oh. my. goodness. i'd forgotten just how much i love planning and list-making!!

i used to be so organized. i had all my meals planned a week in advance, all the housework (evenutally) got done, we arrived for appointments on time. (lately, it would be an accomplishment to eat, find any clean clothes to wear, and arrive for appointments. period. LOL ok, that's a slight exaggeration, but not much.) spend a few months in the hospital and the whole system breaks down! sheesh!!


well, that changes now. i'm too overwhelmed anymore not to live without my precious lists. to-do lists. grocery lists. appointments. calendars. day planners. menu plans.


oh, yes, folks, this was my life once, and everything got done, on time, without (too much) stress and chaos. appointments were kept, work got done, things were accomplished, and i didn't feel like a complete and utter failure. so i've decided to go back to that. to get organized again. and you know what?? i'd forgotten how much fun it is!!!


here's the list of all the ways i'm a square:

1. i love lists. i'm even making a list to prove it. seriously.
2. day planners. {insert choir of angels}
3. crossing things off my to-do list thrills me in ways i don't care to admit on a family blog.
4. i have two ways of crossing things off a to-do list: a straight line through the item means that the item has been completed. a squiggly/wavy line through the item means that it's not on the list anymore, for a variety of reasons.
5. DW gave me a beautiful planner/organizer last week, and i got all teary-eyed. it's just so beautiful!!
6. i truly believe that a plain ol' papermate pen is one of the most wondrous things in the world. 
7. i'm actually blogging about all this.
8. i re-copied my menu for the coming week, so that i can have one on the fridge, and one in my planner. plus i've written the days' meals on the appropriate page in my planner.
9. i have at least 4 pretty "My Week" pads on my fridge, each for a different purpose. the pale pink with polka-dots is for the menu.
10. when i do my weekly menu, i don't just figure out supper in advance. nope. breakfast, lunch, snack, supper, all planned out days in advance. which, i'll admit, makes me very, very happy.

and #9 and #10 segue so nicely into the next part of this post: the weekly menu. now, since the kids are with ed from tuesday morning to thursday morning, my week starts today. and because they came back in the afternoon today, i can skip breakfast and lunch for today and go straight to snack and supper. here's what we've got for the coming days:

Thursday

snack: apple slices

supper: smoothies (they had a huge lunch)

Friday

breakfast: Timbits (supplied by my mother)

lunch: grilled cheese with ham, using homemade bread

snack: n/a, since the kids will be with their dad

supper: pasta with tomato sauce

Saturday

breakfast: smoothies

lunch: perogies with fried onion

snack: roll kuchen (i don't know how to spell it. it's a mennonite deep-fried piece of dough. i'm just guessing at the spelling there.)

supper: lentil and spinach soup, with homemade bread

Sunday

breakfast: toast with peanut butter

lunch: spaghetti and meatballs. alas, not homemade. nope. chef boyardee. but we're going to be at both services at church on sunday (i'm doing the sunday school thing again), so by the time we get home, it will be late and we (read: I) will be tired and needing something simple and easy. and there's not much easier than opening a can and dumping the contents into a pot for a few minutes.

snack: apple slices

supper: fish, roasted potatoes, corn or other veggie. see? this meal makes up for the chef boyardee, don't you agree? ;)

Monday

breakfast: pancakes

lunch: leftover soup with homemade bread

snack: homemade chocolate chip cookies (which we're going to make on monday afternoon)

supper: rice, beans, fried onions

Tuesday

breakfast: maybe.... chocolate french toast

so there we go. the week in food. and don't doubt that i've written in my planner when i need to make bread, too. and allot time to make the cookies. and when i need to start soaking the beans and cooking the rice. and thawing the fish. oh, yes, i'm on the ball. and it feels fabulous!!! i'll let you know on tuesday how this all went, but i'm hoping that this will go well. cross your crossables for me!