Alright, so I have challenged myself to spend only $40 on groceries for the next two weeks. This is a huge challenge for me, especially considering that I easily spend that on our produce alone... But it's fun to do something different.
So, I looked in my freezer, which is pretty well stocked right now. This has not always been true for us in past years, a couple years ago there is no way I would have been able to do this challenge. Today when I looked out there I had some leftover creamy chicken tomato soup, and 3 freezer meals ready to go! Right off the bat I had four dinners, 9 more to go (we're having Easter with the family so that's one meal I don't have to plan). I inventoried mainly my meat, because if I don't have to buy meat then I can pull this off.
This is my menu that I came up with...
Creamy Chicken Tomato Soup; leftovers
Honey Rosemary Chicken; freezer meal
Orange Teryaki Chicken; already marinading
Hawaiian Chicken; freezer meal; green bell pepper
Chicken Divan
Homemade Mac & Cheese
Almond Crusted Tilapia 1/2 cup almonds
Crockpot Sweet Garlic Chicken lemon lime soda
Buffalo Chicken Spaghetti Squash spaghetti squash
Carnitas Tamale Pie pepper jack cheese
Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches bottle of Franks buffalo wing sauce
Fiesta Nacho Chicken Bake can tomatoes with green chilies
Slow Cooker Pork Chops potatoes
I picked really simple recipes that also happen to be ones that we love! When I go shopping I usually try to buy a little extra of the things that we use all the time, which builds up my pantry stock slowly. Then if I want to splurge, on some steak or something, I can with still being able to make meals we love the rest of the week. And I also have a very creative husband who cooks me amazing food probably more often than I cook for him... I'm super spoiled, I know. He has this ability to look around and see what we have and make it, where I'm the recipe queen that if I don't have a plan and my recipes I end up not cooking! I can always pull boring stuff out of thin air, but that doesn't interest my husband who can pull amazing stuff out of thin air!
Then the other real challenge about my $40 for two weeks is lunches and breakfast. The kids mostly eat cereal or eggs, we have enough cereal to make it through. If I buy milk & let them have it only on their cereal I think I can stretch a gallon for a week. I'll buy two loaves of bread and that will have to do, I do have some chili that is a lunch favorite for the boys (thank God for thermoses). So if I buy a big thing of eggs that will work for breakfasts & if I hard boil some they're a favorite snack too. I have maybe a day or two worth of apples sitting on the counter and half a bag of frozen Costco blueberries, so once the apples are gone they can snack on those. They also have been warped from the time they were babies and love frozen mixed veggies, so they have those for snacks & in lunches. I can throw side dishes together with the other stuff we have hanging around the pantry and freezer. I made my grocery list for the next two weeks and priced out what everything normally costs and I come in just under $40, by my guess it will be $36. Now I just need to tuck my little lady in for her nap and once she wakes up we can venture out to Winco. Although Winco may wait till tomorrow and we could have a little cobb salad for dinner tonight, yep that sounds way better!
Friday, April 18, 2014
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
In To Deep
Do you ever have those seasons where you get so caught up in everything and then you realize, "oh no! I got in to deep!". Tonight is the first night in awhile that I haven't been able to get to sleep. I thought I was doing a pretty good job in the last couple of months and now I'm seeing I did it again. The problem is when my focus shifts outside my four walls. I'm not saying that I don't know what's going on or have no life outside my four walls, but it's a matter of doing too much, focusing on to many things. The reality is that my little family is about all I can focus on if I want to keep the peaceful loving environment that is best for us all.
These last few days I've been doing exactly what I'm supposed to do. I have not over committed myself and as a result we've had some amazing days. But when I glanced at the calendar I felt the dread of commitments. It's hard to admit but I love my kids better when I'm not over committed because overcommitment makes me less of a mother, I cannot go so many directions and do it well. I realize that that should be a simple thing to see but for some reason it has always slipped past my brain. I do love to go and do things and see people but either I've always been an introvert or I have turned into one in my "old age". Either way, overcommitment is not a good thing for me.
My goal in life is to do it well, but if I cannot respect who I am than I can never succeed in doing life well. If I do not respect who I am I cannot teach my children to respect who they are, how God uniquely created and made them. I want nothing more than for my children to know who they are, to be confident in themselves and in our God. When I am worrying about what happens next I don't take the time to sit with the kids in the morning over their breakfast and do our devotions. I do not engage with them the same way, I am distracted. I go through the motions but the heart isn't there, they may not notice that the heart is missing, but I know that soon they will be old enough that they will recognize when I'm just going through the motions. I just want to say too, it's ok if you're just going through the motions because eventually the heart will catch up and you'll realize that something is a little off, sometimes the motions is all you can do... That's just not where I am today.
I honestly could never have put a finger on what I'm saying until I was laying in bed tonight freaking out. I realized that this is what keeps me awake at night, overcommitment. And trying to keep everybody around me happy. I've kept people out of my life the last few days and it's been wonderful. Sorry, it's the brutal truth and it's nothing personal. I've just finally recognized that I cannot be everything to everyone. Unfortunately this means that I've gotta make some tough decisions and have some heart talks because I've gotten myself in to deep. I also am so thankful for all the people that love me and are so gracious with me. One of those people is my poor mother, I had to reschedule our day together that we've been trying to figure out since January or February. I am also so very thankful for her because I know that she's not holding it to my account, that she loves me despite my many flaws, one of which I just figured out tonight on yet another sleepless night. She understands how hard it is to balance a family.
Balancing a family is hard work. It is not something that gets easier as they get older, at least not in this stage of our lives. I relish in the fact that next year I will consistently get two whole hours to myself once a week. I also have this sneaky feeling that those two hours will be stolen up if I don't guard them like the gold that I see them to be. I have a feeling that even when I guard them with my life it will often be interrupted with the needs of those around me, namely my children!
If there is anything this year has taught me it is that you never know what is going to happen. You don't know what is going to happen next year, next month, next week, tomorrow or even an hour from now (I'm really hoping to fall asleep, but no guarantees). This is why I have to make those hard decisions, that is why I have to prioritize, to say no to good things, to have hard talks because I've over committed myself. This is my life. I stumble my way through, I make mistakes, I get wrapped up in the excitement and forget that I cannot do everything because I only have so much energy and what energy I give outside these four walls takes something away from my first calling, which is to be a good wife to my husband and loving mother to my children.
It's time to take a deep breath. It's time to settle into my nest and really look. Time is so short, a day often feels like but a whisper when I look at my children's sleeping faces. I need to look at my life and see what matters most and let my actions match. This has been a learning year for me. I've learned that there are things that I am just not meant to do and other things that bring unmeasurable joy to my life. There are also things that are just not right for this time in my life, maybe they will be later, but not today and that is ok. My heart has grown and opened up in ways I never thought possible a year ago. I am beyond content with my life. I also know that if I want to stay in that place of contentment I need to learn to say no more because it is the when a thousand things pull me in a thousand directions that I reach that place of exhaustion and exhaustion leaves room for nothing else. So tonight I am awake, but I know that tomorrow I will sleep.
These last few days I've been doing exactly what I'm supposed to do. I have not over committed myself and as a result we've had some amazing days. But when I glanced at the calendar I felt the dread of commitments. It's hard to admit but I love my kids better when I'm not over committed because overcommitment makes me less of a mother, I cannot go so many directions and do it well. I realize that that should be a simple thing to see but for some reason it has always slipped past my brain. I do love to go and do things and see people but either I've always been an introvert or I have turned into one in my "old age". Either way, overcommitment is not a good thing for me.
My goal in life is to do it well, but if I cannot respect who I am than I can never succeed in doing life well. If I do not respect who I am I cannot teach my children to respect who they are, how God uniquely created and made them. I want nothing more than for my children to know who they are, to be confident in themselves and in our God. When I am worrying about what happens next I don't take the time to sit with the kids in the morning over their breakfast and do our devotions. I do not engage with them the same way, I am distracted. I go through the motions but the heart isn't there, they may not notice that the heart is missing, but I know that soon they will be old enough that they will recognize when I'm just going through the motions. I just want to say too, it's ok if you're just going through the motions because eventually the heart will catch up and you'll realize that something is a little off, sometimes the motions is all you can do... That's just not where I am today.
I honestly could never have put a finger on what I'm saying until I was laying in bed tonight freaking out. I realized that this is what keeps me awake at night, overcommitment. And trying to keep everybody around me happy. I've kept people out of my life the last few days and it's been wonderful. Sorry, it's the brutal truth and it's nothing personal. I've just finally recognized that I cannot be everything to everyone. Unfortunately this means that I've gotta make some tough decisions and have some heart talks because I've gotten myself in to deep. I also am so thankful for all the people that love me and are so gracious with me. One of those people is my poor mother, I had to reschedule our day together that we've been trying to figure out since January or February. I am also so very thankful for her because I know that she's not holding it to my account, that she loves me despite my many flaws, one of which I just figured out tonight on yet another sleepless night. She understands how hard it is to balance a family.
Balancing a family is hard work. It is not something that gets easier as they get older, at least not in this stage of our lives. I relish in the fact that next year I will consistently get two whole hours to myself once a week. I also have this sneaky feeling that those two hours will be stolen up if I don't guard them like the gold that I see them to be. I have a feeling that even when I guard them with my life it will often be interrupted with the needs of those around me, namely my children!
If there is anything this year has taught me it is that you never know what is going to happen. You don't know what is going to happen next year, next month, next week, tomorrow or even an hour from now (I'm really hoping to fall asleep, but no guarantees). This is why I have to make those hard decisions, that is why I have to prioritize, to say no to good things, to have hard talks because I've over committed myself. This is my life. I stumble my way through, I make mistakes, I get wrapped up in the excitement and forget that I cannot do everything because I only have so much energy and what energy I give outside these four walls takes something away from my first calling, which is to be a good wife to my husband and loving mother to my children.
It's time to take a deep breath. It's time to settle into my nest and really look. Time is so short, a day often feels like but a whisper when I look at my children's sleeping faces. I need to look at my life and see what matters most and let my actions match. This has been a learning year for me. I've learned that there are things that I am just not meant to do and other things that bring unmeasurable joy to my life. There are also things that are just not right for this time in my life, maybe they will be later, but not today and that is ok. My heart has grown and opened up in ways I never thought possible a year ago. I am beyond content with my life. I also know that if I want to stay in that place of contentment I need to learn to say no more because it is the when a thousand things pull me in a thousand directions that I reach that place of exhaustion and exhaustion leaves room for nothing else. So tonight I am awake, but I know that tomorrow I will sleep.
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