Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Snow Days and Christmas at Preschool

So it is snowing....AGAIN! This is only about the 14th time since December began, that's all. I think M has only had about 3-4 snow days, but considering the surrounding counties are on snow day 11 or 12, the public pools should open about 2 weeks before school starts back for next fall! That stinks! We had 10 weeks of summer last year with us getting out in JUNE and all and we have had tons more snow this year. While it is nice to have a few cold weather days where we don't have to get up early and be anywhere, I really like having a nice long summer stretching out in front of us. Oh well, no one asked me.

Yesterday I finally got the preschool teachers' late Christmas "present" done. I had bought everyone gifts for Christmas, but since we missed the week before Christmas, then were out 3 weeks for Christmas break, then proceeded to miss another week of preschool, I decided the time for Christmas-y Christmas gifts had passed. So, my new plan was to cook up some soups and take it to preschool so that everyone would have something for lunch. Most of these people don't bring their lunch or take the time to run and get something, so I thought this would be a good deal. Everyone seemed very appreciative and raved about the soups. I made potato soup - which I could eat all day long and chicken tortilla soup. I also fried up some corn tortilla strips to make it authentic tortilla soup and carried some crackers for those that just need crackers with soup. I made it home with one big bowl of potato soup left! So I would say it went over well. It was nerve wracking though since we seem to have snow in the forecast every single week! I didn't want to end up with these massive pots of soup since my kids avoid vegetables like the plague and my husband wants soup about twice a year when the temperature drops below 10 degrees! So Monday night I was like "Do you think we will go to school? Do you?" Since...yes snow was in the forecast for Tuesday...AGAIN! Anyway about 5 pm I decided to just go for it, and if they called school off again I'd just find someone to give it to. I finished up all but shredding the chicken and cooking the tortilla strips about 11:30pm Monday night. I planned to get up early and finish everything and then get ready to teach at preschool. Well, somewhere along the line, I failed to set my alarm so I got up about 30 minutes after I meant to. Which meant my husband could see the panic in my eyes when I was still cooking tortilla strips 20 minutes before I am supposed to be getting kids out of bed. Anyway, I managed to get everything cooked, my self presentable and the kids up, dressed, and ready on time.
I even managed to get a Starbucks and Walmart run in before time to pick up Jack. I have to say though, the Decaf Caramel Brulee Latte is just not as good without the caffeine. :(
I then proceeded to come home and lay down for a quick nap before it was time to pick Madalynn up, which just made me useless and feel even more tired. That's not good when you have dirtied up not only all the dishes in your kitchen, but all your big pots and crock pots as well. Oh, well...maybe we'll get another snow day!

Monday, January 10, 2011

Meal Plan

Monday-      Hamburgers and French Fries
Tuesday-      Cheeseburger Upside-down Pizza (Didn't get made last week)
Wednesday- Chicken Tortilla Soup & Mexican Flatbread
Thursday-     Chicken Fried Steak, Mashed Potatoes & Peas
Friday-          Butter Chicken & Pasta
Saturday-      Leftovers
Sunday-         Leftovers

YUM! Now off to Zumba and then cook supper!

Sunday, January 9, 2011

A Slump

I have been in a slump lately.
A spiritual slump.
A fitness slump.
A marriage slump.

For a few months now, I have felt like I should feel closer to God. I should crave it more. I should attend church more, participate more. I should have a better, more righteous attitude and outlook on life. I should want to read my Bible more. I should work harder to make my quiet time in the mornings a reality again. I don't pray enough, I just feel disconnected. I don't know what it is or why. Is it just the devil rearing his ugly head? I know I think about it all the time. Is that the purpose? Am I supposed to understand something that will only come to me through a lot of thought? I hope it passes, I don't like it.

I feel like J and I have been in a slump. We have different ideas about some things. Pretty big life things. I don't like the way he thinks; he doesn't like the way  I think. We've been married a long, long time, but it seems some things don't change like I want them too. I wish I felt like he prayed about things concerning us, concerning our family. He is so busy with work and all the things he is interested in. I just wish I felt we were working for the same goal at the end. I think we are headed in the same direction, just maybe we have different ideas about the work involved in getting there. We are at the precipice of another breeding season. So he is about to disappear for months and months. When he is here, he is so tired he just wants to veg out and watch TV or he falls asleep in his chair. He drops out of our life. I play the roles of both mama and daddy. I have small hopes of things being a little better since we have several secondary vets this year, but I have done this too many times to hold my breath. I wish he had made some time to do something with me. He spent a lot of time at the farm with Jack. He took Mady to a movie. I don't think the two of us have been out for a meal alone in a year. I hate it being like this. Maybe if I could take care of my spiritual slump, I could pray away this problem.

I have also been in an exercise slump. I was doing really well for a long time. I started a few days after Christmas 2009. I didn't try to lose weight, I just wanted to be in better shape. And I was in better shape. My body was stronger. I felt better. I did really well, with few breaks until Thanksgiving 2010. At that time I just got so busy that I didn't make time for it. It is so hard, there are so many other things pulling at our time as mothers and wives and homemakers. We don't feel we should take 30 minutes or an hour for us. I vow to do better. I have to. I have too many health risks to not do what I can to help myself.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Menu Plan Monday..er Tuesday

I am having a week where I actually didn't have a hard time picking out things to cook for dinner this week! Yay! I have been in somewhat of a slump for months, so this is a welcome change! I did get it all planned out yesterday and even filed some of the recipes that had been piling up in my cabinets. When I find a recipe in the newspaper or a magazine that sounds good, I just tear it out. Well I had about 30 recipes that needed to be filed in my recipe binders. So now my cabinet looks much neater and there isn't an avalanche every time I pull one of the binders out!

Here we go...

Monday-        El Grande (Rice, hamburger meat, rotel, lettuce, tomatoes, cheddar cheese soup, topped with corn chips)
Tuesday-        Spinach Salad & French Onion Soup, Pig Cake
Wednesday- Roast, carrots, potatoes, mac n' cheese
Thursday-      Baked Teriyaki Chicken, Rice, Broccoli
Friday-             Bacon Cheeseburger Upside-down Pizza
Saturday-        Leftovers
Sunday-           Leftovers