn Choup” (a Rachael Ray recipe that is SOOOOO yummy and wintry wonderful. It also freezes well!). The only problem with the recipe (aside from the fact that I had to make 2 trips to the grocery store today to collect all the ingredients – I missed a key ingredient the first trip) is that it requires a lot of chopping (a red pepper, red potatoes, an onion, parsley…)- and I am NOT a very good chopper. I just have trouble chopping things evenly. My red pepper ended up virtually mushed,  the onion chunks were just way too big, and the parsley…well, there are a few sprigs in the choup (I used my food chopper, thought it was chopped, put it in the choup, and then…oops. Not as chopped as I thought!). Anyone have any tips?

Yes, it was a good weekend…here’s hoping for lots of snow days this winter!!!