Menu Plan Monday March 10, 2014

Despise the lack of posts, I have been menu planning. In fact in the last month alot has happened that I really ought to record here on the blog. We'll see if I find the motivation. For those not in connection to me on Facebook, I have recently moved from a part time position at the local bookstore to full time Assistant Manager. :) I'm very excited about it and really enjoying my work. However this has meant lots of shifting and changing at home, and we are still working out the kinks. One shift has been more use of my crockpot. As I don't come home till after 6pm, dinner needs to be done when I come home. As let's be honest, Mark IS NOT going to cook unless it's maybe spaghetti. While I like spaghetti I don't want it every night. So slow cooker meals has become our saving grace. The internet is a life saver in the area. But I have also recently bought a new cookbook. Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook by Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann. So far I'm pretty pleased, Although there are recipes I can't used because they only require a few hours cooking time or require you to add ingredients half way through. For someone else I"m sure that's not a problem but I just can't do that. So here is this weeks menu. I'm off Monday so that meal I'll cook without the use of my crockpot. The rest... well just look

Monday: Black bean and sweet potato taco salad (uses the Simple in Season Burrito filling)
Tuesday: Chicken with Onions and Cheese (Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker) potatoes and peas
Wednesday:  Corn Chowder (Not Your Mother's Slower Cooker)
Thursday: Breakfast Casserole
Friday: Sloppy Joes
Saturday: Left overs or simple meal
Sunday: Popcorn Cheese and Apples

For more menus be sure to visit Organizing Junkie. Happy Meal Planning!!

Menu Plan Monday- Feb 10th, 2014

Anybody else sick of cold weather? Despite the fact that I should be excited about all the snow and cold weather (we are going skiing this weekend) I find myself just wanting spring to be here already. What I won't give to see dirt and brown grass, anything other than white and grey. Not to mention that I would love temps to get above freezing. Or even just stay in the mid to high 20s. Anything more than the single digit and neg numbers we been having. On the up side, we are going up to Boyne Highlands, MI this weekend. Hopefully I'll have a renewed love of winter, since it doesn't seem to be leaving anytime fast. That makes this meal plan a short one, as we leave Thursday morning and won't return till Saturday night. But in order to hopefully be prepared and not have too many things in the fridge while we're away here is the menu.

Monday: One Pot Wonder: Thai Style Peanut Pasta- made with Asian style Rice Noodles
Tuesday: Sweet Potato Curry
Wednesday: Leftovers!!!
Thursday- Sunday: Skiing
I am in charge of Saturday's supper- I'll be making Green Spaghetti, roasted carrots and garlic bread YUMMY!!

For more menus go check out Organizing Junkie.

Thoughts from a Night Owl Parent

So I have been thinking alot about sleep habits in relation to kids lately. Now I am a night owl. Always have been. When I was probably nine or so I got a nightshirt for Christmas that said "I may rise, but I refuse to shine." The statement was true then and still true today. But somehow I feel pressure from society to be an early riser as a parent. I hear about moms who wake up an hour before their kids, to have time to center, time to get chores done, time to exercise, time to be. Sounds great. But while my kids will sleep till 7 or even 8am depending on the morning that puts me getting up at 6am at the latest NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. I am convinced that not even God gets up that early. Really! And I am not motivated to get up that early if I don't have to. Let me sleep. I'll get my quite, kid free space at 10pm when the boys are fast asleep.

Now part of my problem is that I'm friends with alot of early risers. And as such I compare my days to their. Not fair to any of us but it's reality. But here is the thing. The advise we give to new parents is sleep when the baby sleeps. Great advise for a newborn who naps during the day yes. But the sentiment then becomes that as parents we change our sleep habit to fit our kids rather than help our kids learn our patterns. For the most part I'm pretty against the idea of sleep training babies. I was always one that let my kids sleep when they slept. But as I look back, I did sleep train my kids. By simply being myself, following my own sleep patterns my kids have learned to adapt to my schedule, just as I have had to adapt to theirs.

 As a college student with an infant, I would often shut myself in a kid safe room, lie down on a mattress, put on some music and let Ian play while I napped. It wasn't deep sleep by any means, but it was rest and Ian learned to play by himself while Mommy got some much needed shut eye. As he got older, we always had quite toys and books around for the mornings. He would get up play on his own and I would get at least another hour if not more of rest. The same thing happens today. The boys know they can crawl in with Mark and I and cuddle. But once they are done they go off and play while Mark and I continue to sleep till either they boys start fighting and need us to intervene or we absolutely have to get up. It's perfect. And works for us night owls.

But my other problem is that we live in a society that works on the early risers schedule. I would be perfectly happy to start my day at 10am. But most other people start at 8am if not earlier. So we adapt. I guess that's my point too. Not being an early riser never has made me a bad parent. I have created routines that work for me and for my kids. And that mean the I'm still laying in bed while my sister-in-law and nephews are already out sledding. Or that I don't realize that school was actually canceled till almost 9am because I went back to bed after finding out that there was a 2 hour delay. From my stand point it's wonderful. You early risers go ahead and wake up at the crack of dawn. I'll enjoy my beauty sleep. With cuddly boys by my side. Or at least the background music of kids at play.

Here's to the Night Owl Parents! May we continue to be Night Owls and not conform to a society of Early Risers!!!!!

A Reading Challenge for 2014

Being surrounded by books at least 3 times a week has made me think about all the wonderful books I have yet to read. Shelving books and organizing books at work at the books store has allowed me to glace at books I might normally look at simply because they are not in sections/genres I normally am drawn to. So this year I am giving myself a reading challenge for the year. To read a book from each section of our store. Now I'll be upfront. I'm giving myself a few passes. I see no reason to read something from Large Print when they are elsewhere throughout the store. Nor do I figure I should force myself to ready something from foreign language or Kids foreign language since the only foreign language I know is German and it's been so long I probably don't even have a kindergarten reading level anymore. Our $1 bin/ Mass Market paperback I feel I can also overlook as again some of these will be found elsewhere. Although if I get through the rest of the sections I'll take a took to see what I can find :) Finally I feel no big need to read through one of the bibles or hymnals. I own 4 hymnals and at least 6 bibles, and the point of this is to read books that I might not have originally thought to pick up.
I guess I should outline some other thoughts I have about this challenge. I am a avid believer that reading is and should be fun. I did the whole reading for the sake of learning in school. And I know I'll do it again when I start my graduate work. But for right now I have no need to read for the sake of knowledge. If I learn something great. But for me at this moment in time, in this stage of my life, reading is pleasure. If I don't like what I'm reading then I won't continue reading it. So that means I plan on picking books I'm drawn to. Books I hope to enjoy. I'm not going to force myself to read a book from every section of the store just to say I did. But because I think there are some great books I will enjoy in sections of the store I normally do not browse for myself. When in the store for myself (outside of work) I tend to stay near fantasy/sci fi, graphic novels or the children's sections. There are so many more sections to browse and that's what this challenge is for.
The other thing I hope this does is show the boys all the different kinds of books there are out there. As a 1st Grader Ian is starting to really read on his own. He still needs some help but I often find him on this bed with a book in his hands. Cai at 5 can read simple sentences. And Aiden is starting to learn what sounds the letters make. Lately I have come across reading and friends facebook posts or pintrests pins to links about how to get you children to read. To be honest they all say the same thing. Read to your child. And read yourself so they see you read. Not to sound haughty, but I could have told you that years ago. That being said, I tend to keep to similar books. I am often scared to try a new book/genera for fear I won't enjoy it. So hopefully the boys will see me trying new books and that will encourage them to try new books as well.
Interested in some of our sections that I will be reading from? Here are only a few.
History
Memoirs/ Biographies
Suspense/Mystery
Philosophy
Psychology
Classics
Poetry
Science
General Fiction
Political Science
Business
and many more
So far here is what I have started
Yesterday while taking a break between sweeping and mopping the store I read "How to tell if you cat is plotting to kill you" from Humor- although due to it's popularity it is keep up on the front desk display. It is from the Oatmeal and of course very very funny. I think my cats are plotting to kill me based on the evidence in this book :)
I am currently in the middle of  Book #1 of the Underland Chronicles: Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins. This is from our Kids Series sections which is aimed towards late Elementary and  Middle School kids. Thus far it is very enjoyable.

So what are you reading for you pleasure???

Menu Plan Monday_ Jan 13, 2014

Hello to anyone and everyone who still checks up on this blog. It's been awhile. But a week and a half into 2014, I figured I might start again with a meal plan. My boys are becoming more picky. While that doesn't stop me from continuing to cook the way I have for the past 7 years, it still  makes menu planning interesting. On the one had I want good, healthy food. On the other I want my boys to eat it. And more importantly I just plain don't want to hear them whine.  For those that may hear from personally or on Facebook, I got a part time job at a bookstore, which I love. However since I work more evenings then mornings/afternoons, that means I have to plan meals even more than before. Cause if I'm going into work at 3pm than I need to make sure that dinner is either already put together on the stove/in the oven or everything is out and ready to be put together by Mark. I believe he can cook. But he doesn't, so I try to make it easy on both of us by having it planned or even cooked before I leave.  This week my goal it to have some meals with leftovers. I am getting tired of grilled cheese or pb&j for lunch. Not that my boys care. But Mark and I do :)
So here is our menu for this week.

Monday: Salsa chicken over rice, (using home-canned salsa) some side veggie, probably frozen peas
Tuesday: Crockpot black bean and corn soup
Wednesday: Midweek meal at church
Thursday: Curry over rice
Friday: Creamy Pesto Pasta (Simply in Season)
Saturday: The boys are on their own. I'm going with the Jr Youth to snow camp. Mark gets to decided what's for dinner :)
Sunday: Popcorn cheese and apples.

For more menus be sure to head over to Organizing Junkie. Hope everyone one has a Happy Monday! and Happy Menu Planning

Moments to remember

I'm going to completely ignore the fact that I haven't posted in months. Today several things happened that I wanted to remember. So what better way than blogging about them right? So here they are.

1st: I woke up to little voices on our landing. It took just a moment to realize that Ian was reading jokes from his library book "The Substitute Teacher from the Black Lagoon." Ian does very well with reading. It's getting him motivated to read out load. The fact he was reading to his brothers without any prompting made me smile. He later read the jokes to me as the boys were getting dressed

2nd: Aiden decides he "needs choices" before he could decide what to wear to church. He proceeds to lay out at least 10 shirts in a row on the floor. After I told him he had enough choices (it took some motivation as he thought he needed more), he walked up and down the row. All the while he is tapping his chin with his finger going "hmm, hmm." He finally picks his Easter suit. This is the conversation that followed
              Me: You will be the best dressed young man ever
             Aiden: Yes, I be beautiful.
             Me: Yes you are very handsome
             Aiden: Mommy I don't like you clothes, but I LOVE you shoes

He than ended the conversation and started to put away all the rejected shirt back in his closet. Oh that boy!

Friday also had many fun moments with Aiden. Aiden decided to bring along our X-Men early reader book on our errands. In that car he stated this
               Aiden: "Wolverine can't have a tattoo
               Me: "Why not?"
               Aiden: "His arms are too hairy."
I laughed. Most likely this came from the fact that Cai can't keep temporary tattoos for more than 30 mins. The hair on his arms causes them to rub off very easily. Still the very fact that he boldly told me that Wolverine couldn't have tattoos cause he is too hairy still makes me smile. The way these boys' brains work is simply amazing.

Later, still carrying his X-Men book, Aiden had a long conversation with our pastor about X-men, snakes, cats, and dogs. He jumped from one subject to the next as if it was the obvious conclusion. When our pastor asked if he would come back another day to talk, Aiden responds with an energetic "YES!" Our pastor then asked what book he will bring to talk about and Aiden tells him "Sonic, but we don't have the book anymore" We had checked out "Sonic the hedgehog" comic books a month ago and he still asks for them.

I'm sitting here trying to think if Cai has done anything to remember these last few days. Sadly I'm drawing a blank. He is reading a few words. His preschool is working on letter sounds, so he is learning to sound out words. If he keeps picking up our cats I swear he is going to come crying with a bloody hand from a claw or tooth. Personally I wish the cats would just scratch or bite him, maybe he would learn to be nicer to them. Cai has decided to be Wolverine for Halloween because he has claws. I was told I had to include the claws in the costume. Thank you internet searches. But I'll post closer to Halloween about costumes.

So there you have it. A few moments to remember. If I can remember to continue recording them, maybe I won't have to rely on my shading member to remember these awesome times. But for today I'm thankful for little boys reading, silly jokes, fashion styles all their  own, and out of the blue comments that make me smile.

Menu Plan Monday- May 20,2013

Happy Monday everyone! Hopefully yours started off better than mine. Although the day has ended pleasant enough. I can tell we are at the end of the school year, as my 6 year old has become hard and hard to deal with. 6 Days left of Kindergarten. And only 3 left of Preschool. Arrgg when the end of the year come so close? On the up side that means we leave for Kansas in less than two weeks :)

I'm going to keep this short. Here is our menu this week.

Monday: Stir-fry noodles (Simply in Season)
Tuesday: Quiche
Wednesday: Quinoa Pizza Bits
Thursday: Groundnut Stew (More with Less)
Friday: Mexican Rice Casserole
Saturday: Black Bean Burgers
Sunday: Leftovers or other simple meal

It should be noted that weekend plans might change if we decided to have friends over. But I figure I could at least make some plan even if I change it  later. There more like guidelines, than rules :)

For more menus head over to Organizing Junkie. Happy Menu Planning!