By the skin of my teeth... | Week 9 | #52wonderfilledweeks

It's 6:06 PM(!) Sunday and I haven't posted week 9 yet...if I wasn't so set on crushing this challenge I would be in bed already (like I have been two other evenings this week).  I was so excited for this week's project but the excitement quickly faded when it just wasn't working out and then RSV and Bronchitis took over our household. In the last week we've had three doctors appointments and have two more tomorrow.  This is some nasty stuff.  So I'll be brief...

Some of my friends know I am a big fan of meal planning.  I don't know why, but I find it to be so much easier make a meal if it's already been decided placed on our family calendar than in the moment the evening of.  I started a few years ago by making a list of our most often used meals and side dishes and would sit down once a week, look at our upcoming schedule and assign a meal that made the most sense for that day (ie things that were quicker went on days that were more hectic, meals more involved were on days like Sunday when we had more time).  This worked well but I felt like I was always sitting down planning meals (the week flies by with kids) and soon I was doing 2 weeks at a time and then quickly moved to a month in one sitting. I loved this.  I didn't have to think.  I knew what was quick, what was in the freezer, what needed to be in the crock pot.  Sometimes I would change things as needed but overall we stuck to the menu and shopping was so easy.  I'd make the plan and then check the pantry to make my list.  My husband always thought it was so backwards that I would sit down with pen and paper (my favorite medium) and then transfer everything to our awesome DIY family calendar.  He had been suggesting for at least a year that we make meal magnets so we could cut out one step and just move the magnets into place as we looked at our weekly schedules. With my new Silhouette Cameo I figured we could make this happen pretty easily.  I was wrong... remember two weeks ago when I tried using the Silhouette pens for my daughters Valentines? Well I invested in the official "Silhouette Pen Holder", ordered a new set of Sharpies and got to work.  Unfortunately the sharpies (even though they were fine tip) were really to thick to write the fine, tiny words.  So I went back to Amazon and ordered a set of the Ultra Fine Tip markers.  I also ordered some printable magnetic paper.

     

The first set I did (vegetables) turned out okay.  At the time I was sort of disappointed in the quality of the writing.  Little did I know that that would be the BEST looking set I'd get out of the whole shebang. Some of the issues were with the paper.  It's a little thicker than normal card stock, and it didn't stick well to my mat.  I'm not sure if that's because my mat really needs to be cleaned and re-stickied (that's a technical term) or if it's due to the actual magnetic paper.  Since I was already writing when I realized the paper was shifting I paused the "send" action and grabbed some painters tape to hold down the edges...unfortunately this actually ended up tearing the paper (grrrr) and the sheet still tended to "bubble" up in areas creating drag marks from the marker.

Using painters tape for some extra hold...too bad it took the layer of paper off with it!

Like I said the green ended up okay but when I moved onto the sides (orange) it was fraught with all sorts of problems.  Even though the pen was brand new it just wasn't writing well.  I played with the speed, the force, where the pen sat in the holder...nothing changed it.  What was even worse is I just thought okay I will go over everything by hand when it's done, but the pen some how was now legitimately out of ink, so I COULDN'T go over it! I hate wasting money...and time...and energy!

Blue pen in action.  Once again I tested the pen before I used it and it was great, but was hit or miss when I was actually trying to write with it.

By the time I got to the "main dishes" in blue I had just about had it.  Once again the pen was dragging in the areas I didn't want to have any marks and was barely writing where I needed it to.  I see all these peoples beautiful items using various pens but this just did not want to work.  Before I call using a pen with the Silhouette a dud I want to try writing on a different medium and also maybe use a few other different pen types, but boy did this along with the whole house being sick make for a miserable week.

This was one of the best ones that came out in the blue.

I was pretty bummed today when I didn't have a "completed" project to show you all, after all that's the idea behind this challenge.  But then I was reminded that some projects simply won't work, and it's important to share those as well.  Just like I wrote about a few weeks ago...out of failures can come success...so I can check this off of my list of having tried it and move onto the next idea. 

In the meantime I guess it's back to the "old school" way of meal planning...now where's my pencil sharpener?

Do you meal plan for your home? Do you prefer to plan a week at a time or more? What tools do you use to plan your nightly meals?