It's been a very good couple of weeks here for me in bloggy land. First I hit 100 followers. And today I woke up to find that Books and Bairns has been nominated in two categories in the Homeschool Blog Awards. Look for this blog under the headings for Best Homeschool Mom Blog and Best Variety. Once again, I have one of those smiles that even a stinky, baled-up soccer sock found under the couch (true story) can't faze.
Please take the time to check out the many wonderful nominees. Some of my faves are already listed, and I'm sure that I'm going to fall in love with some of the ones I haven't checked out until now as well. These awards give you a fabulous way to meet some new homeschooling friends ... right there in your computer.
I'll read anything. O.k., just about anything. Really, there are frightfully few books that I won't take a stab at. I love reading, I read quickly, and I am interested in oh, just about everything.
Case in point: two years ago I went on a huge polio kick. You know--polio? Disease that crippled and killed millions of children in the 50s? Yeah--that polio! Anyhow, I suddenly became outrageously (and annoyingly) interested in the socio-political aspects of the polio epidemic. How did it impact people's daily interaction with one another? What was it like growing up in a climate of fear as a child? How did mothers cope with the threat? What did local authorities do to keep potential hysteria in check? What went on behind the scenes on the nation's political stage? Who were the movers and the shakers?
This is the crazy stuff that I think about, people. And then, after I think about it, I hit my library, and I come home with loads and loads of reading material. I read and I digest. When I finally feel like I've gotten a handle on it, I can set the topic aside and move on.
It's kind of boring being me, as you can tell. :-)
This is the kind of random rabbit trail thought process that brought the Duggars book, "20 and Counting" to my bedside table. I was at my grandparent's house recently, where I had unfettered access to television for the first time in eons. One of the programs that my grandmother likes to watch is the TLC program on the Duggar family. Why?
"They talk about the Lord like it's o.k. to mention Him on t.v., and I like that."
There 'ya go.
So anyhow, I watched a couple of episodes of the Duggar show. Obviously I had heard of them before. I am a homeschooler. I have a couple of kids. Well, that and I don't live under a rock. The Duggars are their own little phenomena, aren't they? If you homeschool they've popped up in conversation--simply because the Duggars do it, and they're on t.v. And if you've got more than say, four kids, the Duggars are going to be thrown out there. "What, are you guys going to be like the Duggars?" And if your brand of Christianity leads you to wear dresses or something else visible, you may just hear Duggar references as you go about your life, too. They're everywhere, those Duggars.
These realizations touched off one of those polio-like wonderings in my mind, so when I returned home, I started my normal reading routine. I found websites, read articles, looked for books. And you know what I found? I think I actually like the Duggars.
Obviously, I don't personally know this family. And I'm still highly suspicious of anyone, Christian or not, who does the whole "come on in and film our lives!" thing. You want to be an actor? Wonderful! Go for it. But having someone come in and film your kids eating breakfast? Can we all just take a step back and admit that this is a weird, warping little intrusion into the life of a family? Anyhow, I digress ...
I think the Duggars are likable. That doesn't mean that I agree with every word that comes from their lips, and that doesn't mean that I'm going to strive to emulate them. But I see very little in the way of condescension towards others in the way that they live their lives. I see a whole lot of work ethic. And I see an amazing amount of love--the kind of love that absolutely embodies the JOY principle of Jesus, Others, Self.
It's refreshing, honestly.
And convicting. Last night, as I was reading a section of "20 and Counting," I found a passage relating the story of how the Duggars had come to have a vehicle large enough to transport their entire family. I'll be honest and admit that my assumption involved the kind folks at TLC financing something for them. According to the book, however, they bought a wrecked bus for under $3,000. Then, they bought another, even more demolished bus for far less. And, as a family, they pieced them together. In the end, they have a large, serviceable vehicle that meets their needs ... for under $3,500. Which they say they paid in cash, by the way.
I'll be real and admit that I could not do that. First and foremost, neither Mr. Blandings nor myself has the kinds of skill that a project of that magnitude requires. But beyond that ... I'm just not that patient. I know I wouldn't wait for the right price at the right time if I was having to dole my family into two or three different vehicles just to get everyone to church on Sunday morning. Nope. I'd be the woman asking myself why on earth Jesus would mind if we just took out one, itty-bitty car loan, just this once? I'd be the one looking for loopholes in my previous conviction. I'd be the one whining my way through the wait.
But I'd rather be the "be content with what you have, for the Lord has said, never will I leave you nor forsake you" kind of gal. I'd rather be patient. I'd rather be ...
Well, like a Duggar, I guess.
So if nothing else, this is what I've learned from my phase of putting the Duggars under my curious microscope: Examples of faith come in the most unlikely of places. Maybe even on reality t.v. shows.
We'll call this Advanced Meal Planning 201.
At this point, you've already got your master list, and you've completed at least one menu. Your feet are wet, and you want more.
Happy to comply. :-)
My personal favorite part of meal planning is that it frees me to do only the parts of planning that I enjoy. I actually love to cook. Having a plan in place allows me to indulge in my passion for cooking knowing that the ingredients I need are on hand and there's variation already built in (chicken three nights in a row? Ugh!). Plus, I can spend the bulk of my day just doing whatever I'm doing, without pondering what I'll need to pull out of the freezer or whether I'm running out of time to whip something together to put on the table. This is a win-win: a little investment of time spent in the planning stages has paid off in literally years of hassle-free meal plans at my fingertips.
Now that you've got a meal plan in place, you're about to see what I mean.
If you have two weeks worth of meals laid out right now, you've got a leg up. But in order to really reap the benefits of meal planning, you're going to need to log a few hours in the kitchen. Why? Because you're going to want to have a solid base of meals to draw from; while your family isn't going to mind some things on repeat (most people can hand spaghetti, pizza and tacos twice in a month, for instance), you don't want to cause burn-out. So, I hereby give you license to do something crazy: go on a meal hunt. YES--keep that two week plan in place, and work like crazy to jot new things on your list as they pop into your head. Maybe you've forgotten about Aunt Linda's favorite pork chop bake until just now. Go ahead and add it to your list. But keep looking, too. Add as many things to your list as you can by trying out new recipes. Hit your favorite blogs, haunt allrecipes.com, whatever you have to do to get that number of meals up.
It's fun stuff, actually. No doubt they'll be some absolute misfires. But who knows what kind of new favorite you're likely to stumble on? Get out there and explore!
For the next step, I'm assuming that you have at least 35 separate meals listed. Using the same random assigning process that you used back in your original plan, go ahead and sprinkle a couple of empty slots in over the course of the month. You decide how many--personally, I use one every two weeks. And what do I do with this vacant box? Fun, ladies. :-) This is my Try a New Recipe Night. Keeping that little spot open allows me to plug in something that's caught my eye, whether I've torn it from a magazine or spotted it on the Internet. It also keeps me from feeling like I'm in a rut, and gives my kids the opportunity to try new flavors and textures. Call me crazy, but this little injection of flexible creativity does so much to keep the joy in cooking for me.
You can, of course, bypass the Try a New Recipe Night altogether. Your choice. But can I give you a gentle nudge in that direction, anyway? Not only am I partial to experimenting in the kitchen, but I can't tell you how many of those once-new meals have since become standards on our menus. This is the key to how our menus have grown over the years. While I started out with those 40-odd meals a while back, I now have a rotation of nearly 70 meals at this point. That's 70 nights, automatically planned out for me. No worry, no stress. Just another menu created, stored in my computer, and pulled out when I'm in the mood for what I see.
Another advanced step in menu planning involves cuing in to the seasons. One of our favorite warm-weather dishes is broiled, sliced chicken breast over a bed of spinach and raspberry vinaigrette. One of our favorite winter warm-ups is my grandmother's chicken and dumplings. Obviously, the two shouldn't pop up on the same week. By sorting through and creating separate menu files on my computer, I've been able to rotate seasons as easily as I rotate weeks. I even have a Thanksgiving time menu; I've already scheduled in our family's favorite meals using various leftovers ... why create that from scratch every year?
Alright, one last thing on meal planning: when you get to the point when you are fairly well-established in your actual menus, make the jump to creating a grocery list to go along with them. This is by no means essential, but it's just another of those little touches that allow you to save time. A base list, outlining all of the ingredients you need for a set menu, is easy to set up as a word file, and alter as needed. Have a whole pantry full of dried black beans? Strike them off the list. It's a whole lot easier than realizing at the last moment that you needed 2 tablespoons of orange juice concentrate for a dish ... and you forgot to pick it up.
My menus and lists are labeled in a similar manner (ie, FallMenu3 goes with FallList3) and placed in their own folders, which are ultimately inside a main folder I've labeled MEALS. (Creative, aren't I?) I've been using this overall method for over a decade now--since very early in my marriage, in fact. I'm convinced that it makes my life--and homeschooling--much easier. Hopefully, it will do the same for you!
There are too many loose ends trembling in the breeze at Casa Blandings right now. Some are short-term, and will be resolved as soon as either Mr. Blandings or myself finally gets the chance to make the phone call/write the email/etc. that will effectively check that item off of our to-do list. Others are more long-term aspects of our lives that are building, slowly, to a momentum. They're all linked, like a giant floor puzzle that is literally covering our lives at the moment. It feels pretty messy around here. But I can't complain, really. God is good, and He's got the details so ... don't worry, be happy, right?
Update #1--Nepal. "So, how are your plans coming?" Thanks for asking! They're going quite well, actually. Together, Mr. Blandings and I recently gave our nonprofit board and our pastor our estimated monthly expenditures. I used my handy-dandy Mac to whip up not one, but two quite posh-looking videos that outline our service goals in the area. We're working on an informational packet to send out to interested individuals and churches. And God has worked wonders; we already have a very nice portion of our support pledged ...all without asking anyone for a dime. Nice touch, Lord!
Our target date for the actual move to Kathmandu is September or October of 2010. Prior to that, we'll be traveling cross-country for several weeks, visiting with family members who haven't seen us in years and making presentations to anyone (churches, Bible study groups, missions boards, homeschool groups, etc.) who have an interest in learning about Nepal and the work being done there. We're looking forward to the traveling, since it will be a greatly-expanded version of the adventure that brought us to WA seven years ago. I'm doing the bulk of the leg-work, so I get to squeeze in all the little spots we're dying to see as well as all the people we want to lay eyes on before we move into the next, thrilling adventure that God has planned for us.
Update #2--Bee's visa. "When are you thinking she'll get here?" That's a good one. We just don't know. A major snag has been hit in terms of securing a passport for Bee; her birthdate is glaringly incorrect on all of her official paperwork. We're talking the kind of error that puts the folks down at Homeland Security on major alert. So until that error can be corrected, we're in a holding pattern. We had hoped that she'd be with us for the holidays, but it's clear to us now that it just won't happen without God picking up Mt. Everest and dropping it in, say, WA state. Which He could do. We're not doubting that. But we're thinking February at the earliest, anyhow.
Update #3--Oli's adoption. "Is he yours yet?" Oliver's paperwork was postponed in its transition from the regular social worker's office to the adoption worker's office. This delay was caused by our beloved Georgie, who has yet to actually file, process, or do anything according to the time frame set forth by the federal government. I don't know how she manages it, actually. It's her super power or something.
So here it is November, and his adoption should have been finished in just four or five more weeks. But it won't be. We're looking at February at the earliest. Again.
Update #4--Mani's adoption. "Did his birthmom relinquish or what?" No, Manolin's birthmom has not relinquished. Choosing to stay firmly in what is becoming the familiar territory of foster care, in which the birthparents deny their inability to parent no matter what their circumstances, Mani's biomom is contesting the termination. From prison. With a ten year no contact order in place.
Termination trial is scheduled for ... wait for it ... February.
But you already knew that, right? :-)
Nah, this one's not about meals, so you can relax.
This post is about homemade Christmas presents. You know--the things you mean to carefully craft in love each fall, then deliver to your friends and family during the holidays? The things you might even get all the way to the "buying supplies" stage before the intentions labeled "best" run out?
Am I only talking about myself here? Please, someone pipe in and tell me that I'm not alone.
Gifts are not my love language. Mr. Blandings joked one day that they're not even my love accent. He really wasn't trying to hurt my feelings, but it did sting a little. As much as I know that I'm a bad gifter, I also know that some people are really, really good at it. And me? Not so much.
I'd love to be able to blame my mom for my lack of giftiness. My mom is the Poster Girl for all things GIFT. She gives, and gives, and gives--often well beyond her means, and always with as much flair and style as possible. All of her gifts are always presented with stunning bows (handmade) atop impeccable, themed paper (not handmade, but hey, everyone's got their weakness). And--like a good portion of my mother's wardrobe--glitter is usually a feature.
Glitter is absolutely not a feature in my life. Not in my clothes (which generally fall into three colors: white, brown, and black), and not in the gifts I give to others. As a matter of fact, my mainstay gift is time. You know--"Let's go to dinner!" "I'd love to celebrate with you over coffee!" and, of course, "How about I watch your kids for you so you can do something fun?" When time fails, there's always cookies. My chocolate chip cookies have covered a multitude of gifting sins, I can tell you.
My mother would be horrified if she knew that Mr. Blandings is actually responsible for the bulk of the gifting done by the Blandings clan. She'd also choke on her dentures if she knew that I save all those fancy ribbon tricks she taught me for times when I can't find a gift bag or wrapping paper with an actual pattern on it. Yes, truth time--I buy solid colored wrapping paper in neutral colors most of the time. Why? Because it's never inappropriate. Blue is perfectly acceptable for a birthday, a new baby, Father's Day, you name it.
I'm just practical. Or this is what I tell myself.
But this year, I'm trying really, really hard to think ahead and follow through on all of those great homemade gift ideas that I see floating around on blogs and crafty websites. The main reason for this is that I think my older kids would enjoy it. They love making things for others, and are at the age where they can turn out some very nice-looking stuff. The second reason is that finances at Casa Blandings are super-tight. Mr. Blandings is waiting on word of his second pay-cut for this year, which will quickly be followed by another one right after the new year. Add to that the fact that we're saving money for Bee's visa applications, passports for the other five kids, plane tickets to Kathmandu in February, and yes ... a homemade Christmas sounds just about right!
We have a relatively short list of folks that we give to at Christmas time. usually, the list is even shorter than we'd like it to be simply because we don't have the funds to send anything to the people we love but don't see. I want to remedy that this year. And I also want to use the gifts that we do give to really demonstrate how much love we have for those in our lives. The truth is, part of what makes me not-so-gifty is that it always feels so impersonal to me. I know that this sounds nuts, but deciding between the UNO game and the Bowling Dice tin in the toy aisle of my local supermarket just doesn't give me warm fuzzies.
But making something? Yeah, that does it for me. Putting my hands in wool and turning out a scarf allows me the joy of praying for the recipient with each stitch that rolls of the needles. Selecting fabric and putting together a simple apron gives me the glow of thinking over that person and her impact on my life. But I rarely do these things. Why? I have no idea.
So that's what I want to capture this Christmas, for myself and for my children. The spirit of giving. Who knows? Maybe I'll even post the processes as they take place at my kitchen table over the next few weeks. Until then, here are some of the best ideas I've gleaned from the internet for giftmaking with kids. Many can be done by the kids themselves. Others may require a good bit of mom-work, then the kids can add the finishing details. I'm planning on trying some of them, so if you're likely to be on my gifting list, WARNING! Spoiler alert!
And if not ... happy homemade shopping. :-)
Adorable elastic bookmarks
Button wreath ornaments
Treasure soap
Grocery Bag Dispenser
Sculpey Ribbon Ornaments
No-Sew fleece knot pillow
Gifts in a Jar
Beaded Icicle Ornaments
Pumpkin Pie Playdough (o.k., maybe a Thanksgiving gift?)
Birthday Banner (what mom doesn't want one of these?)
Crayon Cozies
Got your list? Does it have more than two dozen potential meals jotted on it? If not--do not pass go, do not collect $200! No, seriously--you really have to come up with at least 24 meals to make this process work. Get creative! Even your picky, picky eaters surely have almost a month's worth of meals in them. Think hard. Grilled cheese can count as supper. Write it down. You like to pull off the occasional breakfast-for-dinner, right? Write it down. No matter how ashamed you are to admit that it's part of your repertoire, it's in there. So write it down. (And how do you think I feel about having "chili dogs" on my list, anyway?)
Next step in making a meal plan that will work for you is filling in the blanks. Yep--it's really that easy.
There is a small part here that requires knowing yourself. Are you more of a straight list person, or someone who likes a day-by-day calendar format? Both will work just fine in the long run, but you'll help yourself along in the process of getting used to the whole mindset if you pick the format that makes the most sense to your brain. Then, decide how many blanks you want to fill in. A week? Two? A whole month? There are a lot of variables that lead people to pick a certain schedule. A dear friend of mine does a month at a time because her husband is paid on a monthly basis, so she does all of the "big" shopping just once every four weeks. I go with a two-week schedule for the same reason--Mr. Blandings' payday rolls around twice a month, so that's what we work around.
One of my menus:
Because I am addicted to my Mac, I have cute little menus designed for my 14 days. There is no magic to these menus, though--a plain text file will do just as well. I give each day a heading, and alongside that I include our evening plans, if any. This is a very, very important step--if you skip it, you may find yourself lined up to make lasagna on the same night you're heading out the door at 6 p.m. to get one of your children to violin practice, or find that a stew was supposed to have been simmering for a full two hours while you were at your Bible Study. This is a recipe for stress, and stress is not what meal planning is about! It's supposed to be the antidote to stress ... so take a minute to note the recurring activities that pop up in your life. Plan accordingly.
(We'll work on customizing menus with non-recurring events in our next session.)
Now that you've outlined the when, it's time to throw in the what. Simply start dropping meals in on days. Don't think too hard about it unless for some reason you have a strict aversion to the idea of a tuna casserole on a Monday. Some people have certain meals on certain nights (ie, Sunday is always spaghetti night). Go ahead and make those accommodations, but otherwise, willy nilly is really, truly fine.
Have more meals than slots? Good for you! You are now in the realm of the rotating menus. Here's how it works:
You decided to do a two week menu. But you have 24 meals. You've filled in 14 blanks, and you have ten meals left over. Create a NEW 14 week sheet, and randomly toss your four favorite meals onto that new schedule. Fill in around them with the meals you haven't written down yet. Voila! You now have an entire month's worth of meals planned. Simply use one, then the other, then go back to the first ...
And these, essentially, is it. The very basic meal planning technique. There are, of course, more advanced tools ... and we'll get to those on Friday. That ought to give you plenty of time to have a couple of menus under your belt. :-)
The thing about homeschooling is that, ideally, you do it at home. Which means that you (and your children) are dirtying the floors, adding to the laundry, using dishes, and generally cluttering your house all day. Pretty much every day.
It can be a real drag.
Sure, there are seasons where mom feels all Holly Hobbie and keeping things tidy is just Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!
Had I not experienced these odd, cozy stirrings myself, I'd swear they didn't exist. But they do. There really are times when nothing satisfies the soul quite as much as a stack of freshly laundered cloth diapers and the scent of Pine-Sol on the floors.
Of course, the rest of the time, we're all just trying to keep our heads above water. By necessity, school comes first. There will always be dirty dishes ... but the times when your 7 year-old longs to feel your arm around his shoulder while you re-read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe ... sacred stuff, that.
To that end, I try to be (semi)organized in my housekeeping duties. This frees me up for my first love: educating my kids. I have a schedule for doing household tasks, the kids have a chore routine and, all things being equal, we keep the place in decent shape. I subscribe fully (and enthusiastically) to the "many hands make light work" concept, so any given day might find Atticus corralling all of the little one's board books back into the proper basket, Logan dragging the trash to the curb, Oliver and Manolin taking turns helping me load the clothes dryer, and Jo browning ground turkey at the stove.
Now, even with all of this "all for one, one for all," planned-out full-court press, no one has ever walked into my house and declared, "You homeschool? Why--this place is so spotless, I never would have known! How do you do it?"
You know what gets people's attention? No joke--it's my meal plan.
Of all things, people really dig my meal plan. Whether they've heard me mention it or have spotted a two week-menu on my fridge, people ask a lot of questions about my meal plan. So you know what? I'm going to post about it here. And that way, the next time someone wants to know more, I can just give them my blog's address. How's that for killing two birds with one stone?:-)
So here it goes. My big secret to meal planning, shared for those who want to embark on the journey to organized meal planning. Ready?
Master list.
Yep--that's it.
I started with a master list of meals that my family loves, loves, loves. I literally pulled out a sheet of notebook paper and a pencil, and started jotting down meals as they came to mind. Just entrees, mainly. A nice, long numbered list that I added to over the course of several days. Whenever I had an idea spring into my mind, I'd jot it down. When I had the chance to flip through some of my favorite cookbooks, I'd write down our favorites from them, too.
Then, I culled the list. There were a couple that, for one reason or the other, just didn't stay on the main list. A couple were so heavily "dairy-ed" that they had to be removed for the sake of our dairy-free eaters. A few others were just too pricey when adjusted to serve a crowd rather than a small-ish family. (We have a strict grocery budget.) And others were just not universally loved enough to crop up in a regular rotation. (They went onto a separate list that I'll mention in another post.)
In the end, my Master List has 46 meals. I'll share my list (with a few recipe links) here to give you an idea of what I'm talking about in case you're ready to start compiling your own:
Mary Grace's Master Meal List
- Bean Pilaf
- Lasagna
- Three Bean Stew
- Turkey Meatloaf
- Corn Flake Chicken
- Chicken and Noodles
- Potato & Carrot Stew
- Chicken and Dumplings
- Pot Roast
- Taco Soup
- Swedish Meatballs
- Spaghetti
- Black Bean Tortilla Stack-ups
- Arroz con Pollo
- Fried Rice
- Stir Fry
- Orzo and Chick Peas
- Turkey Casserole
- Chicken & stuffing casserole
- Homemade Pizza
- Black Beans and rice
- Lentil Soup
- Tacos
- Black Bean Burritos
- Kidney Bean & Macaroni Casserole
- Chili over Spaghetti
- White Chicken Chili
- Mostacelli
- Roast Chicken
- Chicken-fried chicken
- Chili-Spaghetti Casserole
- Grilled Salmon
- Salmon patties
- Mexican Veggie Pasta Bake
- Chicken Tortilla Soup
- Open-Faced Turkey Sandwiches
- Lentils and rice
- Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie
- Quesadillas
- Turkey Stroganoff
- Tuna Casserole
- Fried Fish (tuna, cod, whatever)
- Broccoli & baked potatoes with cheese
- Chili Dogs
- Boca burgers
- Sloppy Joes
Your homework--should you choose to accept it? Make your own master list. And meet me back here tomorrow, when I tell you what in the world to do with it. :-)
