The Dinner Hour & Trying to be Organized

With me going to school in the evenings and Travis working nights (Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday), dinner hour is becoming an adventure.

I’m having a hard time making my dinner menu each week. On Monday Celeste is in charge of cooking so I try to make it easy. On Tuesday and Wednesday Travis is in charge of cooking and has asked that I plan an easy dinner for Tuesday because that’s the night he has scouts. On Thursday Ashley is in charge of cooking dinner and so I try to make it extra easy. On Friday and Saturday it’s only the kids and me and sometimes they have other plans so I try to plan something easy.

You might see a theme here. The problem is that I can’t think of that many easy dinners to plan each week. We can only have hot dogs and sandwiches for so long before everyone stops wanting to eat dinner. I’ve considered returning to doing freezer meals, but I just don’t have the time to do the preparation and I only know of a limited number of meals that can be frozen and reheated and still taste good. Which brings me back to my original problem.

By the way, in case any of you are wondering (Mom and Marjorie seemed interested) here is how I keep the family scheduled each week:

I print off a new one of these each week (hopefully on Sunday). I like excel. You’ll notice how specific dinner is, even down to the side dishes. Otherwise they’ll eat something that was meant for a different night or they won’t do it at all because they’re confused. My kids actually seem to like this chart. They nag me when I’m slow about putting up a new one. Maybe kids do like rules/organization/boundaries.

I’ve limited my grocery shopping trips to Monday afternoon ONLY. I figure that this save me time and money. By Friday afternoon our fridge is looking pretty bare, but I’m sticking to once a week anyway and just have everyone make do with what they can find.

Also, because the kids have to help out so much I’ve been trying to reward them. I don’t have any money right now to pay them, which I’m sure they’d prefer. So, instead each week they pick out a treat for me to get them at the grocery store. It’s amazing how well they remember to write their treat preference on the grocery list each week. They never forget. The shopping list also helps because sometimes I’m not home when they notice we’re out of something and they forget to tell me. I’ve had fewer surprises where you come home from the store to realize you’re out of something.

I will admit that even though their chores are listed very clearly and are the exact same every week, many nights I come home to find that they’ve “forgotten” to do them. But, by having the list this doesn’t happen every night which means I sometimes come home to find things clean. And for the most part my kids have been great about me going to school and I couldn't do it without there help.

Well, if any of you have any suggestions (either for dinner or something to add to my chart) let me know.

(By the way, if any of you know what I'm supposed to do so that you can click and the picture and see it larger, let me know. I can't figure it out. And mom's been complaining that I don't do that.)