August 02, 2011

New Fridge and Planning

I spent the bulk of my day dealing with refrigerators - the old one and the new one.  The freezer in the old fridge was still working and sincer the fridge part was still a little cool, I left produce and condiments in there.  This morning I went to the appliance store and finalized the purchase of the fridge.  Then I came home and took everything out of the freezer and put it in a cooler.  What didn't fit in the cooler went into the sink, with ice on it and covered with a towel. Then I took everything else out of the fridge and did the combining of the ketchup bottles - why are there always one bottle half full and the two others with a little bit in them?

At one point my son asked me what was for supper?  I pointed to the sink and told him "potluck."  We ended up having homemade vegetable beef soup along with homemade rolls all from the freezer.  Now the heat index was 105 degrees at dinner time and I was serving hot soup, but my family enjoyed it as we hadn't had homemade soup for a long time. 

The fridge is smaller which means the freezer above the fridge is smaller too.  Cleaning out and organizing the new fridge was the priority of the day.  After taking inventory of everything I am starting to make a menu plan for the month of August. 

As to my planning day, well, I'm still planning.  You know how you set aside some time to do something, and then urgent things take over?  Well, it happens, so I am still working on my lists and tasks.  Here is what I have been doing.  I would love to go all electronic, but I find that when I am at meetings at my church, I need to be able to look at my calendar by year, month, week and day.  My smart phone just doesn't do it for me for this purpose.  I need something to be bigger, so I just take my planner with a legal pad to any meetings I have. 

Yeah, I know, it is so old school but for now, it is the best I can do.  I do put appointments into my cell phone so I get a reminder, which is helpful. 


So here is a picture of what I have to work with.  My planner, my household notebook, my notebook with my church activities and my youth group notebook that has all of the information I need for preparing the meals for the youth group meetings.  When I go to a meeting, I grab the appropriate notebook and my planner.

My household notebook has a section for menu planning, pantry and freezer inventories, laundry section with tips and recipes for laundry soaps and pre-treatments, home improvement project lists, Bible Study, cleaning schedules (daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal, annual), expense log and exercise/fitness log.  This is my command central notebook for running our household. 
 
Some day I would love to have a tablet computer like a Galaxy Tab 7 inch version and then I could put everything on it.  It's a dream but even if I had the money and I could afford it now, I wouldn't buy it.  Why?  Because I look at things differently now - especially money and what I am saving and buying. 

Now I am going to go and have a nice big bowl of ice cream. I found my favorite flavor in the back of the freezer (Butter Pecan).  I bought it a couple of weeks ago and forgot all about it. 

3 comments:

Juhli said...

Love the cheerfulness of your notebooks! You seem to be very organized already.

~Carla~ said...

Ihave an iPad & STILL use pen & paper for my "go to"... Some things are just meant to be! ;)

Anonymous said...

I have no desire to go "high tech". I am old school myself and prefer pen and paper. I use a monthly calendar and a notebook for daily to-dos. I keep a larger notebook as you mentioned too. It is simple, effective, and it works, which is all that matters.

I simply don't care about new-fangled stuff, and it sure saves us a lot of money.

Lyn