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Well, this week is a little special. Normally, this is a big buy week and next week is pantry week, but because money is really tight for the next 2 weeks, this week and next are both pantry weeks of sorts. I did do minimal grocery shopping. I needed to spend less than $40 for this week and a friend gave me a few great suggestions on facebook. I only purchased a few things and ingredients from each meal will carry over to the next day. There is no new recipe this week. Didn't want to spend the money on a whole new list of ingredients. So, here goes, my menu for this week... Monday- Spaghetti - meatless with whole wheat noodles. First time I'll serve whole wheat so we'll see how it goes. Tuesday- Biscuits and gravy- I'll be making the biscuits and the gravy. I'm using Bisquick mix I already had for the biscuits and making the gravy from scratch. Wed- Grilled Chicken Sandwiches- This will be a somewhat special night. Aaron and I are heading to camp where our youth group is for the night. I'll be fixing the sandwiches ahead of time and taking them with us so we can eat on the way. Nothing special, just marinated grilled chicken breasts. Thurs- Sloppy Joes- A little generic I know, but I got just a plain old can of Manwich and a lb of extra lean ground beef. I usually make my own sloppy joes, but I didn't have all the ingredients and didn't want to buy them all. Friday- Mini pizza's- We'll be using the left over buns from sloppy joes, the pizza sauce from the spaghetti, and some of the sausage I'll reserve from the biscuits and gravy as topping. No one ever complains about pizza in our house. We eat it in every form. Saturday- grilled cheese- nothing fancy. Sun- pancakes- easy and cheap. Weekend Recap We had a great weekend! On Saturday we headed downtown for the PBS Kids Day in the Park. Characters from some of Emmy's favorite shows were there along with some cool games and exhibits. We took a picnic lunch and enjoyed the time together! Yesterday, we had a great church service (which you can listen to here). We came home and enjoyed a little bit of rest time and then got brave and decided to move Macie's crib into Emmy's room. She had been sleeping in our room still and we were ready to have our space back! We only have a 2 bedroom, so this was our only option. It took about an hour from them to fall asleep and in that hour Aaron and I were probably in there 10 times laying them back down and shushing them, but all in all I was surprisingly pleased with the first night. They both slept peacefully through the night and so did Aaron and I!
It's almost the weekend! WOOP WOOP! 1. I'll start with the biggest thing that happened this week. (If you don't want to have part of my wilderness story ruined, stop reading now.) We found out Monday night that Aaron has been approved for a new District License and is on his way to being ordained in the Church of the Nazarene. A lot of this is denomination talk, but trust me this is a GREAT thing. A God thing big time! 2. I'm pumped about our plans for tomorrow! We're going downtown for Kids Day in the Park. It's a big event with meet and greets for some of Emmy's most favorite characters from PBS- Elmo, Super Why, Word Girl, Cat in the Hat, Curious George, and a bunch more. I made the mistake of telling Emmy about this on Tuesday and she's been beside herself with excitement ever since! Plus, it's free. Awesome! 3. This week has basically been a week of nothing. We didn't even leave the house until yesterday afternoon. Last week was very busy, so it was nice to have a week to just hang with my girls. I'm hoping we can make it to the pool sometime this weekend! Although, it was wierd not having youth group last night. Most of our kids were on vacation, so I haven't really seen them in like a week! Can't wait to catch up with them this Sunday! 4. My running has been going well. When I'm doing it, I hate it. When I'm not doing it, I want to. I finshed up week 1 of Couch 2 5k, but I think I may do another week in week 1, or at least another day or 2. Although, I found a motivation dress on Pinterest! I love it, even though I'd have no where to wear it! Pinned here. 5. Change is happening. I'm not one of those people who is resistent to change. Infact, majority of the time, I embrace it. There's so much happening right now and I'm excited about it. Once the ball starts rolling on some of it, I'll include it in some posts. Right now though you'll just have to take my word for it!
Have a great weekend! I was standing in the kitchen this morning discussing with Emmy why she couldn't have another bagel when I noticed that Macie's sippy cup had fallen of the high chair and leaked all over the floor. Emmy immediately noticed it as well and in lightning speed grabbed one of our kitchen towels and took off for the spill. Thankfully I was able to grab some paper towels and intersect her before she got to the spill. I told her that I needed to use a paper towel to clean it up. She immediately started yelling "I WANT TO DO IT!!!". When I didn't let her do it, she melted into a pile of tears and ran out of the kitchen. What I saw that she didn't see though was that part of the spill had run under one of the legs of the table, and the only way to completely clean up the spill was to move the whole table. And if she had used the dish towel, she would have carried a sloppy drippy towel around the kitchen just furthering the mess. How often do we do that to God? We see a problem (or percieved problem) and run to fix it yelling I WANT TO DO IT! Maybe in our spiritual immaturity or in our desire to "fix it" we overlook an even larger problem. Maybe we don't realize that trying to fix it would only create more of a problem. Let's ask God today to show us how he would have us handle that problem(s) and ask for discernment whether or not it's even our problem to fix. Or, even better yet, lets be patient enough to sit back and let God work first. On another note, Emmy's been crazy the last few days. Bedtime was an almost 2 hr tantrum. We haven't been away from the house this week, so I think it's time we take a field trip!
Well, I'm thinkin' Wednesday will be my least favorite of all the days I post. I've committed to making this blog real and true to life. And for me, that includes trying to lose weight. At this point I don't have big secrets or tips to share. I did Weight Watchers for a while and I was struggling more than I was having success. There are a few blogs that I follow who's writers have lost significant amounts of weight (You can see those here and here) and they give a lot of good advice. Plus, I have a few friends who've lost significant amounts of weight and they all seem to be invaluable resources. So here's the skinny, I've got about 130lbs to lose to get me to the top of my "healthy" weight range. I've already lost about 20 lbs from my highest non pregnancy weight. Although, honestly I didn't have to work hard for that to come off. It came off pretty quickly not long after Macie was born and I was nursing and got gingivostomatitis and I couldn't really eat or drink anything. I lived on coke and milkshakes for almost a week. Since then I've been couting calories (1800 a day) and I've started the Couch to 5k running program. BUT, I've lost zero weight. Infact I weighed myself in perperation for today's post and nothing. There was zero movement on the scale. So, I think maybe I need to decrease my calories a little bit. I'm thinking maybe 1600. The recommended daily amount of calories for me is actually 1500, but I wasn't qute ready for that just yet, but it may work out that's what I have to do. What is perfectly clear that is that I'm not doing something right. I've been couting calories for 2 weeks now and I've only had maybe 3 days where I've exceded my calories. So, something isn't working. I don't think I'll be posting my actual weight online. Not yet at least. Not quite ready for that, but I am going to be brave and post a before picture. This was taken this morning. So it's recent. So, here goes Weigh In Wednesdays. Hopefully, next week I'll have better news to report!
This is my wilderness story. I'm sure at some point in my life I will have another. Or a few more. Some parts of this story are not mine to tell and it's a brief overview as not all the details need to be shared... I'll be telling this story in parts because it's really long. So, here is part 1.
In August of 2008 it seemed as if Aaron and I had the world on a string. We were enjoying our first year of marriage, both working good jobs, and we had a small house that we were renting near Aaron's family. We were helping with the teens at Aaron's home church but praying avidly that God would open a door for us to be able to take our own youth group somewhere. Up to that point, we had interviewed with 5, maybe 6, Churches. Aaron finally made contact with a Church in North Dakota and they asked us to come interview. We anxiously agreed and packed our bags. We flew out there for the weekend and loved it. Aaron got the stomach flu while we were out there, but dispite that, the Church board decided that they thought we were a good fit. And we agreed. In late Sept, we were still waiting to make the transition when I found out I was pregnant with Emmy, our oldest daughter. We spoke with the church and they shared in our excitement. I had stopped working 3 weeks before our actual move date because I knew I would need time to pack. What I didn't know is that I would spend the greater part of those 3 weeks on the couch or in bed throwing up every hour or so. My Dr. finally put a name to it- Severe Hyperemesis. Essentially it's severe morning sickness all day long. I was on 4 medicines around the clock and when that didn't help I would just take a sleeping pill and sleep the day away. Eventually, in mid October, the house got packed and we loaded up our Uhaul and made the 18 hr treck to ND. We settled in and Aaron assumed his responsibilities. Days went by that I don't even remember. I laid in bed or laid on the floor in the bathroom. I never made any friends. I never even left the house hardly. On the rare occasion I would feel well enough to leave the house I ventured out to see as much as I could in our small (small) town. It was nearing Christmas and I.WAS.MISERABLE. I was homesick, I was physically sick, and I'm sure if things had continued on that way, I would have been mentally and emotionlly sick as well. In 6 weeks, I had been in the emergency room 12 times for IV fluids because I basically stayed in a dehydrated state. I begged God to show me why we were there. I begged God to alleviate the sickness. Silence. On Tuesday, Dec 2nd Aaron came home from his day at the office and told me that there were some accusations made against him and they've asked us to step down but we can stay in the house through the end of the month. I couldn't even form a thought. We had no money. We had no place to go. And we were hundreds and hundreds of miles away from anyone we knew that loved and cared about us. And on top of that, I needed clarity and discernment on the accusations brought againt Aaron. I begged God for something. Anything. My husbands character was being attacked and questioned- defend us. We've got nothing- deliver us. Silence. In the wilderness. Within 2 days, Aaron's brother and family friend had driven up from Indiana to help us load up our Uhaul truck. The only plan we had was to head to my parents vacation home in Ohio. They only used it on the weekends really and they were willing to let us stay there until we could get on our feet. After 3 days of snow, sleet, and ice, we finally made it. We celebrated Christmas with my sister that weekend. And then everyone left. Now we were closer to home, but we still had no plan and no money and we now lived in the county in Ohio with the highest unemployment rate. We'd reached out to a few friends at this point and just asked them to pray for us. For direction, for comfort, for anything. We needed a little light. We were in the dark. I was closing myself off to the last shred of hope I had. Nothing to call our own. No money. No jobs. And I was pregnant. God, this was no way to bring a child into the world. Slowly, that darkness and silence met and somewhere in my soul anger started to bubble. To be continued.... I typically try to have my menu planned out and my grocery shopping done by Sunday night. That way I can start the week prepared and with a plan. I use a print out of a weekly calendar with all of our activities and appointments for the week as well as what we're eating every night. So, I figured a good way to start the week off would be sharing my weekly menu with you! I've been trying to add new meals to our collection of recipes so we have a good variety. I also need to start planning more healthy meals for us or just trying to make what we eat now more healthy by substituting or omitting things. I'll also include a new recipe we're going to try every week.
Normally the week leading up to payday is a "pantry" week. I try to make as many meals as I can with what we already have. I typically try to only spend around $50 on groceries (give or take $10) on these weeks which typically works out to be mostly fresh produce. The next week immediately following payday, I try to spend around $100 on groceries. This normally effects how I menu plan. I don't have a specific method besides this. Most of the time I ask Aaron if there is something specific he wants me to fix and the rest is just whatever comes to mind. I've seen a lot of good ideas on how to add variety, such as writing all your meals on popsicle sticks or on laminated sheets of paper and pulling them out of a jar. If I ever find time to do that and the space to keep a jar like that I might do it, but right now, I'll use my non method. So, this week is a pantry week. Most pantry weeks include pasta and chicken. They are things I normally have on hand so they make an apperance a few times during pantry week. I'll add a disclaimer before I post my menu for this week. On most Wednesday, we meet Aaron for youth group at 7. He normally leaves straight from his secular job and comes straight to youth group. This leaves me and the girls alone for dinner. Our local Chick Fil A has kids night on Wed, so Emmy can eat for free. Normally I do this with the girls. It's kind of like our date night. :-) Not bad when 3 of us can eat for $8! Although, this week, most of the teens are on vacation so we aren't having youth group, so I have a meal planned. Menu for 6/4- 6/10 Monday- Chicken Fajitas Tuesday- BLT's (We actually eat BL's because nobody in our house like tomatoes) Wednesday- Stuffed Peppers with ground turkey Thursday- Chicken taco's Friday- Homemade pizza Saturday- Mexican Macaroni and Cheese. This is our new recipe this week. I'll try and "healthify" it a little more by add a few more veggies, using light cheese and skim milk, and using whole wheat pasta. Sunday- BBQ country beef ribs (I usually don't make a tight plan for lunch or I cook something in the slowcooker during church on Sunday) If you have recipes to share, please send them or post them in the comments. If you want recipes for any of the things I list in the menu, let me know and I can post them! I hope you have a blessed Monday! On Friday's I'll be doing what I'm calling "My Favorites Friday". It's a short list of some of the good things that have happened this week or things that I am enjoying. So, here goes! 1. Emmy's 3rd birthday party was on Tuesday! I can't believe she's already 3. We had a great time with a few of her friends. We ate lunch, enjoyed cupcakes and opened gifts. 2. This one I didn't necessarily enjoy, but on Wednesday I started my training for the Color Me Rad 5k run that a friend and I are doing. I don't particularly enjoy running or feeling like I'm dying but I did enjoy the feeling of accomplisment that I felt after I finished the first day of training. Today will be day 2. I'm actually dreading it because I'm not feeling well at all and have been coughing up a lung the last 2 days. 3. Skype date with the best friend this afternoon. YES! We've been friends as long as I can remember. Seriously. I don't remember her not being around. The hard part of growing up... not being in the same place to enjoy typical friend activies. (Our favorites happen to be eating and shopping) 4. I picked up the devotional book Jesus Calling by Sarah Young a few weeks ago. If you have a chance to go through this book, DO IT! It's awesome! 5. Rain! I'm so glad we've finally got rain. It just means my flowers will live to see a few more days. Don't mind the sad looking droopyness of my poor flowers. At least they're alive!
Everyone enjoy your weekend! |
HEY, I'M JESSICA!
Christian. Wife. Mommy. Daughter. Pastor. Friend. Saved.Redeemed. Beloved.
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