The Modern but Old Style Homemakers Club

Fishcake_Random

I had a look at that site you mentioned but its outside of MSE and I'm not comfortable using it. I will try the OS daily chat instead.
x x x

[Deleted User]

juliapenguin wrote: »

Why mealplanning is an issue for this thread:

When I'm at home all day, the temptation is to think 'I've got hours and hours to think about dinner - I'll find something to cook later'. By the time later comes, I might have started feeling sleepy, as I don't sleep well at night, and then I realise that the little Tesco near me will be understaffed and busy because it always is at about 3pm, so because I haven't got anything obvious to cook I end up having fond thoughts of takeaways.

However, if I can force myself to mealplan for the whole week IN SPITE OF having hours and hours and hours to think up meals on the day, then I will save money, and feel a sense of achievement as a homemaker, of having cared for my own needs and those of my husband. The money I save will enable me to stop panicking about being too ill to take any old job and get my health right before I decide what to do next.

One way I have found around this issue is to make myself do the prep either just before or just after lunch. I tend to 'run out of steam' by around 4o'clock, so having everything prepared ready to just 'switch on' is a life saver for me.

I have 2 sets of menu plans and I alternate them. Do not follow them religiously?spelling? I can swap meals round during a week. For intsance on Wednesday we were at a funeral after lunch.....we usualy have fish and chips on Friday, but as I was tuckered when we got home we had them on Wednsday and Wednesdays meal last night. It was home made pizza and salad, so in the morning whilst I was still feeling fresh I made the tomato sauce so it was ready to spread on the pizza base, grated the cheese for the top and left it in a covered bowl in the fridge. Straight after lunch I plated up 2 salads and put them in the fridge, using 2 bought meringue cases(reduced, a couple were a bit smashed, fine for eton mess later) I made up two raspberry and cream desserts. At 5.30 pm I spread the tomato mixture over the base, sprinkled the grated cheese over and topped it with salami, into the mini oven on 190 for around 15 minutes, plated up onto the salad plates......all done.

I do find it difficult some days, but I make myself do things. Years of pressure from working whilst bringing up a family and then the breakdown of my marriage and subsequent re-marriage and having to work to help provide a roof over our heads has not helped, I was so glad when my constant tiredness and pain which kept me from sleeping was finally diagnosed.......any form of stress results in a flare up as I know to my cost, our recent 3rd move in 2 years brought this back to me very sharply recently.

life_in_termoil

Having a bad day today and ive got no motivation what so ever!!

Feeling sorry for myself and just think whats the point in trying to keep a lovely home when the kids just dont give a toss. Argggggggggggghhhhhhh

So when your having a bad day how do you shake yourself out of it?

oldtractor

Hi all, I struggled for years being a homemaker,I felt derided by my peers and useless not earning a wage. Now I realise what an important job I am doing especially when I see my husband and sons taking homemade packed lunches to work with hm bread and cake. I can now allow myself to love looking after my men and not to be put down by it. Going to an all girls grammar school didnt help i dont think.People used to say I'd wasted my education. Now i am much more comfortable in my skin, what can be better than making life more pleasant for others? I bake, knit and clean, I grow flowers fruit and veg, I love it. I hope to learn to sew soon, I do a bit of embroidery but nothing else.

janeym8

hiya all
meal planning is a good idea as everyone in the house knows whats for dinner and ,if you got teenagers,they can say if they will be in or not so you know how much to make
only 3 in our house now but i still meal plan when i can
been a bit difficult lately as hubby not well ,in fact,he was admitted to hospital last night so my turkey curry that was for last night was kept as only me for dinner so its in slow cooker now for me and son when we get back from hospital visiting
i also find it good to list all of what i have in the cupboards/fridge/freezer and put number of portions it will do beside it then add or delete numbers as reqd this helps for when i go food shopping as well as it saves you having a freezer full of just sausages for example
my main issue is housework as i get up saying i will do such and such but then am not well enough to do it that day so im planning on writing a list every week of all that needs done in the house so it can be crossed of when done this way i hope on the days when im not well i can still do a small job and not feel like ive wasted my day doing nothing-its all about self worth for me.
hubby helps when he can but you know what its like when someone else does the work its never the same as when you do it,even making the meals off of the planner,so in this respect ive had to lower my standards somewhat in that i dont care if hooverings not done on a certain day so long as it gets done at some point to a certain standard
reading this back sorry for the ramblings and hope you understand what i mean -the lowering my standards bit makes me sound pompous but im deff not ,in fact house needs hoovered now but im off to library than hospital so it may get done when i get back later if not it will get done tomorrow
AIM-tomorrow i will meal plan and housework plan for the next week

janey xxx

Chickenopolis

janey- sorry to hear about your husband.:( I hope he makes a speedy recovery

lollyfin

Hi life i know what you mean I feel exactly the same way at times. Then I think o if I had a job it would give me a reason to get up and organised then I feel bad because I dont have a job, vicious circle at times. One thing that helps me get a bit more omph on days like that is just to simply go outside, not even walking sometimes just standing in the garden, like a bit of a pillock, but just breathing in nice fresh air makes a huge difference to me. I discovered this by accident after having really bad weather for ages and using the tumble dryer for clothes and just feeling really down, we had a nice day and I hung out the washing and amazingly started to feel a bit better, just being outside for a few minutes a day makes a massive difference to me. I now have to start working on building up some more contact with people , this is something I find quite difficult and why I am enjoying this thread so much

squeaky

Hi,

Lets clear up the meal planning thing.

Talking about the value and usefulness of meal planning is fine.

If you want to post an actual meal plan - please do it on the meal planning thread. and, if you wish, post a link to it.

juliapenguin

OK ladies (are there any men among us?)

We've been told. No meal plans here :-(

We can talk about meal planning but if we want to post a meal plan put it on the meal plan thread and do a link.

Please do this otherwise we'll get our wrists slapped again!

juliapenguin

This is DEFINITELY on-topic.

I've been out today with a friend (who unfortunately lives nowhere near me) to the nearest decent-sized shopping area to where I live, because I needed to return a library book etc etc.

We looked in all the shops and on notice boards for information about events, courses and groups which might be useful for me to join if I'm going to be out of work. I found some great things!

The only disadvantage is that it's a really rich area and most of the activities were pricey. However, it's encouraging that there ARE things going on, which I didn't know about because I was at work. Now I've got time, I can keep on having a look until I find the things which are right for me.

What sort of activities/groups have you joined and enjoyed? I'd be especially interested to hear from other people staying at home because of illness.