You know that feeling when you finally sit down at the end of the day, only to realize you never actually sat down all day? Yeah, me too.

Motherhood is beautiful, messy, and a little bit (okay, a lot) hectic. But one thing that helps me feel more grounded? Systems.

Not the aspirational, color-coded, perfect-on-Pinterest kind. I’m talking about real-life, sanity-saving rhythms that help keep the overwhelm in check with a little more ease.

I’m pulling back the curtain and sharing the simple, game-changing systems that have made my life as a mom feel lighter. First up? Monthly meal planning. (Because if I have to figure out dinner at 4:30 PM one more time... 😅)

Why I Moved From Weekly to Monthly Meal Planning

I started weekly meal planning over a year ago, and it was a huge help in reducing decision fatigue and making grocery shopping more efficient.

But doing that every Sunday still felt like a lot of work.
Every. Single. Week.

So I tried monthly meal planning for January, and it has been a game changer. It honestly takes about the same amount of time to plan a month as it did for a week—yet saves me weeks of mental load.

Poppy is all about making moms’ lives easier (and more stylish), so I’m sharing the heart behind this system and why it works so well.

The High-Level Overview of My Meal Planning System

Here’s the simplified version of how I structure it:

✔️ I use a digital spreadsheet (Google Sheets)

This lets me access it from my phone and makes it easy for my husband to see it, too.

✔️ I keep a running list of our family’s favorite meals

When I started, we had maybe eight. Now we have nearly 30 after consistently trying a couple of new recipes per week.

✔️ I reference only the key events on our family calendar

Not everything — just the things relevant to dinner prep.
Evening sports practice?
That’s a slow cooker night.
Date night?
That’s a kid-favorite dinner.

✔️ I spread meals across the month based on what we have going on

I mix in repeat favorites, new recipes, eating-out days, and leftover nights.

And that’s it. Simple. Repeatable. Doable.

Monthly meal planning gets easier every time I do it because I can copy last month’s plan and make a few tweaks instead of reinventing the wheel.

Want the Template + Full Framework?

This blog gives the high-level system, but the full template and detailed step-by-step process now live inside my email list.

If you want to try my exact system without building anything from scratch: