Meal Plans Week of 11-7-10

Good morning.  Anybody else out there NOT a fan of the time change?  It's easy to set your clocks back.  But not so much your body's clock.  Just praying that Rebecca isn't up an hour early today :P  Hopefully the adjustment won't last too long.

Made it through another week.  I've now passed the 13 week mark.  Officially in the 2nd trimester.  Woo hoo :)  Gradually starting to feel better, but still have a ways to go.  Especially when I push myself a little too much like I did yesterday.  My body lets me know :\  And although a few sweets are starting to sound/taste good my tummy does not like them one bit.  Sweets still make me feel sick.  So I have to avoid them as much as I can.  Last week was pretty busy, but quite productive at least.  Yesterday especially.  We bought a mini van!  It'll be ours on Monday.  Yesterday we also signed up for our cow share at Lubbers Farm and will be starting our raw milk pick up on Tuesday!  So exciting.  We will have access to raw milk for 14 weeks...basically throughout my 2nd trimester.  Which is very good timing.  The other good thing is that their waiting list restarts every time they open up winter shares.  So now we are close to the top of the list for a full time share.  And we also have access now to their homegrown eggs, beef and pork.  And we can buy cheese and bread there too (Little Rooster Bread Company...their son).  It was so much fun to see the farm, see how everything works, hear their story, etc.  On the flip side of our busy day we had to skip naps for both Rebecca and me...not such a good idea :P  We also had a surprise visit from my parents last night.  It was good to see them.  But it got Rebecca to bed even later...and wore me out even more.  So last night and this morning are pretty rough.  I'm actually having to pause every few minutes while typing this post and see if I need to make a quick run to the bathroom...or grab the garbage can :P  Not fun.

This week is turning out to be very busy too.  Today is church.  Monday I have a lot of shopping to do.  We are doing an Operation Christmas Child shoebox this year.  So Rebecca and I will go pick out toys, etc. for that.  I also have to do my regular grocery shopping.  And I need to get to the hardware store to get some 1/2 gallon mason jars for our milk.  I hope they have them.  Otherwise we can buy them at the farm, but they are more expensive.  Justin has council in the evening.  Tuesday I have an appt. with my psychologist, we have to pick up milk and Justin has class.  Wednesday is Kindermusik, and Justin has a missions cmt meeting (although he might skip it so he's not gone 4 nights in a row this week).  Thursday Rebecca and I are getting together with friends in the morning, and Justin has another meeting at church in the evening.  Friday I might go to Heffron Farms for milk and butter.  But we'll see how our milk supply is doing by then.  Our raw milk will not be enough for our family every week.  So I'll still need to buy other milk.  If we find we want more raw milk we can sign up for another share.  But we're starting with one gallon a week.  Saturday I am taking a cloth diapering 101 class at a local baby store.  Other than that we might do some shopping.  We're finding that there is a lot to get done in the next few months.  Funny how the upcoming arrival of a baby will do that :P  Thankfully we can cross mini van off our list.  But we still need to get furniture and finish Rebecca's room.  And we had a guy look at our basement bathroom this week.  We'd like to finish the shower in there so it's a fully functional bathroom when we have guests.  And it'd be nice to have it done before our Christmas guests arrive :)  So we need to pick out tile and finalize those plans.  Those are two of the big ones that we're focusing on first.

At MOPS on Friday one of our mentor moms talked about having balance in our lives.  It's something we all struggle with...me for sure!  I tend to go full force in one area of my life and neglect others.  So I'm going to work to find a little more balance in my life.  I love to do stuff in the kitchen.  And that won't stop.  But I need to do other stuff too.  So I am going to try to start scheduling other activities into my days instead of only cooking, baking, etc. with all of my free time.  I'd like to be a little better about cleaning.  So I'm going to try to accomplish small tasks every week...things that normally only get done once in a great while.  They will be simple things that can be done in 5-20 min.  Like clean one refrigerator shelf.  Or clean windows in one room.  Little things that will add up over time.  And all of the cleaning won't seem overwhelming.  I also want to use one morning a week to do something fun/creative.  I'm going to start with my sewing maching I think.  I think this will give my life a litlte more balance.

At MOPS we also talked about being thankful and how we can teach this to our children.  So I would like to be more active about this with Rebecca.  One thing we're doing is the OCC shoebox.  I am also trying to ask her once in a while what she is thankful for.  And I'd like to do a few crafts related to thankfulness.

I did finally start baking again last week.  I made chewy granola bars, two batches of pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pancakes and coffee cake.  Most of it was for MOPS.  Hopefully I can do more baking for us soon :)  I also got some of my kefir grains going again.  Glad to know I didn't kill them :P  Since we'll be so busy this week I don't intend to do a lot of kitchen projects.  I might try to bake something for our friends.  And I would like to use my sourdough to make a new batch of english muffins.  I also still need to make myself a new batch of grain free granola.  That's about it for this week in terms of baking.  I do need to deal with the rest of our brussels sprouts...which could be quite an undertaking...4 stalks...lots of tiny sprouts.  And we stopped at the orchard yesterday (just down the road from where we get our milk!).  So I have some squash to bake and freeze too.

Lots of stuff going on this week.  I hope I'm up for it.  Still not ready to plan regular breakfasts.  I still eat toast w/ pb most mornings.  Maybe next week.  Here's what's on the menu.
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Breakfast options - toast, english muffins or bagels w/ pb, granola bars, muffins, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, poached eggs, breakfast sausage, yogurt w/ granola, smoothie, oatmeal, egg puff, hard boiled egg, leftovers

S (church, make bars, bake squash, prep sd)
  B - bagel w/ pb, avocado (me), soaked cinnamon raisin coffee cake, fruit (Justin)
  L - leftover carrot pumpkin souffle, peas, pumpkin muffins
  D - chicken taco potatoes. pearsauce
 
M (make english muffins, shop for OCC, groceries, shop for jars, council)
  B - sourdough english muffins w/ butter, pb, jam, fruit, avocado
  D - squash and sausage soup, crackers w/ cheese
 
T (prep fruit, clean dishes cupboard, Dr. V., pick up milk, class, soak grain for wed)
  B - leftover carrot pumpkin souffle, avocado (me), breakfast cookie, pineapple (Justin)
  D - taco salad
 
W (work on sewing machine, KM, missions cmt)
  B - fried eggs, avocado, toast
  D - shrimp and veggie stir fry over brown rice, couscous or quinoa grilled hamburgers, sweet potato fries, beans, pearsauce
 
Th (prep brussels sprouts, Target, Heffron Farms, DT mtg)
  B - fried egg, avocado (me), sourdough english muffin, fresh fruit (Justin)
  D - french toast, sausage links, fruit, veg.
 
F (clean bathrooms, fabric store, Target, prep brussels sprouts, clean fridge, freeze butter)
  B - sausage, avocado (me), french toast (Justin) 
  D - pan seared salmon, baked sweet potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts
 
S (clean fridge, sort laundry, chop veggies, laundry, cloth diapering class, sewing project, OCC shoe box, thankfulness craft)
  B - fried egg, avocado, brussels sprouts (me), yogurt, granola, fruit (Justin)
  D - sloppy cornbread, roasted carrots, parsnips, brussels sprouts, peppers and onions