Daily Archive

I had such high hopes for today. The kids’ library books are overdue, but if I could get them back to the library before 5, there’d be no fines. I had the menus halfway made and the shopping list partially done, so I needed to finish that for an afternoon shopping trip. Then, the regular chores, school and hopefully a nap, since I’m still trying to provide my body enough rest to recover from the bronchitis I’ve developed.

Dear, sweet John let me sleep in and made his own breakfast. So, first cup of coffee in-hand at 9AM, I sat down to work the mail and my online businesses. At 9:15, hubby came in and asked for the tax records.

Here we go.

I knew then and there that my day was shot. Put it all away, folks. Lunchtime came and went, the kids found leftovers. Snack came and went, the kids found fruit. Crises arose and were dealt with one at a time, receipts disappeared, numbers didn’t crunch. The next time I looked at the clock, it was 5:45. There was no dinner ready, or even close to ready. The books were overdue (we aren’t talking pennies here), the grocery shopping didn’t get done. As soon as the online tax prep receipt was printed out, hubby grabbed his keys and said, “Whaddya want from Taco Bell?”

And I was too tired to argue. On the upside, the taxes are done for another year and I have a marvelous hubby who knows when I’m too overwhelmed. On the downside, yuck.

The kids went to bed happy, though! Fiddledeedee, there’ll be better food tomorrow.

Being new to this whole foodstyle, I don’t have much to offer in the way of tips. I’ll be learning more this week than I share. But the pragmatist that lives in my head offers the following:

Make a plan
Write it down
Keep it

You’ve heard all about menu planning and making a grocery list and all that. It’s especially important when there are grains to be soaked or sprouted, things that need to ferment for three or four days, or dessert that needs to sit in the oven overnight. There’s few things more frustrating than needing 2 quarts of chicken stock for tonight’s soup and only having one at the ready.

I like putting my menus and daily prep in a calendar program on my computer. I can print it out daily or weekly and hang it on the fridge. When I’m in the kitchen doing dishes, I see I need to soak 2 cups of rice for the stuffed peppers tomorrow night, and it gets done.

But here’s a twist: instead of going to all that work and tossing it all at the end of the week, why not file it? If you ever have a day when you just aren’t going to get the menus made, you have a set already done. It’s all there, the prep work you need to do, the groceries to get and everything. Keeping these records on your computer will save paper, retrieval time and space.