Prepping For The Week-end

I love facebook.  Most of the time.  Did you ever notice on Fridays, how many post "TGIF" or some status about how glad they are that it is the week-end?


That is not me.


Don't get me wrong, I love the week-end!  But where so many of my friends view the week-end as a rest from their work week, I view it as the most chaotic, busy, messy, three days of my week.  Yes, three days.  Because my husband works 3rd shift Friday night, his week-end is more of a Saturday night through Monday.  But I have teenagers who, along with their friends, observe the more traditional Friday through Sunday week-end.  And I'm so thankful that I am able to stay home and accommodate that mix of schedules. Don't get me wrong, I am very, very thankful. I'm often also a bit tired.  :-)

This week-end adds in the time change, which is just... oh lets face it, it is miserable.  We lose an hour on Sunday?  But I am WAY overbooked for Sunday, I need an extra hour, not one less!


So how can I eliminate the stress and enjoy the week-end?  I plan.  I prepare.  I treat our week-ends like we are going away on a vacation.  I plan meals, I plan outfits, I clean & pack the car, I make snacks, I go over the budget I post itineraries...  today (Friday) is all about getting ready for the trip - and our week-ends sure can be a trip!  

This is what my list looks like (except in Evernote it is a checklist..  not sure where my check boxes went when I copied it here)

Planning For The Week-end

Things that need done EVERY Friday - 

quick clean the house top to bottom

work ahead in F, A, T

work ahead in BSF hmwrk

read ahead in b90days

check kids school work, make sure they are completely on track and caught up for the week

go over the week-ends schedule

go over the week-ends menu

go over the week-end budget

make sure camera battery is charged

check the weather forecast for the week-end - how does it change/effect our plans?

On the Go This Week-end:

Men's Breakfast

Latte Ladies 

Work Day at the church

Prom dress shopping

SS, Church, Youth Group

Coffee Connection (our turn)

Youth Group Snack (our turn)

Nursery duty (yep, all 3 things just happened to fall on the same Sunday this time around!)

GAB mtg

J.s family over to feed calves

Choir practice

PSSA's (remember, my week-end encompasses Monday)

Biking Bike Path

For Men's Breakfast:

Remind Dan to invite B.

Are boys staying for work day (does M. have a ride home?)

Budget:

For Latte Ladies:

What time is S. meeting me here?

Put together my recipes & print copies

pick up flowers to thank P?

Have M. look at menu online before we go, for faster ordering

Budget:

Prom Dress Shopping:

Are we taking 2 cars?  Where all are we going?

google options

Budget:

SS, Church, YG:

Do I know my memory verse (our SS teacher has been challenging us - very cool)

Pick out my outfit, make sure it is ironed, hung all together

Check the kids outfits

For Coffee Connection:

I know I can count on cookies from Mrs. F.

make mint meltaways

make lemon cookies

make mini pb eggs

buy danish

make labels

GAB Mtg-

add brochure to my bag for church

mark areas with questions

get sand cup recipe from T.

Youth Group Snack:

ask kids - what to make? 

Family Over to Feed Calves

confirm time, tour dairy barn during milking?

footwear

Choir:

check website, what are we singing this week?

listen to cd with Meg, practice!

PSSA's - 

What to take?  Calculator?  Snacks?  Water bottle?

check weather - bike path during test?

check historical society hours

check local find a grave requests, print

gym? Discuss w/ Dan

Planning the Week-end Menu

Then based on this, I adjust our menu for the week-end.  Fridays are traditionally pizza night here.  Often I will make calzones or Stromboli instead of pizza - but something "in the pizza family".  Sundays are traditional Sunday dinners.  Ham.  Turkey.  Roast.  Pork chops and stuffing.  With a lasagna in the rotation...   Sides are instant (I know, I know, but it is Sunday, week-ends are super busy, and Idaho makes a good instant potato) mashed potatoes, a vegetable, a salad, and applesauce or fruit salad.  When we have lasagna, we skip the mashed potatoes.  :-)  

Sunday after church we always have hotdogs & popcorn and sometimes ice cream.  The traditions - Friday night pizza, Sunday dinner, Sunday night hot dogs - keep my menu planning simple.

The next step in menu planning for the week-end is to see who will actually be here.  In addition to the schedule above, I now need to look at the kids work schedules, and remember that our oldest has sound team this month.  (That means he has to be at church an hour early - his brothers like to go along with him, and they go to Dunkin Donuts on the way to church, no need for me to make them breakfast)  I always make enough food on Sundays for an army, so we can invite extras at a moments notice..  but I know that this week our regular Sunday teenage guest is grounded and probably won't be here. 

Friday Night:

Calzones, Salad, applesauce

Saturday: 

Breakfast - No cooking - Boys at Men's breakfast, girls at Not Just a Bean for latte ladies

Lunch - No cooking - no one home/full from a big breakfast

Supper - early, the boys will be "starving".  Steaks on the grill, baked potatoes, salad

Sunday - 

Breakfast - No cooking - leave a little early and stop by DD ourselves (love their egg white & veggie on flatbread!)

Lunch - Pork chops and stuffing (layered in the crockpot)

Supper  - hot dogs in sauerkraut (put them in the crockpot before we leave for youth group) popcorn

Monday - 

Breakfast - smoothies, sausage, eggs,

Lunch - grilled chicken, salad, potato salad

Dinner - leftovers

Now that I see the menu - back to the to do list to add the following:

Have boys sweep deck, get patio cushions from garage (maybe eat out side this week-end?)

Check with D., do we have enough gas for the grill?

make potato salad on Friday while baking

marinate the meats for the grill on Friday while baking

get sauerkraut out to thaw for Sunday night

make up a large bowl of salad

make stuffing ahead (use up the rolls the kids left the bag open on so they got stale...) for Sunday

It all sounds a bit nuts, doesn't it?  My week-end certainly will not look like the photo above.  BUT, if I get all of that list done today, it will be a great week-end.  I get to go out to my favorite coffee shop with a group of women that I love, and after I sit and talk with them over coffee and the best bagels around, THEN I get to go with my best friend, her daughter and my daughter, prom dress shopping (father daughter banquet dress shopping for my daughter - but she'll be wearing a "prom style" dress).  After that steaks on the grill, hopefully supper on the deck, here at home with my husband and kids.  We might even saddle up the horses and watch the sunset from horseback?

Then Sunday we get to attend  a church that we not only love, but that is truly a family for us.  I love our turns at the coffee connection - because I get to talk to everyone as they come through for coffee and cookies.  The GAB mtg will be quick, and I'm really excited about the ladies conference we are planning!  Then a normal rowdy Sunday dinner where I hear all about what my kids are up to, usually followed by a hand or two of Phase 10, or Skipbo.  After that "city" friends coming over to see the farm and bottle feed the calves.  That is going to be so much fun - I love to see young kids visit the farm!  Choir practice, youth group, and home to watch the Amazing Race before bed Sunday night.  A family tradition, we eat hot dogs in the living room, while watching tv.  :-)

Monday we'll have time to do our regular Monday chores, have lunch togther, and then go for a 15 mile bike ride while our youngest takes his PSSA's.  Most likely that will just be me and Dan, on my favorite bike path - and this is my idea of a perfect date.  

It's busy, no doubt about it, but it is relaxing too - once I get past all of the prep work.

Tyranny Of The Urgent

On Tuesday mornings at our church,  we are doing the book Faithful, Abundant, and True

I have done Kay Arthur Studies before.  I have done Beth Moore Studies before.  I had never heard of Priscilla Shirer, and was nervous about her section in this.  (I lead the Tuesday morning group)  Wow.  Apparently she is the daughter of Dr. Evans (Sorry, I really don't know who he is either) and her brother was on the tv show The Voice just last week?  Others in our group knew this.

What I know, is that she has an amazing gift for speaking to moms.  We just finished the 4th video segment, so next week we move on to Beth Moore..  and I'm actually really sad that we won't be hearing more from Priscilla next week, as much as I love Beth Moore.

She shared from this book in her first video segment.  I went online and downloaded the book to read - it is awesome.  Now any of you who know me know that I use my phone for EVERYTHING (well, except phone calls..  I really dislike phone calls!) and it is always with me.  For me, it wasn't the phone that is the "urgent" in my life..  I still believe my phone makes my life run so much smoother.  I struggle more with the cleaning and day to day running of this home (and farm) being the "urgent".   And it was a confirmation for me, a reminder, that I want to spend more time with people this year.  It was my goal last year, and I made progress, but even more so this year, I want to invest my time with people, not just in keeping the house from being condemned.  (It's a mystery to me how 4 teens can make so much mess when they are all hardly home any more!)  

Any way, how it all applies in my life is irrelevant - you should read it for yourself.  It's really a fantastic book!  The version I linked to below has questions at the end, I am working on them today.

Tyranny Of The Urgent PDF:
http://my279days.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Tyranny-of-the-Urgent.pdf

"Gordon Govier, a journalist working with Intervarsity Christian Fellowship wrote, "When Charles Hummel wrote his classic essay 'Tyranny of the Urgent,' in 1967, he identified the telephone as among the worst offenders against our peace and complacency. And that was before we carried the offending instrument with us everywhere and embellished it with email, computers, cameras, downloadable ring tones and music files.


"The issue," Hummel said, "is not so much a shortage of time as a problem of priorities." Or, as a cotton mill manager once told him, "Your greatest danger is letting the urgent things crowd out the important."  "


There is another book by Hummel - Freedom From The Tyranny of the Urgent, but I have not yet looked at it...

BSF Seminar - Becoming A Servant Of God

I usually attend the BSF seminars when they are offered, they are often VERY informative.  I signed up for this one not really knowing what it was, and when I heard what it was...  I almost didn't go.  But I had committed to going with a friend, it was her first seminar..  so I was "stuck".  I'm glad - this turned out to be my favorite seminar so far!  (Homiletics would be my second favorite)


It was 20 minutes in group, and hour and a half of personal quiet time, 10 min group closing. Not a normal BSF seminar. And group quiet time made me nervous- I didn't know what to expect.

But I should have known BSF would do it well. We each received a 4 page hand out for our quiet time, and it took me an hour to read all the scriptures, answer the questions, do the personal reflections, and pray on the specifics. The last half hour I spent adding some of the verses to my flashcard app for memorization, cleaning up the titles on some of my you version bookmarks, and reading this weeks regular BSF lesson notes.

The topic today was on being a servant of God. Specific categories included:

-what the bible says abt servants- 7 verses, find 1 word from each verse to descibe a servant

-attributes a servant should NOT have (5 verses)

- what may be required of a servant (5 verses)

- whom are we called to serve? (4 verses)

- what specific goals does the bible tell us servants should have? (6 verses)

- what results does the bible say I may expect if I serve God? (6 verses)

As I went through these, I highlighted all the verses in a pale green/blue and labeled them servant in my youversion app, and I titled each bookmark based on my answers. I love that feature of youversion!

The last 2.5 pages of our work was personal evaluation with questions regarding our biblical education and training, our regular communication with God (quiet time), our spiritual gifts, places of service God has prepared for me (prayer, then questions about areas where I may see a need), ending with what my response to God is and 5 more verses to examine to help guide us in how to pray to be a servant (fruitful service is preceeded by fervent prayer)

It was so practical, and applicable- I absolutely loved it!