Monthly Dinner Schedule 2

Last week I talked about going to the grocery store. I ended it by saying I had some other thoughts. I also want to explain a few things.

I had in bold print  that Family night and Date night needs to go on the calendar in ink. After getting married in May of 1979 Kev and I moved to Marin County, California. Kev was going to seminary at Golden Gate Seminary. We would have Queen's night on the calendar written in pencil. Many times it would get removed to put something else there. It took us awhile to learn to treat this like any other meeting or appointment. We still have things that trump it but they are things like weddings, funerals, and occasional work related dates that can't be moved for any reason like when I was the owner of a florist - weddings, prom, Mother's Day, Valentines's Day, etc. When making your appointments with a client tell them the same thing you would if it were another client's appointment on the calendar on that date.

Take it from me, my daughter is married and living 12 1/2 hours away, children grow up faster than you think.
 
Back to grocery day. Okay you are at the store and coming up to the cashier. This part also takes a little planning but you will be happy you did it when you get home.

Only you know how your cabinets are organized. We have cans on a shelf, boxes on another shelf, etc. We put items in the buggy and on the conveyer belt like they will go in the cabinet. We like to bag our own groceries if we have the choice. If someone else does the bagging watch to see if something needs to be fixed before taking them in the house. Take the bags in the house and put them at the cabinet, freezer, etc where they are to go. Putting away is much easier and at this point you are tired.

 Cold things for the freezer go together, cold things for the refrigerator go together. Our freezer is in the basement. We don't want to have to go back through all the bags to find what goes in the freezer. And we definitely do not want to find something later in the freezer, that should have been in the refrigerator. I know we would be frustrated if it was time to sit down at the table and the sour cream for the  tacos had accidentally made it to the freezer.

Here's what we did with the 10 pounds of ground beef we cooked and packaged. We would sometimes go ahead and add the taco seasoning to some of it and  label those packages "Tacos". I like to freeze the bags of ground beef flat. Then I stand them up like file folders. Write on the top what is in the bags. Same with cooked (Grilled, baked, fried) chicken breasts, pork chops, green beans, strawberries, etc. They are easier to get out and have less chance of freezing in a stack and unable to get out without poking a hole in one. Of course somethings go in the way they are packaged.

The other ground beef if it needed onions added, Who ever was cooking would sauté' onions and garlic with olive oil and then add the package of ground beef from the freezer.

We have a stand up freezer. We have beef, chicken & turkey, venison on shelves and one shelf is Misc. like ice cream, strawberries, string beans, cup cakes from our daughter's wedding, etc.

We didn't start out having all these things figured out. We learned what worked for us by trial and error. We did the same thing you are doing, looking for ideas wherever we could. Well, we didn't have the technology of today but we listened to other people talk about what they did, read books and magazines. Try not to get overwhelmed. Pray for God to let you pick out the things that are right for your family and not to stress over the things that aren't.

I like jalapeños and pickles. If you buy the large size, it costs just a little more and you get a lot more product. I put jalapeños and pickles in canning jars. Those go in the door of the refrigerator. The large jars go in the very back of the refrigerator. This helps in two ways. It saves money and it keeps food from going to the back of the refrigerator never to be seen again until it is unrecognizable. Not that we've every had anything come out of the refrigerator that we looked at it and said,"What do you think this was?" (haha)

Another little tip is that Duke's mayonnaise jar lids fit regular canning jars. Put the little disk on the jar, if you want, then use the plastic jar lid to close the jar. I also use canning jars in the refrigerator for left overs. You can see through them, you can heat food in the microwave (take off the lid) and they clean up better (no grease residue).

Institutional (Restaurant) Size

Have a Great Day, and Happy Shopping,
Mama D

Phil. 4:12 (NIRV) I know what it's like not to have what I need. I also know what it's like to have more than I need. I have learned the secret of being content no matter what happens. I am content whether I am well fed or hungry. I am content whether I have more than enough or not enough.

2 Month Dinner Schedule

     The other day one of my daughter's best friends posted that she goes to the grocery store several times a week. I sent a comment telling her about a two month dinner calendar that we used to go by.
      Arielle said, "Mom that's what you need to put in your blog." So I started looking through my tubs of things to one day put in scrap books. Ha! I found it. Here's a picture of that dinner schedule.

2 Month Dinner Schedule

       When Arielle was little, I would pick her up from her sitter and meet her dad at a fast food restaurant. He would go off to a meeting and we would go grocery shopping. She had a little pink plastic grocery cart. I would tell her something on the list that was near the floor and let her put it in her cart. When her cart would get full I would take something out and put it in my cart to make more room in her cart. You are probably thinking that will take a lot more time! You are right it took a lot more time. We had fun and she wasn't fighting to go, the whole time I was shopping. Remember I had worked all day and she had been at the sitters all day. We were both tired and anything to make shopping fun took a little stress off both of us. If you plan on grocery shopping being fun it will be. If you are stressed and in a hurry when you go in, why are you surprised when you come out more stressed. Add a child to that mix and you have a nightmare. Make it fun! Plan it. Don't go when you are tired and frustrated. And if you are, tell your child, "Mom (or dad) is tired, we are only going to get what we need and then I will let you pick out the fruit. So you be thinking of the fruit you want." During the trip through the isles ask them if they can find the "whatever" before you do. (Let them win sometimes. Not always because you don't want them to think they will always win at everything.)

 

     When Arielle was in the first grade we moved to King William, VA. I used to say we lived in Egypt. There were no chain grocery stores nearby. The closest was about 20 miles away. At first I wasn't working outside the home so I would go shopping while Arielle was in school. After I got a job, grocery shopping was a nightmare. I couldn't seem to schedule it every week at the same time. Bless his heart, Kev married a lady that likes routine and lists.  And if you are married to a minister you know routine isn't always a given.  Kev would pick up things on his way home from the hospital or his minister's meeting on Mondays.  That was great help. I started to notice every time one of us would make a trip to the store we'd buy something we hadn't planned on. If you are on a budget you know those little things add up.

     That's when I came up with the dinner schedule. We went grocery shopping as a family on a Friday night. (The week of an away game) We would have coupons in hand and a grocery list for everything for a month. He had a buggy and so did I. When Arielle was with me, I taught her to read the labels. I would hand her two items and she would have to tell me which one had less calories and then we would decide which one costs the lest. Kev would get the meat and cold stuff.  When Arielle was with her dad they would pick out the breakfast items. He loves oatmeal and so does Arielle, her mom not so much. So they did that isle.

     When we got home we would all help putting the groceries away. I'm not saying this was without stress but it was a two day process instead of a once or twice a week process. 

     Saturday morning, Kev put the ground beef in a crock pot and we would start cooking. Kev grilled whatever he could. And then it went to the freezer. When the ground beef was done, we would put it in a metal colluder in the sink and rinse it. Kev was on a diet from the time he was 4 years old. We cut the fat when we could. My dinner plan may not say diet plan to you but we did what we could with the money we had. Some of the recipes are from the Duke Diet and Fitness or other diet recipe book. When the ground beef had cooled off we packaged it in 1 pound packages and labeled them. 

    The roast was venison roast. We had hunters in the church and they would bring us venison (deer meat). It was free and low in fat. Can't beat that! I added beef bouillon, beef stock or beef gravy mix when cooking. We would substitute it for the meat in any recipe we could. We still have people give us venison and we still love it.

    I tried to mix the meals up venison, chicken, beef, pork, etc. Left overs were our lunches unless there was enough left to use for another dinner. Spaghetti sauce turned into sloppy joes, etc.

   Our church had Family night dinners, $3.00 a person and children free. Can't beat that. If your church has Wednesday night dinners consider going. No cooking, one meal you don't have to think up something to eat, or shop for, no clean up and a mid week praise, prayer and study time. Love it!

    Friday night was called Family night in our house. It started out being Queen's night before Arielle was born. Family night when we had kids, now it's called Date night, it's just Kev and I again. It goes on the calendar in ink. It is like any other scheduled meeting!  

    Every other Friday night, Kev would make homemade pizza and we would play a board game together or watch a video. The other Friday we went out.

     I do hope this helps someone. Take my calendar and exchange the meals for meals your family likes. Make a grocery list.

     I have some other thoughts on the subject but this blog is long enough. So until next time start to look at grocery shopping not as a have to but as a get to.

Have a Great Day,

Mama D

Proverbs 22:6 (NIRV) Train a child in the way he should go. When he is old, he will not turn away from it.

Fall From My Front Door

Fall From My Front Door (Before Kev gets to it)

   (Wednesday) On the way home from Hampton, VA we talked several times about how beautiful the trees were.  We love the changing colors. Not so much the cold weather that is coming.
    We went straight to church. Kev lead the Adult Bible Study and I am on the team leading our children and youth with the Christmas Play.
    When we got home Kev commented on the leaves. We couldn't really see them but we could feel them under our feet. I said,"They feel cushiony." He said, something like, "ugh".

    The next day when Kev was leaving for church, I went out to pray him away. Praying for Kev when he leaves the house has been something I've tried to do for years. I also try to meet him at the door when he gets home. I'm without a job at this point in my life so I get to do it everyday. If you don't pray your spouse or kids away I suggest you try it. My prayer is that God will protect him. That he will have a good day and get the things he needs to get done, done and that he will love me and God more when he gets home than he did when he left. 

    As we were going out the door, He made that noise again. Then he said, "Look at all those leaves!" I said, "I know aren't they beautiful. It's fall." He was not as impressed with our leaves as he was the ones we watched fall the other day. He said, "That's because they were in someone else's yard."
 This is an area we have had to learn to agree to disagree. So I look at them, and walk around in them until he blows them to the borders. I just love the sound of crunching leaves.
   
    (Saturday) Kev has blown the leaves into the border. Sandy (our pug pomeranian) loves it because that is where she likes to go potty. Sandy and I went for our morning walk down the road in the neighborhood Monday morning, I walked through the leaves on the road. I kicked some over to the side of the road. It was fun! I may be old(er) but I still love the sound leaves make when you walk through them.
     Glad I took the time to walk through the leaves yesterday. The rain came and took that beautiful sound away. Kev is glad he got to the leaves before it rained. It's all good!

Have a Great Day!
Mama D

Deuteronomy 11:14a (NIRV) Then the Lord will send rain on your land at the right time. He'll send rain in the fall and in the spring...
 
 
   

My first Baptist General Association of Virginia Annual Meeting

     Kevin and I spent the last few days at the BGAV (Baptist General Association of Virginia) Annual Meeting. It was held in Hampton, Virginia. This was my first time being able to go to the Minister's Conference with him. I usually have to work.
    The first night there was a Pastor's Conference. It was held at Freedom Life Church. Pastor Freddy Villarreal and Campus Pastor Cyon Edgerton were so gracious.  They and the volunteers from their congregation were a joy to be with. I was at the Reception table greeting the pastors. I loved meeting my husband's colleagues, some I've met before and some this was the very first time.
     Gary Nelson from Toronto, Canada was the speaker both for the Pastor's conference and the Associational Annual Meeting. I told Kevin that I liked him. He was real. He mixed scripture and personal stories together in a way that was both enjoyable and challenging.

Gary Nelson and Kevin Moen

  There were a couple of Break out sessions. My first one was on Children's Ministry. One of the ideas that the leader gave us was about a church that was discouraged that the children they picked up for VBS didn't come back to church until the next year's VBS. Because the parents didn't go to church they felt it wouldn't be good to pick up a lot of children and have no guidance for them. Can you image 20 unchurched children loose in your halls? That is stuff of nightmares, but so is 20 churched children loose in your halls.
      The church decided the solution wasn't to forget about them. But to pair each child with a "foster grandparent or parent". Each child had an adult assigned to them. That adult agreed to send the child a card every month and a gift on their birthday. They also watched over the child during the service. This wasn't said but I would be surprised if those "foster parent/grandparents" didn't pay for some outings or camps. Makes my heart leap just to think of it.
   
     My second Break Out session was on the use of Social Media. WOW! Let me just say I bought the book. #Going Social by Terrace Crawford. I have Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and this BLOG. I'm getting pretty good at FaceBook, but I'm no expert at any of it. And an hour breakout session just isn't enough time for me to learn everything I want to know about Going Social.
      I want to understand this new (to me) Social age and use it for Kingdom Growth. I'm a teacher for a children's Sunday School class(1st - 5th grades) and Children's Church (Kindergarden - 5th grade), I also help the Audio visual team when needed. Technology isn't new to me, I learned to use a computer for computer drafting in the early 80's. My first computer weighed 800 lbs. The floor had holes in the tiles for the air conditioning to come through. If I wanted to work on a project from the previous week I had to give the file name to a tech and he got the reel from the vault and reloaded it. Technology changes, and the changes are mind boggling.
     Just a few years later, my husband and I struggled with whether to buy our daughter a computer or the new Nintendo for Christmas. Remember our daughter is now grown and married. She wanted a Nintendo. But we couldn't afford both. The deciding factor was one weekend our daughter was visiting a friend that had a Nintendo or some electronic game. Arielle put her book down and didn't pick it back up until she left. Our daughter was an avid reader and always had a book. We bought the computer. She was upset at first but she got to where she was very good at the computer. Once when Arielle was in I think, the fifth grade, a teacher was having a meltdown because she thought she had lost all the grades she had just entered. Arielle found them.
     Parents need to be parents. Your children are sometimes going to be upset at you for making the choices you do. My daughter told me more than once she hated me. I told her that's okay. I'm the mama and it is my job to keep you safe until you are on your own. And if that means you hate me so be it but I love you!
     In this day and age it is not uncommon for children to have cell phones, iPads, etc. I can see the logic behind that in some cases like calling to let you know where they are, or that they need a ride. I think if Arielle was young now I would still be that over protective mom and would be monitoring it. I think it would be better to have Arielle mad at me. Instead of in trouble or even bullied by someone and struggling with that on her own.

    As my husband would say, I saw that rabbit and just ran with it.

 

Have a Great Day,
Mama D

Hebrews 11:8 (NIRV) Abraham had faith. So he obeyed God. God called him to go to a place he would later receive as his own. So he went. He did it even though he didn't know where he was going.
(This was the focal passage of the BGAV Annual Meeting Nov. 11 -12, 2014)
 

It's Beginning to look a alot like Christmas

     Yesterday we got a text message from our daughter with a picture of their house at night. It showed the house with Christmas lights. She said they are not finished. They turned them on to see how it was coming. Sorry I'm not posting that picture but I can't spoiled their surprise. It looked beautiful, can't wait to see the finished product.
     You may be thinking it's a little early to be putting up Christmas lights. She said they want to do a little at a time so they don't get overwhelmed.

      When I was in high school my family moved to Gastonia, NC. That's not far from McAdenville, NC. CHRISTMAS TOWN USA. The town is beautiful. Cars line up for miles to get the opportunity to drive through. Others like to walk through.
      When Kevin was in high school his family moved to Richmond, VA. Home of the TACKY LIGHT TOUR. Every year our family would go to Richmond to see the lights. Last year we took our new son in love. My sister told me she likes this title instead of son in law. I agree.
     

Arielle and Jaron in Richmond, VA 

       We don't put up this many lights but we love Christmas. We have put up several trees a year. Arielle had a small one for her room. We had a Family Tree, a Spiral Tree, and a Theme Tree. Our daughter and her new husband are excited to get to decorate their new home.
      Matter of fact, they started planning this before they got married. They got married last New Years' Eve. They had Christmas lights everywhere.  Her dad and I bought as any as we could after Christmas the year before (on Clearance) to have them for her wedding. Some were on the ceiling in the reception hall with a white parachute covering them. There were some on the ground lining the way from Garden City Chapel to the reception hall and then there were more in the chapel hanging behind tulle. Everything was beautiful.
     Now those same Christmas lights will adorn their home. Let the celebration of Christ's birth begin!!!! Go ahead and put out your table nativity.

     Let's not let Santa have two months and Christ just one day!

Have a Great Day!
Mama D,

John 8:12 Then Jesus spoke to them again: "I am the light of the world. Anyone who follows Me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life."

A New Adventure

       Mama D is the name my daughter's friends gave me when she was in college. So I decided to use it for the name of my blog. Arielle has been after me for years to start writing down my thoughts and memories. Now that she is a married woman, I think it's about time for me to stop procrastinating. Arielle suggested I learn to blog.

      The picture above is (from the left) my husband, Kevin; me; Arielle's husband, Jaron and our daughter Arielle. We were at a 49er game last year. The temperature was in the teens so we went bundled in layers, lots of layers. We laughed because we looked like the Michelin man's family. My husband is from the San Francisco area thus the love of the 49ers. Arielle's grandparents gave her, her first 49er Starter jacket when she was one year old. 

        

 Arielle and one of her best friends in middle school

      We had a great time at the game even if we had peanuts thrown at us. Kevin said, "Just ignore them and enjoy the game." Then after the game we went to get a picture of Arielle with her favorite player that was there as an announcer, but were told we couldn't because the game was over and we had to leave. Oh so close! 

     But the negatives were a small part of a great day. We could have focused on them all the way home but instead we got to know our (at that time) soon to be son-in-law.  And he got to get to know Arielle's parents better. (And I would like to say, "He still married her after meeting the parents!")

     Everyday is a new adventure if you let it. Look at the positives, ignore the negatives (forgive)! 

Mama D,

Colossians 3:13

Put up with each other. Forgive the things you are holding against one another. Forgive, just as the Lord forgave you.

Arielle may be sorry she ever suggested her mom start a blog. (haha)