"Making Your Home Sing" Monday

Over at Momstheword, Nan encourages us to make our homes sing every Monday. I love this meme and am (formally) participating for the first time this week. I actually found Nan's blog through my gardening blog circle, but I think this fits more appropriately here at Everyday Blessings. While I think every day is an opportunity to bless my family, I hope to make it a habit to share what I'm doing each week. I think this will also encourage me to make a more conscious effort in my every task to "make my home sing."

Since having my son and becoming a SAHM, our family has cut down considerably on eating out. This means more sit-down, traditional family mealtimes, and is exactly what I want my children to grow up knowing as a staple of family life. I will be the first to admit that my domestic talents do not include cooking, but I'm doing it anyway, and I hope in time I will have found a collection of recipes my family and I like that I can prepare without incident.

Part of this responsibility includes planning my meals for the upcoming week and the cooresponding shopping list. I live almost 20 miles from the grocery store, so I don't frequently just "run out" to pick something up. It isn't economical to be unprepared. That isn't to say I don't end up back in town again later in the week, at which time I can pick up additional needed things, but generally, I try to make it a weekly trip.

I sit down with a printed calendar each week and fill in the main course I'll serve for every day. I have kept previous months calendars and sometimes use those for ideas, but I also reference cook books, magazines and occasionally the web for new recipes to try. I generally do this on Monday or sometimes Tuesday mornings. Tuesday is grocery shopping day. I compile my list to cover every day up to the following Tuesday. It's nice to have this predictability in my life, but I am one of those OCD types.

I try to make it a goal to find at least one new recipe to try each week. Some weeks it doesn't happen, and other weeks the new recipe is a flop (or I'm the flop... either way it isn't edible.) I'm also making a real effort to prepare meals that are more nutritious than what we'd typically eaten in our previous lifestyle. With little eyes watching and little minds absorbing everything we say and do, I want to set examples for healthy habits.

I'm relatively new to blog land - does anyone know of any good nutritious, kid-friendly (because my dear husband is as picky as my dear son) foody or meal planning blogs out there? I don't have access to a lot of exotic or rare ingredients (and we likely wouldn't eat them anyway) so simple is better. I'd love to expand my repertoire.

Thanks, Nan, for helping me to remember to bless my family. Go check her out and share about how you are blessing your family today!