Intro

I have 2 kids under 2.  My oldest angel is 17 months and my younger is now a whole 1 month old.  Before I had my oldest, I was organized.  OCD organized.  Then that blessing came and I had to learn how to readjust my lifestyle and not be so incredibly OCD.  After about a year, I finally got the hang of it.  And just when I started to let my OCD organization start to come back...the second blessing came.  I am currently living in a state of chaos that I never knew existed.  As my therapist says (yes, it's driven me to therapy), I'm in survival mode.  I'm only meeting my 'minimum requirements' as a mother and a homemaker.  Now that I've had a month to allow chaos to control my life, I've decided to take it back.  The meal baby registry is used up and our waistlines (and wallets) can't afford all the take out. 
Baby steps is how I've decided to attack this beast.  Starting with food and our meals.  For the last few months we've only bought staples (milk, bread, cheese and eggs) and depended on others, our freezer, and take out to fulfill the rest.  So yesterday I went on a ridiculous Meijer run to refill our pantry.  Of course now all that food is sitting on our counter because the pantry is a disaster in itself and I need to organize that before I can put anything away.
But I digress.  My plan of attack is as follows:
1.  Meal planning for the week.  Our grocery store ads come out on Thursday.  At some point on Thursdays when my husband is home (he works all different shifts so I have to be flexible on the time), he will take over the girls and I will sit down at the computer with the ads and a notebook.  I will go through the ads and pick one store that looks like it has the best deals on meats, produce, etc.  I will then search the internet and my recipe database for recipes for the upcoming week.  I will alternate proteins and have 6 meals written down and create a grocery list.  I'm hoping once a week we can go out to eat as a treat for behaving the rest of the week!  And if not, I'm sure we'll have some leftovers.  Going along with the leftovers, I'm hoping that this will decrease the amount of money we have to spend on lunchmeat and such, as we'll have leftovers. 
2.  I'll pick at least one meal or item to make to freeze.  That way we always have something on hand for when the unexpected happens. It's alright if it takes me multiple days to get it all together.  For example, on Monday I might cook the noodles and on Tuesday brown the ground beef and not get to put it all together until Wednesday...and that's ok.
I think there were more steps to this, but I sleep for an average 2 hours at a time right now and my short-term memory is shot.  Stay tuned, I'm hoping to have some great tips!