7 quick takes

Hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary!

Ok...more like lightening fast takes..... 3,2,1...


1. Gwen says/signs a total of 35 words. Ya, that's too many. I'm in for it!

2. Gwen has discovered Laurie Bernker. We have a few of the videos of the songs that hubby put on the Apple TV and she would watch it all. day. long. Me, not so much.

3. Papa Hank's birthday was this week. Happy birthday Papa Hank! We love you very much and can't wait to see you soon!

4. Our 7th wedding anniversary is Monday. Whoo hoo! And ever better we get to go on a date. Like a real one. In a real city. In a real restaurant. So flippin' excited. Thanks Grandma Grandma for watching our short people!

5. Aili, Frank and I were on the news coverage of the Life Rally at the capitol on Sunday. It was cute. Aili loved all the attention at school from it. Go figure.

6. We are very excited for Frank's preschool next year. We have decided to put him in a 5 morning a week program at our school. We think he will LOVE it. And it helps that the teacher is a close friend.

7. 2 big events in our circle of friends next week. One is having a BABY!! One is having major surgery. Please keep these very special women in your prayers.


Thanks and have a wonderful week!

Wanna win a mama bag from Bratsacks?

My dear and wonderful friend Jessi is the monster behind this amazing thing called Bratsacks.

Ok...I'll wait for you to come back from looking through her site.


Back...good. Now sit back down and look through her Esty shop.

Done? No? Ok...I'll wait some more.

Did you see those AMAZING mama bags? Gotta look again? Ok...I'll wait.

Ya they rock. I have two. One is a custom tool belt one very similar to this one. The other is this one
And I bought this one for my niece for Christmas. Oh and we have 3 backpacks.


So are you convinced that her stuff ROCKS YOUR SOCKS OFF?? No?? Need a few more reasons. Sure, I got 'em. She makes everything HERSELF. In the U.S of A (northern Georgia to be exact). She is a WAHM (work at home mama). She has the cutest little boys (both with special needs). And I feel privileged to call her my friend.

Ok I got ya now!!

Still sitting??? Good. You can get a mama bag for FREE. Yes...FREE. She's having a contest. A really cool one too. You can find all the details here. What a great idea.

So go shopping! What do you want to see on a mama bag? There are so many great fabrics out there. Have fun!

7 quick takes

Hmmm....haven't written anything in the blog all week...but heck...I'll do it anyways!!

1. Went to STL with the hubs and kiddos on Monday. Very typical journey for us. Got lost via the GPS (yes that is possible!) a few times, ate some great food, brought a nice haul home from Trader Joes and went to a fun place for the kids.

2. I can't stop eating these Swiss Almond cookie things from above mentioned Trader Joes! Seriously. So. Darned. Good.

3. I am currently running the dishwasher, washing a load of clothes, drying a load of clothes, making a pot of coffee and boiling water for some mac n cheese. Oh how I love modern technology.

4. Some friends of mine are praying today across the street from our local Planned Parenthood (in the Catholic Charities parking lot, oddly enough!). We do not have surgical abortion services available (thanks be to God), but they are planning on starting the abortion pill (RU486). So we pray. Hopefully some minds and hearts can and will be changed.

5. Our kids are going to be a part of a rally at the capitol on Sunday as well. It's a pro-life rally. Our two oldest kids will be in a procession of roses. I hope Frank is in a good mood.

6. I went this week to help a wonderful retired couple with some computer questions they had. It was the best way to spend a few hours on a Tuesday morning. I learned more and more about my neighborhood, some great history of Springfield and so much more. It was just great to answer these questions for them and helping them stay connected with their families. I can't wait to go back and do more!

7. Week 2 of Johnette Benkovic's Bible study, Women of Grace. It really is nice. Loving the conversation and ideas that have been brought forth so far. Really helps me keep in mind what a great role model Mary is for me and in my daily life.


Have a good week everyone!!

7 quick takes

Hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary

1. Haiti. Pray. Fast. Donate. Pray some more.

2. Early dismissal at Aili's school messes me up every month! Once a month on a Thursday hey get out at 1:30. This is usually for factually meetings, so they don't have to take any full days off. Great idea. But when baby Gwen naps from noon til 2...it just doesn't work in my life. I was |this| close to being late for pick up yesterday. Ya, I don't like short Thursdays.

3. Wii bowling is still a hit. Frank's high score is now over 120. Sheesh kid. After about 3 games, they start getting a bit rowdy. I have had to say more than once, "Please stop doing circus tricks while bowling". Hmm, never thought that combination of words would come out of my mouth.

4. My hair has successfully hennaed. It's a nice red-ish color. Deep and dark. Not Bozo the clown. This was the first time I hennaed with out the assistance of Shauna the great. And I think it worked pretty well. I have gotten some nice complements on it. And buh-bye gray!!

5. The post before this is about our meal schedule. I hope it made some sense. Went grocery shopping today for the next two weeks with the help of kick ass hubby. The only things we get from the store now outside of these big shopping days are little things that we may run out of...milk, butter, eggs...It has really helped with budgeting and so many other aspects. I highly recommend some type of system. (but mine is the best...hehehe). Today is chicken tacos...yum.

6. Kids and KA hubby have Monday off for MLK day. We may head to St. Louis for a Trader Joe's run. I love me some Trader Joes! I so wish we didn't have to drive TWO HOURS to get to the closest one. Any recommendations of something to try? So far the list is: cereal bars, fruit leathers and jelly. :)

7. Someone please remind me to schedule a babywearing meeting this month. See me...the slacker! These cold winter months really make me hide in the batcave. I like my batcave. It's warm and has familiar germs.

Hopes everyone has a great weekend!

Our meal plan

It has been requested that I divulge our meal planning system.

When got to a point (with 3 children now eating at the table) that dinner time was becoming a mess. We had no idea what we were doing day to day. Grocery shopping was a night mare. I would wander around the Meijer with my posse..I mean kids...and figure out some food stuffs that may go together. All while trying to retain my photographic memory of the pantry, freezer and fridge. Ya, as you can tell, it was going really well...ok...not so much!

Keep in mind that this is what works for us. We are strange people, with strange kids. So things are modified. And this is not a "set in stone" thing. We made it so it can be manipulated as we need (insert evil laugh!)

We talked about doing this a few months before we really implemented it. I have no idea why we waited so long!

We made a rough list of the things we liked and made frequently for dinner. Then we looked at that rough list and saw a few themes. So the next step came around.

We decided to make categories. And each day of the week would be a different category.
These are our categories:
*Ball park
*Pasta
*Meat glob (can you just hear the hubby humor?)
*Pizza
*Ethnic/other

Now, these are just ours that we created. Some other categories that may fit better into your family could be different. Mexican night maybe. Or if you are big eaters of a certain type of meat, that could be one. Or even breakfast foods.
Notice we only have 5. This is for Monday through Friday. Saturday is our "eat out" night and Sundays are usually a free for all.

Now here are some examples of meals that fit into our categories.

*Ball park---hotdogs, burgers, Italian beef sandwiches, BBQ pork sandwiches, brats---sides are usually fries, tater tots or chips
*Pasta---spaghetti, lasagna, chili mac---usually with some garlic bread and salad
*Meat glob---pork chops, steaks, pork loin, beef roast in crock pot, meatloaf---sides are usually potatoes and a veggie
*Pizza---order out, take n bake, make our own
*Ethnic/other---tacos, periogies, patty melts, tuna casserole---side depends on meal

As you can see some categories have easy and more difficult things. If I'm going to do lasagna on Tuesday, then I'm probably not going to want some thing so involved Wednesday.

Hubby and I sit down twice a month and make the calendar for a few weeks. Usually we do it the day before or the day of a pay day and go until the next pay day. I print out a blank calendar for the month and then we also put it in our shared calendar on our computers (ya know we are cool techies like that). We will then make the grocery list and I'll go the next day.

This is going to sound super duper turbo lame, but it has changed our lives. Changed our family. Makes so many things. SO. MUCH. EASIER. Our grocery bills have gone down so much. It's less stressful for everyone. The kids know what to expect. I know what to shop for with the posse in tow. I can really see this plan working for us for a long time.

Ok, I hope this made some sense.

I'd like to know your meal plan...if you have one. I'm curious how other people make dinners work in their homes. Love to hear comments on our wacky plan too.

Enjoy!!

7 quick takes

So I'm going to try and do this every Friday from the inspiration of Jen at Conversion Diary in hopes that it will keep me blogging more. Cheers!

1. This week brought the first week of school after Christmas break. We got some snow on Thursday and our kids still went to school. Ahhh...the joys of Catholic school with out busses. I'm glad they went. We needed the routine and normalcy back.

2. Gweny has a new word (or 2). We started with GOOOOOO which is super cute especially when she yells it and runs away. It also happens to rhyme with NOOOOOO which isn't so cute and is now the beginning of toddler-hood. (if you are FB friend with me check out the video...oh my she's cute!!)

3. Frank has figured out Wii bowling...FINALLY!! Oh my this child. He could throw a ball in the air (himself) and hit it with a bat at 18 months. But at almost 4 Wii bowling he could not get...until this week! Not only has he figured it out, but kicked my booty in it a few times.

4. I am trying to de-shed my pug. I just gave him a bath and used the Zoom Groom (as recommended by my good friend Jessi) The worst part about the shedding was that it has been cold and Pete da Pug has been laying in front of the heat vent in the kitchen. Which happens to be right across from the stove. So there is nasty dog hair all over the stove from it blowing. Ya gross. Lets hope this does the trick. Crossing fingers.

5. I asked kick ass hubby to bring me home some dessert this week. I didn't care what it was, he knows what I like. The man brought home a whole chocolate cake. Seriously. A whole chocolate brownie frosted cake thing. I told you he kicks ass!

6. Month 2 of our dinner planning schedule is going very well. It's really making a difference. We are amazed we didn't do this sooner. And question how in the heck we did dinner before this plan! We have different categories for days of the week. I'll try and post about our whacky ways another time.

7. Aili asked me the other day if the blood-moblie was going to deliver the broccoli she just ate to her tissues. Hmmmm....I think TMBG's Science is getting to her.


Until next time!....

I'd like to kick 2009's ass

I am soooo glad it's over. Officially OVER. It can't come back. It can't start again. It can't continue.

We must move on to 2010. And I will do that joyfully and with out the slightest head turn back at 2009.

I guess I have to say a few good things happened in 2009. Kick ass hubby got a great new kick ass job. And we moved in to a great house in a wonderful area. Our oldest daughter started kindergarten. And...well...I think that's about it.

The list of crappy things that happened is way too long and I really don't want to relive it by typing it out. But it's long. It's nasty. And most of all it's OVER! (Frank can only amputate his finger once, right?)

I'm more than ready for a new start. Ready to move ahead in a positive light.

I'm not too big on "New Years Resolutions" as they just seem like empty self promises. But I do like knowing that I can toss all the 2009 calendars in the TRASH (not recycling those as I don't want them to come back to haunt me in some recycled cereal box or greeting card).

To everyone who is reading this...I hope the best of the best will come to you in 2010! May it be filled with love, laughter and all the graces that God gives.