Just Call Me Rachel, or Not!

     As a mother and a wife, I have spent many hours and a lot of money seeking a state of perfection in a multitude of areas such as a smooth running system for laundry, keeping things of invaluable worth where I can find them when I need them, for example tape, scissors, a pen that works, band-aids, the tiny travel packs of tissues for your purse and tweezers.  I have also struggled to find a way to keep all of our bathrooms clean at all times (preferably without me having to clean them) but none of the above has happened.
    And yet, I am bound and determined to find a way to make my grocery shopping and meal preparation a seamless and exact science.  I want to be like Rachel Ray, go to my fridge and open it to find every single ingredient that I could possibly need to make a meal. Inside would be meat already defrosted, crisp heads of lettuce, not the wilty kind I usually find in the back of the crisper in my fridge.  I would have cheeses that I never heard of and vegies that are the proper color and don't smell funny.  In my vision, I would never be in the middle of making dinner and discover that I am missing one major ingredient.  I can't understand it when that happens because I spend my life at Walmart, but it seems to happen all the time.  That's why I was excited when I found a computer program where you can input all your recipes then select the meals you want to eat for the week, hit shopping list and print out a list with everything you need.  My dream of organized meals was within my grasp!  Their was one small hiccup however, you need to have a computer science degree to operate it.  I have figured out how to add recipes to 'My Cookbook' but I haven't figured out how to get what I select to the shopping list.  Nor have I figured out how to select meals for the week and put them in the menu planner.  I have to tell you that the reason I bought this particular program was because of the "easiest to use" rating it had been given and all I have to say to that is THEY LIE!!!   In all fairness I am not that computer savvy but sheesh it should be easier than this.  I feel like I'm breaking into the Pentagon's Main Frame.  I can feel my dream of organized shopping and complete meals slipping away, but I'm not giving up yet.  I vow to conquer this somehow, someway if it's the last thing I do. I will achieve perfection in at least one aspect of my crazy, hectic life.  I'll let you know next week how many time we got fast food.