Monday Message

"Be faithful, my brothers and sisters, to this counsel and you will be blessed—yes, the most blessed people in all the earth. You are good people. I know that. But all of us need to be better than we are. Let us be in a position so we are able to not only feed ourselves through the home production and storage, but others as well." (Ezra Traft Benson)

This week I have been working on menus for a month, I know it seems like a lot but the way I do it is this...

I make a list with thirty main dishes and it is just a list, so if today I have leftovers, that is okay and if I want something else on the list, that is okay or if I don't feel up to fixing that item today that is okay as well. I do thirty days so I don't have to go out so often, even with a store pick-up. I am happy for that service...It is just easier to get it tended in one trip.

I have a main dish binder that I have that I refer to for the recipes.

I start with a piece of paper on which I have numbered 1-30 but I have a few more on this one.

I start looking through my main dish binder for ideas and meals.

I have another sheet of paper that if I need something, I write it on this and that way I can add it to the grocery list.

I don't have anything assigned to a specific day. So if I have chili written down and don't feel like chili, I look at the list and find something to fix instead...like burritos. Will I use all thirty plus items? Well, yes, but maybe not till later after the thirty days, because a lot of what I have on the list is food storage friendly and can wait till I get to it.

I also know that if I have leftovers I will use those for lunches or even more suppers but rest assured, I will have the whole month covered if needed. This is how I save money as well as most of what I make is frugal and storable.

I know that I can make our favorite chicken and rice casserole anytime I want because I have canned chicken that I canned and even metal cans of chicken, so that is handy. I have cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soup and I have rice, both instant and regular, and it calls for chicken bouillon and bread crumbs. This means everything I need is on hand already.

I make bread so bread crumbs are never an issue. I also have plenty of bouillon on hand that I store as well.

So if you have a bad day, and with fibromyalgia that is often for me, this is a great recipe to pull out and use.

So I keep that back for a really bad day.

Did I have help this day on making the menus? Well, in the beginning the cats would sit on what I was working on with the open binders and such and would go for my pen but soon the answer is no...no help.

They slept the whole while I worked once they deemed it as BORING.

This week I have also been sorting and organizing. I worked on the stamps in the map drawer.

I worked in the sewing room a bit.

Mostly I rearranged things that I could in the bedroom.

This was tricky as it is a bit hard to shift things in there. I made it easier to get to the knitting machines and the sock machine. I must be in a spring cleaning mood with all this fine weather that we are now having.

How do you do your menus? We would love to hear! Leave us a comment below.

Gus says stay in and stay safe. It is still a good time to take such precautions. He also says it is a good time to be thinking of what you want to grow in your garden. In his mind we cannot see him :p Stay safe everyone.