You can plan on me

I love a good plan. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the new and spontaneous and am always happy with a good surprise, but I really do love have things figured out. You can ask my husband, when I have a plan and suddenly something comes up to change it, I get a little flustered. I pull out the ol', "But I had a plan and if you change this then it's going to change this which means that this is going to happen and oh my god! the sky is falling!"

I've done my best over the past year or so to work out a good weekly plan. I actually never kept track of it all until I started planning my wedding and I realized I needed a calendar to keep myself aware of what all I had to do and what deadlines were approaching. Now, I can't live without my planner that I keep in my purse. It's one of the few things besides my wallet and cell phone that I have on me at all times. I like being able to look ahead and see what's coming up. It also provides a nice record of the past when I look back at what I wrote in there. Also, keeping up with the budget is always important. We consistently struggle with the amount we spend on food, usually eating out. So I try to balance that out by keeping the grocery bill as low as possible. And since just going to the store and shopping aisle-by-aisle means that I'll be bringing home a bunch of stuff that I don't need, I try to come up with a solid meal plan each week. That way when I go to the store, I know exactly what ingredients I need and don't end up buying unnecessary stuff. Here's what I've got lined up for this week:

Monday: Stuffed pork chops and green beans
Tuesday: Tuna casserole (or tuna catfish, as I used to call it as a kid... I'm not sure why)
Wednesday: Chicken parmesan rolls
Thursday: Tacos
Friday/Saturday/Sunday: Jarrod's going to be out of town, so I'll probably just scrounge stuff up around the house or meet up with someone to eat.

So here's to a year of great plans and hopefully some great surprises, too!