by Donna | Feb 16, 2018
Well, I am at the three week mark in my grocery fast, and at the beginning of this week, I had only spent $35 (of the $50 I had budgeted for two weeks). (See Weeks 1 and 2 here.) I was encouraged about the dollar amount, but I was somewhat discouraged that it didn’t feel like any of our food stores were going down that quickly. That part didn’t really get any better during Weeks 3 and 4 as I went on a five day writing retreat and ate out each evening with my daughter (who was there for her master’s seminar) for my one meal a day. (Interested in OMAD–One Meal a Day??? Check out my Daily Intermittent Fasting videos, audios, slideshows, and posts here!). While I was gone writing, my husband did manage to use up veggies, broth, and tomato juice since he made himself vegetable soups every night! He didn’t use up any of the meat we had shredded and frozen the previous week, so our stores didn’t really get depleted. But…here is what we did use and do:
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by Donna | Jun 16, 2016
When we had three young children four and under, we went to a parenting seminar in which the wise teacher (Gregg Harris) taught us how to manage our day—and get in the things that are truly important to us: “Attach things that are important to you to something that is already in your schedule.”
I was a struggling young mom, trying to teach our little ones to obey, love each other, enjoy learning, be helpful, desire God’s Word, play creatively, and more. However, like many young stay-at-home moms, I had prioritizing and follow through problems. Mr. Harris’ advice helped me get a handle on my preschoolers’ days.
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by Donna | Dec 23, 2015
I used to have a couple of different egg casseroles in my freezer meal rotation. They were simple ways to make eggs for many, and it wasn’t uncommon for us to have the for a weekday breakfast simply because it was about as easy to stick four of them in the freezer as it was to make “yolky” eggs for seven kids on a given morning! Efficiency, mama, efficiency! 🙂
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by Donna | Sep 15, 2015
(With Freezer Entrée Options)
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by Donna | Aug 19, 2015
Donna Reish, author of numerous writing and language arts books as well as Character Ink blog, Raising Kids With Character parenting seminar, and Language Lady blog, answers readers’ questions about efficiency in the kitchen. In this follow-up to Five Tips for Kitchen Efficiency, Donna shares more kitchen efficiency tips—especially meal planning for busy families. In this podcast episode, Simplified Meal Planning, Donna describes two “thinking” processes for deciding what to have for meals: (1) Basing meal lists on meats or main ingredients and keeping a running list of the things you make and (2) Keeping staples for the most common meals on hand. Donna shares her master entrée list in the accompanying handout to help get your creative juices flowing. She also focuses on making quick decisions and not getting bogged down mentally or time-wise with indecisiveness.
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