Dinner’s at the Door…
Before we begin, I in no way came up with this idea. I’m simply endorsing it. I just want to put that out there.
About a week or so before Labor Day, a friend of mine from church approached me about joining her dinner group. I had heard of these groups before and had been eager to pledge one for sometime now. They are very popular in my community and church, and well, I wanted to feel popular. A week after pledging my loyalty to the other three women in the group, we began cooking. Life will never be the same.
Here’s how this all works.
There are four families in our dinner group. Each family is assigned one night a week to cook for all four families. On Monday, I cook enough food for my family, as well as, the other three families in the group and deliver it to their homes. On Tuesday, another family cooks and delivers, and so on. Friday, Saturday and Sunday we are on our own. Each family gets enough food to feed four people. We have agreed that all of the food needs to be delivered by 6:00PM. We also have a rule of no fish or seafood.
Before we began our group we each emailed our menus up to Thanksgiving to one person. That person compiled all of the menus and emailed them out to the entire group. This way we all knew what was for dinner Monday through Thursday for the next three months. We also gathered up enough casserole dishes and plastic bowls to go around.
Make sense? I hope so. If not, just ask.
Here is an example of what a week looks like for our group…
Monday – Chicken Cordon Bleu
Tuesday – Pot Roast
Wednesday – Italian Subs
Thursday – Taco Salad
Joining a dinner group has brought consistency and stability to our week. It has saved us a lot of time, money and energy. Still not convinced? Let me make a list for you…
1. For about $30.00 I can make enough food for 16 people, and my family gets four healthy meals a week. That averages out to be $7.50 per night. If I cooked four different meals for my family it would cost anywhere from $50-$60. That is a big difference.
2. I only have to cook one night a week. It only takes about 30 minutes more to cook for four families than it takes to cook for one family. If you compare that to spending about 45 minutes each night in the kitchen, I have an extra hour and a half or more to spend on other activities throughout the week.
3. Our eating habits are much healthier now that we are part of a dinner group. Because we know that a home cooked meal will be delivered, we are not tempted to stop for fast food on the way home. This saves us a lot of empty calories, as well as a lot of money.
4. Instead of being stuck in a food rut, my family has been able to eat something different four nights out of the week for seven weeks straight. Not a single dish has been repeated so far.
5. I have been able to try out a lot of new recipes and learn new cooking techniques. Cooking is something that I really enjoy doing (you might call it one of my passions), but it has been difficult to make it a priority with such a hectic schedule. Food group has given me motivation to expand my cooking knowledge, and given me an excuse to spend time doing something I enjoy.
6. I really like having menus planned out in advance; maybe it’s the event planner and catering manager coming out in me. You know how exciting it is to plan for Thanksgiving? You spend time writing lists and looking up recipes, and then you anticipate how delicious it’s going to be. It’s kind of the same feeling (on a smaller scale of course). You know that on Tuesday, you’re having Chicken Parmesan, and you look foward to it all day on Tuesday. You imagine gathering your family together, saying a prayer, eating and spending time together. It makes every night feel like a celebration.
7. It makes grocery shopping much easier. If I know what we are having for dinner every week, I can plan my grocery shopping accordingly. I can plan on what to buy for lunches and what to buy for the weekend, so that there are no overlaps. Also, if I know that I am making pork in the coming weeks, I can watch the grocery ads for when pork goes on sale. I can buy the pork on sale, and freeze it until I need it.
If you think that your family could benefit from a group like this, I strongly encourage you to join forces with neighbors and friends. Dinner doesn’t get much easier than answering the door, and you don’t even have to tip the driver.
Then and Now
Have you ever stopped to think of how much changes within a year? Really though, have you? Think about how much your life has changed since this moment last year. I’m willing to wager that if you sit and think for a moment, you’ll be amazed at how different your life is now compared to what it was then.
Off the top of my, I can give you several major and minor things that have changed in my life
I got married
I reconnected with old friends
I got baptized into my church
I got promoted
My cat died
I watched many of my friends get married
My Dad got a new liver
I wore out two pairs of work shoes
Steve changed jobs
I had a miscarriage and surgery
I started writing my blog
I learned to eat and like beans other than a green bean
However, the biggest change is this…
Brace yourself. If you are having an emotional day or your hormones are out of hand, you may get teary. I’m just trying to give you a fair warning of what you’re in for…
THEN…
NOW…
Can you believe how much has changed in this tiny person in just one year? One of the things that really gets me is how much her hands have changed. In the first picture she has chubby little baby hands, and in the second picture her hands are slender and feminine.
I in no way planned this photo comparison. It all happened by chance.
Last Friday, Moanna and I spent the day on the Blue Ridge Parkway with my Mom and Grandma Pam. It was a girls’ day of generations indeed. We stopped at Indian Gap because Grandma had never been. While we were checking the place out, I realized that it had been almost exactly a year since Steve and I took Moanna to Indian Gap for the first time. Mo was exploring the giant rocks when she stopped for a moment, put both hands on the rock and looked up. I had an immediate flash back to taking the same exact picture a year ago. I’m telling you, these two pictures are only off by about a week.
I’m taken back by how much Moanna has changed in the past year. I’m also humbled by the way life presents us with these moments of quiet amazement and reflection.
Mommy Needs a Makeover
Ugly Words
“Mommy, you’re ugly.”
WHAT!?
I was just as shocked as you are.
We had some friends over for dinner the other night when Moanna stood up from the table and said, “Mommy, you’re ugly.” We all dropped our forks and stopped chewing.
What did she just say? Where did she learn that? Does she know what it means? Does she know that it’s a mean word?
When we asked her where she learned this word, she said she learned it at school. That is, where she says she learns all of her bad behavior and naughty words. She doesn’t go to school. She is making a very strong case to be home schooled. If all she learns at “school” is how to be the bad kid, then I don’t want her to go near a school, nor will she go near a bus – that’s where they learn the really bad stuff.
She also said, “Shut up Daddy,” to Steve the other day.
She learned that at “school” too.
If you ask her where she learned one of her cute phrases or something brilliant, she never says “school.” She says, Nanny, PopPop, Grandma, Grandpa, Nursery, Mommy, Daddy, friend…
This means one of two things. One, she doesn’t want to tell on someone for teaching her something bad. Or, two, she is surrounded by people that love her and want to teach her the wonderful things about life. I’m leaning towards number two because I know that she is surrounded by great people.
Home schooling it is. Case closed.
“School,” If I ever find out who you are be prepared to visit the principal’s office because I have no problem being a tattle-tale.
