Welcome to the Finding Joy in Your Home Podcast. I am your host, Jamie Balmay, and this is the podcast where we blend deeply theological topics with thoroughly practical application, all for God's glory.

Hey, friends, welcome back to the Finding Joy in Your Home podcast. I am your host, Jamie Belmay. And today we are talking about meal planning. This has kind of been our

topic for the month, which is fantastic because meal planning is absolutely one of the most essential

things you can do in your kitchen for your home, for overall peace and less chaos. And yet it's a big

topic. There's a lot of different ways to meal plan. There's no one size

fits all when it comes to meal planning and how to run your kitchen. I am a big believer in the

in the fact that meal planning is highly individualistic. Every family is going to approach it

differently. It's going to depend on the needs of your family, your time, your budget,

how you eat. All of this is going to factor into establishing a meal planning system that works

well for you and for your family. Sometimes that takes a little bit of trial and error.

And yet I think meal planning is essential. And it is a skill that a lot of us have either lost or more likely never

developed in the first place. That's, that's me. I've had to figure out how to run a kitchen.

I had zero cooking skills, organizational skills, nothing coming into marriage. And so really having

to figure it out. And I think, too, every new season we hit

as a family, meal planning needs change. So when it was just Jason and I before we had kids and we

both worked full time outside the home and I was gone from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day with a commute,

an hour long commute in Los Angeles. it was my meal planning and needs were

different. And then we had our first babies and I had to figure out how to cook and take care

of babies. And that was a different season. And fast forward to today with seven kids and a

business underfoot, the needs have changed once again. So meal planning to me

is definitely something that it changes, it ebbs, and it flows depending on the season and what

your needs are. And so I really enjoy talking about it because there are so many different ways

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