Better Late than Never...Right?

 

 

So...I've been so busy the last few days that I completely missed my deadline for my weekly blog. Oops. Just know that my time was not wasted. Thank you for your patience as you've had to wait a few extra days to read it.

Let's talk shopping

Unfortunately, I don't mean the fun kind of shopping where you get to buy clothes, accessories, or the awesome and fun tools of your trade. I mean grocery shopping (said with a groan). Shopping is the first reason that my blog is late, so I thought it would be a good topic to discuss. As a family of 6, we go through a lot of food. Not as much as we will when the kids are older (another groan), but certainly more than a smaller family does. For a long time, I was making almost daily shopping trips for various things that we needed. I was so tired of this and we were spending so much on food that I decided to make a change. So what did I do? 

At some point in the last 1 - 2 years, I changed from "weekly" (really daily) shopping to monthly shopping with weekly trips for produce and perishables like milk, eggs, and bread. This meant that at the beginning of every month I would sit down and write out the entire meal plan for the month, including sides and desserts. Our meals need to be fairly cheap, well balanced, and kid-friendly so I pretty much rotate between 30 different recipes with variations so it's not entirely boring. Then I would make a list of exactly what we would need for the entire month. I would schedule a pick up at Walmart and Sam's club, adding up the totals to see what we would be spending on groceries that month (I usually add all of my weekly pick-up items into a separate cart to get that total added in as well). If we run out of something before the end of the month, too bad. You'll just have to wait until next month's trip. This hardly ever happens though. Doing it this way means that I can control how much we are spending, I always have what I need, and we always know what we are making for dinner. We also have the option to switch days around if we need to for any reason, we just keep the swap within the calendar week. We also track the switches on our meal plan so that when we have leftovers we know exactly when we ate a particular meal. 

Ok, I am exhausted just from writing all of that. 

If someone knows of an easier and completely free method of doing the meal planning, expense tracking, and grocery shopping, PLEASE share in the comments because I am all for streamlining processes and minimizing work. Work smarter not harder, right? 

The Busy Day(s)

As you can imagine, this takes some time to do. It takes me a couple of hours to do the online shopping between figuring out what I need, looking for the best deals, and compensating for when my favorite things are out of stock. Then it takes me two days to pick up my orders. I go to Sam's one day and Walmart another. Thankfully the hardest part is loading the kids in the car to go to the store and putting the groceries away once we are home. Goodbye to the days when I would have to take all of the kids, unload them from the car, drag them across the parking lot, hope there is an available kid cart, say no to a million of their impulse buy begs, and tell them to put their hands on the cart and to stop kicking each other or touching things on the shelves...phew. (Actually, I didn't mind it that much. My kids behaved themselves really well and it was nice getting out of the house for a bit. But all the same, glad it's over.)

Once I have the groceries at home, I then get to spend hours reorganizing my pantry, 2 refrigerators, and 3 freezers (yup, you read that right!) to fit it all. I also separate my meat into 2 lb portions for meals. If I buy bulk bags of snacks I get to separate those into portion sizes as well. It is exhausting, but then I don't have to think about it for another month, so it is so worth it! So, in summary, grocery shopping takes me 3 straight days to do during which I also have laundry, chores, and work. (Again, I actually don't mind that much. But it is tiring.)

Now, after all of that, I get to deal with the well-known and long-felt pleasure of mealtime with 4 young kids. Imagine, if you will, you have a set of those chomping teeth that vibrate around. It is your very important responsibility to feed it and try to limit the mess it makes and the time it takes to eat as well, all while teaching it manners. That is what dinner feels like with 3 young girls. THEY DON'T STOP TALKING. EVER. Not even to eat. We have taken to setting up a 30-minute timer and whatever they don't eat in that time they get for lunch the next day. It's even more fun when they insist that they do not like the food that they've eaten a million times, or that they need some ranch to make it taste better. The best part is when they remember to ask for salt and pepper and my two year old insists that he needs to put it on himself. Yes, it is adorable! And also very dangerous. Oh, it won't hurt him. But, if you could see the amount of salt they have "accidentally" put on their food...so gross. 

If you are a parent of young kids, let's commiserate together. If you have been through this, enjoy the memories and be glad you are done with this stage. If you don't have kids, enjoy your peace and long productive conversations while they last. And to everyone reading this, no matter what stage you find yourself in, feel free to laugh. During most dinners, Seamus and I find it very hard to correct our children when all we want to do is laugh. They are so stinking cute it makes it hard to teach them everything we should when all we want to do is burst out laughing because our 4-year old announced that she just farted at the table. We just cover our mouths and try to avoid looking at anyone until we are ready to put on our poker face and say "say excuse me next time." 

On the very bright side

I have been working on a new product line for Willowmere Designs! I am so excited to share it with you in the coming month (and just in time for the holidays too!). So get ready for some great gift ideas - even if it is just a gift to yourself. 

Have you been reading my blogs? If so, would you mind leaving a comment below? I'd love to hear your feedback and suggestions. Maybe you approach something differently than I do and you think it could help me or another reader. I'd love to hear it.