Menu Planning and end of January!!

Ahhh January is almost over - just over 12 hrs left - at least in Alaska. Then comes February and once we can get through these two months I feel like life can continue on. These I think are a couple of the hardest months. The days are dark - although getting longer and a little more light. But still it has been cold enough and at times slushy enough to not be able to get outside. I don't even have great reasons, I am just not a fan of Jan and Feb and I even have a birthday in Jan! And football ends, and what do you do with a weekend when there is no football to watch? But anyhow - I do think I've made the most of our Jan and feel refreshed in my house currently. I have made some serious headway and am looking forward to taking a donating my collection for other people to be able to use later today.

Based on the look of my calendar, January was a relatively busy month!

I really didn't get on here to complain, what I wanted to share is how excited I am about a Feb project I have going. My amazing, wonderful friend Rachel has made me a menu for the month of February!! I have been so bored with food and with cooking the last couple of months, and usually I do love to cook, but have felt very uninspired and seem to go to our standbys (not an altogether bad thing, I just needed a change for a bit!). So I got my menu last week and yesterday I was able to sit down and plan out my week, combining meals with what the day's activities are. Simple quick dishes or crock pot meals on busy days and the ones that take just a bit more time on not as busy days. And then also looking at trying to use up fresher, quicker to spoil produce earlier in the week. Since our produce here can tend to go bad quickly. So, I got my menu out yesterday afternoon while Jonathan slept and Jeremy was at the gym and started pulling together recipes and making my grocery list. I love to be organized and I loved doing this. I don't know exactly why, probably because I didn't have to make any decisions. I hate making decisions and often just like being told what to do (well, sometimes).

My organizing and bringing together of schedules and meals and finding recipes

The beginning of my February calendar - with main courses filled in on the first week

SO, anyhow, now I have my list all ready to go and once Jonathan wakes up from his nap we will have lunch and then head to drop off our give away stuff and then to do some grocery shopping. I'm excited about a somewhat new adventure and cooking someone else's ideas for meals! (and, much better than from a magazine, because she knows me a bit better than a magazine and it is customized for our likes) :)

It's a multi-post day

Continue down to see previous post, but I wrote all that - not what I intended to write, and the pictures I have to post didn't match, so here's what I meant to post about :)

I celebrated my 27th birthday this week -yes, it was 27, joke has been that I truly have gotten confused about how old I was turning/how old I was last year - oh well, now I know - at least for now. But it was a wonderful day - I awoke to roses waiting for me in the kitchen, which was a great surprise! Also, I think Jonathan must've known it was my birthday, because he was so enjoyable all day! That evening my brother Dan surprised me with a cake that he baked and decorated!! So sweet! And Jeremy brought home dinner - Burrito King, my request even :) - and then watched Beauty and the Beast with me. So, it was a very nice day.

I put this one by my sink to brighten the area up and to enjoy more :)

Another big event last week was that we took Jonathan for some allergy testing and it was determined that he has outgrown his peanut allergy (WOOOOHOOOO) - hello pb&j for lunch (and breakfast and dinner somedays), however still have the egg allergy, but seems to be fine if it is baked in something, so likely will outgrow that as well. So, it was a very encouraging appointment for us. He is loving having peanut butter on toast in the morning and pb&j for lunch, so maybe we'll get a bit of meat to stick to his bones!



Mmmmmm I just pulled some bread from the oven - it is amazing!! I am enjoying a piece right now! It is called Amish White Bread Loaves, but I made it half whole wheat - yum-o!!




I couldn't resist posting some pictures :)

Ok, sounds like Jonathan's "nap time" which was really more of a quiet time, is over and I should get on with dinner and picking up this house....And this is what I found when I went to get him, a super happy baby who had been diligently working on bringing the curtain into his bed, maybe it looked comfy and he wanted to cuddle up with it - I'm not sure, but he was pretty proud of himself! NO wonder he was so happy for so long down there :)

Life these days

I often have a running commentary going in my head of what's going on and to write down on this blog, yet very few seem to actually make it on here. I could say that it's because I have been following through on one of my resolutions to spend less time on the computer, but that would be a lie. Well, I have been doing better, but I often get distracted by other's blogs and then am too lazy to write my own. However, in the world of resolutions i can say that I have already stuck with a couple of them. Let's be honest, making it the 27th of January is an accomplishment for me! :)

I have finished one quilt top, it just needs to be basted and quilted, yes I'm a slow quilter. I look at some quilting blogs and the things that these women finish it amazes me that they get it done AND that then they have time to blog about it! I also have making use of the gym membership and even my workout dvd. I've been giving myself smiley's on the calendar everyday that I work out and there are way more smiley's than sad faces, so that's exciting. I'm not quite seeing it transfer to the number on the scale, however I did buy a scale, so that's a big step. (I've never wanted one because I didn't want to obsess over weight, but decided it was time to use it as encouragement and motivation).

Another big project that I'm very excited to be going on is the cleaning out of closets. With my mom's help (who loves organizing and throwing stuff out) we got through the spare bedroom last Friday, which was a huge accomplishment! I started with I think 7 rubbermaid bins of stuff and ended with 2 of storage and 2 of fabric (I'm not parting with much of that yet). In addition to the number of other random things stuffed in there, I have a decent load to take to be donated and a good chunk went out with the trash today. And another victory was selling a desk on craigslist - we had bought it 5 years ago at a garage sale for $20 and I sold it for $15! I was pretty stoked about that! I also got my upstairs coat (not used as that) closet cleaned out and organized - it holds some crafting stuff, some random dishes, paper goods, games, beading paraphernalia, yes all random, so was good to clean out.

Oh, and let me share something that I LOVE that I did a few months ago. So, I've always just used the disposable glad ware containers for leftovers and such. I think at one point early on in marriage I had a set of rubbermaid containers that have all disappeared. But, my cupboard was always so disorganized and cluttered, and because I had collected so much of it, it transferred to the fridge overflowing with leftovers until I couldn't shove anything else in. SO I bought a 40 pc set of new rubbermaid containers - like the real ones - and pulled out all the dipsosable stuff, and now only use the new ones. I stored away some of the old to use to take meals to people in. Such a little thing, but I love looking in my non-cluttered "tupperware" cupboard. And, as a bonus, when I run out of storage, it means it's time to clean out the fridge. It's a win win win.

And in regards to my little Jonathan, God's been reminding me that Jonathan is my priority and that is where the majority of my time and energy are to go. I want to go out and spend time on so many other things, because somehow it feels like I have the time for that, but then when I do, he gets all out of sorts, and I'm learning to plan our time better, and we are both happier for that. (ya, I'm sure I've written about this before, I think it's a lesson I'm not learning to well, but I'm getting there).

He loves his blankie

While switching laundry this morning Jonathan saw his beloved blanket go into the dryer and was determined to get it at any cost! Even left his sippy cup behind to try and rescue the blankie - however mommy did get the door closed - with his help of course :). However it wasn't quite dry when I laid him down for a nap, but I just took it down to him slightly damp and haven't heard a peep since. It is really sweet how much he loves this blanket. Whenever he sees it he buries his face in it. And in the morning or after any time when he was in crib sleeping before I can pick him up he bends over to pick it up making it sure it comes out of the crib with him.

New Year's and New (older) Pictures

Preferred shopping cart position, by blurred head, can tell that he was shaking back of seat back and forth.

Hiding in Grandma's cupboards

Uncle Dan likes to dress him like this :)

Favorite toy box

Sound asleep

It was weird actually getting to hang out at home last night, I think it was our first lazy Friday night in a long time. At first we were going to watch a movie on netflix, and then after browsing for about 45 min decided it was too late to start a movie, and after all, it being us, we watched some television episodes. I don't know what my issue is, I can so easily sit and watch two hours of tv shows, but a 2 hour movie seems like a daunting task. That being said, it was also weird sitting here and realizing that a week ago we were with family and friends celebrating the new year. I'm not a fan of holidays falling on the weekend, I feel like you just have to add in a celebration on top of what you want to do on the weekend, so I'm happy to have a somewhat relaxed weekend now. I also wanted to write down some of my goals for the new year. I've been seeing lots do that, and although they're nothing crazy, maybe if I write them down I'll feel more accountable to them. So, here goes:

~ Organize and clean out junk, get rid of things that I didn't use last year.
~ Work out regularly (so far, so good) - and we made a big step as a family today and joined a gym here, so we are really excited about that. Jeremy will be able to play racquetball with my dad and brothers and I am looking forward to the use of a pool again and getting to take Jonathan swimming, I also think it would be fun to take a group fitness class, we will see though
~ Spend more time playing with Jonathan - sometimes I find it easy to get involved in other things around the house and leave him to play by himself, or mostly pull out every toy/utensil/item in accessible cupboards
~ Read more to Jonathan - I had these plans that we would have regular story time every day, like after lunch and before bed, and right now he won't even sit still for two pages of a book - he loved books when he was younger, so I want to work on instilling in him a love for books, and being able to sit still longer :)
~ Less time on the computer
~ Finish two quilts - my 9-patch quilt and Alaska quilt (I would love for more, but I'm trying to be reasonable)
~ Learn to sew more little boy items

So, I think that's sort of what my goals are this year. It's sort of fun to think through it and write them down.

I think this was his first chocolate milk - at least first that I gave him, but I'm not sure that Grandma hadn't already given him chocolate milk ;) ... Grandma thinks Jonathan needs chocolate milk, mind you, I never got it growing up :)

Picking out his own food in refrigerator

He LOVES music, likes to play piano and listen to Uncle Ben play cello

Hanging out at a cross country meet

Watching a Husker game with Dad in Grandpa's garage and getting to swing - his favorite thing to do!

Well, I'm off to get some ironing and laundry done, we have Jeremy's company Christmas party tonight. (yep, this late, but better than the year it was held before Thanksgiving).

I've been working on getting all of my pictures off of my phone in hopes of getting a new one for my birthday. It's been somewhat of a process, but it's fun to look back at all the pictures, so here are a couple from our last year. Yep, I took about 700 pictures on my phone! yikes!


Watching Uncle Kelly and Aunt Ashley on "The Price is Right"

Helping unload the dishwasher



One of our hiking trips

I took this off the video monitor, he used to fall asleep like this! I can't imagine that it was comfortable, but he slept so I didn't care. :)


Ok, and I'm already failing at less time on the computer!