Shopping & Planning Meals - Part 4

Monthly Menus

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!  Between Christmas and sick children, I have not been able to write lately.  I pray that I can pick up where I left off!!

In Shopping & Planning Meals Parts 2 & 3, I wrote about making your meal rotation and making your check-off grocery list.  Today, I want to guide you in a monthly menu using the meal rotation. 

My Monthly Menu

I know a monthly menu may seem completely outrageous, but it serves many purposes.  At the end of each month, I look at my meal rotation and plan out the menu for the next month.  Now, the meal rotation is strictly for supper, but in my monthly menu, I plan for breakfast and lunch as well as supper for the entire month.  The purposes for the monthly menu are:

1. Shopping Organization:  When planning my grocery list, I look at the meal rotation to quickly check off the ingredients needed for supper.  But for breakfast and lunch, I look at the menu for the week and skim through the pantry for what items are needed.  I don't have to sit down and plan these meals out once the montly menu is complete.
2. Couponing/Watching Sales: The montly menu helps me to look for items that are on sale.  Even if I don't need an item for that particular week, but it's on sale and/or I have a coupon for it, I might as well purchase it to use later in the month. (This will be discussed in Part 5.)
3. Sanity Purposes: Amist homeschooling and daily cleaning, sometimes breakfasts/lunches sneak up on me.  It saves a lot of time to quickly check my menu, which is clipped to the fridge, and there is no thinking involved. The meal is already planned and I have everything needed.
4. Curious Family Members: Sometimes, my girls and my husband will ask when we are having a certain meal.  If it falls in the monthy menu, they have something to look forward to!

Now, I start by setting up a blank calendar in Microsoft word.  For each day, I list B, L, S (Breakfast, Lunch, Supper).  I start with breakfast.  My breakfast choices are also on a rotation, but I have a lot less options.  We alternate cereal, pancakes, and oatmeal throughout the week.  On Sundays we have cinnamon rolls.  So, to keep it simple, from month to month, I leave cinnamon rolls on my menu for every Sunday, no need to retype.

After the breakfast portion is complete, I work on the lunch menu.  I constructed a list of meals my children like to eat for lunches, just like I did for supper on Part 1.  However, like the breakfasts, I do not have as many to rotate.  For lunches, I simply keep a list of what we have and alternate them throughout the menu. 

Finally, I type in what's for supper.  I use my meal rotation (Part 2) for this.  I look at the week in my meal rotation that I left off on from the prior month and pick up there with the current month.  I type in what's for supper for each week on the calendar of my monthly menu.

Once you make your menu and use it a little while, you may decide to change things to suit your family.  For instance, after a few months of using mine, I noticed I was planning and shopping for Sunday lunches but never cooked them.  This was because we usually eat out after church on Sunday.  So, I started leaving Sunday lunch blank.  I didn't want to plan/buy extra if I didn't have to.

Again, if there are any questions or suggestions that you have, please feel free to comment.  I would love to attach these documents to my blog for your use.  However, I am a newbie to the blogging world and am not sure how to do this.  If anyone knows, please share with me.  For now, all I can do is describe how I construct them and share pictures with you. 

Here is a close-up of a few days from the menu:


Close-Up of my Montly Menu


Thanks for reading!  May the Lord strengthen us as a wives and mothers!

O Come, O Come Immanuel!

Merry Christmas!

My husband and I with our little "Gingerbread Girls"!

I hope you and your family are having a wonderful Christmas season!  I have a couple  more posts to write regarding Shopping and Meal Planning, but with all the business, I will be writing after Christmas.

I wanted to share something my husband and I have done for Christmas this year.  I wanted my kids to understand that even through all the  commercialism that they see and hear, we celebrate for a completely different reason.  We used an Advent Calendar this year with scripture. I visit a blog written by the name of Erica frequently for homeschooling purposes.  It is a wonderful resource by the way!  Click the red link below to view her blog.

Confessions of a Homeschooler

While looking, I found her advent calendar (click to the right): Erica's Advent Calendar

I used the numbered triangles that she provided, but instead of the activities on the back, I wrote my own verses.  Each night we gather in the living room and read the night's scripture(s).  When compiling these scriptures, I wanted to start with prophecies of the birth of Jesus.  I wanted the girls to see how the birth was foretold long before He walked the earth.  I used verses out of Isaiah.  I thought I would share these with you.  Even though it may be too late to use this year, you could make them to put up for next year.  Hope you enjoy!

Day 1: Isaiah 7:14-16

Day 2: Isaiah 8:14-15

Day 3: Isaiah 9:6-7

Day 4: Isaiah 11:1-2

Day 5: Isaiah 22:22

Day 6: Isaiah 28:16

Day 7: Isaiah 53:1-3

Day 8: Isaiah 53:4-6

Day 9: Isaiah 53:7-9

Day 10: Isaiah 53:10-12

Day 11: Luke 1:26-38

Day 12: Luke 1:39-45

Day 13: Luke 1:46-56

Day 14: Matthew 1:18-24

Day 15: Luke 2:1-5

Day 16: Luke 2:6-7, Matthew 1:25

Day 17: Luke 2:8-20

Day 18: Luke 2:21

Day 19: Luke 2:22-24

Day 20: Luke 2:25-38

Day 21: Matthew 2:1-12

Day 22: Matthew 2:13-15

Day 23: Matthew 2:16-18

Day 24: Matthew 2:19-23, Revelation 22:20

Merry Christmas everyone!

Shopping & Planning Meals - Part 3

Making the "Check-Off" Grocery List



My mom (right) and I (left) at the baby shower of my first daughter.

Growing up, I thought my mom was way too organized.  You should have seen her planning this baby shower!  As a young adult, I remember teasing her for typing her grocery list.  Mom, I'm becoming more and more like you every day.  Typing that grocery list was a fantastic idea!

In this post, I want to share with you how I became organized enough to have my own typed grocery list.  I tell you the truth, people actually walk by me in the store and ask, "Is that your grocery list?"  A little embarassing at first, by now I'm like, "Why, yes it is!"  So, now that I have you wanting to be 'that lady' in the store, let me tell you how ; )

If you are like me and have minimal time for planning grocery trips, you have to do it the quickest way possible.  I thought it would be time-efficient to be able to check-off the items I needed as I planned rather than write my list down.  I also thought it would be a time-saver once in the grocery store if I had my list separated by aisles.  So...this is what I tag along with me on each trip:

Again, I used Microsoft Word and made a table with four columns.  I started by listing the various 'aisle names' in the order I shop them.  For instance, I start shopping in the back at the snack and refridgerated sections, so I listed them first.  Next, I head over to the drink aisle, and so on.

Once I set up my 'aisle names', I needed to start listing my items into the columns.  I took my menu rotation (Part 2) out and started with week 1.  I started adding items to the grocery list from my list of ingredients on the menu rotation.  This is really very simple because, as you will notice, a lot of the ingredients repeat throughout the rotation.  Continue this until you reach the last week of your rotation.

If you notice on my list, I listed non-food items that I also need on a weekly to monthly basis.  I listed these under 'Cleaning Products' and 'Paper Products'.  I should probably go in and add a section for 'Body Care' as well.  I also kept an open spot labeled 'Other' to write in items that aren't needed regularly.

When you get your list completed, save it to your computer.  Then all you will have to do is print it and check off what's needed to plan your shopping trip.  I keep this with my menu rotation in my shopping binder that I take with me to the store. 

Again, I hope this helps to lighten your load and enjoy providing for your family!  Once the work is done, it makes your grocery planning run more smoothly. 

Shopping & Planning Meals - Part 2

Making the "Meal Rotation"

Ok, so you have your list of meals (from Part 1), now what??  In this post I will tell you how I took my lists of meals and turned them into a "menu rotation", as I like to refer to it. 

You will need to get your list of meals and all of your recipes in hand to complete this.  The next step is assigning the meals into a spot in the rotation.  The first time I made my rotation, I just went down my list and put two meals per week (again you may be cooking more than twice a week).  Since then, I have made several adjustments to my rotation and have learned a few pointers that could save you time.  Here are a couple of things to keep in mind when assigning meals to the rotation:

• Group Meals with "Like" Ingredients - When assigning meals into the rotation, group meals with like ingredients in the same week.  I cannot tell you the number of times I have had food spoil because I wasn't able to use all of it.  But if you are planning meals with like-ingredients, this is less likely to happen.  For instance, if you have two recipes, and one calls for 1 cup of sour cream and another calls for 1/2 cup sour cream, you can pair these two recipes together in one week.  You can buy one tub of sour cream to save money and keep from spoiling the sour cream.


Group Meals by the Number of Ingredients - The second thing I have learned is to group recipes by the number of ingredients.  If you are trying to save money at the grocery store, you want to be sure to buy less each shopping trip.  Right?  One way of saving money each shopping trip is by not having recipes with a lot of ingredients in the same week.  Try grouping a recipe with many ingredients with a recipe that doesn't call for a lot of ingredients as opposed to two recipes with numerous ingredients in one week.  As mentioned in Part 1, I do try to avoid recipes with a lot of ingredients, but let's face it, some of them are just too irresistable. 



Week 15 of my Menu Rotation



Once you have your meals organized and assigned into weeks, you will need your recipes.  In the picture above, you should be able to see I have listed my ingredients for each of the meals I have planned.  This makes planning my shopping trip a whole lot easier, because I do not have to flip through my recipes to find what I need to put on my list.  While I am listing my ingredients, I go ahead and put the amount that I need to make planning even more easier.

Some of you may be looking at my menu rotation and wondering what do we do on the weekends.  I found out on the weekends, that either, (1) we had food left over from the week that we needed to eat or it would spoil, (2) we wanted to eat out, or (3) we do something spontaneous and head out of town.  So, for the weekends, I typically keep ingredients on hand needed for quick meals, such as, sandwiches.  Planning for the weekends may help you to be even more organized.  If so, plan meals to cook on the weekends and add these to your rotation as well!

I constructed this table in Microsoft Word and started typing my menus in.  I developed 15 weeks of meals.  Ideally, I rotate these meals around every 15 weeks.  However, things do come up.  There are weeks that my husband and I realize that our freezer is overflowing and we need to eat what we have in the freezer.  Or, we have someone visiting and I would prefer to cook a "more-impressive" meal (wink, wink).  The majority of the time, I use my menu rotation as planned. 

These menus have cut out a huge amount of chaos from running my household.  I pray that it helps lighten your load as well and you enjoy providing delicious food for the blessings God has given you!

"She also rises while it is yet night, And provides food for her household..." Proverbs 31:15


If you have a question about anything that I have written, feel free to leave a comment!  I will be happy to answer!

Shopping & Planning Meals - Part 1

WHAT'S FOR SUPPER?

When I was working, I found it extremely frustrating to get off of work and have to plan for supper.  Most of the time, I ended up calling my husband for ideas.  Typically, he'd say, "It doesn't matter, whatever you want."  I am a very indecisive person.  A characteristic that I love about my husband is he can usually make quick decisions.  I tend to lean on him to help me.  However, with this response, I was left to think it through myself.  I would come up with idea after idea, and most of the time, I didn't have all the ingredients for the meal or didn't have enough time to cook it.  Those of you who have been in this situation know what I'm talking about.

I decided to get organized!  The next several posts I will share with you how I did it.  I'm hoping you can adapt it to a way that works for you. 

I had heard about women having meal rotations and menus, and I thought, "Wow, that isn't OCD at all..." (tad bit of sarcasm).  I soon found out how wonderful and helpful they are!  Today's post is to begin instructing you on how I planned my meals and menus.

The first thing that has to be done is making a list of meals.  I sat down and made a list of all of our favorites meals.  I decided I wanted to have a 10-15 week rotation of meals that I would rotate throughout the year.  I also wanted to plan enough to have leftovers so I didn't have to cook every night.  For me, coming up with two big meals during a Monday-Friday week was ideal.  We eat leftovers every night after I cook a meal.  Therefore, I needed 2 meals per week times 15 weeks = 30 different meals/recipes.  You may decide on cooking more often.  When I initially sat down to make my list I probably only wrote down about 8-10 meals off the top of my head.  Keeping in mind that 'the way to a man's heart is through is stomach', I decided to ask my husband things he would like me to cook.  With his suggestions, I was able to complete about two-thirds of my list.  For the remaining meals, I looked online at various websites for yummy (looking) recipes. 

Throughout this scavenger-hunt of recipes, I kept in mind some helpful tips.  I hope these help fellow moms and busy women:

1.  Think about prep time! If you are like me and have a house to maintain and kids to love on, spending more than an hour on supper is near impossible.  I always look at the prep time on a recipe.  I have found that the prep time on a recipe and the actual prep time at my house are completely different.  So, you may need to plan for extra time to prepare the meal.

2.  Look for Minimal Ingredients! When looking at recipes, I tend to choose ones that have minimal ingredients.  This saves time, but more importantly, it saves money at the grocery store.  I believe as wives, we should seek out every opportunity to save the income of our household.  (This will be discussed in an upcoming post as well.)

3.  Make Your Husband Smile!  I enjoy when my husband comes home from work and says, "Ohhh, Momma!  Something smells goooooood!"  I enjoy it even more when he takes a peak and steals a bite and says, "Momma, that's good!"  So, when deciding meals to put in the rotation, I will ask him for suggestions.  Make him excited to get home and find out what's in the pot for supper!

4.  Keep the Kiddos in Mind!  There is a reason I listed this one last.  Although I love my children dearly, I do not let them be the determining factor in making the meal rotation.  If I did, it would read, 'macaroni and cheese, pizza, chicken nuggets', you know where I'm going with this.  While I like to have their approval on the meal as well, I believe it is important for my children to try new foods.  We have two rules at our house (Mommy ordained), #1 - You are not allowed to come to the table and say 'yuck!'.  #2 - You have to try the food, if you don't like it you don't have to eat it.  I tell them that when I was a kid there were new foods that I refused to try.  Because I did, I missed out on delicious foods.  As an adult, I have tasted them and realize they are wonderful!  By telling them this, I have found they usually try it with an open mind.  I do try to plan a side item that they will like in case they truly do not like the main dish.

I hope this has motivated you to begin planning a meal rotation.  I cannot tell you how much of a help and relief it has been.  This is nowhere near the end of the meal planning.  But it's a start! 

In my next post, I will explain how to take your list of meals and make the actual rotation/menu. 

Why We Homeschool

Let me start by saying this, I do not judge families for choosing public schools or for not homeschooling.  I was in the public school system a long time.  I sent my first child to public school.  I understand there are families that cannot rely on one income.  I also know there are mothers that enjoy working.  There was a time I would never have thought of homeschooling.  What made us change our minds?

Around two years ago, I was teaching third grade, and I was home on Christmas vacation.  My break was drawing to an end and I dreaded going back.  I dreaded being away from my children.  I dreaded the long days of work.  I dreaded only being able to spend 4-5 hours a day with my children.  I dreaded knowing that my children were going back to practically being raised by someone else.  I dreaded knowing that I would be coming home exhausted and still had to cook, clean, and muster any energy that was left to play with the children.  But, inevitably, I knew those days were coming again. 

One night after putting the girls to bed I told my husband through tears, and not for the first time, that I wanted to stay home.  I didn't care what we had to do, I wanted to stay home.  If we had to downsize our home, or sell a vehicle, or live on dried beans until the children were grown, I was willing to do it.  I wanted to be the one to train my children.

"Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6

I desperately want my children to know the Lord.  I want them to crave His word.  I want them to seek His face and beg for mercy.  I knew that I could not train my children up in the Lord and teach them His ways only spending 4-5 hours a day with them.  And actually, this time was really just spent at home, not with them.  I had clothes to fold, dishes to wash, food to cook, and baths to give.  God laid it on my heart that I should be with them.  I shouldn't be a stay-at-home wife who keeps the house clean while the kids are at school for the day.  He let me know that I should be the one training them...every day...all day.

The more my husband and I discussed it, the more questions we had about homeschooling.  The most obvious question we had is still the question that gets asked to us by most people: What about the social aspect of our children's lives?  At the beginning, I was very concerned about this.  Would my children really grow up without a prom? Or homecoming? Or school sports?  I was still determined to stay home with my children, but I was actually very sad for them.  Then one day while reading other homeschooling blogs, I came across a lady (sorry, I have no idea who to give credit to for this one because I have looked at so many!!) who really said something that spoke to me.  She said people asked her a lot if she was worried about her kids socializing.  She explained that the type of socializing her kids would receive in public school is exactly what she was trying to avoid.  I don't want my children to be hermit crabs that are kept inside, but at the same time, I want their beliefs and faith to be based on truth, not what they learn or hear from others.  I want them to understand the importance of family.  I want them to appreciate the relationships that are developed within the family.  I laugh to myself because there is not a day that goes by that I do not hear an argument (or two, or three) between my oldest two girls.  One of them won't be the prince, or one of them has the other one's toy, or one of them is being a copy-cat.  But I find that I have the advantage to stop and teach them how to handle these situations according to what the Bible says.  We have joined a homeschooling group, but have yet to do anything with them.  We are still so busy.  Between soccer, holidays, family events, family outings, Bible studies in which the kids all get together as well, we are extremely busy!  Our children receive plenty of socializing, but it's 'monitored socializing' (I wonder if I should coin that phrase??)

I hope I answered the question of why our family chooses to homeschool.  First and foremost, we want our children to be trained in the ways of the Lord.  I love teaching them.  I absolutely love it.  I am able to use what I have done for so many years to teach my children what I know is important.  I am not stressed.  I am not as tired.  I did, however, have dreams of having this spectacular, spotless house to go along with the homeschooling thing, but I'm still working on that ; )

So it begins!

Welcome to Admonishing Others!  First, let me tell you a little about myself.  My name is Casondra.  I am a wife to a wonderful husband of 7 years.  We have three beautiful girls, ages 5, 3, and 7 months.  I taught public school for 8 years, but, after having our youngest child in April of 2012, and after much prayer, we made the decision for me to stay home.  We also decided to begin homeschooling.  Life can be hectic, but I wouldn't trade it for anything!  Some days I start off knowing exactly what I need to get done in our home, then by the end of the day, the house is worse off than when I started.  Just another day!

I got the idea for this blog while in the kitchen at the sink washing dishes.  I have actually always wanted to begin a blog, but I was unsure how to start it, what to say, and never really had a purpose.  But on this day, the idea came to my head again, but this time, attached with a verse. 

Titus 2:3-5, "the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things - that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed."

Now, my first thought was, "I am not an older woman!"  Then God, ever so kindly, reminded me of a night only about a week ago.  I was at a friend's house for our first "Girls Game Night".  After a half-hour, or more, of debate on which game to play and a little conversation, we decided to play Pictionary.  The hostess also decided that we would have two teams.  Team One - "The Youngies", and Team Two - "The Oldies"...I fell in the latter.  I immediately asked, "The Oldies??"  To which she replied, "Well, you are the oldest one here."  Now, honestly, that was the first time I had ever been the oldest one at a gathering.  I was in shock!  But, it didn't change the fact that I was the oldest lady there.  So, standing there at the kitchen sink, I laughed to myself deciding that I was, in fact, slightly qualified as an 'older woman'.

Then the attacks came from the enemy.  I began to question myself and ask if this was really what God wanted.  I don't always have the best grammar, being raised in the south may have a little to do with that.   I am also not a phenomenal writer.  What if people do not care what I have to say?  Doesn't that sound like the same thing Moses had to say to God in Exodus Chapter 4?  God had instructed Moses to go to Pharoah and bring His people, the children of Isreal, out of the land of Egypt (Chapter 3).  Beginning in 4:1, Moses responds with,

"...But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, 'The Lord has not appeared to you.'" 

Then again in 4:10,

"...O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue." 

The Lord answered Moses' questions (v.11),

"...Who has made man's mouth?  Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind?  Have not I, the Lord?  Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say."

Wow, yea, I know...so, I know what I have to do.  I will be writing on exactly what Titus 2:3-5 instructs.  I want to share not only what I have experienced along the way, but also what others have shared with me throughout my rather short time as a wife, mother, homeschooler, and homemaker.  I am in no way an expert on these things.  This is why I had doubts about writing this.  If you saw my house at the moment you would probably quit reading this or type me a comment instructing me to go clean.  However, I feel like God has shown me some valuable ways of keeping the sanity in my busy house of five and showing love to those in it.

My prayer is that God will use these words to encourage you as a mother, wife, homemaker, or homeschooler to serve Him continually.  I also pray that through this, He will continue to mold me to be the woman He describes in Titus Chapter 2.  I ask for your prayers as I begin this journey.