Weekly Menu - a Busy Weekend

 We have reached the end of our co-op.  I'm always ready for a break but we also miss seeing friends.  This is a busy weekend with lots of things related to our co-op though! Menu planning has taken a little tricky turn because I figure out a couple of weeks ago that my oven is not heating properly so for now, my oven is out of commission.  It's all ok - I have the stove top, crock pots, an air fryer, and a toaster oven.  I just have to remember that I can't cook a whole pizza on the fly LOL  

Friday - Tonight is Presentation Night for me; Nate is heading out on an overnighter with kids from youth group; Josh is planning to hang out at home.  We will be eating in shifts so I just plan to have all the stuff for Tacos.  Everyone can make their tacos/nachos when they are hungry

Saturday - Today is our Co-Op Drama (and Nate has a lead role).  By the time the play is done I imagine that Nate will be ready to head for home (not to mention the all-nighter HA!).  I plan to put a pork roast in the crock pot to have for dinner.  I will make fried rice and corn to go with it. 

Sunday - Simple Sunday Supper today - I am pretty confident that there will be left over Pork Roast (and/or Taco Meat) so I'm planning pork tacos (or beef tacos) along with bean dip and chips

Monday - My mom picked up some chicken drumsticks for us so I plan to cook those and serve them with some rice-a-roni and green beans

Tuesday - Turkey breast in the crockpot, stuffing and green beans  

Wednesday - Youth Group

Thursday - Chicken and Dumplings (a favorite!) 

"No" November (or NOvember)

 I went digging through some older posts from past years to find where I have talked about No-November in the past but I have yet to find anything.  Yet, I am positive that I wrote about it before - maybe I just mentioned in a goal post . . .. I have no idea.  

Several years ago I read/heard about the idea of "No-November" and really liked the concept.  Now, that are several versions but mine is pretty simple; say "no" to anything not already planned or on the calendar related to events and money!  I can remember that the reason this was inspiring to me was that we had been so extremely busy in September and October that I just wanted things to stop.  I felt like our time was overwhelmed and our money was running through a sieve! I wanted it all to stop; to snuggle in as the colder weather arrive; to save instead of spend.  It really put some things in perspective.  

My family cringes a little when I say, "Guess what month it is???" LOL  They all no exactly what I'm talking about.  Last week I said something about it and Nate responded with, I have a few things to talk to you about and get on the calendar before Saturday :-)  He knows the drill!  Even though my instant answer is no to everything, there are things that come up that do get a "yes" such a friends birthday party.  After all, I'm not really THAT mean!!  It does mean no last minute stopping to grab something to eat, or to treat myself to my favorite coffee.  Those are things that get a hard and fast no!  

Will we still do things?  That answer is yes.  Our Co-Op has its Presentation Night this week plus the drama.  My guys are heading off to a weekend retreat the weekend after that as well.  But I do say no to things like field trips and unplanned extra events.  This helps limit gas money and the need to grab a "treat".  

Spending is the bigger item.  I try to limit any extra spending.  We live super tight anyway (super duper tight!!) but it's crazy how those little $5.00 stops add up.  (Even things like adding my $0.99 box of popcorn from Meijer when I stop for gas adds up over a month - I know, a silly example but you get the idea). This time of year always seems to want money (yes, I did just type that and it is true - just think about it)  With Birthdays and Christmas; plus all the extra events for the holidays - youth group parties, friend parties, get togethers and more.  It is so easy to spend yourself crazy!  I work hard to find some fun free things to do for holiday fun or create our own fun at home.  

I recently updated our November calendar on the fridge and the comment from everyone was "Wow, that is so empty!" then came, "Lets keep it that way".  I'm trying my dear family, I'm trying! 

MercyMe - Heartbroken Hallelujah (Official Music Video)

Our weekly snapshot

 Here's a lok back at our week.  

The Drama Club at our Co-op is getting ready for their play which is coming up soon!  Nate has a lead roll and is enjoying it very much. 

Friday was our last day of our Co-Op for the semester so I took photos of my Joyful classing. . . jumping for joy.  I thought I'd share these too for your enjoyment.  

Josh got to go up front this week to celebrate his birthday.  It's always fun to get to sing Happy Birthday! 

Halloween Costumes!  This year both guys went with friends, seperatly HA!  I'm glad they have great friends to hang out and have fun with. 

Our final pumpkins - Joshes is the one on top, Nate did the "6,7" pumpkin and Darryl's (I mean OURS) is the other one.  

We even managed to squeeze in some pumpkin carving this week even though our evenings had been full.  Yes, three pumpkins - Darryl and I shared HA!  A local market had theirs marked down to 3 pumpkins for $10.00 so that is what we got!  

Weekly Menu

 BOO!  Don't be scared - it is November HA!  It is time to start thinking all things holiday and enjoy the next two months with food, fun, and family.  (Not that we don't always enjoy those three things - but the holidays bring about something different!) 

Friday - It is Halloween!  I'm not about all the spooky stuff but getting free candy is always good.  I believe both of my guys have plans to hang out with friends for Halloween.  So, with that in mind I'm not really sure what is happening for dinner.  I think they are planning to head to friends houses by about 4:00 so Darryl and I may just pick up something simple.  

Saturday - Dinner at my mom's 

Sunday - Spaghetti and Rolls 

Monday - Spaghetti Carbonara 

Tuesday - French toast, bacon, and sausage 

Wednesday - Youth Group

Thursday - Potato and ham soup 

Misc. Musings

 Years ago, when I started my blog, I would post "Misc. Musings" periodically.  It's not anything specific - just some miscellaneous things. 

-- I realize I've posted recipe posts over the past few months with photos but no recipes.  Oops!  I was trying to do a recipe post a few times a month so I would take a photo and put it in the blog post and then forgot to come back and add the recipe.  I'll try to do better.  HA! 

-- I realize that I haven't done updated posts on my Joyful class this year.  No reason outside of taking time to add photos and links for our activities.  I hope to do one post soon with all of the info from our semester. 

--After a very hot and humid summer . .. and spring . .. and fall . . .I am enjoying a much cooler forecast and, yes, I have also enjoyed the rain and thunder storms we have had this past week. The "grumpy" skies with the breakthrough of sun are just amazing this time of year.  There is not any haze in the air from humidity so the blues are super crisps and the grays are low hanging and deep.  I AM thankful that all of the precipitation we received was in the form of rain; I am not really for a snow storm yet :-) 

--Last week my computer got "hi jacked" by some website; it was screaming at me; I was not happy at all.  Josh ran some security check and took care of it for me but it still took me 3 days to even try to log back in or go online.  Thankfully everything seems to be fine and working like it should. 

--I'm pretty happy with what I've been accomplishing with my goals.  Granted the last two weeks have been super busy so I had to put my "schedule" aside and instead just take care of the day to day things.  I'm looking forward to things really slowing down with the next week.  Weekends seem to be busy (or my kids are busy HA!) but the weekdays are not.  School, School, and more School needs to happen during the day! 

-- Saying that I have a 17 year old now is weird.  It seems so different than 16.  He's an awesome 17 year old, though, and I'm thankful he is ours. 

-- Nate will be testing for his 2nd Don (Black Belt) in December.  I've really enjoyed seeing him improve by leaps and bounds this past year.  The Grand Master (the highest TKD instructor in his type of TKD) has taken in interest in him which is great.  He would like to train Nate which is quite the compliment.  

-- I have started a prayer journal recently.  I haven't done that since it was required in a class for college.  I wanted to challenge myself to write down the things I say I will pray for as well as my own requests and then also write down the answers so I can look back after a year and really see what God has done.  Is it perfect? No.  Do I always remember to write things down? No.  So I'm also working on not being a perfectionist with it too. 

--For now, I think that's all of my misc. musings.  :-)  

Left It In The River (Lyrics) | Jamie MacDonald

This was a new one to me that I heard on our local Christian Station while working on my blog :-)  It's upbeat and catchy!