The summer has flown by in a mere instant this year and I'm not looking forward to fall with my usual reverence. Normally by now I am getting excited about the back-to-school sales, the prospect of wearing sweaters again and the thoughts of Thanksgiving and Halloween preparations. By mid September my brain is customarily searching out fall colours - both in shop windows and the tree-lined streets of my neighborhood.

For some reason this year is different.

I lament the end of the summer season and wish it would go on just a little longer. It seems like only a month ago that we brought home a new barbecue and began the plans for our summer grilling menu. It feels as though it was only last week that we were taking Leith to the various swimming pools and splash pads in the neighborhood, talking about how it was going to be a long, hot summer, spent mainly water-side. It does really feel like yesterday that I planted my miniature herb garden out in the backyard and was looking forward to many delicious meals planned around its bounty. Summer has come to an end entirely too soon.

I can't even try to ignore it like I might have in past years because Tuesday signaled a huge change in this Domestic Goddess's house. For the first year ever both of my boys went to school. Yes, Leith and S. trotted off with their backpacks and their lunchboxes on Tuesday morning while I went to work. S. has rejoined the University ranks and Leith has at long last connected with the some daycare buddies. My life now revolves around making lunches, planning our dinner menus and telling the two men in my life that "yes, you have to go to daycare/school today...that's the way it goes".

By the way, if anyone has any suggestions on how to plan weekly dinner menus I'd greatly appreciate you sharing them - I'm still struggling with doing this and the once-weekly shopping expedition.

Filed under:   Family

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Comments:
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Oct 10, 2008:	johanna (www.thepassionatecook.com) oh god, a weekly shop? i can never be that organised! i like nj's idea of the "what we want to eat next week" list! i usually do one big shop online which gives me enough of the staples to make an impromptu dinner when i haven't got round to the shops. a quick pasta with garlic and olive oil, some comforting soup, some roast vegetables with couscous... and there's always salad in the house of course. try as i might, i just can't get my head around the weekly shopping, because my appetite is just so very temperamental!
Sep 14, 2008:	nj hey! what my mom does is put up a piece of paper where we can write down whatever we want during the week and then she'll make them the next week. also i guess its a good tip right now when you're still kind of getting a grip on things. im in uni and basically not eating very well which is why im reading your blog. hee hee. take care~
Sep 13, 2008:	Sara (http://saraskitchen.blogspot.com) This summer FLEW by, I can't believe it's mid-September already!
Sep 9, 2008:	shauna I would agree with Kelly, a little planning goes a long way. My husband is gone all week and my two boys were getting picky and I was tired of 'kid food', so we started making a list of dinners every Thursday night for the next week. That gave me time to check cupboards, fridge and freezer for ingredients and complete my list for shopping on Mondays. We have been doing it for a few years now and usually come up with 5 meals at a time, those give us leftovers for lunches and combos for later in the week. At first they always chose 'breakfast for dinner' and hamburgers or hot dogs another night. So, we had those once a week for a while and now they have branched out and will often be found flipping through cookbooks for ideas. We have a good base of relatively quick meals that everyone likes now. When I have a desperately busy week I pull out a couple of cookbooks by Sandi Richard and use them as a guide.
Sep 8, 2008:	Kelly I have a little chart that I made that has a space each for Break/Lunch/Dinner across the top and Mon - Sun down the side(you should start with whatever day you go grocery shopping. I start by looking at my week and seeing which days I will have time to cook. Say there are 4. So I pick what I want to cook those 4 days and make sure i have leftovers for lunches and the other dinners. Don't forget to take into account what you have in the fridge already, that can go straight into the no-cook nights or to lunches. I generally plan to go out to lunch one day a week, and will often leave one night to scavange the fridge or order pizza depending on the amount of effort/food I want. Then the next week start over...make a list of what's in the fridge, figure out when i can cook and go from there. Usually it means i cook lots of food on the weekends, and often foods that can become other things. Roast a chicken on sunday, use the leftover to make quesdillas on wednesday night... Once you have your week planned, go thourgh the freezer/pantry and make the grocery list of what you don't have. It takes me about 20 min to plan noe that I have the hang of it. I've really noticed a difference in my healthy eating too, b/c dinner is already planned. oh yea, and don't plan when you're hungry!