Menu Plan Monday- June 15th

To warn everyone, we are getting read for a 10 day trip to Mark's parents house. We leave Friday. I'm already panicked about getting everything ready and trying to entertain the boys in the car. We'll drive the distance to Indiana in two days, getting half the trip in the evening hours. Hopefully, like our trip at Christmas, the boys will sleep most of this. I'm crossing my fingers. With my mind on packing and trying to "plan" our stay there, I'm not exactly focused on blogging right now. I know I'm not good at posting even when life is somewhat on a normal schedule. I'm working on that one :) So forgive me if things get left untouched for awhile. I've also been absorbed in a book series. I'll write more about that later. I'm sure you will get a good laugh at my silly obsession in these "brain junk food" books. But it is so nice to have a light, fun read. I just finished the second book of the series and am telling myself I can't start the next one till we are on the road. Otherwise I'll have nothing to read on the trip. And I know I'll want the excuse for a break every once and awhile. :) Despite my outward behavior, I really am more of an introvert than people think.

Ok enough about the coming week(s). Here is the plan for food this week. I'm trying really hard to use up things in the fridge so we don't have to throw food out.

Monday: BBQ with M & C. We brough watermelon. YUM!
Tuesday: Confetti Meatloaf with roasted poatoes.
Wednesday: Potluck in the park- Bring Quiche
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Dinner at A & C's in KC
Saturday: out to eat (or if we get to Goshen by dinner eat at Mark's folks)
Sunday: Dinner with Mark's family :)

There is so much to do this week. But I am looking forward to the trip. We should have a fun time :)

For more menu ideas visit I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Menu Plan Monday- June 8th

Well Monday has once again crept up on me. While this last week was certainly busy, I do feel that I got to enjoy more of it than some weeks. I especially enjoyed this weekend. Friday we sat outside. Saturday we got Ian a new car seat. Cai is going to out grow his soon and will need to sit in Ian's. So we got a car seat/booster combo for Ian. He is very excited about it. More to come on this later I'm sure. We also set up the pool once we got home. The boys really enjoyed splashing in the water. Cai especially enjoyed crawling and splashing. :) It was fun to watch them. I don't feel like I was very productive over the weekend, but I sure did enjoy moments of family fun.

Last week's menu worked out very nicely. As I wrote earlier, the Salmon patties and Confetti Kale turned out wonderful and was thoroughly enjoyed by all. The Asparagus and Sausage Skillet was also enjoyable. Again this recipe came from Simply in Season. Have I mentioned how much I love this book? Well I do. I use it all the time. :) Thursday we had a grand time at the park grilling with our small group. I ended up bringing a fresh salad made with lettuce from my mother's garden. I'm still enjoying the last of it. :) Well this week I'm hoping to use up anything left in my fridge. Here is the menu.

Monday: Cheesy Broccoli and Rice with chicken (carry over from yesterday, we grilled hamburgers instead)
Tuesday: Leftovers
Wednesday: Potluck in the park- bring Curry with Coconut milk
Thursday: Tacos
Friday: Quiche
Saturday: Leftovers
Sunday: Egg breakfast dinner (Ian's request)

For more menu ideas be sure to visit I'm an Organizing Junkie.

A peaceful Summer night

I realize it is not quite summer, but with the school systems out and the warm weather it sure feels like it around here. Tonight after dinner we enjoyed an evening in our backyard. It was very nice. And peaceful (despite the mosquitoes).
Testing balance and the feel of grass under foot.
Enjoying the view from on top.
Baby feet!!!!
Bubbles. A summer night would not be complete without them.

Trying to avoid the poky grass on knees.
Working on setting up the kiddie pool.
Playing kick ball
Enjoying being together.
And being outside.
Have you slowed down enough to enjoy Summer yet? I sometimes have a hard time letting myself sit and relax. But now is now. Enjoy the moment.

Collage fun!

With so many inspiring pictures, quotations and people out there, I wanted a way to bring some of my favorites together for me to admire, refer to and just have on hand. Mostly I wanted to look at all the wonderful projects that other women do on the many blogs I try to read. So I decided to create a scrapbook of things I liked. I don't have much in it yet. But it's exciting to have started it. Yesterday Ian and I sat down during Cai's morning nap to work on collages. I have been saving my Mothering and Parentings magazines for him. I just recently got a pair of child scissors and now feel I can let him cut paper (since now he has his own scissors). He pick out his magazine and happily went away cuttng bits and pieces. Of course most of the time its ripping. Every once in awhile he gets the scissors to work for him and has a nice cut. I've trying showing him how to hold the scissors, but I think its just something he will have to figure out himself with time. For me, I took pages from Mothering's March-April 09 issue that I saved. There was a wonderful article on "Crafty Mamas." Not only was the article itself good, the pictures were lovely. So while Ian worked on his collage, I worked on mine. By the way, Ian is now in love with cutting with scissors. My lounge chair is currently covered with magazine scraps he has cut up. :) I've been trying to get him to add them to his collage. We'll see what happens.
Here is Ian's beautiful work. And the first page for my inspiration scrapbook.

For the perfectionist in me, I was mostly pleased with the way mine came out. It was so nice to do something creative though. What fun art have you worked on recently?

Yummy Monday dinner Success!

So I meant to sit down and write about this yesterday. Oh well. That's life. Monday we had Salmon Patties. I had saw the link on Little Home. It looks easy and I happened to have canned salmon! I served Confetti Kale, a recipe I found in Simply in Season. I love this cookbook. And the Confetti Kale was really good. I had never had kale before. Like I wrote earlier, my folks brought me fresh, local produce and kale was one of the greens they brought me. Well the family seemed to enjoy it. Ian ate at least two salmon patties. I forgot the lemon juice. And at one point Mark stated that the patties could use some lemon. He was of course right and I was embarrassed. Oh well, next time. At least he liked them. :) Cai devoured the Confetti Kale and the leftover salmon. I won't let him have the patties yet, so I made sure to leave some out for him.

Confetti Kale is really easy to make. You saute your kale with a clove of garlic till cooked (about 10 mins). They you add corn, half a red sweet pepper and about 1/4c water. Add some salt and pepper and cook for another 10mins. Serve and enjoy!

I have to say, after a long day, making a good meal that everyone enjoys feels like such a large accomplishment. Sometimes the only visible accomplishment for the day.

I finished!!

I have been working on these longies since November. They are knitted from Tiny Birds Wool Soaker Pants Pattern. And I finally finished them today!!! I finished the first half back in December. But somehow I was very slow to work on the second half. I finally finished knitting the leg yesterday before church. And last night I worked on sewing them up. But I didn't finish until just before lunch. I'm so excited. The longies are for Cai. And by the looks of it they may actually still fit him come fall. We'll see how long he grows from now till then. Even if he (sad) doesn't fit them at least I finished. And now know I can knit a pair. Thus hopefully inspiring me to knit a larger pair.

In other news Cai has officially cut both his top teeth. They are barely there and the fussiness is far from over. But hopefully this will mean in a few days he will start feeling a little better. Or at least I can hope. :) Ian is very excited about this week because tomorrow we go to the zoo with friends and then on Thursday we start library storytime. It should be a fun filled week. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself. :)

Menu Plan Monday- June 1st

So this week was once again was crazy. Wednesday I had a migraine, so I slept and Mark ordered pizza. Cai has been extra fussy this week. He has been cutting his upper front two teeth. A long and drawn out process. Thursday I ended up making eggs with frozen veggies. For the most part we didn't follow the menu at all. It was a very stressful week. However I'm excited for this week. Saturday my parents came in to attend the Chalk Art Festival downtown with us. It was lots of fun. There were lots of artists working on art pieces to sell in a silent auction benefit for Youthville. And then we got to decorate our own square of sidewalk with chalk. So when my folks came in they brought lots of fresh produce. They just received their first box from their CSA share. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture for those that may not know. My folks are leaving on Thursday and were afraid they won't get through all the produce, so they brought me half!! Its fun for several reasons. One I get free produce!!! Two I get to try some produce I have never tried like Kale and Collards. Three because I'm using greens I'm not used to eating, I'm trying recipes I've never used. Even my asparagus dish is a new recipe. :) So it should be a fun week as far a cooking. Hopefully I'm still as excited the rest of the week about it. Check out the plan below and don't forget to check out the link for more menu ideas.

Monday: Salmon Patties served with Confetti Kale and dinner roll?
Tuesday: Collards, refried beans, cheese on Chapati
Wednesday: Leftovers or Out to Eat (depends on going to Wichita)
Thursday: Small Group Picnic- bring Green Bean salad
Friday: Sausage Asparagus Skillet
Saturday: Leftovers
Sunday: Cheesy Broccoli and Rice with chicken

Check out more idea at I'm an Organizing Junkie