Homeschool Lunches

Have I told you that we started homeschooling this year? My son is 11 and daughter is 8 next week. So when we started homeschooling, I realized we would need LUNCHES at home, too. Another meal to plan! I've tried planning lunches, but it seems to just work better to have several "staples" on hand and make whatever I feel like each afternoon. My thing is "soup and sandwiches" for lunch for the kids. That can take on many faces! I try to have a fruit and veggie and sandwich and soup. It rarely works that way! I often eat leftovers from dinner for my lunch.

I LOVE my dinnerware pattern from 1990. It is Dansk "Fransk" (nice that it rhymes!) in Blanc. I would choose it all over again 20+ years later. Of course, my pattern was discontinued years ago. A new cereal bowl at replacements.com is $59.99. Sigh. We've broken several dishes in the past few months so I was looking at prices online to replace those that have passed on. (I practically have a funeral when they break!! Sick.) It is getting to the point that by the time we're eating dinner, there aren't enough dishes because I've used them all up during a busy day at home.

In an effort to reduce the use on my dishes, I found these at Target yesterday. My new LUNCH DISHES! I love them-plastic and indestructable! I bought 2 floral and 2 stripe (they actually came with a lid). This will save on several plates used during the day. :)

So today's lunch was a SOUR nectarine (so disappointing!), sandwich (Sarah gets a CHOCOLATE Nutella sandwich on Fridays, but the other days she chooses between PB&J and meat-n-cheese). Daniel only eats PB&J. He likes noodle soup and she doesn't. We don't have chips very often but this week they get a serving with lunch.

I just want you to know that I sound organized only out of necessity!! The things I do everyday need some kind of systemization...for sanity. And every little thing that gets systemized isn't a problem anymore and then I systematize something else and now I have a home of systems! I love that!

SO-I have a question for you-what do YOU do with your broken dishes? I keep thinking someone out there might want the gorgeous materials for mosaics or something. I could toss it all in a flat rate box and mail it to someone. How do you recycle broken dishes? Please leave comments below, thanks!

My Meal Planning Organization Philosophy

After I started my self-education in January I started getting curious about recipes-online. When I saw a pretty picture of food I thought I might like, I printed it out on a full sheet of blank paper.

This helped me start a notebook of possible recipes to fill in those days with no ideas.

There are so many different SIZES of paper and index cards. I just pulled the plug on the insanity and decided to organize everything on 8 1/2"x11" blank paper-hurrah! What to do:

1-purchase a ream of blank computer paper
2-purchase a box of 100 semi-heavy clear page protectors (don't bother with the flimsy cheap ones, they rip!)
3-purchase 2 at least 1" 3-ring binders

This will allow you to have a RECIPE BOOK for your favorites (tape those index cards from your recipe box on a blank sheet and put in a page protector-or better yet, copy the card onto a document and print it out-then toss the card in the recycle bin!) Your 2nd binder is your "home" for your planning sheets...I keep my main monthly plan in a page protector where I can add to it and reference it for grocery lists, blank plans and blank grocery sheets in this binder. I also put recipes for the month into this binder. So now you have a RECIPE BINDER and a MEAL PLANNING BINDER. All nice and tidy and in one place...my cookbooks (all 3!) are on the same shelf with the binders.

I have friend who have shelves and shelves of cookbooks. Might  I suggest SELLING them on eBay?! There's so many, many recipes to be found online, why waste your shelf spacing STORING cookbooks? Put your favorite recipes into your binder and get rid of the rest of the cookbooks! (Unless a book has many favorite recipes, then I suppose it would be worth keeping).

Finally-A Month Of Meals!

John started a new job recently. At John's old job, he stayed late at work Mondays and Thursday nights, so I did hot dogs and macaroni & cheese for a quick dinner for the kids since he wasn't home. When I started planning meals, I only did Tuesday and Wednesday because we had our Tuesday group and on Wednesdays we went to church. So though time was tight, we had family dinners two nights per week. I soon added Saturday and Sunday to my plan because, well, we need to eat dinner on those days, too!

So I just recently finished my MONTH! WOW, all these meals are real meals that I would eat!

Now that John is working a new job (very close to home!) he is home every night for family dinner! This has been a life dream of mine...family dinners! I'm pinching myself! Not only is John HOME at dinnertime but I have dinner ready! Mind-boggling the transformation I've gone through! Thanks to Lifestyle of Learning!

A practical note: I've been using blank paper and a 3-ring binder for my planning. It is SO much easier to keep things simple...from my planning sheet to my grocery shopping list to printing out recipes from the web...FORGET 4"x6" recipe cards! I have found if I keep everything the SAME SIZE, my life is just BETTER!