Menu Plan Monday

It's a little late, but here's my menu plan for the week:
Meatless Monday- Tofu stirfry
Try It Tuesday- Salsa Chicken and Black Bean Soup
Wednesday-Venison stew
Thursday-Grilled chicken salad
Fun Friday- Homemade pizza
Saturday-Chicken Pot Pie
Sunday-Spinach Lasagna Rolls

I'm feeling rather uninspired with cooking lately. Maybe it is because I have been struggling with fatigue. Hopefully I'll get over this soon, because I do want to try a lot of new recipes that I've seen lately.

Cruisin along

I'm pretty pumped today. Today was weigh-in day, and I have now officially lost all of my baby weight. It's taken 18 months, well, really, probably only 4 or so months, but I am down 33 lbs! I have a bit more to lose until my goal weight, but still. Exciting times. This past week I got to go on a run with my husband- something that doesn't happen very often but hopefully will become more of a regular thing, and I've done a couple of Turbo Fire classes. I'm really enjoying Turbo Fire, although I don't know if I'm getting the full effect of it, since I spend a lot of time just trying to figure out what they are doing. They move FAST!!! The music is awesome, though, and the moves pretty interesting, and I'm always a sweaty mess, so I think it is a winner. Chalene is very energetic and encouraging, and it makes me think I should get doing Chalean Extreme again. Some sort of hybrid thing. I feel like it has given me the boost in endurance needed to start jogging/running again, and I plan for this to be a big part of my life from now on. I want to run a 5 K in June, and a 5 mile in July, and then work up to 10Ks and half-marathons. A lot of training and learning how to run properly, but I think that it will be worth it!

Gage has been great lately, although he is very busy. He's been going out to be babysat while I'm at work and I think he really enjoys having different people give them their undivided attention. Although he isn't really talking much, he is starting to verbalize a lot more than he used to, and copies our speech a lot. He has some words that he uses often, but it would be great if he could talk more. Talk more, less crying. He still really likes music, and has gotten a new obsession this week-Froot Loops. I know, I know, the cereal is just full of sugar, but at least he his eating something. Once this box is done, though, it'll be a Froot Loop-less house for a while. When I stop working I think it will be get Gage to expand his palate days-also to get rid of the bottle.

I did it!

I did something that I've never done before, last night. I went out for a jog after Gage was in bed. Well first I got myself dressed to brave the elements, and I set out, put my music on, and jogged 5 kms without stopping!!! I was stoked! Not bad for running in the dark and it being all winter like. I was pretty nervous I'd encounter some wildlife since I live in the country, so spent a lot of my jog thinking of contingency plans, but it was smooth sailing. Now if I can just keep this up, I'll be running longer distances in no time. It may be the year for me to run my first 5K race. Yay!

Weekly update and Menu plan Monday

So, I'm coming off another busy weekend. It was filled with travelling, children, exercising and reading and fellowshiping. A great weekend, but busy nonetheless. It was our weekend for Sahara and Aidan, so that required the trips there and back to get them. A lot of time was spent sledding down our driveway. There really are some benefits to having a very long and hilly driveway. Gage is not a big fan of the sled. We took him out on Sunday, but after a few minutes of screaming, we figured it was time to take him back in. He'd rather be in the house causing havoc, then being confined to a sled.

The week on a whole was fairly busy. I worked all week, and on Monday had my first ladies Bible study meeting. It is a twelve week program that focuses on bringing me closer to God, by focusing on how He is my Abba Father. Hopefully I 'll learn a lot from it.

I've started following a weight loss program this week too, with my neighbour. I've been following it loosely for the last few months, but we decided to work together with it and hold each other accountable, especially with consistency. I've almost lost all of my baby weight (it's about time!) but I wasn't exactly where I wanted to be before I got pregnant with Gage. I'm thinking of it as a competition, so I want to win! I've also been working out, as I've mentioned before, and I'll be giving a bit of review on that in the next few weeks.

Finishing up my catch up post, I feel the need to post the plans that I am hoping to adopt in our family life. While I'm at work, Matt does most of the household cleaning when he's home with Gage, but isn't able to get to some of the more nitty gritty parts. As I'm not a natural homemaker, and wouldn't say I'm the most anal about cleaning, I felt that it was important to start some chore lists and plans for our household. Sahara and Aidan have a chore list for the weekends they're with us, and in the next few months I'll try to get Gage doing some age appropriate cleaning. For my part, I'm going to follow a chore schedule that Darlene at Time-Warp Wife has posted, with my own changes.

Cleaning Schedule:
Monday: Kitchen
Tuesday: Garbage, Bathroom
Wednesday: Bedrooms
Thursday: Floors, and vacuuming
Friday: Groceries, running around
Saturday: Clean car

It's also Menu Plan Monday! As we've been looking in to many ways to save money and have been working on eating up our pantry, I believe it is important for me to start menu planning. Especially because after I come home from work I don't really want to have to be starting a meal from scratch.
So here's our menu plan for the week:
Monday: Potato soup and baked Potatoes (Meatless Monday)
Tuesday: Chicken Enchilads (Try It Tuesday)
Wednesday: Cheesy rice bake
Thursday: Chicken pot pie
Friday: Homemade pizza (Fun Friday)
Saturday: Spinach Lasagna rolls, Lasagna soup
Sunday: Venison stew, biscuits

I'm looking forward to some great meals this week and I have a lot of new recipes to try out in the next few weeks! It looks like it'll be a tasty winter.

And we're back...

So, 2011. A new year, and a chance to do things differently. I don't really do the whole New Year's resolution thing, but I have decided that there are a few things that I want to accomplish this year. Well, actually, quite a few things, but I don't want to set myself up to failure by listing them as resolutions. Really, I want some lifestyle changes this year, which I think will make everything in my life a little bit easier.

I've decided to adopt a theme word for the year. I know that sounds kind of new agey, or lame, but, nonetheless, I think that it is useful to have something to focus on through the year. I realize that I need to be more consistent with things, something that my sister has pointed out to me also, therefore CONSISTENCY is my theme word. I need to be more consistent with positive attitudes towards my circumstances, more consistent in my parenting, my eating and working out, and especially my relationship with God. I am great with coming up with plans and starting them, but I am not so great with the follow through. My ability to come up with excuses is top-notch, though. So if I accomplish anything at all this year, I hope it is to be more consistent.

I also want to make more connections with people this year, and to maintain connections and relationships that I have. I am not a good friend or relative. I seldom write, phone, or anything. Not because I have anything against my friends or relatives-I'm just lazy. I want that to change, and so I'm going to try harder to keep in contact with all those that I love in my life.

Fitness wise, I've got a lot going on. I was in quite the funk for a while after Gage was born, and I wasn't doing much of anything, but things have started looking up recently. I am about 10 lbs away from what I weighed before I had Gage and I am looking to lose quite a bit more this year. Along with losing weight, I'm working out again, and I'll discuss what I'm doing in a future post.

Gage is doing great, and it is very exciting seeing how much he is advancing in various things, although, his ability to be stubborn is hard to deal with at times. I think that with Gage, you just have to let everything happen at his pace.

I'm pretty discouraged regarding jobs around here. My present job's term is up the end of the month, and I don't have any real prospects until July when the job starts up again. Also, it isn't in my profession (teaching). In order to get a teaching job it looks like we would have to move, and that isn't really something that we would like to do. I don't know if I should stay with the teaching, or try to do something else. Right now I'm leaving it up to God, and hoping to find direction soon.