Vignettes

I've been reading Happiness at Home by Gretchen Rubin.  Gretchen dedicated nine months to concentrate on the factors that matter for her home such as marriage, time parenthood, etc.  The first chapter of her book discusses possessions and she talks about how possessions can both overwhelm us (if we have too many that aren't meaningful or useful) or can bring us happiness.  She talks about how she made "shrines" around her house to display possessions that were meaningful to her.  It got me thinking about the "vignettes" that I have created around our house and how they reflect our personality and are meaningful to me.  So I thought I'd share a few of the things that we have displayed on our enterment center, which is the focal point of our living room.

When we first bought it, it sat naked for several months because I didn't want to go buy things to fill it up.  Then one night I decided to raid the garage and realized that I had plenty of fun and meaningful mementos to decorate with.  Here's what I ended up with.

Right side of our entertainment center

My husband I both studied marine biology in college and have a deep connection with the ocean.  So we have quite a collection of field guides and other marine-related books.  We also both love old chinese fishing floats.

The shell is my great, great aunts and the books are a collection of some of my favorite coffee table books.

The box and sea glass were from our wedding and the shells were collected over the years on our many walks on the beach.

Here is a collection of some of my favorite books.  My son loves to pick flowers for me so I got this bud vase to display the flowers he gives me.  It makes both of us happy.

The second shelf has another box and sea glass from our wedding as well as the abalone shell that served as our "ring" pillow at our wedding.  And last but not least more coffee table books.  My mom used to give me coffee table books in various subjects that she knew I loved.  I used to keep them stored in the garage because I thought they were too beautiful to get rid of.  Now they have a home where I can look at them.  The top book is one of my favorites.  My dad and I took a trip to Paris and visited the Orsey while we were there.  We both really loved the art there and the book reminds me both of our love of art and the wonderful time we had on the trip.  The "rock" on top of them is actually a whale vertebrae that my husband found.

Left side of our entertainment center

So there it is. One of places in my house that display the possessions that are full of history and meaning for us and make me smile when I look at them.

Garage Cleaning

This weekend our new refrigerator was delivered, which spawned a day of garage cleaning.  These two things may not seem in any way related, but in this case they are.  See our old refrigerator moved to its new home in the garage. BUT before it could move into its new home we needed to evict the current resident...lots and lots of stored kids stuff.

When we first moved into our house we parked our car in the garage.  And like many of you out there, once our son was born we started accumulating STUFF. Lots and lots of stuff!  I tried to minimize the stuff but being the only grandchild on both sides stuff happened weather we liked it our not.  On birthdays and holidays things like Hot Wheel jeeps and John Deer ride-on tractors would appear on our doorstep courtesy of our generous family members (with and without our blessing).  Our garage is the boneyard where unused or outgrown toys go to retire.

I'm not generally a keeper of stuff (I'm more of a tosser of stuff), the bigger the piles got the less motivated I was to organize and de-clutter.  This summer we made a list of projects we wanted to tackle.  Cleaning out the garage being near the top of the list.  But, neither my husband or I have been particularly excited about this task and I keep putting it off in hopes that my sister who is expecting a little girl this winter would somehow be willing and able to move the contents of my garage into hers.  She lives several states away so this was a pretty lofty and not very realistic hope.  Anyway, the refrigerator gave us the push we needed and somehow making room for the refrigerator turned into an all-day garage cleaning spree.

I went through all of the boxes of baby clothes, blankets, and toys that I'd been saving.  I put together four boxes.  The first was a box of blankets that were hand made for our son, the blanket, shirt and hat he wore in the hospital, his first pair of jeans, and his first Christmas outfit. The second is a box of clothes, toys, and blankets for my sister's baby.  The third is a box of clothes that are in good condition and will go to the consignment store.  The fourth is a pile of toys that I will Craigslist.  The rest of the clothes were bagged up and donated our local church or given to our neighbor.  The remaining toys (many of which are high quality and in great condition) we gave to our son's old daycare provider.

It was hard for me to make the decision to give away perfectly good toys.  I felt guilty giving them away and originally wanted to sell them and put the money in my son's savings account since they are in fact his toys.  However, I realized that the idea of selling them was hindering me from getting rid of stuff because I didn't want to bother with the hassle of selling them.  So  giving them to our son's old daycare provider made me feel good that the toys would be appreciated, would have a good home, and would give back to someone who had done so much for us.  It was a win/win.

We still have a ways to go before our garage is clutter free, but I was astonished at the amount of work we accomplished in a day.  The old refrigerator found a new home as did much of son's old stuff! And I feel free of all of excess stuff in our garage!

Dehydrator

I'm so excited!! I picked up a dehydrator last week for $5 off of Craigslist!! That's FIVE-dollars!  I've been wanting a dehydrator for a while now to dry herbs from our garden (read about our little garden's birth story here) and figs from our tree.  When our fig tree comes in to season it's typically over a four week  period and we get more figs than we know what to do with.  Even giving them away by the grocery bag full and picking bags full ourselves there are many that hit the ground before we can pick them.  Now we'll be able to enjoy these babies during the winter months when we're dreaming of the summer fig season.  Sadly, fig season is over but I have a ton of herbs to practice with.

Home grown thyme, Greek and Italian oregano, marjoram, and sage

Also, I should add that I'm a wary Craigslist buyer.  I don't like going to stranger's homes.  But this this gentleman was very nice.  We obviously shared the same passion for gardening and homemade food and he told me how to make yogurt in the dehydrator (which I must try someday).

Finally, when I got home I discovered that the manual was missing from the box so I did a quick Google search to find one online.  In the process I discovered that some of these models had been recalled because of a faulty part that created a fire hazard.  Luckily mine wasn't one of the ones recalled.  However, it made me realize that I should have done my homework ahead of time and asked for the specific brand and model and checked it out before purchasing it.

Let the herb drying commence!

Gray Cloud

I've finally take the plunge....or at least am planning to take the plunge.  After eight years of living with pale yellow living room walls that I never really liked we're going grey.  Yellow's just not my color and grey paint makes me happy (I'm a beachy kinda girl).  I'm not really sure why, but painting the living room has always seemed daunting to me.  I know it's only paint, but it seems soo permanent.  What if I don't like the color I choose?  Which has lead to many, many, many trips to the hardware and paint store for swatches and sample paint in search of the perfect grey.   My first trip to the store involved collecting every grey color sample known to man Benjamin Moore then putting them up on the wall, and slowly over the course of a month pulling down the ones I didn't like.  At the end of the month I had narrowed it down to three colors.  Then I went to home depot and had my three favorite colors plus one lighter and one darker shade matched in Behr paint.  There in lies rookie mistake #1: always buy the actual paint you will be using-even if it costs a dollar or two more per sample.  Rookie mistake #2: painting the sample paint on my yellow walls without priming them first.  Yup, I'm a rookie at this whole painting walls thing.  Here's what the colors looked like on the yellow wall.

Top row: BM Moonshine, BM Moonshine color matched in Behr,  BM Grey Owl color matched in Behr, BM Stonington color matched in Behr, BM Grey Owl
Middle Row: BM Bunny Gray, BM Sweet Innocence, BM Grey Cloud, BM Marilyn's Dress (all color matched in Behr)
Bottom (barely visible): BM Classic Grey

Most look blue right? Wrong...they are grey.  I had read that cool grays can read blue in some rooms depending on which direction the light is coming from (north facing light reads cool while south facing light reads warm).  While we have a northwest facing room, it didn't seem possible that such neutral grays could read so blue on the wall and the green grays could read so neutral grey.  Then it dawned on me (not sure why I didn't think of it in the beginning) that I shouldn't be painting over the yellow.  Also, I was a bit nervous using the color matched paint when I knew I'd be using the BM paint in the end so I compared the two.  Yeah, the color matched Behr version was much bluer, and almost a shade lighter than the actual BM color.  Glad my paranoid self decided to compare. Here are the colors on the primed wall.  They look more grey now right?  They're the same colors.

Top: BM Gray Cloud; BM Bunny Gray
Middle: BM Classic Gray, BM Gray Cloud (color matched in Behr), BM Bunny Gray (color matched in Behr)
Bottom: BM Gray Owl, BM Moonshine

And the winner is.....BM Gray Cloud.  The colors don't look too different from each other on the computer screen, but in person the bottom two colors (Grey Owl and Moonshine read a very brown/green).  The Classic Grey reads more beige.  I really liked the Grey Cloud color matched in Behr but it's very green in person and I was worried that it would be too much once the whole living room and hallway are painted.  The Gray Cloud and Bunny Gray are almost indistinguishable, but the Gray Cloud is just a tad lighter.  Our living room is pretty small and while I want something that will make the moulding pop, I don't want our room to feel like a cave.  I'm so excited to FINALLY paint (or more like be done with painting), but also scared that once it's up on the wall won't be that perfect shade of gray.  Only time will tell, but painting commences next week so we'll know soon enough.

The Garden Update

True Lemon Cucumber

In spring we planted our summer garden.  This is what it looked like back then.  This year we planted four types of tomatoes (roma, early girl, brandywine, and cherry) and had one volunteer tomato. We also planted a zucchini and a true lemon cucumber.  The kale is a leftover from our winter garden and I just let it keep doing it's thing.  At the end of summer I like to evaluate what we planted, what worked, what didn't work, and note recommendations for next year.  So let's go plant by plant. First, the true lemon cucumbers....we've gotten a handful so far and while they are good I think next year we'll stick with the traditional cucumber or japanese cucumbers.  Since our garden space is so small I try to stick with high yield varieties go get more bang for my buck so to speak.

I planted a LOT of tomatoes this  year.   Next year I'll stick with two.  I love Brandywine tomatoes but they just don't seem to do well in our mild, coastal climate.  Even with the hot summer we've had, we only got three of these.  Same with romas, which typically do really well. I think I packed too much into the garden and shaded out the romas.  The cherry tomatoes have been doing fantastic. We've been getting a small basket a day. And the volunteer tomato which is a cherry as well has been going gangbusters. So much so that it has gotten out of control.

Volunteer cherry tomato

 The kale is booming and has done great.  I'm just going to let it keep going.

 The zucchini never really took off this year. Typically they take over the garden. When we bought this plant my husband warned that it didn't look healthy.  I think he was right. Next time I'll heed his warning.

So next year, one cherry tomato, one other variety of tomato, one cucumber, one zucchini, and green beans.  That should be it.  I may do some other veggies in separate pots. We'll see what happens when next spring rolls around.

Cloud 9

I've been drooling over this duvet at West Elm for a while now.  Ours current duvet is one that we got six years ago for our wedding.  And while it is still in good condition it is just meh and in our green bedroom  it reads as dull and yellowish.  But this baby looks like a cloud you just want to float in.  So the other day we went school supply shopping at Target and low and behold I saw this baby.  Seriously, the pictures just don't do it justice.  I contemplated not getting it, but I've been drooling over it long enough that I knew I really wanted it AND it was significantly cheaper than the West Elm version. So in the cart it when and it now lives happily in our bedroom.

Still some work to be done in this room including evening out the pictures above the bed and replacing the artwork in the frames with some black and white photos, DIYing block print curtains and rehanging them higher and wider, and getting a new romantic chandelier to replace the boob light (not pictured), and maybe a small chair for the corner.

Big Boy Closet

I have so many fun updates and projects that we've been working on this summer, but first up is the little man's closet.  Our goal was to maximize the available space to allow for clothes and some toys and to make clothes accessible to the little guy.  He likes to be independent and do things for himself and we like to encourage that as much as possible.

I looked into a variety of options for the closet. They ranged from closet organization systems such as those available from Home Depot and Lowes to home made custom built ones.  The closet organization systems came in at around $400 and were a bit too pricey for our budget.  A complete custom one built by my husband was tempting but given his time availability and fact that we wanted it done before school starts, it didn't seem practical.  Then I came across this idea on iheartorganizing that uses a $60 Expedit self from Ikea.  This one won me over at hello.  The price was right and while we (meaning my husband) would need to do some carpentry work, it would only take a few hours (last famous words right).

Here is the closet before.  I always get so excited and impatient to start a project that I forget to take a real before picture, but just imagine lots of toys in a huge pile at the bottom of the closet.

I'm usually an over estimator of how long things will take and I estimated a day for this project. I would have been right except that I didn't account for painting.  Once we took the shelf out (it was nailed into the wall) we realized that we needed to paint. So off to Home Depot I went to get some satin paint in off-the-shelf white.  I painted the closet (with oversight from the little man) while Moe cut the rods and shelves to size.  Then we primed and painted those too.  The next day when everything was dry we assembled the pieces and added all the clothes and toys back into the closet.  Tada!

And here it is today. Coats and sweatshirts are on the top left, t-shirts and the bottom left, and pants and dress clothes on the right.  The shelves from top top to bottom have swim suits, toys, shorts, socks and underwear (in drawers), and shoes.  In the little drawer unit on the right there toys in the top two drawers and sweatpants and PJs in the bottom two.

If you notice there is some space between the shelf above the unit and the top clothes rods. Just goes to show that even with all the pre-planning we didn't quite get it right the first time. Eventually we'll move those rods up to just under the shelf to maximize the space and give more room between the top and bottom rods.  I also still need to get some curtains for the closet "door", but that will have to wait until a few other things are finished.

All in all I love the organization, the little guy loves that he can reach his clothes and get himself ready. And all for under $100.  Can't beat that.

Pea Please!

Spring is upon us and we've yet to plant our summer garden! I'm hoping to get to that this weekend. In the meantime, we've been working on taming the area around the garden bed.  Here is what our little garden looked like at about this time last year.  The area around the garden is just dirt and while looks o.k. in this picture, it is typically full of unruly weeds.  We’ve been looking for ground cover for this area that looks nice, is low maintenance, and that our cat won't use as her personal litter box.  One option was vegetative ground cover like elfin thyme.  But we have some in the front of our house and it still required quite a bit of weeding.  Since we don't spray any of our landscaping with weed killer, that option didn't work for us.  We have enough hand weeding to keep us busy and the idea is to make less work for ourselves, not more.  

Enter pea gravel!  I debated on whether or not I like the look of pea gravel.  But after hunting down some pictures on Pinterest and weighing our other options we gave it the thumbs up!

As usual the process has been much slower than I anticipated. I though it would be a weekend project, but it's been a little-bit-over-several-weeks project.  The first weekend I spent a day weeding out all around the bed. The next week husband laid down some weed cloth. We spent the last few weeks looking at various options for pea gravel. I like the look of light colored pea gravel, but it seems very difficult to come by in our area. We checked out the options at Home Depot, but they were pretty much non-existent. That was about three weeks ago.  Today we stopped by a fabulous local stone store. They had a large variety of options.  We really liked the coral pea gravel, which is light with orange tones and I think would look really nice against the spanish tile stepping stones.  However, the $200+ price was WAY outside our price range.  Instead we came home with a truck load this pea gravel, which cost a total of $35... for the whole truck load!! And to top it off, it is from a local quarry.  I'm all for supporting local businesses.  


The boys were hard at work unloading the gravel today and here's what our garden looks like now!  I love the results!! Thank you boys for my wonderful Mother's Day present!  Now I need to get started on planting the tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, green beans, peppers, and basil!

Getting Out Into Nature

One of my goals for 2012 is to get out into nature. I used to spend an inordinate amount of time outside. Most of my pre-graduate school jobs involved being outside.  And because I live where the weather is generally great year round, I spent my free time at the beach, swimming in the ocean, hiking, biking, etc. Once I started working in an office and became a mom, the amount of time I spend in the great outdoors has dwindled significantly,  which I've decided has had a negative impact on my overall health and happiness.  I'm much happier when I experience the natural world around me.

So to rectify this situation I decided that I need to schedule time each week to be in nature (and my garden doesn't count).  In February, I put on running shoes for the first time in THREE YEARS and went for a trail run.  To be honest, this wasn't entirely my idea.  My outdoor activity of choice typically has nothing to do with running.   I don't really enjoy running and I'm REALLY slow. Like your-grandma-could-beat-me slow and always-dead-last slow.  No joke.  But my little sister who is an ultra-marathon runner (I still wonder if we're actually related) decided that her bachelorette party would be based around a trail race.  Being the Matron-of-Honor I felt obligated to participate in the run. So off I went running into the woods on my first run in three years with the hope that my body has some muscle memory and that maybe this would be a good way to start working on this goal I'd set for myself. Amazingly enough I actually enjoyed the run. Maybe because I did more hiking than running and no doubt largely due to the breathtakingly gorgeous trail.  So this trail hiking/running thing has stuck. I'm not always excited about getting up at 8am on Saturday morning to run/hike, but I thank myself every week.

Also, I've also found that I'm not the only person who thinks that being in nature brings healing and happiness.  Since I created this goal for myself, I continue to come across books and articles discussing the subject.  One author recommended by my son's preschool teacher is Richard Louv.  I'm looking forward to reading a number of his books.

I've found this whole goal a fun adventure in many different ways and I'm loving where it's taking me.
Any goals that you are working on that have lead you on a fun adventure?

Happy Anniverary

Klimt Tree of Life

One year ago today I started my yoga teacher training program.  I posted about it here. It's been a wonderful experience. I've met wonderful people and learned so much from others and myself. I'm so glad I took the plunge and decided to follow my bliss even though I wasn't sure how I'd find the time.  I completed my class hours in December and this week I'll finish my observations hours.  Then it's up to me to start my own classes. I'm still not sure where this adventure is going to take me, but I'll post more about it once I have my program more firmed up. Stay tuned.

Easter

Easter Bread

This Easter was filled with many traditions old and new.  We had the annual easter egg dying.  This year we used brown eggs and the colors came out deep jewel colors.  We baked the eggs in easter egg bread, which a tradition that has roots in my Italian heritage. Easter dinner was lemon and herb stuffed salmon (with fresh herbs from our herb garden), potatoes au gratin (sinfully good), and citrus beet salad with fresh lettuce from our garden and parmesan crisps (made to look like rabbit ears). And of course, our family holidays aren't complete with a spread of desserts.  This holiday was no exception. My aunt is an amazing cook and outdid herself with her signature chocolate cake and trifle. I have no words for how amazing her cake is.  The weather was gorgeous so we ate outside. And because I love flowers I indulged and decorated the house with cheery tulips, daises, and ranunculus.

Citrus beet salad

Lemon and herb stuffed salmon

Just because I love flowers. They make me smile inside.

Coat Closet Update

Well it only took three months to finish our weekend coat closet project, but here is the finished product.  I primed the wood with two coats of primer and used one coat of white semi-gloss paint.  I probably should have used one coat of primer and two coats of paint, but since it's a shelf in a closet I wasn't too worried about it.  I love how it turned out! And I'm still debating what color to paint the inside of the closet, but that will have to wait until I finish the living room.

Happy Spring!

Today is the first day of spring...yay!  I'm loving the longer days and looking forward to spring showers and warmer weather.  Our winter garden is finally starting to take off, just as winter is ending.  Last year was my first year planting a winter garden and I mainly used starters.  This year I started from everything from seed sewn straight into the soil so it took a bit longer to get established than last year.  Our raised bed is small by most garden standards at 8 feet by 4 feet, but we have a bumper crop of lettuce, kale, and chard that we're enjoying.  Our pea are also just starting to climb up our pea tea-pea and the carrots are getting bigger.  I also planted broccoli rabe (which was eaten by snails) and bak choi (which bolted before I had a chance to pick it).  It actually works out well because there is room to start planting our summer veggies.

I have plans for a container garden that will be a bit more shaded.  My hope is to grow greens year round.  Stay tuned for updates on that project next month, which is as soon as I'm likely to get to it.  In the meantime enjoy this beautiful season.

Luck o' the Irish

I'm a holiday junkie but I've never really gone all out for this particular holiday.  That changed this year thanks to our little man.  He made leprechaun traps at school last week and insisted that he set his up outside our front door in hopes of catching a little wee green fellow and raking in some gold.  We were game to join in on the fun and play the part of mischievous little elves.  We set off the trap and left some coins behind.  We also left some leprechaun foot prints around (using green water color paint on surfaces that were easily wipeable).
Food is always at the heart of our holiday celebrations so of course we got creative with our dinner.  If you've read my post from last year, you'll know that we don't really stick to the cultural cuisine of St. Patties' Day.  Rather we tend to incorporate more of the Italian cuisine.  This year we had pasta with pesto sauce "leprechaun logs", sauteed greens "sautéed shamrocks",  fish (no creative name), and a "rainbow of fruit flavors" for desert.  For the rainbow we used fruit from each color of the rainbow (strawberry, orange, pineapple, kiwi, and blueberries) with the exception of violet....the store was out of purple grapes. Marco loved helping to assemble and promptly devour the rainbow.  It was fun to watch him create his own holiday traditions and a great day was had by all.

Fighting the Mat

My yoga mat is my my happy place (or one of my happy places). When I step on it I feel relaxed, tranquil, and happy.  When I started doing yoga many moons ago I did it mainly for exercise. But over time it has become so much more.  There is something about the rhythm and flow of a yoga practice that allows my body to melt away and my spirit to come alive.

Or at least that's how it is most of the time.  Then there are the days where I fight the mat...when it takes all my will power to step on that piece of rubber and I want to shove the mat in the closet and forget it exists. On the days I fight the mat, I know I'm butting up against something needs attention. I call it the issue de jour. The issue de jour can be big or small.  Ususally, it's something I'm not even aware of until I'm on my way to yoga and find myself start in the midst of an internal debate that goes something like this,

"So do you really want to go to yoga tonight? You could go shopping instead. Or you could go to the beach, or to dinner with friends. Or you could catch up on work.  Doesn't that sound so much more fun?"

No joke, I've had this conversation with myself in the yoga center parking lot.  There are some days that I turn off the car, head to class, and face the mat and whatever it holds in store for me.  Then there are days when I'm not up for a fight and I ditch class.  The mat will be there waiting for me when I'm ready.

There's not a wrong or right here.  But generally I find that Robert Frost was right when he said that "The best way out is always through." Eventually, you have to face the mat and the things in life that are difficult no matter how big or small, work through them, and learn from them.  They make us who we are.  It's just important that we have a productive means to do so.  My way is yoga.  And I for one feel much better once I step up to the mat.

Coat Closet Organization

I've been plotting our coat closet makeover for a while.  It's amazing how getting to even the smallest projects seem to take forever or maybe I'm just impatient.  Our entryway is small and our shoes end up sprawled all over the floor and piled on the bottom of the coat closet.  It's been crying to be organized. In addition, we are trying to encourage Marco to be independent and get himself ready for school in the morning and to put away his own things.  One of the best ways to encourage this is to make a place for his belongings (backpack, shoes, hat, etc.) and make them accessible to him.  So here is the closet before (my hubby took everything out before I had a picture in all of it's cluttered glory).

Closet Before

Here's the construction crew and the dog who was left alone the construction crew for a one minute too many.

And here it is after (or at least 95% done).  The baskets I got at Michaels for $5.99 (on sale from $29.99).  The ones on the bottom are for shoes and the one on top is for hats, scarves, etc.  There's a perfect little space for Marco's backpack. Eventually, we'll get a second coat rack for the inside of the door that will hold Marco's umbrella, coat, and backpack.  I still need to prime and paint the shelves white and attach the molding on the bottom shelf.  Eventually, I'd also like to paint the inside of the closet to match the living room. I love it!  I keep finding excuses to open the closet and oh and ahh.

Closet After

Storage Baskets for Shoes and Hats

Menu Board

A while back I painted a few treasure buckets for my little guy.  But this wasn't the reason I broke open my first ever can of chalkboard paint.  I L-O-V-E the idea of a menu board in the dining room (I think it's the Italian part of me) and decided it was a great DIY project.  So I bought a unfinished picture frame and painted it white (using semi-gloss, no-VOC paint).  Then I painted the glass with chalkboard paint.  I contemplated using wood, but it seemed like a lot of work and I'm lazy, so I painted straight onto the glass.  I tried using a foam roller, but while it made nice even coats the paint went on in a weird texture. I opted instead for a paint brush.  The paint isn't as smooth as a normal chalkboard, but it just adds to the charm.  I seasoned the chalkboard by chalking the entire board before using and then erasing it. Viola, ready to use.  The picture doesn't do the board justice. I should have taken a close up.  The frame is made of recycled pallets so it has great texture and imperfections that come throughout he paint.

I moved our little wine rack under the board and styled it with: 1) a bowl of memento wine corks that I write the date and event on (idea from Pintrest), and 2) a tray from our wedding table arrangements that I lined with wine corks. I love that it is a daily reminder of our special day.  We use it to corral our cell phones so they don't get lost between the sofa cushions or other random places (and yes my phone is ancient, but I refuse to get a new one until it goes kaput).  The key is from my grandparent's house and it's waiting for a new home once I get around to that project.

One of the may reasons I love the menu board is that it has encouraged me to make a weekly dinner menu.  Once a week my husband and I try to sit down and plan the next weeks meals. It's fun and we get to use all the wonderful cookbooks I have in my cupboard.  I've never been good at sticking to pre-planned dinner menus, but the menu board helps.  I've found that menu planning ensure that we have a diversity of well rounded meals. The best part is that we have left overs for lunch the next day, which cuts down on eating out.