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Cooking: Joy or Chore

Lately I have decided to step up my game in the house. I am not quite the domestic diva as many of you know.  Lisa can tell the story of me adding water to the spaghetti sauce in college. Reiggin can share the time I melted a spatula while making him a grilled cheese sandwich. I am sure there are more stories that I could share.

I decided to start my domestic diva training by creating a cleaning routine and having my BFF Lisa be my support system.  Lisa is improving her cleaning routine as well so we decided to keep each other on track. I took Monday and Tuesday and tackled my biggest problem areas, the kitchen and the living room. I also confronted the mountain I call our laundry. Once I got all these areas taken care of I sat down and assigned each day a cleaning task.

Monday: Cleaning all the bed sheets and do a rough vacuum of all the floors.
Tuesday: Clean Virginia's Room and My Bedroom
Wednesday: Clean my bathroom and tackle the laundry
Thursday: Free Day ( just doing small de-cluttering )
Friday: Do another vacuum sweep of the home. 
Sunday: Create a weekly meal plan

Weekends I try to keep open to enjoying family time. Of course each day throughout the week I will be keeping the kitchen clean. Making sure all the dishes are put away and cleaned. I also make a point now before I head to bed to pick up the living room. Now that Virginia is older I am getting her involved and having her pick up all her toys before her bedtime. This has helped a ton. Those little toddler toys can add up and over take any living room. Laundry is mixed in each day, but I am trying to make it where I just tackle all the laundry on Wednesday. Sunday is the day that I create the weekly meal plan. 


The weekly meal plan is the thorn in my side. I wish I could say that I am that housewife that has a warm and delicious meal on the table every night for my husband and child to enjoy. Reality is I try and I do feed my family each day. Some nights are going out to eat, which I hope to cut down. Other nights are just not that healthy like hotdogs, hamburgers, and mexican. 

I want to work and improve my cooking skills. I want to be able to walk into the kitchen and whip up a delicious meal that will impress my husband. A meal that my child will want to lick the plate clean. Also hope to make cooking less of a chore and more joy. Reiggin will tell you my main mistake is not sticking to the recipe. I tend to drift from the original recipe and do what I think is right. I know, big mistake when you are starting off. My next mistake is not making a detailed grocery list. I always start a meal and realize I am missing ingredients. Last night I was making chicken tenders and macaroni and cheese. I thought I had everything, but I was missing bread crumbs, a few spices, and frying oil. I thought I would be smart and crush croutons up for the bread crumbs and this some what worked. I was ok on the spices and just substituted. I had half the oil I needed and did find more, but lets just say the expiration date was questionable. In the end the meal turned out fine with the help from my husband and my family cleaned their plates. 

Now I am reaching out and asking for help. Please share your recipes and tips with me. Share your favorite weekly meals that you enjoy making for your family. Hopefully with your help I will be able to add the cooking jewel to my crown.