Meal planning

I really don't mind grocery shopping. I love having a stocked pantry and refrigerator. It's the meal planning and list making I dread. Sometimes, coming up with a menu for 2 weeks can really tax my brain. When planning, I strive to have a variety of meals, {mostly} nutritious and well-balanced meals and make it easy on the budget.

Lately, I've been feeling in a rut, having the same suppers over and over again. So, this morning, I broke out a couple of cookbooks and my folder of recipes torn from magazines and printed from the Internet. My husband said it looked like I was doing research. :)

I wasn't necessarily looking for "new" recipes, {though, I did plan a couple}.

I found a list of some of our favorites suppers and pulled a few meals from it; I also rediscovered recipes I haven't made in awhile, but remember being a success.

The grocery list is so much easier to make when I have a plan. Now, it's off to the store! Hope you have a fabulous day!

Winter

Apple Butter

Catch a Bubble

Haven't you always wanted to? And isn't it unfair that you never can??
**POP** right as it touches your finger.... Unless you know the secret.

Little Reminders

He is not a baby anymore... He is a CHILD, and this journey is just beginning.
(Yet will be so fleeting...)

We've got spirit, yes we do!

It's homecoming week...fun, fun! This year it's even more exciting than usual because Heather is on homecoming court.



Today is Wacky Wednesday for Heather and Pajama Day for Wendy. Wendy was disappointed her school isn't doing Wacky Wednesday, so she decided to wear the clip in colorful braids to be a little wacky on her own. ;)

Excuse the snapshots...too early to get all technical with settings. Also, excuse Heather's orange-ish skin; she's been tanning the past few days. I told her she's been in there too long, but do you think she'll listen? *roll eyes* lol!

Surf's Up

We were in Del Mar this weekend for the horse races. On our way home this morning, we stopped to watch the surfers at Swami's Beach in Encinitas. Holy cow, there were hundreds of them! All those little black spots...surfers. I've never seen so many out there at one time!

Trying to catch up

Whew where is time going?

I have been so slack with my blogging lately, I haven't been able to keep up with editing my photos as I go either. The last few weeks have been really busy and just flown by. We started as you know with the Lazy Town and Zoo trip, then that was followed by dropping in to see G'ma for her birthday then we hit Townsville. Up there for 10 days, flew and drove home - the boys travelled really well. Thank goodness for such awesome technology now that in car DVD players are a godsend. Then home a day and I was back at work again. Saturday saw us off to Canberra for the weekend to catch up with friends and their two kids the same ages as the boys. We got some shopping in and then back home again where Caden was digging through my closet for some reason only know to him and discovered his transformer suit that is supposed to be for his birthday in November! oh well since the two days since then he has barely been out of it! so since I have been so slack and not blogged here is a glimpse of our mornings (mostly) of the last 17 days!

 

As you can see we went from playing in the beach and pool to crappy foggy cold and dreary weather. But the sun has been shining the last couple of days and the boys are back at school and cranky from it. Ahh life is ever changing!

enjoy J

Butterflies at Botanica

These butterflies were so much fun to photograph! I really need to look into a macro lens!

Taste of Summer

8/12/09 10: 00 a.m

I actually took this shot yesterday morning, but by the time I had a minute to post it was late afternoon and decided to just wait.

This watermelon is a sugar baby variety. It's so sweet and juicy. The fact that we grew it ourselves make it taste even sweeter. The watermelon patch was experimental; we weren't sure how the growing would go, or if the melons would get big enough and ripen.

When we cut into this melon, we instantly knew it was ripe. A ripe watermelon has a distinctive sound when you cut it open.

There are 6 other watermelons in the garden, a couple about this size, and the rest smaller. I'd say the experiment was a success. Have a great day!