Cooking Day - Update

Well, for those of you who have been wondering how the cooking day thing is going...I am now 17 out of 17 in the good with Marion!

What I mean is, we did our last 14 days and Marion LOVED all the meals...he thought they were all just fabulous...and they lasted us till the 27th of February...a lot longer then 14 days! So I did a second menu set for about the same cost as the first and so far, Marion is still on board! He thinks they are just great well balanced meals and he says I am alot less stressed at meal times. So I guess that in itself is good.

I am still doing the two week meal plans they have in the book. The second cooking day was alot like the first in that I started around 8:30 or 9:00 and had everything done and cleaned up by 4:00! I think I'd like to try the month cooking day, but I think it will take me two days to actually complete all the cooking. I think it would be easy to divide it up as you could just do the Chicken meals one day, and the Beef and other meals the next. We'll have to see the next time around. They have one more meal plan for two weeks which is a low fat plan. So we will see.

Well, better go. Hope you are all having a great day!

Like Mother Like Daughter

Or maybe it is like Aunt like Niece…I can’t remember for sure, but I know that when my sister and I were little the family went to town to do some shopping and my father got a gift for my mother.  Upon leaving the parking lot either my sister or myself said “Hey dad did we pay for that pillow we bought mom?”  So much for a surprise huh?

 

Well just this afternoon, we all went to Downs so Marion could get some stuff and he stopped by the flower shop while I was in the scrap booking store.  On our way home, Abi says “We got a flower for you Momma!  Right there.” As she points to the floor where a blanket was all bundled up!  Marion just looked at me and smiled! J 

I finished it...

Nathan's first year album...yep, I finally got it done. Marion stayed home with the kids and I went scrapbooking and finally finished Nathan's album.

I was curious to see how I did...everyone says the second gets far less and I wanted to see if I managed to even come close. So once I had all his pictures scrapped, I counted the pages. Then I went to Abi's book and counted her pages. The result:

Nathan: 38 pages
Abigail: 51 pages
13 pages different!

I didn't think that was TOO bad...especially when you consider that Abi had 6 pages of baby shower pictures that Nathan did not have...I can't help that! I also noticed that on some of Abi's pages I had two pages for crawling and rolling where with Nate I put those together. Alot of the same events though!

Now I just have to get caught up on our family album. I think I am three years behind there! Again, not bad considering I know some people who are decades behind ;-)

Such a Little "Mother"

I can’t believe how much Abigail is growing up.  She has really started getting into playing pretend.  She’ll get her baby doll and take her for walks or put her down to sleep or like right now, read to her!  It has been a good thing in distraction from those fits that 2 year olds throw…when I see one coming on I just say “Oh, no…I hear your baby crying, you better go get her.”  And she runs off to find her baby and snuggle with her and forgets the fit. How long do you think that will continue to work?!  J

 

And then there is her memory…it amazes me that she can remember so much!  For probably a month after New Year’s Eve when we went to Kareena and Dale’s house she asked every Sunday night after church “We go Kareena’s?” because that is what we did New Year’s Eve.  Oh and the Puppets…she just won’t forget the puppets!!

 

I don’t know…maybe I am just being sentimental right now but there has just been so much lately…she loves to “help” especially with Nathan, dishes, and baking!  The other night she ate a whole corn on the cob by herself!  Just because that’s what “big” people do.  And her COMMUNICATION!  The things she can say…one of her most adorable ones right now is “That’s Tasty”, where does a two year old come up with that!

 

Sorry if this is too much bragging, I just had to share though.  Please don’t think I am bias or anything either…Nate is doing some great things now too but its not the same…Abigail is really emulating “big” people and Nate is still trying to learn that self control thing so they are just in two different stages…Nate is busy learning that we DON’T play in the plant dirt, we DON’T play with the cupboards, we DON’T throw fits when we don’t get our way, we DON’T put everything into the trash can or even the bathtub (though I prefer the bathtub if he is going to sort things out J), and we absolutely DON’T eat paper, crayons, dirt, or foam from the football!  So you see, its just totally different stages! 

 

Well, I better run.  We are headed out to friends for pizza and movies.  Hope you have a great night!

GOOD LAUGH

Okay, my friend Candi sent this really great video link that just made me roll on the floor and the kids loved it too...we were all watching it again! So, if you want a good laugh check it out. I don't know how it would work for a dial up connection speed, so for those of you who can't watch it I am sorry, maybe you can come over and watch it at my house!

http://www.glumbert.com/media/laugh

PS. Welcome Aunt Patti to the fast lane, hope you enjoy your new connection!

I'm Done!

Well, I am done with my first two week cooking day!  YEAH!  I started at around 8:30 this morning, took time to go to town and have lunch with Marion and the kids and have everything in the freezer and all the dishes cleaned up by 4:00 this afternoon.  Not too bad. 

 

I am pretty excited about some of the dishes.  They are not what I would call or regular ones but they all sounded really good.  And now the house smells like a great mixture of all those dishes.  I can’t tell if that is a good thing or a bad thing J 

 

Anyway, just thought I’d update you all on how my first cooking day went.  The kids did great with one or two exceptions.  They helped wash dishes, sorted Tupperware, and just generally played in the kitchen while I cooked.  Eventually I had to take away all the chairs and stools and anything else they could stand on because they were starting to get hungry and wanted to get into all the dishes.  Then there was the time around lunch time when it was time to start picking up the kitchen so we could go to lunch and by that time they were tired and hungry and didn’t want to obey so that was a tense moment but overall, I have to say they did VERY WELL!

 

I think I am going to go put my feet up and rest as the kids are still napping (they had a late lunch and nap today).  Bye!

Cooking Day

Okay we will see how this works...I decided to do this Once a Month Cooking thing, though they have a plan for a two week cooking which is what I am actually doing. I went and shopped today and I have been working on my prep stuff today and then tomorrow is cooking day where I am supposedly going to make 14 entrees for the next two weeks. There are a few things that I am "saving" on and we'll see how they turn out...for instance, the recipes called for frozen bread dough and I decided to make my own or the recipes called for canned cream soup which Marion does not like and I am skipping that...so I'll have to let you know how it all turned out.

I spent a little over $100 today at the story buying the ingredients, cereal, yogurt and a few other basics (eggs, milk, seasonings, etc) and I figure this was for one meal a day and we'll still have to have lunches or whatever so we'll see how this pans out. I'll let you know if it really saves us or not.

Puppets

Well I would have to say the highlight of Abigail's weekend was indeed the puppet show on Saturday night. Our church had a family night with puppets and a movie. I was a little concerned that she would be scared of the puppets and we wouldn't be able to stay and watch them but she warmed up to them quickly!

She talked and got excited through the entire show...at one point they were talking about building your house upon the Rock Jesus Christ and as the picture of the house moved up she said (very loudly) "Look a Triangle" "Ooh, Two Squares, two just like me!" (the windows in the house). Then they had a green house for the foolish man and she pointed that out as well! BUT THE BEST WAS LAST...they had these wiggley puppets that squirmed and danced to a song and OOOOHHHHH let me tell you she got excited about that...she called them "ducks" because they had bill type mouths and she talked and talked about how they danced.

I think the experience ruined her for church though because the next day when I told her she got to go to church she said "more puppets?". When I explained that the puppets weren't going to be there she wasn't very happy and didn't want to go to church. She proceeded to ask about the puppets all day long...so I guess we will have to go see those puppets again!

(By the way, the movie was Facing the Giants. A VERY good movie if your church or youth group is looking for a good one to watch. Marion tells me that a Baptist Church did the whole thing and it was AWESOME!)