RoyalMom

I've actually had a two week plan going and the list is not in any particular order. Every day I just pick a dinner and cross it off the list. Here's what's left on the list for this week:

Hearty lentil stew
Split Pea soup (crock pot)
Enchiladas (ground turkey)
Mac n cheese
Tuna pasta salad
Pizza
13 bean soup

I bought the 13 bean soup mix from the bulk bins and tried to look up a recipe at home after. It looks like just about every recipe calls for "ham hock." I have no idea what that is. Jason says its the pig's butt?? I went back to the store and browsed the meat section. The only thing I could find that might be it is something labeled "smoked pork hock." The package looked like it was filled with feet or something. I couldn't bring myself to buy anything. I'll have to figure out a vegetarian alternative I guess.

Jason has been sick the last three days and now all the kids are sick. I'm going to need to medicate myself if Simon doesn't sleep more than 20 minutes at a time! AAaaaaaaaaah!

The climbing continues. Now he's pushing the step stool around and checking out the stuff on the counters.

This was from before they got sick. They spent all day on the sofa. Quite a change from the usual craziness!

Maybe we'll have him scale a rock wall next.

I've been loading up my calendar with free or cheap things to do out in the community. The library has a storytime every week and the zoo has a $2 day once a month.

Today we tried out the storytime and I thought it was pretty fun! Isaac, however, is not impressed with any form of...(how do I describe it??) "stand up and wiggle your fingers, wiggle your arms, wiggle your nose!..."He kinda looks at me with a "I am not doing this" face and then those exact words come out of his mouth. He did enjoy the books read but after politely declined the coloring picture they handed out.

I think we'll definitely try it again though, hit the zoo on cheap day and we have a ballet to go to this month that was $2 ticket. wooohooo! we are breaking out of the house!

I dreamed about still having this bug, my first car, pimped out for my son to use as his first car.

but it was time. It feels good actually to clear out unused stuff. Its part of my bigger plan to clear out all unused, extra stuff cluttering up our home and our lives. pare everything down to clean, purposeful simplicity.

I had to snap one last photo as the v-dub prepared for departure. bye bye!

Simon has been sick and not sleeping well at all, which means no break for me. He's been fever free for a couple days and actually slept well last night. However, he is still wanting to be held all day and mostly unhappy. Its been almost a full week of this and I am reaching my desperation point.

I dragged the unsold baby swing upstairs and thought I'd give it a try. Its flying at full speed and he fell right to sleep! YESSSSSSSSSSSS!

We are on a strict budget this month for various financial goals and the last two weeks of penny pinching meals went extremely well! It ended up about $60/week to feed our family TOTAL. no eating out at all. This is good.

A couple meals were large enough to feed us two nights, so there will be a couple recipes to carry over to this week. Here's what we have planned:

Hearty lentil stew
Mac n cheese
Spaghetti
13 bean soup (with ham maybe)
egg burritos (will someone please tell our hens to lay some eggs?!)
oatmeal pancakes
pizza, maybe

snacks: fruit, animal crackers, zucchini and pumpkin breads

NO MORE COOKIES! we made cookies twice within the last two weeks and I can't stop eating them. :(

no more pre-made dough from the store. This recipe in the back of my "eat healthy for $50 a week" by Rhonda Barfield is easy and fast. and the sauce recipe is a cinch too. I seriously put it all together in about 15 minutes.

Dough:

Combine in a small bowl:

• 1 cup hot (not too hot) water
• 2 teaspoons yeast or 2 packages (get some from the bulk foods section!)

Mix thoroughly and set aside. In a larger bowl, combine:

• 2.5 C white four
• 1.5 C whole wheat flour
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp oil
• 2 egg whites

Add yeast mixture to flour mixture. Stir together until completely blended. Knead by hand for two minutes, adding flour as needed. Cover bowl with clean dishcloth and set in a warm place. Let rise until doubled in size, about 2-3 hours. divide dough into two mounds. Add enough flour to take the stickiness out of each mound, working flour into each mound. Roll out each mound for two pizzas onto pans sprayed with non-stick spray and some flour sprinkled over it.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Sauce:

• 1 15 oz can tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 tbsp Italian seasoning
• honey or sugar to taste

Divide the sauce between the two pizzas, layer with toppings and shredded mozzarella. Bake for 12-20 minutes, depending on thickness of your crust.

Calories=777 cals for 3 Large Slices.

Some friends from work had a party for their four year old. It was fun! Tights give some good speed down the blow up slides. But I found out going head first is not such a good idea. My neck did not like it.

The birthday boy, Nate...

more climbing!

The kids and I had a wonderful day at the $2 zoo day. As we walked around, just having a nice time together, walking wherever we want without any time restraints or schedules, I keep thinking how awesome it is that we can do these things any time we want.

The crowd was minimal and the atmosphere very relaxed. It feels so good to never worry about following someone else's schedule or rules. We don't have to worry about a school dictating where the kids must be, what rules they must follow, how they must dress, what and when they will learn, how they spend eight hours in a classroom and several more hours at home doing homework or otherwise preparing for school.

We follow our own path and listen to our children's interests and readiness for new knowledge. They soak it up like a sponge in their own time. we will never say we wish we had spent more time together. We have nothing but time!

I just wish we had a few more friends or family to share these day trips with.

Get a picture of me and the chicken please! hahahaha!

The canon A70 was pretty cool back in the day, but it really needs to go. Its bad when even the outside photos are grainy. I need a new camera for the purse.

The orangutans were playing right up close.

Isaac's hair rocks! It almost looks like a party hat.

...to Seattle!

I did a little maternity photo shoot (which I am going to proof shortly, jen:) and the family and I got to play at the Seattle Center. Jason had never been up the space needle, so we did that and the kids did some rides.

Xander cam...

Up on the space needle...

Isaac may be 6, but he's still my baby! I love how simon (plastered to my back in the carrier) is trying to peek around to see what's going on.

"Babe, should we just order room service?"
to which I should have said "Yes!"
Wild kids in the restaurant after a very long day.

We had some tree cutting in the works, but hadn't set an exact date. It was late when we got home last night and when I got up this morning an amazing amount of light was pouring through our usually dark window!

Can you believe an enormous, double trunker evergreen could disappear without anyone noticing? My sister was housesitting. haha! She said she did see some landscaping guys pull up as she was heading out to work. How did they manage to wrangle our chickens back into the coop?

All hens are here and accounted for. This is good

Normally all we see is a wall of needles out this window...

The other tree here is supposed to be cleared out as well.

It was a Chevy Chase/ "Vacation" movie moment when Isaac came out to see the lunar eclipse (after a quick description of what it was). He said "whoa! okay, I'm going to go back in and play my game again now."

My longer lens did a little better than I have managed to get previously. Still a tiny circle in the sky.

Isaac and Xander are inspired to do crafts, painting, and paper cutting lately. Don't ask me where this is coming from, since it literally makes me cringe with laziness to think of organizing and creating anything with paper.

Maybe its all the forced crafts in grade school. Even Isaac loathed all the required activities through the online charter school. Those bad memories must be fading away, because look what he made for Jason and I...

"Its an Alien with love on top.
Daddy gets a capital L because he's bigger than you.
A capital L for a capital grown up! [wild 6 year old laughter at his own joke]"

He's got the best lines ever. LOL!

We have some interesting meals this week and I meant to post them!

Monday...we had "Secretly delicious spinach pie" kids wouldn't eat it, but Jason and I liked it and ate some cold for breakfast the next morning.
Tuesday..."Easy crock pot moroccan chicken, chickpea and apricot tagine" with some tortillas (smells delicious in the crock!)
Wednesday...brown rice and lentil casserole
Thursday...Southern chowder
Friday...homemade pizza
Saturday...tacos

We went to French themed ballet in Portland (Oregon Ballet Theater), played in the huge fountain across from the Keller auditorium (sans water) and had lunch at Pioneer Place mall. It was so much fun! I'll have to keep a look out for more shows.

I packed in my gigantic camera and lens only to read the no camera signs. One quick snap and shoved back into the bag won't hurt anyone will it?

This fountain is usually more like a pool and made for summertime play. These huge steps the kids are climbing is normally a cascading waterfall. There are several levels of smaller wading pools people can lounge in and cool off. With my big lens I could not zoom out enough to get the whole area:(