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Every day just before suppertime I realized I had done it again! Spent an entire busy day having no idea what we would be eating when I got home from work - although it had crossed my mind about 15 times… I needed to figure out what to eat tonight!
I picked up the kids from school and the drive home was full of competing little voices, I noted the quiet child staring off into space, barely responding to questions… Is she tired? Did something happen at school? Waiting for a quiet moment to jump in?? I made a mental note to check in with her at home. Another child let me know they had to make a model of a city so we had to stop at the dollar store for props and glue.
My cell rang. It was my husband, “Hey can you pick up some new boot liners for me? Mine have holes and I won’t be in town before the stores close. I am going to need to wear the liners tonight while watching for coyotes. Hey, what’s for supper by the way?”
What’s for supper?? Oh man! I really needed to make a plan quick. The kids were asking me too.
As I drove past the feed supply store I remembered my chickens were almost out of feed and the cats' food was low as well. Another stop before supper.
The teenager piped up with nervous excitement, “I can’t wait for volleyball tryouts tonight. I need to get on the team!”
Right! I had seen it on the calendar this morning but had already forgotten. Gahhh! What would I do for supper?!
It was a long day and it would still be going - for many hours…. I made one more stop at Subway and got everyone subs, blowing the weekly budget allotment for groceries by half in one meal.
A couple hours later… as we got home from volleyball tryouts and my husband came in from hunting, I noticed that my quiet child was still being extra withdrawn. I hadn’t yet made time to connect! I had to prioritze that. My child who was making the model of the city needed some help with one wall and a couple signs for their city. I would have to help with that before bed.
Then the chorus started to ring out, “What is there to eat?”
“Can we have popcorn?”
“I’m hungry.”
…and I hadn’t even had a breather since 6 a.m. this morning.
Why were they always so hungry?? Feeding them was going to be the end of me! I loved to cook and bake. But it was a never ending cycle and I didn’t feel like I had time or energy for it.
The dishes from breakfast and from making lunches this morning were still out on the counter. The plates from the subs too.
The dishwasher was on the fritz… had been for 6 months. I hadn’t assigned the dishwashing tonight because it had been non-stop crazy.
I found a half overripe cantaloupe in the fridge, cut off the spoiled parts and served the rest. Pulled out some stale taco chips scooped a spot of mold off the jar of salsa from the back of the fridge, put them out for the family, and hoped they wouldn’t notice anything.
I was exhausted and wired at the same time, my brain making a mental list of what still had to be done before bedtime including me writing a report for work and probably doing a bit of laundry. I sniffed a couple of the kids’ heads. Showers could wait for another day or so.
Probably no one else would get that close to them anyway. First things first… my quiet child, had to get her alone and see if she was ok…
My husband walked by and squeezed my bum and said he couldn’t wait until bedtime, winking at me. “Could you make me a tea?” as he sat in his lounge chair. I nearly exploded on him. But that wasn’t fair because he had no idea what my day had been like, plus, the kids didn’t need an explosion. Some of them were clearly getting tired as well.
None of my other friends kept their little ones up so late. But with so many people in the house to sort out, I couldn’t just drop everything for bedtime for the littles. Plus, the rest of us bigs would still be up for a couple hours doing all the things we needed to do.
Sigh, something had to change. A lot of ‘somethings’.
As I told the kids it was time to brush their teeth, one of the kids said, “I’m hungry though.” Had it really been that long since our last lame snack?? Yep, two hours ago. After digging around for a bit, throwing some overripe bananas in the freezer and tossing slimy cucumbers in the chicken pail I found a part bag of trail mix and cut up a wrinkled red pepper to share amongst the starving children.
Shoot! We still hadn’t packed lunches for tomorrow!! By then, it was so late I couldn’t ask the kids to even help because it was 10 p.m.!
I wanted to cry. My mind was screaming
“I….don’t……think……I…..can…….do…….this…..anymore!”
“Mom,” one little called from their bedroom, “don’t forget to sign my permission slip for the nature walk tomorrow!”
Which reminded the teenager to yell, “Oh yeah! Can you switch my volleyball shorts and kneepads into the dryer? Tryouts continue tomorrow!”
My husband calls from the bedroom, ‘Hey, you coming to bed soon?”
10:30 p.m. on a school/work night and I still had hours of work to do.
Could I just run away? Maybe everyone will figure out how to contribute and plan ahead and get it together without me, because clearly I was not helping anyone, not even myself to get it together!
Ok, deep breath. There had to be something I could do proactively about the meals and snacks my family needed. That would eliminate one big pressure point!
I promised myself, “This weekend, I am going to figure this out! There has to be a better way!”
Enter, Meal Planning!
On Saturday after breakfast, I got out some lined paper and a pencil and recruited the family to give me ALL their favorite meal ideas. The teenager was assigned to google ideas. I wrote headings at the top of the paper.
Breakfasts, Lunches, Snacks, and Suppers. I told the family we would not leave the table until we had 10 to 15 ideas that at least SOME of the family liked under each category.
Once we filled the page, I grabbed a second piece of paper and wrote out a little chart of the foods we would be eating and when for the next 7 days.
I sent kids to check ingredients for each menu item. Do we have cheese? Nope. Ketchup? Yes. Onions? Yes. Garlic powder? Nope.
A list came together.
I made a fancy coffee and drove to town with the older kids and we tackled the grocery list while I sipped my coffee like a classy woman who had it all together, even though I was wearing ratty yoga pants and a stained sweatshirt - because you know what? Taking charge of this one small but significant area of our lives gave me a piece of sanity and a sense of hope and victory!
For the moment, I didn’t care that I was way behind on laundry, floors needed vacuuming, emails were backed up and chicken barn needed cleaning… because for the first time in a long time, I felt confident that my family would be well fed without me losing my mind a dozen plus times all week long!
Conquering this one little mountain made me feel like a great mom and like I would have space for some of the other super important priorities in my life - like my quiet child who had still not really opened up to me in the craziness of our busy lives.
I stuck that little chart with the plan of 7 days of meals and snacks, on the side of the fridge. Each morning I peeked at the chart and pulled meat out for supper.
If someone asked me what we were eating for supper, what they could put in their lunches or what they could snack on, I told them to consult the chart. When I was running late at work, I would let a child or my husband know to check the chart and get the food started.
At the risk of sounding dramatic, having a meal plan for the week was absolutely life changing for me.
It was humble beginnings, a binder and lined paper (which I eventually rewrote and put in a page protector.) But it made all the difference!
After a few years of Meal Planning I got really creative and made a cute Meal Plan Board in a picture frame. (took me days... I am not a quick crafter.)
I keep it in an obvious spot so any of us can check it anytime.
To get started in your own meal planning journey, here are a few tools you might find helpful.
These inexpensive 4 cup containers are perfect for storing leftovers, prepping food in advance, freezing the doubles. They are microwave, dishwasher and freezer safe, stack nicely and perfect for giving to someone who needs a meal and you don’t need the container back. Click the photo to view.
Here is a cute dry erase Menu Plan Board to stick on your fridge. Having ours on our fridge in plain sight made it easy for both me and my family to know what delicious options we had for the day! Click to view.
Eek! I am sooo pumped. I have my first workbook available on Amazon! You can purchase a complete Meal Planning Workbook from me. Everything you need to get started and stick with Meal Planning! Click to view.
OR if you don't want to wait for a copy to come in the mail, then you can download the Meal Planning Workbook immediately by purchasing it here! Click to view.
Coming Soon!
To get on the waiting list for my upcoming training on 6 Steps to Easy Meal Planning for Overwhelmed, Working Moms, sign up here! (It will be an "on demand" course so you can move through at your own pace! Pre-register me for the course!
You will not be charged anything yet. You will just be on the list to be first to know when the course is open!
With this course, you will end the relentless question of "What is there to eat?". Have a ready answer for "What is for supper?" You have so much on your "plate" and you and your family need to eat multiple times each day. Having a meal plan removes stress off your shoulders all week long so you can focus on the other priorities in your life.
During the course you will:
- Create your master template to refer to weekly to make meal planning QUICK! (Cheat sheets included)
- Find secret pockets of time to plan weekly
- Create a meal plan your family will love in just a few minutes (PDF Template included)
- Create a simple menu board that you can refer to all week long
- Collect all the tips and tricks for how to actually follow through with the meal plan you create
- Equip yourself with efficient grocery lists and effective grocery shopping experiences
- Receive a full week's meal plan all put together for you (different from the free downloadable on my page)
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