Meal Planning

I've been doing a study on the Proverbs 31 woman and today I read verse 14: "She is like the ships of a merchant; she brings her food from afar." And the other verse for the study today was Proverbs 9:1-2 "Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her beasts; she has mixed her wine; she has also set her table." Basically, the message for today was about using wisdom in shopping for your family especially in regards to the food you purchase and prepare. There is one little thing I use that has enabled me to be very effective in this and I would like to share it with you: A monthly meal plan. And I keep it right where I will be able to see it every day- on my refrigerator.

As far as meal prep goes, I have found that a little planning in advance can be so helpful. Having the menu there on the fridge enables me to easily check the pantry and refrigerator to see what ingredients I need to put on my grocery list. Using a meal plan also gives me the chance to plan making new recipes (I usually try a new meal or two every month). It also helps me remember what meat I need to move from the freezer to the refrigerator to thaw for the next day's meal. And it helps me plan ahead for meals that would be perfect with a loaf of homemade bread. In fact, just having a plan has saved me from the whole "What on earth am I going to make for dinner?" problem that I dealt with constantly in the first two years of our marriage.

I originally got the idea from my dad of all people (he is the cook in my family). He started to use the whiteboard calendar mom put on the refrigerator to keep track of everyone's plans to make his grocery list. It is something so simple that has really made my life easier. Every month I sit down at my computer with my meal spreadsheets and calendar white board and plan out what we will eat for the month. Sometimes we don't go by the menu. Sometimes I mix up the meals for a week if I see a certain ingredient should be used before it expires, or sometimes I'm just feeling lazy and convince Jeff into ordering out pizza (the convincing usually goes like this: "Here's the deal, I think we should order pizza for dinner" and then Jeff immediately grabs his phone to order it.) But usually I stick to the general menu.

Here is how the process works: I have made a spreadsheet on GoogleDocs that lists every meal I make that I can think of and beside it I have the total amount the meal costs to make. I have them organized into separate columns by category such as casseroles, soups, ethnic, breakfast etc.  The categories simplify planning for me. Some months I'll do casseroles on Mondays, pasta on Tuesdays, soup/stew on Wednesdays, chicken/beef on Thursdays, breakfast food on Fridays, and then hodgepodge on Saturday. (Sundays we eat at church). I just pick 4 different meals from each category on my list and write them out on my whiteboard calendar. Sometimes I have to tweak a bit to fit my budget so I also keep a monthly meal spreadsheet that lists all the meals with the cost beside it and have the total cost at the bottom.

So, that is one little tool that makes it easier to serve my family (and myself). I hope it has given you some ideas on how to make figuring out "what's for dinner" a little easier.

Cloth Diapering: How it's Going

Both Jeff and I are loving using cloth diapers. I'm really surprised at how well Jeff took to it. I thought he would have been a sissy but he has taken to it like he has every other aspect of fathering- like a champ. He actually prefers using cloth to using disposable, though he can't exactly explain why. He says it just feels better. I think I prefer cloth too. When we were exclusively using disposable diapers Eli had a tiny bit of diaper rash all the time but it immediately cleared up when we started using cloth. I don't know that the disposables really caused this but I do have to note that we had absolutely no problem with his skin since using cloth. The picture is of Eli showing off his cloth diaper. We started using them when he was 4 weeks old-once his belly button was completely clean from the umbilical cord and he was big enough to fit them. He is now 10 weeks old, so, if you do the math we have been cloth diapering for 6 weeks. We still use disposable diapers for the night. Not because our cloth aren't absorbent enough but because Eli sleeps in our room and we don't have a diaper pail or any changing stuff for him in there. Once he starts sleeping through the night we plan to start using the cloth, but middle of the night changes are just easier with disposable. We use two different types of diaper; the traditional pre-fold and a microfiber insert. These are 2 in 1 systems that use covers. I also have some pocket diapers but we haven't used them yet. Jeff prefers the pre-folds because the inserts can wiggle around a bit but I think I'm leaning towards liking the inserts more because of simplicity. To begin with I felt the inserts were to wide but now that Eli has grown a bit they work just fine.

The whole process has been really simple though. We just throw the used diaper in the wet bag that lines Eli's diaper pail and when we are running low on clean diapers we dump the bag and it's contents into the washer. It ends up being an extra load of laundry every other day, but I have to say it is some of the easiest laundry ever because you just hang the diaper covers to dry and don't even have to fold the diapers if you don't want to. The picture below is our changing station. We have a basket for diaper covers and one for the inserts/pre-folds and the diaper pail is a trash can with a wet bag as liner.

Our Diaper Station

Covers and Diapers/Inserts

Many people are wary about using cloth diapers outside of the home and use disposables when out and about but we have had no problem with using cloth outside of our home. We just keep a little waterproof bag in the diaper bag and put any soiled diapers in it.

Here is what I take with me in the diaper bag when on the road for cloth diapers: 2 small wet bags (one to put soiled diapers in and another to hold my other diaper stuff), 2-3 diapers sometimes more if I will be out a while, 1-2 covers, a small packet of wipes and a changing pad. I think the main key is having the wet bags. I started out with just one, which worked fine, but it really is nice to have a second bag to keep all my diapering stuff separate from the other things in the diaper bag. Also, if Eli completely destroys an outfit with spit-up or diaper mess I can use that extra bag to keep his wet outfit from getting the contents of the diaper bag wet without having to put it in with his soiled diapers. I bought my wet bags off of Amazon but you could also find them on Etsy or if you have the right materials you could even make one of your own. In the end cloth diapering on the road is pretty much the same as doing it at home. Just don't forget to take the soiled diapers out of the diaper bag when you get home :)

As far as the performance goes, I have nothing but good things to say. We went with two brands of diaper Thirsties and Flip. So far I have had no leaks outside of the covers except for operator error. I know its a pretty novel idea that you have to make sure the diaper is completely covered by the cover in order for it to keep clothes from getting wet. So if there is any bit of diaper peeking out after I put the cover on I just readjust so that everything is covered and we are ready to go!

I have noticed that the cloth diapers are bigger than disposables. I have Eli in some pants that are for older children just because some of his age appropriate ones don't fit as well over the diaper and cover. Even still though I don't really notice a huge difference with the systems I use and sometimes when I have him in the Flip with it's insert I'm not sure if he is in a full disposable or just a cloth diaper. 

So that is how cloth is working for us thus far. No problems and very little hassle. I have noticed that Eli will go longer in a dirty disposable without fussing than in a dirty cloth- which isn't a bad thing. I will update on the absorbency of his diapers as Eli gets older.