Eve Penman: An Empowered Housewife in Rural America

I have started a weekly menu schedule for my household!  I am not ashamed to say I can't keep it all in my head, and there is absolutely no reason for anyone to keep it all in their head when there are so many amazing tools to utilize that help make life easier to manage in the 21st Century!  In a one-vehicle household and me at home all week miles from town, having meals and groceries planned out before we leave for the store on the one day we shop makes for more efficient shopping because it goes quicker. Less time in public is always a good thing! Planning ahead also helps because it allows for household communication, so that we know what we want for the week before we are standing in the middle of the grocery store unsure of what is at home and what is still needed. I loathe assuming what another wants to eat, so I prefer to ask, discuss, and plan. Plus, that's my job as the home-managing homemaker now!   Granted, we are just two adults and two cats with...

I have approximately ten months to prepare for my 40th birthday. I want forty to be something to look forward to, and why shouldn't it be?  Forty is the beginning of a new decade! I haven't started a new decade in, like, ten years, so I'm due. The last few years of my thirties have just dragged on, dragging me and my hopes down with it. Something has got to give and I know what it is -- me!   Therefore, my wish/goal ten months from now is to start the next forty years of life without so much dust-collecting, space-taking, anxiety-inducing, memory-saving, life-sucking stuff from the first forty years. It's time to really clean house. No one can make this wish come true but me, so that's why it is a goal and not just a wish. It takes work and it is not easy work, as I have already started the process of parting with sentimental items that I just can't keep holding on to any longer. Stuff is a bandage; it takes powerful force and determination to rip it aw...