Can You Really Plan a Month of Meals?

Would you get excited if I told you that you could pull together a grocery list in just a few minutes each week? Would you breathe a sigh of relief if you knew what was for dinner every single night for an entire month? Do you think it's impossible?

Monthly meal planning may sound completely overwhelming, but it's easier than you think.  I used to think I could never pull it off, but I'm on my third month now, and I love it.   My time is very limited, and having a long-term plan makes the weekly chore of shopping so much less stressful.  It also give me more time to coupon and work around sales to get the best deas.  It takes some extra time up front, but the time it saves every week and every month is worth it. Ready to try it?

1. Make a list of all the meals your family already likes and eats regularly. There are probably a lot more than you think!

2. Pull out cookbooks, magazines, and recipe files. Flip through them for recipes you've forgotten or always wanted to try. Add your finds to your favorites list, and start a second list of new recipes to try.

3. There are probably a few meals you can make a double batch of, then serve leftovers. For instance, you can use shredded leftover chicken for enchiladas, nachos, soup and more. Meatballs from spaghetti night can go into sub sandwiches. Extra soup or chili can be frozen for later. Take advantage of bulk cooking.

4. Plan around your schedule. Do you work late one night a week? Put dinner in the crockpot before you leave in the morning. Do you have extra time to cook another night? Plan a more complicated meal for that night.

5. Consider creating a theme for each night - for instance, Monday: crockpot, Tuesday: Mexican, Wednesday: chicken.  This might make it easier to plan, especially when you're just starting out.

6 Use a printable calendar, like the ones available at Organized Home, and start filling in your meal plan.  Be sure to include a couple of nights each month to try new recipes.

The first month will involve a little trial and error.  By the second month, you'll find yourself getting things together much better.  Once you get the ideal meal plan down, you can copy it month after month, making adjustments for holidays, changing seasons, etc.

If you need more ideas for recipes, check out my Pinterest Recipe board for some of my favorites.  For a super-easy start, try crockpot Italian chicken, a new addition to our family's "favorites" list.

My Biggest Challenge? Me

I'm a chicken. There, I said it. That's the biggest challenge I'm facing in chasing my God-sized dream of writing. I'm going into this dream scared absolutely out of my mind and doubting myself a lot. I am my own biggest obstacle in this thing.

A few months ago, when all this crazy dreaming started, I looked up a link-up that I remembered from a few years ago - The Red Dress Club. (Now its called Write On Edge.) Each week, they post a prompt, and you have a maximum of 500 words to tell a story based on that prompt. That very first week, the prompt reached out and grabbed me. It was perfect for the ideas I'd been toying with for so long. I spent two days working on my piece, agonizing over every word. Then, finally, I posted it to my blog, using a pen name because I was so afraid it would be bad, I didn't want my real name on it.

When my phone dinged with the first comment, I seriously thought I might throw up. I stood in the middle of Walmart, gripping my phone and shaking. Turns out, the first comment was good. So was the second. So were the others. There were also suggestions for things I could do better, but overall the feedback I got was very encouraging. (You can read that very first post here: Bought.   Just so you know, there's not much on this blog because I moved to Wordpress shortly after starting it.)

That was several months ago, and not much has changed. This huge dream still terrifies me. I still doubt myself every single day. I'm still terrified every time I finish a post and hit "publish." I'm still afraid of what people will think when they read it - I mean, let's face it, there's a pretty big dichotomy between writing a faith-based, working mom blog and writing about fictional detectives and serial killers.

I still wonder if this dream can become a reality. I still wonder if I can really see my books in print one day. I think of all the fantastic authors out there, all the great books I've read, and I wonder, "What am I thinking? There's no way I can write like that."

Then I remember the truth: this isn't my dream - it's His. It's a God-sized dream. It's something a whole lot bigger than me, from Someone a whole lot bigger than me. It's a dream that's been whispered to my heart for a very long time. I spent years thinking, "I wish I could do this," until God told me "It's time." He spoke to me, clear and strong, and confirmed it through more than one person. So I'm going to keep dreaming. Is it crazy? Yes. It's the craziest thing I've ever done. But I believe, deep down in my heart, that if God called me to this crazy dream, He's going to do things I could never do on my own.

 

Spinning

This weekend brought another crazy Saturday.  I sat on my couch after my morning quiet time, my head spinning as I thought of everything I had to do - grocery shopping, cleaning, laundry, college work, studying, writing, finishing my children's church lesson.  By 7:30 a.m. I was already overwhelmed!

Then I decided to finally read the email I'd been saving - Ann Voskamp's blog posts from the week, the ones I hadn't had time to read during the craziness of college classes and work and washing towels and cooking dinner.  And I found her wonderful "Sanity Manifesto."  I felt a little sanity creeping in just reading her post.  It was exactly what this stressed out, about-to-graduate momma needed.  If you haven't read this - go read it now.  Are you incorporating any of these ideas into your routine?

On a side note - your prayers would be appreciated.  This semester is intense as I balance school, seeing patients, work, family, home, church, and studying for national boards.  It's a lot to juggle - but on May 10, it's all going to pay off.

Small Steps = Big Progress

Chasing a God-sized dream is a scary thing!  I've discovered that over and over since I started chasing mine, first with dental hygiene school, and now with writing.  I find myself facing emotions ranging from excitement to doubt to outright terror.  I found this on Pinterest a few days ago.  It sums up what I feel perfectly - I'm scared to death!

This week, I've taken a couple of small steps toward my goal.  The first is just writing.  I've written some blog posts and put a total of about six hundred words into my big project, as well as doing some polishing on the first few chapters.  Step two is getting my first two chapters ready to go to my critique group.  This small group of ladies (along with with my amazing friend and editor, who is getting a slightly larger piece of the story) will the be the first people to read anything more than just snippets of my writing.

How do I feel about this whole process?  I'm so terrified at the thought of it I can hardly breathe.  I feel sick.  My head is spinning.  Ummm...I think I may need to get over this if I really want to write.  One step at a time...

Right Where You're At

It's the first day of a new semester - my last semester of dental hygiene school.  I should be feeling pretty good, but I'm not.  Balance is nowhere in sight for me right now.  I'm still playing catch up from Christmas, an out-of-state funeral, and a three day conference.  I'm reeling from the past two weeks, and I'm starting the semester (again) exactly where I said I wouldn't - exhausted, teary-eyed and overwhelmed. 

So what do you do when you're already drowning?  You start right where you are.  For me that means:

• Better food (and restarting My Fitness Pal)
• Small steps toward fitness (the #planksalot challenge and walking/running 2-3 days a week)
• Using a schedule for household chores (to be shared by the entire family)
• Planning better (for children's church, meals, school, etc.)

I may not be able to control what happens in life, but I can control how I respond to it and how prepared I am for it.  Want to join me?  Leave a comment telling me how you're starting to change things right where you're at.

Dreamer

I was born a dreamer - a kid with my head in the clouds and a huge imagination, dreaming of a world of adventure that was always just around the corner. I spent hours imagining every detail of how things would turn out. For a while, I would see myself as an archaeologist...then a teacher...then a vet...but under it all, never wavering, ran one dream - writing. Whatever else I saw myself doing, in my mind, I was always writing about it.

As it so often goes in life, though, I grew up and my dreams changed. I started college, met the love of my life, and lived my fairy tale - love, marriage, and motherhood. As my boys started to grow up, I chased a new dream, one which will be complete in May when I graduate as a registered dental hygienist. I dream of a great career, financial stability, and the chance to make a difference through medical missions trips. But buried beneath it all, pushed aside and covered in dust, the same dream hid - writing.

I dabbled with it for years, satisfying the need to write with journaling and blogging. A year ago, things started getting more serious, more focused. As I drew closer to God, He slowly began to reveal His big dreams for me...and to my surprise and joy, He dusted off that long abandoned dream of writing...to be more specific, writing fiction.

The first few steps were so terrifying it took my breath away. Panic almost overwhelmed me as I posted my first fiction link-up, under a pen name, to Write On Edge - and shock silenced me as good reviews and feedback came in. So I posted again...and again...and suddenly, a whole new side of me was materializing. Characters and ideas that I'd dreamed of for years suddenly started coming alive on my laptop screen. I found myself talking to other writers online, getting feedback, and even joining a critique group.

In just a few months, this dream has become such a part of me that I know there's no going back. My dream of writing has become firmly planted in my mind. It's no longer just a general, random dream - it has a title, characters that I've been planning for years finally coming to life, twists and turns and subplots. It even has sequels - I have more ideas following the same characters.

This is, without a doubt, the most terrifying thing I have ever done. I can't count the times I've figured out just the right wording, written an intense scene, or poured my heart and soul into a piece, then looked up and silently asked, "Are you sure about this?" And He said yes. He's given me God-sized dreams, and I'm going to follow them with everything I have - because that's what He made me for.

 

Dreaming Big for the New Year

Although it's not getting off to quite the start I expected, I'm so excited about the new year!  I love the fresh start and the clean slate of a new year.  I'm preparing to start a new Bible study (with the new Hello Mornings challenge starting later this month).  I'm writing the first words in my new journal for the year.  I'm looking forward to launching a new career after I graduate in May.  (Just four more months...not that anyone's counting the days.)

Over the last year, as I drew closer to God, He spoke to me about dreams.  He planted big dreams - God-sized dreams - in my heart, and He reawakened dreams that I had long ago let die.  As I've prayed for direction and conformation, He has sent it.  Although these dreams sometimes leaving me shaking in my boots, I know I'm headed in the right direction, and I'm excited about working toward those goals this year.

Last year, I set my first one word resolution for the year - finish.  This year, I did it again.  My word for 2013:

On Monday, I'll share on Must Love God about why I chose "reckless" as my resolution for the year.  It's fits perfectly with the dreams God has planted in my heart, though.

However, as I mentioned, this year hasn't started quite like I expected.  On Sunday night, my husband's precious 86 year old grandmother went home to be with Jesus.  As soon the funeral ends, I have to make a long drive to Dallas for a three-day review for the Dental Hygiene National Boards.  Its going to be a long week for all of us, and your prayers would be appreciated.