Menu Planning Saves My Bacon

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I spent an hour this afternoon working on our menu plan for the next week, and I thought I would share the process with you.  Menu Planning is so easy, and reaps great rewards!  Saves us time and money, encourages good nutrition and cooking skills in my sons, keeps us eating family meals together at home. 

We started Menu Planning when we were young, married professionals.  Whoever got home from work first started dinner.  The Plan got even more important as our family grew, so I never had that sinking feeling at 5 pm that we have nothing to eat for dinner.

My sons help me with the Menu Planning.  For them, it ensures they get at least one of their favorite meals every week, and for me, I know that even my little guy knows how to build a meal, and what is important to daily nutrition.  We need protein, a carb and a fruit or veggie with most meals.  My oldest son mentioned that he and his Boy Scout Patrol were in charge of the menu for their next camping trip, and it was very gratifying to hear his menu, it was actually relatively balanced.    

To start, I sit at my computer, which holds both my calendar and my Menu Planning spreadsheet (just a calendar I made with blanks for dinner).  I look at our schedule for the next two weeks, and note on the Menu Plan any special events I need to cook for (dish to pass for a luncheon), any days we are going out or that I do not need to cook, and special occasions like a birthday or holiday that needs extra attention.   

In the same spreadsheet as my Menu Plan calendar, I have a list of 20 or 30 meals we all will eat, and I rotate them out on a seasonal basis (lots of grilling in the summer, love soups and chilis in the winter, etc.).  I usually just plan the entree for dinner (“lasagna, Crock Pot Pot Roast, Pork Chops”) and keep extra frozen veggies, etc., on hand, but I know some folks who plan the sides and salads (“Pork Chops, mashed potatoes and green beans”) ahead of time, and even breakfasts and lunches.   I also use my planning time as a chance to flip through new recipes I have found, to add to our calendar and perhaps to our repertoire.

We have assigned nights to the calendar:  Mondays – Soups, sandwiches, Tuesday – Italian, Wednesday – Mexican (we could have tacos every day and my family would be happy), Thursday – Grilling, Friday – Pizza.  This means I don’t have to wrack my brain every week to come up with new stuff.  On weekends we try new recipes (like the Chicken and Potato bake that is cooking right now and smells really good!), or I do more elaborate meals and we have folks over for dinner.

While I print up my Menu Plan, I also make out my grocery list.  I try to use up what I have on hand before buying more, so my menu items are often based on what is already in the freezer.  So, before you go shopping, shop your own cabinets first.  This saves me lots of money!  

And with planning,  I can organize my prep work for the menu items, like chopping carrots and pepper in one afternoon to use in two or three meals throughout the week, or cooking extra chicken to use for dinner this week and a soup next week.

My Menu Plan serves as a planning tool, of course.  Planning is great, but life still happens.  So, in addition to a Menu Plan, it also serves of an inventory of what is in the cabinets.  Because, let me tell you a secret, some nights you may need to improvise.  I am confident that if a meal is on My Plan, I have the ingredients on hand.   So, most days, because of my Menu Plan, I know what is in the kitchen and I know what’s for dinner, if we need something more company friendly, absolutely portable, vegetarian friendly, whatever.

 So, to review – why do we Menu Plan?

  • Saves time and money.  Helps us use our resources better.
  • Helps us feed our family nutritious meals that they like.
  • And if you still need a reason, studies who that children in families who eat together at home are less likely to get into trouble and are more likely to be at a healthy weight.

Bon App’etit!

Cure the Back-To-School Insomnia!

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I had a hard time getting to sleep Sunday night.  We traveled over the weekend and I was back in my own bed, but Monday was the first day of school for my kids and it had been a busy weekend.  I had a late night case of monkey mind, with a million thoughts running in a million different directions. 

I have kid projects to work on.  My little guy requires parent time every night for flash cards and reading.  My middle guy is always struggling with time management.  There are the new challenges of Junior High for my eldest.  

I have a data project to assess marketing, client care and advertising effectiveness for the business, and a web page in need of updating.  And personally, we are starting a self prescribed wellness program as a family. 

The first draft of this listed even more challenges, but I will spare you.  Your time is precious and I am not going to waste it.  So, Monday morning, I took a deep breath in a moment of quiet, and I gained some clarity.  I reminded my self of things I tell my clients all the time.  So here they are:

  1. I may already have what I need.  I just need to look. 
    • I was headed to Target, but before I left, I took a trip through a child’s desk drawer.  I found all the items I was seeking to stock a homework basket for the dining room table, like stapler, pencils, scissors, extra glue, flash cards and a ruler.  Cha-ching!
  2. Not all these projects need to be finished today.  They just need to get started. 
    • Back-to-school routines can take a few weeks to perfect. 
    • My data projects is self assigned.  So, if it takes a few days instead of one to compile my data, so be it.  Which leads me to…
  3. Progress in little pieces is still progress.
    • I exercised this morning and took my vitamins.  Yeah Colleen!
    • I have to admit, I only walked 30 minutes instead of my goal of 45, and I did not take my vitamins until after 10 am.  But I still did both.  And since I did not have a chance to do either on Sunday, I still made progress.
    • Doing my data project one year at a time, or tackling the academic record binders one child at a time is still progress.  And much less intimidating that trying to do it all at once.
  4. Multi-tasking is a myth (that will be another blog for another day), but sometimes things work out.  And if results are more important than relaxing right now, use waiting or down time efficiently. 
    • I am safe and hands free, but I formulated this while driving on the Tollway, on the way to a client appointment.
    • My youngest has soccer practice Thursday afternoons, so I walk the loop around the park while he plays.
    • I used travel time in the car over the weekend to ask my pre-teen’s opinion on some ideas I have for my Organizing For Teens class that I am creating.  He gave me excellent insight!

So, if Back To School is keeping you up at nights, too, take a deep breath, remember these ideas and gain some perspective on your situation.

That age-old Ritual: Back To School Clothes Shopping!

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Take a walk with me down memory lane…. 

Way back when, my mom would pick, what seemed like at the time, the hottest afternoon in August.  I can remember the sunlight bouncing around the yellow walls of my room as we pulled every item out of closets and drawers, and I tried it all on (tights, turtlenecks and sweaters, even) to figure out what I needed from the Back-To-School sales.  Did I mention we did not have air conditioning?  Anyway, my mother is a saint, and I realize that now, because….

It is that time to do the same with our kids!  The tax-free shopping days are August 6-15th in Illinois, which means we are heading to the stores next week.  Lord, please give me patience.  Seriously.

This Ritual process has 4 parts – Quantity and Type, Inventory, Shopping and Prep.

1.  Quantity and Type: 

  • First things first, decide on how many of each item you need.  I have boys, and they are not too picky, but I am.  Girls or teenage boys may require more options. 
  • Also, determine size needed – I know all my kids have sprouted since the end of the school year!

2.  Inventory: 

  • Starting with the oldest or largest child, try on everything, regardless of what size in on the tag (manufacturers vary widely on actual sizes).
  • Check items for stains, holes or needed repairs.  Purge the stained and old, fix the broken and pass down (if you can) items to younger, smaller siblings. 
  • Then, factoring in the pass-downs, complete the same process for each of the younger children, in decreasing order of age / size.
  • By the time I got through the big kid stuff, and delved into our pass downs in storage, my youngest really needs nothing new.  He’ll get a couple of new snazzy things for first days and picture days, but everything else is new to him!

 3.  Shopping:

  • I do the “all-kids-at-once” shopping trip, mainly because I don’t have a choice.
  • You can try the “one-child-at-a-time” trip if you would like, which prolongs the process but may be saner.
  • We head to the stores with our lists, our myriad of coupons, our sale fliers and our clean white socks for trying on shoes, of course. 
  • Thankfully, we don’t have to buy pants and long sleeve shirts yet.  That can be put off until September or October, to spread out the impact of costs.

4.  Prep:

  • After bringing home your spoils of war from the mall (well, Kohl’s, in our case), now you have to de-tag and wash it all, get it all hung up or in the drawers, and ready for that first day of school. 
  • The rest of “Prep” can be a weekly affair, of putting together outfits for the week, or hanging tops and bottoms together, to help your young ones get ready in the morning with a minimum of fuss. 

Hope these ideas help!  See you at the Mall!

Our list looks like this:  Child’s Name:

Shirts – Short Sleeve     Size:                 Needs: 13        Has:                 To Buy:
Shirts – Long Sleeve     Size:                 Needs: 13        Has:                 To Buy:
Shirts – Hoodies           Size:                 Needs: 3          Has:                 To Buy:

Pants – Shorts              Size:                 Needs: 7          Has:                 To Buy:
Pants – Long                Size:                 Needs: 7          Has:                 To Buy:
Pants – Dressy             Size:                 Needs: 1          Has:                 To Buy:
Pants – Athletic            Size:                 Needs: 3          Has:                 To Buy:

Shoes – Sneakers         Size:                 Needs: 1          Has:                 To Buy:
Shoes – Dressy            Size:                 Needs: 1          Has:                 To Buy:
Shoes – Boots              Size:                 Needs: 1          Has:                 To Buy:

Other – Summer PJs     Size:                 Needs: 4          Has:                 To Buy:
Other – Winter PJs       Size:                 Needs: 4          Has:                 To Buy:

Other – Underwear       Size:                 Needs: 10        Has:                 To Buy:
Other – Socks              Size:                 Needs: 10        Has:                 To Buy:
Other – T-Shirts            Size:                 Needs: 10        Has:                 To Buy:
Other – Belts                Size:                 Needs: 2          Has:                 To Buy:
Other – Jacket              Size:                 Needs: 1          Has:                 To Buy:

Life Lessons on my Key Ring

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I’m still waiting for my leisurely summer to begin.  Those hazy, lazy days of sleeping late, relaxing, reading a good book under a big tree with a large iced tea have yet to materialize.   So far, with camp and baseball championships and clients, summer looks a lot like the school year with a different dress code.   I know our lazy days will arrive soon, to replace the still crazy ones, with lots of travel plans and activities for July.  Let me share a “Lesson Learned” though, to help you and me both lighten up for summer.  Here is what my car keys taught me about life. 

Car keys?  Yep, car keys.  You see, my purpose in life is to “Serve Others:  God, Family and Community, in that order”.  We all need a mission statement, that’s mine.  And that evidences itself in the very heavy key ring I, until last week, carried at all times.  Last Thursday, I had on my key ring keys to: 6 houses, including my own; my garage; my bike lock; my PO Box; and 2 cars; plus a signal whistle, a flash light, a wrist coil and a clip.  Those last items were for safety reasons, but let’s face it, if I fell in a lake, those items would probably sink me for sure instead of saving me.  I bought a bigger ring last week, to fit the latest addition.

After finishng a client appointment, I hopped in my trusty van and it would not start.  For a few sickening, dreadful moments.  A half hour from home, my hubby was at work.  “Oh, Man, this is going to be a pain”.  Turns out, after some wiggling and jiggling (the keys, not me) and praying, my key turned.  The weight of the key ring had caused it to not line up properly in the ingition. 

So, the weight of the responsibilities I carry on my key ring, metaphorically, could have really messed up my day!  I don’t consider my responsibilities a burden, but I let them weigh me down some times.  So, learn about life from my car keys:

 1.  “I do not have to carry all the keys (responsibilities) at once.”  Most days I need 2 keys.  House and Car.  Period.  So, the other keys are nearby, should I need to help out a loved one, but I don’t need them on my person at all times.

2.  I don’t need to carry the key until someone asks me to.  This translates to “People can solve their own problems sometimes, too”.   The people whose keys I carry are very responsible and wonderful people, and I trust them to take care of things and ask me for help if they need it. 

3 .  That leads me to “Other people hold the same keys, and they can open doors for your loved ones, too”.

4.  Pack light.  “Sometimes it is easer to travel if you lighten up a little.”  What do you really need?  Turns out I can do almost everything with just my car key in my pocket, knowing my other keys are locked in the car.  That has really lightened up my cargo shorts!

5.  Pack light, but also “Pack Right”.  I was just reading a P.O. Work Place Safety email, and it mentioned how we need to be aware and stay safe as we go into people’s homes and businesses every day.  The email suggested I always keep my car key in my pocket, so if I need to leave an appointment for any reason, I can do so quickly and safely.  I can come back for my gear later, but safety is critical.   So, I can pack light so long as I have the right stuff when I really need it.

6.  “There’s often more than one way to solve a problem”.  I had frequent-shopping tags to two stores on my key ring.  Turns out I can get the specials if I just give them my phone number or email, too.  So the tags went away!

Bet you never knew how much you could learn from your car keys!   Have a great week, thanks for reading.

Balance your Summer Time

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      I was talking to a friend at a baseball game this evening, and she mentioned how she was conflicted, between working for a living and giving her kids a fun summer.   I think that is a common struggle for families, striking a balance between the things that we have to do and the things we want to do, especially during the summer.
     So, it occurred to me as I drove home from the baseball game that a tool I use for Holiday Planning could help answer this question, too.  Seeing the Big Picture is so important.  We can get a lot of work done, when we know we have a fun adventure at the end.  
     Perhaps you are familiar with the time management tool, imagining your time or schedule as a jar, and the components of your schedule as different sized stones, from large rocks down to sand.  This starts with the jar, with a little twist. 
     Using this exercise, you can create a calendar for your summer, with at least one fun thing to look forward to every day, whether it is an all-day adventure or catching fire flies after dark.  This allows the space for necessary work and vitally important play, just not at the same time!
     Remember, we don’t have to entertain or be entertained all day every day, that is the beauty of unstructured summer time, too. 
Make your list with your family.

  1. What they want to do – fun stuff, goals and projects (Activity Camp, Scout Camp, Day trips to the Aquarium, Field Museum and Lincoln Park Zoo, a couple of hiking trips downstate)
  2. What you want to do – Fun, goals and projects (the same as them, though my goals of starting a running program and re-organizing a few space around the house are surely not on my kids’ list but they are on mine).
  3. Take out your calendar, and block out the big rocks.  That would be the travel plans and vacations, events that require planning and tickets.    For us, that is little league championships, major family events, our vacation in July, a Sox game in a couple of weeks.
  4. Now for the smaller rocks.  This would be the activity camps like band camp or soccer camp, stuff we can choose to attend or not
  5. Pebbles:  Museum and zoo dates, train trips downtown, movies at the theatre, etc.  We try for one of these per week when the kids aren’t in camp.  I like to pick a day a week as adventure day, so every Tuesday will find us going somewhere to do something fun.  We opt for indoor activities if Tuesday is rainy. 
  6. Sand:  Sleeping in, play dates with friends, movie nights at home with popcorn, trips for ice cream, bike rides.  We try for a couple of special things a week, too, typically in the evening.

     We need to remember, for ourselves and remind our kids, that the work is good and necessary, and the $$ from it often enables the other fun things! 
     When we work through this execise, we can rest easy, knowing that our work is equally matched by fun, even if that fun is not right now this instant.  We can tell ourselves and our families that the work comes first, and then we play, and give solid examples of this. Enjoy your Summer and your families.  I know I will!

Some Big Rocks, memories from last summer

Two New Ways to Improve Your Morning!

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It is so easy to get off track during the summer months.  Without the structure of school days, we may forget to eat a healthy breakfast at a regular time, abandon basic personal hygiene (for teenagers!) and generally take way too long to get out the door, leaving much undone.

Here are two tools to help your mornings flow more smoothly:  The “Morning Line-Up” and “Back to Ready”.

We use The Morning Line-Up every day:

  1. Start out with a clear bathroom counter.
  2. Take out all the items you need to get ready; we’ll call these the Usual Suspects in Your Morning Line-Up.  Every day, lay all the Usual Suspects on your empty counter.
  3. My Usual Suspects include Antiperspirant, Face Lotion with SPF 30, toothpaste and brush, hair products, contacts and solution, lip stain and powder, etc.
  4. Next to these are my kids’ deodorants, toothbrushes and pastes, a comb and fingernail clippers (someone always needs those).
  5. Now, as we use the item in our Morning Line-Up, we put the item back in the cabinet (or drawer, or basket under the sink, which ever you prefer).
  6. You can make this even easier by dedicating one shelf / basket / etc. for just your Usual Suspects.

This idea reaps multiple benefits:

  1. At a glance, I know what I have used or not, and I don’t forget things.  And I know when I need to nag my sons to finish.
  2. We can add new habits to the line-up, if there is something we want to improve upon.  For example, I added my contacts and solution to my Line-Up when I decided to wear them more regularly.
  3. I have a client cultivating a “Swipe and Swish” habit to tidy up the bathroom every morning.  So she adds Windex and paper towels to her counter as part of her Line-Up.
  4. The Morning Line-Up can also be used to improve other areas of your life, for example, nutrition.  When I got forgetful about my daily vitamins or supplements, I bought one of those daily medication sorters.  Now I leave it on the counter in the morning, and put it away when I am done.

The other tool I want to offer you is “Back To Ready”. 

This is a proactive, positive step to help me and my clients get a handle on our lives and our homes. “Back to Ready” means we feel ready for whatever the week throws our way.

Working from home, I find it difficult to focus on work when my home feels unfocused.  In my defense, to a casual observer my home would not look cluttered.  But I know when things are left undone, and because of who I am and what I do, I have a very low tolerance for any sense of disorganization.

So Back to Ready is very important for my success!  What does “Ready” look like?

  • Beds made;
  • Bedrooms tidied up / surfaces cleared off;
  • Clothes and shoes (oh, the shoes!) dealt with— Dirty ones in the hamper, clean ones put away;
  • Breakfast dishes in the sink or dishwasher, table wiped off;
  • Bathroom cleaned up, towels hung up, surfaces clear, mirror wiped clean;
  • Papers gathered together for me to work on them, or purge or shred them.

“Back to Ready” takes 30 minutes on a Monday morning (you pick your own day!).  It involves starting laundry and a sink of soapy dishwater, going room by room and collecting clutter, emptying trash and vacuuming.  I start it before the kids go to school, so they can tidy up their rooms and put away whatever clean laundry they may have.   And we pick Mondays because we are very hard on our home on the weekends!

Pick one spot to start, and start there every week.  You can choose the easiest room first (my youngest son’s), or the most public room first (the entry way and living room), or the hardest room first (kitchen).  It’s up to you, just choose.  Now, only spend a few minutes in each room—this is not major cleaning, this is just maintenance between cleanings, and preparing for the week ahead.

Carry a notebook, too, to jot down the random ideas that come up during this particular exercise.  The ideas could read “Need laundry detergent, need snacks for baseball, bake cookies for friend, teenager needs new dress shoes,  change smoke detector batteries, etc.”

I hope these two ideas help you get yourself and your family out the door in a calm and organized manner.  Summer is a great time to try something new when it comes to morning routines, so give them a try and see what works for you.  Enjoy!

My house lost 100s of pounds this week!

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May 27, 2010

Quite the pile of stuff has left my house this week.  I’m rather proud of us. 

  1. First, three bags of donations that had accumulated in our laundry room, plus two large toys my 5 year old decided he did not need anymore.  (He is really good at that!)
  2. In addition, I finally repaired the sleeping bag waiting in a basket in my laundry room.  I needed to determine if I could repair it, or if it required professional assistance.  And then I would have had to determine if it was worth the $20 repair bill, or if I should just let it go.  But I fixed it, at least for now, and reclaimed even more space in my laundry room.
  3. A borrowed tent went back to it’s rightful owner, along with a child’s wagon on loan. 
  4. Next, the pile of electronics I’ve collected from my own house and a few clients’ homes went to the electronics recycling place in a near suburb.  Whew!  My garage looks much better!
  5. Three boxes shipped off to Cartridges for Kids.  CFK sends money back to schools who submit specific items for recycling.  Our school had a recycling drive, so I am sending all items collected plus the stuff I collect from clients.  The FedEx will be picking up those large boxes today.
  6. A large box of flattened cardboard boxes went to the Green Recycling bin (another money maker for the kids) at school.  I had collected the boxes to use for the Recycling Drive, but I can let them go now that it is over.  I will not be storing these until Fall!  I’ll just get more if I need them.  Either our local printer or hardware store will help me out again, I am sure!
  7. 4 bags of paper recycling, and 2 bags of plastic recycling out at the curb with the trash. 
  8. A freezer bag of household batteries went to my friend Pat behind the camera counter at my local Walgreen’s for recycling. 
  9. Oh, and we released the 5 Painted Lady butterflies we raised from larva back to nature today. 

 You may now be saying, good for you Coll, what is your point?  So here it is:

  1. Just as we have a routine for things to enter our home (we call this shopping), we have to have a routine for things to leave our homes, too.   A basket in the laundry room for cast-offs, or taking advantage of trash day as an external motivator to have us clear out our papers and trash.
  2. Return borrowed items, and keep your own stuff moving out once you realize you no longer need it.
  3. Recycling helps everyone.  It’s not always the easiest option, but it the right thing to do, and it reaps rewards. 
  4. We can let things go without fear.  If we really need something again, someone else will probably have what we need and we can borrow it from them.  IT’s not as deep and philosophical as the circle of life, It’s just the circle of stuff.

Today’s Mail: Proving the 80/20 rule once again!

The 80/20 rule, or the Pareto Principle, tells us that 80% of what we need is in 20% of what we have. In organizing and in life. So what we need to do is focus on that 20% of stuff that is important, and perhaps let go of some of the 80% of what is not important.

For example, These 10 Items in my big white mailbox this morning:
1. (Mine) Food and Family magazine from Kraft
2. (Mine) Beverly Review, a local newspaper

Also in the mail box, for other members of the household:
3. Puzzle Buzz magazine (my youngest son’s)
4. Rolling Stone (my hubby’s)
5. A bill to pay (to my hubby’s desk for next time he pays bills)

And for the Recycling bin:
6. and 7. 2 copies of the same advertisement I don’t need sent to both Mary and Colleen Klimczak at this address;
8. Land’s End Kids catalog (don’t need anything right now);
9. a local grocery store ad flyer (done grocery shopping for the week); and
10. a reminder about a phone call we are going to get over the weekend, asking us for money (seriously, someone really did pay postage for that).

So, I need to take care of 2 of the 10 items, and the rest is either someone else’s responsibility or no use at all. I have spent more time (10 minutes) writing about the mail than it took me to whittle away the excess and deliver the mail to the end users in the house (3 minutes). I will focus on my 20% that needs me, and let the rest go!