September Menu and Diet

I realize that I have not posted our September menu plan, nor have I said much about our diet in about a month. To be honest, the diet has not been going well. But I have managed to only have 1, maybe 2, sodas since the end of July. Not too shabby.

I weighed in this morning and am just holding steady, which obviously means I need to be working out. Boo. I am not sure when the man last weighed in, so his update will have to wait until next time.

Speaking of working out, our family met up with friends from church (visit Smithfield church of Christ) at the park last night and walked a mile. The girls loved being outside and we had a great time visiting while walking. Mr. Man enjoyed it so much that he is already looking forward to doing it again next week and we are going to walk again tonight with just our family. Did I tell you that he signed up for a 5K that is coming up soon? More motivation to get out and walk so he can condition himself prior to the 5K.

I did make a menu plan for September and have kinda, sorta stuck to it. I even planned out breakfast and lunch for the first week. Hoping that next month I will be able to add more planned meals to the calendar.

It looks pretty similar to last month, but that is okay since I am still new to this. My goal each month is to find economical meals to make that are also healthy, or at least healthier than delivery pizza. Mmmm pizza.

Well now that I am hungry for pizza, I should probably get the big girl and I some lunch.

How are your getting healthy goals coming along? Hopefully better than ours!

~Lisa

Menu Planning: What did I Get Myself Into?

Don't I already have enough on my plate? Figuratively speaking, of course. Well...

Please take a moment and join me in my food world, pre August 1st.

Breakfast: .....what's that?
Lunch: a frozen pizza
Dinner: Cheez-its
Random snacks: chocolate
Drinks: got sugar?

That pretty much sums it all up. See why I need to make a change? So I decided to immerse myself into menu planning almost a month ago. This is what I learned.

- It takes a lot of time. I am guessing the first month is probably the hardest and most time consuming.
- It takes planning. Duh. Right? It takes a lot more planning than I initially thought.
- It takes looking at a calendar. Especially when your family does a whole lot of traveling! What days will we actually be home this month?
- It takes a budget. This I have not decided on yet, should I buy everything I can at the beginning of the month or just grocery shop week to week. I am sure in time I will figure out what works best for our family.

For now I am just going to start with planning dinners, lunch and breakfast will have to come later on as I get a better hold on this. Here is the menu I came up with for August. Lots of repetition for now, but most of these are quite simple and that makes me happy.

How do you like that calendar? I found it here on No Ordinary Moments and here on Homeschool Creations. I have also bookmarked Homeschool Creations as it looks like a website that I will be visiting a lot in the future.

Now that I have a menu penned down it is time to start writing up that shopping list. That'll take another month.

Speaking of, where is your favorite place to shop for groceries? And by favorite I mean quality groceries that are fairly inexpensive.

~Lisa

Summer: Too Busy

Our summer has been busy busy, so far. Thankfully, it looks like the busiest part of it is behind us just in time for our life overhaul. When I thought we would make major changes in our home beginning August 1st I actually thought that meant I would have time to research, plan, and make smaller changes prior to August 1st. Instead we are 1 day away and the only thing I think we have done is... Okay, I can't think of anything.

Wait, I cleaned out his closet. That's something, right?

So here we are, 1 day away from starting homeschooling and we are not ready. Which is absolutely not a big deal, the girl is only 3 and at this age we do not need much. But I did want to be ready. What I have figured out is a make-shift plan and that I really could just have her watch Leap Frog videos on Netflix and call it a day. I am teasing. Sort of.

I have been working off and on, well thinking about working on a menu plan for weeks now. Yesterday I finally sat down and noted some easy-ish dinners and I am hoping that today I will be able to plan out the month and then plan a grocery shopping trip. Those are always fun. Side note: We bought a Boba carrier a little while back, and that thing is awesome! I get the most use out of it when grocery shopping. That way I can carry little one and the big 3 year old can sit in the shopping cart and I actually have a place to put groceries. I love it! End of side note.

The budget stuff that I planned to have ready will just have to wait until I am done with the menu planning. We do okay with a mental budget, but I really need it down in written form.

This past month has been trip after trip after trip for our family. The husband was gone a lot taking various out of town trips for work, Bible camp, and a dear friend's wedding. Then right after he was finished with his big trips, the girls and I left for a week visiting family with my parents. We saw family in Tennessee and Ohio. I got to meet my dad's biological mother for the very first time, which was pretty neat. Then we had an 18 hour drive home in one day. Can I just say how lucky I am to have 2 little girls that travel really well? Imagine 18 hours sitting in a car, now imagine being 6 months old and 3 years old and sitting in a car for 18 hours. They were rock stars! There was a little whimpering about 14 hours into it, but for the most part they were great. Come to think of it, the whimpering was probably from me.

So with 1 day left before I start forcing myself to make big changes, today I will just do little things and enjoy time with my girls. Starting with going back to bed. ;)

Hope you will enjoy your day too.

~Lisa