Weekly Menu - The one on repeat

Well, last week did not go as planned.  Why?  The stomach flu.  Nate started with it on Thursday night and about the time he was finally done running to the bathroom every 20 minutes, Josh started.  Needless to say, the kids did not go away.  It took until Sunday before everyone was interested in eating half way normally again.  So, in order to try and save my mom from getting the bug, we pushed their week at her house out one week.  Therefore, this is a total redo and should look extremely familiar :-)

Friday - The kids head to my mom's.  Darryl and I will get something to eat :-)

Saturday - We have a date day planned.

Sunday - We will meet for dinner somewhere (thanks to giftcards we can do this multiple times!)

Monday - Something out or "take-out"

Tuesday - The same :-)

Wednesday - the Kids return so my plan is Mac and Cheese before heading to AWANA

Thursday - Spahgetti - it's easy :-)

Now, I'm working on our Superbowl plan.  Yes, we love the superbowl very much - the whole day is just football geared.  I wish my kids weren't so particular when it comes to food because I love to make fun snacks.  Sadly, they would prefer Mac and Cheese and Chicken Nuggets to Nacahos and Wings :-( 

Our Week in Photos #28

We had a pretty boring week.

 Josh got the "Cat Grass" planter for his birthday.  A few weeks ago, he planted the seeds and the grass grew (FAST!).  The cat is slowly showing in interest . .. very slowly HA! 

Harley is the king of the castle. 

On Monday, we all had the day off so we headed out to dinner at a Chinese Buffet and then went to see Paddington 2.  We love Paddington and this movie didn't disappoint :-) 

The rest of our week focused on wrapping up the last few things for school and prepping for Friday School.  

Then, the stomach flu hit on Thursday night (Nope no pictures HA!) so we missed the first day of Friday school AND had to rescheduled a long planned trip for the boys to go to Nana's.  They will (hopefully) head their next weekend!  

So, yep, that's our week! 

Weekly Menu - the one without kids :-)

It's been awhile since we've had a few days without the kids. It always seems that after September, the boys have AWANA on Wednesdays, Friday School, and then Christmas program practice on Sundays so sending them to a grandparent's house is really difficult to fit in!  Well, it was time for a trip to Nana's - the boys have been asking since November - and it has finally worked out!  If you have followed this blog for any length of time you know that when the kids are away . . .this lady doesn't cook (much)!  It gives me a great break and helps keep the cooking burnout at bay :-)

Here's the plan for the coming week.

Friday - The boys head to my moms so, I'm going to meet Darryl in Grand Rapids for dinner. 

Saturday - Darryl and I have a "date day" planned to do some shopping, eating, and hanging out.

Sunday - No kids - we will either eat out or Darryl will bring something home.  (We don't mind eating out at Fast food in town either - it's just nice to be just the two of us!) I think Darryl will be working today so I might even head into town so we can eat some place we don't have at home like Long John Silvers :-)

Monday - No Kids = No Cooking

Tuesday - No Kids = No Cooking

Wednesday - back to reality!  The Kids are coming home :-)  We will probably have frozen pizza before heading to AWANA

Thursday - I have a haircut appointment at dinner time so I'll leave Mac and Cheese to be cooked for dinner - easy and everyone likes it (I'll even buy Darryl Velveeta Mac and Cheese, his favorite!)

Wow, I love the way this menu looks.  I almost don't need to go to the grocery store (Except I still need to pack Darryl's lunch HA!)

A little humor

I kinda liked this little funny saying when I saw it because that is how I feel about this month.  Not in a negative way at all but rather, I'm trying to get all of my ducks in a row ready for a good year and, in doing so, am setting myself up for better success.  Honestly, I normally do this kind of planning and prepping in December but, thanks to illness and the busyness of the holidays, it didn't happen.  I kind of like the slower pace of January to do the planning because it is, well, slower.  So even though I'm a little scarce on this blog right now, I have ideas that are the works to write about!  (I know, you can't wait HA HA!)

Our Week in Photos #27

We had another very quiet week:

On Saturday, we finally headed to my in-laws to celebrate Christmas.  This was the third attempt and it wasn't without difficulty.  We woke up to a frozen pipe and then, when we went to leave, the truck broke down so we had to switch vehicles and deal with a vehicle in the shop part of the week.

 My in-laws have an amazing hill that lead right out onto the very frozen lake.  This is the first time that the boys have really gotten to slide on a big hill and they had a blast. 

 Grandpa Charlie with the boys.

 Of course, we also had the fun of opening presents too!

 This is something I don't get very often - this sweet little boy all worn out and sleeping on the couch.  Just 2 minutes before this he said, "Mom, I want to lay with you" and then he was snoring. HA!

We worked hard to wrap up the semester work this past week so we could have all of next week off - we came close but will have to finish up a few random things on Monday and Tuesday but otherwise, the boys will get a nice semester break!  This is an art project that Nate had to make this week out of, well, garbage.  He made his out of . . .Mac and Cheese Boxes HA!

Weekly Menu

I stuck to my menu last week.  For real.  It feels good when that happens :-)  We even had leftovers for lunch on Thursday since Darryl had that day off.  I really do love meal planning even though I get tired of it sometimes.  It makes my life so much easier when I know what's supposed to go on the table at night!

Here's the plan for the coming week:

Friday - Zuppa Tuscana Soup in the crock with rolls.  I made this soup a few weeks ago and it was fabulous.  I was so excited to have the leftovers and then I promplty dropped the storage container on the floor BOO!  It was a sad day!

Saturday - Creamy Zucchini and Spinach Rigatoni, and bread

Sunday - Mac and Cheese and Sun Chips (Comfort Food HA)

Monday -  Roast, Potatoes and Carrots in the oven!

Tuesday - . Tomato Basil Chicken and Garlic Bread.

Wednesday - AWANA

Thursday - Leftovers unless I make it to the store earlier in the day then I'll plan something different :-)  (In other words, when I went to the store on Thursday, I totally forgot to buy what I needed for the dinner I had planned for this night HA)

That's it for the week!  .

Our Week in Photos #26

We had a very quiet week.

We celebrated New Years Eve/New Years Day with my mom.  It was very low key, quiet, and relaxing.  

This is how we spent most of the evening - in PJ's, on Ipads, with the Dog :-)  

It's also been frigid this week.  So much so that nobody even wants to go outside.  We've had some good snow too which made for slick roads . . .so we stayed home HA! 

This started - School.  It's always hard to go back but, thankfully with Homeschooling, we can move into it slowly.  A couple of hours on Thursday and a little more on Friday.  Next week I'll try to get us back into more of our normal routine as we wrap up the semester with the goal of getting a week off between semesters! 

On Friday evening we went and saw Ferdinand.  It was a fun movie to see - lots of laughs and a great ending.  We are trying to take advantage of our local theatre and see the movies there - it's 2 minutes away, a lot cheaper than the big theatres and, well, just a fun place to go. 

After we got home, Josh took his Telescope outside (yes, in the bitter cold - don't worry, he was well dressed) and he took advantage of the crystal clear sky to find some planets.  I wish I could have gotten his picture sitting on the deck looking at the sky but it was too dark.  What a cool kid.  

And maybe I should of taken a photo of Nate's toe - he caught it on the wall and ripped his little toe open - it's gross.  Which is why I didn't take a picture.  He keeps talking about the flap (gag) on his toe bothering him. HA!  (it really isn't that bad - but it is gross. 

Weekly Menu

Last weeks menu completly changed because we had glorious leftovers from New Years Weekend to use (My mom's famous BBQ Meatloaf and Bean Soup (Which I detest but Darryl loves HA!).  It made my menu planning and cooking so much easier!  This next week is a pretty quiet week.  The main focus is school.  Because we do an on-line program, we do actually have a semester end where there are certain things that must be done so, my goal this week is to get about 80% of everything done to make next week a little easier :-)

Here's the plan for the coming week

Friday - Ham and Scalloped potatoes in the crock.

Saturday - We have one last family Christmas so we will be eating at my in-laws.  I'm taking a salad and dessert!

Sunday - Stuffed Shells, Salad, Green beans and Garlic Bread

Monday - Chicken and Dumplings and Salad

Tuesday - Chicken Noodle Soup, Salad and Biscuits

Wednesday - AWANA night

Thursday - Sausage and gravy, Biscuits, Asparagus, and eggs.