{Day 3} Meals to Rush Home To

Having a meal plan in place can help reduce the mayhem and further encourage your family to Rush Home and enjoy good food and good company around the dinner table.

There are lots of resources for menus including:

• The blog meme for Menu Plan Monday
• Menu-Mailer
• e-Mealz

There are also lots of resources for recipes, but my favorite is Recipezaar!

Cook up some love in the kitchen for your family to Rush Home To!

Menu Plan Monday

http://orgjunkie.com/menu-plan-monday-guidelines

This menu was assembled Friday night, but the weekend changed and is mowing over the beginning of the week.  Alterations are noted.

Monday:

•  oatmeal
• hardboiled egg   granola bars and peach dices
• tortilla pizzas with carrots   beef & barley soup with grilled cheese
  
• Ruth's Sweet & Sour with rice and veggie   hamburgers

Tuesday:

• breakfast burrito   plantain
• cucumbers
• soup, grilled cheese, and apples  
• Rotini (Auntie's recipe from when I was a kid--no clue where she got it from: rotini noodles, ground beef, baked beans, bbq sauce)  Ruth's Sweet & Sour with rice and veggie
  

Wednesday:

• pancakes
• popcorn (fruit?)
• egg salad sandwich and carrots  
• chicken pizza

Thursday:

• bagels and yogurt
• apples with pb
• chips&dip
• toad-in-a-hole with bacon

Friday:

• cream of wheat
• smoothies
• tuna with carrots
• corn tortilla tacos with beans and rice

Saturday:

• cereal
• ants on a log
• dippy ckn and apples
• homemade mac-n-chs with salad

Sunday:

• blueberry muffins
• chips&salsa
• cheese sandwich and carrots
• roast ckn with pouch taters and salad

Typing it out I'm realizing that I don't like the flow of some of the items.  :/

I'm working on streamlining breakfast a bit more now that I've tinkered with my over-the-top menu plan system.  Muffins on Sunday (made the night before), and the rest of the week is random mayhem of breakfast burrito, hot cereal, cold cereal, pancakes, and biscuits/bagels/scones/toast.  This week I didn't designate accompaniments--we'll figure out what strikes us that day regarding eggs, bacon, fruit, yogurt, etc.

Still working on getting us more balanced and getting  more produce in.  We're usually good on carbs...need more produce and more protein.  I'm stoked about opportunities for cooler weather though!  I love me some soup and I usually can't enjoy them in the warmer months--doesn't hit the spot in the same manner.  I've taken to freezing leftover homemade soup in quart-sized freezer jars (with the reusable plastic lids)--one jar usually covers lunch for the kids and I nicely.

{Day 2} Rush Home

I've been thinking about some acquaintances we have--some are living in separate rooms from their significant other, some have taken up different residences, some are no longer a couple.  We don't have both sides of the story to any of them, but it's been sad to observe from the peanut gallery.  Especially when children have been involved.

This half-hatched idea of Being Rushed Home To isn't just the spouse--it's the whole family.  I want the whole family to WANT to rush Home.  Not because they're homebodies, but because they're eager to spend time together.  Because they look forward to returning home from work, activities, outings.  Because they see home as a safe harbor, a valued refuge.  Because they feel comfortable having friends over.  I'm not seeking perfection--the perfect house, perfectly clean, with a perfect husband, with a perfect wife/mother, and perfect children.  (I need to remind myself of that fact as I have a history of hyper-focusing on ONE aspect and forget to step back for the whole picture).  Life is gloriously messy--enjoy it!  Rush home to enjoy it with the ones you love!

{Day 1} Being Rushed Home To

I found the 31 Days of Change Challenge through Nony the Slob (I <3 her bloggy name!), who found it through Prairie Home Therapy.  I think it's a neat concept and chose to utilize it to hone in my focus on getting back into my domestic-goddess-groove that I seemed to have lost about five years ago.  It ties in nicely with the Making Your Home a Haven Challenge, which also serves my honing purpose.
My twist on this challenge is "Being Rushed Home To."

I'm excited about this challenge.  I have some ideas that I want to jot on paper to feel them out, and I like how my topic is rather far-reaching in scope.


Oh....I almost forgot.  Thanks to Prairie Home Therapy I was able to make my button by right-clicking a base option here, and following the instructions here.  (Thank You!!)

Six Word Saturday

Life is FANTASTIC with broadband internet!



We've looked up some stuff about the moon, about the Apollo missions.  
Video clips of Apollo 11 at nasa.gov.
I barely started going through here to clean it up and get things linked.
I'm too tired to link tonight, er, I mean this morning.  I thought the baby was going to be up in a moment after being moved from his nap position on me so I was trying to take care of a few things (like my menu plan so I can grocery shop).

Holy Broadband Batman!

I cannot contain my overwhelming excitement! Our install for broadband internet is scheduled for 1-3p today!!! I think I'm as giddy as a prairie child anticipating Christmas candy!

The downside? I never kept a reliable list of the things I needed to do or follow-up on once I could readily surf online. What I can recall off the top of my head:

-fix the blogs

-set up email accounts for the kids (the password will be under my control and their accounts will be set up to deliver to my tiny screen--how's that for "parental controls?")

-catch up on my HOAC downloads

-skype with my newlywed buddy over spiced cider ginger brews

-place amazon order

-get the mp3 players rolling with audiobooks for the kids

-catch up on blog reading

-start researching what's going to be on the ballot in November

-see if I was pruned for inactivity at a mommy forum

-teleclass availability for the kids

-skype with the grandparents

There's more.....

Six Word Saturday

Roseola is better than chicken pox!