This is the first time I’ve participated in the Menu Plan Monday over at I’m an Organizing Junkie. I’ve read a lot of the menus, but never remember to actually post mine (well, the weeks I’ve planned it, that is).

A few notes about my menus – I don’t plan the veggies. We just eat whatever we have in the house and whatever sounds good at the moment. I usually plan other sides (like potatoes or rice), just not always the veggies. We snack on fruit and veggies, and usually eat things like carrot sticks and cottage cheese or yogurt with our lunches.

Breakfasts often include eggs, whether or not they’re on the menu. We eat a LOT of eggs because of our chickens.

Piano lesson nights are almost always crockpot meals. This month the crockpot meals are on Mondays – next month when I’m officially off my maternity break my really busy evening will switch to Tuesdays as my students return. Wednesday evenings are usually quick and easy meals because it’s a church night. Friday or Saturday nights we usually go over to Stephen’s parents’ house for dinner – but I plan meals for us anyway, just in case.

So here’s our menu:

Monday
Breakfast – Oatmeal
Lunch – Tossed Salad
Supper – Roasted Rabbit (in the crock pot) and mashed potatoes

Tuesday
Breakfast – Eggs
Lunch – Macaroni and Cheese
Supper – Beef and bean tacos with homemade tortillas

Wednesday
Breakfast – Grits
Lunch – Sandwiches
Supper – Grilled chicken breast over tossed salad

Thursday
Breakfast – Oatmeal Muffins
Lunch – Tuna Salad
Supper – Crock pot ribs and mashed potatoes

Friday
Breakfast – Cereal
Lunch – Egg Salad
Supper – Ham and mozzarella stromboli

Saturday
Breakfast – Whole wheat waffles
Lunch – Hot Dogs with homemade buns and oven fries
Supper – Tossed salad

Sunday
Breakfast – Cereal
Lunch – Roasted whole chicken (in the crock pot) and rice
Supper – Pinto beans (also in the crock pot) and cornbread

You can read more menu plans over at I’m an Organizing Junkie.

Today while I was working in the kitchen, I had C in a bouncy seat nearby so he could see me. S walked into the kitchen and started playing with C. I assumed he was bugging him, but I stopped so I could see what he was really doing before I scolded him.

S had C’s hands in each of his, and was raising both hands up in the air. “Say Glory!” “Hallelujah!” “Praise the Lord!” With each remark, S would raise C’s hands up in the air.

In his own way, S was trying to teach his little brother how to praise the Lord. It was an amazing moment to watch.

A couple weeks ago Susan posted a link to Grain and Nut Whole Wheat Pancakes. She said that the recipe was a keeper. Well, I’ve tried several recipes for wheat pancakes, and the only one I’ve really liked Stephen doesn’t.

We tried the recipe yesterday. I didn’t put nuts in them because we didn’t have them, but they were fantastic without them! Wow. I’ve finally found a recipe that our whole family likes. What also makes me happy is that the recipe doesn’t use any white flour, yet it’s still light and fluffy. Definitely a winner in my book!

Grain and Nut Whole Wheat Pancakes

Yesterday while I was outside I discovered some crocus that had bloomed. It was quite the surprise because in the 6 years we’ve owned this house, I’ve never seen any crocus. There are quite a few other flowering plants on our property (daffodil, grape hyacinth, tulip, gladiolas, and roses come to mind), but I’ve never seen crocus. It was also surprising where they were located – right in a small garden bed around our porch. It’s probably been dug up at least a dozen times. It was a neat to find.

While we were at it, we picked a few daffodils and grape hyacinth to bring inside.

And since we can’t leave C out. . .

Here’s a picture of C wearing one of the Mama Bird pocket diapers I made for him. He’s just over 9 pounds and these diapers fit him well. The ones where I didn’t lengthen the tabs won’t fit for much longer, but these are great.

The tabs have to be positioned lower down on the strip of velcro otherwise the edges rub against his skin. I’m not really sure what I could do next time to prevent that. Maybe rounding the edges of the velcro would help; but I don’t know. Oh well. I found a way that works for now so it doesn’t worry me.

He wasn’t too happy about me taking the picture though – this was the best of the bunch. The last one I took he was screaming. Poor little guy. Life is so rough when you’re six weeks old. LOL!

God has really been blessing us with our farm animals. We have about 30 chickens and 3 goats. It’s been a while since I’ve counted the chickens; we were just given a few, and some of the babies we hatched a couple months ago died.

We also just ordered a bunch more birds. We ordered some different breeds this time – including some Americanas (they’re the ones that lay colored eggs). I’m so excited to get them. Stephen ordered them just for me – just because I wanted them for the colored eggs. Isn’t that sweet of him? Someone asked me recently if I thought people would want to buy blue and green eggs and not brown. Heh – I want them for our use – it’s not worrying me, lol! I don’t mind baking with green eggs (green eggs and ham, anyone?) and we didn’t order them to sell their eggs. Some people might want the colored eggs, but I just think they’re neat.

We also ordered a bunch of meat birds. We’ve been incubating some of our own eggs to raise for meat, but decided this time to order some specifically for meat. There’s nothing that tastes as good as homegrown chicken (homegrown? um. . .maybe I should say home raised. . .oh whatever. Homegrown.) so I’m excited to get more to put in the freezer.

It will be a while before they arrive though. I don’t think they ship for another month. We wanted to go ahead and get them ordered though.

The last set of birds we ordered have really picked up laying. They’ve been laying for several months, but they’re laying so well now. I am so thankful for that! We have 16 layers (I think), and we’ve been getting 9 or 10 eggs every day. The other day we got 13 eggs. That’s more than we’ve ever gotten in one day before.

(we do wash them before we sell them, really)

We get so many that we’ve been able to sell quite a few of them. It’s so neat – the money we make from selling the eggs pays for their feed, so in essence, the hens pay for their own upkeep. I love it.

The other day I made brownies to take to a funeral lunch our church was doing. I didn’t want to send all the brownies away without making some for us too, so I poured a little bit of the batter into custard cups. It was nice to be able to have brownies without having the entire pan here tempting us (ok, me) to eat it.

S helped me, and when we were done, he got to lick the spoon.

Yum!

It amazes me how long I go between posting sometimes. It’s not for lack of ideas – I just tend to either forget or not get a chance to get on here and post.

Life is so much busier with two children. Wow. I absolutely love it! It has been a challenge to adjust to tending to two while trying to get other things done though. I’ve also been on a major housecleaning kick and that’s been rather difficult because just as soon as I start a project, usually little C wakes up wanting to nurse. That’s ok though. He’s such a little sweetie and this stage won’t last forever, so the housework can wait.

Speaking of C – he’s growing like a weed! At his 1 month well baby visit, he weighed in at 9 lb 1 oz – which is a 2 pound gain since he had been in there last. He’s just starting to outgrow the newborn clothes he had.

S is a fantastic big brother and loves to be a helper. He helped me make muffins last week. Hopefully in the next day or so I can get those pics uploaded.

Last week Stephen let me use some of the leftover money from our tax return to buy supplies for a mother’s bracelet. I’ve been wanting one for quite a while and now I’m getting one. I’m so excited! Another thing I got was some hair sticks to embellish (with beads, of course). These will probably all be for me (hair sticks are my current favorite hair accessory), but I’ll definitely be photographing them and adding them to the store.

The rest of our tax return went to bigger things. . .like paying off some debt and bills. We’ve been working Dave Ramsey style to get our finances in shape. It has been a lot of work, but it is SO worth it to see progress. At first I was discouraged that we weren’t doing something more fun with the money, but honestly, being that much closer to being debt free is really encouraging. Working hard at being frugal is really paying off. After being frugal out of absolute necessity for so long, it’s nice to know that it’s paying off.

Today the piano tuner came. My piano has been so out of tune – it has been discouraging to play, between being so out of tune and the two keys that wouldn’t play. I guess that’s a hazard of moving last year. Oh well – it’s fixed and sounds so much better now. When he left, I sat down intending to play for a while, but C decided he was hungry before I finished playing the third piece. :O) It was nice while it lasted though. I can’t wait until I can sit down uninterrupted again.

I’ve also been able to work a little bit on my star quilt. I got 100 red and cream squares pieced for the border yesterday, thanks to a speed piecing tip I read. That part only took about 30 minutes! Piecing is one of my favorite parts of quilting. I’m a bit stumped on the rest of the border though. The star section is smaller that I’d like it to be, but I don’t have enough coordinating fabrics to do more stars. I can add a double or triple border, but it’s still on the small side. It should be big enough to curl up in, but I wanted to make it twin-sized so it could also be used on a bed. My mother in law is an incredible quilter though so she’s bound to have some ideas.

Well, I thought C was asleep for the night. He is a GREAT sleeper – he slept 7 hours one night when he was only 2 weeks old. Most nights he doesn’t sleep quite that long, but it’s still longer than during the day. He’s starting to act hungry again, though. Guess I better go!

Took this one this morning. It’s our first family picture since C arrived.