Monday Meme

via The Blue Door

1) Are you still feasting on cold turkey, or any other leftovers, from your Thanksgiving meal? not really... there is some turkey in the freezer, waiting to be made into soup. Otherwise, we're done.

2) AAA says Thanksgiving is a big travel weekend. Did you venture far from home for your holiday dinner? nope! We stayed home and family came to us. Although, we did drive out the local airport on Saturday to have lunch with my brother - he flew a little plane down to meet us. The kids were beyond excited about seeing him and watching the all the little planes land and take off. The restaurant is less than 100 yards from the runway - I'm sure it was built before current FAA rules.

3) Is this weekend the official start of the Christmas season for you? Kind of. I think I may start playing some music... but I just don't have time to get down the tree from the attic. I did put out the Tomte pillows I bought at Ikea on Friday and I may put out the holiday Coo-koo clock this evening. We will be starting the advent calendar on Saturday!

4) Which couple would you rather hang out with — Fred and Wilma Flintstone or George and Jane Jetson? Fred and Wilma. I do like a good game of bowling.

5) Have you/would you ever get your teeth whitened? no. I have kids.. who can afford that? I did think about the gypsy thing of rinsing with bleach, but then I thought I'd probably swallow it and who can afford that?

6) Do you still have your high school class ring? I never actually got one. It was way too much money for me to work for in HS and my parents didn't think it was very practical. They bought me a mini-fridge for graduation. Sentimental they are not.

7) Here's $50. You must spend it all in one place. What are you going to do with it? search for a class ring? kidding - I would put it on my Amazon account.

8) Could your vehicle use a trip to the car wash right about now?  not really. November is the rainiest month, so it's been "washed" repeatedly for the last two weeks.

9) Did you hit the snooze button this morning? actually, no. I'm shocked too! But I started reading a really good book yesterday, so when I woke up early, I started reading more. Luckily, Monday's are my late arrival day.

Ten for Tuesday

Ten Things I'm Thankful For:

1. My kids. I know they drive me nuts on a regular basis, but every time I think of what I would be doing if they weren’t part of my life, I’m sad.
2. My house. Sure we’ve already out-grown it and at times I feel very cramped, but the fact remains that it’s ours. At least, it is as long as I pay the mortgage.
3. My health, current cold notwithstanding. I really don’t know what I would do if I was struck with some catastrophic illness or serious accident. I know it wouldn’t be good.
4. My job. Even the days that I hate it, I’m still glad I have one that it pays me enough to live, eat and have medical insurance. Plus, I get to work with some super awesome people.
5. My country. As I watch the nightly news, I am struck at how lucky I am to have been born in the US and how lucky my daughter is to have been born here as well. Despite our problems, I am still free to live my life without fear of violence in my own home.
6. Coffee. While I’m not really supposed to drink it, I really just can’t imagine my life without it.
7. Friends. They are what makes life fun!
8. Chocolate. Bless who ever invented it. Seriously.
9. A working washing machine and dryer, in my house. I didn’t always have that as child and I can tell you it makes such a difference in how you live your life and in how you view your life.
10. Technology. Good googly-moogely, I would just hate life without it. Honestly, I may dream of the simple homesteader life… but if it came without running water, heaters and internet, I would be gone in less than an hour.

What's for Dinner?

Google "meal planning" and you will get 34 million hits. 34 million! To me, this is the height of organization. I mean, your house can be uncluttered, order holiday stuff in July and make it on time to all your appointments. However, if you can do all that and know exactly what you are going to eat, have it be something healthy and have all the ingredients on hand... wow. Just wow.

I actually read one site describing their meal planning site, including keeping an updated spreadsheet listing everything in the pantry. That boggles my mind.

With everything we have to do as a family - working, gymnastics, classes and community events - meal planning falls to the wayside. (Forget about running a spreadsheet to track pantry items.) This also means that I'm having to leave work early to stop by the store or taking the kids with me to the store (horrifying!) or putting together a meal consisting of mac and cheese with canned peas. It's got a vegetable, right? Either way, it is not the wonderful, relaxing and healthy meal I envision making every afternoon.

Unclutterer has printable to help fully plan out your week's meals - including breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. That might be a bit more than I need. Our breakfasts consist of cereal during the week, but planning out lunches too might mean I actually remember to take one to school!

This week, I tried to plan out meals for the week. It was going to be especially busy with a huge community event, school conferences and cleaning up from Halloween all on the to do list. This was my plan...

• Monday - Chicken breasts with salad.Burritos from the freezer. Something was going...
• Tuesday - Mac-n-cheese with hotdogs We had the dinner that was planned for Wednesday, because I was going to be gone at work and this babysitter could reasonably handle cooking.
• Wednesday - spaghetti and meatballs Again, working at night and we had a community event fundraiser at a local pizza joint, so they ate pizza. Really, I see it as a win - dinner and charity.
• Thursday - Pork chops and green beans I had planned on being home to cook dinner, until I found out that I had a meeting @ church. Instead we had the mac-n-cheese with hotdogs.
• Friday - Goulash. It's possible that I could actually make this meal! Then again, we might have another community event to attend. 

 While I didn't end up cooking anything when I was supposed to, but I'm not sure I'd call it a total failure. I did not have to stop at the store to pick anything up any time this week and while not haute cuisine, every meal did have something from the protein and vegetable category, as well as whole grains. (except the pizza) In fact, I think I'd call it a win. The whole point of being organized is to carry less stress. Even though it was a super busy week and I barely saw my children, I wasn't stressed out wondering what I could scrounge up up for them to eat.

Did I mention our new kitten? He is making our life very interesting.



Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Halloween

Halloween happened.  Costumes had been purchased far enough in advance that I was able to take advantage of sales (saving $$ because of all that advance planning!) and I managed to convince both kids to accept ones that could be used again for dress up playing.  So, I don't feel so bad about the night.

It poured rain. Poor kids. November is the rainiest month and forecasters had predicted at least 4 inches of rain that night. Flood watches, etc. Add to that the fact that it had been raining every day for the last few weeks and you come up with a soggy mess. Even our pumpkins did not fair well. We had the usual lake at the end of the driveway and everything dripped or squished.

We made it about a block down the street before it started really coming down. The second to last house we visited handed both kids a couple of handfuls of candy because "no one was coming around". Their buckets were nearly full after that, so this sopping mom decided it was time to head home. They didn't even complain that much... that's how wet and cold it was.

This year, I noticed that both kids were more than comfortable with knocking on the doors and saying "trick-or-treat". No more hanging on to Mom's hand or shyly staring at the candy passers. It made me realize that the days of not wanting Mom to cramp their style are coming sooner than I think. I'm partly excited about that and a lot scared!