Menu Plan Monday

Getting back into planning weekly, my pantry has been moved around due to a remodel and I have lost focus just having a general list of meals on hand. Need to plan each day again. So here is what we are eating in our house this week. What is on your menu?
Monday: Beefy One Pot Dinner, biscuits
Tuesday:Taco Bake, corn on the cob
Wednesday: Ravioli Bake, Salad, Garlic Bread
Thursday: Chicken Nacho Bake
Friday: Steak, Twice baked potatoes

I don't have Saturday or Sunday planned yet. I do my grocery shopping on Friday morning so I plan out the weekly meals on Thursday. I have linked the recipes. Most of them you can find in Kraft Food and Family or on their website. For more menu ideas, check out Laura at I'm an organizing junkie! Have a great week!

Some not so depressing thoughts

Here we are getting through what they call the most depressing week of the year. In our house we actually had one of the best weeks. This year having my dh home has been better than any year in the past. We really are enjoying being able to be home together and be with the kids. We were just talking about our childhood today and I honestly don't even remember my parents being around to much when I was playing with my brother or cousins growing up. They never sat down and played games with us or hung out and watched movies or read stories in the middle of the day. The other day I was dealing with a really yucky migraine and Bill and Natalie snuggled up with me and we spent the morning there. Doing nothing but snuggling and watching TV, mostly Dora, but that is what kept her there that long. It was so nice to just be. We didn't have an agenda. The other kids were in school. I am just so thankful for those days to just really enjoy the life that God has provided for us.

Wordless Wednesday - Learning the ABC's

Just click the play button twice. (Also to hear the video and not the music on the site, just click on the pause button for the music player:) )

For more wordless posts, check out Five Minutes for MOM!

Tackle Free Tuesday!

It's not that I don't have anything to tackle, in fact I have one big thing to stay on today and that is to make sure my dh does not miss his appointment for a consult for the big "V" if you don't know what the big V is...(It's a vasectomy) If you aren't sure what that is, I'm sure if you log on to WebMD.com and type it in the search engine you will be provided with some information. I won't go into any more details other than the fact that I am completely happy with 4 kids and I really don't want to go through it all again. I went on the pill last May and lucky for my dh it has turned me into a "B" so that is motivating him to do it so his sweet wife will return:)

This is the week for Doctors appointments Me and the kids both have Dentist appts. tomorrow, but Today I also have to take Ethan to the ENT to have them inspect his ear. Miraculously purple play -doh has found it's way deep into his ear canal. The other night he tells me it felt like something was in his ear, I look and sure enough it's something bluish - purple, so I ask him if he itched his ear with a pencil and maybe the eraser broke, he swears he didn't do anything. I put some ear wax remover stuff in his ear and he tells me the next day that a chunk of purple play-doh came out. (Still not fessing up as to how it got there in the first place, ugh) I checked him after school and I could see a ball of it - We got that out with tweezers, but I don't want to mess with the ears, so we call the Dr.

Luckily I have MOPS this morning and can take my mind off these men in my life for a little while! Because the afternoon will be filled with Dr's offices!

** *Update Bill went to his appt!! His surgery is scheduled!! Whoo-hoo! now he asks if we are sure we are done having kids??? WHAT???
Ethan's ears are now play-doh free!!***

Movies, Movies and More Movies

Did I mention that I have become quite the homebody these days? Well right after Christmas when we really just started staying home and just being with our family, we got a two week trial of Netflix now from time to time I will do the Blockbuster online, but I thought I would see how many movies we could get in our free trial. Well we managed to view 11 movies in two weeks!! No we did not just lay around all day watching movies. It pretty much was each evening we would watch them. So here is a list along with a short review.

1. In the Land of Women - I really liked this one.

2. Evan Almighty- I was surprised about this one. It didn't look like one I would like to see. The whole family watched it since it was rated PG. We all liked it. Natalie likes to say "Everybody on the ARK!!" Our pastor even referenced this movie in church last week. Good One we probably will buy this one since we watched it 3 times!

3. The Nanny Diaries - Good movie. Made me thankful that I was not destined to be one of the mothers they depict in the movie.

4. The Simpsons Movie - Okay. I used to be a Simpsons fan. Not so much these days. I wouldn't watch it again.

5. Underdog - Another really cute family movie. The kids loved it. Natalie always is saying "Give the Dog your food" So we now use that in everything. "Give Mommy a kiss" " Give Daddy a hug" etc. etc. Funny. We probably will purchase this one as well.

6. The Nativity Story - I watched this one late Christmas Eve after everyone went to bed before Santa came. It really was a special movie. Makes you take another look at what faith in God Mary and Especially Joseph had. Awesome.

7. Oceans Thirteen - I really like all of these movies

8. The Bourne Ultimatum - I can't give an opinion on this one since I really only watched the first 10-15 minutes. Bill liked it though.

9. License to Wed - ummm wasn't crazy about it. IMO, Previews made it look funnier than it was.
10. The Wild - Didn't watch it, kids did and said it was good. Didn't look interesting to me.

11. I now Pronounce you Chuck and Larry - I have to say there were some funny parts in it. Didn't love the whole concept of it though. Bill thought it was great!

Well I should've squeezed two more in, This could've been a Thursday Thirteen!

Oh What a Night!

We have had some wonderful unseasonably warm weather the past few days. I completely was loving it. Monday it was in the 60's and sunny - I woke up and was full of energy! Took Natalie out on 3 walks, washed all the windows, dusted swept, opened up some of the windows and let the breeze blow in. Sooo refreshing!! My dh grilled hot dogs for lunch and suggested we just move somewhere with weather like this all the time. I really don't think I would appreciate the days like that if it were always pretty much the same. I am an Ohio girl and I love all the seasons. Even the winter. I like my hibernation time, it really is good for the soul. But it is a nice thought.
Anyhow. What I don't like about the quick change in temp, is crazy storms and tornado's. Now listening to the news this morning it said nothing about any tornado's touching or even being spotted last night, but my mil and I both swear we heard the train sound. I have trouble getting to sleep and staying asleep these days so last night just as I was falling asleep (about 1 :00 AM!) My 7 yr old Ethan comes in and tells me he is scared of the wind. So I go into his room and lay down with him. Now his room is on the back of the house, so you really could hear it. I lay there with him I would say 3 minutes and the power starts flickering off. I get a little nervous. Then it goes out and the wind picks up so hard, I am not kidding the whole room started to shake, the girls both wake up and they are screaming. I literally picked Ethan up and started carrying him. Told Bill to get the girls and we ran downstairs. The mil came out of her room with a flashlight at the same time. I was completely scared. That wind was really whistling, they said 60mph winds. We ended up having a slumber party in our dining room which turned a scary night into something fun for the kids. They asked if we could sleep there again tonight. Oh I hope not!!

Here is one of the lovelys my neighbors have to deal with. There are at least 3 pine trees that blew over. This one was uprooted and they live on a corner lot. The tree was at least 150 feet tall or more. It was a scary night for sure!