Ramblings of a Stay-at-Home Mom

So I kind of fell off that wagon last week with following my menu plan. A lot of it was poor planing on my part and not making sure that stuff was ready when I needed it to be. Other part of it was just me being lazy and opting for quicker to make meals. Sigh. I'm going to be trying harder to stay on track this week, and hopefully get these meals made. What I'm making this week for supper: Brown Sugar Meatloaf Slow Cooker Chicken & Corn Chowder Slow Cooker Cowboy Supper Chicken Penne Casserole

Reading more books with Violet. She's getting better with her reading and she loves to practice either reading to me or Zach. Playing Super Mario on the SNES Mini. The girls love watching me play and they try their hand at Donkey Kong and Super Mario as well. Watching nothing lately. It seems like I just don't have the time to sit down and devote to a show when I've got a lot to do right now.  Trying to go for walks with Ruby a couple times a week. Now that it's nicer out (crossing fingers) we've been able to utilize the walking paths and parks to get her energy out. Cooking a little less lately. Due to Keith's work schedule, our leftovers are lasting a bit longer, therefore resulting in me not cooking every day. Loving that I'm almost done with nursing Zach. I'm weaning him from his night nursing this weekend (wish me luck!) and then we'll be done.  Hating that I'll be done nursing. Zach's my last baby, so it's bee...

Ever since I had Violet, I've been making homemade baby food as it's cheaper than buying the jars/pouches and I know what I'm putting in there. I have some tried and true purees that I've used on every kid, and they have all loved them. With Zach, I've tried a couple new flavours with him and he seems to love them. All I use to make the purees is a steamer, Magic Bullet, a couple ice cube trays, and freezer bags. I usually steam the fruit/veg, puree everything in the Magic Bullet, freeze the puree in ice cube trays for nice portioning, and once it's all frozen, I put them into freezer bags, labelled and dated. Most frozen purees are good for 6 months, but it doesn't take long to go through a batch, especially the way Zach eats. Some of my favourite purees: Banana & Avocado Sweet Potato Broccoli, Cauliflower & Carrots Mango, Avocado & Blueberry Sweet Potato, Banana & Blueberry Broccoli, Green Beans...

Rest/Quiet Time is an essential part of our home. Especially with young children, it gives them a specific time to wind down and just chill. It also gives me time to relax and possibly get some stuff done that's a bit harder to do with the kids awake (like Bible Devotions/journaling). Quiet Time around here is pretty much the same every day, even with days that Violet is home from school. We usually have lunch around 11:30/12, and then the kids get some time to clean-up their toys while I clean up the kitchen. Around 12:30/1, I put Zach down for his nap first and then put Dominique in her room. She's almost to the age that she doesn't really require a nap, but there are days that I know she needs one. On the days that she doesn't want to nap, she has the option to play quietly in her room, but there is no TV/screens for her in there. If Violet is home (day off from school, weekends), she has her quiet time in the living room. She has the option to play her v...

One of the things that I like in my kitchen is the big empty wall and a smaller empty wall that are in there. In order to brighten up the kitchen a bit, I've started using the smaller empty wall as a placeholder for all the kids' artwork. Violet brings home quite a bit of art work from school never mind that crafts/art work that Dominique brings home from Pre-School and anything that they do here at home. One of the rules that I have for the art wall (as it's called in our house), is that I'm not putting up “crappy” art. Needless scribbles, especially from Violet, need not apply. I'll take some scribbles from Dominique, but their best art gets displayed there. I also have Violet's Green Slips from school (they reward really good behavior and showing Good Character with Green Slips), as a reminder to her that she's doing really good in school. I switch out the art every couple months, or when it starts getting really full. And the girls' l...

Wow. I haven't done one of these for a while. I should probably get back on the bandwagon and start listing things I want to get done in the week, and maybe I can start organizing my life again. It's amazing that when I stop making my lists for the day/week, it feels (and looks) like I've done nothing all day/week. I get completely disorganized, my house looks like a tornado went off, and I'm just an emotional mess. My head is reeling with everything that I need to get done, and then I try to start doing everything all at once. And then I feel overwhelmed and just shut down. And I really hate that feeling. So I'm going to start trying harder to make sure that I've got my lists ready for the week. Which includes posting my Intentions here and have something that will keep me accountable. This Week's Intentions: - Clear off all flat surfaces in the kitchen and keep them cleaned off. - Clean the bathroom top to bottom. - Work on my devotions 2-3 tim...

Easter egg hunting outside at Papa's place.