What Works for Me

What works for me (or my family) might not work for yours. Here is what works for us as far as menu planning goes.

Monday: some type of crockpot dish

Tuesday: TACO TUESDAY (we don't always do tacos, but we do do some kind of "taco" take on dinner. ie: burritos, taco soup, chicken tacos...you get the idea)

Wednesday: another crockpot dish or sometimes I try something new

Thursday: breakfast for dinner

Friday: pizza

Saturday & Sunday: we play it by ear. sometimes we do breakfast, sometimes we do a soup or sandwich. On special occasions we eat out and a lot of Sunday's we eat at Mimi & G-pa's house (family dinner night).

We have really been trying to stay on a strict food budget, and since January we have eaten out twice (ordered pizza from dominoes on customer appreciation day...can you beat $3 pizzas?? and montezuma's mexican restaurant last Friday). For two weeks of dinner, not including the extra milk I'll need to get, I spent $110...not too bad. That also includes breakfast foods, lunches and a few special treats. Gotta love those coupons :-)

So, do you want to know what we are having for dinner during the next two weeks??

Week 1:

Monday: no crockpot dinner tonight, just hotdogs, mac-n-cheese and greenbeans

Tuesday: Mexican Stew & cornbread (switched my crockpot to Tuesday to keep the "taco" theme)

Wednesday: Roasted chicken with potatoes & side (probably corn or wax beans)

Thursday: with the left over chicken, we are having Artichoke Chicken Linguine (a friend shared the recipe and I knew we were having chicken...so why not)

Friday: Pizza (it's dance night, pizza is the easiest since we don't get home until 5:45 and the girls are pretty strict with dinner around 5:15)
Saturday: we have plans Saturday night, so the girls will have chicken nuggets, applesauce and yogurt

Sunday: what's on the menu mom?? :) we might be traveling to see some friends, so Cathy...what's for dinner??

Week 2:

Monday: Flank steak stuffed with rice

Tuesday: Cornbeef & Cabbage...HAPPY ST. PATTY'S DAY!

Wednesday: (switching taco tuesday to waco wednesday...lol, just trying to be funny there!)

Thursday: Tilapia with corn & rice

Friday: you guessed it...Pizza

Saturday: the in-laws will be in, so I'm almost positive we'll get crabs...which is fine with me :) I'm in the mood to be a little crabby...

To top it off, the girls and I like to make brownies or cookies here and there, and that will last throughout the week, so we get a little dessert :-) YUM!

There you have it...if you have a delicious recipe you would like to share I am open to suggestions. I love a new recipe, especially one that my family will love.

Paul is at a lax booster meeting, so I'm going to scrap, here's what I've worked on recently:

These are 6x4 LOs that I created for my uncle for his birthday...I made him a really cute little mini-scrapbook documenting a family vacation we took in 2007. I plan on adding to that book through out the year :-)

Overheard Today...

This morning, while dropping Big wee one off at school, I heard one of her classmates talking with another student. It went something along the lines of this:

Girl: Do you know what kind of dog has four legs?
Boy: -stairing blankly at her- I don't think he really cared at all.
Girl: (still talking, oblivious to the fact that he's just staring at her) A big one. With big legs. Big legs just like my mom!

LMAO...there is no telling what my child says about me! You never know what your 4 year old could potentially say. I wanted to tell the mom because I thought it would be funny, but she isn't overly friendly (not one bit) and BWO has complained about this girl being mean to her. So instead, I chuckled to myself...your kid says you have big legs...lol.

I'm not all that spiteful, heck I've had my fair share of "Mom did you just toot?", while in a crowded bathroom. Or walking through Kohl's an odd odor appears and BWO says, "I smell a fart in here!" (in a sing songy tone)...it happens to all of us. It's embarrassing, but funny. I just think its funnier because the lady never cracks a smile, even when I say, "HI" (in my sickening chirpy morning tone) and her little girl things she has big legs...lol.

It's MONDAAAYYYY!!!

Lacrosse

Starts tomorrow.

But apparently we are in the path of a huge winter storm, which really doesn't mean much at all. We could either get dumped with like 14 inches of snow, or get barely an inch. Either way, Paul says practicing on the turf with any kind of snow on it is going to suck. All I have to say is: Sucks for him. ha...made myself laugh there!

After looking at the weather online is says possible accumulation of about an inch to 3 inches...which blows me away because Philly is getting anywhere from 8-14 inches. You know, I didn't buy brand new princess snow boots for nothing. Can't we just get some snow for once? Please? I'm not asking for much, just enough so the girls can get out and play in it. Poor, snow deprived, never get to go sledding children.

We had a pretty chill weekend. Friends over for pizza and beer on Friday night, play/scrap date Saturday morning, then vegged the rest of Saturday. Paul and I watched "W." on tv...very interesting look at George W. Bush. Sunday, we woke up to about an inch of the white stuff on the ground, so I gathered up all the snow gear and headed over to Mimi & G-pa's house to play outside. By the time we got there (around 10:30 am), all of their snow was gone :( So we did some crafts, colored, worked on wine labels for my dad and digi scrapped. Very relaxing day.

My dad is working on opening a winery in Chambersburg. I've been creating the labels for the wine...here are some of them:

This is a pretty exciting adventure he's going on. I've had people stop me on the street to rave about his wine (those that I have given bottles to downtown...sharing the downtown love). It's extremely flattering...whenever it all goes down, I'm looking forward to help more with what he needs me to. And I must admit that his Chenin Blanc is my personal favorite :-) GOOD LUCK DAD!

I also did a little more scrapping today, and here are the LOs I finished:

Tomorrow I have a dinner wrap up for the Chili Cook-Off committee and I'm pretty excited about it. I really loved working the ladies on this committee (during IceFest) and since we all have very different careers and don't always cross paths, it will be nice to catch up with them for a bit. Afterwards, I'm heading over to my girlfriends house to watch the season finale of the Bachelor. Lots of dirt is about to go down! Have a great start to your week!

Been Scrappin'

I scrapped with some friends on Thursday night and then again this morning, and on and off today I've been doing a little scrapping. Enjoy :-) Punk page above is a re-do...I didn't like the first attempt, so I did it again...I like it much better now.

2-page LO from Easter of '07

*Note: please don't think that the majority of layouts (LOs) I do are of Little wee one, it's just that I have SO many of BWO, that LWO deserves to play catch up**

I've been thinking.

Here's what I've been thinking.

Sometimes, I get a little bummed around my non-parent friends.

(even though this is the life and path that we chose...I'm just saying....)

It must be so amazing to sleep in late and go have a drink whenever you choose. To not have to check on your spouse to make sure he/she is going to be home to watch the kids or to spend the extra money on paying someone to watch your kid...or in some cases, begging your mom to watch them. It's not fair. It bites a big one at times.

BUT...

My nonparent friends don't get to see this:

through a crack in the door to a wee one's bedroom. Their daddy has been gone all day, they literally have not seen him since yesterday and I got to catch this special moment the three of them had.

I then feel bad for my nonparent friends because they don't know what it feels like to love something so much it makes you crinch in your stomach. That they don't get to hug someone so adorable whenever they want, or hear a little tiny voice say, "I wuv yoo". They may not get to hear in the morning as they are rushing out the door, "Mommy, you look pretty today. I like your shoes." Little things that make you want to grab that little wee one and hug them until you squeeze their guts out. And believe me, sometimes it takes every muscle in my body to control myself from squeezing the stuffing right out of them.

Yea, sometimes it sucks that Paul and I can't just go out and do whatever we please, whenever we please. But, we get to share incredible moments with two of the most amazing little people in the world.

And I'm sure that one day my nonparent friends will understand, why we chose to stay home or didn't want to pay the babysitter extra. I'm sure they will also have their own wee ones to hold and to love and will get that though going out is fun, that sometimes staying in is the MOST fun.

10 on Tuesday

I'm tired today...we have colds again in our casa de' la flohr. Pretty soon, we'll be sitting pretty in sunshine with no signs of green snot rockets in site :-) It will be a beautiful day! In the meantime, here are 10 things that make me smile :-)

1.wouldn't that be an awesome bed to have in your bedroom...if we had a nook in a house, i would create this for the girls :-)

2.you can purchase these cool repositionable picture frames here...aren't they cute and funky

3.

this website, food gawker, makes my mouth water. there are always TONS of delicious looking recipes pasted all over that bad jackson...go there and indulge yourself with something scrumptious!

4.

i found this sweet little doll on etsy, but now i can't find the seller. i think i saved the picture thinking i would ask mimi to help me figure out how to make it. isn't she cute. sweet and simple.

5.

i wonder if paul would ever let me decorate our dining room to look like this. i love it. so open and airy, a "come in and use me" kind of feel to it. i would use it. i would have dinner parties galor and coffee on saturdays. this room would get used! the only thing i think i would do differently is have a solid pattern material on the chairs. but everything else i love, and i also love that it would go with my china. my china that is packed away waiting for a room like this to be used. i miss you china!

6.

speaking of china...here is mine. so simple and pretty, not to mention elegant. i love it. i know i will love it forever too. probably one of the BEST things we received when we got married (that and my mixer, and our bedding)

7.

and speaking of wedding...this makes me smile. what an honor to be chosen for magazines. a couple of different ones. it was pretty crazy to have your friends email you and say, "did i really see you in a magazine?" pretty cute couple right ;-) if you lived in the philly area, i guess about 4-5 years ago (not sure how long they used that picture, probably not too long) then you might have seen us :-) what a perfect way to document our perfect day!

8.

this picture makes me smile because it was my first college formal with paul. look how young and thin he looks. man, i've made him old! i'm sorry honey, i'm sorry i've made you old...but you are still so handsome to me! and as a side note, i'm pretty sure there wasn't any drinking going on here...back to paul, isn't he so cute. ok, i'm a little biased, but really he NEVER smiles with teeth, so this is a rare, rare moment and i love that someone caught it on camera and i was able to copy it from facebook ;-)

9.

this little munchkin makes me smile and makes me sad. i haven't seen her since she was about 6 months old, but on the other side, pictures like this totally brighten my day. i'm also happy that her mommy and i are getting closer everyday. technology is beautiful thing, and jessica and i are lucky that we can talk every day on the computer. we've agreed to keep each other on track and focused this year :-) my brother is lucky to have her as his wife, and munchkin for her mom and me as a sister. i love and miss you sooooo much little girl! (and your mommy and daddy!)

10. coffee with my girlfriends makes me smile, and so does chill time at my parent's house. they both make me smile equally...both are needed desperately and both are loved beyond measure.

Have a great night!

It's Saturday Night

and the mood is right.

For scrapping. Paul watched an AWFUL movie on tv, so I scrapped. I had full intentions of working on wine labels for my dad, but I came across these cool photoshop actions (used on the LOs of BWO and LWO). I had been trying to figure out how to install them on my computer for a day or two, and once I figured it out, of course I had to do a couple of pages.

So, Dad, since we plan on getting snow tonight, I will be working on some labels for you! In the meantime, enjoy the LOs and I'm hitting the sack. I made a stickybuns coffee cake, and the sooner I hit the sack the sooner I can wake up and eat them! Have delicious dreams :-)