Family Weekend, A-Z

A few years ago, I talked about our family weekend in list format, A-Z.  Because I'm lazy, I'm doing the same thing again for 2013.  (you can find my stories about previous years here:  2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2009 (again)).

So, here goes:

A - Alarm.  As in, smoke alarm.  As in, went off at least 8 times on Friday night.  As in, starting at 2:30 a.m.  My poor dad.  He was up almost all night trying to get them fixed.  They are all hard-wired together, so if one has a low battery, they all go off.  Super fun, right?

B - Bubba!!!  I have called Baby L Bubba since he was born (not sure why... I think I called Bub that when he was a baby, too...).  L's momma calls him that, too, but for whatever reason, he associates "Bubba" with me.  So now he calls ME Bubba.  Or Aunt Bubba.  Which cracks me up... because don't I seem like a Bubba?

C - Candlelight.  On Saturday evening, the entire town's power went out for about 2.5 hours.  LUCKILY, we were just finishing all the cooking for dinner, so we were fine on food (check out "F."  Food was very important, you know!).  So my dad pulled out a few battery-operated lanterns, and we lit a bunch of candles throughout the first floor).  It was actually fun.  Romantic candlelight dinner for 16!  ha.

D - Drawing...  Of course Sis always draws.  Wherever she is, on whatever she can find.  But Little Sissy was also really into drawing this particular weekend.  And she talked her Aunt Darla to drawing a lot, too... (it helped that she really, really thought I drew well... which of course I don't).  Then Little Buddy wanted to draw because so many others were drawing... well, you get the point.  It made it especially fun because Little Sissy had so many "smelly markers."  (I told her at Christmas that one of them smelled like Gas Station Soap, and she still thinks that's SO hilarious...)

E - Earaches.  My mom was really suffering from a terrible earache and I was recovering from an ear infection (along with strep and the flu), so we spent WAY too much time talking about earache remedies.  We are party animals!

F - Food.  Oh my goodness... food!  We would sit at one meal and start talking about when we were going to start cooking the next one.  Not even kidding.  We had Kim's (Bill's girlfriend) scrumptious homemade chocolate chip cookies, brownies, chips and homemade salsa, rye bread/dill dip... all in addition to our awesome meals.  So.  Full.

G - Games.  We played Quiddler, the kids played Trouble... we started to play 2 truths and 1 lie (we didn't get very far... we just started talking instead). We love games!

H - Home.  I actually snuck home (to MY home) to take a shower and change out the laundry.  That is CLEARLY against all family weekend by-laws and regulations, but I'm not gonna lie... it was nice not having as much laundry to catch up on when we were home for the weekend.  That's an advantage of living in the same town as my parents, right?

I - Instagram.  If a weekend isn't documented on Instagram, then it probably really doesn't happen.  Ha. Here's my kids' favorite new joke:  How much does a hipster weigh?  An Instagram!

J - Joy.  I'm filled with such joy when I'm with my favorite people... even when I'm tired, and/or sore, and/or exhausted!

K - Kids, kids everywhere!  Sometimes the noise got a little intense, but I'm telling you... without the kids we wouldn't have near as much fun!  They keep the party going for sure!

L - Library.  Sis wanted to run to the library, so we took Big Sissy, Little Sissy and Little Buddy with us.  I told them they could all pick out a movie that they all agreed on to rent at Nana and Papa's house. That didn't work, so then I told them that the girls could pick out one, and Little Buddy could pick out a different one for him and Baby L to watch.  That didn't work either, so they each ended up getting their own movie to rent.  Yay!!

M - Milk... MAN, my family goes through some milk!  My dad bought gallons and gallons of milk before we even showed up, and my brother-in-law had to go buy some more before the weekend was over.  Of course, I didn't drink any (throwing up wasn't on my agenda for the weekend), but the rest of the family sure did!

N - Noise!  'Nuf said.  ;)

O - Overeating.  Overstimulation.  Overdoing the laughter.  And I loved it!

P - Piano.  Big Sissy is taking piano lessons, so she practiced quite a bit over the weekend.  And played around.  And then Baby L would want his turn.  He would sit and "play" the piano while bobbing his head to his own music.  So cute!

Q -  Quiddler (I think it's spelled this way) was our newest game we played this year.  We usually find one or two games and stick with them the entire weekend.  We didn't play as many games this year, but this is the one we played.  Fun!

R - Range... the men and Bub went to the Shooting Range, as they do every year.  They shoot clay pigeons or something that isn't alive.  Bub is just counting down the years until he's old enough to participate.  My brother-in-law, Kevin, who never grew up shooting, is apparently quite the shooting rock star.  Then they all bring home their paper targets to show off to us women.  Cute.  ;)

S - Shopping.  Once the guys get home from shooting, then it's our turn.  The women and Sis always make big plans to go an hour away or so to REALLY shop.  And then when it's really time to shop, we always decide we don't have enough time for that kind of shopping.  So, we do more local shopping.  Sis and I hit the bookstore while everyone else hits Michaels.  Then we all meet in the middle at Old Navy for some clearance shopping.

T - Talking.  I'm surprised any of us had voices left once the weekend was over!  ;)

U - Ugly.  Haha.  You'll notice I don't have any photos posted.  That's because we girls don't wear makeup, none of us really fix our hair...  maybe UGLY is an overstatement... but then again, maybe not!  Ha.

V - Valuable memories.  Can't beat 'em!!!

W - Words to live by.  One of my favorite moments in time was when we sat around the table Sunday afternoon (Billy and Kim were already gone, and my kids were already up from the table), and we all gave some words to live by in 2013.  I posted about them here.

X - E(X)ercise (give me a break... we didn't play any xylophones all weekend, and thankfully needed no Xanax... so Exercise is the closest I could come up with).  Don, Bub and I do a circuit workout just about every Saturday with the fitness group we work out with.  Last year my brother and one of my brother-in-laws came with us.  Neither of them came with us this year, but both of my sisters and my other brother-in-law all came (as well as our might-as-well-be-family friend, Cara).  We had so much fun all working out together.  Even if Christy did need to use both hands to cut her sausage the next morning because she was so sore!  :)

Y - YouTube.  One night we stayed up late and showed our mom all the funny YouTube videos that have become sensations ("hide your kids, hide your wife").

Z - Zzzzzzzzzzzz's.  Sleep is sooo good, especially AFTER a weekend like this one.  But little catnaps here and there were also (apparently) good.  I don't nap well, so I didn't partake, but there was plenty of snoring going on from the couch (Kevin!!!!!).

Meal Plan - week of 1/13/13

So, I'm being lazy on my meal plan for this week.  We're leaving town on Friday and will be gone all next week, so I'm just using up what we have in our refrigerator.

For the family slumber party weekend, I made lasagna and The Pioneer Woman's spaghetti for lunch yesterday.  I came home with quite a bit of leftovers, so the plan is to eat up all the leftovers (no lasagna for me...  that has dairy in it, but I can have the spaghetti) until they're all gone.  Wednesday night we will have dinner at church again.  Then I will fill in the other nights we are out of leftovers with breakfast for dinner.  That will include most likely omelets/scrambled eggs/pancakes/waffles/basically whatever the family wants for "breakfast."

I will fill in each of these meals with the rest of our fresh vegetables from our co-op that we participate in.  So, I'd expect roasted cabbage one night, roasted cauliflower one night, and roasted eggplant another...

Have a great week!

Words to live by

We're on the tail-end of our annual family slumber party at my parents' house (I'd say I'll update more on that later, but lets be honest... I may or may not update). Today, after Bill and Kim left, we all sat around the table eating lunch and all gave a word or two to live by in 2013. I don't want to forget what everyone said, so I'm writing them all down.

No regrets - Kevin
First things first - Dad
Push on - Jon
Go big or stay home - Don
Make everything matter - me
Don't forget to flush - Levi (almost 5)
Always put your clothes away and don't leave anything out - Gracie (age 6)
Be healthy - Caroline (age 9)
Discipline but grace - Elissa
Back to the basics - Mom
Keep it simple - Christy

Words to live by, right?

Meal Plan - Week of 1/6/13

So, this is my attempt at tracking my meal plans for the year. I like to try new recipes that I find on Pinterest or elsewhere online, but them I forget where I found the recipe and then I'm completely bummed because I don't have access to the yummy recipe anymore! So I'm going to start putting some of my recipes on here for my reference (& yours too, if you're interested).

Next weekend is my family's annual slumber party at my parents' house. I'm sure I will be responsible for at least some of the food, but we haven't planned out the weekend menu yet.

So, here this week's meal plan:

Monday - pork tenderloin with a peach-honey glaze (recipe below) and roasted cauliflower
Tuesday - chili
Wednesday - our church serves a meal on Wednesday nights for a nominal amount so that's what we normally do on Wednesdays
Thursday - Italian beef
Friday - family slumber party
Saturday - family slumber party
Sunday - family slumber party

Pork tenderloin (recipe from food.com):

Preheat oven to 500-550 degrees.
Put tenderloin in a roasting pan on the bottom third of the oven
Cook EXACTLY 5 1/2 minutes per pound of tenderloin
Without opening the oven, turn oven off and let the tenderloin sit in oven for an hour
Remove from the oven and let rest for 5-10 minutes.

Peach-honey glaze (recipe found here):

1 cup peach preserves
2 Tbsp honey
Juice of one small lemon

Bring to boil, then simmer for 2 minutes

I use glaze as more of a sauce than an actual glaze.

Bon appetit!

Happy 2013!

Happy new year!  I can't believe it's already 2013... although when I say that, I feel like it makes me sound old... so NEVER MIND!  ha.

I've started the new year with a fever (and I'm guessing, influenza... didn't go to the doctor, but Don had it the week before me), so I've been working really hard at holding down the couch for the last few days.  One thing about just sitting around ALL. DAY. LONG. though is that I've had a chance to reflect on my last year's goals and figure out what I want to set for goals for this upcoming year.  I mentioned in last year's post that I don't do resolutions, but goals seem more like something I'll keep working towards.

So to review my goals for 2012, my goals were:
Regular devotions with the kids
Memorize Psalms 139
Drink 8 glasses of water a day
Do 20 "real" pushups in a row
Run a 5k without walking
Weigh a certain amount (nunya bizness!)
Take a picture a day

I did NOT do well with regular devotions with the kids.  I did NOT memorize Psalms 139.  I did start drinking 8 glasses of water a day.  I did 20 "real" pushups in a row last week.  I ran a 5k without walking (The Color Run... a really fun run!), I did NOT lose the weight that I had in my head.  And I didn't last very long with a picture a day (although since Instagram has been created, I do take a lot of pics with my phone).

So, here are my goals for 2013, which I've categorized into physical, spiritual, and family goals.
Physical Goals:
3 hours of cardio a week (not counting my regular training sessions)
Run a 10k without walking
Do 8 weeks of "clean eating" (meaning, no processed foods)

Spiritual Goals:
In-depth Bible Study daily
Memorize one scripture verse a month as a family

Family/Personal Goals:
Make a to-do list each week that includes a meal plan
Have a "date" once a month with each of the kids
Have a date once a month with Don

So what about you?  Do you have goals for the year?  Do you set resolutions?