So I am still on a food kick and definitely don't think we have exhausted this topic enough to move on!  My first thoughts are always to plan plan plan.  Although I know that even the most put together mommy has those moments where we forgot something, we ran out of time to run to the store or we just don't feel like making what we planned to make!  Last night, my kids were sick and trying something new and exciting would  not work!

For me, I personally have a few recipes/meals that I know by heart.  They require little ingredients or at least ingredients I can have on hand for a long time.  In my household these will usually come out because it is after 7pm and I haven't even made it home yet to start dinner.  Before I want to start working through a brand new recipe that might take me longer than expected to make, I will fall back on my "tried and true" to nourish the family that evening.  I will comment with one of my favorites and list the ingredients, etc.  As I commented on in the previous post, Kraft has a great easy to use recipe where you can plug in "chicken and corn" because that's what you might have on hand and it will give you some easy to make recipes to try.   

So my question this week is "what is your tried and true"?  What do you always have in your pantry that can make a quick meal and be your go to?  I think we all have pasta and sauce so lets move beyond that one.  Staples you always keep in the pantry because you know when all else fails, you can at least serve that.  Is there a website or book you use to find quick recipes with what you have on hand?  Thanks for sharing!!

Mom... what are we having for dinner??

Let's jump into the new year discussing one of my favorite topics ever, FOOD!!  With new year resolutions being sworn left and right, I am sure most of us are hoping to be more healthy and spend less.  In my household, I literally see rotten money being thrown away.  Food that goes bad or last minute stops to pick up something I forgot consume my budget.  I pick up a Sunday newspaper in the hopes that I will save the coupons, research easy recipes to use these coupon-saved items and then actually follow through and make the meal for my family.  Sometimes this all goes smoothly and I feel like super-mom.  Most of the time there is some stage in the process that doesn't go according to plan.  Does any of these sound familiar?  You forgot the coupon, the coupon was expired, you forgot an item from the recipe, the store was out of an item, you didn't have time to clip, plan, or go to store, you made a recipe and the children refuse to eat it, your meal gets burnt or overdone due to distractions.  I could go on forever where meals have given me grief!

Is this how it is with any of you?  What are your issues with food in your houses?  Did you discover some amazing system that gets you to a grocery store, get a great deal, make the meal that your whole family enjoys and not waste food or money? 

Here is my pledge for 2013.  "Food should be consumed, it shouldn't consume us"!!

Why Donna Reed?

 

 

So when presenting this idea to my husband, his very appropriate husband response was "who is Donna Reed"?  It occurred to me then that to create the forum I hope to, I should explain why I chose her as a model.  Growing up and watching Nick at Night reruns with my parents and grandparents, I would very often see the Donna Reed Show.  In the show, Donna was the picture perfect housewife and mother to a pediatrician and a son and daughter.  She held a clean home, perfectly behaved children and managed to be stunning in a house dress by the time her hubby came home while dinner was cooking in the kitchen.

Now in this quest to be a "modern-day" Donna Reed, I am fully aware of how far removed that model is to most of today's households, my own included.  For one, most of us work in some capacity whether it is full time, part-time, work from home, etc.  Two, my husband is not a doctor.  Third, I have three children who you are lucky to get a shirt on let alone a nice button down shirt that has no wrinkles or stains!  We could go on and on from here. 

It is the idea of Donna that I want to take on.  Wouldn't it be great to feel like you have work, home, family, and self in order like she did every day.  When starting my first blog, I guess I should have asked this question.  Am I alone?  Are there other women out there who feel like the battle to be mother, wife and self is setting us up for failure? 

My next post, I am going to tackle New Year's Goals... What are your plans!

How it started

For my first post, I thought I would start by introducing myself a bit and why I decided to start this blog.  I hope that this becomes a common ground for women to "meet, relate, grow and glow"!  So here is what started it all.

I am a working mother of three (all under the ages of 6) and have been married for almost ten years.  I am fortunate to have a home and family nearby to help, support, etc.  So why the blog?  It would appear to be a modern-day "Donna Reed" situation, right?  I thought so too until I realized that in my attempts to do it all, I was failing (and was oblivious to it).  I was happily completing certain tasks but then pushing the problem to another area.  I was never seeing friends or having time to take a bath due to frantically staying busy until midnight when I would lay in bed stressing over what to do tomorrow.

In the balance of home, work, family and myself, it was always tilted one way or another.  Work might be great but the home would then suffer.  Dishes piled high in the sink and laundry touching the ceiling.  Husbands are great and this blog is in no way meant to blast them.  My husband does what he can but that doesn't help with my own guilt.  I grew up with watching the Donna Reeds and decided then that I would be that type of mom, everything to everyone.  Since Donna never worked, I know she is an unfair comparison so I am simply talking about the idea of her.  Always looking good, always happy, always had a clean home, always there for her sons, etc.

That is why I am on a quest to become a "modern-day Donna Reed".  I hope that on this blog there can be discussions of problems, annoyances, concerns toppled with solutions, ideas and support.  Once I have opened up this topic to friends, I realized I was not alone.  Instead though of continuing to complain, I want to morph into the beautiful, confident, attentive, patient, organized... mother-wife that is in all of us.  Sounds cheesy?  How many of you love when you clean your house for a party (the real cleaning) and you get a moment before the guests arrive?  Or relish the feeling when you actually do have one of those days where you had dinner on the table by 6pm, cleaned up and got a moment to play with kids and then sat on the couch and talked with your hubby?

And so the quest begins...

Topics to be included in this blog; organization, recipes/food, parenting ideas, beauty, "date ideas" / friend outings, etc.