Well, G is finally registered for school, and E will be registering for her new elementary school tomorrow. Everyone's going to school around here but me! That's okay, with everything I've got going on lately, there's no time for school.
One thing I've figured out I do need to make more time for, though, is diet and exercise. Doing the menu planning weekly has helped tremendously, but I haven't been watching my portion sizes as well as I should and the gym has been last on my list of priorities lately. I've been watching the scale creeeeep upwards and I'm not liking the result.
So tonight I'm going to hit the books and figure out a healthy plan for a little weight loss. I'll probably work on a modified 'Weight Watchers' type program. I tried them before and the program does work, but the group meetings weren't the right environment for me. There are lots of great online resources out there and I have the basic booklet still from my last foray into the world of WW.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Monday, July 21, 2008
Menu Plan July 20 - 26
Last week's menu plan went really well. We did substitute pizza on one night when we took a trip to Costco, but all in all, menu planning went well. One thing we do need to plan in more detail are breakfasts and lunches. Packing lunches at 6 in the morning when you have no idea what to pack makes for some pretty interesting lunches. So here's the plan for the week:
Breakfasts:
Pancakes
Sausage biscuits
Oatmeal
Cereal
Eggs & Toast
Lunches:
Tuna
Broccoli Salad
PBJ sandwiches
Egg Sandwich
Leftovers
Dinners:
Sunday: Twice baked potatoes
Monday: Broccoli Rice casserole
Tuesday: Turkey Pasta Bake & Salad
Wednesday: Salmon Croquets & Veggie Medley
Thursday: Veggie Pasta Sauce
Friday: Date Night
Saturday: Leftovers/Everyone for themselves
To see more menus for the week, check out the main post at I'm an Organizing Junkie
Lunches are a little tricky because G is essentially vegetarian at this point and doesn't like traditional lunch foods such as sandwiches. I'd love to think of a few more options for him, as sending a lunchbag full of fruit, cut up veggies, and pretzels seems like a skimpy lunch. Any suggestions?
Monday, July 14, 2008
Menu Plan July 13-19
Now that we're back from vacation it's time to really get back on schedule. Beginning with menu planning for the week and getting the laundry washed, folded and put away.
This week's menu will look something like this:
- Sunday: Beans & cornbread
- Monday: Salad with grilled chicken
- Tuesday: Salmon & rice
- Wednesday: Bean burritos
- Thursday: Leftovers
- Friday: Pasta with veggie sauce
- Saturday: Out to eat or breakfast for dinner
This is my first week submitting to Menu Plan Monday. To see more menus for the week, check out the main post at I'm an Organizing Junkie
Friday, June 20, 2008
Dustbunnies and Socks
So far I’m doing alright with the Flylady system. I’ve shined my sink two nights in a row, and two nights in a row H has put a dirty bowl into it within minutes of my shining it. It’s okay, though. It’s a new system and I try not to sigh or comment maliciously.
Yesterday I took a few minutes to dust the dustbunnies off the ceiling fan. Formerly this fan would run 24-7, but I’ve been turning it off when we leave the house lately to save on energy. Meaning when we walk into the house we see this bunny-encrusted ceiling fan just sitting there taunting us. So I dusted it. I realize now that the bunnies were a crucial part of the balancing mechanism for the fan, because now it’s making little ‘tick-tick-tick’ noises every couple of minutes.
Next week my focus will be on laying out my clothes the night before. We do this with E, as she has a hanger with compartments and we fill it up with a weeks worth of clothes at a time. This helps her get up and dressed a lot faster without worrying about whether she has clean socks. This week I’ve had to worry about socks, and more importantly pants for work, and it has not helped us get out of the house quickly in the mornings.
I’m feeling a little more centered about the process of getting my act together, as I’m realizing it is a process and will not happen overnight, or even in a week. As long as I’m making progress I think I’ll be okay.
Financially we are still right on the edge and still waiting for our stimulus check, but it comes when it comes.
Yesterday I took a few minutes to dust the dustbunnies off the ceiling fan. Formerly this fan would run 24-7, but I’ve been turning it off when we leave the house lately to save on energy. Meaning when we walk into the house we see this bunny-encrusted ceiling fan just sitting there taunting us. So I dusted it. I realize now that the bunnies were a crucial part of the balancing mechanism for the fan, because now it’s making little ‘tick-tick-tick’ noises every couple of minutes.
Next week my focus will be on laying out my clothes the night before. We do this with E, as she has a hanger with compartments and we fill it up with a weeks worth of clothes at a time. This helps her get up and dressed a lot faster without worrying about whether she has clean socks. This week I’ve had to worry about socks, and more importantly pants for work, and it has not helped us get out of the house quickly in the mornings.
I’m feeling a little more centered about the process of getting my act together, as I’m realizing it is a process and will not happen overnight, or even in a week. As long as I’m making progress I think I’ll be okay.
Financially we are still right on the edge and still waiting for our stimulus check, but it comes when it comes.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Beginning Again
Lately, I’ve fallen off the financial planning wagon as several things have clumped up to make things rather tight for us as well as very busy and I’ve fallen off the blogging wagon as well. For some reason, I feel as if I shouldn’t blog if I’m not doing well in my financial goals. But if this is truly going to be a record of my progress, in this and any other goals I’m trying to accomplish, I need to record the good and the bad. So I’m calling a mulligan and starting over.
I did a bad thing. I had planned to use our stimulus check to pay some credit cards off and buy some camping equipment we needed for a trip we were planning. Originally we thought the check would be direct deposited, but that didn’t happen. So we were looking at the payment schedule and figured the check would be here mid June, so we used our regular paycheck to pay for the camping equipment and trip and figured the check would be here by the time our trip was over and we needed to pay our regular bills. But somehow we managed to read the schedule wrong. So our 2nd check for the month covered the bills for the 1st half of the month, and the 2nd half bills will be covered by the check when it gets here.
Moral: Never count your chickens before they hatch.
Meanwhile, I will be starting a new job in 2 weeks. This won’t make much difference in our financial picture, but the commute will be a bit shorter and I will hopefully be less stressed. The new job situation looks to have a much saner boss and work schedule.
And I’ve decided that I need to make some major organizational changes in our household… in that we need a little. So I’m looking into flylady.net. I’ve been on Flylady’s program before, but more in the ‘I read the emails and don’t really follow the advice’ kind of way. This time I’m going to read the emails and follow along as best I can. I’ll try to keep an update here on my progress in that department.
Also, I’m going to try to follow along with the Going Green group that ’Burban Mom is starting up.
So a lot of changes here at Trifling Occasions. Let’s hope I can keep up.
I did a bad thing. I had planned to use our stimulus check to pay some credit cards off and buy some camping equipment we needed for a trip we were planning. Originally we thought the check would be direct deposited, but that didn’t happen. So we were looking at the payment schedule and figured the check would be here mid June, so we used our regular paycheck to pay for the camping equipment and trip and figured the check would be here by the time our trip was over and we needed to pay our regular bills. But somehow we managed to read the schedule wrong. So our 2nd check for the month covered the bills for the 1st half of the month, and the 2nd half bills will be covered by the check when it gets here.
Moral: Never count your chickens before they hatch.
Meanwhile, I will be starting a new job in 2 weeks. This won’t make much difference in our financial picture, but the commute will be a bit shorter and I will hopefully be less stressed. The new job situation looks to have a much saner boss and work schedule.
And I’ve decided that I need to make some major organizational changes in our household… in that we need a little. So I’m looking into flylady.net. I’ve been on Flylady’s program before, but more in the ‘I read the emails and don’t really follow the advice’ kind of way. This time I’m going to read the emails and follow along as best I can. I’ll try to keep an update here on my progress in that department.
Also, I’m going to try to follow along with the Going Green group that ’Burban Mom is starting up.
So a lot of changes here at Trifling Occasions. Let’s hope I can keep up.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Tuesday Update
The garden survived the storm for the most part... our sunflowers are now leaning a bit to one side, but hopefully they'll straighten up here pretty soon. With warm weather this last week, the soil's dried out and we've been able to get out there and weed. I saw a tiny little tomato on one of our tomato plants. I hope it's the first of many.
Last year our garden really only produced green beans and cucumbers. Squash bugs got our zucchini plants and the lettuces and spinach never sprouted at all. We're not sure if it was an overabundance of water (last spring was extremely rainy) or if an animal scratched up the seeds. We tried to plant a little earlier this year, but since we were expanding the beds things went in the ground about the same time.
We're calling it the year of experimental gardening. Planting things we haven't planted before, filling in with more and different seeds if certain plants don't sprout. So far it's looking really promising.
The only problem we've really had so far this year has been with dirt. Last year we had a very small box garden which we filled with dirt from the home center. Since we're in the suburbs, our dirt is mainly fill, which has plenty of fun stuff like nails, broken glass, and rocks in it. So we tilled it up a little, put a raised box on top, and filled it with the good dirt.
This year, since we've added a bigger box, we decided to get a load of dirt from the dirt/gravel place down the road. We specifically said we were gardening in raised beds, and the foreman pointed us towards a mix of soil he called 'pro mix'. Said it was really good stuff. It looked good as we were loading it into the box, but it's really fine stuff, and the first time it rained it locked together like it was cement. Drains about as well too.
A third bed that was planted into the fill dirt, rocks and all, is turning out to be better soil. But the plants that are planted in this pro mix are growing, just slowly. I figure now that we have the quantity of dirt we need, we can add to it with our compost pile and mix it together. Next year should be much better all around.
But for now, we'll do the best with what we have.
Last year our garden really only produced green beans and cucumbers. Squash bugs got our zucchini plants and the lettuces and spinach never sprouted at all. We're not sure if it was an overabundance of water (last spring was extremely rainy) or if an animal scratched up the seeds. We tried to plant a little earlier this year, but since we were expanding the beds things went in the ground about the same time.
We're calling it the year of experimental gardening. Planting things we haven't planted before, filling in with more and different seeds if certain plants don't sprout. So far it's looking really promising.
The only problem we've really had so far this year has been with dirt. Last year we had a very small box garden which we filled with dirt from the home center. Since we're in the suburbs, our dirt is mainly fill, which has plenty of fun stuff like nails, broken glass, and rocks in it. So we tilled it up a little, put a raised box on top, and filled it with the good dirt.
This year, since we've added a bigger box, we decided to get a load of dirt from the dirt/gravel place down the road. We specifically said we were gardening in raised beds, and the foreman pointed us towards a mix of soil he called 'pro mix'. Said it was really good stuff. It looked good as we were loading it into the box, but it's really fine stuff, and the first time it rained it locked together like it was cement. Drains about as well too.
A third bed that was planted into the fill dirt, rocks and all, is turning out to be better soil. But the plants that are planted in this pro mix are growing, just slowly. I figure now that we have the quantity of dirt we need, we can add to it with our compost pile and mix it together. Next year should be much better all around.
But for now, we'll do the best with what we have.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Rain
Last night we had a tornado warning. It ended up being just a lot of wind and rain and no actual tornado, so that was good. But we had already decided that since our garden beds and boxes weren’t draining as well as we’d hoped, we didn’t need to water them for a few days. We’ll go out tonight to see if our plants have completely drowned or are still holding on to the life raft with all their might.
It’s supposed to rain all week. Hang in there, little plants!
It’s supposed to rain all week. Hang in there, little plants!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)