Busy Monday, April 28

Today's 'To-Do' List

• Write this Blog 
• Menu
• Lunch with Peter
• Groceries
• Return library book and check out new one
• Gym
• Plant stuff bought Saturday from the Botanical Garden

Some how I get the feeling more stuff will be tacked onto my day. The sales ads were horrible! I ended up digging through my pantry and inside freezer (I think most of the stuff in the outside one will have to be tossed since Peter has some stuff on top of it that is too heavy for 1 person to move safely so I haven't been able to get inside of it for a VERY long time now.)

Menu

• Chili Dogs & Chips
• Chicken Nuggets & French Fries
• Spaghetti with Chicken
• Hamburger Helper with Peas
• Pizza
• Chicken & Rice with Corn
• Breakfast for Dinner

This Week's 'To-Do' List

• Gym on Tuesday and Thursday after work with my friend. 
• Drive Brielle into School Friday for an Orchestra competition (had it on my mind it was last week but it is this week I'm rather frazzled)
• Peter has his Friday Night Magic game 
• Saturday Katherine starts going back out to play Pokemon
• We have to hit Katherine's project hard this week. I had hoped a couple weeks ago when they were on spring break that she would do some but I guess I'll just have to be glad my oldest was able to watch my youngest because even if she went to holiday camp (which my oldest can't now due to age) the project still wouldn't have been done.

Again I'm sure more stuff will be thrown onto my plate. It normally is. 

Last Week

It was one heck of a week especially at work. Friday I didn't even get to eat lunch I was so slammed I didn't have time to even take my 10 min break which is when I normally much on something real quick and then I had agreed to go to the gym with my friend so on the way to the gym from work I was stuffing my face full of the cucumber I had brought as a snack for the day. It really was one of those weeks and I'm not sure the next few months of weeks are going to be much better (though I can't go skipping food every day). I'm sure I'll get complained at Tuesday about that one because I off handed mentioned it to my supervisor but there was just so much to do and a critical deadline that landed on my lap! 

 Picture looks weird turned this way lol. This is one of my more yummy lunches. A turkey BLT but I put the T on the side (the red) so it wouldn't get all icky with a side of cucumbers and some cantaloupe.
Why this picture? Well actually because of the box. It's a collapsable Bento box that I actually bought for my oldest Brielle because she wants to start making japanese like meals but as she wasn't using it yet I decided to use it. I have now decided that if she uses it more then I'm going to have to go buy myself one! It works wonderfully and the separator tray (not shown) actually goes into the freezer and works like an ice pack to keep foods cool! I love that!

 I want to say this was Tuesday when I had a little time at work to spare (or rather I made the time because my pants kept annoying me and falling down. Yup I've dropped a pants size! Woot! Though it's not all fun and games now nothing fits right!

 I did go out shopping again for clothes for the family after being told the yellow I picked wouldn't work. These are the outfits I got for myself and the girls and Peter wore blue jeans and a blue polo shirt.

Picture I took while sitting on the front porch with my phone. I love it when the dogwoods are in bloom.
I'm sure I've shown a billion pictures of it but I love it!

 A glare picture off of the treadmill. I've got a lot of friends that suddenly have taken the initiative to get back into health which makes it easier for me because now I have people to work out with! That always makes it better and gives a lot more motivation!

Last picture. This is one of the plants I bought Saturday. It's a Stevia plant. Everyone always complains at me that I need to get away from splenda and use stevia so I said well gosh darn it fine and just bought a plant of it LOL!




Have a great week! 

Busy Monday, April 21

Today's 'To-Do' List

• Drive Brielle into School
• Write this Blog 
• Menu
• Lunch with Peter
• Groceries
• Return library movie
• Go out and look at clothes again
• Plant Parsley

You'll notice everything is crossed off. Pretty much because I started this blog last night and I've been running from the moment we stepped out the door at 7am to just now when I get to sit down at 4:45pm. I'm pretty exhausted tell the truth.
Dinner is in the oven and I'm just trying to take a breather. Dinner was going to be done on time because I came home long enough to start the oven and asked Brielle to put it in the oven when it was pre-heated. Normally Brielle likes to set the timer for 5 hrs instead of 50 min so I went back over the directions of how to set the timer. When I came home she was so proud that she set the timer right she was like, "Look mom only 35 minutes left!" I then had to ask her what she was cooking as I stared at the food on the counter that never went in the oven. So dinner will be a little late tonight but not horribly so. 

And turns out we don't have enough cat litter so it appears I'm going back out to the store tonight. I really just want to relax for a little while. (sighs)

Menu

• Sliced Turkey w/gravy, w/Potatoes & Corn - Hold over from Sunday because I got heat exhaustion so cooking was out of the question. Instead my husband went out and picked something up. 
• Tacos - Another hold over because Saturday we were at our friends Easter Hunt until 6pm so going home to make dinner was out of the question that late.
• Cheese & Ham Grills w/Tomato Soup
• Spaghetti
• Cookout
• Eat Out
• Pizza

This Week's 'To-Do' List

• Pick up Brielle after school a day or two this week as many in her class are needing to do that to finish up testing in math.
• Meeting with Photographer and pay sitting fee
• Drive Brielle into School Friday for an Orchestra competition
• First Family Portrait this Saturday!! - It's got me scared to death. We've never had a family photo taken. We've handed our camera to random people while on vacation and that is about as close as we've ever gotten.  
• Botanical Garden Annual Plant Sale
• Magic the Gathering Pre-Release
• Take children to library to return/check out books
• Cook Out with Friends?!? -- I'm still trying to set this up. 
• Oh and Tuesdays and Thursdays I'm going to be meeting a friend after work at the gym to work out. I'm not sure how long I'll keep up with this plan but I'm going to try. 

Last Week

It's hard to believe I'm coming off of a 4 day weekend. We've been so busy and there were many things that didn't go onto my calendar and tried to take me by surprise. Brielle had a meeting with Honor's Society one day, I had the Library Garden Fair on Saturday and directly from there we went to an Easter Egg hunt with the kids way out in the county. A bunch of other stuff happened too I'm sure. It all becomes a blur after a while.

Saturday night we dyed eggs. I told you it's been busy so everything has pretty much been last minute around here it seems.

 My table was is littered with stuff! Oh so much stuff! I emptied out my little egg jars and we started separating jelly beans and candy into the smaller jars. It's the only way I could think of so I could get the eggs put away (which they aren't of course they are in a bag waiting to be put away).

I made sure not to cut the lawn for the Easter Egg hunt this morning. The bunny never made it into the house other than to drop off baskets seeing how the kids were up at 6:30 am they were so excited!




Sunday, I spent the whole day out in the yard raking, mowing, trimming, pulling, weeding and it seemed like everything else. I'm still trying to refind my yards from the very long winter we had.
I did find out that I need to get someone to sharpen my lawn mower blade though. There are a lot of things I will do and I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty. I'll even change out the oil, the spark plugs and change the blade on a lawn mower but the idea of sharpening the blade always makes me worry I'm going to ruin the blade and half to buy a new one.
I did give myself quite the burn though... don't mind the bathroom told ya I've been busy!
I really should think about my surroundings before I start snapping pictures LOL. Or take the time to edit the pictures.

Busy Monday, April 14

Today's 'To-Do' List

• Write this Blog - In Progress
• Menu
• B12 Injection at Hospital
• Lunch with Peter
• Groceries
• Return library books
• Go down to the Extension Center and get us signed up for the banquet
• Go to Walmart to buy oatmeal and coffee (sadly only Walmart carries the two brands/items) so this requires a special trip out there. 
• Purchase items to make Easter Baskets 
• Pick up Brielle early for Orthodontist Appt. 

Menu

Well I just didn't have time this weekend to sit the kids down and have them pick out a meal to make this week so this week they get off a little from the kitchen. Though my kitchen could probably use the break it is quite the mess to say the least. 

• Chili Dogs
• Hamburger Helper w/Peas
• Cheesy Chicken
• Banquet (eat-out)
• Pizza
• Tacos
• Sliced Turkey w/gravy, w/Potatoes & Corn

This Week's 'To-Do' List

• STEM Club
• Katherine's Dental Appt. 
• 4-H Banquet 
• Take children to library to return/check out books
• Try to get more work done in the yard 

Last Week

It was another stressful week at work and there was one day I was screaming and cussing in my office and am just glad everyone else in my building had left for the day. I think work is trying to kill me lately just with all the silly stuff adding up. 

The kids survived being home all week though they didn't do much it seems other than play on the computers and the DS.
Brielle lost Katherine's draw string bag that Katherine had sewn so Brielle spent the rest of the week pretty bored grounded from a lot of stuff. 

Early this past week Katherine went ahead and released Diggy into the wild. She raised Diggy to be a very sweet bug and I hope Diggy gets to go on lots of adventures in the big world.
I went out and checked on Diggy after work since we just laid his cage over so he could crawl out and Diggy was still in his bedding! I think he would have stayed there forever had we not dumped out his bedding because that's where he was raised.
A very sweet bug. Diggy will be missed.

 So this was the meal that Katherine made last week. It was the Potatoes and Peas and Chicken with a creamy sauce. It was 'interesting'. It wasn't bad by any means and the girls did a good job on making it though I was in there to help a lot with the chopping and such but they did the rest.

Brielle made enchiladas. (To note the girls help each other with each others meals.) She used a soft wrap instead of a corn tortilla so they were kind of gooey but otherwise the girls should be proud of themselves. Other than a few minor questions the girls did it 100% on their own.

 This weekend we put in some serious work on the garden. I made 2 new raised beds and we hauled 1,600 lbs of topsoil (in bags no less!) and then several bags of potting soil and I cleared my composter out of it's soil. Before all this I fabric-ed the area and also go mulch down.  It was a lot of work! I then took the kids out and they bought some pretty stuff for the garden area to make it feel more welcoming.
Katherine got the peas planted and when we get the chance I'm going to get Brielle out there to get the lettuce planted.
Our little garden is starting to come along again. Re-doing the garden area was expensive this year but it's been 4 or 5 years since I gave the garden area some love so it was about time.

 The girls decided I needed to defrost some strawberries and while Peter and I were outside working they decided to bake red velvet cupcakes (with permission of course).
So this is how they did it. Red Velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting and strawberries! Doesn't that look like death by sugar?!

Well lots of stuff happened last week including showing up to a 4-H meeting that was apparently canceled but no one told anyone :P But as it is now I better run and get ready to go down to the hospital. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful week! 

Busy Monday, April 7

Today's 'To-Do' List

• Write this Blog - In Progress
• Menu
• Lunch with Peter
• Groceries
• Return library books & let Katherine get a new book (She's devouring 200+ page books in around 3 days! Thank goodness for the public library!)
• Kids are on Spring Break this week so I'm going to be making up chore lists for this week for them while Peter & I are at work. 
• One task is going through their clothes they need to trim them down and get out what doesn't fit! 

Menu

• Sloppy Joes and Chips
• Chicken Nuggets & French Fries? (Not sure on this one.)
• Kids Menu:
• Chicken with Peas and Potatoes (It has some sort of sauce on it Katherine found in one of my cookbooks.)
• Royal Round Beef
• Pizza
• Kids menu:
• Beef Enchiladas
• Grilled Chicken, Baked Potatoes and Corn on the Cob

*Yes, the children elected to take 2 days to cook this week. They couldn't decide between things so I told them they could have 2 days to cook and they got super excited. 

This Week's 'To-Do' List

• Project Club
• Work on yard if weather every allows me too. 
• Help Brielle finish up last Project Clubs project. 

Last Week

Last week was extremely stressful at work. There is so much going on there I really regret ever working because it just seems like I'm cha-chaing back and forth and never really getting anywhere while everyone else is tighter than a top. Truthfully here it is Day 3 of my weekend and I'm still stressed from last week. 

My dentist appointment went okay though it took until the evening for me to feel like I had a lip and a nose again. They said it was just a little spot but it sure felt like they were going to dig into my skull! I'm amazed I have teeth though. I was talking to my mom about it because I didn't have memories of the dentist and yup I only got to go a couple times in my life when I was younger and never when I was older because of lack of insurance. I'm glad that I've been able to provide my kids with dental care and I really hope they start appreciating it instead of me having to gripe to get them in to brush their teeth every morning and every night. 

Peter and I divided and conquered the PTO meetings with him at the school with Katherine and I was at the school with Brielle. That was the first night we ate out. We out a second time last week too. It was just so busy and so stressful for all of us. 

This is Wednesday. The thing about STEM club is that it starts at 4pm! I have to make sure to leave work and go pick up the kids because if they rode the bus then we'd be too late since Brielle's bus doesn't arrive home until LATE. So on STEM club days we are in the car and in the parking lot working on homework trying to get it done since STEM runs us so late into the night.
Ah the joys of having kids in so many activities.

So am I the only one that watched the Duct Tape channel? I was so stressed out one night after work that I decided to pull stuff out right then and make this box after watching the video. That's what I do when I get uber stressed. I find something to do with my hands that I can focus in on.

I took the same technique I was making the nail polish flowers with and made a butterfly out of it.
Again it makes the house stinky to do this but they are cute.

This is the homemade calzones with dough made from a recipe Peter wanted me to try since it was set up for the bread machine. The dough was very springy so it made it hard to work with but it didn't taste bad. The girls want us to make calzones again sometime. 

 Been working on trying to get things sort of looking more decorated. The middle one was still drying from me gluing it together. I probably should have taken a new picture of it.

Here is the dinner the girls made.
I took my oranges and broke them up over a bed of spinach and drizzled a little balsamic vinaigrette  on it.
But overall it was good but the girls decided the cayenne was a bit much.

The girls had fun making the bread pudding but oh my word I couldn't stop laughing when I saw it. We stirred it up and it was good and the girls want us to copy down the recipe so they can make it again sometime.

While the girls were in the kitchen making dinner I was outside working. I got most of my fence up and threw together a gate though one piece of wood was warped so it made things... interesting and I'm going to have to replace a piece sooner than later because it split when putting the screw in.  *sighs* But it will work for now. 

I was hoping to work outside today but instead we got Thunderstorms and lots of rain.