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Toward Organization
Apr. 24th, 2018 03:21 pmSomething that I notice in attempts to "become organized"--my own and other people's--is a tendency to put systems in place that are too advanced for the current state of play. I think it's sometimes better to let a system develop over time, starting with the specific need of the moment.
Take meal-planning, for example. Since approximately forever (certainly since Alice was born and at least occasionally before that) I have wished that Jason would cook more often than the once-a-year on average that he has generally managed. And so does he! When I first started dating him various people told me how lucky I was, because he's such a good cook. But when I met him he was working full time and just starting a full-time theatre conservatory program on top of that, so cooking kind of fell by the wayside for him. And when we started living together I was used to doing all the cooking in my own life and we quickly found that I'm more efficient at it than he is. And then we got married and I quit working, so it made sense that I would do the bulk of the cooking and that has continued to the present, with very occasional exceptions. Every time I would suggest that he could cook more often, he would agree enthusiastically. It just never happened.
Five years ago, when we moved here and I decided I wasn't going to shop in bulk any more, since we live so close to the shops now, we set up a Google Doc to serve as our shopping list. That way we could both add items to the list at any time and if we found ourselves at the store, we could pick up whatever was needed. Most of our shopping is done the one morning each week that I drive Alice to school, since my usual grocery store is just across the street from her school.
So every Monday night over dinner we discuss the week's calendar to confirm who will be where and which nights I'll be cooking. We added a tab to the Google Doc Shopping List to keep track of what we're planning to do for dinner each night. Over time Alice has come to prefer leftover pasta as her lunch to take to school, so Monday nights are pasta nights and we have a third tab that lists all the different pasta dishes I make and we cycle through them. Having a list of what I cook also lets us use it for inspiration and to figure out when we last had something.
And best of all, this has made it possible for Jason to step in and cook, usually once a week. That started in September, when we were in rehearsals, and has continued pretty consistently. Besides just taking some of this task off my plate, it also expands our field, since I mainly cook Italian and Mexican food and he usually chooses to make something Asian. And since he loves to cook fish more than I do, we're achieving our goal of eating more of that. It's awesome.
I should mention here that Alice also cooks once in a while, though that still requires me to supervise and help, so it doesn't feel as much like a night off. But that will come and I'm excited that she wants to do it and I think it's another organic result of involving her in the meal planning.
None of the steps along the way were intended to make it easier for Jason to cook more often--they each served a specific need and seemed achievable as a next step from where we were starting. There are other steps I'd like to take (better inventory of what we have on hand, for example) and those may come. But I think there's a good lesson for me to learn here: organization starts where you are, not where you necessarily want to end up, and you may not even realize all the potential benefits of establishing and streamlining systems.
Take meal-planning, for example. Since approximately forever (certainly since Alice was born and at least occasionally before that) I have wished that Jason would cook more often than the once-a-year on average that he has generally managed. And so does he! When I first started dating him various people told me how lucky I was, because he's such a good cook. But when I met him he was working full time and just starting a full-time theatre conservatory program on top of that, so cooking kind of fell by the wayside for him. And when we started living together I was used to doing all the cooking in my own life and we quickly found that I'm more efficient at it than he is. And then we got married and I quit working, so it made sense that I would do the bulk of the cooking and that has continued to the present, with very occasional exceptions. Every time I would suggest that he could cook more often, he would agree enthusiastically. It just never happened.
Five years ago, when we moved here and I decided I wasn't going to shop in bulk any more, since we live so close to the shops now, we set up a Google Doc to serve as our shopping list. That way we could both add items to the list at any time and if we found ourselves at the store, we could pick up whatever was needed. Most of our shopping is done the one morning each week that I drive Alice to school, since my usual grocery store is just across the street from her school.
So every Monday night over dinner we discuss the week's calendar to confirm who will be where and which nights I'll be cooking. We added a tab to the Google Doc Shopping List to keep track of what we're planning to do for dinner each night. Over time Alice has come to prefer leftover pasta as her lunch to take to school, so Monday nights are pasta nights and we have a third tab that lists all the different pasta dishes I make and we cycle through them. Having a list of what I cook also lets us use it for inspiration and to figure out when we last had something.
And best of all, this has made it possible for Jason to step in and cook, usually once a week. That started in September, when we were in rehearsals, and has continued pretty consistently. Besides just taking some of this task off my plate, it also expands our field, since I mainly cook Italian and Mexican food and he usually chooses to make something Asian. And since he loves to cook fish more than I do, we're achieving our goal of eating more of that. It's awesome.
I should mention here that Alice also cooks once in a while, though that still requires me to supervise and help, so it doesn't feel as much like a night off. But that will come and I'm excited that she wants to do it and I think it's another organic result of involving her in the meal planning.
None of the steps along the way were intended to make it easier for Jason to cook more often--they each served a specific need and seemed achievable as a next step from where we were starting. There are other steps I'd like to take (better inventory of what we have on hand, for example) and those may come. But I think there's a good lesson for me to learn here: organization starts where you are, not where you necessarily want to end up, and you may not even realize all the potential benefits of establishing and streamlining systems.
