A game plan for conquering the chaos

Parenting is hard enough without having to worry about taking out the trash, grocery shopping, sweeping, cleaning bathtubs, folding and putting away laundry, and cooking.  There isn't always a lot to show for my efforts, at least when it comes to the aesthetics of my house.  All of it is daunting most of the time.  I've had days and even weeks when depression creeps in.  I always say, "tomorrow" or "next week" I will finally do X, Y, and Z.  Sometimes I have a few days where I actually accomplish X, Y, and Z.  More often than not, I do not.  But what's important is that I am trying to get back on the horse again.  Having just one week, or heck just one day of accomplishing my little goals is better than nothing!

I'm approximately half way through my pregnancy.  I dare not give specifics on a due date so as to not get pesky texts or messages of "Is the baby here yet" or to get myself stuck on a particular day.  But anyway, approximately half way til ANOTHER mouth, butt, and body (and of course precious blessing) joins our family.  In some ways it will mean slowing down because when you're the food source you can't be hustle and bustling around the house or town.  It will also mean more laundry and less time to do it.  The same mess that our family makes with less time.  More of everything with less time and likely less energy.  Thankfully I am realizing that the way things are going right now won't bode well for my emotional well-being.  I am trying SOOOOOO hard to somehow begin to resume control of the chaos so I can feel better about welcoming our new bundle of joy into our home without fear and anxiety.

I have set some pretty big goals.  And I do realize that I need to break them into smaller goals so I can actually attain what I set out to do.  Here they are:
1)  Prepare meals to freeze for when the baby comes.  Right now 5 seems like a manageable number.
2)  Decide what we will eat for each week.  Currently I have the next two weeks planned.
3)  If I have my meals planned for the week I hope to set aside 1 day during that week to make the meals and freeze them.  It may make for a tricky day, but I think would be worth the trouble and effort.
4)  Return to my "rule of 15s."  Basically this means take 15 minutes each day to do a surface cleaning of a designated area.
5)  Don't let more than 1 load of laundry pile up.  I also need to have a set place where I do the laundry.  Maybe it would also help if I kept laundry separate rather than doing everyone's together.
6)  PURGE!  This is much easier said than done. For example I have 6 or 7 Monopoly games that I bought on sale while I was teaching.  It was a great tool to have.  Do I get rid of all of them but 1?  But what if I go back to teach and no longer have the games?  I guess I could always borrow.
7)  I would also love to have a little bit of structure to my day with the girls: 1 activity (could be as simple as coloring)

So there you have it.

Weight Watcher Meal Planning Part 1, on a budget

I am trying to be get back on track when it comes to shopping with a budget, meal planning, and weight watchers. I've found some great meal planning tools on pintrest, some are very involved.
http://clairsfairytale.blogspot.com/2012/01/ultimate-menu-board.html and http://robbygurlscreations.blogspot.com/2011/05/asian-recipes.html. If I want to stay on the WWs train then I need to pick my recipes, rather than just follow what these girls came up with. Also, my budget is different from theirs.

So I have created a word document and I am making recipe cards. I am going through my WWs cook book and copying the recipes and making changes to the recipes based on our budget, what we typically eat, and changes I usually like to make to the meals. Many of the recipes I go from memory. So I could potentially just put the name of the recipe, but I thought I would include all the information so it could be helpful to others and to help me stay the course with WWs!

This is so time consuming. I've been doing it for over an hour and I only have 10 recipes. My hope is to do all of the recipes that we typically eat. And then I will most likely organize them by category, and then I will create my menu board. Doing all of this should help reduce or at least help control our food budget. One of the keys to not over spending on food is to go to the store a minimal amount of times.

Something else I need to work on with meal planning is thinking beyond just a main dish. Typically the side is an afterthought, if I even have one. It needs to be simple. It would be nice if it's something other than a salad. I do typically have a variety of veggies on hand (broccoli, asparagus, etc) and it's usually easy to roast or steam.

It's after 11pm and I should be in bed. There is still much work to be done on the meal planning. I mean business about this, so I should be back tomorrow to give an update of what I've accomplished! You know what would be great...if I could also include the price of everything. That's a little ambitious. I think for now I should stick to making my recipe cards and then my menu board. The creation of the menu board should be fun as it will entail creativity.