9/11 – the single most ‘remembered’ day in American history

To say that I struggle with what to say when September 11 comes around each year is an understatement, at best.  Almost every American over the age of 18 can tell you down to the minute where they were when it happened and exactly what they did following those tragic events.  Everyone in America seems to have an unmatched level of passion for the events surrounding 9/11.  This is not inappropriate considering that, for most of us; this is the largest act of violence committed in America in our lifetimes.  

I want to acknowledge the lives that were sacrificed on that day, whether they were civilians, military, airline personnel, workers in any of the buildings, or any of the countless police, fire and EMS workers that were lost.  I want to acknowledge the work that was put in by both on and off duty police, fire, EMS, military of all branches, etc. on that day and for months after to assist, rescue, and fight for normalcy.  Without that sacrifice and dedication to the job, we wouldn’t have been able to get to this point that we are at right now.  

I don’t ever talk about any of my feelings about what happened on that day that would seem controversial because I recognize that is neither the time nor the place.  I have respect for the lives lost, the families that have been forever changed, and the hard work and dedication of the people that were left, and I would never use this day to speak out of turn to cause the focus to be away from those individuals.

I would instead like to choose this entry to ask us to all ponder a simple question.  We all remember what happened that day, now 12 years, but what are we doing about it? Are we simply remembering what happened but not allowing ourselves to make a change or are we attempting to live a change based upon what happened?   Because of the strong presence of social media, the internet, and ability to communicate with the entire world with one mouse click, you will now see at least 100 references to “Remember 9/11” today alone.  You might even post one yourself.  But I would challenge us to grow as a society and realize that eventually we need to turn this statement into an “AND”.  “Remember 9/11 and _____”.  If we refuse to do that, then we are no better off than we were on September 12, 2001.  

I am definitely not proposing any solutions or ideas with this.  I would just like to use this time to think about what we should do and how we should fight to make our country better and stronger than it has been since we were all changed.  Are you comfortable being complacent in your grief as an American public or should you channel those feelings and emotions regarding this day into making your own world a positively different environment to live in?  I deliberately am not going to say that we should make it better because we did have a significant loss of life and the world is not better without certain people, but we can use their sacrifice and make the world a positively different place.  

I am definitely not advocating for anything that sounds like revenge and that is not where I would like to entry to go.  In an ideal world, we would take our tragedy, and use our memories and lessons that we learned to make our society different today than it was on that day in a positive manner.  If we are not able to get to a point where we are willing and able to take the sacrifices of those who died that day and use them towards the greater good of our society, then I would argue that those people have died in vain.  Yes, those who were lost would want to be remembered, but I believe that they would all want us to use this situation as a way to teach our children lessons about what happened.  At this point, those lessons could be as simple as religious tolerance, equality for all humans, compassion for those less fortunate, or empathy for the poor in other countries.  

Let me know how you are remembering today and how we were changed.  

Monthly Meal Planning - September

I like meal planning.  It gives my type A, list-making personality something to smile about.  I try to help my family stick to a meal plan/meal budget, but we can all do better.  For me, going to the grocery store weekly for a more frequent meal plan is the quick way to financial disaster.  Even at Aldi, there are times when I get out of there $30 over the budget that I came in with.   I got inspired by an awesome woman named Julie (mammaneedsanap) that I follow on Youtube who meal plans by the month, and I am going to give that a go for September. 

Luckily, Corry and I have been stocking up and keeping certain ingredients on hand for months now of foods that we favor, so the shopping trip for this month is not as massive as it would be if we were starting from scratch.  It is not a lie to say that thinking about spending a bulk of our grocery budget in one trip at the beginning of the month is a bit daunting.  I understand that we will still need to shop weekly or so in very small doses for things like milk and our CSA produce, but the vast majority will be purchased in this one day.  I decided to play it safe and stick with mostly meals that we have made before for this first month, however I did throw in a few meals that we have not had previously to test a few new recipes. 

I am not changing the way that I meal plan/build a shopping list/etc; I am just planning for more meals upfront.  I will include recipe links when I have them and will do recipe posts on the ones that I don't have yet.  I will also keep up the practice of not planning a specific meal for a specific day unless we have produce that is going to spoil soon, etc.  We are less likely to stick to a plan, for some reason, if we are "forced" to have a certain food on a certain day. 

Here are our meals for the month:

Salsa Chicken & Spanish Rice x 3
Breakfast Casserole
Grilled Steak & Chicken, grilled sweet corn & fruit salad x 2
Chicken Chili x 2
Spaghetti x 3
Tuna Salad (kids will have something else not decided upon yet) x 2
Baked tacos x 3
Pulled Pork & side dish
Spinach, Alfredo, & turkey pepperoni pizzas
Grilled chicken salads
Sandwich & Homemade Soup (cream of chicken with wild rice & chicken noodle) x 2
Chicken Spaghetti x 2
Red Beans & Rice
BBQ Chicken Sandwiches

I need 28 dinners total for the month of September.  This is technically 25, but I gave us three dinners eating out in case we are out later than expected or feel like a treat.  Most of these recipes are 'diet' and I will include the nutritional info on them in the recipe post if I have it.  If not, I will include the portion(s) that we are having so you can get a general idea.  I need to shop at three different stores to get all of the items that we need - Target, Aldi, and Walmart or Albertsons.  Target's shopping trip was a bit distracted because of diapers, a new skirt for Grace and a few other random items but we did manage to get $10 worth of grocery items.  Aldi was where I spent the bulk of our money and it amounted to $111 and some change, which wasn't bad considering that consisted of a large volume of meat.  I still need a buy 2 items from the list that they don't sell at Aldi and they didn't have for some reason at Target.  All in all, our budget this month for groceries should be less than $200, which is pretty good for a family of five.  Next month that will change because we won't have as many items on hand and we will have a different menu (hopefully).   

Have you ever done a monthly meal plan?  What did or did you not like about it?