Dear FlyLady,
First thank you so much for all your advice - I find it a huge help.
My biggest problem, where I get totally overwhelmed and after 5 years of FLYING am still crashing is menu planning. I just can't seem to be able to do it. I find it overwhelming and spend hours on it each week - just today I've spent about 3 hours trying to menu plan for the week and got more and more depressed and ended up with only the beginnings of a plan.
My family doesn't like a lot of the food, so I find I spend hours trying to substitute and it adds to my stress. I would love for you to be able to break down menu planning in the same way you break down cleaning - into managable bits, starting with babysteps. I just look at the whole week and my recipe books and my food cupboards and freeze - literally I just sit there for hours and end up with half a list and feeling terrible.
Thank you,
Menu-challenged
Dear Menu-Challenged,
As I see it you are making it too hard on yourself. You are looking for inspiration in the wrong place. Don't look at your recipe books! They don't know your family like you do. I want you to keep it simple.
- Keep a diary of what your family eats each night.
- Plan your meals around what your family will eat.
- Be kind to yourself
- Get the family involved
- Even get them to help cook.
- Don't introduce new things but once a month
Have a family meeting. Give everyone a stack of 14 note cards and have each person write their name at the top. Put on some fun music or set the timer. See who can write the most items on the cards. Then play go fish. Go around the table and hold up a card and ask; Does anyone have spaghetti for example? Make a pile for each meal. See how many piles your family can make. The winner gets to decide what day you are fixing the meal.
There you have it! The meals your family will eat. For the one that only you like or your husband; save those for Date Night. This can be fun. If you need help more help with the full menu; ask the family to write down their favorite sides by color. I like the make a meal with lots of color. Play the go fish game again.
Take one of the cards and write down the ingredients for the meal on the card. Add the sides you want to fix with the entree. Then start your grocery list for this week. If they have come up with more than seven menus then you might have two weeks planned.
Doesn't the idea of playing a game with your family seem much more fun than sitting for 3 hours beating yourself up!
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Dear FlyLady, First thank you so much for all your advice - I find it a huge help. My biggest problem, where I get totally overwhelmed and after 5 years of FLYING am still crashing is menu planning.
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How Does a Feather Duster Work?
It is the feather itself that collects all the dust. There are millions of little feathers on each plume. They collect the dust. It is not oil. I took this close-up picture of my duster. We use baby shampoo to clean the duster about once a year. Every day when you dust. You go outside and shake out the dust. We call it blessing the world. Here is a great testimonial to help you understand how it works. FlyLady ----- Dusting Should Be Illegal Dear FlyLady, I'm a fairly new FlyBaby. I ordered my feather duster a couple of weeks ago and just had to tell you that you've changed my attitude about dusting forever! An old friend of mine and I had a saying, "Dusting should be illegal!" Neither of us liked the activity much. I always put it off until my house was thick with dust. Needless to say, when I did get around to dusting, it took forever and I'd end up sneezing and coughing afterwards. I've always used a rag and furniture polish, that's how I learned to do it. After all, feather dusters just move the dust around, right? Well, I thought I'd give your duster a try since my DH has some allergies and more frequent dusting really would be a blessing to him! I waited impatiently for my package to come (which it did very quickly) and opened it right when the mailman dropped it on the porch. It is so pretty and so luxurious! I couldn't resist trying it out right away. I used it on my dresser which I had cleared off the last time we were in that zone. I hadn't dusted it yet. I have to confess I was saving the dust to give my new duster an acid test. I hadn't dusted it in probably a year. I figured it was my dresser, I didn't have to dust it if I didn't want to. Well, the duster stood the test! My dresser looks great. And I had such fun that I went around the rest of the house too, in a surprisingly short amount of time! Then my 4 yr old DS had a turn. We had a ball! So now I have to say, Dusting should be illegal, it's too much fun! Thanks for the tool to make blessing my family fun. FlyBaby in Staunton, VA Our feather duster is so much fun to use! In 2 minutes you can get your whole house dusted!. How to Feather Dust Video. Christmas will be here before we know it! Think about giving clutter-free gifts! My favorite consumable gift is our FlyLady Calendar! Do We Have a Surprise for You! Feather Dusters are Back in Stock Have you gotten your calendar ordered? Get it today! Our calendar has large squares that are big enough to hold your busy family's schedule and milestones. Put your home on Auto-Pilot by getting our Daily Flight Plan! Join us 6 days a week for our LIVE SHOW at 11:00 am ET. Please subscribe to our Youtube Channel and Click the Bell for Notifications. Check out our new FlyShop! Order your 2027 calendars for Shipping NOW. Get our Free Holiday Control Journal and join us for a little laughter and learning how to Finally Love Yourself. Send an email to [email protected] with FREE HOLIDAY COJ in the subject line.
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