Menu 6/1

Wait.. it's already Wednesday!?! Oh well! With the 3-day weekend and the birthday party coming up my days are all messed up and crazy! So, I do have a menu.. just a short one!

Wed- Scrambled Eggs, Fried Potatoes and Onions, Fruit

Thurs- Grilled Pork Chops, Grilled Squash, Pasta Salad (made w/ homemade ranch dressing)

Fri- Cheeseburger Pizza, Green Salad

That's it! We had leftovers last night so that only leaves 3 nights from now until the birthday party! I can't believe my Luke will be 4!!

Menu Plan 5/24

I've been menu plan slacking! And I do not like it! I like knowing what we're having, so here is our menu for the week:




Pop Corn Chicken (working on a modified recipe from Heavenly Homemaker, they were good but need some tweaking on the seasoning), Corn on the Cobb, Green Peas


Chicken Taco's (chicken in crock pot w/ homemade taco seasoning mix, shredded w/ fixins), Pinto Beans w/ Bacon and Scallions (new June 2010 EDF recipe, only I'm using dried beans), Brown Salsa Rice (um, which is just brown rice.. with salsa mixed in)


Grilled Pork Chops, Baked Potatoes, Salad w/ homemade ranch dressing


Salmon Patties, Whole Wheat Biscuits, Veggie (not sure yet, will pick up something fresh tomorrow)


The holiday weekend is up in the air. My sister is coming home!! YAY! We can't wait! I'm assuming there will be some yummy food cooked on the grill by my dad and I'll be making some kind of yummy dessert!


This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday at Orgjunkie.com and Mindful Menus at Chive Talkin'!

*And BTW, I have not gained nor lost any more weight. I'm stuck.

Friday Link Up

Here are a few good links I wanted to share with you!

1. Here is a link to a video made up of pictures from the flood in Nashville. It really shows the devastation. But I think, more importantly it proves what a classy city Nashville is. The quotes in the video are from this article entitled "We Are Nashville" by Patten Fuqua. My favorite quote: "A large part of the reason that we are being ignored is because of who we are. Think about that for just a second. Did you hear about looting? Did you hear about crime sprees? No…you didn’t. You heard about people pulling their neighbors off of rooftops. You saw a group of people trying to move two horses to higher ground. No…we didn’t loot. Our biggest warning was, “Don’t play in the floodwater.” When you think about it…that speaks a lot for our city. A large portion of why we were being ignored was that we weren’t doing anything to draw attention to ourselves. We were handling it on our own." I applaud you Nashville, and my prayers are with you!

2. Remember before you had children? I know I do. And I know I thought I had all (or at least most) of the answers! Having my own children quickly taught me that I didn't know much of anything! Thank goodness for grace! Laura at Heavenly Homemakers wrote a terrific post, I Knew So Much Before I had Kids, on that very subject. It's funny and oh so true!

3. I love Bakerella! Love! She posted these a few days ago and they look so yummy! I haven't tried them out, yet. But I will. Just go look at the photos! You'll want to make them too!

4. It's time for bugs, right? Especially pesky mosquitoes! Yuck! I've never felt comfortable spraying my kiddos down with DEET but I never could afford to pay the price (and shipping) to order an all natural brand. Well, I found All Terrain Kid's Herbal Armor at Target the other day. We've been using it in the evenings on the kids and ourselves and it seems to work really well!

5. I'm a big John MacArthur fan! And yesterday's Q&A with Johnny Mac was "Judging Others: The Verse Pagans Love to Quote". Sadly, many Christians misquote this verse as well. I think it's so very important to understand what Scripture really means. Don't get me wrong, the Bible speaks for itself, but sometimes it's nice to have gifted commentators on God's Word to help some of us (ME!) out! Click on Read From the Commentary for MacArthur's notes on this oft misquoted passage.

Have a great weekend!

Family Matters: Eli Edition

I guess most of you know by now that when I say, "I'll be posting this soon" it really means, "I might be posting this in the next month.. or maybe not." I had planned last week to do a post on the boys and then the Hubs and I just for journal purposes but it was busy.. and I didn't get around to it. Being a Mommy and a wife are tough jobs.. if you do them right. And sitting on the computer blogging, while I love it, is not always the best use of my time.

Today, I am going to dedicate this post to my littlest man, Eli. He is for sure my second child! He and Luke are so very different. Eli is much more laid back and 'go with the flow'... well, as long as Mommy is around. Yes, he is a Mommy's boy. All. the. way. He would be completely happy if I held him all day long. When he first wakes up, I typically hold him for about 20-30 minutes. He just will not have it any other way. We get some juice and sit on the couch watching whatever Luke has picked out (right now he's on a Dora kick). Once Eli's woken up, he gets down and plays a little before breakfast. (and I make a fast break before he realizes anything! Ha!) Speaking of playing, Eli is starting to pretend play more. I have caught him with the various Little People we have around the house, pretending. He and Luke do play some together but mainly they just play side by side. He loves to watch Blue's Clues with Luke, too. Otherwise he's not much into TV or movies.

Eli turned 20 months old at the end of April. He weighs right around 22 lbs! He's still a tiny little guy but he's growing just fine! He has a HUGE appetite. You would never guess it but most of the time he out eats Luke at the table. I am sometimes surprised at how much he can eat! He is not as picky as Luke either. He loves bananas, cheese, peanut butter crackers (that I make), cake and hot dogs! And I'm happy to say that he's been drinking whole cow's milk for about a week and a half now! No more goat's milk (um, which was about $3.50 for a quart!)! We tried cow's milk with him when he was about 15 months old and he had some stomach aches. I decided to try it at 20 months and he has been fine. The boys are only drinking Wright's Dairy though. Yum!

Eli is a little wild child! He can turn a room into a disaster in a matter of seconds! It's really frustrating for this Mommy too! It's so hard to clean when someone (ELI!) is going behind me making messes! He loves to get into things he's not suppose to. I know, I know, all kids do this. But he is much worse in this area than Luke ever was! He also loves to climb on things. Couches, tables, chairs.. if he can get on top, he will!

Eli is so funny! He finds ways to make us all laugh everyday. He has the sweetest 'cheese face' with his little scrunched up nose! He says the funniest things too! He already recognizes the 'golden arches' (which btw, we have greatly reduced from our/their diet). I call it the cancer nugget place now, but anyway. When we go to the grocery store and pass by Mickey D's, Eli shouts "Nonald's, Meeee!! Nonald's, Meeee!!" He gets this becuase throughout the day I'll ask something like, "Who wants a snack?" and they'll respond "meee!". Well, Eli just figures, I'll go ahead and say, "Nonald's Meee!" just in case you're wondering if I want to go! If he finds something silly, he says, "That's sil!" So cute!

He's also going through his 'scared' stage. Right now vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers and motorcycles are at the top of the list. Although, he is also fascinated with all three as long as they are not turned on! He wakes up a few times a week scared to death and I just absolutely hate it! But I know he's right at the stage for that to happen! We're still sleeping with the lamp on and that has seemed to help.

Oh and, he's still nursing. Before nap and before bed. No, I don't plan on nursing him past two. But if I wanted to, I could. :)

Here is my sweet love bug eating one of his favorite things, cake!

I can't imagine where he gets his love for sweets?? ;)

Menu Plan Monday 5/10

I didn't have a menu last week mainly because I knew we'd be eating out some (the Hubs birthday was Wed and we had an early Mother's Day dinner out too). We also had lots of extras in the fridge/pantry/freezer. So, I took advantage of that. Now, on to this weeks dinners:

Chicken Salad Sandwiches, Fruit

Sloppy Cornbread, Green Beans

Spinach and Meatball Calzones, Salad

Salmon Patties, Biscuits, Hashbrowns

Tex Mex Turkey Burgers, Steamed Veggies

Check out Orgjunkie.com for more recipes and menus!

Family Matters - Luke Edition

Taking a moment to journal a few things about the family this week...

Luke will be four in a month on June 5th! Wow. Four years old! This child is full of drama! Everything is a major deal to him! This is great when he gets excited about fun, happy, exciting things. But.. not so great when he's upset or something doesn't go his way! Just this morning he went nuts over the fact that his underwear didn't have two 'pockets'. He just noticed the little hole or 'pocket' as he calls it on his underwear for the first time today. Well, of course there should be two! He has two pockets in his blue jeans, right? Why not his underwear? And when I say, he "went nuts", I'm not talking just a little whiny over his one-pocketed underwear. I'm talking wailing over it. I am really having to control myself because to me it's ridiculous, but to him it's not. So, we've learned that in these types of situations (which happen frequently through out the day) we just have to let him calm down and then explain things to him. Once he understood why the 'pocket' was there, he understood why there was only one! HA! He's also very big into sequencing things. Like, first we're going to eat lunch, then Eli will take a nap, then we will play with play dough. Don't dare throw anything in the mix! It totally messes things up! Yesterday, after church the Hubs had told Luke they would clean the van out together, after Eli got to sleep. Well, I was taking Eli to rock him and the Hubs was getting his lunch (he was on the phone while we ate). It just really messed with Luke that it wasn't lunch, Eli nap, clean van. He'd already eaten so why in the world did Daddy have to throw a curve in their plans by eating while Eli napped?! Oh me. At the same time, Luke is a very reasonable child. It's just that he needs to understand things. He's very inquisitive. He asks a lot of questions and loves to know how things work and what things do. He's learning (the hard way) to pick up his toys and clean his room. He's having to learn responsibility and the importance of taking care of things. This isn't always easy but we're learning. He's typically very polite and says please, thank you, and you're welcome. He loves to play with other kids and really wishes that Eli would play with him . (Too bad Eli isn't at that stage yet!)

Right now, he's really into the Magic School Bus DVD's! I love that he loves these educational shows. It feeds his curious mind! Of course he still loves to watch Blue's Clues, Toy Story, and Alvin and the Chipmunks, too! I really have to keep a watch on his TV and movie watching (he LOVES it!). Even during 'no TV' time when the boys are playing, Luke will pop a DVD in on his own. He is getting better about asking me though! He loves to pretend playing store, cars, restaurant, etc. He also loves to cook with me, do crafts and make things!

I am proud to say that he has been diaper/pull up free for 2 and a half weeks now! WOO HOO! I honestly thought this day might never come! We are still on medication, a few times a week, to keep things regular. We've had a few accidents but not many! And he's sleeping all through the night completely dry! He's doing great!

Well, that's about all that's going on with Luke right now! Here's a sweet picture of him after we finished doing a craft! I love him so much I could burst!