A New Year's Plan

Happy New Year errrbody!

I don't really make new year resolutions each year. What I do is think of a word that I want my year to describe. This year, my word is:

ADULTING

What exactly does that mean, you ask? It means working hard, keeping my house clean, eating appropriately, exercising, respecting everyone (stop gossiping and judging), and treating myself the way I want to be treated. Really, doing everything I'm supposed to do. 

It translates into goals like these:

• Girl, wash your face
• Tossing out holey clothes and treating my other clothes better than rags
• Doing my make-up and hair every day because I always feel better when I look better
• Cleaning up that dang kitchen each night because Lord knows things happen in there when it's filthy
• Washing rugs - ergh
• Maybe even blinds, but let's not get too nuts
• Doing what I say I'll do...or saying no when I know I'm not going to do it
• Knowing when to stop and have some "me" time

So it's like, a lot. But I'm taking it day by day and just trying to make the right choice with each decision I come across, as well as being forgiving. Because that's a very adult thing to do - forgive. Say I just had dinner and I'm full, but man alive, I hear a cookie calling my name. I daily log my food and exercise (I've done it for a few years now), so I'll look at my LoseIt! app and see if I have any more calories left. If I don't, I'll go have a glass of water. If I do, I'll drink that glass of water, read something and if it's still haunting my thoughts, go and eat the damn cookie. I mean, I may be trying to do the right thing but I'm no Joan of Arc.

Joan of Arc never ate cookies. History fact for ya.

The thing that I'm most excited about this year, though, and the one that will likely stick more than the whole not gossiping idea, is my meal prep plan. I'm not about to prep meals altogether at once on Sundays because dude, that's my weekend too and this mama deserves naps. But I have, for the last two years or so, sat down with my recipes and planned the week's dinners out in advance. No matter how I planned, though, it seemed that we were ending up with frozen dinners or macaroni and cheese, and going out or ordering in more than we had accounted for, or even throwing out tons of produce that had gone to rot. This year I decided I would plan meals for two weeks in advance, try some new recipes, use what we have and perhaps in doing so, we'd all eat better, waste less and shoot, maybe end the year a bit slimmer. I mean, come on, wouldn't that be nice?

I created a spreadsheet which doesn't surprise anyone, and determined types of meals and days for leftovers. My spreadsheet starts like this:

Sunday: Roast / Big Meal

Monday: Sunday's leftovers

 Tuesday: Chicken or Pasta bake

Wednesday: Tuesday's leftovers

Thursday: Fish or Vegetarian

Friday: Crockpot Meal, Frizza or Thursday's leftovers

Saturday: Friday's leftovers or OUT

Most of my ideas are utter game-changers to me, but to everyone else my ideas are probably normal decisions they've adopted years ago. But whatever. IF I CAN CHANGE JUST ONE LIFE.

I wanted to return to dinners as they were when I was growing up. Sundays were big family meals with roasts or big casseroles and actual side dishes (not just steam-in-a-bag veggies - although they are a SAVING GRACE and I use them all the time). I decided that Sunday meals would also be meals that we eat with placemats and cloth napkins (I'm easing them in to eating with cloth napkins SHHH), and when we practice mealtime manners. One night works well because not every dinnertime can be fart-less and pristine.

Monday we have Scouts, so that's a leftover night to just get the food in our bellies. Tuesday would be an easier meal night, Wednesday those leftovers, and THURSDAY: FISH. I know we all need to eat more fish for the healthiness and for the poor way cows and chickens are treated, but we are not a family that loves fish. I was nervous, but the first recipe I tried had Ollie chowing down! (Might be because it's now a little later at night - 6pm instead of 5:30pm - when he eats and the boy is LOUDLY EMACIATED.) On Fridays I don't want to cook anything. This meal is either a crockpot meal or a frozen pizza (frizza). We're tired so we get the food out of the way and cuddle up on the couch with a movie. 

Doug generally gets the dinner started because he comes home earlier than I do. Ollie will set the table and I'll swoop in to pray and spoon dinner onto their plates. It works nicely. After dinner is done, I will log into my spreadsheet and write comments about the meal. In which book did I get the recipe? Was it true to number of meals it could serve? Was it the best version of this recipe? Did we like it? And then I'll rate the meal from 1-5 stars in a very non-systematic way. Those that earn 5 stars are...I don't know, winners? We'll likely put them into the rotation down the line.

I've put the list on our wipe-off board in the kitchen and Doug has access to the google spreadsheet so there's no more, "What's for dinner tonight?" Well, I told him that and then we laughed and laughed.

So...truth be told, I've already skipped some nights of washing my face. But the zits that appeared the next morning scolded me enough. I had a nap at 10:30am last Saturday, which doesn't seem very adult-like, and the blinds are probably going to remain fuzzy and furry. But this meal planning thing is working out and making me feel like a true adult. I think - WAIT FOR IT - this is one idea that may - GASP - continue!

Happy New Year. Enjoy your life and make it your best one yet!