Meal Planning

I've always been a fan of meal planning, but never wanted to take the time to develop a plan to do it. As organized as I am, it completely intimidated me. I tried "winging it" a few times and never got past the 2 week mark. I am proud to announce that I have been successfully pre-planning our meals 1-2 weeks in advance for over 2 months!! I haven't mastered the whole tying-it-into-our-budget thing, but it's been a LONG time since I've looked at the clock at 5:00 thinking, "Oh man, what should I make tonight?" I feel much more organized and I haven't made a last minute trip to the store for 1-2 items in a quite a while. And I've been throwing away much less rotten veggies that I didn't use in time. So essencially, I'm saving money, right?

I figured it out as I went, but I just found a great post on another mom's blog with the basic how-to's of Meal Planning 101. The post also has a few links to other meal planning tips. Check it out!

And the post I just wrote about Money Saving Mom, she has $35 and $40 meals (for a week) on her blog. Hopefully that will help me tie my meal planning into the budget a little better. (and I just discovered that she's from KC too...cyber high fives for KC!!!)

Paying it forward

Earlier this year, my sweet friend Reiko took my kids (and 5 unwashed loads of laundry) from me at 9am on day 5 of a horrible, nasty illness. At 5:30pm, she returned with not only my worn-out kids, but clean, folded laundry and a hot dinner for my family. I am still feeling the affects of her kindness that day.

Then a few weeks ago, another friend, Cathy (with 4 kids of her own) offered to take my kids for a day so I could catch up on work. What I learned from her, was that my kids at her house was actually easier for her than my kids NOT at her house. Her 6 year old was at kindergarten, her 4 year old son played with Ryan, her 2 year old daughter played with Kaylin, and her 8 month old baby just hung out and watched all the action. That was a huge eye-opener for me.

I'm forgetting that now that my kids are getting older, having more kids around isn't more work, it's often less. I've been looking for opportunities to "pay it forward" with my friends' generosity. And today I got the chance.

Lisa recently had her 3rd baby and her oldest just turned 3, so she's a pretty tired mama. Instead of offering to bring her a meal, I offered to run to the grocery store for her, bring her a latte or take the kids if she needed a nap. To be honest, I was a little scared about the last one, but I put it out there anyway. And she even took me up on it!

So today was the day. It turned out to be much less work than I thought, because another friend offered to keep the baby for her. So I just had her 1.5 and 3 year old kids. It wasn't bad. AT ALL. I even called Lisa at 12:30 to ask if she wanted to come pick them up at 4:00 instead of 1:00 because things were going so well. The biggest issue was naptime. I mistakenly put the 3 year old in Ryan's room with him and told them to stay in bed and not talk. Ha! The good news is that I was able to grab a shower and dry my hair before taking Ryan out of the room and putting him in my bed to nap.

Now here I am in a quiet house with 4 kids...all asleep. This is further encouragement for me to have more kids. I can do this! While they were playing this morning, I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, did laundry, made my mom's birthday cake for tonight, made the salad dressing for dinner, prepared the salmon and potatoes to go on the grill and even frosted the cake, so everything is truly ready to go. It was so much easier to get that stuff done with 2 friends over to play with my kids who kept them occupied; they didn't even care whether I was around or not. I should add that things were probably so "easy" today because these sweet kids are pretty well behaved and have similar structure and guidelines in their house. They all sat still at the picnic table during lunch, they did a good job playing together and taking turns, I didn't have to break up any fights or kiss any blows to the head with a large toy boo-boos...this was a great experience.

I think God allowed me to have a good first experience with this so I would make myself available to do it again. Sure, we had some poopy pants and and a fall-off-the-picnic-table accident (okay, so I had to kiss that boo-boo) but at the end of the day, it was really fairly easy. So woo hoo for me - I handled 4 kids all day! And I was able to "pay it forward" for a couple of amazing favors given to me. Man, it feels good to give...

Baskets, Containers and Bins, oh my!

The Organizing Junkie blog lady is having a Basket Carnival on her blog. I didn't realize HOW many baskets I have scattered around my house until I read her post! You know you're a little neurotic when people (yes, that's plural) tell you that your pantry looks like a grocery store or your cousin calls everyone in the family over during the Easter dinner preparations to look inside your hall closet.

So here we go...first, my bedroom closet. I found these baskets on sale at Joann's a few months ago and decided to "dress up" my closet. I figured I could be efficient and relocate my bras, sports bras, underwear and socks to these baskets on the unused shelf between the top and bottom clothes racks. Because seriously, there's not really enough room there to put anything useful! So it collected clutter and lots of dust bunnies. No more! This picture is dark and hard to see, but here are the 4 baskets that separate each item:

I also have baskets in my pantry. Only a handful, holding odds and ends like "grab-on-the-go" snacks, baking stuff, nuts and raisins and other random snacks.

And this is my hall closet. On the left are our coats and a hanging shoe rack with rarely-worn shoes stuffed inside, then there's the used shoe shelves on the ground, with a big crate for the kids to toss their shoes so the pairs stay together and don't get lost. On the right side of the closet are shelves with bins holding batteries, outside play stuff, sunscreen, stuff like that. The bins on the top hold all of the stray cords and cables, light bulbs, sewing stuff, party decorations, and other household items that you need occasionally, but never know where they are. About a year ago, I got sick of not knowing where the extension cords or extra mouse pads were, so I waited for the storage bins to go on sale, stocked up, grouped all of the items by logical category, labeled everything and within an afternoon, this closet was flawlessly organized.

I also have baskets under each coffee table in our family room. One holds stray toys (makes picking up a breeze) and the other has diapers and wipes (so I don't have to bring Kaylin up and down the stairs throughout the day).

And last, I have this wonderful item that I bought while I was pregnant with Ryan. The baskets above the changing table have been a lifesaver. One has Tylenol, a thermometer, the syringe and like items, another has bath stuff (when I bathed the kids at the kitchen sink, it was so easy to grab and had everything I needed, minus a towel), and the other basket currently has headbands and bows that aren't on the ribbons hanging from the pegs. I'm not sure what I had in there when it was Ryan's. -?- Anyway, this was probably my first basket-type organizational purchase years ago and it got me hooked on containerizing.

Time Outs all around!

In the last few weeks, Kaylin has gotten into a purposeful testing phase. She makes it so obvious, with a "what are you gonna do about it?" look. I'll ask her to "come here" and she'll stand statue-still, smiling at me playfully. It was cute at first, but now she does it any time she's asked to do anything. Not as cute. So, I give her a few seconds to comply (giving her the stare-down, usually with raised eyebrows) and she'll often give in, running toward me as fast as she can, giggling. But when she doesn't, I've been teaching her to obey with time outs.

Ryan thinks this is fascinating. Not laughable, but "it's about time someone else gets in trouble around here" kind of funny. So much so that instead of coming to me with a dispute, he'll try to put her in time out. So now we have the new problem of "it's our job to discipline your sister." When the timer goes off, he even asks her why she was in a time out before we can get the words out of our mouths. Again buddy, not your job.

I noticed yesterday that Kaylin has started in, too, saying, "ime-out, Rya. OO (two) minute!" pointing him in the direction of his time out chair. Or when he's whining and upset about something, she'll yell, "PAY WOOM!" because that's where the kids go when they're having a fit and need to cool off. The play room. Ahhh, I love that rule! They often disagree with decisions we make and I want them to be comfortable expressing their emotions about the subject, they just don't get the pleasure of an audience. They can be sad or frustrated all they want, but I don't want to hear about it, so they can come out when they've calmed down. It always amazes me that after a good cry, they'll emerge (usually with a blotchy face...they get that from me) and say, "I'm all done."

Because a time out for Ryan is also a time out for Mommy, we've instituted a "no talking" rule. How is it a punishment if he gets to do his favorite thing in time out...TALK. This has proven to be quite handy with our recent decision to institute time outs in the car. If the kids are arguing about something (yes - NO - yes - NO), I always ask Ryan to stop the arguing by not talking because he's older and "gets it" more. That rearview mirror helps me have eyes in the back of my head...I love it. Because often, he'll stay perfectly quiet and mouth the word, "yes" while she yells back "NO!" KIDS!!! So I've decided that I'm done losing my mind in the car. If he disobeys like that, I insitute the seemingly unnecessary car timeout where all that happens is he can't talk. LOVE IT. That's truly the worst punishment for him because he's such a talker. And the reason this works is that he knows when he talks, the time starts over. I was in the habit of adding a minute to his time when he spoke, but he didn't start getting it until Mike swooped in and started the timer over at 4 minutes each time he said something in time out. I thought that was a bit harsh until I realized that it worked.

Who knew vodka was so versatile?

This is laugh out loud funny. Or maybe I'm just tired and should go to bed...

Read the comments, too. Apparently #1 and #7 have also been disproven by Mythbusters. (a show Mike shamelessly watches because they blow stuff up)

Chicken Enchilada Quiche

I promised you this recipe last week and I'm just getting around to posting it. Sorry for the delay! It's a great recipe to make with the kids because there's not much you can do to mess it up. I know the title sounds weird, but it is an easy, one-dish recipe with tons of flavor. Mike raved with every single bite. Don't knock it till you try it...

Chicken Enchilada Quiche

1 pie crust, either refrigerated or homemade
4 eggs (or 4 egg white and 2 whole eggs)
1 cup milk or half-and-half
3 cups left over, cooked chicken
1 1/2 cups broken tortilla chips
8 oz. (2 cups) shredded jack cheese
4 oz. (1 cup) shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup salsa
1 can chopped green chiles
1/2 t. salt
pepper to taste
sour cream, if desired

Heat oven to 350. Place pie crust in a 9-inch glass deep dish pie pan. In a large bowl, beat eggs and milk. Stir in remaining ingredients. Pour into prepared pie pan. Bake for 55-65 minutes until the crust is light brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Cut inot wedges and serve with sour cream and salsa.

Morning Glory Muffins

Oh yum. Ryan's teacher made these in his class one time and they were a little too sweet for my taste, but I wanted to give them another chance. I left out the dehydrated pineapple pieces rolled in an inch of sugar. Plus, when nine 3-year olds are mixing the batter, frankly, things don't turn out the way they should.

This recipe will likely require a trip to the store to get a few ingredients, but seriously...yum. Moist, crunchy and fairly healthy, full of whole grains, fruits and nuts. What could be better? There's NO butter or oil, so you can (guilt-free) schmear a pat of butter on your warm muffin, fresh from the oven.

Morning Glory Muffins

1 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 c. flour
1 c. regular oats
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 t. wheat bran
2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1 c. plain yogurt
1 c. mashed banana (about 2)
1 egg
1 c. chopped pitted dates
3/4 c. chopped walnuts
1/2 c. chopped dried pineapple
3 T. ground flax seed

Preheat the oven to 350. Combine the first 7 (dry) ingredients in a large bowl; whisk. Make a well in the center. Combine yogurt, banana and egg. Add to flour mixture stirring until moist. Fold in remaining ingredients. Spoon into muffin cups and bake 20 minutes.

Productivity

Oh man, I did more today than most people do in a week! Okay, that may be a teeny exaggeration, but my day was packed. This morning, I bought cupcakes and brought them to school with Ryan, dropped Kaylin off at a Parents Day Out program, went to a going away party for a friend, picked up Mike and headed to Ryan's school to celebrate his "un-birthday" (since he has a summer birthday, that's what they do now - but we missed the singing by 5 minutes due to some rescheduling of snacktime - Ryan's teacher felt horrible and I was a little sad that I missed the big to-do), dropped a project off at Kinko's, went to Harkins to pick up movie tickets, went to Lowe's to pick up paint chips, went back to Kinko's to pick up the completed project, picked up Ryan from school, went home, made lunch and went through the paint chips with Mike, then picked up Kaylin from PDO. All by 1pm. I think I may have blown through an entire tank of gas! (okay, another exaggeration...most of that was within a 6 mile radius)

When the kids woke up from their naps, I was so project-driven that I loaded the kids up and went to Lowe's to buy paint and supplies. I decided yesterday that I needed to spruce up the house a bit. And the cheapest way to do that is to paint, right?

So after dinner, in the hour that most people were watching reruns of The Office on TBS or the final 3 contestants on American Idol, I did this:

It took me an hour. Literally...one hour to paint 2 colors. That includes prep work and cut in. I asked Mike to help and in an attempt to avoid me, he went upstairs to "change his clothes" and got caught up entering receipts into Quicken. When he came downstairs again, he shouted, "No WAY!" I was finishing the second coat of the top color. I tell you what...when I'm motivated, LOOK OUT! Needless to say, I didn't get any help from the husband. He thought I was doing just fine on my own, but dude - things go so much faster with two people! Anyway, I did get help from Ryan:

I was happy to let Ryan "help" but it made Mike too nervous. I was giving Ryan a lot of grace about having poor impulse control because from his perspective, we were painting on the walls. Think about it: he has only ever painted on paper. How cool must this have been for him??? Mike ended up keeping the kids in the playroom to get them out of the mess. I'll admit, there was a close call with someone walking backward and almost stepping in a paint tray, sending paint flying, but all was well (and clean) in the end.

After Mike put the kids to bed, I decided to tape off the rest of the walls and at least do the bottom color. That took another hour and if I didn't have a gallon and a half of paint called, "Bread Basket," I'd be willing to leave it as-is. So that commits me to finishing the project. My idea is to add a wood chair rail and paint the baseboards the same color brown. It's really going to warm up the front room a ton. I'm pretty excited and will update pictures of the finished product when it's done!

The Prodigal Turtle

All weekend, I've been meaning to post that Roger the turtle ran away from home on Thursday. Mike and the kids have checked morning, noon and night under every bush and hiding place in the backyard for 3 days and we finally decided yesterday that he flew the coup. I was a little concerned that we'd pull back the pool cover this weekend to find him at the bottom of the pool, but thankfully, no turtle. (actually, he's a desert tortoise and tortoises don't swim, so he would sink to the bottom for sure!)

Then tonight, out of no where, he returned! Mike and his dad were grilling when they saw Roger toddling across the rocks near our gate. I gave him some squash and a couple of strawberries and he scarfed them down. The poor guy was starving! It was quite a reunion. The kids were thrilled. I have to admit, that party pooper Mommy was a little disappointed that we're now back to cleaning up turtle poo. And wow, do they GO! A friend pointed it out in the yard last Monday and that little guy sure lays it out there...in piles half the size of his body. Ew.

But welcome home, dear Roger. The family has missed you (honestly, Mike even more than the rest of us...) and we hope you stay. The grass wasn't greener on the other side of the gate, huh? It doesn't matter. We welcome you home with open arms. I can't say I'm going to adorn him with a colorful robe or rings for his...claws. And I don't have a fattened calf. Just squash and strawberries. I'm sure it's better than what he ate in the desert.

50+ Things About Me

I'm doing a slow-going "All About Me" scrapbook and wanted to jot down some thoughts before I forget. My reason for scrapbooking is to record memories and document the little things in my life, but it occurred to me that I always seem to scrapbook about everyone else. Hardly ever about myself, and certainly never only about myself. This is morbid, but what if I got in a fatal car accident this week? What would my kids remember about me? What would I want them to remember?

This list is inspired by all of those emails that ask you to fill in your own information. Here goes:

Name on your birth certificate: Kathleen Elizabeth Anderson

Were you named after anyone? Yes, my mom's childhood friend, Katie, but she named me Kathleen because the full name "Katherine" had bad connotations from a nun at her Catholic school growing up.

TV shows you always watch: The Office (completely addicted), Jon & Kate Plus 8 and American Idol

Book you're currently reading: Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers, but admittedly it's on CD. I'm getting back into fictional reading slowlllllllly.

Favorite song: I primarily listen to Christian music, so the songs I love are "In Christ Alone" by Travis Cottrell, "Praise You in This Storm" by Casting Crowns and "Undo" by Rush of Fools.

Favorite movie: Dan in Real Life

Last movie you saw in the theatre: Vantage Point

Favorite pastimes: Baking, scrapbooking, working out, organizing, going to the movies, blogging

Favorite restaurants: Paradise Bakery, White Chocolate Grill, Chipotle is getting up there as a preferred restaurant, I also love Krispy Kreme (does that count as a restaurant?)

Favorite season: Spring

Favorite food: Anything with pesto, sun dried tomatoes or feta

Least favorite food: Anything that tastes "fishy" or that has blue cheese, mushrooms or is spicy

Favorite drink: Water, and tea (oh, and Cosmopolitans...they're so fancy!)

Favorite sandwich: Any kind of Panini or the new California turkey sandwich at Paradise Bakery with cucumer and pesto mayo. YUM.

Favorite dessert: Molten Lava Cake...mmmmmm

Favorite cookie: Paradise Bakery chocolate chip, bar none

Favorite ice cream: Dark Chocolate Mint from Cold Stone

Favorite flower: Anything exotic...currently I like purple irises a lot

Favorite smell: Fresh baked chocolate chip cookies

Least favorite smell: All foul bodily odors (bad breath, B.O., gas, you get the point)

Favorite sound: My husband or kids gut laughing

Least favorite sound: Whining!

Favorite feeling: A sense of accomplishment

Least favorite feeling: Regret

Biggest fear: My kids being severely injured or maimed in some way (I get horrible visions of my kids falling down the stairs or when I'm walking near a balcony, of tripping and dropping Kaylin to the ground level...I think that constitutes a fear!)

Biggest pet peeves: Inefficiency, feeling disorganized, having to repeat myself over and over to my kids

Biggest weakness: SUGAR and checking my email too often (or sitting at the computer in general)

My perfect day: A day free of responsibilities, sleeping in, probably getting a massage and pedicure, throw in some scrapbooking and dinner out with a decadent dessert

Have you ever been outside the country? Yes, to Paris, Brussels and London when I was 14, Canada around 20, Mexico in 2002 and London (again) and Scotland in 2003.

What time do you wake up? 7:00, earlier if I get to bed at a decent hour

What time do you go to bed? Lately - 10:30-11:00.

20 interesting/unique things about you:

- I almost always order the same thing at restaurants that we frequent

- Every time (EVERY time) I choke or swallow down "the wrong pipe" - I sneeze afterward.

- I prefer to check things off my to do list right away, otherwise I have a tendency to procrastinate

- I like to put things in piles

- I like finishing a product and throwing away (or recycling) the empty container.

- I used to have a fetish with not being the first person to use the peanut butter, but I'm over that.

- Until recently, everyone I've ever had an address for received a Christmas card from me

- When I'm alone in the car, I often forget to turn on the radio...silence helps me think.

- I'm newly obsessed with containers...I have bins and baskets holding categories of "stuff" all over the house.

- I don't cheat at games (where's the fun in that?)

- I don't lie (unless it will hurt someone deeply to hear the truth)

- I have a child-like faith (even in Santa...I believed WAY too long! I felt sorry for everyone who believed the lies that he wasn't real)

- I have a friend-crush on Becky Higgins

- Although I appear insanely busy, I don't feel stressed about it because I have good time management skills, I have really good boundaries and I can easily tell people "no" (if they won't take no for an answer, I usually resort to blaming my busy schedule)

- Things roll off my back fairly easily - I rarely personalize negativity

- I weigh less now, after two kids, than I did in high school

- I love planning and creating order

- I want to be more intentional about things (raising my kids, how I treat Mike, meeting neighbors, etc.)

- I no longer get nervous when speaking in front of a crowd

- I enjoy making people laugh

- I hate it when people feel left out

Okay, people...if you have a blog, I'm challenging you to post a similar list on your own blog with things about you. It doesn't take that long...just do it!

Enchanted Island

The great part about planning the calendar for my 2 Hour Time Out moms group at church, is that when I get recommendations for fun places to take the kids, I get to try them out! (if this were a paid position, and not a ministry, I might get to do that for free, but I get to go to these places, regardless) Today Mike took the day off and we went to Enchanted Island at Encanto Park. What a fun amusement park for little kids! There was a train, a carousal, bumper boats, tons of stuff. Check out some of these tot sized rides...

Ryan rode several over and over, but the mini-rollar coaster he went on only once. He thought it was fun at first, then on the dips, he looked terrified, then fun, then terrified, then I-want-to-be-having-fun, terrified, is-this-almost-over, terrified, get-me-off-this-thing-I'm-freaking-out, terrified, near-tears-trying-really-hard-not-to-cry, terrified...so when the operator heard me shout, "Itsalmostoverbuddy!" really fast as he went zipping by, he asked if he should let him off. Wasn't that nice? Ryan seemed relieved. He said he thought he was going to fall out and get hurt...probably because he was in the front of the Dragon Wagon. See how happy he was before the thing started moving?

I think Kaylin's getting more teeth because she's been taking crazy long naps this week, has a runny nose, keeps sticking her entire hand in her mouth and made this face ALL DAY.

Although adorable, she doesn't generally keep her lips closed that tightly. When she wasn't smiling on a ride, she was gnawing on her bottom lip. She was very quiet all morning, except when she did not want to go on a ride. (helicopter photo below)

We had a nice picnic lunch (the weather was really beautiful) and we stopped by Mary Coyle's for ice cream on the way home. Local moms, listen up: they have 99 cent treats for the kids! Kaylin's banana split was bigger than my single scoop waffle bowl!

Blog addicted

Is there a 12 step program for blog addictions? I'm kidding...I'm not addicted. I enjoy posting when I feel the need to get things off my chest or show off pictures of my kids. But the other day, I felt addicted when I wasted spent 2 hours surfing other blogs. Some of my friends' blogs have links to people they don't know, but who entertain them or educate them or that they find inspiring. As I followed some of these links, I found a lot (and I mean a LOT) of stay at home, homeschooling moms with lots of kids. One lady had just had her 12th kid. Now when does she find time to BLOG?!?!?!

I'm also finding that people advertise on their blogs to make extra cash. Nothing new for regular websites, but blogs? I actually found a Christian mom who had an advertisement for the upcoming release on DVD of The Golden Compass. Hmmm...someone needs to screen her ads! Although I'm always interested in ways to make extra cash, advertising may not be for me and my blog. I have disabled the option for search engines to find me because frankly, I have way too much personal information on here and I don't need crazies finding my family and stalking my kids. If they find me from clicking around on links from friends (like I did this particular day) that's fine with me. But I don't want someone typing in "blog addicted" into Google and seeing my site pop up because I posted about it. Ya know?

What got me started was this one girl whose title bar looked like a scrapbook page. How did she do that??!?!? I followed a link that I thought was an advertisement to learn how to make fun, creative stuff on your blogpage, but instead I found another random person who had a link to a resource for a Mom's Bloggers Club (which I had to join to learn more about and I still don't "get" it). Backing up to the original friend's blog, I clicked on a link that lead me to a couple of great organizationing blogs (here and here), then I found the Pioneer Woman and Rocks in my Drier, both of which are all over the place...people seem to love them. I also became reacquainted with a hilarious mom who sold a package of Pokemon cards on eBay with the most relatable grocery store story EVER. You have to check out the story, if not her blog. It's laugh outloud funny. Another site I check sometimes that a friend introduced me to is Slave to Target. Okay, I AM starting to sound obsessed.

So above is a list of bloggers to check out if you get bored some Saturday evening after the kids are in bed and your husband passes out at 8pm after golfing all day with his dad and brother and your not tired enough to go to sleep and there's nothing on t.v. and your not feeling inspired to scrapbook. M-kay? These sites that I like to read are on my bloglines list, so I don't have to actually go to the link to see if they've posted anything new. (Am I starting to sound defensive, like I'm trying TOO hard to justify that I'm not an addict?) It's genius, that bloglines! If you have any other fun blogs to share, feel free to post a comment.