I mentioned on Facebook that I started cooking all my food for the week each Monday. This is an idea I got from a friend of mine and also from listening to my mother-in-law who had mentioned at least preparing her meat beforehand and than freezing it raw, but ready to be cooked. Also when I read about this other friend who made about a month worth of food that she put in her deep freezer before she had her baby. Both of those blog posts written last November...yeah it's taken me this long to actually try it.
I WAS waiting for a deep freezer...but that might not happen until I prove that I can and will have use for it.
Mojo really helped because she gave LOTS of tips about how she gets it done. Plus keeping the kiddos entertained.
So two weeks ago I tried it, finally. I cut and prepared chicken, enough for four meals, but only used it for two meals. I made tons of rice and put it in the fridge. Had salad stuff ready to go. I cooked hamburger patties. I made enchiladas. I have a ton of ground beef left over from Violet's birthday party. So I cooked enough meat for the next week as well and put it in the freezer. I made turkey Lasagna, which I cooked then froze to save for Sunday. I cooked a pizza another night. We ate leftovers another night.
This Week I cooked a pot roast with potatoes and carrots. I will use the left over meat to make 'brisket' type bb-q sandwiches with bb-q sauce. More enchiladas. More hamburgers (lots of left over meat...I even have enough left for spaghetti and tacos next week). I roasted a chicken, which I split in two parts. Some for chicken with rice. Another night I will make chicken squares. My last meal I will use the chicken I cut up last week... I'll just grill til it's blackened a bit in an iron skillet...got that method from my mother-in-law. David prefers it that way. I'll put mine in a salad. I serve his with rice, wing sauce for dipping and a salad usually.
Both weeks we had plenty of salad...I like using baby spinach. And I buy tons of frozen veggies to heat and serve through the week. Though this week I bought fresh asparagus and artichoke to steam.
I go to the grocery store in the morning, get home around 11. After putting groceries away and cleaning up to cook, I start cooking around noon during the kids naps. Finish up by 5 or 6.
I clean up a bit, soak dishes...but leave most of it for Tuesday. Except this Tuesday I didn't get to it until way late. But really once I get the kitchen clean, it is MUCH easier to maintain during the week. If I get quicker at this I would love to get my laundry done on this day as well... I might have to move grocery shopping day to Friday afternoons when David comes home. Hmmm that's a thought.
And though I have cut t.v. out of my kids lives... I have found that on Mondays, well these last two anyway, by the last stretch of cooking around 4 or 5, I put in a movie and make them popcorn. Ponyo, they love it. I am going to work on making them projects they can work on instead of a movie though.
Cutting out television, btw, has worked out very well for us. Violet is progressing, she doesn't rock herself anymore (except when she is in bed). She is talking way more and her vocabulary has increased a lot. Loves telling me what things are, reading with me, playing with Liam, playing pretend, playing with her toys, playing outside and coloring. She tries to use the potty everyday. Loves to undress herself. Recognizes shapes, some colors, some letters. Can count to 10 and sing her ABC's. Also twinkle twinkle. Her favorite song that I sing is "I Love to See the Temple". She wants up on the counter to see the fish everyday. Gives more hugs and kisses to everyone. Still throws tantrums but is easier to calm down, understands timeouts now...is apologetic when she does something wrong. Looks at us AND smiles when we call her name...she had gotten to a point where if she were playing with her toys by herself, she wouldn't turn and look if you called her name.
So yeah, lots and lots of progress and changes. It wasn't that I let them watch t.v. all day. But it was like before (back in the winter months when they kept getting colds that I started letting them watch more and more television) about 4 hours of it A DAY. And when it wasn't shows for them, it was on for me. DIY shows and cooking shows. But Violet would stop and stare at those shows too. I was becoming a very lazy mother. I'm not saying this to put down other mothers who do let their kids watch t.v... I personally, because of my personality (all or nothing), had to cut it out altogether. T.V...tried cutting back. It didn't work for long. So for my daughters sake I firmly decided to do better by her and just cut it out altogether.
David has been very supportive of no t.v. and has kept it off when he is caring for them as well.
Liam has shown improvement too. I didn't even realize the effect it had on him. I mean he was still learning and progressing. But now I see how much his imagination has blossomed without t.v. He loves joking around even more and being "funny", he loves to play pretend...pretend camping trips, pretend pirates, pretend cooking etc. He loves playing games like go fish or memory, riding his bike, swimming (well that hasn't changed from last year). Counting higher and higher and doing math....simple subtraction and addition. He has been learning to read for a while, but it has improved a lot. Lately he likes to write words out and try to figure out how, insert word, is spelled. He makes me grocery lists each week. He always writes milk, butter and boost on his list. I think he is just happy he figured out butter, that's why it's always on there, not because I buy butter every week.
He used to spell Dad just fine. But since he has been trying to figure words out for himself by sounding them out... he went from spelling it DAD to DEAD. I think we got it straightened out now though lol.
Liam named all four of the goldfish, they are: Seastar, Decorankus, Rocks and Seaweed. Lol. Seastar is the prettiest one. Decorankus is such a random name but the fish he named that has an unusual marking on his head, so it's easy to remember him...and Rocks and Seaweed look like twins...so it doesn't matter who is who.
So yes, you may have noticed, we got some new fish. They are awesome fish. Goldfish from my mother and father's pond. It's like buying organic meat. Just better. They are thriving. They just look healthy. They actually eat when we feed them. Violet even dropped a crasin in the tank. Did it kill them? NO, they picked at it and ate part of it. I think they will last a while, and if they don't? Back to the pond.
