It's Monday again

It happens every week yet it's refreshing every single time.  A new week has so many possibilities.
Our baby girl is on the verge of crawling and she's so determined.  I'm so proud of her.  She's managed to propel herself forward a couple of times but mostly she spins around and scoots backwards.  She's also pushed herself up to sitting a few times but she can't coordinate her arms to push herself all the way vertical yet.  She gets so frustrated when she gets stuck somewhere and she makes the cutest little roaring sound.  She sounds like a little tiger cub.  I love it.
Joey's getting more independent.  She's started lying about almost anything it seems.  Danny and I have been trying to teach her what it means to tell the truth and why it's so important.  We have our ups and downs with it.  Sometimes it gets really difficult but she's such a sweet girl.  She was sick the other day and for her bedtime prayers she prayed that none of her friends at school get sick.  And even though Danny and I have been teaching her about God and the Bible, it amazes me how much she gets it.  Faith like a child is really so clear when you see it in actuality everyday.  I struggle with trusting in God but she has no doubts.
Joey, Norah and I have been having regular family dance parties in the living room lately.  It's super fun.  Joey's bopping all over and Norah sings along (sings ahhhhhhh ahh ahh) and sometimes Joey lets me dance with her but mostly she tells me that she needs to do her own moves but then I dance with Norah and she just giggles through it all.  I love my girls.

Here's my meal plan of dinners for the week:
Monday: Barbequed ribs & green beans
Tuesday: Mac & Cheese w/ vegetable soup
Wednesday: Crock pot baked beans w/ biscuits & coleslaw
Thursday: Curry Chicken w/ stir-fry veg & rice
Friday: Chickpeas & Couscous w/dried cranberries & herb goat cheese
Saturday: Our 5th Anniversary & Date Night
Sunday: Breakfast for dinner (Eggs & Cinnamon Rolls)

I'll also be making egg salad today for lunches throughout the week and Veggie sticks for quick snacks.  Norah's been blazing through her baby food and she's tried just about all the basic food that I use on a regular basis and once I'm done clearing all the foods I can, I'll be making my own baby food from our regular meals with a simple baby food grinder.  I've already been making my own with some of the meals that have no questionable ingredients.  I've got a few more food to get through: broccoli, tomatoes, beef, pork, and dairy.  She no longer breaks out when I have processed dairy (cheese, yogurt, etc.) but when I have straight milk, it still seems to bother her little tummy.  :-( So, I'm still on soy milk for now but I'm going to see how she does with some baby yogurt herself this week.  If that goes well, I'll be making my own whole milk yogurt in large batches again.
Well, I'm off...Today is Norah's 6 month well visit and I'm excited to see how much she's grown.  And I need to talk to the doctor about sleep training possibilities.  She's still so petite that I just want to make sure there's no medical reason for her to be up every three hours all night long.  This momma needs some sleep

Meal Plan Monday

I just discovered Jericho on Netflix.  Love that series!  I'm watching it while Norah naps and Jolene and Danny are on a Daddy daughter date at IKEA for the free breakfast this weekend.  Gotta love that!  I'm trying to get my planning stuff done while they're out too.
So, meal planning is up first.  I read an interesting blog the other day.  The writer just rotated snacks and breakfast and lunch was just leftovers and sandwiches and she only planned dinners and she made two weeks of plans and then just rotated them back in so that she was only meal planning once a month and they would have the same dinner twice a month, which helps to reduce waste and overstocking refrigerators by cutting down on the minor ingredients that are needed to be kept when you only need a bit of something.  It also streamlines purchasing and you can plan around sales and you're only buying a fraction more to double the meals and I'm really excited to give it a try for next month.  I've already done my purchasing for this month.  I'm also trying to cut down on our meat based meals.  It's getting so expensive and there are great alternatives and it gets the family eating more vegetables.  But I'm happy to streamline  my life a little bit more each week and make life go smoother along the way.  So, here's my meal plan for the week.

Monday: Butternut Squash Soup & fresh baked bread

Tuesday: Bean Enchiladas

Wednesday: Mac & Cheese

Thursday: Chicken Stir Fry

Friday: Frittatta

Saturday: Corned Beef & Cabbage

Sunday: Chickpea Salad

And that's all for me for today.  Norah's been trying to type with me so I think that's all I can really get to without a slew of typos anyhow.  Tootles

Life on a New Schedule

Our little world got shaken last week and it's upset my whole schedule.  Danny lost his job.  His boss let him go with no reason and seemingly no cause.  It happens, and we've basically come to the conclusion that anyone who could do that isn't someone that Danny should be working for anyhow.  We know that God has a plan for it all and we're praying about it to figure out what's on the horizon.
But as for my schedule, I've made up a new one since Danny's made some suggestions that I thought needed addressing and I've noticed that some stuff is just not fitting where I had it. I've moved some stuff around and added items here and there.  Weekly Checklist: this is my publicly accessible google.doc of the updated checklist that I made if anyone else is looking to set up something similar.
I'm still allowing myself some flexibility to see what needs tweeking, but I realized the other day why I've never needed a schedule like this before.  I've been the primary earner in our household for the majority of our marriage and Danny's been the stay-at-home parent since Joey was born.  My efforts had been focused one working and now that Danny's been working again, I've only had a few months to switch gears, oh yeah and I had a baby during that time too.  And on top of that, I am still working part-time.  Yeah, it's been pretty much a whole year of transition for us, and it seems we have a few more hoops coming up.  We're still planning on moving to the larger apartment one floor below us.  I've already started purging in preparation.  The nice thing is that since we are only moving downstairs, the process of moving will be so much simpler.  No trucks needed and not even really many boxes.  Clothes can be carried straight from our closets on their hangers and be hung straight up down a flight of stairs, drawers can be carried down without being unloaded. The biggest hassle with probably be the books and knick knacks that will need to be boxed and the curtains and shelves.  And our Landlord wants us down there ASAP so as soon as the current tenant is out, we'll be on our way.  I'm pretty stoked about it.  We'll be losing some closet space (hence the purging) but gaining so much square footage, it's totally worth it.  Well, I'm off to go do stuff.  Tootles.

Week 2 of Life on a schedule

 So, I'm back with an adjusted schedule this week.  I'm trying to think ahead and plan accordingly.  I think I'm doing o.k. at it but I've got some serious adjusting to do. 
I created schedules for myself in college just to get everything done but doing it for a household of four is so much more intense.  I don't know what I was thinking to try and do all that I have to do off the cuff.  No wonder I was constantly stressed out and never getting anything done. Below is my meal plan for the week and I've got blogging planned into my schedule so that I have something to keep me accountable. 
To throw another log on the fire, Danny and I are moving at the end of the month.  We're moving a whole one floor down in our building.  The apartment below has an additional 50-70 sq feet of living space as well as a back porch, clothesline and a front porch that Danny has claimed as his man cave. 
 

Monday 2.6
b: cereal & bananas
l: Italian sandwich
(Pick up Joey from school)
s: strawberries
d: tuna pasta salad

Tuesday 2.7
b: eggs & cinnamon rolls
l: mac& cheese with peas
s: oranges
d: chicken stir-fry & rice

Wednesday 2.8
b: oatmeal & blueberries
l: soup
s: crackers
d: coconut curry shrimp & rice

Thursday 2.9
b: yogurt & toast
l: nutella sandwich & celery sticks
s: apples
d: Sheppard’s pie

Friday 2.10 (rent)
b: cereal & raisins
l: leftovers
s: carrot sticks
d: church valentine’s dinner (side dish)

Saturday 2.11
b: pancakes
l: nuggets & sweet potato fries
s: oranges
d: barbeque chicken & baked beans

Sunday 2.12
b: oatmeal & mango
l: pb&j with apples
s: carrot sticks
d: ravioli with green beans

 And in other news, I finally got around to making my own dishwasher detergent yesterday.  AMAZING STUFF.  So cool.  Glad to have done it.  Way cheaper than buying it and so easy to make and I think my dishes are genuinely cleaner than with the store bought stuff. Yay for DIY!

Daily Schedule day 4

So, things have been going sort of according to schedule.  I think I need to add in some more flexibility for baby crankiness.  I've missed one thing on my list everyday.  I'm not quite sure how to remedy that.  I've been looking into different daily schedules from different blog and the like but I haven't found one that I like.  I made myself a little checklist that I put up on my fridge with my schedule of stuff.  It's next to my grocery notepad. I like to see things checked off on a list; it makes me feel good. 
I'm thinking that I may need to do a little research into my day and figure out where I can trim the fat and fit in some new things. 
Today on my agenda: waiting for my Peapod.com order (I had enough coupons to more than cover the cost of shipping), then depending on if everything come in that order: making homemade pop-tarts, making play dough, updating my meal plan, vacuuming, making lunch and dinner, planning our big shopping trip for Saturday or Sunday and getting both girls bathed. 
Wow, that's a long list when I write it all out.  But today is project day with Joey, and some of those home made pop-tarts are going to be her Valentine's gifts for her schoolmates.  Fun right, they're going to be fun to make and eat and way better than candies, I think.  And most of her old play dough is all dried up and it's one of her favorite things to play with so it's time.