My Plan Monday....

Hello friends!

Oh, it's really been hard for me to get back into the swing of life since Elliot has arrived!  But, I was finally able to sit down and get a menu written up for this week.  I can't believe how just having a weekly menu planned for the week helps relieve so much stress every day!  These past few weeks have been pretty chaotic without one.  So, I'm glad that I actually got one written up today, even though it's pretty simple this week.  :-)

Sunday - Breakfast Burritos
Monday - Mini Ravioli with Cream, Mushrooms and Peas, Maple Roasted Carrots, Lettuce Salad
Tuesday - Biscuits and Gravy, Fruit Salad
Wednesday - Ranch Stew, Rice, Lettuce Salad
Thursday - Toasted Veggie Subs, Chips w/ Dip, Pasta Salad
Friday - Fish Sticks, French Fries, Corn Bread Muffins
Saturday - Tacos, Spanish Rice

This week I really need to finish writing up my weekly routine for cleaning and daily to-do's.  I need to get on track with these things because I've been really bad at putting them off and letting these things slip for days and days until I'm so far behind and too over-whelmed to do anything at all to make things better around here.  I started working on this last week and still have a little bit of work to do on it before I'm totally done.  I also started organizing these things in a binder, so that I have everything in one place.  I'll have to share with you what I've done to try to help me get my life back into gear!

I've been having a lot of fun these past few weeks working on digital art journal pages.  I joined the Art Journal Caravan and I am absolutely loving it!  I am brand new to doing art journal pages and it's really causing me to stretch and grow.  The hardest part for me was just letting go and creating whatever cam to mind.  I've been doing traditional scrapbooking pages for so many years, so doing this type of page has challenged me to break free, dig deep and express myself in ways that I haven't ever done before.   I have a few pages completed and I hope to share them with you this week!

I hope you are all doing well and have a wonderful week!  I know that mine is going to be a busy one!  I just hope that we all have some time to do something creative......that's what gets me through the week, that's for sure! :-)

Take care,
di

My Plan Monday.....

Wow.  Well, I think I am back for a while!   I didn't realize how long it had been since I have posted here.   The holidays really got me off with my blogging!   Plus, I've been super busy sewing up a storm for my little one who is due to arrive at the end of this month.   I will share all of the projects that I have done for him in another post.   So, today I decided it was was past time to get things rolling here again!   I spent today working on a new banner and I think I like it!   I wanted to have some photos of the things that I will be sharing here, so I had a lot of fun looking through tons of photos for the right ones.  :-)

Usually on Mondays I share my weekly plan, with our menu and things I want to make and do, but since I am so far along in my pregnancy now (38 weeks tomorrow!) I really haven't had a plan.  lol    My only plan has been to make it through each day and wait until my little one decides to let me know he's ready to make his appearance.   This part of pregnancy is the hardest for me, because I am not a patient person!   Waiting and not knowing when I'm going to go into labor really drives me crazy. lol

So, here is our menu for this week.   I'm trying several new recipes this week, too.  One of my goals for this year is to try to cut out as much dairy from my diet as I can.   I have a lot of sinus issues and this past year they have really been bothering me, so I want to see if cutting dairy out will help with that problem.   I have added a few new cookbooks to my collection that are all vegan recipes and this month I'm trying two recipes from the book, "Vegan on the Cheap" by Robin Robertson.

Sunday-
Salmon Chowder
Lettuce Salad
Cornbread Sticks

Monday-
Penne with Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce
Oven-roasted Cauliflower
Bread Sticks

Tuesday-
Hashbrown Quiche
Fruit Salad

Wednesday-
Moroccan-Inspired Lentil Soup
Couscous
Naan bread

Thursday-
Roasted Vegetable Sandwiches with Creamy White Bean Spread
Salad

Friday-
Tilapia with Grapefruit Salsa
Rice
Steamed Vegetables

I will be sharing these recipes throughout this week! :-)

I hope that you all have been doing well.....it is good to be back and I look forward to spending some time visiting my favorite blogs.   I haven't even been keeping up with those and I know that I've missed so many wonderful projects and shares from everyone!   Hopefully, the next time I disappear is because I'm busy with our new little arrival!

God Bless!
di

My Plan Monday.....

Okay, here we are!  It's the week of Thanksgiving!  I just can't believe it.   We've already had a long morning here.  GG was up before 6 a.m. (she usually sleeps until 10 a.m.!) because she had a bad dream.  I had been up since before 5 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep because I just couldn't get comfortable and my stomach feels a little icky.  So, we've both been up and way too early than we are used to!  I'm just hoping that she takes a nap soon, so that I can try to rest as well.  My stomach still feels icky and I'm hoping it's just because I'm overly tired and not because I'm catching the stomach flu. Oh, that would just be horrible!  29 weeks pregnant with the stomach flu and during the week of Thanksgiving!  That would not be good!

I've been getting really anxious to start bringing out Christmas decorations, but I refuse to put any out until after Thanksgiving.  ;-) Plus, I've been enjoying the Autumn table topper quilt that I made so much, I'm going to hate to put it away.  It's been chilly here in the Heartland and I'm not liking it too much.  It always takes me a month or so to get used to it.  I've been freezing for the past few weeks, to the point of wearing my Long John's underneath my clothes!   But, by February and we're having 30 degree weather, I'll be running around without a coat on, because we had just gone through December and January with below freezing temperatures and blizzard-like winds!

I had a pretty productive weekend.  I even did our weekly grocery shopping by myself this week.  I know, it sounds silly, but usually my husband goes and that means that our 3-year old goes, too.  He always keeps her and they go get things, but I must admit that it sure was nice to go by myself this time, especially since I was doing some serious, Thanksgiving dinner shopping.  I only bought food for meals through Thursday.  Our grocery budget is actually for Friday through Thursday.  So, it's been hard for me to share menus for Monday-Sunday, because that's now how I plan them.  I might just start sharing them the way that I do them, because it will just be easier.

So, here's the menu for this week!

Sunday- Szechuan Noodles with Chicken (stirred in afterwards, since I don't eat chicken!), Green Beans in Miso Sauce
Monday- Guiltless Alfredo Sauce on Fettuccine , Steamed Cauliflower with Cheese Sauce, Lettuce Salad
Tuesday - Hashbrown Quiche, Fruit Salad
Wednesday - Best Tuna Melts, Roasted Heirloom Potatoes
Thursday - Thanksgiving Day- Smoked Turkey, Morningstar Farms Vegetarian Chicken Patties with white gravy for me, Golden Corn Bake, Green Bean Casserole, Stuffind, Mashed Potatoes with Gravy, Cucumbers in Sour Cream, Grandma's Candied Cinnamon Apples, Pumpkin Pie, Cheesecake with Cherry Topping
Friday - Leftovers!

And, to snack on Thursday through the weekend football games:  Relish Tray, Vegetables with Ranch Dip, and Creamy Cheese Ball with Crackers

I'm going to break things up and try to cook a few things on Tuesday, Wednesday and then the rest on Thursday.  The best thing about my husband smoking the turkey is that it doesn't hog up oven all day!  But, I figure that I'll make the cinnamon apples and cucumbers in sour cream on Tuesday, because they get better after a day or so.  Then make the pumpkin pies and cheese cake on Wednesday.  Then I'll just need to bake the corn casserole and green bean casserole on Thursday.

As far as other projects for this week, all my free time will be spent finishing up my Ritzy Cracker Quilt. I finished the quilt top and backing last night.  Now the fun part, pinning the sandwich all together!  Ugh.  It really tries my patience!  I'm really excited about machine quilting this one and hopefully getting it done by this weekend.

Time to try to rest up a bit......

Take care and God Bless!
di

My Plan Monday

Well, here we are and it's Monday again.  And, we're getting closer and closer to Thanksgiving!  I just can't believe that!  Have you started planning your Thanksgiving Dinner yet?  I haven't!  And, I'm not quite sure what to do either.  My son is working all that week, including Thanksgiving Day, he has a steady girlfriend and I'm not sure if she's going to make it over at all, my mom isn't going to be able to come up this year, so it's just us.  My oldest daughter will not be joining us because of the horrible conflict she insists on bringing into our house, which is sad but necessary.  I will probably make what I always make, and those things all make copious amounts, so we will be able to live off of left-overs for at least a week after our big dinner.  lol

We ended up having a very busy weekend.  Friday night we were hit with our first Winter Storm Watch.  My husband and I decided to get carry-out from our favorite Indian restaurant, opened up the garage door to run and get our food and everything was completely covered in at least an inch of snow!  It was pretty icky driving, but that didn't stop us from getting that food. lol  I adore Indian food and that warm, spicy dinner was just the right thing on a snowy, cold night.

We did all sorts of running around with errands on Saturday and Sunday.  Which was good, because we got a lot done, but bad, because we didn't really plan meals too well, so we went to the grocery store both of those evenings to buy things for dinner that night.  I'm really not quite sure why, but if I had planned those two meals and bought the food with our weekly groceries, we would have been fine with our budgeted money for that week.  But for some reason, after getting our grocery money on Friday, getting carry-out on Friday and then shopping Saturday and Sunday for meals, we have about $40 left for groceries until next Friday!  So, needless to say, there won't be a nice menu plan for this week for me to share.  It's going to be "scavenging in the kitchen" menu week. lol  Which is probably good, because I do have things for meals that will last us through till Friday and no matter what, we are determined to stick to our "cash only" budget.

So, just sitting here and thinking about what I have on hand in the kitchen that I can make for dinner the next few days, I can sketch out this meal plan:

Monday- spaghetti and sauce, veggie from freezer, french bread
Tuesday- oven BBQ chicken, oven fried potatoes, biscuits
Wednesday- tuna patties, rice, fruit salad
Thursday- pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, fruit
Friday- Yeah!  Time to run to the store!  We did it, back to real menu planning and sticking to it!

Going through weeks like this really helps me see how important menu planning is for us to stick to our grocery budget each week and to just keep me sane.  It's just too stressful for me to wake up in the morning and think, um....what should we have for dinner tonight?  If I have it all planned out ahead of time, I wake up, look at my paper on the fridge and it says, "You're making this today for dinner!" and I say, "Great! Guess I'm making that for dinner tonight!  No worries!" lol

As for things on my "To-Do" list......well, I'm still working on that one quilt that I shared a little peek of on Friday.  This morning I pinned the binding strips together and as soon as my little one wakes up, I will sew them together.  I just don't have a place where I can go sew quietly.  Not that my machine is loud, but I want her to sleep as long as she can!  So, my goal is to get that binding on completely today and it's finished.  Right now it's sitting on a kitchen chair all folded up and it looks so neat.  I really need to stack up the few quilts that I have here that I've made and kept and get a picture.  I absolutely love the pictures I see on other quilter's blogs of stacks of folded quilts!

Then, it's time to start working on the Christmas table topper quilt.  I have the charm packs cut out and waiting.  I just need to cut out the white pieces of fabric and I can start sewing the blocks together.  This is a new block for me to try and a little more involved.  I'm moving into working with a new shape, triangles!  So, I'm going to take it slow and do my best to keep my seams all nice and happy.  

In our running around over the weekend, we stopped by Borders and I had to buy another sewing book, of course.  It's turned into an addiction!  But, I had $10 in Borders Bucks and a 33% off coupon.  I had to use that $10, right? lol  So, I picked up "Sewing Green: 25 Projects Made with Repurposed and Organic Materials" by Betz White.   I've picked this one up several times, but always ended up buying something else instead.  I'm so glad I got it!  It has some great projects in it and I can't wait to start sewing some of them up!  I also got the Winter 2010 issue of Quilts and More.  I absolutely love this magazine and I sure wish that I was published more then 4 times a year.  It's always fun of a great variety of projects.  I'm so excited, because I found a quilt in it that I am so excited to make!  It's actually the quilt on the cover.....the version of the quilt that's inside the magazine is what sold me on the pattern.  I'm pretty sure it's the colors that sold me on it, too. lol   I have been eying the Bliss jelly roll for awhile and this is the quilt I'm going to make with it!  I think it will look great in our living room!

Well, I've rambled on quite a bit this morning and not my little one is awake, so I had better go and start my day!  I hope you all have a wonderful Monday and are able to spend some time today doing something crafty!

God Bless!
di

My Plan Monday

Here we are, it's already Monday again!  I'm not sure what happened to last week, but it really flew by.  The best part of the week was making a quick trip to visit my good friend Jennifer and hand-deliver Mighty Max's quilt!  It was a short visit, but I am so grateful to have seen Jennifer and all of her beautiful children and to meet little Max.  What a miracle he is!

My plan for this week still isn't totally figured out.  ;-)  I spent all day yesterday doing laundry.  I mean ALL DAY!  I had really let things get behind and then being out of town for two days helped pile on to the mountains of clothes.  I actually did too much yesterday, because this morning I am really sore and still tired.  Sometimes I forget that I'm almost 7 months pregnant and carrying around this little guy.  The hardest thing that I did yesterday was to through all of my GG's baby clothes.  She's 3 now and we had 3 huge tubs of clothes in the basement full of her baby clothes.  I was hoping to find some neutral things in there, but EVERYTHING was PINK! lol  So, I need to start buying some clothes, bit by bit, for our little guy.  What made this hard, was that I boxed everything up to donate to charity.  Seeing all of her cute, little clothes and knowing that we weren't going to have any more children after Peanut is born was really hard. Well, unless God blesses us with another child, but in all honesty, I am just getting too old to have another one.  :-(   But, I just kept telling myself that all of these things would help someone and their little blessing and that before I knew it, I'd have drawers full of cute, blue, little boy clothes.

Our menu for this week is pretty simple, because we are recovering from our mini trip we took last week.  Plus, it's just getting to be too much for me to fix huge meals every day for dinner, so this week is an easy one.

This weeks menu:  

Monday - Cheese Ravioli with spaghetti sauce, whatever yummy veggie is on sale, French bread
Tuesday- Waffles, fruit salad
Wednesday- Taco Soup w/ sour cream and Fritos, Cornbread
Thursday- Grilled cheese, French fries, Pasta Salad
Friday- Payday- Carryout Pizza
Saturday- Still deciding on this one!  It's college football game day and our team plays at 6, so I'm trying to decide what fun snacks to make to eat while watching the game. :-)
Sunday- Three Packet Crock-pot roast, Loaded baked potatoes, Salad, Biscuit

Just for fun goodies:

Libby's Pumpkin Cranberry Bread from All Recipes
Spiced Pumpkin Fudge from All Recipes (I tried a recipe last week from my recipe file that I thought was what I had made before.  It DID NOT turn out. :-(  I had to throw it in the trash.  It turned into a grainy, pumpkin carmel.  So, I'm trying a different recipe this week and crossing my fingers!  I can't believe I didn't have the right recipe filed!)

Things to do:


There is only one thing that I'm putting on my to-do list for this week and that's because I need to get it done as quickly as I can.  I need to quilt and bind a baby quilt that I'm making for a friend who is due this month.   So, even though I have tons of things I'd like to work on at the same time, I'm not even going to write those down, because I don't want to tempt myself and get distracted from what's most important this week!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and a good week ahead!  I am hoping to share some baby things that I have made these past few weeks with you all soon.  I have the pictures taken and ready to go, it's just finding the time to write out the post! :-)

Take care and God Bless!
di

My Plan Monday.....

I hope that you all had a wonderful Halloween yesterday!  I can't believe that today is November 1st!!!  Wow, what happened to this year?  I know that for me, it has been a very hard year and it seems like it was full of more downs that ups.  I'll just say that it is really hard to deal out 'tough love' to a child, but sometimes it just has to be done.  It took me quite awhile, but I finally accepted the fact that I wasn't a bad mom for having to put my foot down and be strong for myself and the rest of my family and let my 19 year old daughter move on, make her own choices and mistakes and deal with them.   Needless to say, it has been quite a year.  Add into that being pregnant and wow...... I'm surprised that I'm still sane. lol

I don't have a meal plan for this week, because we are going to be visiting a good friend of mine and deliver a very special quilt that I made, so we're pretty much going to be living out of what's in the fridge.  I probably won't be doing any baking either, but that's probably a good thing.  I've been on a huge baking kick and it will do our waistlines a favor to go a week without having tempting goodies sitting out on the counter all week.

I must tell you that I made the Toasted Pumpkin Seed recipe from Simply Recipes and it is AWESOME!   I had three, very large pumpkins worth of seeds and even though the seeds were larger, they turned out great.  This recipe boils the seeds in salted water for 10 minutes before toasting them and it made all of the difference in the world.   My seeds were perfect, crunchy and absolutely delicious!   So, be sure to give this recipe a try or save it in your files for next Halloween's pumpkin. :-)

I also made the Peter Peter Pumpkin Bars and they were delicious!   I substituted butter for the shortening and that's the only change I made.  Oh, besides putting candy corn on top instead of those candy pumpkins.  lol  It has an orange frosting on it and it was really yummy and a refreshing change from the typical cream cheese frosting.  This one will be going into my "Tried and True" recipe file as well.

My husband finished up my daughter's Kingdom Hearts coat, so I finally get my sewing machine back!  I sure have missed it.  Time to finish up a baby snuggler for Peanut and quilt a baby quilt that needs to be finished this month.  My to-sew list is getting very long and I really need to write it down here, because right now most of it is in my head and that's not good!

Wishing you all a wonderful Monday!
God Bless,
di