My mother can make things happen with a freezer and a microwave that the rest of the world only dreams about. I joke that if you stand still too long in my mother's house; she'll put you in the freezer. She'll freeze anything. Most are successes, although I never adapted to frozen tuna salad or frozen milk! She can run a household on a nickel with change left over.
She also kept a planner that the average homeschool mom would die for. We never had overdue library books, and never missed an appointment. We went to the same beach cottage every summer, so she kept her packing list out while we were on vacation! If we didn't use something, she crossed it off the list. If we forgot something, she added it to the list. Can you imagine how powerful that list was after a couple of years?
She didn't allow us to do our own laundry until we were getting set to go away to college. I asked her once why we weren't stuck with laundry as a chore. Her response was that she wanted the washer to last 30 years, and it wouldn't have if we used it! BTW, the washer lasted almost 35 years! Why was my mother so frugal? She wanted the 3 of us kids to go to private school and have dance and sports and karate. And that was worth the sacrifice!
I will never be the planning guru my mother is. I try, but I'm just not as single minded as she is. But I did pick up a few tricks. I have my menus planned for the month on the fridge. Right below that is a family calendar. Haven't missed an appointment in months...as long as I check my calendar every day. If I get my act together, I have my list of menus to take with me to the grocery store.
Which I did today. AND when I came home I put all the ingredients for the meatloaf in a gallon bag and mixed it. Then I pressed it in the pan and stuck it in the freezer. So we will have meatloaf this week. You see, usually I put the meat directly into the freezer and pull it out mid-afternoon. And with all due respect to my mother, it doesn't thaw well in the microwave for shaping into the meatloaf! And the best parts? Wednesday's dinner is good to go AND I don't have ground beef under my fingernails!
Feeling blessed! How about you?
I should give you my weekly menu page that I made up a few years ago. I can't do more than a week at a time. The best part about it is that if some family member who expresses their displeasure they get the menu sheet for the next week to fill out. Think I am going to try the meatloaf idea.
ReplyDeleteLove the meatloaf idea!
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