summer time!!

i know y'all are getting used to my gaps in blog time (something i never intended) but i guess i also never intended to be this overwhelmed in motherhood. on sunday morning, our class teacher reminded us that our first area for mission work started in our very own homes. i don't know about y'all, but some a lot of days, i'm thinking that going out into all the world would be much easier. you hear what i'm sayin'?

i am so very glad that it's summer time because we aren't bound to a schedule every week. i actually only have 3 weeks where something specific is planned and the rest is up to us. there is always something funny coming out of one of their little usually smart mouths (see my facebook page for frequent updates on that front.) speaking of...i have been stopped a lot recently with people telling me that they love my status updates. i'm not sure how to feel about it. maybe they tell me that b/c i'm brave enough to keep it real? i don't know. my kids aren't perfect and i definitely don't try to only capture and relay the moments when they can be. i'm just a mom, trying my hardest, and failing every day and as seth would probably tell you, failing in a lot of ways, to get these little monsters humans to at least act like they are the species that i am. (seth is a complainer by nature. he's 5 and he's rotten. i'm apparently doing him an injustice by cooking fresh food every night...more on sunday's stand off later.)

so, all that to say this...we have been busy the last couple of weeks graduating from 1st grade, losing more teeth, playing baseball in 100 degree heat, throwing up b/c of it, making out summer fun charts, splashing in a blow up pool, counting down the days until the beach and i am counting down the days to school starting, baseball parties, bike riding, morning walks, hitting, crying, facebooking for sanity...you know...the usual.

i hope to report more frequently about all the fun things we want to do this summer, but for real moments, you know where you can look. my status updates frequently. it's cheaper than therapy.

kindergarten or bust

this little turkey is moving on to kindergarten! hard to believe. his teachers always tell me how sweet he is and i'm so thankful that they do (b/c that is NOT always the case at home!) i can't wait to see what he can do in "big school" this next year. i hope he is kind and takes the opportunity to reach out to others who might not make friends as easily as this kid who has almost never known a stranger. we were surprised and proud when his MMO director asked if he would lead the opening prayer at their end of the year program. she said he always says the sweetest ones and that does a mama's heart real good, y'all! we love you bubby!!

who needs wendy's?

peeps, it needs to be known that i absolutely adore most any kind of asian chicken salad. it's basically all i order anytime to go to applebee's and what i always used to get when the hubs wanted a chicken sandwich from wendy's (although the ones i make at home have way less fat...but whatevs. sometimes you just want the goodness, ya know?) anyway...sometime this last year, wendy's became dead to me when they REPLACED their oriental/asian/mandarin...whatever...chicken salad with the apple something or other salad. SO WRONG. i have been on the quest to make it the same way at home...the problem was that i couldn't find the dressing. and the dressing makes a lot of salads. especially if they are...we'll say "themed". today, i have achieved my goal. the mission is complete! it probably could have been done easier, but today is when the missing ingredient finally made it what i wanted it to be. the dressing needed a little bit of honey. i'm not a honey eater, so it was escaping me...until now!

so...if you ever liked the wendy's salad...here's what you need:

Lettuce (today i used what i had, which was butter lettuce)
1 Grilled Chicken Breast, diced or sliced (i used the pre-cooked frozen ones that i get at walmart and keep on hand alllllllll the time.)
Mandarin Oranges
Sliced Almonds (i used the Almond Accents roasted version)
Chow Mein Noodles
Publix brand Roasted Asian Sesame salad dressing
A Squeeze of Honey

layer as listed. mix a little bit of honey into your dressing and coat thoroughly. love it! a perfect summertime salad. you are welcome.

if anyone is actually still around to read this nonsense, i thank you. Real life is insane, as i'm sure it is for all of you. But we are wrapping up the school year/sports season, so I should have time to catch up soon!

103 hours

that is how long we were without power after what is reported to be the second deadliest tornado system in u.s. history ripped though our area on wednesday. i don't have pictures of the distruction as you couldn't get down into the effected (affected? i never know) areas unless you were there to clean. i haven't been down to help yet as i was more worried about making sure my kids were clothed and fed. but i really hope to soon. several families reached out to us and we are so very thankful to them for providing us a place to take a warm shower, wash a couple of loads of clothes and a warm meal. we kept our phones charged either by being in the car when we were out and about or at the church building.

luke has been out of school since wednesday and we won't know when they will go back as of yet. for sure they are still out tomorrow. the area damaged near our house (about 4 miles south to north east) cut through both routes we could take to get luke to school. we haven't been over that way since thursday, so i'm not sure what has happened there since then.

we were so very lucky that we only had one large tree down on our fence (which i posted to facebook). otherwise, we were completely fine (well, minus the power thing, but that really is so insignificant.)

our song leader from church lost their home, but fortunately the Lord protected them in their storm shelter during the 10 seconds that it pummeled everything around them.

i hope that you will continue to pray for the residents of middle/north alabama (and anyone else that was in the path) of this viscious storm. so many homes and businesses are still without power and so much else. this is a video that was put together by some of the men at our church of the efforts that have been going on out in our community.

a month ago...

...i cooked for a day and we ate for a month. (and now for some reason that chinese proverb about teaching a man to fish is coming to mind.) you'll need to click to see any detail on that pic, by the way. anyway, i used everything from last month except for 1 bag of spaghetti sauce mix, 1 bag of sloppy joe mix and a few of the tacos. several of you have asked how it went, so i thought i'd post my menu calendar for you. (yes, i know it's much more entertaining than telling you about ally claire having cut her own hair--you saw those facebook pics, right? and i still haven't posted pics from going to the circus, but maybe i'll do that when i give you the movie review at the end of the month when i go see my boyfriend in Water for Elephants--which is an awesome book, btw. read it!)

ok...so...

i had to plan around 6 baseball practices a week, and both of them practicing on friday nights, meaning that there were several times that we ate in shifts, and every friday night was pizza night...so just keep that in mind. also, my kids are picky eaters, but they did awesome this month and i'm very proud of them. i'm hoping with the summer coming that we can incorporate more variety to the veggie situation. i didn't always list the sides in the menu you see, either, but you get the gist of it.

a few things i learned...

1.) if you are going to have anything saucy...DOUBLE BAG! it prevents spills and also when you thaw it in your fridge...the whole thing doesn't smell like sloppy joes or mexican chicken.

2.) write that menu out in pencil. some nights you are just not feelin' what you planned. but since you have tons to choose from, just go right ahead and pull a switcheroo. no one will know except for your kids who can read and are on TOP of what's on the menu. for instance, you see on the 29th when it said we had turkey burgers? we didn't. i just forgot to change that. that was a practice night, as well as my birthday, so i called an audible and we ate chinese. it was in the budget and besides, who wants to wash dishes on their *coughthirtythirdcough* birthday?

3.) keep a running inventory list. a must when weekly menu planning. i only make my menu a week at a time. i'm sure it may seem odd to you to make my weekly menu after i've cooked a month's worth...meaning i should make out the menu and then cook accordingly. but for me, it works to have the basics done so that i can mix and match and rearrange as we go. i mean, who knew that luke loved BBQ chicken?

4.) keep easy things around so that you don't automatically run out for something else. not every single meal has to be homemade. i mean, doesn't your hubs or your kids usually wind up ordering chicken fingers when going out to eat? haven't you snuck (is that a word?) back to the deli at Walmart and doled out that cup of popcorn chicken so that you could shop in peace? (sorry...we like chicken.) buy a bag for quickness. you know that even if you don't want to take the time to grill your own chicken breasts or hamburger patties that they sell bags already done up for you? just microwave to your little hearts content and jazz it up a little. those little bags of Idahoan mashed potatoes that come in five hundred flavors...best thing/time saver EVAH! don't even get me started on those steamfresh veggies.

5.) give it a try. you never know unless you try. i'm not sure that we saved any grocery money this month, but we did awesome on the out to eat budget fo sho! this month i will concentrate on the grocery budget to see how i'm doing. i'm visual and i like to see a list in one place. my goal is to save, of course, but at least not to go over. at the moment, i don't have time to run all over creation to every sale, or the storage room to take advantage of much stocking up, so i have to concentrate on what we need at the moment and finding the best deal i can within 2 stores (caue gas is SKY high and it better be a good sale for me to drive 20 miles one way to the Kroger. I'm just sayin'. oh, and did y'all hear that you can't stack coupons there anymore?)

anyway...that's it for now. today was supposed to be cooking day again, but school just released early, meaning there is a tornado warning or something like that, so i have an extra kid today...and the power may go out. at least i have something already planned for supper tonight!

purdy...

one less wheel spinning

hi sisters!! (cause i don't think the men-folk, other than my hubs, read this.) so i am nearing the end of the second week of enjoying the ease that was brought on by my epic cooking day. several of you have asked how it's been going, so i'm here to report.

first off, we'll address the OCD/list maker tendencies that i have. i'm not proud. a few years ago i found a weekly menu form (breakfast/lunch/supper) on the Cheap Cooking website that i use to plan out our menus every single week. now, before you think i'm a good mom, let me preface this by saying i'm not a breakfast cooker, so that column looks something along the lines of pop-tarts every other day (because my kids would eat them every day if i'd let them) alternating with something else (usually cereal or muffins or cereal bars.) i'm not really a breakfast eater and they are way picky, so...ya know. lunches vary as well. luke has his own lunch menu schedule (which helps micah, who is the one who packs it) and the other two kids usually eat hotdogs or sandwiches and me, just whatever i can find. (that is also an area i need to reign in a little better.) next, i printed out a blank march calendar from my microsoft program. (we typically have a copy or two lying around somewhere because with having kids who refuse to share, we put everything except the toilet on a rotation schedule. forced sharing is total win, justsoyaknow.) Then I sat down with my inventory list and tried to make the best mix/rotation of foods that i could, and still accomodate the baseball schedule. (is it any wonder i am #1. insane, #2. unreachable by phone, and #3. completely out of touch with what is going on in my friends' lives.--Hey Lindsey! I didn't know you moved or that you were homeschooling!--Hey Darby! Thanks for the book rec of The Mission of Motherhood. It's the first book that i paid for on my Kindle.--Hey Tara M.! Thanks for the info on "farm shopping.")

ok, where was i? oh yes, under a mound of lists. see, i like to be able to see everything at a glance. I also like variety, so having an inventory list, a master monthly menu and then a weekly one (for general grocery shopping and so that the kids know what we're having) works well for me. it really is organized chaos. I'd let micah take a picture of me doing this, but i'm fairly certain that i don't actually show up on film. so, in my week, i do plan an out to eat meal once a week. i thought about doing sunday lunch, and occasionally we will, but i'm thinking that it may vary between saturday night and sunday. still working on what works best for us on that one. there have been some days that i had my menu all planned out and then that day, i just wasnt' feelin' it. the good thing is that it didn't matter. i had several other things that i could choose from b/c they were already waiting for me in my freezer. problem solved and it didn't come down to a last minute, "let's just go pick something up."

i still have plenty in my inventory for the moment. this is a pay week, so i'm going to pick up some ground hamburger/turkey and make and grill some hamburgers and then freeze them. i mean, they sell them already cooked in the freezer section. surely i can do it and make them healthier, right?

another thing i might suggest is browsing some of the menu planning sites that are out there and giving one of their 3-month subscriptions a try. they usually give you a shopping list and a prep list along with the menu suggestions so that it takes the guess work right out of it. If nothing else, it will give you a few items to add to your repertoire that you may not have had or thought of before. it helps break me out of the cooking the same ole thing every week or two rut. try e-mealz or 5Dinners1Hour.

thanks for the interest while i get it figured out. any mom on the go should give it a try for sure!

oh, question for my SAHM friends...if you had a job outside of the home before you had kids and now stay at home, do you ever plan on working outside of the home at a later time? i'm just curious.