Meal planning

After 6 years of marriage I finally decided to make a meal plan for the week. HA! I know you must think I'm crazy. 8D


1st reason is that growing up we always made what we were in the mood for and there was never a meal plan. 


The other reason which is more of my stumbling block is my perfectionism... See the thought of writing a meal plan and not following it was something I dreaded. Not only would I not be sticking to my plan perfectly but I would also translate that to failure. Neither of which I like. :) 


Anyway I decided I needed to put all that aside and give meal planning a try. So last week I wrote out a meal plan and then bought all the groceries for the week. What a heavenly thing to do! LOL. Really it was great not to have to call my hubby to pick up one item at the store on his way home. 


I also decided to revamp my meal ideas. I wrote out summer meals ideas and winter meal ideas. I plan too in the next couple of days put all my recipes together in one spot and on the same paper! :D


So here is a look at my meal plan this week. 
Saturday: Penne, alfredo with sauted onion and broccoli
Sunday: Steak, fries & corn
Monday: Vegetarian Burritoes
Tuesday: Baked spaghetti with sauted green beans
Wednesday: Spanish rice and Tamales
Thursday: Ho Boes
Friday Minestrone soup
Saturday: Pizza
Sunday: Burgers (not sure with what yet) LOL




I've decided meal planning is amazing and I plan to continue it!! It made my life easier. Try it out if you haven't yet. Happy meal planning everyone!

Technology

So... This is something that I have been thinking about for sometime now. Finally after not being able to sleep with all these thoughts swirling around in my head decided to talk about it.

Don't get me wrong I enjoy technology as much as the next person. I love to be around people and being a stay at home mom makes it hard sometimes to get out. I know if you don't have kids you're probably thinking WHAT you should have all the time in the world, but it's not true. Okay back on topic here.  :D 

A few events in particular got me thinking about this addition to technology this generation has. Yes, I said ADDICTION! It's true and I'm afraid if we don't nip it in the butt our God & family could suffer for it.

The 1st event that happened:   I was walking into the mall with the double stroller. As I was trying to hold the door open and push the stroller in at the same time a guy around late 40's early 50's walked right on in and by passed me. I did a double take, because I thought it was rude he didn't offer to help me. As I looked he was busy texting on his phone.... I thought to myself how many people do I walk on by and not even see they're in need, because we are to worried about checking our email... Or even worse we put our lives and other people's lives in jeopardy to text while driving. This one really pisses me off and if I see you texting and driving I WILL call the police on you. It's down right wrong! Why are we so impatient that we can't pull over or just wait to read the message someone just sent us....

The other event that got me thinking was... We were on a family camping trip with other families too. I know that while we were there we turned off our phones and some did too. But there were quite a few checking FB status and who knows what else. I got to thinking here I am taking time to brake away from life and we can't even do it completely. It made me sad actually.

I have been thinking about this a lot. I was thinking how many of us are so busy reading and commenting on other peoples lives that we are missing out on OUR OWN FAMILY!!! Yikes. I'm not innocent myself. But what happens to our own kids when were spending more time looking at other families kids then taking time with our own? I don't want to spend more time & energy into the computer and technology then I invest into my relationship with God or my family. Shame on me if I do.

My brother is living with us. So I have a continual person watching my own parenting and he's vocal! :D Which I am super happy about that. I love to give advice, so I also like to here others. The fact that he is willing to speak up when he thinks something I'm doing is not right is great! Really it is! We are called to reproof each other in the body of Christ. Were also called to sharpen one another. 

I also think about the fact that God calls us to be silent before him. How can we here him if we're constantly, reading stuff on the computer, emailing, texting, running around, calling people & FB chatting? How can we be quite before the Lord if we're never quite? The answer is we can't. Lets be more dilegent about our time. Let's use our time wisely. Let's first ask God what he wants us to be doing with our time.

Some will probably hate this... Hey, If I was reading someone else writing this I probably would frown. But then again maybe that's just the kind of people who need to read this. I want to be accountable to people. I want to enjoy my maker, my family and my friends, but I must put my time and my energy into the first priorities. There listed in the correct order above. :)

Thanks for listening to my rant! Hope you will come back.  :)

Did you know?

Did you know that apple cider vinegar is an amazing all natural way to treat yourself from many illnesses??

Well I found this out last week. I came down with something and it turned into an awful Sinus infection! I've never had anything like it and it was awful. Head ache, runny nose and sinus pressure in my head, face and teeth. I am still breast feeding and I also never take antibiotics if I don't have too.

So I began my search for a cure. To my pleasant surprise I found that drinking apple cider vinegar can treat a sinus infection. After a week long of awful pressure I started drinking it. I started on Saturday and as of yesterday (Wed) I am sinus infection FREE!! I feel 100% better! :D

So not only can it treat a sinus infection here are some other benefits:

• acne
• allergies
• arthritis
• chronic fatigue syndrome
• diabetes
• flu
• gout
• heartburn
• high cholesterol
• sore throat

I can also tell you that my skin has been looking clearer and brighter. After this week I am a firm believer in this stuff. I will continue to take this on a regular basis. It also has been shown to boost your metabolism that results in weight loss!!

You should not take it straight. Best to mix with water or juice.

Mix 2 TSP of apple cider vinegar with 8oz water. You can also mix 2 TBSP with 8oz water. I prefer just 2TSP. Do this 3 times a day for a sinus infection. If you're taking just to boost your health and to keep allergies at bay probably only need to take it once a day.

Here is a website with more info and there's others out there too.

Link

Marriage

I was thinking today on how important it is to be building my marriage up. That also got me thinking about how I not only have my marriage to my earthly husband, but I am also in a covenant marriage to my God.

What a privilege to be married. With that privilege comes great responsibility too. I desire to have a great marriage with my husband, but I can never forget that my first marriage to God is my most important one. It's also so apparent to me that when my marriage to God is thriving, my marriage to my husband also thrives. Honestly if my first marriage is not going well my second will follow suite.

So my thoughts today were let me begin to shift my focus to asking myself how I can benefit my first marriage and then focus on my second.

What are some ways to improve my marriage...

1) Focused alone time is dire
2) Showing that person how much I love them
3) Choosing to focus on their love for me
4) Learning more about that person and what makes them tick
5) Having fun with that person. Enjoying them.

There it is folks. My thoughts today. What a great blessing it is to be married.

Lunch

So decided to share what he had for lunch yesterday. We had:
organic romaine lettuce
organic garbanzo beans
organic black beans
organic raisins
broccoli
typically organic raw cheddar cheese (but we ran out)

dressing: olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar & salt/spices (we were also out so used ranch) :)

Funny #4

This came to mind as I was flossing me teeth last night. Shortly after we got married Aaron noticed something that I did that drove him crazy. Just one thing though. ;)

I love to keep my teeth clean and look forward to my great report from my dentist every 6 months. :) The thing is I floss everyday as you should, but I have a habit of leaving the floss anywhere and everywhere. LOL. It seems that the dental floss never makes it to the trash can. :/ So Aaron would seem to find my dental floss on the floor...

Anyway I try hard to keep it in 2 spots now. One is on my night stand and the other is the trash can! :D So I'm getting better, but they still seem to fly off onto the floor sometimes.

So floss your teeth everyday and make sure to get that floss in the garbage. :)

Funny #3

So.... I really love sweets. I try to keep them out of my house, because I don't have much will power. But 2 weeks ago I threw a graduation party for my brother and Alice made the BEST cake for the party. Lets just say we had the left over cake in the house for a week...

I'm not a eater in secret I promise!! But I might have been for that week. LOL. I think every time I was in the fridge I grabbed a fork to down some cake. :/ So needless to say I will not be keeping good cake in my house again! :D I found out I gained some weight, so since I still have about 20 pounds to go I will be working my butt off. :) No more cake for this chick.