Typically, I plan our menu for a week or two at a time, then grocery shop for about a weeks' worth in one fell swoop.  Since Memorial Day weekend, though, when we went out of town for a funeral, I can't seem to get my act together.  So last night, the plan was for DH to call me on his way home from another viewing, to find out what to pick up at the grocery store.

He called and asked, "What do you want me to pick up?"

I asked, "Do you have paper?"

He answered, "No."

So I rattled off a few obvious day-to-day items that he would probably remember, then said, "Hmmm..." when it came to the ingredients for tonight's dinner.  Could I find a way to make them logical so he would be less likely to forget anything?  There were only five ingredients, so that made it easier, but still.  If there didn't appear to be any rhyme or reason to them, he might miss something.  Thankfully, I had a brainstorm.

"Okay.  I'm going to walk you through making the recipe and see if that helps.  It's only five ingredients."  Now, DH is usually not the one at the stove, so this was a little far-fetched LOL!, but he loves to build things (or fix things up, like houses and cars), so I figured the best way to help him remember was to have him mentally "make" the dish.   "It's Potato Sloppy Bake, which we have eaten many times.  First, you take a pound of ground beef and brown it."

"Ground beef.  Got it."

"Then add in a can of Sloppy Joe sauce -- picture a 14- or 15-oz. can of Manwich -- and a can of cream of potato soup."

"Manwich and potato soup.  Okay..."

"Now, dump that on top of a 32-oz. package of hash brown potatoes -- picture one of those red Ore-Ida bags."

"Ore-Ida!  All-righta!"

Then I realized we already had the shredded cheddar cheese, so he didn't need to remember that.

So off he went to the grocery store...

When he returned home......

He had remembered everything! 

Later, he seemed very proud of me when he said that I had used a "trainer trick" to help him remember.  Perhaps I did, as developing and running training was about two-thirds of my job before I became a stay-at-home mom nine years ago.  To a certain extent, I simply found a way to help him "link" the items to each other, a memory-management technique.

BUT I also [maybe mostly] credit homeschooling DS7, who is a kinesthetic guy just like his dad.  DS7 is the child most apt to be found helping his dad with a construction project or helping me make dinner.  I think helping him learn on a daily basis made it easy for me to think of how to help DH, since they both love to create with their hands.