Menu Monday #15

Saturday we leave for our family reunion.  So this week is slightly less creative than most.  Also, I am not making double batches of anything, as I don't want leftovers and my freezer is already full to the max!  I picked things that are a quick cook and easy to clean up.  I also chose things that would help me use up some stuff in our fridge/pantry before we leave for a week.  Here is the menu:

Sunday: Goulash (whole wheat pasta, tomato soup, diced tomatoes, ground beef)
Monday: Baked Potato Bar
Tuesday: Miscellaneous/Raid the Fridge night (Steve has school so Abby, Will, and I will eat leftovers)
Wednesday: Curry Chicken w/ Basmati Rice
Thursday: Sloppy Joes w/ tots
Friday: Out

I apologize also for not having any yummy recipes to link.  I'm winging it with the curry chicken.  I have some curry paste I am going to use to season up some chicken and then let it simmer w/ a little bit of water & onion.  Then throw in some frozen veggies and call it a meal.  Our baked potato bar will include: broccoli, bacon, cheese, sour cream, and butter.  And the only redeeming thing about the sloppy joe meal are the whole wheat buns!

What are some of your favorite quick & easy meals?

Party Planning

In one month I will have a three year old.  That is crazy to think about.  It is also crazy that we have THREE birthday parties this weekend!  But you know what else is crazy?  Party Planning.  I've been collecting ideas for Abby's birthday party over the last month, and now I'm starting to feel the crunch time to get everything booked/ordered/bought/made for her party this year.

I was originally thinking of having an Ice Cream Party for her.  She is not a big cake/cookie eater.  There are a few locally owned ice cream stores that will host parties in-house.  But then I asked her what kind of party she wanted and she immediately blurt out "Monster's Inc. Tinkerbell Party!"  Yeah, not sure how I'm going to pull that off.



Abby's First Movie - Monster's University

So, I introduced Abby to Pinterest.  We searched both "Tinkerbell" and "Monster's Inc" party idea boards.  After looking at both for a little while I asked her which one she liked better.  She chose Monster's Inc.  I was excited about a Monster's Inc. party....except....with Monster's U being out in theaters, party supplies are full price!  And guess which party stuff I see left and right at super clearance markdown?  Yeah, Tinkerbell.  Oh well, what can you do?

(Oh, and I asked Abby last night what kind of birthday party she wanted (again, just to solidify before I invest in all these ideas I have) she said "Orange."  I can handle that.  It doesn't contradict Monster's Inc, and orange is great for any birthday party.  But I think now it is time to quit giving her options.  haha.)

I've been using Pinterest to keep a board of party ideas for Abby.  I've also started looking at supplies and drafting up a list of what we will need.  The biggest question now is where and when we are going to have this thing.  It is going to be blazing hot in August, so I'd rather not have anything outdoors (I'll save the outdoor party for Will in November).  Also, I don't want to have it in our home this year.  That will require cleaning the house top to bottom twice in the same 24 hour period.  Forget it.  So, my place of choice is to rent out this little clubhouse space at Optimus Park (a local park with a great shady playground).  But Tallahassee Parks & Rec haven't called me back.  I heard they weren't renting for the summer - but, I am not sure if the end of August is still "summer" since school will be in session.  I think the next option I will look into is the old Bradfordville Schoolhouse.

Fabric for Abby's Party Dress

Picking a date has also been hard.  We were originally going to do the Saturday after her actual birthday, August 31.  But, then a local event popped up on my calendar: Improving Birth Family Fun Day, 10-2.  Right smack in the middle of the times I put on our park rental application!  So, I think I may push the party back to Sunday afternoon instead of Saturday morning.  No big deal really.  The Improving Birth event is important to us and also I think will be lots of fun.  Anything that will wear the kids out on the weekend I am grateful for!

So, right now, the crafty/décor part of the party is seeming to be the easiest!  If you want to see what kind of ideas I'm tossing around, you can check out my Pinterest board.

For Will, I'm thinking "Robots" as a theme....and yes, I've started him a board as well.  But that's a post for antoher day!

Wordless Wednesday - Gigglefest

 

Menu Monday #14

Only 2 weeks left until we go on vacation.  And by vacation I mean when we go to Michigan for a family reunion.  I know when we get back, we are going to be in no hurry to go shopping, cook, clean, etc.  So, I am planning ahead and starting to grab recipes that will double well so I can have a well-stocked freezer before we go.  

Here is the menu this week.  It includes four meals that will be added to our freezer stash (surprisingly, I'm down to only 1 meal left in there).

Sunday: Spaghetti Pie* (my mother-in-law's recipe...see below)
Monday: Mexican Beef & Spinach Casserole*
Tuesday: Spaghetti Squash with Bacon & Parmesan (modified from this recipe)
Wednesday: Lentil Tacos
Thursday: Bacon Wrapped Apple BBQ Chicken*
Friday: Out
Saturday: Peachy Pulled Pork*

*indicates meals that were added to my freezer stash

Spaghetti Pie Recipe

My Toddler Sucks

So this is more a mommy vent vs. an informative “here’s a tip for you” blog post. Because today I just don’t feel like pretending to have any answers. You’re getting a taste of raw Christina.

I'm very well aware that children all develop at different rates and that I shouldn’t compare my child to another, blah blah blah. But I’m frustrated for many reasons over the lack of progress in a few areas. And if I’m frustrated, maybe someone else out there is frustrated, too. Maybe I should just go drink a beer instead of writing a blog post.

My daughter fights sleep with every bone in her little body.

For the past month or so, Sydney hasn’t wanted to go to sleep before 9. Or 10. And sometimes 11! I really had no idea why. No matter what time we got her into the bed, or what type of routine we followed, she flat out refused to go to sleep. Most times she would demand, “Ride!” meaning she wanted to ride around in our car to fall asleep. And my husband and I gave in…a lot…because we wanted her asleep so we could relax. It figures that NOW she wants motion. When she was an infant, she hated her swing.

When I was pretty much at a complete loss, I read this and decided that she must be going through another sleep regression. I was convinced, because at 4 months, she hit her very first sleep regression. I had a really hard time adjusting. She would wake up at 2a and stay awake until 5a. Then I had to go to work and pretend I knew what the f@#% I was doing. I gained 25 pounds during this time, because exhaustion threw my body into constant carb-craving mode. I have still not lost this weight. I’m lazy, I guess.

A few days ago, I saw the (most likely) true culprit for her sleep fighting. Two Year Molars. She still shows 3 signs, (no sleep, drinking excessive amounts of milk, and not wanting to eat) and all this fun were for just the bottom molars. The top molars haven’t even started showing themselves!

My daughter is still not potty trained, nor is she even remotely interested. And she’ll be 3 in November!!!

I partly wonder if this is because she is in a daycare school full of boys her age. She acts like dirty diapers don’t bother her. I try really hard to take her potty every morning and she gets REALLY mad at me for doing this. I even tried using M&Ms as a bribe (something I was actually against) as a reward for going potty. But, it does nothing for her. She could care less that chocolate is associated with peeing. She fights, yells, screams, cries, or melts down on me when I put a pull-up on her and then she demands diapers. I haven’t tried putting her in regular panties, but I have a feeling it wouldn’t work. I think I’ll be part of the 25% of kids who FINISH potty training after the age of 3. Knowing my luck, it will be 4. And if you read the first couple of comments on this article, because my daughter is not potty trained already, Scott and I have very poor parenting skills.

When I Google “potty training” to get strategies, all it really does is infuriate me because I read what seems like the impossible. “My daughter was potty trained at 18 months.” “My daughter was a breeze to train.” “All we did was chase her around with a potty to catch her puddles.” “We sat her on the potty to read books for hours.” WTH?? I don’t have time or patience for that! So we’ll wait, I guess. And while other parents are out and about, taking their kids to public restrooms to use the pot, I’ll be using the bacteria, poop-infested diaper changing station… her legs and torso will be hanging over the sides and I’ll be completely grossed out at the loaf she just pinched in her diaper.

I have a super picky eater.

Sydney NEVER eats what I present to her for dinner, NEVER. It’s maddening. She might pick at what I give her, but for the most part, she just stares at it, plays with it, or throws it and says, “Eww, disgusting!” I feel inadequate as a cook when she does things like that and frankly, me making it look pretty on her plate is a complete waste of time and effort.

Along those lines, she hates most vegetables. She might eat sweet peppers periodically, but as far as snacking on carrots, celery with peanut butter, or eating green beans, peas… even ones out of the can… she 100% refuses. The other night, she proceeded to do nothing but squish each pea I gave her with her fork. She ate zero. It makes me wonder why I even bother feeding her to begin with. It just turns into a big fat waste because it always goes in the trash.

Anyway, there you have some of my current frustrations and otherwise things that make me feel completely inept as a mom.

Wordless Wednesday: Morning

Menu Monday #13

Keeping a healthy menu during the summer always seems like a challenging feat for me. Once June hits, we have birthdays or some sort of family celebration each month until Christmas. And it always seems to sabotage my dieting efforts because I’m definitely not as disciplined as I was 10 years ago. I try to remember that 80/20 rule – if you eat really well 80% of the time, the 20% you indulge is perfectly okay. But with back-to-back celebrations (like the 4^th of July and then my birthday), it’s hard. Especially when my parents visit. I love my mom’s cooking. Her Korean food is kryptonite and I don’t get it often.

But the co-op we participate in helps keep me in check and forces me to use up veggies and fruit in a healthful way. This week, I only spent $16 at the store for supplies, which coincidentally were mostly for my daughter’s daycare food supplies.

Our co-op basket we received this weekend was fruit-heavy. Which is ok because I love fruit! It can be dessert and I can figure out things to do with it more easily than veggies. (Hello, dessert!) Sydney is also more inclined to try a fruit vs. a vegetable. 

Fruit	Veggies
Bananas Peaches Cantaloupe Orange flesh Honeydew Melon Blueberries Red Seeded Grapes 1 flat of Strawberries (I ordered this separately)	Lettuce Grape tomatoes Broccoli crowns Tuscan Kale

Monday – Cauliflower, Potato, and Cheddar Soup (from the freezer) and a grilled cheese sandwich. (Salad and this balsamic vinaigrette for me… I could lap up the dressing!)

Tuesday – Veggie spaghetti & Broccoli Meatballs. I might make extra to freeze if I think they’re good.

Wednesday – Potato, egg, bacon, and cheese breakfast tacos. (I have a late hair appointment so we’ll need something quick.)

Thursday – Hot dogs (grilled), roasted broccoli & sweet potato

Friday – Out

Saturday – Homemade Pepperoni Pizza (Going to try a cauliflower crust.)

Sunday – Meatloaf Patties, Smashed Potatoes, and Pan Gravy. Freeze leftovers if they’re tasty and worth saving.

I’ll probably use my kale in a salad or throw some into a frittata. I also have some leftover rainbow chard that I need to use up, and a frittata is one of those “use up random veggies” kind of dishes.

What’s on your menu this week? Do you have healthy eating tips around family celebrations? 

Family Financial Goals

Break open the piggy bank! 

I honestly feel like I’m not the best person to talk to about finances. Well – what I mean is, I can manage money… I just really dislike doing it. And forget about leaving it to my husband. He doesn’t have a budgeting bone in his designer body. I’m probably one of the lazier budget people and only slightly anal. I let the bank pay our bills, schedule recurring ACH payments, split our paychecks, etc. But as far as strategy, I feel like I don’t have much of one for our family. This is where we lack.

My parents really didn’t instill money management in me when I was little. And I don’t blame them for the way I view things now… it’s just something we didn’t really talk about or practice. So, when I got to college, I felt like I let loose… frivolously spent money, and basically experienced every consequence resulting from things you’re NOT supposed to do:

• “What do I have to do? Sign up for a credit card and get a free t-shirt? Awesome… count me in!”
• “I get 40% off if I by 5 bras and sign up for a card? I always need undies and bras. Ok!”
• “Eh, I’ll pay that bill later… that $30 late fee isn’t too much.”
• “I seriously need these CDs, but I only have 1 more withdrawal on this account until the end of the month… eh, what the hell.”

Meanwhile, my spending remained the same, I left or lost part time jobs, I started paying for gas with quarters, and collectors began to call. Like most everyone, I eventually made it through and got myself to a better place. But the lessons were painful. And while I did learn from my mistakes, I've just gotten used to the fact we have debt. I've accepted a "we'll always be paying something off" attitude and that's not okay.

This is the first year I’ve actively been trying to get the family out of debt. There are things that I want to do and know that are upcoming that I’d like to prepare for. I’ve learned that once you know what you want, you have to create a plan to get it. I thought I’d share a few of our families overall goals, and some of my strategies that I’m using to get there. But our biggest hurdle: Debt.

Our Family’s Goals

• Build a more robust savings.
• Completely pay off all our debt, including credit cards we still have outstanding, auto loans, school loans, and anything else that we have to pay back (like the system we bought to kill the termites around our house.)
• Refinance our home. This could be tricky because we currently have an FHA loan. Then, I’d like to do what we can to make double payments.
• Cut our grocery bill in half and reduce how much we eat out.
• Long term:  Set aside money for an entrepreneurial effort in 10 - 12 years.

Our Personal Strategies

• Once we’ve paid off a portion of debt (car payment, cards), roll those payments into another payment.
• Drive our vehicles into the ground to save on car payments. We have Honda’s, so hopefully we are ok here! The first one will be paid off in October. Whoohoo!
• Continue our participation in the food co-op, and grocery shop bi-weekly, relying on bulk foods I’ve purchased for weeks I don’t shop, or eating leftovers I’ve frozen.
• Keep our eating out to 1 – 2 times a week. This includes going to lunch with coworkers.
• Be more diligent about catching sales. Currently, I never really look for sales.
• Keep our current furniture for another 4 or 5 years (our couch is already 10, and our mattress is 8. They should be replaced, but I’m going to stretch it.)
• Reevaluate our need for certain services, like cable.
• Constantly update our plan.

At this point, this is about all I would like to surrender to the public in a blog post regarding our family’s goals and strategies. J Do you have pointers or tips for us? I can revisit our progress over the next few months, so stay tuned! (And it helps me be more accountable.)

I’d like to share one last thing – when I was a kid, I remember asking for an allowance because I wanted to buy things on my own. But my mom only offered me things like $0.10 for taking out the trash or $0.25 for a sink full of dishes. Even as a kid, I knew that was really unreasonable. I’d maybe make $1 a week at those rates. Because I refused that deal, I never received an allowance. But for my daughter, I’d like to engrain money management into her. But I can’t do it if we aren’t good examples. I want her to understand when something is $300, and she only gets $10/week for chores (or something similar), it’s going to take a long time to afford. And remember that money is hard to earn and budgeting is key.

What do you to reiterate money management to your children?

Wordless Wednesday: Daddy Piggyback Ride

Menu Monday #12: Back to Basics

So, I’m finding this low/no carb diet very hard for me.  I’ve been attempting it for a month now, and I am not sure I can keep up with it.  I think I am going to go back to my tried and true method by focusing on whole foods and not over eating with large portions.  I am also going to try and fit in a walk three times a week somehow.  I feel like my milk supply is well established enough to lower my calorie level just slightly.  Previously I was shooting for 1800 cals/day.  I am going to bump it down to 1600 and see how I do.

So, based on my altered goals, here is this week’s menu:

Sunday: Broccoli Cheese Soup & Salad w/ Raspberry Vinaigrette Dressing

Monday: Homemade Beanie Weenies (this is my least ‘whole food’ meal of the week, but it’s a school night for Steve, and I know Abby will eat this up).

Tuesday: Whole Wheat Tortellini w/ Pesto

Wednesday: Smoked Sausage and Bean Stew

Thursday: Slow Cooker Chicken & Rice*

Friday: Out

Saturday: Crock Pot Ribs* w/ corn & baked beans

*items taken out of my freezer stash

I think I am most looking forward to the tortellini.  The ribs are a rendition of my grandfather’s recipe. 

Recipes

Cloth Diapering: How We Got Started

Before Abby was born, I had heard about cloth diapering and became intrigued by it.  I liked the idea of having soft, natural fibers up against my new baby's bottom.  Plus, they were so stinking cute!  But it wasn't until after she was born, and I made a few friends who CD'd (that's computer-speak for "cloth diapered") that I really looked into it.  

Abby, 2 months

We blew through the diapers that were gifted to us at our shower VERY quickly.  Those little newborns sure do know how to poop and pee!  We had reached a point where we were spending $20/week on diapers.  I talked to Steve, and he agreed that we should look into it - which in accountant language means he would do a cost-benefit analysis after we got a chance to talk to someone about it!

Luckily for us, Tallahassee has a great local cloth diaper resource: Ecological Babies.  We met with the owner, Jen Starks, one evening.  She showed us the ropes.  We got a run-down on all the different types of cloth diapers: pockets vs. all-in-ones (AIOs), prefolds and covers, you name it.  We even got to "use" them by pretending to diaper Curious George.  She also gave us a price list, and was very honest about what she liked, what most people bought, and what she thought would be the best diapers for us and our needs.  It was a great experience to have one-on-one "training" like that!

After our crash course on cloth diapers, we went home.  I'll admit I did some price comparison to online shops (and for the record, Ecological Babies has very competitive pricing compared to the online stores, and they're local!).  Steve did some math.  :)  After about a week, we decided to go for it.  Our initial stash looked like this:

Abby, 11 months

18 infant prefolds, cotton

3 infant prefolds, hemp

4 Thirsties Duo Wraps (size 1)

1 Happy Heiny One-Size

1 Bum Genius 3.0

2 Thirsties Duo Diapers (size 1)

1 Grovia AIO 

1 Fuzzibunz one-size (bought from Best Beginnings when they had their store vs. Ecological Babies).

Out of all of those, my favorites were the Thirsties Duo Diapers.  Of course, Abby outgrew those very quickly and we began to explore other brands.  We tried Kawaii and Tots Bots as she grew.  My favorites changed to Tots Bots very quickly.  They were super easy to use (the pocket insert is attached to the diaper) and have very strong aplix that has yet to wear out.  I also grew to dislike Bum Genius (I know I know...I'm probably only one of 10 people in the world who hate them).  The aplix wore out, the elastic wore out (I replaced both even), and out of all the diapers we own, they are the only brand where the PUL (waterproof fabric) has worn out.  They have since become swim diapers for Will.

Will, 7 months, in the Happy Heiny we bought for Abby

We got 2.5 years of HEAVY use out of all of those diapers.  Will is still using some of them.  But since he has been born, I have come to love the new Thirsties AIOs, and I am also developing a love for Alvas.  The rest I could take or leave.  I just wish the Thirsties AIOs took less time to dry (they take over 24hrs to line dry).  

For those of you who cloth diaper, what are your favorites?  For those of you who don't, what questions do you have?