Tuesday, April 14, 2009

This weeks Menus

Monday- Baked Potato Soup

Tuesday- I'm not sure... lol Free For All???

Wednesday- Chicken Enchiladas

Thursday- Red Beans and Rice

Friday- Chicken Pot Pie


Woohoo... Sorry it's late.

Time to get heavy...

Lately, everyday feels like a struggle. I constantly fight the demons that plague me. I fight to hold them down. I feel like I can't be normal and enjoy the wonderful people around me. I ask myself, why can't I just be happy all the time? Why do I worry about every little thing? Once I was normal. Once I was a happy go lucky, carefree woman. Once upon a time, I loved who I was. I look at them, the small people who love me unconditionally, who don't understand when mom yells, who kiss me when I am sad, and I wonder how being me will affect them in the future. I don't want them to have a crazy mom. I don't want them to hate me. I don't want them to be like me. How do I get out of my head and into real life? How do I take the steps to feel normal again? I want to play with them and not freak out about a million tiny things floating in my head. I want to be normal.

How do I live in the here and now and not in the what if? I want to live in the here with my kids, not in the murky no one knows future. How do I knock the wall down between there and here? How do I fight the guards that are stationed at the top? I want to face this head on. I want to go down fighting, if I'm going to go down. I want out of my head and into the world.

From today on, I will fight. I will break down my walls. I will be the mom that they deserve. I will be the wife that he deserves. I will be the person that I want to be.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Menu Plan Monday

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So I totally slacked this past week. Busy busy busy is all I can say. Here's our menu for the week.

Monday- Chicken and Stuffing

Tuesday- Granny is taking us all out to dinner... Olive Garden, yum breadsticks...

Wednesday- Chicken Pot Pie

Thursday- Pork Tenderloin, Potatoes and Veg

Friday- Shepard's Pie

Saturday- Hot Sandwiches

Sunday- Easter Dinner- Roast with potatoes and veg and then a yummy dessert!!

For other Menu Plan Monday ideas, visit Organizing Junkie.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Menu Plan Monday

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Very boring menu this week. I'm not too inspired to fix new meals. I definitely need some new ideas. Here goes...

Monday- Lasagna

Tue- Calzones

Wed- Chicken Noodle Casserole

Thur- Pork Chops and Gravy

Fri- Steak, Potato and Veg

Sat- Chicken Enchiladas

Sun- Breakfast for dinner


Recently I noticed that I had been cooking a meal for my two kids and then for DaddyBear and I. We have struggled with our youngest even eating at all and I think I just gave up and cooked them both stuff I knew they would eat. Any suggestions on kids friendly and adult friendly meals would be awesome!!!

For more great menus at Menu Plan Monday visit I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Sunday, March 29, 2009

New Feature.... Sunday Weekly ToDos...

I've been thinking this week about this and decided that I should add this to my blog to add to my accountability. So I proudly introduce my first weekly Sunday Weekly ToDos. Ok Lame name... I get it... if this all works out then I will find a catchier name and do graphics, but until then... it's Sunday Weekly ToDos. My goal here is to write my list of things that MUST get done in my home/life. As I go, I'll check them off my list. So here goes...

1. Clean the living room (Holy moly it's gross... how many smushed up fruit bars will I find...)
2. Our Room needs some serious dealing with
3. Scrub the kitchen floor
4. Go through the kitchen cabinets
5. Grocery List
6. Write up budget
7. Find new recipes
8. Clean the fridge
9. Figure out kids schedule
10. Laundry


These are the things that absolutely must be done.

The Pleasant Life is Messy sometimes....

As I look around our house, I slowly realize how utterly messy my home is today. Toys strewn everywhere in the living room, random crayons being crushed into the carpet, sink overflowing with dishes, dirty clothes no longer in baskets. I realize that I am not the best homemaker, but I do strive to keep our home not looking like a hurricane has just been 'ablowing. Monday through Friday, our home is sparkling clean with children as neat and proper as the Darling children. Saturday and Sunday blow up in my face. There is just something about DaddyBear being home that throws off my cleaning equilibrium. DaddyBear's presence on weekends equals fun and toys and ice cream and staying up late. I love having him home but sometimes I push him out of the door on Monday morning so I can begin the massive reconstruction on the house. Mondays come with a heavy heart and hand. I'm bummed that I let our home get so, so... just plain gross on the weekends. And the extra work that it causes me. But for the brief time that DaddyBear spends at home, with us, we are content in our pigstye. We are happy in our filth. I guess that makes our weekend grossfest OK.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Bills, Bills, Bills

I saw a post on a blog that I read semi-regularly that got me to thinking. Over at Getting Ahead, Jennifer talks about how many monthly bills they have. This got me to thinking about our current financial and bill paying situation. I think most people would be surprised at how many bills we actually pay each month. In fact, I think most people would be surprised to know how much we get by on each week.

As of today, we pay for HOA, internet, phone, car insurance, electric, one credit card bill and water. These are our monthly bills. We, of course, have annual bills such as property taxes and house insurance. Tallied up, our monthly bills, on average, come out to $435. That's nothing compared to a lot of people these days. I will say that we are extremely lucky, in that my parents let us use their second satellite dish, so we don't have to pay for TV, and they also have us included on their cell phone plan. We are on their plan simply because at one time we couldn't afford any phone and my mother being the loving, paranoid woman she is put us on her plan. Now, it's kind of second nature.

As I have said before, we are a one income family. My husband works hard and makes a decent living for us. That being said, there are a million things that we want to do in life. We love to travel and go new places. My husband loves guitars. So in an effort to actually afford the things we love and save for the future, we have made our monthly bills as small as possible. I believe that in times such as these, the way that we are living now is going to have to become the norm. Cut back, only have what you can actually afford, live simply. I'm glad that we have been living this way for as long as we have now. It has become natural for us.

As an aside, neither of us have always been so frugal and future minded. There was a time, in both of our seperate lives, that we were very spendy. We used credit inappropriately and often. That time was fun, but exhausting. We have both either paid our dues or are currently paying them now. We have come to the point we are now because we have no credit cards. We need to save for the things that we want to have or want to do. And that is how our current financial situation came about.

We live on $550 a week. Each week, $150 goes to paying our mortgage, $110 goes to paying bills, $50 goes to my parents to pay back what we owe them from past mistakes, my husband gets $50 a week to buy lunch and his extras, $20 goes to the Christmas fund, $100 (or more) goes right into savings, the rest is for groceries and gas for the van. We live very tightly to achieve our goals. I think most of our friends would be surprised at how little we have to work with and how much we can achieve on it.

This turned out to be a long rambly post. But, Getting Ahead got me thinking about how grateful I am that we can live on what we make now. It made me really look at how many bills we pay each month and realize that we aren't doing half bad. I am proud of my husband that he can support us and that he gave me the opportunity to stay home and raise our children. I am proud that he supports me as CFO of our family. I am most proud and thankful for what we do have right now.