Meal Planning

So I have been laking on the meal planning the last couple of weeks due to camping and my retreat, but I need to get back on it. We eat out to much if i don't have anything planned. I am doing this early because my Sunday meal is in here too.

And the best place to find lots of meal ideas is over at Organized Junkie. There are over 300 bloggers who post their menus every Monday.

I also need to get some kind of system going on cleaning my house. I do not like having everyday completely planned out, that is just to much planning and drives my nuts, but I need to do something. So any ideas on what you do would be very helpful. My sister, Beth, has painted her fridge with chalkboard paint and puts her to do list on that everyday. I would post a picture, but (hint hint) she has not put one up on her blog yet. Hmm maybe that should go up on her fridge. LOL Love you Bethy.

~A1 and Dijon steak crockpot, garlic roasted potatoes, steamed broccoli

~Fish, not sure on side dishes yet

~Meatloaf, Ranch potatoes, salad

~German Style Pork Chops, bread

~Beef Ribs, Fried sweet potato fries

~Left over night

~Friday night is dinner at Putter's restaurant because my DH is obsessed with Chicken wings right now and Friday is .25 wing night

No preschool for Wyatt..

Well we were trying to get Wyatt into an early preschool for ages 3-4 (and they didn't have to be potty trained, so it was perfect.). We didn't qualify money wise, we make to much I guess. So we were told to try a different approach- seeing if he needed speech therapy. If he qualified this way money didn't matter. Now I know Wyatt is pretty smart, knows his number, colors, shapes, etc. But we were hoping to get him in on his speech, he is really hard to understand sometimes, even for me.
So we went to a testing yesterday and basically was told he is talking at an age 6 level (in pronouncing words and letters). So I asked her if it was normal not to understand him sometimes and she said at his age it was but what he can say is at a high level. Also he was tested for fine and large motor skills, which he did fine at. And I was told by one of the testers that he wanted me to know 'whether I know it or not I am doing a great job with teaching him' He was very amazed at his language skills, politeness and overall thinking. YEA for my son!! bad for preschool.
I wasn't really even getting him into it because i thought he needed it, he just always asks to go to school and he loved going to the childcare at MOPS.
Here are a few random pictures of wyatt of the last week or so. Sorry the lighting is so bad in these, it is really hard to figure out pics in my dining room. Wyatt loves to craft, paint, play-doh, cutting, coloring, you name it he loves it.

Our weekend

We had such a fun Labor day weekend. Our friends Tom and Ester have a membership at Thousand Trails so we went up to the Lake Wenatchee area for the weekend. We got there Friday night and stayed till Monday morning. On Sunday we went to Leavenworth for the day and I picked up my two boys and they stayed with us for the night.

We went to Leavenworth,WA for the day. While there we picked up my boys, Ryan and Zach.Then a little miniture golf back at the campground.

This big rock was right by our campsite and all the kids in teh campground would come to climb it. Can u see the boys up there at the top?

This was to funny, wyatt didn't like the smoke in his face so I caught him trying to roast his marshmellow like this (backwards).
And I just had to put this picture in this is how Derek was woken up every morning. Wyatt would crawl over me adn uncover his face adn tell him to get up.

While mommy is away...

The boys will play. While I was gone at my retreat Daddy took Wyatt to play some golf.

A few layouts..

Retreat House

WOW is all I can say that house was so awesome. Here are a few pics from the weekend.
Me, Betsy and Celeste.
Rebecca, Victoria and Jenefer. My mom, she sewed instead of scrapbooking.
This is the scrap room, it was so cool there was a tv in two corners so which ever side of the table you were sitting on you could see a tv. Visiting Seaside, OR

Getting excited!

I only have 5 1/2 days left till I am off on my 4 day long scrapbook retreat to Oregon. I am so excited.

-need to get all my scrapbook stuff together and pack it

-Fill the fridge for the boys

-Pack my clothes

-Buy the food for the trip

-keep laundry up so the boys have clean clothes

We have a birthday party to go to on saturday. I work at the store one last time this Monday so hopefully time will fly by.

Menu Plan Monday

You have to try a recipe from last week the Buffalo chicken lasagna, all I can say is YUMMY. We all loved it, even my 'never likes anything' 3 yo. liked it.

So this week I have several appointments; an eye exam, WIC, dog to the groomer, set up school for 3 yo and then we have a bday party on Saturday. So this week shouldn't be to bad, but I do only have 11 days left till I leave on my retreat, YEA, so very excited so I need to take some time and go through all my stuff and get lots of pics developed.

The wedding yesterday we went to for our really good friends was great, Derek (hubby) got too drunk, but what else is new. I will post a few pics in my post tomorrow.

Tonight we are heading over to my sister's house so the husbands can watch the UFC fight, the guys get together every fight. Got lots of great food to eat and my hubby of course is so hung over he doesn't even want wings (now for all of you that know him know that is major).

Ok that was alot of rambling so here is my menu for the week. Some new recipes and some nice easy ones too.

~Easy and delicious chicken over pasta w/ broccoli

~Steak Stir fry (peppers and broccoli) w/ brown rice

~Country Chicken Casserole w/ grilled green beans

~Ground beef stew over garlic mashed potatoes

~Ravioli lasagna , garlic toast

~Monterrey Jack Chicken w/ garlic mashed potatoes

~Eat out night

~Leftover night

i hate being sick.

Ah I hate being sick. It just takes everything out of you. My 3 yo and I got sick Sunday morning, well we actually shared the flu. I had the bad stomach pains, runs, and was so weak tha i had a hard time walking around, and he had the vomiting. I couldn't get out of bed all day. Then yesterday I was still really weak so I would get up and do what I could around the house, then lay down, then do it all again just so the house wouldn't get to messy.
So this means that I didn't do my menu for the week or the usual Monday running errands and grocery shopping. I hate when things like that put you behind.
The rest of my week is so busy also. I have a root canal on Wednesday, my last day of work on Thursady, wedding on friday and the UFC fight on Saturday night. We are going to be busy busy. Plus the usual house stuff, cleaning and cooking.
After this week though it will be smooth sailing and i will be counting down till my scrap retreat on the 21st till the 24th of August. very very excited. It is by the ocean and 3 hours away from my house. YEA! no kids no hubby no cleaning or cooking. and lots of scrapbooking. sounds goog to me.

ahh life decisions

So lots has been going on recently. Lots of decisions I need to make in the next day or so with working. Of course my dear husband, Derek, said I need to make the final decision. yea that's nice that is why I asked him his opinion. So lots of thinking to do. My sister who watches my 3 yo asked if I would start paying her (which is fine), but i only make $8/hr and then on top of that I will have my wages garnished for medical for my boys (which also is fine, but that takes most of my pay). plus add gas prices to that. I also found out today we are not aloud to wear jeans anymore, umm yea I am a stay at home mom, that is all I own, I really don't want to buy new pants for something I only do 8-10 hrs a week. just seems like a waste. It is becoming more work than fun, which is why i took the job to get out of the house and have fun.
Well as I put in my last post my sister and her girls are gone. so lonely now. We spent everyday of visiting; playing, having lunches and dinners with them. I will say my hubby will be happy though. I kind of put his lunches and him off so I could spend as much time with them as possible. But now we can get back to a schedule, (once my decision is made)back into the swing of things again; laundry, cooking, cleaning, blogging, working and meals. The break was nice. Kind of a mini vacay, but I could use a little order in my life right now.
I didn't get much scrapbooking done either. Just never felt quit like doing it, so hopefully I get get back into it. Espically since I took so many pictures so far this summer.
Well I hope you are all having a great summer so far.

I'm back.....

Well now that my sister and her kids are gone it is time to get back into the swing of things again; cleaning, laundry, blogging, working and meals. Ahh it was a nice time off, but I am ready for some order again. I didn't get to much scrapbooking either, just never quit felt like it, but I hope to get back into that because I have lots of pictures from the summer so far.

~Buffalo Chicken Lasanga

~Meatball Primavera

~Baked Tilapia, green beans, potatoe casserole

~Sauted Polenta w/ sweeet Italian sausage and Broccoli Rabe

~Rosemary Chicken w/ White beans

~Tuna Casserole

~Leftovers

~Night out

Also today is my dear hubby and my 5 year anniversary. Love you babe!!

THEN

NOW

Happy Thoughts

So it took me a few days to make the banner for my blog, but I love how it turned out.
I used cotton balls and stiched around the clouds. The sun is made from felt. I used lots of different paper I had in my stash for the tree and ground. And I made the flowers by stiching ribbon together.
Then scanned it up.

Thanks for looking.

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com