Monday, May 7, 2012
Good Intentions
We were supposed to have Simple Scrumptious Grilled Chicken for dinner tonight. I was ready for dinner. Marinated the chicken for four hours, made the sauce (which was fantastic) and started the grill. So excited to finally be eating this meal. I placed the chicken strips on the grill and went inside to set the table. Anyone want to venture a guess what happened next? No, well the doorbell rings and I answer looking oh so lovely after my workout but no shower. (I know gross, but it was dinner time.) Went outside to flip the chicken only to find it completely raw! I had run out of propane! I can't believe it. Someone does not want me to make this meal. I couldn't let the sauce go to waste though....I ate most of it by itself. It was heavenly.
Food This Week
Alright, I'm starting to see a trend here. I plan a weeks worth of meals and then only cook two to three of the meals. Why do I do this to myself. Well quite honestly, I love reading recipes. When I read a recipe I can almost taste what the finished product will be. Unfortunately I sometimes let myself down.
Once again last week I only made a couple of recipes. So you will see a few repeats. I also had trouble finding a couple of ingredients so I am still on the hunt for them. Tuesday is my regular grocery day, so I am off to hunt some more tomorrow. I will continue to plan a weeks worth of recipes at a time in hopes of someday achieving my goal.
Monday - Simple Scrumptious Grilled Chicken
Tuesday - Korean-Grilled Beef Skewers
Wednesday - Gnocchi in Vanilla Brown Butter Sauce with Baby Spinach & Toasted Hazelnuts
Thursday - Chicken Piccata
Angel Hair Pasta
Salad
Friday - Date Night!!!
Saturday - Family Date Night
Sunday - Mother's Day at my Mother-in-law's (FONDUE!)
Monday - Moroccan Bean & Pepper Stew
Tuesday - Garlic & Herb Marinated Chicken
Roasted Rosemary Fingerling Potatoes
Salad
Wednesday - Ropa Vieja
Once again last week I only made a couple of recipes. So you will see a few repeats. I also had trouble finding a couple of ingredients so I am still on the hunt for them. Tuesday is my regular grocery day, so I am off to hunt some more tomorrow. I will continue to plan a weeks worth of recipes at a time in hopes of someday achieving my goal.
Monday - Simple Scrumptious Grilled Chicken
Salad
Tuesday - Korean-Grilled Beef Skewers
Wednesday - Gnocchi in Vanilla Brown Butter Sauce with Baby Spinach & Toasted Hazelnuts
Thursday - Chicken Piccata
Angel Hair Pasta
Salad
Friday - Date Night!!!
Saturday - Family Date Night
Sunday - Mother's Day at my Mother-in-law's (FONDUE!)
Monday - Moroccan Bean & Pepper Stew
Tuesday - Garlic & Herb Marinated Chicken
Roasted Rosemary Fingerling Potatoes
Salad
Wednesday - Ropa Vieja
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Holding Court
Last night was crazy! By crazy I mean epic storm, sounded like a freight train was going through our back yard! The storm was amazing and if I had not had little children to care for I probably would have opened the blinds and watched the storm from the family room. There was a fantastic lightning display, tons of rain, a little hail and high winds. The funny thing was we were never issued a watch or warning for severe thunderstorms. These storms were most definitely severe. I could have sworn that one of our windows was going to be blown out. The glass looked like saran wrap, the wind was so strong the glass in the windows was moving. The storms hit about 4 a.m. and due to the freight train we heard in the backyard thought we should check on the boys. Of course our youngest was sound asleep and oblivious to what was going on and the oldest asked if there was going to be a tornado. He is so eager to experience his first tornado - if I haven't said it before I'll say it now, this child amazes me. We told him to go back to sleep and if he had trouble sleeping he should come down to our room and he could sleep on our couch. Needless to say we had an extra child in our room this morning.
We woke up this morning to find all our patio furniture and planters strewn across our lawn (so wish I had thought to take a picture). And the garden we had been attempting to start from seed (an experiment in expanding the oldest's diet) was scattered across the patio. This last little problem was entirely my fault I had forgotten that I put the pods outside and hope they survive their torturous night. As we were surveying the area we saw this:
So glad our brand new playset escaped this fate. Pretty sure if we had, the boys would be able to add a few choice words to their vocabulary.
After retrieving all of our lawn furniture we got ready for church. After our church service was over, as we were leaving the chapel some friends of ours stopped to talk and our oldest began a detailed description of what we woke up to this morning, including the fate of our neighbors playset. He held court with five adults who were so engaged in the story I thought we would never be able to leave. They kept asking questions and he just kept answering them. When we finally said our good-byes he proceeded out of the chapel talking the entire time to no one in particular and anyone who would listen. He had several adults very amused. This is my precocious child:
He is sometimes too smart for his own good and has little to no fear (he's been that way since the day he was born). He is the most curious child (should have named him George). He says the funniest things and makes some of the most amazing observations and apparently is a fantastic story teller. Maybe he'll be a writer when he grows up.
We woke up this morning to find all our patio furniture and planters strewn across our lawn (so wish I had thought to take a picture). And the garden we had been attempting to start from seed (an experiment in expanding the oldest's diet) was scattered across the patio. This last little problem was entirely my fault I had forgotten that I put the pods outside and hope they survive their torturous night. As we were surveying the area we saw this:
 |
After retrieving all of our lawn furniture we got ready for church. After our church service was over, as we were leaving the chapel some friends of ours stopped to talk and our oldest began a detailed description of what we woke up to this morning, including the fate of our neighbors playset. He held court with five adults who were so engaged in the story I thought we would never be able to leave. They kept asking questions and he just kept answering them. When we finally said our good-byes he proceeded out of the chapel talking the entire time to no one in particular and anyone who would listen. He had several adults very amused. This is my precocious child:
He is sometimes too smart for his own good and has little to no fear (he's been that way since the day he was born). He is the most curious child (should have named him George). He says the funniest things and makes some of the most amazing observations and apparently is a fantastic story teller. Maybe he'll be a writer when he grows up.
Friday, May 4, 2012
Filling Time With Five Year Olds
I volunteered to watch a friend's son for a few afternoons while she packs her house to move to a new house across town. He is a good friend of my oldest son and the youngest in his family. It is really interesting to watch 5 year olds interact and amazing how birth order plays a role in things. I have had to get creative with them as it is sweltering outside and it is only the beginning of May. They can only take so much time playing outside in this heat and I am hoping that next week's weather is a little more tolerable. So far they have built Lego planes, crashed cars, played with our various play musical instruments, watched a movie, played outside and created some very lovely bird feeders.
I knew I had to have a craft just in case it rained. It needed to be simple, inexpensive and something somewhat useful. What better craft medium than popsicle (craft) sticks. At first I thought we would just make picture frames, but then a friend pinned a really cute idea on Pinterest. A bird feeder seemed simple enough. I found the tutorial at here. A few minutes into the project, I realized things were going to go horribly wrong if we didn't split it into two days. The glue stick is a great idea, but these two little boys couldn't grasp the concept of using more glue. Weird to me, my problem was always using too much glue. We switched to the green glitter glue I had on hand today and things worked so much better. We started early and the boys and I just finished decorating - uh oh, tears!
Crisis averted. Why is it that when my son falls when I am looking, he laughs, but the minute my eyes aren't on him, because I am looking at the screen and he falls and scrapes his knee, it is the absolute end of the world? I will never understand the mind of a 5 year old boy!
Back to the crafting. A wonderful time was had by all. The boys and I finished decorating a few minutes and here are the finished products.
I knew I had to have a craft just in case it rained. It needed to be simple, inexpensive and something somewhat useful. What better craft medium than popsicle (craft) sticks. At first I thought we would just make picture frames, but then a friend pinned a really cute idea on Pinterest. A bird feeder seemed simple enough. I found the tutorial at here. A few minutes into the project, I realized things were going to go horribly wrong if we didn't split it into two days. The glue stick is a great idea, but these two little boys couldn't grasp the concept of using more glue. Weird to me, my problem was always using too much glue. We switched to the green glitter glue I had on hand today and things worked so much better. We started early and the boys and I just finished decorating - uh oh, tears!
Crisis averted. Why is it that when my son falls when I am looking, he laughs, but the minute my eyes aren't on him, because I am looking at the screen and he falls and scrapes his knee, it is the absolute end of the world? I will never understand the mind of a 5 year old boy!
Back to the crafting. A wonderful time was had by all. The boys and I finished decorating a few minutes and here are the finished products.
I think they look fabulous, but now I have to come up with something to top this for next week. Why do I do this to myself.
Packard Family Vacations
So we are three months into planning our family vacation this year. That's right folks it takes this family months to plan a vacation. This is fast by our families standards we usually begin planning vacation at least six months out, sometimes even as far out as a year. Now I always knew that vacation planning took time, but I was never really an active part of the process until I married Sam.
Let me give you a little background. Sam is a planner, down to the very smallest of details. Had I known that our honeymoon would be planned down to the minute, every detail of every day, it may have been a game changer for me. Okay, well probably not, but it was a shock to say the least when my brand new husband presented our itinerary to me on the plane at 6:00 a.m.
We skipped family vacation last year for various reasons, but mostly because we were building our house and living with my parents. It was too much to handle to plan a vacation, not to mention pull off getting ready for it while not even in my own home where I normally would spread everything out so I can pack everything.
I have come to appreciate the planning of each day, it takes time and a ton of research. Every detail gets talked about until I want to scream. But I must say that my husband does a very good job. He no longer plans every single minute, it is more a general guideline, he plans each day carefully so we are most efficient with our time and gas, but has come to realize that planning down to the minute is not ideal and we never stick with the schedule anyway. He even thinks to plan a rainy day schedule, with mostly indoor activities or driving days.
We only have about three weeks until we leave and while Sam has almost every detailed planned, I am already behind. It takes this mom about a month to get everything organized and ready. When I say everything, I mean everything. I prepare for almost any situation that could occur while traveling. I count out the exact number of diapers, prepare the snack bag, get a kid bag ready for each kid, and prepare "I'm bored" activities for the car and the hotel. Can you see why it takes a month. I have been really busy this past week helping friends and trying to get organized for vacation. Then last night, okay well really early this morning (chronic insomnia) I had a great idea. I would look for a logo bingo game for my oldest. I searched and I searched and guess what I found....NOTHING! So I have started making one for him. Every year since he was two years old he has told us what stores were coming up as soon as he could see their signs, so I thought this might be fun and I have some little prizes for him, when he fills his card. Hoping this will keep him pretty entertained.
I also am putting the finishing touches on a custom coloring book for the boys. I found some fabulous coloring pages at crayola.com about the states we will be driving through and visiting as well as some pictures of families on vacation. Hopefully between the movies, bingo, car games, snacks and coloring we will be able to avoid the dreaded, 'Are we there yet?'.
Let me give you a little background. Sam is a planner, down to the very smallest of details. Had I known that our honeymoon would be planned down to the minute, every detail of every day, it may have been a game changer for me. Okay, well probably not, but it was a shock to say the least when my brand new husband presented our itinerary to me on the plane at 6:00 a.m.
We skipped family vacation last year for various reasons, but mostly because we were building our house and living with my parents. It was too much to handle to plan a vacation, not to mention pull off getting ready for it while not even in my own home where I normally would spread everything out so I can pack everything.
I have come to appreciate the planning of each day, it takes time and a ton of research. Every detail gets talked about until I want to scream. But I must say that my husband does a very good job. He no longer plans every single minute, it is more a general guideline, he plans each day carefully so we are most efficient with our time and gas, but has come to realize that planning down to the minute is not ideal and we never stick with the schedule anyway. He even thinks to plan a rainy day schedule, with mostly indoor activities or driving days.
We only have about three weeks until we leave and while Sam has almost every detailed planned, I am already behind. It takes this mom about a month to get everything organized and ready. When I say everything, I mean everything. I prepare for almost any situation that could occur while traveling. I count out the exact number of diapers, prepare the snack bag, get a kid bag ready for each kid, and prepare "I'm bored" activities for the car and the hotel. Can you see why it takes a month. I have been really busy this past week helping friends and trying to get organized for vacation. Then last night, okay well really early this morning (chronic insomnia) I had a great idea. I would look for a logo bingo game for my oldest. I searched and I searched and guess what I found....NOTHING! So I have started making one for him. Every year since he was two years old he has told us what stores were coming up as soon as he could see their signs, so I thought this might be fun and I have some little prizes for him, when he fills his card. Hoping this will keep him pretty entertained.
I also am putting the finishing touches on a custom coloring book for the boys. I found some fabulous coloring pages at crayola.com about the states we will be driving through and visiting as well as some pictures of families on vacation. Hopefully between the movies, bingo, car games, snacks and coloring we will be able to avoid the dreaded, 'Are we there yet?'.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)