I plan my meals the month before. Always. While we were in Magrath there were lots of talks and comments about certain traits belonging to which side of your brain is dominant. My SIL that's closest to my age and I are VERY left-brained. I guess that's where my obsession with lists and planning comes in.
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Anyway, next month I've planned out ALL freezer meals, with just some veggies to be added in. I'm making them the week that Caleb's on spring break and I'm really looking forward to them. I usually do a 2 week rotation (unless I'm feeling super motivated that month), so I've got 2 weeks planned out and will make 2 of each meal.
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Week 1
Sunday = Pulled Beef & BBQ Sauce on Buns with Salad
Monday = Chicken Rice Wraps
Tuesday = Lazy Cabbage Roll Casserole
Wednesday = Vegetable Chowder
Thursday = Catelina Chicken & Stir Fry Veggies
Friday = Meatball Stroganoff on Macaroni
Saturday = Lemon Herb Roasted Chicken & Lemon Rice
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Week 2
Sunday = Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole & Stir Fry Veggies
Monday = Chicken & Black Bean Burritos
Tuesday = Cheeseburger Meatloaf & Steamed Broccoli
Wednesday = Pizza Soup
Thursday = Baked Macaroni & Cheese with Steamed Broccoli
Friday = Shepherd's Pie (Or as Caleb calls it, Colonel Sheppard's Pie, point if you get that one)
Saturday = Chicken Chili
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Should be lots of fun. I'll post later about how it goes over. I am also able to use it as a Personal Progress project, which is exciting.
The goings on of our geeky little family and the musings and soapbox moments of the lone female in the group.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Where I've Been
I've been missing in action, I know. In my defense, I wasn't home for most of it. If you follow my blog regularly you'll know that my father-in-law was battling pancreatic cancer. He went into the hospital on February 29th and we knew he wasn't coming back out, so my step-dad picked up our boys on the Thursday and first thing on Friday John and I travelled to southern AB. On the evening of Monday, March 5 my father-in-law passed away. We miss him a lot, but are very grateful that his suffering didn't last very long at all and are so thankful for the knowledge that we will be with him again.
So that's basically all that's been going on with us. Funeral prep and what not.
We are back to reality and our routine today.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Going Green
In all honestly, I hate that phrase. It reminds me of environmental extremism, which I'm really not that into. However, I am all for finding things that are cheaper and not as harsh on my kids or my skin, so I've started making my own cleaners.
In place of Comet scouring powder for the past few years I've just been using baking soda. I love it and I keep a big box of it in my kitchen. We've also used it in the bottom of the diaper pail as well to help keep the smell down.
My new disinfectant is white vinegar (with a few drops of tea tree oil if I remember). Costs SOOOOO much less, and is so much better for us than bleach. Incidentally, one of my friends spilled bleach on her shirt while I was talking to her yesterday. She said she only every uses it to wash cleaning rags to get the smell out. I asked if she'd tried using vinegar instead, but she hadn't. Because I use vinegar to clean with, it's already in my rags when they get washed and I don't need to worry about this, but I really wish I would have told her sooner and been able to help save her shirt.
Also, I use vinegar as my cleaner in my mop water.
My glass cleaner is a new find as well. It's 1/4 cup rubbing alcohol, 1/4 cup white vinegar, 1 Tbsp cornstarch and 2 cups warm water. Put it in a bottle and shake well. The only catch is that you have to shake well before each use, as the cornstarch settles, but it's a small price to pay. I really like this because it doesn't have ammonia in it, which I really don't like to use.
I've tried 2 different all purpose cleaners. The one I'm currently using is 1 part white vinegar to 1 part water. I also add a few drops of fragrance oil to it to cut the smell of the vinegar a bit, but it still smells REALLY strong. For that reason alone, I'll be switching back to my old one, but if you're really stuck, it works really well, it just smells like vinegar in the house for a while.
The one I'm going back to is 1 tsp liquid dish soap, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 2 Tbsp white vinegar and 2 cups water. Combine liquid dish soap, baking soda and water in an empty spray bottle. Then add vinegar and shake to combine. This one smells a lot better and works good too.
I have yet to try a homemade tub & tile cleaner, but I'm going to very soon. I don't plan on trying any other ones, though. I'm happy with buying my dish soap, dishwasher detergent and laundry detergent. I don't use febreeze.
As you can tell, I've been using a LOT of vinegar lately. I buy it by the big jug and with all of the cleaning I've been doing lately, it still took me 3 weeks to empty the jug. Keep in mind I've been using at least 1 cup of it every week just to give my sinks a good cleaning, so that probably used about 4 cups right there. However, vinegar is so cheap that I don't notice it at all on my grocery bill. It is definitely my favourite cleaning product.
In place of Comet scouring powder for the past few years I've just been using baking soda. I love it and I keep a big box of it in my kitchen. We've also used it in the bottom of the diaper pail as well to help keep the smell down.
My new disinfectant is white vinegar (with a few drops of tea tree oil if I remember). Costs SOOOOO much less, and is so much better for us than bleach. Incidentally, one of my friends spilled bleach on her shirt while I was talking to her yesterday. She said she only every uses it to wash cleaning rags to get the smell out. I asked if she'd tried using vinegar instead, but she hadn't. Because I use vinegar to clean with, it's already in my rags when they get washed and I don't need to worry about this, but I really wish I would have told her sooner and been able to help save her shirt.
Also, I use vinegar as my cleaner in my mop water.
My glass cleaner is a new find as well. It's 1/4 cup rubbing alcohol, 1/4 cup white vinegar, 1 Tbsp cornstarch and 2 cups warm water. Put it in a bottle and shake well. The only catch is that you have to shake well before each use, as the cornstarch settles, but it's a small price to pay. I really like this because it doesn't have ammonia in it, which I really don't like to use.
I've tried 2 different all purpose cleaners. The one I'm currently using is 1 part white vinegar to 1 part water. I also add a few drops of fragrance oil to it to cut the smell of the vinegar a bit, but it still smells REALLY strong. For that reason alone, I'll be switching back to my old one, but if you're really stuck, it works really well, it just smells like vinegar in the house for a while.
The one I'm going back to is 1 tsp liquid dish soap, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 2 Tbsp white vinegar and 2 cups water. Combine liquid dish soap, baking soda and water in an empty spray bottle. Then add vinegar and shake to combine. This one smells a lot better and works good too.
I have yet to try a homemade tub & tile cleaner, but I'm going to very soon. I don't plan on trying any other ones, though. I'm happy with buying my dish soap, dishwasher detergent and laundry detergent. I don't use febreeze.
As you can tell, I've been using a LOT of vinegar lately. I buy it by the big jug and with all of the cleaning I've been doing lately, it still took me 3 weeks to empty the jug. Keep in mind I've been using at least 1 cup of it every week just to give my sinks a good cleaning, so that probably used about 4 cups right there. However, vinegar is so cheap that I don't notice it at all on my grocery bill. It is definitely my favourite cleaning product.
Monday, February 20, 2012
GFCF
I'm in the middle of planning our April menu, which will happen to be Gluten free and Casein (basically dairy) free. I don't think it's actually going to be as hard as I'd originally thought it would be. A lot of our recipes can be adapted and we just got a cookbook today with some super yummy sounding ideas for new meals.
So the reason why we're going GFCF is because Ty has pretty much every single symptom of ADHD and has been getting worse instead of better with age. I've heard so much about how going GFCF can make such huge improvements with this so we both thought "What can it hurt?". We still have to find a really good multivitamin for the kids to take, though. My kids can be really picky eaters, so I want to make sure they're getting a good amount of vitamins, especially the calcium.
I'm about 20% nervous (kids' reactions, cost, etc) and 80% excited. We plan on giving it a good 4 months trial to see if it makes a difference with him, and then if it doesn't work, we'll take it from there.
The only problem with this is...I still need cow's milk for Brettley. I'm sure there are other options out there, but I'm not rocking the boat with him. My issue is trying to figure out how to keep the kids out of his milk when I'm not looking. Fridge locks don't work in our house, they either figure them out or bust them off. Oh well, I'm sure we'll think of something.
So the reason why we're going GFCF is because Ty has pretty much every single symptom of ADHD and has been getting worse instead of better with age. I've heard so much about how going GFCF can make such huge improvements with this so we both thought "What can it hurt?". We still have to find a really good multivitamin for the kids to take, though. My kids can be really picky eaters, so I want to make sure they're getting a good amount of vitamins, especially the calcium.
I'm about 20% nervous (kids' reactions, cost, etc) and 80% excited. We plan on giving it a good 4 months trial to see if it makes a difference with him, and then if it doesn't work, we'll take it from there.
The only problem with this is...I still need cow's milk for Brettley. I'm sure there are other options out there, but I'm not rocking the boat with him. My issue is trying to figure out how to keep the kids out of his milk when I'm not looking. Fridge locks don't work in our house, they either figure them out or bust them off. Oh well, I'm sure we'll think of something.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Attitude of Gratitude
1) I am so incredibly grateful for my wonderful baby boy who will be celebrating his first birthday on Saturday. I learned more from him than I can every fully tell people. I love how much he's still teaching me. I love his smiles and giggles and I'm so thankful that he came to us.
2) I am grateful for the FlyLady thing. It's kept me productive for 11 days and counting and my house looks SO much better. John loves what it's done for the house and for me. It's making life better for all of us.
3) I am grateful that I've actually been getting out and doing things with friends lately. It's so nice to have time with other females and time away from the house. Also with that I have a fourth thing, I guess, in that I am SO SO SO grateful for a husband who encourages me to get out of the house and doesn't complain in the slightest about being left with the kids whenever I want to go. He's amazing. I love him.
2) I am grateful for the FlyLady thing. It's kept me productive for 11 days and counting and my house looks SO much better. John loves what it's done for the house and for me. It's making life better for all of us.
3) I am grateful that I've actually been getting out and doing things with friends lately. It's so nice to have time with other females and time away from the house. Also with that I have a fourth thing, I guess, in that I am SO SO SO grateful for a husband who encourages me to get out of the house and doesn't complain in the slightest about being left with the kids whenever I want to go. He's amazing. I love him.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Surgery For The B Man
I've now done 8 full days of the FlyLady thing (on its own seperate blog). For the most part, it's going quite well for me.
Caleb's rash is gone and the flaky skin is almost fully cleared up. He had swimming again yesterday and did everything his teacher asked him to do. His confidence is growing so much. He used goggles and I think it made a huge difference. He loves to swim so much.
Ty is his usual self, although he seems to be a bit more willing to behave the past few days.
Brettley went and saw his opthalmologist yesterday. He is being booked in for what they call "bilateral strabismus repair", in which they'll weaken his eye muscles in the middle and hopefully he won't be in a permanent state of crossed eyes anymore. The surgery is only 70% effective the first time around, so there's a 30% chance that he'll need to have a second surgery. The doctor said that he'll be in glasses until he's a teen.
Not too much else is new. This Saturday will be a year since I got the biggest surprise of my life. Brettley will be celebrating his 1st birthday. We're having a roast dinner with my dad (his birthday is next week). Then John and I are going to a pizza & pasta night for adults at church and my dad is going to watch the boys. I'm excited for it. Life has been great lately.
Caleb's rash is gone and the flaky skin is almost fully cleared up. He had swimming again yesterday and did everything his teacher asked him to do. His confidence is growing so much. He used goggles and I think it made a huge difference. He loves to swim so much.
Ty is his usual self, although he seems to be a bit more willing to behave the past few days.
Brettley went and saw his opthalmologist yesterday. He is being booked in for what they call "bilateral strabismus repair", in which they'll weaken his eye muscles in the middle and hopefully he won't be in a permanent state of crossed eyes anymore. The surgery is only 70% effective the first time around, so there's a 30% chance that he'll need to have a second surgery. The doctor said that he'll be in glasses until he's a teen.
Not too much else is new. This Saturday will be a year since I got the biggest surprise of my life. Brettley will be celebrating his 1st birthday. We're having a roast dinner with my dad (his birthday is next week). Then John and I are going to a pizza & pasta night for adults at church and my dad is going to watch the boys. I'm excited for it. Life has been great lately.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
FlyLady, New Goals And Scaly The Wonder Fish
There is yet another tab at the top. I'm doing FlyLady's 31 baby steps and decided to keep track of it. It's more about keeping accountable than anything else. *Edit - I took the tab off and made a separate blog for this. It just felt better that way.*
I don't feel good about having 12 goals this year. It's a big number and it feels overwhelming, so I decided to knock it back to 3.
1) Hold FHE every week (Month 1 = 100%).
2) Read the New Testament and Book of Mormon all the way through (I'm currently in Luke).
3) Take the kids to the park at least once every other week during Caleb's summer vacation.
Caleb has been looking a lot better and his skin is starting to smooth out. He'll go back to school tomorrow and hopefully be able to go swimming this evening. Yep, that's about it for now. I'm just working on my baby steps.
I don't feel good about having 12 goals this year. It's a big number and it feels overwhelming, so I decided to knock it back to 3.
1) Hold FHE every week (Month 1 = 100%).
2) Read the New Testament and Book of Mormon all the way through (I'm currently in Luke).
3) Take the kids to the park at least once every other week during Caleb's summer vacation.
Caleb has been looking a lot better and his skin is starting to smooth out. He'll go back to school tomorrow and hopefully be able to go swimming this evening. Yep, that's about it for now. I'm just working on my baby steps.
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