For the past few days I've had plan a menu on my list of things to do and every day I wake up thinking that this is going to be the day that I actually tackle it. So this morning I started googling things like - cheap and easy meals, budget recipes, monthly menu plan, and so forth. A friend of mine once told me that all you really need are ten meals you can continually rotate. My ADD book says the same thing. Simple things that are easy to prepare and don't require a lot of ingredients. When I open my fridge I get really frustrated becaIuse I see the squash I roasted and the meat I made just sitting there while the chicken nuggets I bought for nights when I don't have a plan go quickly. I'm now thinking that I don't have a lack of menu problem, I have let the girls get away with eating what they want and making convenience foods available to them. Next week the girls are going to be gone so I'm going to go through the fridge, freezer, and pantry. I'm going to make some decisions about what I want to keep in my home. After I buy groceries I'm going to stock the fridge and pantry with portions of food that people can grab and eat. There will probably be resistance and it will be an adjustment for everyone, but the food situation is out of control and I need some order here.

I wrote down a few meals for us. Simple things like roast beef, roast chicken, burgers, tuna, and I figure I can buy five bags of frozen veggies which should last us an entire week. If we have a protein source, we can make the frozen veggies as a side dish, and then we only have to come up with one other thing like a starchy carb to eat. It will take time and I'll have to remind myself not to get frustrated as people learn to adapt, but it is irresponsible of me as a parent to keep letting my daughter have things that she's really not supposed to be eating. It's hard for me to, but there are other poeple with more food allergies and intolerances than we have doing it. I have many cookbooks and I can also go online and talk to family, friends, and relatives for menu planning ideas. I really want to put in a garden, but I have to be realistic about how much time I have for a new project. I've been reading up on it, but right now other things are a higher priority although I did repot some plants today. Today is rest day for triathlon training and I'm so glad because I really need it. I woke up at three in the morning because I was so thirsty. We need to get better about hydrating so the plan today is to measure how much water we should be drinking and see what we actually consume. 

Having a lot of trouble writing these past two days. Thinking it might be time to give up the daily day log. I have to get a job, I want to keep going with some of these other things. I don't really do anything exciting, and there's probably some value to writing at a place where the posts are private so I don't have to think so hard about what I want others to be reading about me and my family. My triathlon book suggests keeping a workout log so I might use daylogs for that, but I can't write the way and the things that I really want to which is really nobody's fault, it's just the nature of posting things on a public forum. Maybe it's just the cold and damp day where we're getting more rain that others places could use. I'd love a nap, but I have to leave for therapy in ten minutes and I'm not looking forward to talking to her about a couple of things. I really like her, today is just not a very good day. I'll think about the future and how I can best use this place, but I'm kind of leaning toward not writing personal things here anymore and I hope you can understand and respect that decision if it comes to that

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