Plan Your Meals for a Month (well, almost a month…)
Each month we will be planning a month’s worth of meals for the next month. Well – I got a late start this month, but we are going to plan for the rest of the month – join us and get a jump on your meal planning!
OK – let’s all take a deep breath. I know that for some of you, planning your meals out for four weeks if going to feel a little overwhelming. For some women, deciding what pair of jeans they are going to wear for running errands can feel a like a huge decision (not for me… I pick whichever ones are clean….and fit.) Some of you may be thinking, “I don’t even know what my life will be like in two weeks, how can I plan for it now?!?” Exactly. If you are like almost every other woman I know, life is super busy. Nobody I know is doing just one thing – If she is a stay-at-home mom, she’s also leading her local MOPS group. If she is managing a house-full of teens, she is also managing her own mobile accounting business on the side. If she’s working full-time, she’s also the head of the committee to raise funds for a well in a village in Africa. And that’s why I want you to have a plan. I want what you and your tribe (family, roommate, friends,) are having for dinner to be the least stressful decision of your day. I want you to take a look at your calendar and your family’s calendar, figure out what nights you can cook, when you can prep meals for later in the week, and what nights you need to have dinner waiting for you to get home. And then, I want you to sit down with your calendar and plan accordingly.
The Secret to Planning 31 Meals
For years, I have been taking a catch as catch can approach to planning meals. I would sit down with a blank calendar and fill in the spots with meals I knew my family would like. I would make a shopping list based off of those ingredients, go to the store and buy what I needed. I would go home with a plan in hand and the groceries to make it happen. And that is when my plan would bump up against the reality of my life. I would plan a stir fry for Monday night. The problem? No one was going to be home on Monday night – or at least not at the same time. My husband, Roger, had to eat early – he has a phone call to India every Monday night for work. My son, Justen, would be eating late – he works at the library until after 6 o’clock. My daughter, Kimber, had drama rehearsal and didn’t know when she would be home, and Jeremy, my step-son, was doing a drop in at 4:45 after school to change clothes for work. Perhaps not the best night to be doing stir fry? Unless I wanted to be a short-order stir-fry cook, (and let’s be clear, I have no desire to do that,) most of my people were not going to be able to eat dinner (or at least not one that they would want to eat.) It took me a while to figure out that Monday nights in the Lipp-Hunter house were the perfect night for a big pot of soup and a yummy salad; something that was ready to serve at any of the o’clocks that my family members would be eating at. So now instead of planning what was for dinner, I was planning how I was going to cook dinner each night. Taking all schedules into account (most importantly, the schedule of whoever was going to be cooking that day – and surprise – it’s not always me!) I figured out what was going to be the best type of meal for me to fix. Here are the meals I have to choose from: Freezer Meals – These are meals I have prepared weeks, or even months in advance and stick in the freezer to pull out at just the right time. Freezer meals are great for nights when I will get getting home late – I can have someone else in my family stick the meal into the oven so it will be ready to go that evening. Or, when I’m extra organized, I can set the frozen meal into the oven in the morning and set the timer on the oven to turn on 30-45 minutes before we want to eat. (I have to tell you that I feel extra-efficient when I do this. Kind of like Judy Jetson without the severe hairdo.)
Slow Cooker Meals – Love my slow cooker – especially when I’m smart enough to pull all the ingredients together the night before. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to know that while I’m running around town doing errand or off working, my slow cooker is at home, slaving away to have dinner ready for us when we get there. Plus, I will show you how to make freezer meals that get dumped directly in to the slow cooker so that you can save yourself even more time and energy.
Left Overs On Purpose – I love this category because it feels like cheating – you had a balsamic pork roast on Tuesday for dinner, but your crew only ate half – and you’re glad. You planned on cooking twice as much as you needed because those leftovers on purpose are now being mixed together with bok choy onions and mushroom to make an Asian stir-fry for Thursday night. (Key note here – if you are making leftovers on purpose, be sure to label your leftovers accordingly. Especially if you have teenage boys in your home.)
Pantry Meals – The meat didn’t defrost in time or you are at the day before your grocery run and there is “no food in this house”. Have no fear, pantry meals are here. These are meals made primarily from ingredients you have on hand- adding in random ingredients you may have hanging around and what to use up. Leftover chicken or ground beef you hadn’t planned on? Make a great chili from your pantry and throw in the meat – yum without waste. I usually plan one pantry meal at the end of the week – a great way to make sure that nothing goes to waste. Fast Food at Home – These are the meals that you actually cook that night. We all have our family favorites that we couldn’t live without. This is when I pull together a super-simple bowl of pasta with marinara, basil and Parmesan cheese, with a bagged salad and a couple of warmed up croissants, or an Asian Stir Fry. Each of us has our favorite go to meals in this category. Every Man for Himself – We have this kind of nights about once a week. Usually on nights when I’m working, everyone has to forage for themselves. This is an excellent way to use up leftovers, but I do make sure that I have sandwich fixings around for lunches and the EVFH nights.
The goal is to match the cooking method with your life – no stir-frys on soccer night, no freezer meals the night after you get home from the farmer’s market, not pantry meals when you have tomatoes in your garden that you either need to use or lose. I want you to plan what you are going to eat around your life so that dinner is less mess and less stress.
So here are the steps to getting your meal plan together:
1. Calendar: Grab a blank calendar page (I have a great one over on my Facebook Author page.
2. Schedule: Look at the activities and schedules for those you are cooking for. Most households develop a weekly rhythm over time. Tuesdays and Thursdays tend to be less chaotic around our house, while Mondays everyone seems to work and Wednesdays have always been a church night. Since we have teens and young adults at our house, Fridays are usually just me and Roger for dinner, and our big family dinners (when even the kids who don’t live at home come back) are on Sunday evenings. While this schedule can vary wildly (especially when I’m traveling) it does have a basic flow that helps me plan my meals. Once you have an idea of the schedule, write down the kind of meal you need to have that night – if you need to have dinner ready when you get there (and not worry about it burning in the oven,) then a slow-cooker recipe could be the ticket for you.
So, following the above schedule, this is one way that I could think of planning: Sunday: Left Overs on Purpose – Round 1 Mondays: Slow Cooker Tuesdays: Left Overs On Purpose Round 2 Wednesday: Freezer Meal Thursday: Fast Food at Home Friday: Every Man For Himself Saturday: Freezer Meal
3. Recipes Now that you know how you should cook that night, it’s time to figure out what you should be cooking. Don’t get overwhelmed! Start simple and small. Mix in one or two recipes from this book with your family’s favorite recipes. Besides your schedule, here are some other things to consider when making up your menus.
• Time of year – I like to eat seasonally as much as possible. If my garden is bursting with squash, or the last time I went to the market the strawberries looks anemic (and were from a foreign country) those are things that can influence my meal planning.
• What I already have on hand – when I hit a great sale on chicken, I stock up. And my veggies from the Farmer’s Market? Those babies have an expiration date. I want to be thoughtful with the food I purchase and use it before I lose it, whenever possible. There have been so many times I have bought what I already had on hand because I didn’t check before making my meal plan and heading to the store.
• The Weather – OK – this may not be the biggest consideration, but last year I put together a month’s worth of meals for June without thinking once about BBQing. Why have beef stew in the summer or Asian chicken salad in the dead of winter? Celebrate the seasons with delicious food.
So if I were going to add some recipes in, here is an idea of what one week of meals would look like:
Sunday: Left Overs on Purpose – Round 1 Spice-Rubbed Pork Roast with Potatoes and Ratatouille
Monday: Slow Cooker Chili and Bread Machine French bread with a Blue Cheese Spring Mix Salad
Tuesdays: Left Overs on Purpose Round 2 Left-over sliced Pork with Homemade Mac-n-Cheese and Asparagus
Wednesday: Freezer Meal Poppyseed Chicken, Bagged Salad, and baked cinnamon apples
Thursday: Fast Food at Home Veggie Pita Pizzas with Turkey Pepperoni
Friday: Every Man For Himself Leftovers
Saturday: Freezer Meal Teriyaki Chicken with rice and grilled veggie kabobs
Try this at Home: Give yourself some space to plan – don’t try to do the planning, shopping and cooking all in the same day. I would say give yourself a week to plan and shop and do a little advance cooking (for the freezer meals, etc.)
You may be one of those lucky people who share the meal planning with someone else. If that’s the case, I suggest for your first time planning that you set aside a good hour or so to go through the exercise. It actually is a lot of fun to do this with another person.
I would love to hear what you are most excited about implementing into your schedule. If you have other tips and tricks for planning meals for a month share them with me. I am sure everyone will love to hear them too!
When Roger and I got married, we made the decision that I would pursue writing and speaking while being based out of our house so that our kids would have someone to come home to. This decision did not come without a price.
No one goes into writing for the money (OK it has worked out well for J.K. Rowling, but she is the exception, not the rule.) Before, Roger had been the sole support of three people – now that number was jumping to six.
At first, while still in the honeymoon phase, we did a lot of eating out. It is easy to fall into bad habits when you are busy, but there is a price for all that convenience. Not only did our food budget expand– so did our waistlines.
About a year ago Roger and I put ourselves on an eat-at-home challenge where – except for business meetings and my weekly Starbucks date with my son, Justen – we only ate at home or packed food to eat out for a month. Suddenly, we realized how much money we had been wasting on fast food and restaurant food. We have learned to eat at home on a more regular basis, but we are still fans of flavor and need to keep it interesting for ourselves and our kids.
So here is a short list of ways that we are working to keep our menus fun, but on budget as well:
Clean Out the Cupboards Cooking – This is when I take an inventory of what is lurking in our freezer, fridge and pantry and see what magic I can concoct out of it. There is a great site called SuperCook where you can punch in the ingredients you have on hand and it will give you suggested recipes for you to try at home. Make sure you take their tour so that you can use the website to its full capacity.
Cooking our own Chicken – It may seem obvious, but we were spending way too much on pre-cooked and shredded chicken for our salads, burritos, curries, etc. Now I just throw four frozen, boneless chicken breast halves into a glass baking dish, cover it with foil and bake for 45 minutes on 350. Once the breasts have cooled, I use my Pampered Chef Food Chopper to chop up the meat and we throw that chopped up chicken into everything.
This also applies to other large chunks of meat. As much as I love turkey on Thanksgiving, what I really love are the leftovers. After we have our requisite turkey and stuffing sandwiches for lunch on Friday, I lovingly package up the rest of the turkey for future use in stir-frys, casseroles, curries, etc. We actually prepare two turkeys at Thanksgiving – one smoked and one brined – to have a little variety and a lot of leftovers for us and our extended family.
Ham is another meat that I plan on using after we get it. We will have our “big meal” with that spiral cut ham, and then package up the leftovers for sandwiches, breakfast casseroles, etc.
LeftOversOn Purpose – Whether it is making a double batch of turkey meatballs for spaghetti on Monday and Italian Wedding Soup on Wednesday, or making a huge batch of Roger’s spaghetti sauce for dinner two nights in a row, planning for leftovers makes sense both time and money wise. (More on creating LeftOvers On Purpose later.)
Shop Once a Week – Oh, it is so hard to force myself to plan the meals, see what ingredients we already have and then shop for them, but when I do, oh the money and time that I save! If I don’t think ahead, I end up “stopping by” the store every other day and buying frozen food that is more expensive and a waste of time, energy and calories. (And we end up eating at 7:45 at night…) Even if I am determined on shopping once a week, I usually have to make at least one extra trip for something I forgot, but it does prove that we can live without oranges for an extra two days if push comes to shove.
Bulk Purchases – Yep – at first it is going to cost more. But in the not-so-long-run you are going to save time, money and gas by having your everyday items there and ready to use. Here is just a partial list of things that we have bought in bulk over the past year:
Oatmeal
Apricots (we buy them from a local farmer and freeze them)
Grass-Fed Beef
Flour
Spices
Pasta
Beans
Cereal
Rice
Vanilla
Coffee
Canned goods (tomato paste, tomato sauce, etc.)
Tuna
Hard Cheese (Parmesan, Romano)
We store the bulk purchase in air tight containers so they don’t go bad. When our freezer gets low we store some of the grains in the deep-freeze so that they take up space. (It is more expensive to run an empty freezer than one that is packed with food.)
Eat with the Seasons – If you are buying strawberries in December you are paying way more than your should. There really is a time for everything, and food is at the top of that seasonal list. Check out the farmer’s market section to see what is the best time of year to buy in your region, but here is a general guideline of some popular fruits and vegetables:
WINTER: Bell Peppers, Cabbage, Celery, Oranges, Radishes, Honeydew
Eat less Meat – I have been gradually reducing the amount of meat that go into our dishes, while trying to bulk up the veggies and alternate sources of protein (beans, meat-substitutes.) Our goal for each meal is that ¾ of the plate be plants. We are not always successful (we won’t even talk about the taquitos I had last night,) but we are learning new cooking skills as we scale back on all things carnivore.
One of the ways we are tiptoeing into less meat eating is by gathering tried and true recipes from our favorite vegetarians. Here are a couple from my friend and fellow author Cheri Gregory that you can try:
Walnut “Meat” Balls; Cheri Gregory
1 c. finely chopped walnuts 1 c. Ritz crackers, crushed fine 1 c. shredded cheddar cheese 3 eggs beaten 4-5 c. of brown gravy
Mix all ingredients (except gravy) together and form into small balls, (about the size of a large gumball.) Roll the balls in seasoned bread crumbs. Fry in a small amount of oil, turning 3 or 4 times until each side is golden brown Place meatballs in a casserole dish and pour the gravy over the meatballs. Bake at 350 degrees 45 – 60 minutes
Lentil Loaf ; Cheri Gregory
1 c. mashed cooked lentils. 1.5 c. Pepperidge Farms seasoned stuffing 2 beaten eggs 1 large can evaporated milk 1/2 c. finely chopped walnuts 2 packages G. Washington broth, golden 1/2 c. oil 1 large onion, minced
Combine all ingredients and pour into greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees until browned and set, 45-60 minutes
Note: This is fabulous on sandwiches…just slice and slather on some catsup, cheese, avocado, lettuce, etc.
You are probably already eating meatless meals several times a week: cheese quesadillas, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, veggie salads, vegetable soup, cheese and broccoli baked potatoes, oatmeal or other cereals for breakfast, bean burritos.
Waste not: Co-op with other friends – When my kids were younger, I had an informal network of friends where we would inform each other of sales at different supermarkets, and, in some cases, would pick up food that was on sale for each other. I’ll never forget when whole chickens were reduced to .29 a pound at our grocery store, but I was having a hard time getting there since I was babysitting a friend’s kids as a favor. Her thank you? Mary brought me six whole chickens from the store. Best babysitting tip I’ve ever received.
This is also a good strategy for bulk purchases – maybe you don’t want a 25 pound bag of flour sitting in your pantry, but dividing that flour with two friends suddenly makes the flour – and the price – that much more attractive.
If you are tight on space, co-oping with friends suddenly makes bulk purchases both affordable and manageable.
Learn to cook from scratch. OK – I want to be careful with this recommendation – I think cheating with prepared foods every once in a while is a fine idea – I don’t want to give the impression that eating on the cheap is so difficult that the Value Meal at your favorite fast food place starts to look like an easier solution. However, some things that are SO expensive at the grocery store are surprisingly easy to prepare at home. Just some examples:
Baked Lasagna
Mini Pizzas (made at home with pita bread – so much better for you as well.)
Muffins
Bread (especially if you have that bread maker from your wedding sitting around gathering dust)
Salad Dressings
Marinades
And be wary of that deli counter at your supermarket – occasionally picking up a roasted chicken can be a life saver – but if you pick up four meals in a row and do your regular grocery shopping on top of that, you are wasting a lot of money.
Cut your own veggies – Those packages of cut veggies are great if you are in a rush, but it is so much less expensive to cut your own. Don’t get me wrong – I love a quick easy bagged salad once in a while, but those tiny little containers of chopped onions? You could buy a whole bag of onions for the same price.
Save Your Sanity
Ecclesiastes 7:30 JB “God made man simple; man’s complex problems are of his own devising.”
Bulk Cooking: Some people are overwhelmed by the thought of bulk cooking, but to me, it is the simplest way to cook. We will be talking more about bulk cooking in the freezer cooking chapter.
Having a Pantry: Yes, having a pantry does save you time, money and your sanity. There is nothing that makes me crazier than having all the ingredients for a recipe except for that one, essential item. Having a pantry means I am more likely to have what I need on hand – or at least some way to substitute for it.
Create Your Own Cookbook: Having all your recipes in a centralized place keeps you from hunting down that recipe for Chicken Cacciatore you downloaded off your friend’s blog last week. I keep all the recipes I use on a regular basis in a binder with clear sheet protectors. The recipes are organized by types of recipes, (marinades, casseroles, BBQs, etc.) for easy retrieval and planning.
Grocery Unpack: One of the biggest ways to keep my head above water in the kitchen is to put away my groceries “well”. My usual temptation is to just to shove everything into place as soon as I walk through the door.
However, if I take the time to prep the food that I can before it goes into the fridge, I am going to have a whole lot less hassle when it comes to prepping dinner later on.
This has become even more critical now that our family is part of a farmer’s co-op. Every Thursday I drive to my pick-up spot and tote back a bushel full of veggies and fruits for us to eat over the next week. If I don’t prep those veggies right away, I will probably have that same giant bag of greens staring me in the face the next Thursday as well.
Here are some of the things I do to prep the food from the store and the farmer’s co-op as soon as I get home:
Pull out my salad spinner and start washing up all those greens.
Wash all fruits and veggies that can be washed (have to leave those strawberries alone until they are ready to be eaten, and then wash.)
Put all fresh clean fruits and fresh veggies in Debbie Meyer’s Green Bags (bags that make you produce last longer.)
Shred cheese in the food processor.
Divide up meat to be frozen. Bag and marinade.
If you have food on hand and have no idea what to do with it use Supercook. It is a new recipe search engine that finds recipes you can make with only the ingredients you have at home. The more ingredients you add, the better the results will be.
What do you need to change, start or stop doing so you have more time, money and sanity?
This week I am going to help you make dinner, save time, save money, get organized and make dinner time meaningful and full of purpose once again. We are going to focus on how all of us, regardless of how busy you are can make great tasting, healthy meals for your family. Like all projects we start at the beginning. For the What’s For Dinner Solution we start by finding out what you have to work with and getting it all organized.
See what you have
Do you know what is in your pantry? Have you checked the back of the freezer lately? And what about that one drawer in the fridge you never open? Do you even know what spices wait for you in the cabinet?
Not all of us are culinary experts who easily plan menus. Make appropriate shopping lists and can whip up a gourmet meal for our family every night. Life is busy and hectic. We juggle managing a house, a career, husband’s career kids, games, play dates, doctor appointments, baseball practice and the list goes on and on. Not to mention we are not programmed to wake up and decide what we are going to prepare for dinner. If we do the thought is fleeting and before we know it 5 pm has arrived, the natives are restless and there is no plan.
So what do you do know?
First off you need to know what you have on hand.
Take the time to clean out and organize your recipes, pantry, cabinets, fridge and freezer.
Let’s start with the recipes.
Get them organized. If you have recipes cards or a folder with papers shoved inside buy some notebook dividers. Label them appropriately: Appetizers, salad, side dishes, main course: meats, pasta, desserts, breads, breakfast etc…
As you are organizing your recipes sort through them; will you make that again? Did the family like that dish? Does it fit within my diet plan (diabetes, allergy, healthy, no sugar etc.) There is no sense in keeping recipes that will not be used. It is just more clutter.
Now for the Pantry
Clean out expired products.
Sort by food likeness: baking products, canned goods, cereal, crackers and so on.
The fridge
Same steps from the pantry apply, like foods together. Condiments on one shelf, milk, creamers and juice on another. Use the produce drawers for the produce and deli drawer for your meats and cheeses.
Freezer
If you do not already start today and write the date on all foods you place in your freezer.
Make a list of what you have on your freezer so you can plan your meals accordingly. Stop buying food you already have.
All of the above will help you see what you have, how much you have and make your menu & list making easier. Not to mention you and the family will be able to quickly grab a great snack when needed.
Now it is your turn. Tell me in the comments below what you do to stay organized so you know what is on hand to eat. Any organizing tip you want tos hare with the other readers are great too.
In the comments on Monday, my dear friend Carol Boley said: It is only in the desert that we learn how precious the water really is. While in our humanity we would never choose to go there, good things happen in the desert.
I think that, for those of us who are sitting in the desert right now, it’s good that we’re feeling the dryness. It signals that we are alive and healthy and longing for God. I mean, imagine it – if you were distant from God and you didn’t miss Him. That is honestly the worst place to be.
Over the next several months, I am going to be working on some of the spiritual disciplines – not out of obligation, but out of a thirst to know God and his Word better. If it’s something you would like to journey with me on, I would love to have you. (I’m not leading this per say. I just would love to have some traveling partners.) I’m going to be exploring the disciplines using two different books: Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster and Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald S. Whitney (I’ve included the Amazon Link if you’re interested.) I’m hoping for a week a month on the blog we can talk about that month’s discipline and how it’s lived out in your and my life. Later this month I’ll be looking at Reading God’s Word as my spiritual discipline of the month.
Thanks for hanging with me this week and being an encouragement. I’m blessed by each and every on of you.
Thanks to all of you who have sent notes of love, grace and encouragement. My inbox has never been so full of love and peace. I will get back to each of you soon.
Last night, as I was sitting down to do my blog, I found myself in the doing mode. “I need to write my blog post because I said I was going to write my blog post…” But I was tired after a long day of traveling and speaking and meeting some other needs. Then I thought to myself that all of you, who have written such great words of love and peace, would extend that to me as I laid down last night, read Jesus Calling, and rested. Thanks for the grace.
When it comes to the blog, I can skip a day and none of us are the worse for it. (Actually, I gave you the gift of one less email to open. You’re welcome.)But when it comes to digging in with my relationship with God, “skipping” is how I found myself in the desert place.
No one heads for the desert. What does happen is we lose the things that point us to God and that is just where we end up. There are a few things that, when I’m missing them, I start to wander in the sand:
Bible Study: With my job, it’s hard to find a day and a time to do a proper Bible study (you know, the kind with Beth Moore and coffee cake…) But as I was sitting here in my own little sand pit, a couple of friends who live in other parts of the country asked me if I wanted to join their study via Skype. I love God’s timing. Find something that works for you and then make it work. I’ve had studies on my lunch hour at work, during play group at my house, or even (gasp) at another local church while a sainted woman taught my kids science when I was a homeschooler. (Actually, I would have cleaned the churches toilets while some person besides me taught science, but I digress.)
Prayer: Start small if you’re in the desert place. Have other people pray for you to start praying more. (It really does work.) Be gentle with yourself and ask God to help you want to want to pray. Do short 15 second prayers of love and thanksgiving. Be gentle.
Quiet time: I asked one of my employees, Bronwyn, what is the hardest thing to do when she is in the desert place. I love how in her discussing her quiet time struggles, she compares her relationship with God to her relationships with others: “OK first to admit when I am alone, especially in the early morning when the house is still asleep I want to just sit quietly and drink my coffee. Just a vegetated like state soaking in nothing, enjoying stillness and calm; perfect time to talk to God, right? I should want to soak Him in, diving into His word and letting Him seep into all of me….
All this can sound crazy; you may think I am nuts…but like any relationship my relationship with God can falter too. I am never a perfect wife, mother, friend or daughter. They all take work. It requires I give, give more than I want to at times. It requires I do things I may not feel like doing at that moment. Quiet mornings sipping coffee alone without distraction or hurry are great. I love those times. Reading a great book, getting lost in the story of the characters is fun and a much needed break at times. But when they outweigh the times I spend with God, in His word, learning and studying more about Him and who He wants me to be and what he wants me to do is not a good balance. It is not putting Him first, when it comes down to it that is all he has asked me to do, put Him first.”
I’ve found that for prayer, quiet time, and studying my Bible on my own, having a spot – a cozy chair or in the other three seasons of the year, a sunny lounge chair in the back yard – helps greatly settle my mind and focus my attention on Him.
Where do you do those thing that connect you with God? Do you have a chair, a desk, a kitchen table? Where is your place to connect with Him?
This desert place isn’t new to me. I’m a frequent visitor. I know how it feels, I know how it smells, and most of all, I remember the way to get here.
Most of the times I find myself back in the dryness of the desert because I’ve let the world tell me that it’s where I belong. It starts innocently enough. I do something with some value, with some meaning, and when someone says, “Hey, good job!” I enjoy the hit. Yep, some people are addicted to drink and drugs, but for me? Approval and food are my drugs of choice most days.
So someone says something nice, and I want more. I want to hear what I do and how I do it matter. I start to act in ways that get me that approval and start to seek it out. And for a while the whole system seems to be working. I do good stuff, people say good stuff, and then I do more good stuff. And it works. Until it doesn’t.
Because the world stops cheering and reminds you pretty quickly about everything that isn’t so OK about you. The world has a long memory about your past, reminding you about all your failures and false starts. Maybe you were an addict, or lost your temper with your kids. Maybe you weren’t the kind of wife you wanted to be, or maybe there were people who you’ve hurt. The world is in the remembering business, but not really in the grace business.
That’s why we need to remind ourselves, and those around us, how God sees us. No matter where I’ve been or where I am today. Whether I’m in my addction or out of it. Whether I’ve loved my neighbor or pretended not to be home when they came knocking. God is the one who is in the grace business, and I need to remember what I look like to Him. Especially when I’m sitting in the middle of the desert.
Here are a couple of things that help me:
Saturate myself with words of grace.Like the video, (Jason Gray – Remind Me Who I Am) I am God’s beloved. God leads with grace. Hang out with people who speak grace. If you currently hang out with people who use God’s word to hit you over the head, may I humbly suggest you find some new friends. Listen to music that deals with grace. Spend some time with kids (ones you like,) and remember this is how God sees you.
Read about how God sees you. When I feel like God’s words are bouncing off my chest instead of penetrating my heart, I pull our Jesus Calling by Sarah Young (you can find it here at ChristianBooks.com ). This book speaks grace over me and talks to me as if God were siting directly across from me.
When you are in the desert place, how do you remind yourself of God’s abundant love, even when you don’t feel it.
Isaiah 43:19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
It’s been a long few months.
It all started with a busy schedule. A busy, “Look how many places want me to speak!” kind of schedule plus a book deadline (neither of these things were a surprise), that were both great for the ego (amazing actually…). But as you well know, the ego is a tricky thing. You can be busy doing God’s work, all the while, convincing yourself that working for Him and being with Him are the same things.
So, take some busy, and then throw in:
not spending enough time with God
a strained relationship with one of my kids
my mom’s cancer
and (just for fun) whooping cough
This? Right here? Is the perfect Food Network recipe for a full blown meltdown.
OK – so I haven’t taken to sitting in a corner and drooling into a tin cup, but I have sat in the parking lot of many a speaking engagement and cried and cried for one reason and one reason only: I felt like a fraud.
For the past four months, I’ve felt so raw and exhausted that I swing wildly between two extremes: either I can’t crack a Bible without going into a full-on ugly cry or the words on the page feel like they are written to someone else – in a foreign language – in invisible ink. Either I can’t sit through a worship service without having complete strangers come up to me and ask if there is anything they can do. (That is the complete strangers who aren’t avoiding my gaze because who wants to interact with the crazy woman…) Or I just sit there, listening to the words of the music and the preacher thinking, “OK, that may work in theory, but not in my life, apparently.”
How are you supposed to teach God’s Word when you feel like you will either fall apart on stage or that every encounter you’ve had with God recently felt dry, formal, and awkward. (At this point, all you leaders who have me booked to speak at your event are carefully consulting your contracts on how to get out of having this wacko speak at your event. Sorry – you’re kinda stuck with me. But don’t worry. I’ll pull myself together before leaving the parking lot…)
This is not a fun place to be in – the desert place. Yes – it’s true – we all spend some time there. Those times when everything feels wrong and out of sorts. Those times when picking up your Bible feels like the hardest thing you will ever do. Those times when you wonder if God is really there, and if so, why isn’t He doing some of the talking.
I’m starting to see my way clear. I’ve been here before. It feels like it should be so easy: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” John 7:37-38 I’ve flowed before. Why not now?
I know what I have to do. I’ve got to do the things I don’t feel like doing. All week I’ll be talking about where I am and what I’m doing. I hope you’ll come with me – even if you’re not in that dry place, that desert place right now, let me tell you something – it could be just around the corner. Right?
So now that I’ve told you where I am, my question is – have you been there? Have you been to the place where maybe you are in ministry, or your ministry is your home, and you feel like your relationship with God is like your best friend from high school – you have great memories, but you haven’t had a good talk in a long while. Have you been in the desert place?
Tell me about that time – what were the symptoms? When we all know that we all know we go through it, we don’t have to put on our church face or our Bible Study Lady face. We can just sit in the desert, love on each other, offer up some tea, and guide each other out. So tell me about your desert.
You have breakfast, lunch, you are dressed and ready to walk out of the door but what about the children? Are they ready? Are they even awake yet?
I have heard funny stories so many times about a mom dropping their child off at school only to realize they are still in their pajama’s, or the child does not have their backpack, lunch or homework. Or the kids are in order but mom is wearing slippers with her business suit.
A goal for many wives and moms is to make mornings smooth and get everyone where they need to be on time…even dad! How does that get accomplished? Many of the tips that I have shared all week can be used on the kids as well. For those whose children are out of the toddler stage in elementary school, you can begin to incorporate them into the nightly preparation times and teach them how to get their things ready.
Get yourself ready first. This way you can focus on the children!
Pack back packs before bed: Do they have their homework, library book, show and tell item; all papers are signed and checked?
Fill their water bottles and pack lunch items before bed as well.
Have the children set out their clothes and shoes the night before on their dresser. This will lessen morning temper tantrums and in decisions.
Do all baths and showers the night before.
Make sure they have decided what they want for breakfast.
Tuck the children in bed at a decent hour. Children usually need 10-12 hours of sleep so plan accordingly. This will help ensure they get up easily too.
If you have several children or several family members but 1 bathroom delegate bathroom time. If more than ones are brushing their teeth at the same time it will more likely turn into play and a mess.
Here are some other thoughts on getting kids ready on the morning.
What have I missed? My kids are older now and can take care of getting out the door on their own. As the saying goes it takes a village, so tell me what works in your house for making sure the family is up and ready to go on time. I am sure all my readers can benefit from all of the great input.
Anyone who leaves a comment will be entered to win a $25 Starbucks gift card.
One winner will be chosen from all comments posted for the entire week.
Please, be sure to link to your blog or provide an email address so we can get in touch with you!
Do you hit snooze several times, jump out of bed in a rush grab your ball cap while you slip your jeans on?
Do you get up early but spend most of your morning looking at your closet telling yourself you have nothing to wear?
Or do you lay out your clothes at night complete with your shoes and accessories you will wear?
No matter what category you fall into I am sure we could all use some inspiration to help manage our mornings.
Here are a few simple and elementary tips. I am sure a lot of you might remember your parents telling you some of these.
Prepare for your day at night. Make sure your purse, backpack, laptop bag are ready for you to just grab in the morning.
Refer to Breakfast on the Run and Lunch to go so you do not have to fuss over your meals for the next day.
Go to bed at a decent time. (Sleep is not just for princesses, our bodies need sleep time to grow and heal)
Set an alarm clock. If are a serial snooze button hitter place your alarm clock on the other side of your bed; this will require you get up and get your day going.
Open the blinds and curtains. Filling your room with daylight will help your body wake up. In just a few weeks we all will be setting our clocks ahead an hour and most of us will wake up to the sun.
Eat that yummy breakfast you planned the night before.
Do you know how long it takes you to get ready in the morning? If not, time yourself from the moment you get out of bed till you walk out the door. This will give you an idea of when you should wake up so you are not rushed.
Stay consistent with your waking time each day. This will train your body to naturally wake up on time. Even on days you don’t have to get up early, do. This will give you a wonderful break from your morning routine. You can spend time in the Word, sip your coffee, watch the news or just enjoy the quietness of the house while the natives sleep.
So what have I missed that you may do that will help another girlfriend out? I want to hear it all. My mornings get by me way too fast!
Tell me in the comments below what your tried and true strategies are for getting up and out the door in a snap. What makes your mornings easier?
Anyone who leaves a comment will be entered to win a $25 Starbucks gift card.
One winner will be chosen from all comments posted for the entire week.
Please, be sure to link to your blog or provide an email address so we can get in touch with you!
Another time saver is cook a few meals once a week or many meals once a month and put them in the freezer. Make sure you label them well and all you have to do is grab one out of the freezer in the morning and then pop it in the oven.
Life as a mom also has great recipes and she even points you to posts to help you get started if you have never done freezer cooking before.
Other quick tips can happen as soon as you unload your groceries. When you buy chicken before you place it into the icebox go ahead and prepare a few dinner options. Place desired amount of chicken in a gallon Ziploc bag and add a marinade then pop them into the freezer. As they thaw the chicken pieces will soak up the flavors and all you have to do it grill or bake.
Here are a few marinade options:
Italian dressing
Ranch dressing and 2 Tablespoons minced garlic
½ c Olive Oil, ½ c Lemon Juice and 3 T Italian Dressing
Barbecue sauce
Now all you need is a salad, veggies and/or fruit.
Did you know I was once a single mom? Yes, I had a time in my life where living on budget was more of a necessity than a plan and time was short each day; between, work, shuffling kids around, homework checks and doing the cleaning and cooking solo. On Monday Nicole Bean, a single mom, featured me on her blog 180 Degrees: Turning your life into a new direction She asked to interview me about the time in my life when I was a single mom. Go over and check that out, you will also find a great recipe as well!
Sharing time! What are your tried and tested tips for making dinner delicious, easy, and stress free.
Tell me all your great ideas in the comments below and you could be entered to win a $25 Starbucks gift card.
One winner will be chosen from all comments posted for the entire week.
Please, be sure to link to your blog or provide an email address so we can get in touch with you!
The Secret to Planning 31 Meals
