Weekly Menu

 Can you believe it is already November?  How crazy is that?  The last few months have just plain flown by and I am ready for things to slow down for the last few months of the year so we can settle in and enjoy the holidays.  As we start November, I start to pull out some different recipes and plan more "comfort" food meals - those cold weather days are perfect soup days or days to have the oven on for hours to slow cook something and make the house smell so good!  I'm slowly shifting into that gear :-)  

Here's the plan for our coming week which includes a very busy weekend! 

Friday - Yorkshire Pizza, Chips and Dip.  We are starting to cut back some on eating out so tonight we are eating in!  I've made this pizza before and we really liked it - this time, though, I have to make two because Josh wanted his own HA!

Saturday - Today is "Josh's Day" - for birthdays the kids pick two restaurants and two activities to do as a family - So we are heading to 5 Guys for Burgers for lunch before going to Dave and Busters and Sky Zone.  Josh then picked Mexican for dinner.  We are also planning a stop at Baker Bookhouse for Josh to look for a new Bible -- something a little more grown up and less kid style. So a fun, busy day! 

Sunday - It's Halloween!  And Church . . .and Choir . .. and a youth activity.  Yes, a busy, busy day!  We had several meals that did not get made last week so I'm starting with those!  Meatballs in the crock pot for an easy dinner when we get home.  To keep it simple I'll have a salad, chips to go along with the meatballs (we have a joke in this house that there is "always chips" to go with a meal --- and it is true LOL)  

Monday - Carry over from last week - Crock Pot Fajitas, salad, and chips and salsa.  

Tuesday - Tuesday is our busiest day of the week with lots of running for piano lessons.  I usually do crock pot meals but tonight I'm going to make Meatball Soup and French Bread.  The soup is "soup"er simple (see what I did there?) but is one of our favorites. 

Wednesday - Spaghetti and garlic bread.  We actually had this not long ago but it's a family favorite of three out of the four of us (not mine HA!) and it makes for an easy dinner on Wednesday nights before Nate heads off to AWANA.

Thursday - Finally, it's another soup night. Not long ago I picked up some soup packages by Bear Creek and so far the two we have tried have been really good.  I'm going to use the third one tonight (A veggie soup).  I tend to add a few more things to them to build them a little.  I'll add some veggies and maybe some cooked ground beef.  I'll also make yeast rolls and use up any salad fixings in the fridge.  

I'm hungry just typing this up for the coming week!  

Weekly Menu

 We are actually still enjoying a few more days of vacation but it is time to plan for the rest of the week!  In September I created a menu for the month.  While I didn't stick to it exactly it sure made meal planning easier - especially when I actually looked at it before planning the week! I've done the same thing for October.  I also tried to adjust it and make changes based on what I actually cooked so that I can "hopefully" save it and use it in future years to make it easier to plan.  (That was a goal I had this year and I'm finally getting to it!)  Tuesdays have become my "Crock Pot" day.  We have music lessons throughout the day including in the evening so I knew I needed to plan for people to eat in shifts and for easy prep - I can place everything in the crock pot during the day and it will be ready for an easy dinner whenever folks need to eat! 

Anyway, here's the plan for the week

Friday-Monday - My mom is still in charge of planning

Tuesday - Sausage and Tortellini Soup and French Bread

Wednesday - Baked Tacos and Chips and Salsa

Thursday - Chicken Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy and Corn

Next week things will return to a little more normal :-) 

2021 Weekly Photos #31

 Here's a look back at our week!

Saturday - My mom and I went to a ladies conference at a local church.  It was an enjoyable day with a great speaker!  

Sunday - Church and Football.  It was "promotion" Sunday at our church for Sunday School where they introduced the Sunday School teachers and the classes.  We all enjoyed our new Sunday School classes! 

Monday - School!  And Running Club. 

Running club has been a good experience for Josh.  They start with a game time to warm up and just play outside together before running the 1/2 mile track.  

Tuesday - I made some changes last week and moved Josh's drum lessons to Tuesday which means all the music lessons will be on one day (Drums, Piano and Guitar lessons . .. which have not started yet . .) This means that once Running Club is done Tuesdays and Fridays are the only two days we have to go places! 

Wednesday - School - a full day!  Nate started his last year of AWANA tonight as well. 

Thursday - This was my  . .. School -Grocery Store-Packing-Get ready for Friday School-Get ready to leave day WHEW!  

Friday - Our First day of Friday School!  Plus Darryl and I picked up our rental car and loaded up! 

Weekly Menu

 This week will look completly different!  Darryl and I are going to enjoy a trip away for our 20th Anniversary (which was in August) while my mom hangs out with Josh and Nate!  So - I'm not cooking!  I am so looking forward to a long break from cooking, clean-up, planning, dishes . .. you get the idea!  On normal vacations, I also plan breakfast (just simple things like cereal and bagels) and lunch so we can enjoy a nice dinner out BUT I told Darryl that this time, I don't want to even plan lunch because I am the one that has to prepare it and clean up!  I'm hoping to pick up some bagel's from a Panara Bread for the week for breakfast but otherwise, we are going to find some neat brunch/sandwiches places for lunch and then enjoy dinner!  

The plan for the week is simple

Friday - Eat out - need to keep it easy as we get things ready

Saturday on - My mom is planning!  

And done! 

2021 Weekly Photos #30

 This past week was our first week back into our school routine.  I didn't take a lot of photos but here's what our week looked like. 

Saturday - Darryl and I headed to town to do a little shopping as he needed some new clothes.  We enjoyed an amazing lunch at The Cheesecake Factory - we haven't eaten at CF in over 2 years so it was a nice treat and we did not even get Cheesecake (we were full!!).  We also enjoyed a fun trip to Trader Joes for some fun treats before ending our day with pie from Grand Traverse Pie Company. 

Sunday - After church, we were able to watch the first half of the Lions game before heading to a family birthday party for Darryl's dad.  We met at a park . . .. and it poured HA!  Good thing there was a pavilion!  His dad turned 81 and all he wanted for his birthday was for his kids (2), grandkids (4) and great grand kids (2) to be together.  That was an easy feat since we all live an hour apart :-)  

Monday - First day of school!  We spent our morning doing lessons and it went well.  Josh was supposed to go running club but it stormed.  He and I still headed to town to do some clothes shopping - specifically for "church" clothes/"wedding" cloths that are needed this fall.  

Tuesday - Second day of school!  Another busy morning of school lessons.  After lunch we headed to piano lessons.  It was so great to be back to piano.  The "boys" (I'm saying that for Josh because he said he was going to start reading my blog) really enjoy their teacher and excel at the piano.  Well . .. . when it was nearing the end of lessons I went to start my truck and it was dead!  Thankful their piano teacher's husband was there and offered to jump my battery and, again thankfully, we finally got it to start.  

Wednesday - Third Day of School!  Whew!  Another busy morning of school.  Josh had his first drum lessons on Wednesday morning and really enjoyed it.  Following that he and I headed to town for Running Club.  It was a great first day of running. Wednesday evening was the first night of youth group at our church, which Josh attended (yes, he had a busy day!) .

Thursday - Finally, basically a full day at home, kinda.  We focused on school all morning.  Nate went to his friends house (he and his friend usually get together once week when possible) but Josh needed to finish up school since he missed a few afternoons this week. 

Friday - As is the norm, we do not do school on Fridays but we do have our co-op!  Today was our open house and Nate started back to TKD.  Fridays will be long days starting next week between the Co-op all morning and Nate's TKD in the afternoon!  

As you can see, we had a busy week.  I've done a little shifting to give us 2 (and eventually 3) full days at home by moving drum lessons to Tuesday so all music lessons will be on one day.  That will give us Wednesday and Thursday at home most weeks (and Mondays when running club is done!) 

Weekly Menu

 Last week was our first full week of our school routine.  As we figure out our schedule my menu doesn't always work out the way that is planned.  I "think" that I shifted everything this week that needs to be shifted; and with the exception of guitar lessons and AWANA, everything has started!  We went from doing nothing to being busy in a heartbeat!  

Here's the plan for the coming week:

Friday:  Take out night.  

Saturday - Dinner at my mom's

Sunday -  Roasted Pork Tenderloin, Baked Potatoes, and Corn; Homemade Pizza after Josh gets home from Youth Group

Monday - Ham and Cheese quiche, asparagus, and tater tots

Tuesday - Cornish Hens, Stuffing, gravy, green beans and rolls

Wednesday -  BLT's or Pulled Pork BBQ (if there are leftovers from Sunday),  and Seven Layered Salad, 

Thursday -  Spaghetti, Garlic bread and leftover salad

Camping 2021

 This past week we took our annual Labor Day week camping trip.  This year was a little different.  Darryl and I had a conversation back in July about the simple fact that the pop-up has become so much work.  It's hard to set up, hard to level, and a ton of work to load and unload.  We enjoy the whole camping experience but wish we had a better "home base".  I started looking at a cabins and came across the option to rent a camper.  That really seemed like the way to go so we booked it!  

We took off on Monday and started our trip off right. 

I should have taken a photo of our vehicle because we were packed in like sardines!  It was a super easy drive!! 

We were beyond impressed with our trailer.  It was "deluxe" and it was the true meaning of glamping!  Wow!  We unloaded and unpacked - which was so much easier than the pop-up! 

Once we unloaded, we put on our bathing suits and headed to the pool.  It was actually the last day the pool would be opened so we wanted to make sure we took advantage of it!  We had it to ourselves (but it was a little cold!).  Once we finished swimming we headed back to the camper for dinner.  Dinner was simple - Hot Dogs over the fire, sandwiches, and chips.  

We finished off our night by going to the beach to watch an amazing sunset.  It did not disappoint.  We watched the sun disappear; Darryl, Josh and Nate played some volleyball and I put my feet in the sand and watched the water.  It was amazing. 

Tuesday we woke up to rain.  We were anticipating the weather and planned to hang out in the camper for the day. We keep breakfast simple with just cereal, hard boiled eggs, and muffins. 

We watched a huge storm roll in from the lake.  It was pretty impressive.  

It was a huge hail storm.  I'm so thankful that we did NOT have the pop-up HA!  I'm not sure it would have faired very well in a hail storm!  

We enjoyed a simple lunch of tacos.  I had made the taco meat at home to make it super easy.  

As it rained most of the afternoon we hung out at the camper.  When the rain stopped, we took a walk, the boys all played some basketball and even a game of mini-golf.  I made a new recipe for dinner - pork chops and potatoes in the crock pot.  It was a hit!  So yummy!  

Wednesday - Wednesday dawned beautiful!  Cool and Sunny!  We decided to take off for the day to Lewis Adventure Farms and Petting Zoo after a simple lunch of sandwiches.  

The farm was so very good!!  This donkey was my favroite.  The animals were all so friendly and loved being fed! 

There were so many wonderful activities at the farm from the animals to the slides, to the jumping pillow and games.  We are so glad we went and would go again!  We spent hours there and treated ourselves to cider and donuts too.  

After the farm we headed "home" to cook our traditional steak kabobs over the fire.  We enjoyed an amazing bon fire and smores.  One of my favorite parts of camping - the campfire - did not disappoint!  

Thursday - The day we had to pack up!  It's never fun to pack up but we had to!  It, again, was so much easier than the popup.  Once we were loaded up, we headed into Ludington for a McDonald's picnic lunch at the beach and some time by the lake.  It was a bit chilly but still beautiful! 

It doesn't matter how cold the water is - Nate will ALWAYS go in!  He was the only one daring enough to do it HA!  

Darryl, Josh and Nate took off for a walk down the pier.  I 100% enjoy sitting in my beach chair, with my feet in the sand, listening to nothing but the waives.  The beach was pretty empty so it was so quiet and I was able to just rest my soul for a bit.  It was amazing. 

I wish this was my view every single day but, since it is not, I try to not take it for granted when I do get to enjoy it!!  

This little guy visited me while I was sitting quietly on the beach.  So amazing. 

We finally headed for home after one last stop at Biggby :-) 

It was a very enjoyable trip - more relaxing than past years and much easier all the way around.  We are still talking about what to do next year.  The cost of renting the trailer is more than just reserving a campsite and we have to decide if that price was worth it or if there are less expensive options.  Another agreement we all had is that with such a nice camper (basically a hotel room) we didn't spend as much time outside - even just sitting outside to read - but on the flip side, with the rainstorm on Tuesday we would have been so damp all day long!  So, obviously - pros and cons that we are still figuring out.