Once a Month Shopping

I was intrigued by this series of posts at Raising Arrows that describes how a large family saves money and time by making one trip to the grocery store a month.

Frankly, I don't think we're there yet. I find that one trip a week with my two girls is not overwhelming and suits us just fine. Nor am I sure I'll ever be. She does say that she makes a small trip every week or two for milk and eggs. But she says nothing about fresh produce. Since I eat and cook with mostly fresh fruits and vegetables, I'm going to have to make a shopping trip about once a week anyway, that's about the longest I can make them last. And if I'm going to the store for produce and dairy, I might as well pick up dry goods at the same time.-- especially since we don't have a lot of pantry space and so keeping canned and boxed goods for a whole month's worth of menus would take up more space than we really have. Also, I do try to buy meat when it's on sale, but that often means at least one type of meat is on sale every other week or so. So all in all I don't see myself adopting once-a-month shopping.

Still, one valuable tip the series offers that I think I will adopt is the Master Grocery List, a list of all the foodstuffs you like to have regularly stocked, as well as the quantity you want to always have on hand. Right before making a trip to the store, you simply go through the pantry, fridge and freezer and check whether you have the desired quantities on hand. Write in the number needed on the blank and then check each item off as you make your way through the store.

Although I don't have a set menu and don't like the idea of a repeating menu, I do find myself making the same core meals over and over again and liking to have a basic set of ingredients on hand. I think having a master list could really streamline my weekly list making and help me avoid either overbuying or forgetting a necessity and then having to either change plans of run out to the store mid-week.

* Part 1: Introduction
* Part 2: The Master Meal List
* Part 3: The Master Grocery List
* Part 4: Shopping Day


via Jen's favorite links

Books and Character

Don't miss this excellent series of posts by the Headmistress at The Common Room blog.

And while I make no apologies for sheltering my younger children, I also want to look ahead to a time when my sons in law will be able to trust their wives' wisdom, and my daughters will be aware enough of the world so that they can wisely do their families good and not evil. I want to look ahead to the time when my children will be interacting with other young adults in the world, or might be parents.

So I use books with characters who behave in less than admirable ways, who sin, who do wrong, who serve as bad examples and horrible warnings. While a smart person learns from his mistakes, a wise person learns from other people's mistakes. I'd like it best if my children if my children can learn from the mistakes of characters in books, rather than from people who could really harm them physically or emotionally.

This surprises some of my Christian friends. Of course, I am not recommending gratuitously evil examples. But I do suggest that many Christians are too quick to dismiss valuable books because they expect their books, unlike real life, and decidedly unlike the Bible, to have only well behaved, admirable human beings in them.

Part I

Part II

Part III

My Favorite Things

One of my absolute favorite things in the world is when I look down after placing my sleepy little baby in her bed and find the imprint of a little ear on my forearm where she'd rested her head while nursing. I almost wish I could make that mark permanent on my skin. I know how brief the time is that she'll be making them.

* * *

Bella is now at that age where she wants to bring armfuls of stuff wherever she goes. I adore the contents of her bags.

In the Winnie-the-Pooh lunch box: a toy cell phone, a faux-fur boa, a mailing envelope stuffed with little slips of paper (her "package" and "receipts"), a little wooden cow, a string of pink plastic beads.

In the smaller clear plastic handbag (It originally held bath toys.): two old cell phones given to her by my parents when they traded up, two sets of old keys that we no longer know what they open, a red and blue scarf I don't wear any more, a plastic lei given to her at the parish picnic which she doesn't wear because she finds it uncomfortable.

* * *

I'm preparing pizza and Bella is sitting next to me on the kitchen chair chanting: "St Paul, pray a us; St Paul, pray a us; St Paul, pray a us." A litany with only one saint.

Now where did she learn that the pope declared this the Pauline year?