Getting Back into the Swing of Things ...

For those who have been following our journey to add more children to our family through adoption http://piecesofmyheartukraine.blogspot.com/, you know that we arrived safely home on Friday, October 14th. (I will add a post to that blog about our first week back shortly.) Compared to the pace of life prior to the adoption, I've felt like life has gone at a much slower pace since getting home.

A huge part of that has been that I actually resigned from my position as paralegal for Care Net http://www.facebook.com/carenet?ref=ts prior to the adoption process. I realized back in February that the full time schedule was not working out as well as we had thought after I returned from our first adoption trip http://macyadoption.blogspot.com/. 

Don't get me wrong - I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED working for Care Net, the pro-life mission, and my incredible boss!! But, as I told them during my job interview back in 2008, I will always be a mother first and foremost, so of course they understood and have always been wonderful about things when I needed time for my family. However, with the pending adoption of possibly 2 more children, I felt the time had come that I be home more and work outside the home less -- such a position was not available within the company at that time. It was a bummer to have missed out on conference this year in Orlando, so I lived vicariously through their conference photo page while in Ukraine completing the adoption! I do hope that one day I can return to pro-life ministry work as I have been involved in the movement since junior high!

Our excitement for the week has been two things: I won a live Christmas Tree through a facebook contest from Dutchman Tree Farms http://www.facebook.com/DutchmanChristmasTreeFarms and  I went to the doctor yesterday to confirm that I have a stress fracture on the top of my foot! It was confirmed and now my foot is taped up and in a walking boot (which prevented me from going to the $1 movies with my kids this morning).

So, back to the purpose of this blog ... mostly about meal planning and life strategies for raising a larger than average family. I know there are families out there with many more children than we have, but I feel like we have a large family (we only have 1 open spot at the kitchen table) and meal time can be a challenge both financially and logistically! I am not a very good cook. I can cook, but generally I can only cook what I already know how to cook. I usually ruin a perfectly good recipe the first try (sometimes the 2nd try, too) and when you're cooking for 7 people on a budget you just can't afford too many OOPPS-we-need-to-order-pizza nights!

The first step for me is to get organized. I don't like the panic that sets in when the kids get home from school around 3pm of "what are we having for dinner." The kids like to know! Actually, I like to know, too! :) Thus, came the calendar. This is where I download my monthly calendars and they can be edited in WORD or similar programs. I download 2 at a time and start planning ahead.  

http://www.calendarsthatwork.com/

I have posted my previous months calendars on the right hand sidebar for my own use to look back, but also to share ideas with others. Even though I'm no longer working outside the home, afternoon/evenings are hectic with 5 kids to get through homework, studying, dinner, clean up, chores, and showering. I know I need to keep dinner simple, less than an hour including prep & cooking, and something I can't easily ruin! So, weekends are my own time to "experiment" in the kitchen. I always have some "easy dinner night" options available just incase I ruin something.

"Easy Dinner Night" means something I can reheat in the oven. This includes (all from Costco) take-n-bake pizza (we stock up when on sale and freeze for later use), Mickey Mouse or Dino chicken nuggets, The Ultimate Fish Sticks (about 3x the size of regular ones), or chicken taquitos. I sometimes will make an extra dish if I'm cooking something out of the ordinary. Lazanga for instance, which I only make about once every 3-4 months, I will make 2 pans of it and use one that night and freeze the other. I do the same when I make enchilladas, which I don't make very often because it takes so many steps and really quite a long time! Anyway, if I have extras of these in the freezer, they could be used on an "easy dinner night."