Reclaiming my weekend

One of the chores I dread the most is creating the menu plan and grocery list each week. It often takes the better part of a Saturday to make my list and get the shopping done.

This had to change.  I have too many other important things to do with my weekend.

The first step towards a better weekend has been using delicious.com to save my recipe links.  Delicious allows me to tag each recipe with different categories, making it much easier to find the recipe later.  If chicken is on sale and I feel like making soup, then I filter my links with 'chicken' and 'soup'.  It's SO helpful!

I save all my links on delicious.  Love it!  Here's my page.

The next step is saving my menu plans.  For so many years I've scribbled my notes on little scraps of paper that usually get lost before the week even begins.  I've saved the last 5 weeks in a Word doc, but now I've decided to share my menu plan on my blog too.  Will I do this each week?  Probably not, but I'll try.  Anyway, the hope is that I'll be able to return to these plans and repeat them.  Sounds good, right?

I'll let you know about further improvements in this menu planning process as I discover them.

I usually cook our main meal for dinner.  Breakfast and lunch are pretty simple around here -- they need to be.

This week we have home group on Monday night and C's birthday on Thursday.

Monday:  Taco salad night at home group.
We're bringing tomatoes and sour cream.  Love it when it's simple!

Tuesday:  My work day.  Thankfully I made a large dish of mac and cheese over the weekend.  Leftovers are my friend.

Wednesday:  Broccoli Quiche and fresh fruit

Thursday:  Chloe's Birthday and her choice for dinner --
Hamburgers, french fries, and green beans.  ( I hope the weather is nice.  We're going to grill! )

Friday:  Pizza.

Saturday:  Creamy Chicken and wild rice soup

Sunday:  It's party day!  We'll have the whole family over to celebrate Chloe's birthday.  She picked 'camping' as her theme this year.  We'll be eating walking tacos for dinner, a campfire cake, and s'mores.

And since I've taken ZERO photos this week and I don't like posting without one, I'll share one of our C for her birthday week.   Here's our baby girl in 2005.  Precious, precious little one. 

Our weekend

Our weekend was bursting with good things.

It began with a concert by our favorite vocalist: John's sister, Jayme.  She gave an amazing performance and shared so much of herself and her story with the audience.  The hour went by much too quickly.

Saturday brought along a birthday pool party for M and C to attend.  They had a blast playing games in an indoor pool with friends. (Birthday girl's mom took this one with her cell phone.)

On Saturday night John and I had the annual Bowling and Bruno's outing with our church's worship team.  This is basically a night of bowling terribly (at least for me) followed by eating delicious pizza with a great group of people.  No pictures, though.

And Sunday night...  Daddy/Daughter date night put together for C's age group at church.  John took M to this when she was in 4th and 5th grade.  I can't believe C is already here.

While they were out M made the two of us crepes.... she's so old!  :)  And I'm so proud of both of our girls!

Psalm 144:12
 May our sons flourish in their youth
      like well-nurtured plants.
   May our daughters be like graceful pillars,
      carved to beautify a palace.

I miss blogging

I can't believe I haven't posted anything since November.

There are reasons, of course, but nothing big and terrible.  It's just a combination of busyness, a terribly old and slow computer, a frustrating focusing issue with my camera (that I just can't seem to send in and get fixed already! If only it was free! Ha!), and blogger-block.

But good news!  One of the issues has been resolved.  I have a brand-new computer (thanks to my wonderful job) and I am now able to handle sitting at the computer for longer than my job requires of me.

As for the other issues... hopefully in time.  Meanwhile, here are a few photos from the last 3 months.

Our annual Princess Pack Christmas Tea and homemade ornament exchange.

Baking Christmas cookies with Grandma.


Christmas Eve at Grandpa and Grandma's.


The blanket we crocheted together for a friend's baby girl.  And we finished!!!


We haven't had very much snow this year, but we had enough one weekend to make a snowman.


And to make up for the lack of snow, we made lots of paper snowflakes to hang in our windows.


And we also made baskets! Which was quite challenging!  I'm thankful we have a good friend that gave us instruction and help. Without her, I'm almost certain we never would have finished that project!  Honestly, we probably wouldn't have even begun.


I guess I only take pictures around here when we make stuff!  :)

I wouldn't call this an exciting post, but it's good to spend some time remembering these last few months.  God is good and His love endures all things and all of my shortcomings.  Amen!

1000 Gifts: the fullness of March

I haven't blogged in almost a month. Life is full and March is almost always the most full... lots of birthdays, lots of stuff filling our days.

I must confess I haven't been faithful in making my gift list each day or even each week. I will have to rely very heavily on the pictures to remind me of the gifts and I'm sure I'll forget many. But I press forward and begin again.

Ephesians 5:20
"Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,"

0649. our C turning 9 -- how is that possible?!

0650. her insistence to look through her entire baby album before opening her gifts

0651. baby albums, because otherwise I would forget SO much!

0652. giving her the gift she was dreaming of... a camera!

0653. thank you hugs



0654. big sister armed with her camera too!

0655. take a picture of ME taking a picture of YOU! (and of course, Mom had to take a picture too!)



0656. birthday lunch out



0657. cupcakes from Grandma and Grandpa



0658. John's birthday -- a day for which we are extremely thankful

0659. a lemon meringue pie made with love - a gift from his mom

0660. a giant cupcake to add sweetness to his day - a gift from my mom

(we have more sugar in this house than I know what to do with!!)



0661. a birthday for me too! 33 years full of God's love and mercy!

0662. birthday gifts in the mailbox

0663. an afternoon with my mom and my girls

0664. a giant cupcake for me too and my favorite -- lemon!!



0665. the fun of turning 4!! our littlest niece had a birthday too!

0666. birthday cards read out loud and her attentiveness to each one

0667. big boxes next to little girls



0668. finding flowers on my desk at work - a birthday bouquet from a friend



0669. God's perfect timing

0670. the perfection in His creation

0671. beauty from dust

0672. this song -- my new favorite. It's just what I've needed to remember this month



0673. And between all the celebrating, the ability to press forward with school and work



0674. the promise that spring really is coming and open windows will soon be an everyday occurrence!

Nine

C is almost 9 years old. Nine years full of laughter and joy; full of tender hugs and moments too wonderful and fleeting to recall at once. She is our comic relief; our reminder of God's grace in the midst of this crazy life; our proof that God only gives good gifts. Her sweet big sister is this too... how could a heart love this much? And since God loves them more (though this mama's heart cannot fathom), how His heart must beat wildly for these girls!

Yes, nine years. This weekend we celebrated our C. (And we're not done yet, since the BIG day isn't until Tuesday.)

Random thoughts and pictures

-We went to a house show over the weekend and heard the band Rue Royale. It was such a special evening. Imagine sitting in a living room with a bunch of friends while these great musicians share their music with you. It was unique and wonderful. We've been listening to their CD over and over the last 4 days.



-We made applesauce at Princess Pack thanks to my incredible friend, Elizabeth. I fear it's the only homemade applesauce I may get around to making this season.

-I've been sick with a nasty cold the last 5 to 7 days. It's hard to say when it finally took hold of me... it crept in so slowly. I've been washing my hands so much to prevent passing my germs. We've been drinking lots of water and taking extra vitamins. No one else is sick. And I hope it stays that way.



-I've been extremely blessed and challenged this week while reading through Hebrews.

"Be careful then, dear friends. Make sure that your own hearts are not evil and unbelieving, turning you away from the living God. You must warn each other every day, as long as it is called "today," so that none of you will be deceived by sin and hardened against God." Hebrews 3:12-13

I need that warning some days, friends. I need to be reminded to love God and others more than myself.





-We've had some crazy weather here this fall. We've been loving the warm days and even the extra breeze. Although the last 2 days have been a bit too windy. The news reported that 9 tornadoes touched down in our state yesterday morning. yikes.



-I haven't taken many pictures the last few weeks because my camera's autofocus has decided to stop working. I can still take manually focused images and I have been -- but it is not easy to get things focused when people don't hold still! ;) I'll probably be shipping it off to be fixed next week. It might take 4 weeks to get it back.



-Giggles set in this afternoon during a dictation exercise I was doing with C. I was dictating several related phrases, but the phrase "if Beth sat" opened up so many possibilities and we found ourselves saying crazy things like -- If Beth sat.... the chair would brake. If Beth sat.... the sky might fall. If Beth sat... the man's nose would turn green. If Beth sat... the glory of Rome would fall. :) That was M's. We decided that Beth better not sit.

-That last comment probably came to M because she has been reading a series of books she discovered at the library called The Roman Mysteries. She can't get enough and is currently reading the 5th in the series after reading the first one just last week. My or my. I wish I could keep up.



-We've picked up our crocheting once again... a sure sign that the cooler weather is setting in.

-We're preparing for a whirlwind trip to Boston. It's a long drive from here. As much as we want to be there, we are not looking forward to the drive. Do you have any audio book suggestions for us?

Well, friends, that's all the random thoughts I have for now. Love to you and yours!

Spunk

Yesterday C asked me, "When do we get a break from school?"

I told her, "In December."

"How far away is that?!"

"About 2 months."

"2 months?!"

I tried to assure her, "It's not that bad."

Her response, "Well, you're not the one doing all the work."

HA!! If she only knew how much work it is to prepare their lessons and keep them motivated!

C is my spunky one. And I love that about her.

Do Not Drink!

In science today we talked about bones. For an experiment we put some chicken leg bones in vinegar. We'll keep them in there for a few days and when we take them out they'll be like rubber bones!

When we decided to use this glass for the container, C decided we needed to put a 'Do Not Drink' sign on the glass just in case. Hmm... I don't think anyone will be intentionally or accidentally drinking this glass of liquid, do you?

Smile!!

While she listened to a read aloud about Abraham Lincoln (how well she listened is questionable), little sister kept herself busy by drawing happy faces all over her left hand.

Is this strange behavior? Probably. But it sure gave me a laugh!

Love her cheesy grin behind that smiley hand!

They did it again!

It had been almost exactly 2 years since they donated their hair to Locks of Love. Finally, the time had come to do it again.

C was a little nervous.


M wasn't nervous at all.


In the end, they were both very happy with the results.

I love that they each have their own cut. M's hair is a bit shorter and C's has more layers.

If you remember recently only M was planning on getting her hair cut. C was really unsure about it. Giving 10 inches would have made her hair shorter than she was comfortable with.

Then we found out that Locks of Love now takes 7 inches. Upon learning this, she decided she'd go for it. I'm glad she did. I think they both look beautiful. Not to mention it's a great summer cut and just in time for camping!