I'm reading one of my old faves again. First We Have Coffee. And truth be told, I'm hardly ever not reading it. It's not a book I just finish and put away. It's a book I finish and then leave it out and read snippets here and there and then start over at the beginning. Every time I get something new out of it and this time it was the simplicity of coffee.
Coffee speaks hospitality. When you invite someone for coffee, it means fellowship. Period.
Here in the south, sweet tea is a close second but there is nothing like the invitation of coffee that speaks warmth, sweetness, and friendship.
Now Mama Tweeten was the queen of hospitality and love. She had the tightest of budgets yet she was continually prepared for whomever the Lord would bring to her. Sometimes there were pies, or bread, or soup included. But oftentimes it was just coffee and that was enough.
It's enough to make me want to take up the habit. But I'm guessing I'll just stick to tea for now because I've always thought of coffee as a very adult drink and I'm not grown up enough to participate.
Anyway, the point is that hospitality doesn't have to be fancy or expensive and I need to practice some more simple hospitality.
This week I tried a new way of menu planning that made much more sense to me than the old ways I was going about it. Before, I would survey what I had left, plan meals around that, look at the events on the calendar to see how many easy/fast/crockpotted meals I needed, and then plan the rest. But it was slightly overwhelming trying to think of lots of different dinners to fill in the blanks. (I menu for 2 weeks b/c that is when we get paid.)
So this time I started with the weekends. In this pay period we have 3 weekends. The weekend means more food and more time to make stuff that is more involved. It needs a bit more consideration than I usually give it and I end up mad that I didn't plan it better.
So I drew boxes for Friday, Saturday, and Date Nights (Sunday). This is scratch paper that my kids use for drawing and the opposite of fancy.
Friday is always homemade pizza. (Or tuna for LB since she has decided she is not a fan of pizza and somehow tuna is better. I don't get it.)
So Fridays were done and that's 3 nights of dinners I don't have to think about.
Saturdays...
One weekend was busy so I picked 8 can soup since I can make that in 3 minutes, put it in the crockpot, and feed whoever happens to be here.
Burgers and chips for one week, and chicken spaghetti with peas for the next. I can add salad and watermelon to these and they will be perfect. 3 more dinners done.
Then I moved on to date nights, or otherwise known as Sundays.
I want to keep Sundays as simple as possible. When we come home from church we just eat leftovers and clean out the fridge. For dinner, I'm letting my kids make their own sandwiches and clean up the mess. We don't have many sandwiches so they are happy with this. Then I planned dinners for us that didn't require a lot of prep or clean up but that was still a bit out of the ordinary and different from the kids' dinner.
1. Deli tray with cherries
2. Grilled cheese and french fries
3. Pizza (frozen) and salad
9 dinners done. 8 to go.
1. BLTs and potato salad
2. Extreme Nachos
3. Waffles and drumsticks with salad
4. Chicken Baked Potato Casserole and broccoli
5. Lasagna, bread, salad
6. Enchiladas with refried beans, chips/salsa
7. Tacos with Grandma
8. Breakfast Burritos
9. Southwest salads
Lunches are quick, easy, and filling. One of the lunches is Bacon Soup. It's that cheap bag of different kinds of beans at Walmart that you soak overnight and make soup out of. My kids think it tastes like bacon even though there's no meat in it anywhere. Apparently they have very sophisticated taste.
And then I planned for extra stuff for snacks and things the kids had been asking for recently. And popsicles of course. Add lots of lettuce and fruits and vegetables. Ta Da!!
And now I don't have to think about it for 2 whole weeks.
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