Monday, July 20, 2009

Mondays

I love Mondays. For me and the boys, Monday is the most relaxed day of the week. I deliberately keep Mondays free of appointments and other plans. The boys are always a little tired and ready to chill after the sleep-deprivation and extra activity of the weekend. We rarely leave the house on Mondays (except for grocery shopping). I usually wear sweats and a T-shirt all day and make-up is definitely optional. We play with toys here at home and enjoy time outside. If the weather is nice, we go for a walk in our neighborhood. I don't have any big household chores planned on Mondays either, because I want to be especially involved with the boys' play and bless them with plenty of undivided attention. Our weekends are usually so full of activity that all three of us really need this unhurried, prolongued connection time.

As I mentioned before, Monday morning is grocery time. I like to go first thing so that there is hardly anyone else in the store. I LOVE cleaning out the fridge and refilling it with fresh fruits, veggies, and whatever meat and pantry items were on sale this week. Caleb helps me put things in the pantry, and he gets as much satisfaction as I do in arranging the new stuff into the existing rows and groups. I always feel so full of gratitude to our Lord when I bring a load of groceries home, and usually say a brief prayer aloud thanking Him for the blessing of another week of healthy, delicious food. Caleb also likes to open the fridge and gaze at all the new food; the neatest part is that he, too, is learning to verbalize his thanks to God for the things that his eyes appreciate.

On a side note, since so much of my time is spent planning, shopping for, preparing and cleaning up our meals, and since this is our family journal, I think I'm going to start including what we ate the previous day in each post. If someone were to ask me, I would say that we eat pretty healthy, but keeping a daily record for a while will tell me for sure. It's also just sort of a cool thing for me to remember...what foods the kids were eating, what I cook frequently, etc. (I'll skip Sundays because we often eat out for lunch and have a potluck dinner with our church small group.)

Saturday
Golden Grahams
Watermelon
Peanut butter & jelly sandwiches
(all-natural peanut butter & all-fruit jelly)
Grapes
Chicken salad sandwiches (baked chicken, mayo, relish, salt, pepper)
Fresh okra sauteed in olive oil
Strawberries


2 comments:

Mom said...

When I read this post, my first thought was, "This is soooo Rachel".

You have found a way to blend your desire for order and structure with the flexibility required when raising children.

I love you forever,

Mom

PS. I have been trying to comment on your last 12-13 posts. Still not sure why it didn't work but now I can go back to some of them and try again.

April said...

We, too, usually use Mondays for downtime, so-to-speak. Though, this summer, we've filled our days more than we do during the rest of the year. I think I'm trying to make the most of each day before Kindergarten starts!

I'm excited about getting to read what you eat each day. I need some new ideas for meal plans! Especially healthy ones.