There are two things that I regularly despise and rebel against in my daily life, and of course because I am a little bit crazy and like to challenge myself these are also the two things I have put at the top of my Priority Planner for 2020. Meal Planning/Cooking and Home Organization. I run from both of these everyday things, like the plague. Don’t get me completely wrong, I do cook and we have a decently clean house (when my kids are asleep or at school); but these are the two things that seem to cause me way too much un needed angst.
So I decided to change my mindset for 2020 and instead of utterly hating these tasks, I was going to take a sip of my own medicine and decide that I love to cook and I have a home where everything has a place. You might be confused when I say take a sip of my own medicine, but anyone who knows me might call me a “happiness bully” I am always trying to give others around me advice on how they can change their mindset and it will change their life! So it dawned on me when I was doing my Start Today Journal from Rachel Hollis that I was being a hypocrite in these areas of my life.
Similarly, when I wrote about my work out journey, I am approaching this journey one step at a time to not overwhelm myself. My first small step towards Meal Planning was to make a Menu. Something I’ve known I should do for a long time, but as I’ve said rebelled against this idea like I was a 16yr old missing curfew.
Now for three Sunday’s in a row (so not giving myself a medal or anything, but trying to create a habit here) I have made a Breakfast and Dinner Menu for the following week and gotten all the groceries for the week in one day through Kroger Clicklist. Now I have to sidebar on this, I always thought grocery shopping was my chance to get a little alone time on the weekends, so I would go through aimlessly wondering the isles. After using Clicklist once, I realized my old habits were self-sabotaging. Being able to click through on an app/website allowed me to price compare and also probably saved me at least $50 from not mindlessly adding things to my cart while walking around; plus I somehow always ended up going to the store 2-3 times a week because we were inevitably out of things because there was no plan. Maybe for some of you, you are thinking well DUH! Yeah I get it, I’m saying DUH to myself okay ha!
Not only did we already save money in the last few weeks from not going to the grocery store 2-3 times, plus eating out on one of those nights; the night time saga of what we were going to have for dinner was eliminated! Also, not to mention our normal morning before school was always a battle to figure out what the girls were going to eat, and this last week was not perfect by any means, but at least I served something to eat every morning whether they ate it or not. OH and shockingly I didn’t hate cooking, I actually kind of enjoyed it; which if you know me, just doesn’t make sense. I guess we will see how I feel after a full month of routine!?
Example Dinner Menu:
Monday – Turkey Chili
Tuesday – Spaghetti with Meatballs
Wednesday – Chicken Noodle Soup
Thursday – Grad Turkey Stir Fry
Friday – Taco Night
Saturday – Homemade Pizza
Sunday – Eat out and/or leftovers
Example Breakfast Menu:
Monday – Eggs & Turkey Sausage
Tuesday – Oatmeal with fun toppings (sprinkles, raisins, honey)
Wednesday – Waffles with peanut butter & honey
Thursday – Muffins
Friday – Lara Bars
Saturday – French Toast
Sunday – Cinnamon Buns
Next step, Home Organization! Thankfully, this is one I didn’t start alone. If you follow us @friscoareamoms then you saw my amazing Pantry Transformation by Kristen from Gracefully Nested. I could not recommend her enough. It’s always hard to ask for someone else for help with something like this, because we all think “I can do that myself” but the question is, will you? For me the answer was no, I always reorganized my pantry about once a month, but it never felt like this. Since Kristen re-organized it, I literally just walk in there a few times a day and stare at it. Even my husband said it just feels good. Since she left, I have already cleaned out two other closets and two junk drawers. What I can’t figure out is why I have so much junk, I thought I was a clean person? Well it turns out when you are rebelling against something, you also find a way to not see what’s right in front of you. The closets and drawers don’t look as amazing as the pantry that Kristen did with the help of the beautiful Container Store pieces, but I have a wish list for some more pretty bins and drawer organizers so it will one day! I think the biggest benefit to having Kristen help us is she showed me what could be. If everything in my whole house had a place like everything in the pantry does; it not only would be beautiful, more importantly I think we would all feel more calm.
This is something I’ve always known to be true, but have always been overwhelmed on how to get there. Especially with toddlers, and full time jobs. I always think, my house will be organized when they are older. I am challenging myself now to create a little more order and to start small. Yes, our house will be messy, it will never be perfect, but what if I taught my girls an organization habit at a young age? That’s what gets me even more motivated to start this now and create healthy habits for the whole family. Who is with me!?
XO – Megs
