Menu Plan - Aug 31-Sept 6

Found a great idea on a blog a while back. Every Monday post your dinner menu for the week. No more guessing what to fix everyday. Grocery shopping is much easier...you have a plan with a list. :)

We have several pounds of hamburger left from the 1/2 cow we bought last year from a processing center. This has to be used up before we get any more meat. Lots of hamburger recipes will be in our menu until its depleted; creativity is the key.

Monday - Chicken & Wild Rice Soup with rolls

Tuesday - Meatball subs, cucumber salad

Wednesday - French toast bake, bacon, and strawberries

Thursday - Chicken Spaghetti, salad

Friday - Slow cooker chili

Saturday - Steak, twice-backed potatoes, roasted asparagus and possible leftover salad

Sunday - Roasted Turkey breast w/gravy, stuffing, stewed apples, and green beans.

Prorities and routines

Ever notice if one thing is left out other items multiply at that spot becoming a huge cluttered mess? Or one thing in our daily routine doesn't get done and makes you feel behind all day? Yesterday nothing went right. All of my routines were out of whack or not done at all. Why? I woke up late because I stayed up to late the night before (there was this tv show I wanted to watch and....). This caused my morning routine not to be done and chaos ensued. Routines are a must with me. I'm easily distracted and without them or my to-do lists my day goes to the wayside. What is our focus for the day? What is the most important part to accomplish? What is our goals/our priorities for home and school? Do they coincide with our routines or focus?

1. Every morning, after I feed the cat or she won't let me be due to starvation (if you see my cat she is far from starved), is sit down and read from the Bible. Fifteen minutes every morning puts me into focus of what is truly important. If I don't do this my day is a wreck waiting to happen. 2. My second routine is read my calendar, the menu for the day, school planner, and my emails for flylady's to-do list as well as my own personal to-do for errands, who to call, etc. Knowing what my day holds for me or my family keeps chaos at bay. No one wants to wake up to find no milk for breakfast because I didn't go to the store on errand day. 3. I'm also finding that walking every day is helping me clear my head. A counselor I was seeing once told me this is the best time to pray. And it is! Not only do you have uninterrupted 'quiet' time but you get to see God's beautiful creations He made (flowers, trees as they change, sun rise, etc) as you walk.

Everything in our home has a place and a place for everything. If it doesn't or we don't need it, it doesn't stay for very long. As easily distracted I am, having to much clutter is bad for me. I'm not a neat freak, but my home must have a sense of order. Its a welcome haven for my family and friends.

Simple order, daily spiritual time, and routines can help our day go much smother.

Presents in the mailbox

Or at least it is for me. Its like opening Christmas presents when we receive a delivery of anything, even if I'm the one who ordered it. The missing teacher books arrived. I'm diving in excitedly looking over what we will accomplish this year. Smile on my face, I asked the kid if liked these new teacher aids. My brilliant second born answers "Oh, more school books". LOL

Lost the bid

My maximum bid of $60 was lost to t***7 late last night to someone else with a bigger need than I. lol At first I was going to rebid but quickly did the math. This was going to cost me MORE than it would if I bought it from a dealer. We were only bidding on the books, not a CD in sight. That little CD is $50 by itself. Naw, I think I'll just bite the bullet and order it through my normal curriculum suppler Rainbow Resources with a rush on delivery.

On a side note, a good friend of mine stopped by last night with her copy of Exploring Creation with Zoology 2. Unfortunately she didn't have Zoology 1, yet I'm not going to worry about it.......free is a gift. I have borrowed her Exploring Creation books for the last 3 years. The boys and I have studied the planets and botany; now we are onto Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day. We have all enjoyed the details giving as well as the experiments to accomplish afterwords.

Still waiting for the teachers edition of Bob Jones History 8 and Writing/Grammar kit. Delay in shipping. This is what I get for procrastinating. Yet we will get them and the kid will get his education, that I have no worries about. Love homeschooling and the flexibility to do things that work for us instead of the system.

Last set of books to get

We have always used Saxon math. Only because it was the same curriculum the kids used at public school and I wanted to keep them with something familiar. Do we stick with it this year or switch to something else? This is the last of my books we need this year. Why did I procrastinate til now?

Researching I found that Bob Jones's 8th grade math looks easier to the eyes on a page. The reviews are great about it as well as for Saxon. Only $14 difference in the price, BJP being on the higher end and this is without the cd while the the Saxon set includes the cd. The kid wants Saxon because it has the cd that teaches him instead of me. Anyways I bit the bullet and bid on a set on ebay. Now its a wait and see if I get it.