Whole 30 Menu and Update: Week 2

Whew!  Week 1 is done!

I'm doing well with the eating.  I really enjoy all of the recipes that I've made!  The zoodles were a surprisingly good sub for spaghetti.  I'll probably have the Sweet Potato Eggs again on Saturday when we have breakfast for supper, because they were so good!

Last night was the hardest, though!  I made the Pioneer Woman's White Chicken Enchiladas for supper for my family and small group.  They smelled soooooo good.  I served it with the good chips from the deli at the grocery store and freshly homemade salsa.  The salad I made was genuinely delicious, though, and I'm looking forward to having leftovers for lunch!

I made brownies for dessert, and I thought, "I've made these brownies a million times.  They won't be tempting at all!"

I was wrong wrong double wrong!

They looked so chewy and fudge-y and smelled so delicious!

But, alas, I stayed strong even though we had the most ridiculous time putting the girls to bed.  Leah has a cough, so she was coughing a lot.  I gave her medicine and did my Vapo Rub trick.  

Maggie became convinced...con.vinced...that Leah was going to throw up on her.  I mean, Leah is on the top bunk and Maggie is on the bottom bunk, so in her mind, the throw up would get on her.

There was crying (while on the toilet, naturally), screaming, almost sobbing provoked throwing up herself, kicking on the bed, etc.  I was back and forth a lot, giving her (and me) a break to try to calm down.  It was really uncharacteristic behavior for Maggie...I think because she was overtired and a little sick.

If I wasn't doing The Whole 30, I would have stress eaten a lot of brownies.  So, it's a good thing I'm doing it!  

On another note, I'm surprised by how hungry I'm not!  I think part of that has to do with all of the water I'm drinking!  When I was nursing babies, I drank an obscene amount of water. But, then those babies got bigger and wanted to share my water bottle all of the time which resulted in backwash, spilling, and other wet and messy experiences.  Because of all of that, I got out of the water drinking habit, but I'm glad to be getting back to it!

Wednesday, January 15 Asian Chicken Thighs (with rice for my family and cauliflower rice for me and blueberry applesauce {I used a food mill to make this, because we weren't a fan of the apple skin bits in it when I made it according to the recipe before})

Thursday, January 16 Hamburgers with Sweet Potato Hashies (tater tots for my people)

Friday, January 17 Pizza for girls and babysitter, supper at church for Aaron and me

Saturday, January 18 Gone for lunch     Breakfast for Supper

Sunday, January 19 leftovers

Monday, January 20  Chili (we can each doctor it up however we want)

Tuesday, January 21  Baked Ziti (I'll have zoodles with spaghetti sauce from the freezer)

Lunches will be a lettuce rolls, a combination of these recipes 

Have a great week!

Here's the Menu for Week 1 in case you missed it :) and week 3!

F-F-F-Frozen

Here's the thing: I have issues with Disney movies.

Not big issues, I basically just don't like that a lot of the princess-y movies are resolved by a girl falling in love with a boy who saves the day.

Because, apparently, a girl can't solve a problem.

I also feel like my little girls don't need to have the whole girlfriend/boyfriend thing really prevalent in what they are watching.

Also, I feel like Disney does a good job of making it really obvious who is good and who is bad. That results in some pretty scary, dark bad guys.  My girls get scared easily, so I don't want to put that kind of stuff in front of them unnecessarily.  

But, when Frozen came out, we read some reviews, talked to some friends who had seen it, and decided to take the girls.

source

I liked it and thought it was pretty funny!

I liked that when Anna got engaged to Hans, everyone told them it was crazy to get engaged to someone you just met.

I thought the music was amazing!  It was pretty much a musical.

I LOVED that the sisters saved the day!

My favorite part, though, was the redemptive analogy at the end!

Side note, have you ever read the book Peace Child, by Don Richardson?  He was a missionary to Papua New Guinea in the 1960s.  He says that every culture has a redemptive analogy...there's something in the culture that is a picture of Jesus' sacrifice for us.

I've kept my eyes open for redemptive analogies ever since!

Frozen had a great one!  At the end, Anna steps in between her sister and a weapon to save her life.

She even comes back to life, if we're keeping score :)

We had a fun time being there!

Although, Gracie wasn't about to pose for a picture.

And I did teach the girls the finer points of smuggling candy into a movie theater :)

In case you were wondering, the girls enjoyed the movie, but went right back to being ob.sessed with The Sound of Music!

They are literally recreating So Long, Farewell as I type :)

Have a happy Monday!

Project 365: #1

A couple of years ago I decided to do Project 365.

Project 365 is when you take 1 picture a day for a year.  The idea is to capture the happy, everyday bits of your life!

I failed miserably.  I forgot to take pictures during the day...you know, of our children, and ended up taking a picture of my feet before bed or making a duck face with Pringles.

I wish I was making that up, but I'm not!

But, now that I'm in the blogging habit, I take pictures a lot more, so I thought that this would be the year to do it!

I can't promise they're won't be any pictures of my feet before bed, but I have high hopes.

I did forget to take a picture on the first day, though.  But, I pushed ahead!  I'll just have my Project 365 year run from January 2, 2014-January 2, 2015!

Day 1:

Day 2:

Gracie gave me these flowers for my birthday (which was December 31) and hands them to me every now and then so we can get married!

Day 3:

We made granola bars for school snacks, wrapped them in plastic wrap, and kept them closed with cute washi tape.

Day 4:

Leah made everyone a mailbox so she could give us notes.  I give her some, too!

Day 5:

I was so excited to eat a scone and drink tea while watching the season premier of Downton Abbey.  But, alas, I was sick, so I was laying on the couch with a bowl just in case. Thankfully, I didn't end up needing it again.

Day 6:

The girls are helping Maggie get ready for her first quiet rest (instead of nap time)!

Day 7:

The artiste <3

Day 8:

It was early release day for Leah, complete with some silly faces!

Day 9:

Gracie was helping me fill the crockpot with yummy-ness!

Have a great weekend!

It was Cold...It was Fun

It was pretty darn cold here on Monday and Tuesday...so cold that there wasn't any school.

As I mentioned yesterday, I was sick on Sunday and not at my best on Monday, either. Aaron stayed home on Monday to take care of the girls, so I mostly laid around.  They were busy!

Leah worked on this...decoration/scene/backdrop on Monday, and we put it up on Tuesday.

That's a rainbow in the middle, with a treasure on each end and a sun and cloud in the sky!

I like her fun ideas :)

I like her even more!

Leah gave Maggie the scraps from the sun, and Maggie made a puppet theater!

Maggie and Leah put together a little show, but Gracie wasn't having it.

Suspicious Gracie ;)

They each created "hideouts" in Leah and Maggie's room.  

Maggie's hideout is under her bed.  You can see she has some books lined up back there.  You can't see that she has a flashlight with her :)

Leah and Gracie are in the closet...with books, blankets, stuffed animals and flashlights.

Note: the girls' room was painted that horrifying yellow color before we moved in.  We didn't have time to paint the closet.  I can't think of a more horrible yellow...it's like Big Bird got run over by a school bus.  Bad, bad, bad.

I'd also like to point out the obvious that we don't ask our children to play in the closet or under the bed.  They do that on their own :)  There's just something about small spaces that kids really like.

I think it's really cute that the girls really like setting up their hideouts, but they only play in them for like 3 minutes at a time...probably because the spots are a bit cramped!

On Tuesday, though, I was feeling better and we needed groceries!  I let the van warm up for a long time and we all wore hats and mittens and headed to the grocery store.

I think we were all glad to get out of the house and to have a change of scenery!

We even saw the positive side of the thermometer today!  Yipee!

Stay warm this week!

The Whole 30 Menu: Week 1

Today's the big day that I'm starting The Whole 30!

I'm really excited!

Here's a weird/cool thing, though.  I was throwing up on Sunday, and my stomach certainly wasn't back to normal on Monday.  Yesterday was okay.  Every time I throw up, which isn't often, I think to myself, "I have a fresh start in my stomach, and I'm only going to put healthy foods in there."

So, here's my big chance!  I mean, on Monday at supper time, I was slicing bell peppers (aka sweet dippin' sticks at our house), and I was so looking forward to eating their crisp, juicy goodness when I felt better.

I'm going to have Egg Muffins (without cheese and add lots of veggies) ready to be reheated for breakfasts.

I'm going to have Hearty Paleo Vegetable Soup ready for lunches.

Wednesday, January 8  Island Chicken (coconut aminos instead of soy sauce and make extra for salad on Friday) with (cauliflower) rice and green beans

Thursday, January 9  Crockpot Spaghetti Sauce (without sugar and butter and freeze leftovers) on zoodles for me with salad (lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers and dressing)

Friday, January 10  Pizza for my family, Chicken, Bacon, Avocado Chopped Salad for me (leave off cheese and bacon {couldn't find the right kind}, use dressing from Thursday instead)

Saturday, January 11  Grilled Cheese (Coconut Lime Chicken Soup for me coconut aminos instead of soy sauce)  Breakfast Bowls (Sweet Potato Eggs for me)

Sunday, January 12  leftovers/sandwiches  SCS

Monday, January 13  Island Spice Pork Tenderloin with Mango Avocado Salsa and (cauliflower) rice and roasted broccoli 

Tuesday, January 14  White Chicken Enchiladas (Chicken Fajita Sizzling Salad for me)

Snacks:  frozen raspberries, 1 oz cashews, hard boiled eggs

Here's the Menu for Week 2 and Week 3!

I'm one of those ladies who likes pretty foods, so all of the bright colors of veggies in salads and things really appeals to me!

You know what else really appeals to me?

This!

Little known fact: I love glasses!  I have 2 sets that I rotate for when I need a change.

Additionally, because I think they're adorable, I picked up some stemless wine glasses at the Target Dollar Spot.  I feel like everything tastes more fun in a stemless wine glass :)

I'm drinking a Cranberry-Raspberry La Croix with lime wedges and frozen raspberries.

I like being able to make something fun that's within the perimeters of The Whole 30!

Now that you see the menu and can see that the food is very doable, does anyone else want to join me? 

The Lonely Goats

The girls have been performance singing machines lately!

We owe this to The Sound of Music!  We got the DVD and soundtrack with some Christmas gift money, and they love it!

It's so adorable to hear them sing along.  My personal favorites are hearing Gracie sing along with Do-Re-Mi with great energy and enthusiasm and hearing Leah sing, "Her penitence is real" when she has no idea what that means.  

The best, though, is when Maggie sings along with 16 Going on 17, "Totally unprepared am I, to face a world of men" with her cute little voice.  It's so hilarious and adorable!

This is Gracie performance singing in the minivan on our mattress shopping journey :)

Based on the TV performance of The Lonely Goatherd (or as I like to call it, High on a hill was a lonely goat)...

We've had this...

Leah/Maria lovingly stuffs directs the sisters children under the futon bed so they can pop out and sing at the appropriate time!

Yep, our HOUSE is alive with the sound of music...and while it can be loud, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Getting Our Shop On

One of these days, we are going to do a big ol' room switch.

Gracie will move to the bottom bunk, Maggie will move to the top bunk, and Leah will go into what is currently Gracie's room.  

We need to get a twin mattress for that to happen, hence our shopping trip.

Aaron preached at our friend's church on Sunday, so he was doing some sermon prep on Saturday.  It seemed like a good time to do some price and comfort comparison.

I made Leah a little chart.

Now, Leah is an incredibly bright child, but she had no.clue. what to do with this, even after I showed it to her and explained it several times.  

I'm not going to lie, I got a bit frustrated and finally told her that we were done talking about it that I was sure she would understand once we were at the store using the chart.

Thankfully that was the case.  She picked right up on it when we visited our first store.

You may be wondering what some of the abbreviations are.  The only store worth explaining is CMS.

CMS=Creepy Mattress Store.

I mean no offense to stand alone mattress stores, but they just kind of creep me out a bit.

I'm not the only one...

Anyway, Leah sampled all of the beds like a bed-trying-out-pro!

As you can see from the top picture, Menards didn't have twin mattresses.

But, what Menards lacks in twin mattresses, they make up for in gigantic stuffed dogs.

That is a lot of stuffed dog to love!

I have a friend whose mother-in-law buys gigantic stuffed animals for her the grandchildren all.the.time.

I am almost hyperventilating thinking about linebacker sized stuffed animals populating our house.

I can't even...

Once we buy a mattress, it will get the Great Room Switch ball rolling!

Stay tuned...but don't hold your breath :)  These kind of changes can take me a while!