Dork Alert

In an effort to streamline as many things as possible before I go back to work full-time, I decided to revamp the way I do dinner at our house.

I'll go ahead and warn you that if you don't already think I'm a dork (unlikely), you will after this.

Here are the steps I took to create our new meal plan:

1. Assign a category to each weeknight--for example, every Monday is Mexican/Chinese night, Tuesdays are sandwich nights, etc.  One night every week is for leftovers/storebought pre-made meals.

2. Select four meals in each category--4 sandwiches we like to eat, 4 crockpot meals, etc.


3. Write out full ingredient lists for each meal--ultimately, this helped me with the grocery lists.



4. Write each meal on a square of paper and arrange in a grid--the purpose of this was so I could organize the grid so that ingredients overlapped to avoid buying green peppers two weeks in a row but only using half the pepper each week.  And to avoid doing meatball subs the same week as spaghetti.

This is the step where I lost Brandon.  He was almost ashamed of my dorkiness.

5. Use the grid and the ingredient lists to create a grocery list for each week.

6. Sort the grocery list by section of the store--produce first, meat next, etc. so items are in the order that I come to them as I shop.

7. Each week, print the week's shopping list--cross off items already in pantry/fridge. Add items like breakfast foods or deodorant.

8. Pray it works.

So the idea is that I have a month of meals we can cycle through, with prepared grocery lists to limit the 3-times-a-week, "Oh crap, I forgot ____," trips to the store.  Those trips always cost more time and money than anticipated. 

We have been trying it out for 2 weeks now, and I've found a few kinks in the system (sides I forgot to put on the list, Brandon's constant cravings for Mexican food, etc), but overall it's working great!  I know I'll have to revamp it when we get sick of the same 4 weeks, but for now we're set!

In related news (preparing to go back to work), I took C to my school one day last week so that when I start saying, "Mommy's going to work," all the time, she'll know where it is that I really am.  I also wanted to get my bulletin boards done.  This was C's idea of helping:

lying ON the bulletin board paper in my classroom.

Also, while I went to a workshop last week, Carson had her very first day at day care.  It was a tough but necessary day.  There were 2 parts that sucked.  The first was dropping her off, which I knew would suck.  Thankfully, Brandon was able to come too, but unfortunately we got there before her teacher had arrived.  So we had to hand her off to the director and did not get a chance to talk to her teacher and help C get acclimated to the classroom. The control-freak in me found this unsettling.  What if the director forgets to tell her about C's allergies?  What if they put her in the wrong classroom? You know how the 'what ifs' go--no logic, just worry. 

When we left, she did the pitiful cry--not the dramatic or angry or 'maybe this will get me what I want' cry--but the bottom lip out to here, you just broke my heart cry.  So I guess it was good the departure was quick like taking off a band-aid.

The second sucky part was, when I came to get her, she was standing in the classroom by herself, straight-faced, 5 feet from all the other kids playing together. Just watching them.  My heart fell.

BUT I had to remind myself that that's her personality, exactly.  She is an observer.  She is stoic and reserved until she gets a good feel for a situation.  She will watch until she is comfortable, and then she will be REALLY comfortable.

As soon as I walked in the room, her face lit up and she wanted to show me all the things she had played with.  She was even reluctant to leave when I told her it was time to go.  Phew!

Here she is in the morning before her first day of "school."  I swear, I did not ask her to pose for that second shot.  She did it totally on her own.  What a ham!!!