growing family – Oh Lord Help Us

How To Develop A Meal Plan

Be Healthy, Eat, Save, Stay SaneOctober 28, 2015January 29, 2016

Ain’t nobody got time for that!!

This bit of bad grammar is brought to you by my desire to reduce the amount of time we spend in the kitchen. We are busy moms! We have babies to feed and kids to drive to practice and games to play outside (and maybe naps to take)!

Rules

For the way I do my meal planning, there are just two rules.

Rule #1 You have to have a crock pot and microwave. This is the one I love. It leaves the meat so tender that it just falls apart.

Rule #2 You have to be okay with leftovers. I prefer to cook 3 big meals and then reheat, rather than 7 small meals.

Steps

Step #1 Make a list of foods you already have on hand. Especially items that may be about to expire.

For instance, if you have a head of broccoli that has been sitting in your fridge for a week, then your first meal is going to be include broccoli. In this photo you can see that I have starred the kale and avocado letting me know that they need to be used. I hate throwing out food.

Step #2 Make a list of meals that you would like to eat.

Obviously, choose meals that include what you already have. If you don’t have items already in your fridge, then it’s free game!

Step #3 Schedule those those meals while considering if they will work with your family’s schedule.

We are not home Tuesday and Thursday afternoons before dinner time, so a casserole would not work on those days because no one will be home to put it in the oven. On those days we either use the crockpot or have leftovers warmed up in the microwave.

Step #4 Write down a list of ingredients you will need to get.

Go through your recipes, or your mind, to make sure you have everything you will need on hand.

Step #5 Find time to go to the store.

Remember to take the list with you!!

Tips

Tip! Plan a months worth of meals and then shop at a wholesale store.

Tip! Use fresh ingredients first and end with frozen meat and veggies.

Tip! Freeze unbaked casseroles if you want to prepare for more than a week at a time.

Tip! Roast veggies and put in storage containers to reheat with crock pot meals.

Hopefully this simplifies meal planning. Or you can leave all the work to me! Simply subscribe to Oh Lord Help Us with your email. Starting in January I will send you a month’s worth of meal planning, complete with recipes, shopping lists and price per serving breakdown.

xoxo

photo credit: Benjamin Faust

How Do We End the Judgement?

Love, Parent, Stay SaneOctober 21, 2015January 29, 2016

We have all been there. We have been the one standing alone while others made snide comments and pointed and laughed (although it may just have been in our minds). And we have also been the one commenting and pointing and laughing (even if it has just been in our minds). Nobody wins. Everybody feels cruddy after the fact.

Here’s What Happened

I found myself in this situation a couple weeks ago while my sons were at swim lessons. There is this one 5 year old boy in my younger son’s class that is, how shall I say….,very active. Now, I am no stranger to active little boys. I have boys, my friends have boys, I’m married to a man that used to be a boy. So I was not concerned with his activeness. I was concerned with how little regard this boy had for authority. Completely ignoring his mother, the teacher, and the lifeguard. This is scary to me because, hello! These are kids in water! The first couple weeks I was unconcerned, no judgement, just observation.

But then, a couple weeks ago, I crossed the line into judgement. The mom had told her son for the 14th time to put something away. Instead of obeying he threw a temper tantrum. And then… she gave in and handed it back to him. I’m so thankful that the pool area is loud and echo-y because a comment actually slipped out of my mouth. But then I felt cruddy. (And if by some bizarre chance this dear mom is reading this, please know that I did feel cruddy and I am sorry.)

Now, am I wrong to think that she could have handled that differently? I don’t think so. But I was wrong to point (in my mind) and make a snide comment (in actuality). I don’t know this lady. I don’t know what her marriage is like, or if she is even married. I don’t know what she deals with on a daily basis with her son. I do know that she was frustrated and probably could have used some encouragement.

At that moment I was not in the frame of mind to actually encourage her. But I did think of a dear friend that I know feels overwhelmed at times when dealing with her son. So I texted her a simple message of “I just want you to know that I think you are a great mom.”

So What Do You Think?

Is it judgement just to disagree with someone? Their parenting style, their health choices, the way they communicate. In our culture right now we are so concerned with not offending people that we are more afraid than ever to disagree, but have never been more judgemental. Maybe if we learn to understand people, and/or assume the best of them, we can get beyond ourselves and leave the judging thing to The Lord. He’s the only one that truly knows our hearts anyways, right?

So then, how do we encourage those around us? Whether it is someone we love, or a stranger, we can all use a bit of encouragement. And isn’t it true that the areas we need the most encouragement are the areas we are weakest in. Which means these areas are the most vulnerable to being “judged” because we are not doing them as well as we would like.

Perhaps we need to encourage “in faith.” In faith, I want my son to be a hard worker; so I praise him for being a hard worker. Our children will be what we tell them they are. So isn’t this true for others. If you want someone to be a good mom and for them to feel that they are, then tell them they are.

And finally, isn’t this true for ourselves. Don’t we deserve to encourage our own souls?

Stop judging others, and stop judging yourself. In faith, encourage the area that is weakest.

xoxo

Making Room for a Growing Family

Parent, Save, Stay SaneJune 12, 2015June 17, 2015

With our family (and my belly) growing, we needed to make some extra room for all these kiddos to be able to sleep and still have room to play. There is no better way to do this than with bunk beds! And nothing more fun! So we started looking around to see what our options were. Good Grief!!! They either felt like they were going to fall over, or I would have to sell my left kidney in order to afford it. Solution? Make it ourselves! I looked around for months on Pinterest to get ideas. Finally taking several features that I liked and compiling them to come up with our own plans. I’m quite proud of the result and am more than happy to share with you. At the end of this post I will give a list of supplies needed, but I’ll just go ahead and tell you the cost (because I can’t keep a secret when I’m excited). Grand total (including hardware, but not paint) was $219.30 (without tax). Isn’t that incredible?!?!? Bunk beds like this to be built would be about thousand bucks, no lie. And ours even have secret compartments.

First thing, if you have a ceiling fan, it’s gotta go. We don’t want any kiddos getting knocked in the head in the middle of the night.

This is the head board. It consists of:

2-2 x 10 x 8 ft boards (our ceilings are 9 ft, so we didn’t need to cut these)
5-2 x 6 boards cut to 38 inches
2-boards cut from plywood 9 inches x 38 inches
1-4 x 8 white hardboard cut to 38 inches x 88 inches

Here you can see the back of the headboard.

This is looking into what will be one of the hidden compartments.

This is the foot board. It consists of:

2-2 x 6 x 8 ft boards
3-2 x 6 boards cut to 41 inches

These are the side rails that will hold the mattresses. They consist of:

4-2 x 6 board cut to 85.75 inches
4-2 x 2 x 6 ft (these are what hold the platform for the mattress, please note that these are NOT centered)

These are the siderails that go at the very top.

2-2 x 6 boards cut to 85.75 inches

Here we have attached the side rails. This is definitely a two (or maybe three) person job. Make sure your rails are level!!

Here is the mattress platform resting on the 2 x 2’s. Please note that we did add 2 x 2’s at the head and foot as an afterthought because it was not sturdy enough.

2-4 x 8 OSB plywood cut to 40.75 x 75 inches, then cut notches at foot .75 x 5.5 inches

These are the bookshelf stairs to climb into the top bunk. It consists of:

1-2 x 12 board cut to 55 inches
1-2 x 12 board cut to 39.25 inches
1-2 x 12 board cut to 39.5 inches
1-2 x 12 board cut to 29.25 inches
1-2 x 12 board cut to 19 inches
1-2 x 12 board cut to 8.75 inches
4-2 x 12 boards cut to 11 7/8 inches

Once built, the stairs were attached to the bed with “L” brackets.

We also put bookshelves in the headboard. The bottom shelf was not as deep as to allow room for the hinges to make the hidden compartment. These consist of:

4-1 x 10 boards cut to 38 inches
2-1 x 10 board cut to 38 inches and then ripped to 7 inches

We of course added the all-important safety rail. It consists of:

1-2 x 4 board cut to 85.75
2-2 x 4 boards cut to 15 inches

All wood was purchased from Home Depot.

Extra things we added were the curtains, an LED battery powered touch light, and little fans.

The curtain rods and clips were from Target. The curtains I sewed myself. The inside fabric has a wonderful silver star pattern with a black background, from JoAnn Fabric. The lights (not seen) were from Lowes. The fans from Walmart.

All of the sections were primed and painted before final assembly. I used the same paint that was used on our trim throughout the house. It looks great, and I didn’t have to buy any additional paint.

Aren’t they great (if I do say so myself)!

Here’s the shopping list and price breakdown:

(12) 2 x 6 x 8 @ $5.28
(2) 2 x 10 x 8 @ $7.26
(2) 2 x 4 x 8 @ $2.92
(3) 2 x 2 x 8 @ $1.87
(2) 1 x 10 x 10 @ $22.26
(1) 4 x 8 white hardboard @ $8.98
(2) 4 x 8 OSB plywood @ $7.05
(3) 2 x 12 x 8 @ $8.59
(2) Hinges 2 pack @ $2.97
1 lb screws 3″ $7.94
1 lb screws 2.5″ $9.37
(5) “L” brackets 4 pack @ $2.67

Total: $219.30

Have fun!!

Love Multiplied

Parent, Stay SaneMay 1, 2015July 24, 2016

I recall a conversation from several years back that a few of my friends were having about how much they loved their children. At the time, they all only had one and I was expecting my second. They were making comments about how they couldn’t imagine loving another child as much as they loved the one they already had (they all have more children now, by the way). And this got me thinking. There is not a set amount of love that we have in life that we have to divide among those around us. Love does not subtract. It multiplies!

Right now in life I am expecting my third child and we are in the process of being able to foster-to-adopt a sibling group. We have been very open with our boys about all of this, and have encouraged many and all types of questions. We have tried to not sugar coat anything. I’ve talked with them about the importance of being able to do more things on their own because I may not be available. And how some of the house rules may not apply initially for the adopted children since they are adjusting to us and we are adjusting to them. But I’ve really wanted to stress to them that my love for them will not change, and in fact our house will be even more full of love. So I drew it out and told the love story of our family.

It went like this:

First, there was Dad and I. He loved me, I loved him. Love multiplied by two.

Then we had our first son. And our love began to grow. Love multiplied by six.

Then our second son was born. And our love doubled! Love multiplied by twelve.

Now, we have a baby sister on the way. (Gasp!). Love multiplied by twenty.

And when we have siblings join our family?
Well, love will be flowing out of every nook and cranny of our home.
Love multiplied by lots and lots and lots!

Isn’t this a great love story?!?!

xoxo