Menu Plan Monday 4-27-09

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Suffice it to say the word "plan" and I are much like oil and water. After getting back from Indiana it literally took me two weeks to get back in any kind of domestic groove. Instead I started sending out my resume...I'm much better at the career I get paid for. But that being said, let's focus on progress not perfection shall we? Here's what I've got planned for this week:

Monday: PB & J crepes
Tuesday: Tuna cakes, some veggie or two, and some fruit (strawberries)
Wednesday: Chicken quesadillas, salad, chips and guacamole
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Pizza Night
Saturday: God help me if I actually make it til then!

The professor's semester ends this week and God willing he may take over this duty for the Summer. In an effort to maintain my dignity though, I really should continue this one homage to domesticity, don't cha' think?

Menu Plan Monday ~ March 30

Image by escapethematrix via Flickr

Well, I can't say I'm ready for June Cleaver training school but I did did manage to prepare three out of four meals this past week. My eyebrows were not quite as perfectly shaped as my model here and no crack was ingested to get it done as it looks like from my example. But what I discovered is the slogan that I've heard for many years in the rooms now works in many a domestic area as well:

"If you fail to plan you plan to fail."

So how did the undomesticated Betty do? I hit three out of four. That, my friends, took a lot of willingness on my part to get out of my pajamas on Monday at a reasonable hour. I could digress right now and begin a little tangent about the term "reasonable hour"...because really, we all know it's totally subjective. But I have a plan to finish this post so no follies into flippant land are allowed at the moment ( Shhh, June is watching). The trick for me was to have a shopping list for the items I needed to prepare the meals for the week and actually go to the grocery store and buy them. What a concept!

And She Saved Money too!

I also found that shopping this way decreased my grocery bill significantly that week. I made fewer small trips to the grocery over the past week than I did before. Blah, blah, blah. We all know this don't we? So I'm going to move on to things more (or less) interesting...depending on your point of view, of course. Self-loathing is a much more entertaining topic than saving money. So let's move on to that shall we?

I discovered I felt better about myself at the end of the week. I had a little more spring in my step and a little more energy with which to waste on more household work. But, it did pay off in self-esteem dividends. Even if it wasn't recognized as stellar by the commander-n-chief, it was stellar in my little world. So I'm here to sign up for this week as well. I didn't get too many comments last week from the ranks...heavy sigh...and I thought I knew yee. Boy, I was expecting such banter and sarcasm from you, like none I have seen here in the south, but you left me dry...parched...I need a drink.

Could someone make Mama a Cosmo?

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So here is the plan for the week of March 3oth:

• Monday: Tuna Melts, Veggies & dip, chips (healthy meal of the week!)
• Tuesday: Ravioli & Cheese Bake, Salad, P's homemade bread
  
• Wednesday: Leftovers or cereal
  
• Thursday: Apple meatloaf, whole wheat Couscous with carrots & cauliflower (Thanks to Jolly Mom!)
  
• Friday: Dad's Amazing Homemade Pizza Night (seriously, he needs to open a Pizzeria here in our little town -drive that crap pizza place outa business)

Gavin starts his baseball games this week so these may get switched around if the level of insanity reaches a critical level. Next week I'll be in the Hoosier state letting other people cook for me...how great is that!

Now, step up your game and leave some freakin' comments on this blog...you know who you are!

Menu Plan Monday ~ March 23

Okay, brace yourselves...
Are you ready?
I...am...attempting...(oh God - breathe deeply)...to do something domestic.
There - I said it.
On my quest to gain control of my life (Ha! Just seeing it on the screen makes me laugh.), I have decided to begin to plan, in advance (because that's what planning is right?) ,our evening meals...at least four of them a week. And you, my dear friends and family, are going to help keep me accountable for those four meals a week. How, you may be asking yourself, can I keep Kelly on task with anything let alone something that requires an inkling of domestic skill?! The answer is simple. A meme.

What? You mean you don't know what a meme is? Oh, you non-blog reading people you! Uh, actually, confession time here...I didn't know what one was until about, oh, a couple of months ago. Let's see if our little friend, Wikipedia, can help us out on this one.

The term Internet meme (pronounced /miːm/) is a phrase used to describe a catchphrase or concept that spreads quickly from person to person via the Internet, much like an inside joke.^[1] The term is a reference to the concept of memes, although this concept refers to a much broader category of cultural information.

So I am jumping on an Internet meme bandwagon called Menu Plan Monday. This meme was started by Laura, the creator of the blog, I'm an Organizing Junkie. Now, dear readers, she freely refers to herself as "the freak". Given I am a bear of very little brain and easily distracted by shiny objects, anyone who successfully has an organized life is close to a demi-god to me...definitely not a freak. She herself wrote,"I truly believe that menu planning is one of the best places to start in your quest to get organized". I am going to take her at her word.

Currently, according to I'm an Organizing Junkie, there are close to 500 women who share what's on their menu for the week each Monday. So every Monday from here on out, God willing, I'm going to be posting my menu for the week's dinners. Your assignment, if you're willing to accept it, is to leave comments each week...how was the "chicken cacciatore"?...why would you serve that?!...mmmm, sounds yummy, I'll be there on Tuesday...those kind of things. And those of you that subscribe by e-mail and e-mail me comments instead of putting them on the blog itself, try commenting on the actual blog...it's kind of addicting. Yeah, ya'll know I'm a junkie of another kind right? I'm working on that one too.

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So here's this week's menu complete with links to recipes if I found them on the Internet:

• Monday: Spinach quiche, roasted green beans, frozen grapes
• Tuesday: Crunchy Parmesan Chicken Tenders, Broccoli, Baked Pomme Frites
• Wednesday: Leftovers
• Thursday: Whole wheat pasta with Vodka Sauce, Green salad with vinaigrette, Garlic bread
• Friday: Zesty Corn Quesadillas, Baby spinach & mandarin orange salad, (and Margaritas if I'm feeling particularly sassy that night!)

So there it is. As I'm typing this at 10p.m. on Sunday evening, I must admit that there is a bit of peace knowing that I don't have to scramble tomorrow. I have a plan. It and I may not be perfect but it is a plan and I am only human. Wish me luck!

Those Naughty Leprechauns!

Having married ethnically pure, it is nearly a requirement that St. Patrick's day must be celebrated in our little house. And thus the visit from the leprechauns began. When Mama was working, it was a trail of gold chocolate coins leading from the kids' bedroom to outside. Now that Mama got some time on her hands those leprechauns have stepped up their game!



The first thing the kids discovered when they awoke is that their webkins animals were all sitting on the paddles of the ceiling fan in the living room. Then the excitement really began because they realized the leprechauns had visited them. Running back to their room they began to follow the trail of gold coins and found several in their room and in the bathroom too. Those leprechauns had turned the toilet water green! Gavin wondered if leprechauns pee green...hmmm, quite a query to ponder don't you think? They followed the trail into the kitchen where they found that some of the milk had been turned green and Lucky Charms cereal was sitting by the fridge. Gavin refused to let us drink the milk stating, "It might be poison!". Those naughty leprechauns! Finally, the kids found little notes written by the leprechauns themselves and had left parting gifts of green tic tacs and green chewing gum. The notes revealed that our leprechauns' names were Doogal and Darby.



Anna announced, "Those leprechauns were very messy and naughty but I am amazed at that mess.". We all dressed in green and got Gavin to school. At lunch he discovered that he had bright green jelly belly pudding in his lunch box which he thouroughly enjoyed (between you and me, it looked toxic). Dinner consisted of Spinach fettucini with pesto, green salad with avocados, a bright green Mexican soda, and lime green jello for dessert. I'm sure enough green die was ingested that day to bring out the inner leprechaun in each of us.

How did you celebrate St. Patrick's Day at your little house?

The Christmas Magic of Elfie

This Christmas tradition started when Gavin was 3 years old. I had a client who had told me about how as a child during the Christmas season they had an elf ornament called "Elfie". Their mother would secretly move Elfie around after they went to bed each night. In the morning they would get up and search for him. The kids were told he reported back to Santa if they were being naughty or nice. Well, I recently discovered she was not the only family with this tradition. Everyone can have an elf on the shelf.


Our Elfie has some personality thanks to Great Uncle John who gave Gavin the quirky plush elf when he was too young to remember the gift.

Elfie arrives in our house on St. Nicholas Eve night. The children set a pair of shoes outside their bedroom door before they go to bed. And then when they are fast asleep Elfie works his magic and usually leaves a treat or two and an Advent Calendar for each of them. Well, there was a snag or two this year.

The first snag was Elfie could not locate any advent calendars in our little town or any surrounding towns. So "Plan B" had to be put into place. That involved mama elf wrappping individual pieces of candy with a tag attached that had a number on one side and a "random act of kindness" on the other.

After twenty four pieces of candy were wrapped and labeled for each of the kids, mama elf put them into a cute Santa mug

As you can cleary see, mama elf has way too much time on her hands these days. The better to create memories with I guess, huh? So now a way to collect the tags and visually count down to Christmas had to be created too. Green foam core board, a sharpie marker and silver map tacks did the trick simply.

But all this had to be postponed because on St Nicholas Eve night we met with snag number two: unruly children who wouldn't behave...not even for the pope himself I swear (And I think I did a couple of times that night). Even with the threats that Elfie might not show up if they don't straighten up didn't work. The kids put their shoes out but Elfie didn't show. Instead he left this letter for them:

Well, two days later the kids set their shoes out again in hopes that Elfie would show up the next morning.

This time he did show and left them their mugs and candy. I wish he would have run the sweeper while he was at it. Jeez, you just can't get a good elf these days!

Tickle Time Injuries

I never thought loving someone would hurt so much.

Gavin and I spend time connecting with one another in an after bathtime ritual we call "tickle time". This began about a year ago after I read a fabulous book on parenting called Playful Parenting by Lawrence J. Cohen, PhD. The book suggests that what kids are really looking for, first and foremost, is a real connection with the people who love and care for them. And every kid is different. My job as a parent to two very different kids is to figure out how to connect to them in their own personal way. Gavin's way is very physical. I'm thinking of auditioning for World Wrestling Entertainment as a Diva!

This past week I've had my knee landed on and bent the wrong way and one of my fingers received a headbutt that resulted in a seriously jammed finger. Both of these were done in the name of connection and love. There was a time when injuries received from Gavin were a result of temper tantrums and his unending frustration. So today, I gladly receive these injuries in the name of love. Tickle time has taken a temporary hiatus while my knee and finger heal but this diva is looking forward to the next time she connects to Gav in his own special way.

Fall Fairy House or What to do on a Saturday Afternoon in a Small Town when there is nothing to do

After a chilling fall rain the night before, the day was washed clean and the sky, blue and sunny. And the age old questioned that arises every Saturday morning in our little house arose again without fail, "What are we gonna do with the kids today?". Neither of the parental units were feeling too parental that morning so cartoons would have to do until lunch was the next activity of the day. With lunch done and the dishes cleaned up we were begging them to go outside...please! I evened opened the front door pointing with great momma intimidation to get...out....side...now! When that technique failed to work I succumbed to interacting with them. Yes, mom of the year award once again.

I stepped outside with the kids and looked at the decaying jack-o-lantern. It was then I remembered seeing a fairy house constructed out of a pumpkin. I brought the kids back into the house for a brief moment to review the rules of constructing a fairy house:

• Fairy Houses should look so natural they are almost hidden. A location close to the ground is best.
• You should use only natural materials. Dry grasses, leaves, sticks, pebbles and pine cones are just a few examples of materials to choose.
• Be careful not to use or disturb any of nature's materials that are still living, especially flowers, ferns, mosses and lichen. Fairies do not like to disturb or destroy anything that is growing in nature.

So outside we go to collect natural materials to add to our pumpkin house. Here is some of what we came up with:

Now, I have to confess we used toothpicks to attach some items. But they were once natural material, right? Gavin decided the decaying pumpkin was not too inviting for fairies to sleep in so he gathered very colorful leaves and layed them inside the pumpkin.

He also, I might add, was highly concerned that the lid of the jack-o-lantern would leak on the fairies if it rained. So he gathered leaves that still had their stems attached and stuck them through the lid opening creating a canopy of beautiful deep red leaves on the orange pumpkin. Mother Nature really is a great designer! Anna created the pathway to the house with pebbles and small rocks.

And I created the ladder leading up to the house.

The kids stood back and appreciated their creation. They walked around the tree and peeked around several times to see if they might be able to sneak up on a fairy.

Then I suggested they say a little something to dedicate their house to the fairies. This is what they came up with:

I must say, the magic of childhood is one of the best things about being a parent. And to think I had begrudgingly stepped outside with them. How lucky am I to be given the opportunity to share in that magic? What a gift. We are already planning what our winter fairy house will look like.

May you find some magic today too!

WWKD: What Would Kevin Do?

Just as the great (and not so great) leaders of our country and states deliver a report after their first 90 days in office, I feel compelled to deliver a report of my first 56 days as a housewife...SAHM(stay at home mom for those of you who don't "speak text")...domestic engineer or, as I prefer, freelancer. Quite honestly who knows if I can make it to 90 days. There have been many many times when I've tapped my finger on my chin and asked myself, "What would Kevin do?". Kevin, my brother-in-law, is my SAHM/D muse. He, in my humble opinion, has perfected the art of running a household. And since I am a bear of very little brain which can be very distracted I am in desperate need of direction. Now granted, I may veer off in another direction due to that pesky little thing called ADD but I give it my best effort on most days.

Kevin manages to keep his house clean, cook fabulous meals, parent my adorable nephew and niece, squeeze 100 dollars out of a dollar bill, and yet, still finds time to obsess, I mean focus, on pet projects that have varied throughout the years. Many of these projects have been home improvements, cooking/baking (he's quite the foodie), organization, and planning for the future (various aspects - financial, vacations etc). If Kevin has done it you can rest assured he has done the research. Instead of "googling" we have just called Kevin up many times! The biggest difference between him and me (despite the obvious) is that his brain has a lot of "engineer" wiring. Mine, sadly, has a lot of interesting wiring but I got shorted when God was handing out the left brain wiring.

So what have I been doing these last 56 days besides having bouts of tearfulness and great gnashing of teeth? I've been trying to find my inner homemaker. In looking for a way to be domestic and still have a signature Kelly style to it is challenging. Somehow the two words, domestic and Kelly, don't always come together in my little universe. So far, I've managed to go to the laudromat more times than I would have liked -so the laundry is getting done; I pack Gavin's lunch everyday and get him back and forth to school as well as his personal homework director (I might I say that particular job sucks the life right outa me sometimes!); I plan meals everyday and most days execute that plan - they may not be that interesting but they get done; I pay the bills and am the official landlord of St Joseph Street; I've unpacked, organized to a certain extent and tried to make our little house look like a little home. And, of course, every day is a day with Anna which creates many mama opportunities. So what am I obsessing about, I mean focused on right now? More room...a bigger house...seeing family again and planning for our visits...buying a washer and a dryer (BTW, Kevin, could you do a little research on that for me? Wink, wink)...finding a church that is right for me and the kids...finding OA meetings I can get to again...the economy...the election...oh, and finding myself in all that.

So here's to Kevin, the man who really should be blogging about his domestic prowess and writing a book to save all us right brain "freelancers" who don't have a clue how to domesticate anything! I will continue to look to him for inspiration and guidance as I trudge this road of happy destiny.

Crazy little thing called Mono

Gavin's been home the last two days with a fever related to the mono. It was really bad yesterday. Last night around 9pm he woke up crying. I went into his room to check on him and he was talking crazy - I really think he was having hallucinations due to the fever or dehydration. He was talking about his back "singing" and he wasn't going to sing. I brought him into the living room and Project Runway was on. He pointed at the t.v. and started crying and screaming something unintelligible - so obviously we turned the t.v. off. Perhaps it was commentary on this week's designs. He continued to say he wasn't going to sing and he wished his back would stop singing. He had this terrible look of fear on his face confirming that it was very real for him. That sufficiently freaked me out! He's much better this morning and back to his normal self which consists of tormenting Anna frequently. I wish he was in school today actually but we're "homeschooling" for a day. Right now they're watching Nick Jr. I'd be the worst homeschooling mom. All I can say is thank God for public education!