Visualize Whirled Peas

In an effort to organize my life and not despair over grocery shopping, I organized a two week menu rotation and a master shopping list. Each week, I can print off the master list, take it to the kitchen and cross off everything that we already have, and then go shop for the rest. This will help me avoid thinking I have enough of something when I don't or buying double of something I do have.

I planned out the menu because I had to think through what foods are available here, what ones are available but too expensive to eat frequently, and what things might be sometimes available and sometimes not. I wanted to include some good hearty soups and some of the Urianian food we know how to make, but also some of the things I know my kids (and husband) love to eat.

Most people here shop rather frequently, because they want things fresh and have small families and even smaller refrigerators. But I have a hard time getting my head around a weekly shopping trip with children in tow, let alone venturing out every day or two. So I love my menu and list and plan to live by it.

This kind of thing makes me feel so much better. ooohhhhhmmmmm.

Another thing that took a load off my grocery stress is that Calvin kept coming home every day saying how good the cafeteria food looked. Finally I asked if he would just like to buy the school lunch each day. "Yes! That would be AWESOME!"

It's pricier (more pricey?) than school lunch in the States, I think, but it's also about as home-cooked as you can get. I mean, they do lunch right. (They have this thing that little children need warm, hearty food in their tummies, especially when it's cold outside.) Cal gets a main dish (things like meat kabobs or noodles and alfredo sauce), a vegetable side, a piece of fruit, soup if he wants it (they serve soup with every meal - aids digestion, you know), a drink, and a cookie or piece of cake for dessert. And they don't just open big vats of canned crap and warm it up either. It's from scratch. Cal says it's delicious.

That makes me so happy. Because lunch meat for sandwiches is tricky around here. Juice boxes are expensive (his drink bottle leaks). The bread is not so tasty. (I'm about to fix that by becoming a bread making maniac - more on that later.) I have to cut my own carrot sticks (I know, WAAAA!) And once we exhaust our box of Costco snacks, I have no idea what I would send for sides or whatever. I was having to completely re-think my conception of brown bag lunch. So, cafeteria it is.

This also means no more of the Sunday night, "Oh no! We didn't get ____ (fill in the blank) for Cal's lunch tomorrow!"

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.

Home management zen is materializing one task at a time.