Menu Plan Monday

I have really been trying to simplify my life.  I really do have a lot going on.

One area (thanks to the suggestion of my husband) that I decided to simplify is dinner.   I decided everyone with the exception of the 4 year old has an assigned night to cook dinner.  They each have to get their recipes to me by Monday mornings, so that I can grocery shop on Tuesdays.  Our dinner week actually goes from Wednesday to Tuesday. So here is our last weeks plan.

Tuesday:  I ordered Pizza.  I traded one of my kids that I would cook dinner if he would clean my bathroom.  Score!

Wednesday: Crock pot Chicken Curry.  This was a freezer meal I had in the freezer. It is what my brother chose for his meal.  I think he cheated.

Thursday: We had softball games so I made a tacos.

Friday: My daughter chose to do a campfire and roast hot dogs for her meal.  We were supposed to do it on Saturday, but since it was an 80% chance of rain that day we moved it to a day early.

Saturday: I wasn’t able to make a big Easter dinner like I wanted so I did it on Saturday.  We had Ham, Potatoes and Green Beans.

Sunday:  We were supposed to have Hash Brown Casserole, and I changed it to BBQ Chicken and Poutine. 

Monday: My son is supposed to cook Sloppy Joes and Veggies. 

Tuesday: I will do the Hash Brown Casserole.

Giving me 3 days off cooking and one of my other days I have my 9 year old help me.  As well as I have a small stock of freezer meals, from the freezer meal club I am in, I am getting a handle back on things.

Check out how others have been menu planning here.

 

Simplifying the Schedule

 

My life has been so crazy hectic that I kept thinking I could manage it if I laid out a very specific schedule.  One that supposedly keeps me on task and lets me see what I should be doing when. 

This is just not who I really am.  I am spontaneous, my kids are spontaneous.  The rigid schedule I had planned was stifling who we are as well as causing more chaos and heartache than it was worth.  I was also putting so much time into planning it and tweaking it when it didn’t work out just right that it was sucking up any free time and creative projects (blogging) I would have loved to do. 

For the past few weeks I have been following this schedule as far as homeschooling goes.

Each Monday we start out with a meeting, we go over expectations of the week, the schedule, the dinner plan for the week and anything we need to discuss or go over together. We also eat breakfast together this day.   This meeting has only been taking about 30 min. From 9-11:30am each child has a list that I laminated of what they are to get done each day.

Katey does history on Mondays and Tuesdays and science on Thursdays and Fridays.  So her card has two sides, one for Monday & Tuesdays and one for Thursdays and Fridays. 

We go to co-op on Wednesdays so the kids all just have to do reading and math on those days.

For mom school each day we have been reading in The Story of the World, Vol 2 and doing the activities from the Activity Book.

This new simplified schedule along with some other things I simplified in my life has been working out very well for us.  I even found time to blog!! YAY!