1.30.2011

My week

Hello, how was your week? We were very busy around here. I was out of town for part of it and it seemed like lots of other nights we just had stuff to do. Although I would say I've done meh at my goals but Mr. C has been a ROCKSTAR!

Let me show his rockstarness.



This is what the baby's room now looks like now. Last Friday the room was white, full of junk, and that crib and changing table were in large shipping boxes waiting to be assembled. See how the changing table is not only put together but all the diapers are stacked under it. Yup, that was my husband too! He's the greatest.

AND like I said I was out of town on Thursday. Well, Mr. C went to the childbirth class alone even after I said I wouldn't go if I were him many times.

Me on the other hand, I went WAY over the grocery budget. I got stranded at Costco for something like 4 hours on Monday waiting for Mr. C's car and no good came of that. On top of that I didn't stick to my $25 budget at publix. My list was just too long. I think I actually went a whole $100 over budget this month. EEK! So, I normally grocery shop on Sundays. I now have to decide for this week do I wait until Tuesday to do my shopping or do I go ahead and shop on Sunday from my February budget. Neither seem like desirable options, normally I would skip shopping but we're out of fruit and the only fresh veggies with have are carrots and onions. So, We'll see.

Now, I did do well with my returning library books on time. Even though I was crazy tired on Tuesday I went to the library so I wouldn't get any fines.

And the menu I did ok on. I followed it except for Crockpot day. I still didn't make the Jamaican soup. I'm not sure Mr. C will eat it. I did make this recipe instead. I was skeptical of rice in the slow cooker but it turned out great and we both really like it. This was SUPER easy and we had all the ingredients on hand the only thing I would do different is add more spices it was pretty bland.

Our menu for the week:

Saturday: Crockpot chicken and irish potatoes with steamed broccoli and homemade bread. I don't make the crockpot chicken on crockpot day because it dries out really easily and Mr. C doesn't care for it that way. The nice thing about this is he'll eat this today and then we'll clean off the rest of the chicken and freeze it and use it for recipes in the future. Lots of recipes I'll cook vegetarian and throw in chicken on the side. Definitely makes life easier with the meat/no meat compromise.

Sunday: No cooking today for lunch we're having leftovers and for dinner we're going out to eat with our life group.

Monday: Peanut butter noodles with dumplings. I said I was going to make this and never did and now Mr. C keeps asking about it. I think it's one of his favorite foods.

Crockpot day: Indian. I don't know what yet. I'll still have to find a recipe but both Mr. C and I agree that Indian food is just great in the crockpot and I bought a huge bag of Naan at Costco. By the way Naan is really cheap at costco but it's a huge bag. This time I bought it and separated each piece between wax paper and froze it. I'll let you know how it works but I do this a lot with tortillas and it works great with them. We can never use whole packages of tortillas so I separate them out and they don't go to waste.

Actually I am going to make to make here, here, or here

Finally, I've already done my baking for the week. I made pumpkin bread. This was good but I think it needs nuts or raisins or both maybe.

How are your resolutions?

1.22.2011

Meal Plan

So, far so good over here on the resolution front.

On the baby front let me tell you about my amazing husband and his wonderful parents. My amazing husband last night cleaned out the WHOLE baby room. This is amazing. That room was so cluttered before. He is great. Then today his parents came down and helped Mr. C paint the whole room for us.  YAY! It's a lovely shade named Neptune, very Huntsville appropriate. In case you are down with the latest paint colors from Lowes its a lovely shade of blue. Yup, blue and no we don't know the sex of the baby. 

We have not done terrible on saving money.We have not done amazing at it either but'll work on it next week.

I have not done great on my grocery shopping. 63.27+64.83+4.01+22.61+50ish+20ish= that's only $25.28 to spend on groceries for this week. Eek, it's ok. I can make it.

Saturday:Simple dinner: chicken wings/chick'n, homemade bread, salad, and sugar cookies (for my wonderful husband)
Sunday: Lunch: Quesadillas
Dinner: Bierocks and sweet potato fries
Monday: Moo Shu Chicken
Crockpot day: Jamaican Soup (we never made this last week because we never made the potato soup and Mr. C said he would rather have it.)


1.14.2011

Happy Birthday MOM!

 Today is a special day for not 1 lady in our family but 2. Yup, my mom's a twin. So, We say Happy Birthday to my Mama and G.A.G. (not gag but great aunt goof, my mom's twin). These lovely ladies are 29 again today and they are coming to see me tomorrow. YAY!



So, with no further ado...

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to mama and G.A.G,
Happy birthday to you!

Meal Plan Jan. 15-18

Resolution in progress week 2. We are doing well on our budgeting and using up extra random food around here. Now as far as my meal plan you may notice that I do it a little differently. That's because of my work schedule since I work 4 days a week. I cook 3 and crockpot 1 of those. We eat out on Thursdays and "scrounge" for leftovers the other two days. I find that this works for us. Lots of bloggers cook everyday of the week but I was doing this and it was WAY too much food. So here's what works for us:

Saturday: Peanut butter noodles
Sunday: Tacos for lunch, dinner with our life group
Monday: Lentil loaf, potatoes, broccoli
Crockpot day: Tuesday or Wednesday: Jamaican Pumpkin Soup


As far as the rest of my resolutions. Things are going VERY well. We have been snowed in so the house is actually cleaner than it has been since I moved in. And with the help with Mr. C I actually renewed my library books on time yesterday. yay!

How's the progress on your resolutions?

1.08.2011

Resolution in progress

So, I just wrote to you about sticking and keeping my resolution. And, one of mine is making a meal plan to use up random foods chilling around our cabinets too long so we don't waste money. I've done a meal plan in the past and I find that I actually do pretty well when I have it set out for me. So here is my resolution in action.

Saturday: Chicken thighs, veggie fried rice, dumplings, broccoli
Sunday:
 lunch- Homemade pizza (dough and sauce from the freezer)
 life group (aka dinner)- hummus with bagel chips, maybe a dessert to go with it if i have time
Monday: turkey/boca burgers with sweet potato fries
Tuesday: Crockpot day! Baked potato soup

Breakfasts: Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal

New Years Resolution

I'm a little late on this but who cares really? I am READY for 2011. It's going to be a big year for my little family. I am one excited lady.

And when it comes to resolutions in general I'm a fan.

If you think about resolutions more as goals and actually take then seriously they can be broken down into smaller steps.

So, when I was joking around I thought "I am going to have a baby and survive the first year." But really this is a good, realistic goal for me.

Broken down this encompasses ALOT and so this is my plan.

1. Mr. C and I have to change our spending to be able for me to stay home for 3 months without pay with our new friend and then afford daycare and all the other joys having a new person. Actually, we have been working on this for a while. (actually Mr. C has more than myself). We've found ways to cut back on bills, refinance our house, retweek our budget. But we're not there yet for me to accomplish this I need to do better with my spending. Mr. C says groupon is going to be the death of him so I need to cut back on my groupon purchases. Continue to coupon at the grocery store AND make sure to use the foods that I get instead of them just hanging out in our cabinets forever. And finally this was a resolution last year. I did better with it but still struggled. I need to turn my library books in on time so I don't have to pay fines!

2. Neither of us are OCD about house cleaning. I wish we were but we are messy. That's going to need to change for a new person to come. Clean out the baby's room. Declutter our house in general. If we would organize some more it would probably help with the "surviving the first year" part.

3. We've already started this Thursday but it's still a resolution. Educate ourselves about having a baby. I have accumulated quite a few books/magazines about becoming a parent I'ld like to try to read. Also, We started classes through the hospital on labor and parenting a newborn. We need to continue with those.

4. Finally, I would like to start running again as soon as my friend is here. I had some trouble and quit at the beginning of my pregnancy. Consequentially I've gain WAY too much weight during my pregnancy and some day I yearn to run (but I doubt I could now). The Nashville Women's Half Marathon is Sept. 24 and I am loosely shooting for it to be my return to running. I'm not honestly sure how obtainable this is but I'm going to try.

I say this to you all to keep me accountable. I think it's easy to make a resolution but harder to follow through on it. Thanks for reading. Do you have any resolutions you really want do accomplish?