- We accidentally meal planned last week! On the Saturday before, we were saying all the things that sounded good for dinner, and were like “Hey! Why don’t we pick some nights for these meals?! What a novel idea!” Ha, we’ve never been meal planners before – we keep our pantry and fridge stocked and usually brainstorm dinner at the end of each day. But of course, as all you meal planners know, it was nice to have our meals picked out for the week. So we’re trying it again this week.
- Tonight’s meal is El Famous! Last time we went to El Famous, we texted our neighbors to see if they wanted anything, but they were already eating dinner. So this time I texted them five days in advance, and have an order to pick up for them. I hope they like it!
- I’ve been texting these neighbors each time I get groceries to see if they need anything (sometimes they do, so I pick it up and drop it off), and as a thank you, they brought over these flowers from their yard last week. Aww!
- On my divisional work call yesterday this chart was shared to open up discussion about what “zones” people are in with how they’re feeling about COVID-19 (then we talked about what zone the company is in). It was noted that you can move back and forth between the zones within the month, the week, or a day (or the hour!). I was in the Learning Zone for a while and am now in the Growth Zone. I spent time yesterday thinking about what I am doing differently now than before that I would like to keep doing after we’re done with our stay-at-home order.
- I liked this opinion article (pdf here), “An introvert’s plea: Let me socially distance in peace.” The author talks about how introverts don’t have it made right now (despite many thinking they do), because the place where they normally recharge (home!) is expected to be everything – home, work, social hour. A few interesting points:
- They mention how they can’t be the only one dreading catching up with someone they haven’t talked to in years. Ha, I see people doing that too (I am not), and think it’s nice to be thought of during a crisis, but what about the rest of the time?
- They say introverts hate open ended or openly broad questions. I did not know that and am guilty of asking them. Noted.
- They bring up Dunbar’s number – the limit on the amount of people you can maintain ongoing relationships. “150, the largest, is a group of acquaintances and casual friends, followed by 50 close-ish friends, 15 trusted very close friends and five key loved ones.” This is a topic I’ve been interested in for a long time, so I was naturally interested to see it applied to the COVID-19 situation.
- Now that I have so many video calls at work, people can see what is causing that meowing noise…
- As an update to last week’s blog issues – ilaxstudio.com is back up. I am manually reposting posts from there that never migrated over in 2018. Some of them are painful to see – how much healthier I was, relationships that don’t exist anymore, my bad writing… eek. Also, I tried to back up my site but the files are too large and crash each time. Blah and wah.
Link to Random Thoughts Thursday 271
LOL at the accidental meal planning. I used to help my mom with meal planning when I was a kid and it just stuck for me 🙂 I don’t actually plan it out night by night though, I just make a menu of things I want to make each week, then we pick something each day. It makes grocery shopping a lot easier!
Hmm… speaking as an introvert, I mostly prefer open-ended questions to closed, as long as there’s still some kind of structure to what is being asked. But I do agree with the author who isn’t a fan of questions like “how are things going?” – first, because they often seem disingenuous (or generic), but also because there’s SO many ways to answer, and I guess I don’t like deciding what I think the asker actually wants to hear about.
That’s awesome you have been doing it for so long! So many people have told me it makes shopping easier! I bet it would save us money, since I shop to keep things in stock rather than for specific meals!
Thanks for that input! And please let me know if my questions are ever too intrusive – people have implied as such!
You are so nice to help out your neighbors with groceries like that! And the flowers in return are beautiful. 🙂
I like my home alone time. Now I’m getting lots of home time, but never alone. NEVER ALONE. Yes it’s challenging, LOL. I know my husband and I are both trying to not instigate things because of the unusual events, but I swear to god if I hear him schlepping back and forth 900 times, wearing flip flops, something might be said.
I used to meal plan all the time when I was actively trying to eat well. Not meal prep as that is just not my thing, but at least have an idea and the ingredients for a decent dinner. Then that stopped, but hey guess what is back? It’s been necessary for the last several days as we’ve been down to eating out of the freezer, which means I have to think ahead and thaw some items. It’s all good but I’m happy we’ll be picking up our grocery order this afternoon, too.
Thanks 😀 I love flowers, even though I have to put them up high so the cats don’t eat them!
Oh gosh, we need to send Jeff out to the garage or something for a few hours, right? I TOTALLY get that. I cherish my time alone in the house, and I hope Steven does as well, when I got for long runs and get groceries, etc. Can we at least get Jeff to wear shoes or socks and not flip flops? 😉
After that stopped, did you just go day by day like we usually do? Eek, I am glad you are picking up your order this afternoon… any more ice cream?!
We usually meal plan because it’s easier for me mentally to have a plan. If I have to wing it at the end of the day and make a decision on what to eat, it’s probably going to be take out or a bowl of cereal! What are Kim Bowls? I’m intrigued.
I can see that! It’s been so nice to have meals planned now! I wonder if we’ll stick with this 😉
Kim Bowls are kind of like skillets – hash browns, broccoli, vegan sausage, vegan cheese, and garlic! Super easy one dish meal! We call them that because it’s what I always make when Steven orders pizza, ha 🙂
Sounds delicious!
We’re big meal planners in this house, because we found when we weren’t meal planning, we were eating out A LOT, and that gets unhealthy (and expensive!) very quickly. I won’t lie, I absolutely hate the process of meal planning (I don’t know why. I must have a thing with doing food related things in advance, because I also HATE making my lunches!), but it makes life (and grocery shopping) a lot easier.
What do you hate about it? Trying to know what you’ll be hungry for then making the list? (No judgement, I hate all meal prep, shopping, etc.)
So far our “meal planning” has been a 5-10 minute conversation of brain storming things we can eat with what we already have (plus one meal of take out) so I don’t think I’m experiencing the full workload of it 😉
The “zones” diagram was interesting because it made me realize how I am almost never in the Growth zone, with or without a global pandemic. One thing I realized this week, and that was supported by that chart, is that it stresses me out to talk to people who are, I suppose, still in the “fear zone.” I feel like I have enough “emotional bandwidth” to keep calm and happy, but being a sounding board for people’s fears makes me feel tired and anxious. The big one for me is learning to give up [the illusion of] control!
That being said, I am a meal planner! In our plans, I used to put “YOLO” on nights that I didn’t have a plan or when one of us was busy. A few months ago, I was at a party at someone’s house and was looking at the meal plan on their fridge. They described those plan-less nights as “anarchy” which really made me laugh. That’s how I refer to them now.
I also love that you planned in El Famous. We’ve been planning for nights to do delivery, and it feels like such a treat!
I have been thinking a lot about how I’ve been communicating less with people in the fear zone. I don’t have the emotional bandwidth either. I try to be a good listener but it’s DRAINING. I think you do many growth zone things, including sharing your talents!
Ha! Anarchy! That is so funny! I love it. We just drafted week 3 so we’re on a roll!
Oh gosh, yes! We looked forward to it all week too and it was a big treat! Our neighbors loved what they go! (fish tacos and chicken quesadillas)
That zones chart related to COVID-19 is so interesting and really helpful. I think I am mostly operating from the Growth Zone, although sometimes from the Learning. Almost never from the Fear Zone! That’s good to know. While I am anxious about this pandemic, I also work hard not to let it overwhelm me and recognize what I can do to keep myself happy and healthy.
As a classic introvert who has a hard time opening up, I think you ask really great questions! I love your curiosity. And I love answering your questions, so it’s a good reminder for me that it’s okay to ask questions!
I had to go back through my blog a few years ago and recategorize everything and oh yes, the bad writing is EVIDENT and it’s pretty embarrassing to look back on, haha.
I am glad it’s helpful! And it’s good to know you are not spending much time in the fear zone!
Aww thank you for saying that! I appreciate it. I am VERY curious about people, ha!
Ha, it’s so bad, right? Every time I have to go back I am like… okay, Kim, no one else but you is doing this, this is fine… (to comfort myself, ha).