The Dinner Project

I love summer! For me, it's the perfect time to get into some projects that I wouldn't have time to do during the school year. One of my projects this summer is dinner. Yep, dinner. For the past few months I have been in a serious dinnner rut! Cooking the same boring meals over and over again. I read an article here that inspired me to do a little better. After all, as a mother, nourishing my family's bodies, minds and spirits is my job!

So here's my plan of action. First, make a plan! I will admit to being a planner and a lover of lists. Whenever I start a project such as something related to a church calling or a home-improvement project, the first thing that I do is do some research, make a list and write down a plan of action. But I realized that when it came to my family responsibilites, I lacked that organization and waited for things to happen on their own. So I decided to approach dinner as I would any other project. ON PAPER! I started writing down a menu plan for the week. This is not a revolutionary new idea, but it has revolutionized meals at our house. I have found that when I cook from a menu plan, our grocery bill goes down. I avoid the temptation to grab something from a drive-thru because it's late and I don't know what to cook. It also makes grocery shopping more efficient when I am buying ingredients specific to upcoming meals instead of whatever sounds good. By looking at a whole week of meals I can keep them a little more balanced between hot and cold meals, carbs and protein, etc. It keeps things from getting boring.

But the biggest advantages have come from posting the menu where everyone can see it. Posting a list of breakfasts and lunches as well as dinners keeps the kids from eating cereal and ramen noodles every day this summer. (Not that there's anything wrong with cereal and ramen noodles! :) ) Posting the menu also makes me more accountable to following the plan. If the rest of my family knows what I plan to make for dinner, I have found that I am much less likely to cop out and go with something quick and easy. But what I have discovered is that the menu makes so many dishes quick and easy. By planning ahead, I have all the ingredients I need. I know to get meat out of the freezer in the morning so it has time to thaw. I can cook or grill some items ahead of time so I'm not cooking in the hottest part of the day.

In deciding what to cook for dinner, this system has been helpful. I usually go with one Mexican meal, one Italian meal, one grilled meal, one sandwich/salad meal, a crock pot meal for Sunday, and one wild card meal. This leaves one night of the week open for leftovers or a date night for mom and dad.

Like I said, there are no new ideas here. But is has been amazing the difference this has made for me, so I thought I would share. I've also tried to incorporate some new recipes into our menu. The idea is to get my kiddos to try some new things and to get me to try some new ways of cooking. I've found that they're not as time consuming or as complicated as I thought. We are slowly getting out of the rut!


Here are the new recipes we tried last week. You can click on the recipe name for a link to the recipes.



South of the Border Sandwiches These were a hit with everyone at my table and easy to customize to everyone's tastes.









Chicken Lo Mein This was really easy to make and seemed very "internatonal". Now I have sesame oil and oyster sauce in my pantry!




Smashed Potatoes The biggest hit yet! I wish I would have made more as everyone was wanting seconds. I used green onions instead of the fresh herbs and added some grated cheddar cheese during the last few minutes of baking.

A Breath of Fresh Air

These days it seems like my parenting methods are a mixed bag of tricks. The ages of our four children divide them into two groups: the olders and the youngers. What works in motivating and disciplining the olders doesn't work with the youngers, and vice verse. Which means I'm constantly shifting my tactics. Which sometimes gets tiring!

This morning, I announced to Mr. E (one of the youngers) that he would be starting piano lessons today. He froze in his tracks and yelled, "WWWWHHHHAAATTTT?" Oh great, I thought. Here we go. Time for me to give him the "sometimes we have to do things that we don't want to do but if we stick with it it could turn out great and we might like it and even if we don't like it we still have to do it" speech that I have gotten really good at thanks to many years of practice with the olders. But then a big smile flashed across Mr. E's face and he yelled, "THAT IS AWESOME!!!!" Oh yeah... he's a younger! He gets excited about trying new things. It's been awhile, I must have forgotten!

Thanks for the reminder, Mr. E.

Time flies...

I was looking at a friend's blog and saw my blog name her list of blogs that she reads. And underneath my blog name it said "6 months ago." Holy cow! I haven't posted for 6 months. It's time to get myself in gear because I miss it. So I figure that if I say it here, then I'm committed. More to come.

Monday Night Brushstrokes: Thoughts on Leopards and Fat Turkeys

Here are some things that I want to remember about Family Home Evening last night.

It was Mr. E's turn to do the music. He loves to choose the songs and does a good job directing them. He is especially good at the wide armed cut-offs at the end. He forgot the name of the song that he wanted to sing so he stood up front of the room while we all rattled off the names of every possible song we could think of, with no success. He kept insisting that the song was in "the little songbook with all of the colored pages." Hymnbook? No. Primary songbook? No. It was one of those moments when as a parent you know you should put your foot down and say, "All right. Enough of this. Just pick a song so we can sing already" But you also know that saying this will ruin any chance of anyone feeling the spirit and you'll have a REALLY grumpy little person for the whole rest of the time. But he finally agreed to let his sister pick the song. And he still ended up grumpy for the whole rest of the time.

The lesson was taught by PC, twelve years old. It was on gratitude. His words are in quotations, my thoughts are in parenthesis.
"You have to get gratitude out of your mind." (ok, what??????)
"I mean gratitude can't just be in your head. You have to get it out of your head." (still not clear buddy, keep going...)
"I mean you have to get gratitude out of your head and into your mouth." (oh, I see where you are going with this but try again)
"It's like that guy in Stake Conference said. You can't just have gratitude in your head. You can't just think that you are grateful for something. It doesn't count if you just think it and keep it in your head. You have to say it. If you don't say it then you aren't really grateful at all." (Wow, you were paying attention in Stake Conference. Good job.)

This thought was followed by the story of the Ten Lepers. After we convinced Mr. E that this wasn't a story about leopards, PC told the story. Then he asked PK, fifteen years old, what the nine lepers did. His answer: "They took off and said, 'See ya, we're out of here!' " (ok, try again....) "I mean they didn't really say that but they were probably so excited about being healed that they only thought about themselves and left, you know, being so excited, and only thinking about themselves. (There we go. Good job.)

Closing song was by Mr. E. As I mentioned before. it's serious business when it's his turn to do the music. So we let him choose the song and then we go with it. This time is was no exception. We sang the traditional Thanksgiving hymn: "Five fat turkeys are we. We slept all night in a tree. When the cook came around, we couldn't be found. And that's why we're here you see." Look for it in the next edition of the hymn book. I'm sure it will be included. We sing it every year.

All of this was pretty typical for FHE at our house which is why it makes me laugh. It never goes as planned, there are always a few disagreements and usually a quarrel or two. Someone is always "reassigned" to a different place to sit. A lesson is always presented but not always heard, least of all thought about and understood by all. One of the adults usually raises their voice at least once and the following phrases can be heard every week: "Sit up." "Sit still." "Don't touch your brother." "Are you even singing?" "Put that toy away until we're done." "You are this close to loosing your treat."

Which is why I love this quote by Elder Bednar:
"Sometimes Sister Bednar and I wondered if our efforts to do these spiritually essential things were worthwhile. Now and then verses of scripture were read amid outbursts such as 'He’s touching me!' 'Make him stop looking at me!' 'Mom, he’s breathing my air!' Sincere prayers occasionally were interrupted with giggling and poking. And with active, rambunctious boys, family home evening lessons did not always produce high levels of edification. At times Sister Bednar and I were exasperated because the righteous habits we worked so hard to foster did not seem to yield immediately the spiritual results we wanted and expected.

Today if you could ask our adult sons what they remember about family prayer, scripture study, and family home evening, I believe I know how they would answer. They likely would not identify a particular prayer or a specific instance of scripture study or an especially meaningful family home evening lesson as the defining moment in their spiritual development. What they would say they remember is that as a family we were consistent.

Sister Bednar and I thought helping our sons understand the content of a particular lesson or a specific scripture was the ultimate outcome. But such a result does not occur each time we study or pray or learn together. The consistency of our intent and work was perhaps the greatest lesson—a lesson we did not fully appreciate at the time.

In my office is a beautiful painting of a wheat field. The painting is a vast collection of individual brushstrokes—none of which in isolation is very interesting or impressive. In fact, if you stand close to the canvas, all you can see is a mass of seemingly unrelated and unattractive streaks of yellow and gold and brown paint. However, as you gradually move away from the canvas, all of the individual brushstrokes combine together and produce a magnificent landscape of a wheat field. Many ordinary, individual brushstrokes work together to create a captivating and beautiful painting.

Each family prayer, each episode of family scripture study, and each family home evening is a brushstroke on the canvas of our souls. No one event may appear to be very impressive or memorable. But just as the yellow and gold and brown strokes of paint complement each other and produce an impressive masterpiece, so our consistency in doing seemingly small things can lead to significant spiritual results. “Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great” (D&C 64:33).

I am so grateful that he was inspired to give us that counsel. That it's ok if Mr. E thinks we learned about leopards. And it's ok that we sang about fat turkeys. Because I know that the leopards and the fat turkeys and even the constant pleas for sitting still are brushstrokes of yellow and gold and brown that will hopefully produce the masterpiece of my life.

(And if anyone has any idea of what "the little songbook with all of the colored pages" is, will you please let me know??)

Deja Vu

This is my view from my recliner. I really don't have much to say about this other than this is what is going on in my life and I need to document it. Most people who know me also know that I fell and broke my ankle 2 and a half years ago. I was still experiencing pain and swelling and after some further testing we found out that the broken bones did not heal together as they should have. The technical term is "non-union." I guess I am stubborn all the way down to my bones. The problem with non-union, other than pain and swelling, was that the borken bones were constantly moving and shifting, causing some other problems in the joint. So the next step was to go back in and do a bone graft in the space between the broken bones. Some joint work was also needed to tighten up the loose and damaged joint. Surgery was three weeks ago. According to the surgeon, it went well and I have every reason to expect a complete recovery and 100% use of my ankle in a year from now. I was very happy that we decided to do it because there was more damage inside than was originally predicted. So now another recovery begins. The first week was pretty dicey as I depended a lot on some heavy pain medications. Thankfully that part is over and I'm slowly adding some normal back into my days. It's always a wonder how you learn to appreciate little bits of normal. I won't be walking or driving for at least another month, maybe longer. I hesitate to wish time away but I hope the next month flies by.

We have been so blessed by the many, many kindnesses shown to us. It has been such a blessing to witness daily the kindess and goodness of family, friends, neighbors and ward members. I really do have so much to be thankful for!

Random Acts

Sometimes, even in the craziness of everyday life, little random acts of kindness manage to happen spontaneously. I didn't set this one up or even have to suggest it to either one of these two boys. I felt lucky enough to have a camera close by.


Thanks, guys.

Birth Order and Flossing

I've always been fascinated by birth order and the differences that usually result within a family. I remember writing a paper on it in college. I'm the oldest child in my family and I can say that my life growing up was not the same as my younger siblings. Which is ok, because as I've gotten older I've learned that differences are good. It would be terribly boring to live with carbon copies. I will say that there were some definite perks that came with being the oldest. I got to do everything first. Drive, date, graduate, get married and when I did those things it was a pretty big deal in the family. I got to stay up later than the younger kids, spend more time with friends, along with other privileges that came with the words, "Because she's older." But there were also the disadvantages trailing along with those perks. More responsibility, lots of babysitting, more chores, being told "You need to set an example" and "We expect more of you." And the ever-present request on every road trip, "Lisa, we're almost to the rest area. Help everyone find their shoes." The good and the bad. It's a package deal.

Now that my own little family is complete, I look at my own children and see those same patterns inevitably forming. My oldest feels that I ask way too much of him. I try not to, because I have that oldest child perspective, but sometimes it's just the way it is. And he usually holds the perks over the heads of the younger ones, as well. Then there's my youngest. According to all of his older siblings, he lives a charmed life. I admit, I do spoil him. He's the baby, and holding on to the last things that he does leads to a little bit of spoiling. I still rock him to sleep if he wants me too because there is no other younger child needing my attention. He gets away with more because he is just so dang cute. There are definite perks to being the baby. But then there's the disadvantages. Like when he was a baby and hardly ever got a good afternoon nap because he was in the car with me running the older kids around. I don't take him to the doctor as often or make sure he washes his hands as often or wears a jacket as often, just because my parenting style has definitely relaxed a little bit. He didn't get to nurse as long because I got busy and he spent a lot more time with babysitters because I was working. Looking back on his six years, I've sometimes felt guilty that I was not the doting mother with my last child that I was with my first child. But my life is not the same as it was and I'm definitely busier than I was. My husband asked me a little while ago if the kids had been flossing their teeth. It was an innocent question, not meant to be accusatory at all. But it was a stressful day and I nearly came unglued. I wanted to say, (but thankfully didn't), "Flossing? I've made sure they are fed, rested, bathed, dressed, brushed, washed, wiped, and hopefully taught and loved. When am I supposed to get to flossing?????" Life definitely gets fuller as time goes on and life for the first child is definitely different that life for the last. And that's ok. Good and bad. It's a package deal.

But what goes around comes around. Today I took the last child to the dentist. Turns out he has 8 cavities. Eight! I asked the dentist why he would have so many when my other children have all had really healthy teeth. His answer, "Lack of flossing."