Menu Monday

This Week

Monday - Chinese Take Out
Tuesday - Shepherd's Pie Hot Dogs
Wednesday - Hot Dogs Marinated Pork Loin
Thursday - Leftovers Shepherd's Pie
Friday - Pork Chops Sandwiches
Saturday - Leftovers / Party @ my mom's house
Sunday - Breakfast Sandwiches

Re-arranged the entire week, but that's okay! Pork chops weren't on sale when I finally went to the grocery store, so I bought one of those already marinating pork loins. It was pretty good. Saturday was a complete mess, we ate sandwiches at 2:30 in the afternoon, and just munched a little bit before my mom's party. Luckily my mom had LOTS of yummy food (bacon wrapped little smokies, sweet & sour meatballs, 3 dips, crackers, meat & cheese, 3 snack mixes and 8 bundt cakes).

This Week

Monday - Pork Fried Rice
Tuesday - Creamy Chicken Chili
Wednesday - Homemade Pizza (Chicken & Bacon)
Thursday - Thanksgiving with my family
Friday - Thanksgiving with Justin's family
Saturday - Sandwiches / Leftovers
Sunday - Chicken Bake

The Creamy Chicken Chili is actually Creamy Apple-Chicken Chili, but I made it before and Justin liked all of it except the Apples. Now it is Creamy Apple-Chicken Chili without the Apples, but that seems a little silly as a name. This is also Thanksgiving week so we'll have Thanksgiving dinner twice (once with my family, once with Justin's family). On Saturday, we'll probably end up at my parent's house for at least part of the day, my mom is usually pretty good about feeding us Thanksgiving leftovers.

Fall Leaf Fun

This afternoon, I walked in the backyard and found out that one of our trees had dropped its leaves sometime in the past few days. Fallen leaves are probably one of my favorite things about fall and I didn't think we'd get to play in any this year since our lawn company has been mulching them all before we have the opportunity.



So I grabbed a rake and starting making a pile while Claire alternated between "helping" and playing with her playhouse (which was actually more helpful than her help). Then once I had a fairly large pile, I told Claire that she could come play in it!



I am actually amazed at how much she enjoyed the leaves. I know they had real leaves at one of their centers at school last week, but I'm not sure if they had enough to jump in them.



I did eventually get a lawn bag and put some of the leaves in it. Claire told me that she wanted to keep 10 to play with. I think 10 in her world is a lot more than it is in my world since she actually wanted to keep the entire big pile.

Past December Daily Albums

I finally finished up December Daily for last year this week. I had all the pictures ordered, I just needed to cut down & sew some page protectors, write a little bit of journaling for one page and do something with the cover. December Daily is a mini album project that Ali Edwards created (or at least made popular). I actually still need to punch holes in four pages and put them in, but I can't find my cropadile. It was on my desk...but now it is MIA.



2011 was my 4th year of December Daily. Each one is a different size. Different binding. None of them were actually done in December (of their respective years). In fact, when I was working on the cover for 2011, I also finally put together a cover image for 2009. 2008 was a 4x6 book with metal rings for binding. 2009 was a little larger (maybe 5x7) using my binding machine. 2010 I used embroidery floss to bind it and it was a little bit bigger than 2009's book. 2011 I used an actual scrapbook with lots of randomly sized page protectors.



Why do I do December Daily? It really makes me think about all of the traditions that we have and new ones that we might start. I like how I was able to find the same events in all of my different books and seeing how we have changed. For example, our advent velcro & felt tree, visiting Santa, decorating the tree & baking cookies. 2008 was when I was pregnant with Claire, so in addition to the Christmas events, I also have some pictures about my pregnancy. That was also before I started Project Life, so a lot more everyday stuff made it into that album.



However, I'm not entirely convinced that I should do it this year actually. Since I'm doing Project Life and I don't like to include the same pictures/stories in December Daily & Project Life that leaves Project Life rather lite on Christmas stuff. I noticed that last year and I didn't like it. In fact, I've been thinking about going back and adding to Project Life. If I do it this year, I am going to do it as a Blurb book...maybe.

Finishing 2011's DD was one of the things on my 31 before 31 list, so YAY!

Fall Family Pictures

Back on October 20th, I finally did something that I have been trying to organize my family enough to do. We took family pictures. A couple of these pictures are proof that if you hand a teenager a nice camera with a fairly good lens on it, you will actually end up with acceptable pictures. (Any that include me but not Anaya are ones that she took.) Ones that include all of us were taken using the timer or a remote depending on if the remote was working at any given time.

I ended up with a total of 91 pictures after deleting the ones that were completely blurry or otherwise unacceptable. When I use the timer, it takes 5 pictures, so some of those are duplicates. I ended up getting a pretty good picture of all the different groupings that I was hoping for.



Now, while this experience was fine. There are definitely things that I learned to make it easier the next time I decide to do this.

1. Definitely have a list of the poses/groupings that you want. I did do this and it helped so much. Particularly since my husband was NOT really into the idea of family pictures anyways.
2. Plan for longer than you think it will take. By the time we were done, we were out of sun light. I have a beautiful picture of the sunset that I took as we were driving out of the park. I would've liked to try one more pose, but it was just too dark.
3. Scope out the location before hand. This is common sense, but I didn't really do it. I knew that there were multiple shelters are this particular park, but I didn't really know which one we would use (we ended up in my first choice area). And even though I had been there multiple times with Claire & Anaya to play at the park, I hadn't ever really looked at the area with the idea of a photo shoot.
4. If you are including a toddler, possibly have another person along to help corral the toddler so that you can take pictures of just the adults. My husband didn't drive over there with us because he was still getting ready, so I had Claire & Anaya there for the first half. Which means the pictures of just Anaya involved me holding Claire with one hand and the camera with the other. The one of Justin & I is one that Anaya took while holding Claire's hand as she was trying to run away.

These pictures were taken using a Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens. I actually borrowed it from my co-worker but now I have my own. It is an nice portrait lens. Definitely not the BEST one, but good cost/quality ratio. Particularly since mine is purely for me & my friends & family (I'm not a professional, nor do I want to be).

Project Life: Week 42

Week 42: October 15-21

I ordered three weeks worth of pictures last week, so I'll probably end up finishing the Week 43 layout later this week. It's hard to believe that this year is almost over!

The first part of this week is just a little bit of around the house and LOTS of playing outside while the weather was still nice. I also spent a couple of evenings putting together a fun little wreath using pages from a book - specifically Vanity Fair.



The first insert is about a work even we had going on Tuesday & Wednesday. It was in downtown Kansas City, which I don't go there very often, so I included a few downtown pictures - not very good since they are from my phone.

The front of the second insert has pictures of both kids doing "homework". Claire is drawing faces. We had her parent teacher conference that week, so I included a few notes about how she is doing in preschool. The bottom picture is of Anaya doing some actual homework. Her parent teacher conference wasn't until the following week, but I did include a little bit of information about how she is doing.



The back of the second insert has pictures of us celebrating Justin's birthday. A couple of his friends come out to Olathe and we went out to lunch at Red Robin. I, of course, only took pictures of the kids. And a picture of Justin with his two birthday Legos!



The last page is about lunch on Sunday at my mom's house. Pictures of my very pregnant sister-in-law.

I have maybe 2 more inserts that I ought to make for this week. I still haven't done anything for Project Real Life. I'm not sure if I even particularly care to continue making the layouts as Becky suggests, or if I'm better off holding on to those suggestions for another time when I am in need of some photo ideas. I also realized as I was taking pictures of this week, that Claire had a field trip to the pumpkin patch that my mom went on with her, but I didn't get the pictures for it. I have them now, I just haven't ordered them yet. I also dragged my family out to a park on Saturday and took professional-ish pictures of us all. But I'm not sure if I even want to include them here or not. So this week is done...kind of.



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Menu Monday

Last Week

Monday - Enchiladas
Tuesday - Pizza Burgers Cheesy Chicken Bake w/ Steamed Rice
Wednesday - Cheesy Chicken & Rice Bake Bacon Cheeseburgers
Thursday - Leftovers Fried Egg Sandwiches
Friday - Stew Spaghetti & Meatballs
Saturday - Spaghetti & Meatballs Roast Beef, Mashed Potatoes & Gravy, Cheese Muffins
Sunday - Pancakes & Bacon Carrots, Blueberries, Kettle corn, Cookies

I moved pretty much everything around this week. Justin didn't want stew, so instead I just cooked the roast whole instead of cutting it up for stew meat. Then I make pan gravy, homemade mashed potatoes and Cheese Muffins. On Sunday, Justin fell asleep on the couch sometime in the middle of the afternoon and was still asleep at "dinner time". I wasn't terribly hungry either, and Claire really wanted some kettle corn. So I pretended that it was dinner by cutting up some carrots and washing some blueberries. I also baked cookies (Maple-Brown Sugar Oatmeal), so we had a few of those too.

This Week

Monday - Chinese Take Out
Tuesday - Shepherd's Pie
Wednesday - Hot Dogs
Thursday - Leftovers
Friday - Pork Chops
Saturday - Sandwiches / Party @ my mom's house
Sunday - Breakfast Sandwiches

My wedding anniversary is today, 7 years! Since Justin isn't a fan of going out and I didn't want to do dishes, I decided we would get Chinese from our favorite little hole in the whole Chinese place in Olathe. On Saturday, my mom is having her not-usually-annual Open House Party. She'll have yummy appetizers and desserts, but we'll probably have sandwiches of some sort so that we don't eat ALL her food.

Recipe: Maple-Brown Sugar Oatmeal Cookies

One of my co-workers asked if I would bring in cookies on Monday, and instead of my normal Chocolate Chip I decided to do something a little different. I was going to make normal Oatmeal Cookies, using the recipe on the lid of the oatmeal, but as I was getting started on the cookies I changed my mind. My favorite flavor of Oatmeal is Maple-Brown Sugar. So I made a few little changes and these are delicious. Just a bit of Maple flavoring and switching out some of the white sugar for brown. Also, there could very well be a recipe for these somewhere on the internet. I don't know. This recipe was entirely made up as I was throwing ingredients into my mixer.



Maple-Brown Sugar Oatmeal Cookies

• 1 cup Butter, softened (2 sticks, salted)
• 3/4 cup Brown Sugar
• 1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp Maple Extract
• 1 3/4 cups Flour
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
• a pinch of cinnamon and/or nutmeg
• 3 cups Oats

Directions

Cream butter & sugars. Add eggs and maple extract and beat well.

If you're lazy like me, add flour, baking soda, baking powder and spices to mixer, stir just the dry around a little with the measuring spoon and then turn on the mixer. If you aren't lazy, combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and spices in a separate bowl and stir. Then add slowly to the mixer. Either way, let the mixer mix it all together really well. Then add the oats and mix it some more.

I like to use my small cookie scoop, about 1 rounded tsp, and drop cookies on ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Allow cookies to cool for a minute or two on sheet and then remove to cooling rack. This made 66 cookies, so 5 1/2 dozen.

This recipe was loosely based on Quaker's Vanishing Oatmeal Cookies. Although that was really just a starting point...and I didn't even start it out right because I used two sticks of butter since when I put the butter in the mixer, I still thought I was going to make chocolate chip cookies.

I thought these were delicious. I have now searched online and found other recipes that actually use real maple syrup in them, so I might try that sometime instead of using extract. Maybe.

Project Life: Week 41

Week 41: October 8 - 14

I really love this project so much. The first page is just some around the house pictures. I just realized how few of the journaling cards I actually use. I like them, but I have so many pictures that I want to include and I don't end up using the journaling cards for journaling, I just type on the pictures usually.



The first insert is about a train ride that we went on. It's just a little hour long ride purely for fun. Claire, Anaya & I got off the train while they moved to locomotive to the other end of the train so that we could go the other way. While we were standing there (with most of the other passengers), it started sprinkling and I said that we should get back on the train. Anaya made a comment about us not melting (which is usually my line). Then it starting raining. Then it started pouring. By the time we got back on the train, we were all soaked.



The second insert is my Project Real Life layout. I'm not entirely sure that I like this stuffed in with all of the other stuff. It seems like it needs a little more explanation about what it is since it doesn't really go with the rest of the spread.



The last page is mostly about our weekend. We had Anaya, she had a friend spend the night one night and they made Nutella Rice Krispie Treats. Her friend had one of the "Wreck this Journal" books and Anaya really wanted one. While we were at Target Saturday night, we picked one up for her and by Sunday...she had wrecked it.



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Menu Monday

Last Week

Monday - Taco Pie
Tuesday - Corn Dog Muffins
Wednesday - Frozen Pizza
Thursday - Crispy Chicken Sandwiches Pulled Pork w/ my family
Friday - Bacon Cheeseburger Skillet Crispy Chicken Sandwiches
Saturday - Applewood Rubbed Chicken Breasts
Sunday - Leftovers Bacon Cheeseburger Skillet

My brother and his wife had a baby this week, so that added a little excited to our life! On Thursday, my mom made Pulled Pork and was taking it to my brother's house so we all went over there to see the little baby. Then we didn't have enough leftovers for a meal, so we ended up having the Bacon Cheeseburger Skillet on Sunday.

This Week

Monday - Enchiladas
Tuesday - Pizza Burgers
Wednesday - Cheesy Chicken & Rice Bake
Thursday - Leftovers
Friday - Stew
Saturday - Spaghetti & Meatballs
Sunday - Pancakes & Bacon

I don't think we have anything at all going on in the evening this week. I do need to do some grocery shopping before Tuesday's dinner. The Enchiladas are already made and in the freezer, love love love easy dinners.

Monthly Meal Planning

For the month of October, I decided to experiment with Monthly Meal Planning with a little bit of freezer cooking. September 21-24, I made a meal plan that covered to the end of October. It just so happened that the three main grocery stores around me each had a different type of meat on a pretty good sale (Price Chopper had ground beef, HyVee had Chicken, and Hen House had a one day sale on Breakfast Sausage). So I bought a ton of meat. Then I weighed, cooked, cut, bagged, labeled and frozen it. Some of it was raw, some of it was already cooked (I made a lot of Taco beef). I cut up the chicken depending on how I would need it before freezing it.



I had hoped to save money doing this. I looked at all of my grocery store charges for 9/24 through 10/29, I did some shopping on 10/30 but some of that is for next month. So far, I'm not seeing a savings, in fact, I seem to have spent MORE than I did the previous month. I'm not sure my math in entirely accurate since I did a little stocking up on things that were on sale. Plus we still have some of the chicken, beef & sausage from the big stockup left.

The one major benefit is that we followed our menus better this month. I didn't have to worry about not getting to the grocery store and ending up getting fast food. Since I bought most things at the beginning of the month and was mostly buying milk, eggs, fruits/veggies and other perishables during the month. I suppose if I calculated all of our fast food/restaurant spending then I might see the savings there. There were a few times that I had to switch two meals due to forgetting to thaw something or needing a perishable that I hadn't gotten to the store yet to buy, but I always had at least a few things on the menu for the week that we did have all of the ingredients for on hand.

I've spent the past week-ish with an excel spreadsheet open that I would add a meal to here or there as I thought of it and now I have our meals planned out through the end of December. Obviously things can change if I see something on one of the blogs that I read that I really want to make, but for the most part, this will just make life easier.

Here's what the October menu looks like now. The farther into the month we got, the more I deviated. Usually because I ended up not making something one night so we switched it to another night, but then I swapped a few other things around and then ended up like this. I started out with every Thursday being leftovers night, every Tuesday being Mexican-ish night, and every Sunday was breakfast for dinner. Not every change for the schedule is noted on the calendar. If I was just switching things around in the same week I didn't scribble on the calendar, if I was moving things between weeks I would scribble.



I'm working on transferring things from my excel sheet to an actual calendar. Some things that I am doing differently is not having Tuesday be Taco night. I'm tired of taco type things. But most Thursdays are still leftovers night. Sundays are still fairly easy/light meals. We have a big lunch with my parents on most Sundays, so I try to keep our Sunday dinners smaller.