Tending to Everyday Basics

My chemo brain is pretty profound. Just dealing with the everyday basics of managing a family has become a real challenge. Therefore, I have to find a new way of doing what used to come easily and naturally. Dealing with with groceries and meals is the first order of business.

The planning and executing of meals is challenging in ways it has never been before. I don't think to make meals until too late in the day. Organizing and executing a frugal shopping trip is my undoing. It's the "connect the dots" part that is such a challenge. It's like I'm in a brain fog. I can open a cupboard, look in, see food items, and see no way that those ingredients can come together to make a dish. To complicate matters, I also am unable to recall what is in the fridge or freezer. Looking at the weekly sale fliers used to mean something. I could see what could become of sale and loss leader items. Not so much any more.

I can't really explain it any more clearly. It's almost like my head is stuffed with cotton balls. Nothing "clicks."

So, I have decided that I must simplify the shopping. I shall mostly shop at Aldi. Can't get lost or distracted there. Six aisles. They rarely change. No decisions as to what is the best buy. I can flesh out what I can't get at Aldi at some other store.

Since I struggle to plan meals, I think I'm going to go with meal types. I used to, just based on my whim, come up with meals for lunch and dinner (back in the days when people were home for lunch) and shop. Now I stare at a piece of paper and think, "I have no clue what to have on Monday, let alone on Tuesday and I can't think of anything to have....so how can I shop?"

Instead, I think if I were to know that I have to have a soup/stew meal, salad meal, casserole meal, etc...I should be able to look at sale fliers or the Aldi layout and figure out what to buy.

I hope.

So, what types of meals are out there? Here's what I've come up with off the top of my head today...what else can I toss into the rotation?

Soup/Stew
Sandwiches
Breakfast for Dinner
Pasta
Casserole
Pizza
Salad
Traditional (aka “grandma’s recipe box”)
“International” (aka pick an ethnicity)
Regional (aka pick a USA region)

The Purpose of Life

Some of you have probably seen this on Facebook already, but if not, here is today's most inspirational video, which is saying a lot given that it's the Season for Giving and all that and so many charities are going out of their way to solicit funds.



This very much reminds me of the way my community has embraced my family, fed our bodies and our spirits, over the past 18 months.

I think I'll choose a month in 2011 and give this guy at least the equivalent of one week of our food budget and not replace that money. We'll live on what we have around for that week. Why choose a month and not do that now? Because, after all, it is December, and since this video seems to have gone viral, I'm sure money will be pouring in.

If you want to know more, you can go here.

Overheard in a commercial...

...for something; not sure what..........

"To do good, you actually have to do something."

It seems so obvious, but seems to be such a challenge at times.

"Doing good" varies, I suppose. For the most part, we all recognize "good," I do believe. It's the "doing something" that we bungle.

I know that sometimes I don't want to stop my life to do what needs to be done. Or I don't want embarrass others who might need help.

Doing good doesn't have to be on the grand scale. It doesn't have to mean curing leprosy or figuring out how to sop up the oil in the Gulf (although if you have ideas, now would be the time to DO SOMETHING). Doing good might be something as simple as helping the elderly man in front of you in the grocery check out line lift his laundry detergent out of his cart. Sure, he might snap at you, he might not appreciate your assistance. But so what? In the long run, will that matter in 5 years? No. 5 months? No. 5 weeks? No. 5 days? No. 5 hours? Most likely not. 5 minutes? Probably not. So, what does it matter? Odds are, you will be thanked any way.

In our culture, or maybe it's just a particularly common personality quirk that makes it so, it's hard to accept "good" offered from others. I know this past year, it has been hard for me to accept help, although I've learned to let people do good to and for me. As much as I loved having my house cleaned, it was really hard to let people clean it. As helpful as it was to have meals brought in during my bad weeks, it was also hard to accept the help. I mean, we wouldn't have starved without those meals. But my kids would probably have eaten a lot of instant oatmeal and nachos for dinner. My husband's cholesterol would probably have skyrocketed. But we would have survived. Yet, life was made so much easier, thanks to the GOOD that so many caring people did.

The thing is, no one really asked us if it was OK to do good. For the most part, they just did it. I suppose it was frequently phrased as "Would it be OK if..." but the tone was more along the lines of "Hey, suck it up, we are going to....let us know your preferences...."

I know when I assist others, whether it's something as basic and Bowling Green-like as bringing someone a meal or sending a card or care package to someone I've been thinking about, it's a blessing to me, and I'm not one to toss the word "blessing" around. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever used it before like this.

But the hardest part really is "doing something." I have to just get off my flabby buttocks, close my computer, and just do it.

And there's another one of my favorite commercial tag lines: "Just Do It."

Or as I tell my students, "Nike it."

"In order to do good, just Nike it" doesn't have quite the same ring, though.