Meal Plans

Hello, friends. I have some exciting news (and it does not require sending me baby gifts).

First of all, I have my first male blog follower, Mr. David from HighCallingBlog. Hate to embarrass you, David, but I'm excited! Welcome.

Secondly, my twin sister is writing today. We are clones of one another, and have shared a womb, bedroom, and life's hardest lessons mostly together. Now, she lives across an ocean with her four- and three-year old sons, and her herohusband, my husband's biblestudy partner via email. Skype is therapeutic, but we are counting down months until they come back stateside, God willing.

Until then, I'd like to introduce you to Kris. She's calming, peaceful, disciplined, practical, and a very good juggler of hats (mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend). I wish we could all get together and serve her a stateside hamburger, then you'd see for yourself.

But since you can't, I asked her to show you a bit of her creative practicality. Keep in mind that she lives in a small, Japanese fishing village in a rental home. And there is no Michael's craft store down the street.

And this is what she's been working on for us:


Without further ado, here's Kris:

Hello! I'm Karen's twin sister, Kris. She asked me to do a guest blog for which I responded politely, "One must have a life for there to be anything to blog about." She seems to think I have something worthy to say but I'm not so certain. So, therefore, I think I will let her and all her English genetics (I swear she robbed them of me in the womb) do the writing and I'll do a little show and tell.

My husband is a Marine. A hot Marine. It's true. We are stationed in Okinawa, Japan which is another post in and of itself. We have two small kiddos that can give me a run for my money at the grocery store. I don't know about you all but I can't stand going to the store with them in tow. My mind is so busy keeping them from pulling the salsa off the displays, pulling hair, well, you know, that I forget things that are on the list right in front of me. See the list that my hot and OCD Marine made me in perfect order of the aisles. Yep, he's the best.


So, I decided I had to change something. I am going to the store once a week and that is it. To do so I had to get organized. How long does it take you to make a grocery list? It took me forever until now!

Now, for all you "American" crafters, just remember that I live in a country where craft stores do not exist and if you say, "Hobby Lobby" they think you're talking about hot wasabi on your sushi. Keep that in mind here, and also consider that my materials were limited (as yours may be), but this can still be done.

I took an old piece of stiff cardboard and girlied it up with scrapbook paper. I glued it on how I liked it and ModPodged a few coats. Then painted 7 clothespins with some paint I had around. When they dried, add the days of the week with a Sharpie. The best part is that in the right hand corner I put together flash cards with all of our favorite meals. On the back of each meal idea card is a list of the ingredients.



So now when I say to the hot husband, "What do you want to eat this week?" instead of the blank stare, he flips through and picks his favorite 7, I make my list, and we're done.


We have been in motion now for a few weeks and I love it!

Thanks for letting me share,
Kris