Trying To Be Intentional

 My goodness, it's been a hot minute. 

Things got a little crazy...... and then a little more crazy.  

When we started our homeschool journey I always said I would love to have a chance to send the kids to Christian school.  

We started school with Abeka, moved to ACE... Couldn't really afford either because consumable products are EXPENSIVE... so I started writing what curriculum we were missing to make sure our kids were learning the truth, because Creation science at any level is either hard to find or extremely expensive... or all video lessons that aren't reusable.  The history... Don't even get me started on the history.. And Base 10 in math?? How in the world does that even work?   No longer can you just add say 33+23... You have to take away the ones places round up, round down. Add subtract, whozits and whatitz galore.

Then while cleaning up my home library I found a gem in the Robinson Curriculum.  Robinson very much uses a "Charlotte Mason" approach with Saxon as math.  Affordable for big families especially-the hardest part is finding first or second edition Saxon books.  

Then we had the opportunity to send our 4 oldest to our church's Christian School.  It's been a challenging year.  I miss my kids at home. I miss not having to worry about blizzards-and last winter was a doozy. 

Last summer was a doozy in itself.  Derecho and tornado in May... We lost two whole trees (40 year old evergreens).  Thankfully we were aided by a group who came to town to help clean up after the storm, though we still have a stump..

 Another set of tornadoes in July, we lost one whole tree-made a mess of itself we are still trying to clean up, and a few others are still sitting perilously because we don't have the money for cleanup ($10K for a tree?!!?). Three days after that storm the newest baby joined us.  :) I was stuck in the hospital.. 

It's been a whirlwind, but I know God is taking care of us.  

This summer is going crazy already... Trying to cut and burn the tree, I've learned how to use a chain saw (STAND BACK lol).  Trying to fix up what needs fixed for functionality INSIDE the house-that hasn't happened... maybe I'm dreaming too much?  Trying to teach kids life skills, take care of toddlers and a baby, learning life skills myself.... and just....surviving. 

Post-partum anxiety hit me hard this time... it's a huge struggle and I suspect it will be for awhile.  

So... Being intentional.  

We are counting pennies and cutting corners wherever we can.  

I hate meal planning... Oh with a passion do I hate it.  But here we are.  It's a necessity.

 I've been hearing about a method of meal planning and I finally dove in.  

You create your meal plan-breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks.  Then you go through this meal plan and write out your shopping list for the whole week.  

Then you put it all together and you have a shopping list, meal plan and recipes all in one place. 

Shop your pantry first, then go to the store and use sales whenever possible.

I started off with a 4 week rotation, with a pantry staple list (let's face it, Basic Sam's Club list) and a non-grocery list.  Now I'm sure I missed things, but we can tweak it here and there.  I laminated what I knew wouldn't change-mostly certain recipes I cook all the time.  The rest I put in page protectors so I can alter as needed.  Now all I have to do is get to town to be able to find affordable groceries. That's the trick. 

I'll add on more weeks as we go, but it's a start.  

Our basic rotation is tacos, salad, soup, Chinese-ish, something easy, Italian, pizza.   

We'll get through it.  We can do this-with God.

~Tabitha