Menu Plan Monday – Best Laid Plans or the week we tried to eat Fried Rice!
Posted: February 22, 2011 Filed under: cooking, menu plan monday, working Leave a commentI *thought* I was working two days this week and then doing in-service for one day but after being called in today and yesterday it will be a total of 4 days work which is good for the bank balance but throws the house into disarray.
However some plans have worked out and some haven’t and I’m trying not to think about an anticipated morning at the knitting shop!
Sunday – Sausages, mashed potato and veggies
Monday – was meant to be Fried rice but we were all delayed by massive storm and I was exhausted after a day of extreme heat and no air con so dh made a chicken curry for us and gave the boys sandwiches – not with a smile!
Tuesday – was meant to be Fried Rice again and I had everything chopped up and ready to put it together when dh walked in with pizza! I went ahead and cooked up the Fried Rice and now it will be tomorrow night’s dinner!
Wednesday – will be Fried Rice!
Thursday – we eat at the shops.
Friday – Fish and Chips
Saturday – Hoisin Pork
I’ve baked Banana and Malteaser Muffins on Sunday and as of Tuesday night they are all gone so I’ll chalk that one up as another success
52 Weeks of Organising – Recipes – Part 2
Posted: February 19, 2011 Filed under: 52 Weeks of Organizing, cooking, Eric, finances, Food, organising, routines, Weight Watchers 4 CommentsI began my great mealing/recipe project a few weeks ago and it is travelling along nicely. Yesterday I took the next step of organising my new Recipe Binder. It isn’t flash because there’s no spare money for flash binder and dividers around here. I bought a lever arch file, some flouro plastic dividers with an index page at the front and a box of 100 plastic sleeves. I LOVE plastic sleeves – just needed to say that!
I simply wrote out my categories on the index page, slipped some recipes into plastic sleeves and I was done. The recipes are either from Mum which means they arrived by e-mail or I’ve typed them out. If it came by e-mail I’ve just printed the e-mail – not time to muck around! For all the others, because I’m doing Weight Watchers, I either get them from the Weight Watchers website or I type them into the Recipe Builder in E-Tools which then works out the points for the recipe and enables the recipe to be put into my Pro Points Tracker. This gives them some uniformity as they all have the same sort of formatting on the site.
They are all in individual plastic sleeves so they can go to kitchen and back again easily and I’m adding recipes as I do them and they are “successful”. Two new ones are being added tonight from this weekend – Sweet and Sour Braised Steak (Slow Cooker) and Banana and Malteaser Muffins.
I’m getting back into the good routine I used to have of planning the meals for the upcoming week on the Saturday, making a shopping list and doing the weekly shop by Sunday. I’ve also baked today to school lunches (so I’m feeling particularly accomplished!)
Now for Laura’s questions this week:
Questions to ponder:
1. Let’s talk stuff! What have you tossed out this week?
I have tossed coffee cups, lots of paper and quite a few odds and ends from back deck (when I was preparing the Valentine’s Night Dinner). This included our hermit crab gear – the last hermit crab died over 2 years ago!
2. Have you ever regretted something you’ve gotten rid of? Why?
The only things I regret getting rid of are the books I had as a child because I would have dearly loved to pass them on to my boys and my niece (she would probably appreciate the “Little House” series and possibly “Nancy Drew” more than the boys would!). I’ve got one large volume of Frances Hodgson Burnett with three of her books in it that Eric has read from cover to cover and loved. It may be time for my niece to borrow it!
3. How tempted are you to rush out and pick up pretty organizing containers first?
I’m tempted but money is an issue so I’m forcing myself to wait. I’ve saved the link to this bookcase type thing from Ikea which I would like to use in our entry way horizontally as part of a launch pad but I have to work out where to put the cupboard that is there presently as well as save up for it. Simply having more clear spaces is helping me to be more organised!
52 Weeks of Organising – Linen Cupboard
Posted: February 15, 2011 Filed under: 52 Weeks of Organizing, organising 2 CommentsTis is an area which can be a life saver if it is under control and a big blockage to getting things done when it is out of control. Mine had been out of control since well before Christmas so I am pleased to have “tamed the beast” and got it working well again. The labels are there to make things REALLY OBVIOUS so that if anyone else helps to put things away they will know exactly where to put them!
1. What did you accomplish this week on your 52 weeks list?
Organising and labelling contents of linen cupboard
2. Have you had a negative conversation check with yourself lately?
There are days when I am having negative conversations with myself all day but I am steadily working on changing that. Any accomplishment no matter how small is cause for celebration!
3. Are you beginning to see new habits developing yet?
I’m TRYING to maintain the areas I have already organised by picking up after myself more and this is beginning to become more regular. One area I really have to keep on top of is my desk area but it is easier to tidy up now that the initial clean-up has been done.
My Place and Yours – Toothbrush
Posted: February 15, 2011 Filed under: Daniel, Eric, My Place and Yours 4 CommentsI’m playing along again this week even though I was a bit reluctant because showing my toothbrush may have meant showing the rest of my bathroom. I just wish I could get the two youngest members of this household to wield their toothbrushes more willingly! I did see a light-up toothbrush that might attract Daniel when we were choosing bathroom goods for flood victims but not sure if it would be worth the money.
Has anyone got any good ideas for encouraging tooth brushing with a smile?
Menu Plan Monday on Tuesday
Posted: February 14, 2011 Filed under: Food, menu plan monday Leave a commentMy excuse is that Organising Junkie who runs this meme is – er a little bit behind us in the USA so her MPM post did not appear until this morning. The comment was made last week that vegetables didn’t feature but I can assure you that they are included in most meals.
Monday (Valentines Day Dinner) Spaghetti Bolognaise and Choc Mint Drumsticks for dessert
Tuesday – Caramelised Chicken with egg noodles (includes bok choy)
Wednesday – Sausages, mashed potato, broccoli, peas and carrots
Thursday – Dinner at Indooroopilly
Friday – Quiche and Salad
Saturday
– Slow Cooker Sweet and Sour Braised Steak with rice, beans, carrots
The Love Fest
Posted: February 13, 2011 Filed under: cooking, craft, Family, Food, home making, Life Lessons, Parenting, Uncategorized 2 CommentsI like St Valentine’s Day but dh does not. Where once he used to go along with the whole present and going out thing he now refuses to participate at all. I knew I’d be “flogging a dead horse” if I tried to do anything about the big day with him this year so instead I decided to focus on the three men in my life. The boys will hopefully learn a bit about simple celebrations and ways in which you can show people you love them. I wouldn’t suggest it now but maybe they will store away some ideas for when they have “sweethearts” of their own. So I’ve had a bit of fun getting tready for our mini Love Fest which we held tonight.
I got the Valentine’s Wreath Idea from here. Mine is quite different in that I went with flat felt hearts in a rich red and I got the wield my new hot glue gun. The finished effect is simple but well, effective I think. The rest was easy: red plastic tablecloth (boys eating spaghetti – I shouldn’t need to say anything else on that subject), white serviettes with hand-painted hearts, some red heart sequins sprinkled up the middle of the table, red tea-lights in our special rose decorated wall sconce and the “piece de resistance” (as far as the boys were concerned) chocolate heart rose buds on long plastic stems.
We dined on spaghetti bolognaise with choc mint drumsticks for dessert anda good time was had by three of us. Vera the dog was intrigued by all the goings-on and desperate to be included. She did score some leftover spaghetti sauce in the end!
I Have A Dream
Posted: February 9, 2011 Filed under: birthday, knitting Leave a commentI have a dream, a song to sing
To help me cope with anything
If you see the wonder of a fairy tale
You can take the future even if you fail
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I’ll cross the stream – I have a dream
I have a dream, a fantasy
To help me through reality
And my destination makes it worth the while
Pushing through the darkness still another mile
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I’ll cross the stream – I have a dream
I’ll cross the stream – I have a dream
I have a dream, a song to sing
To help me cope with anything
If you see the wonder of a fairy tale
You can take the future even if you fail
I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me
I’ll cross the stream – I have a dream
I’ll cross the stream – I have a dream
I just LOVE this Abba song! For my birthday last year I was lucky enough to receive the book Greeting from the Knit Cafe from my dear friend Trish. It contains lots of very tempting projects but the one that caught my eye first was the “Love Blanket”. It was knitted by different women with different tensions in different directions and yet it all comes together to make a thing of beauty. I liked the Love Blanket but “I had a Dream” so my version is the “Dream Blanket”.
It will have five panels instead of four and will be knitted with scrumptious Spud and Chloe Outer Yarn which just feels “buttery” as it glides through the fingers. I’ve made designs for my own letters to be stitched onto each panel and I’m really enjoying knitting it because being garter stitch I can knit and multi-task where necessary.
So this project is my constant companion as I listen to piano (and tenor sax) practice, catch up on my taped TV shows and chat to ladies at the Knitting shop!
Stripes!
Posted: February 8, 2011 Filed under: knitting, My Place and Yours, sleeping 2 CommentsI’m playing along with Danielle at Hello Owl this week as she hosts “My Place and Yours”
. I lit up when I saw this week’s theme of stripes because I have some beauties! I got these stripes for the bed for Christmas. I’m loving all the different colours. They will soon be joined with new stripes as I knit my “Dream Blanket” to go over the end of the bed – but that’s a subject for another post.
Menu Plan Monday
Posted: February 7, 2011 Filed under: cooking, Food, menu plan monday 2 CommentsI haven’t done this in AGES and I’d fluffed around about doing it today because I wanted to plan more than dinners. However there is no time like the present so here goes:
Monday – Bacon and Eggs
Tuesday – Sausages and Mash
Wednesday – Beef Rissoles and veggies
Thursday – eat at indooroopilly
Friday – Dh and I are going to Trivia Night at school so we’ll be having pizza from here! – yummy! The boys will get whatever is going at Grandma’s house
Saturday – Lemon and Honey Chicken – new recipe that is from the Weight Watchers Australia site but was submitted by a member.
I was going to plan lunches but I haven’t done and supply teaching yet this week and I know I won’t be tomorrow because a I have a lunch date with my best friend who is down from Cairns. However, I am aiming to work out all the points and have lunches planned so that I can throw things together really quickly if a I get a call and even the night before if I know where I’m going the next day.
Organizing the Mail
Posted: February 7, 2011 Filed under: 52 Weeks of Organizing, finances Leave a comment It isn’t a very exciting are to organize but one that is very necessary – the mail. Previously we had a very random system where dh kept the bills in a range of different places and the rest of the mail was dumped on my desk so that it didn’t get lost (ahem!). I knew that wasn’t working when I was opening Christmas cards in late January! And since I’ve established the new “homework zone” for the boys I wanted to keep my desk area very tidy and ready for action to facilitate “ease of homework”. I had this metal file stand from another failed organizing attempt of years gone by so I’ve put it in the kitchen in what was formerly a common mail dumping ground so that letters, bills and messages for or concerning each member of our family can be easily located. Dh has got on board with this one as he has all the bills in their folder arranged in the order that they need to be paid. It is a shame that there are so many of them but that’s another issue entirely.So I had fun with some coloured folders and my label maker and this was the result.
The Organising Junkie asks a few questions this week (or at the end of last week so I will respond here:
Number ONE reason for getting organized – so life will run more smoothly. We will send less time looking for things and more time doing things!
Something I organized last week – the mail
Any breakthroughs? Yes! The desk has be be tidied up every. single. day or the homework will be hindered!
What Works For Me 