It’s the first week (sort of) of school here. The girls go back on Thursday and Open House is tomorrow afternoon. We’re in the Final Launch Countdown mode here in our house this week. Phone calls from the new teachers, phone calls to friends to see who their teachers are, final purchases and preparations. It’s all very exciting.

I’m looking forward to getting us back on a routine and to having my workdays a little less fragmented… but I know I’m going to miss having the girls around at the same time. Things will be busy, for sure, especially when dance classes start.

Fortunately, those don’t start for another week, so we have a little time to get our routine going.  Both girls will be taking Jazz and Ballet and both of them have classes back-to-back, so one girl dances one night and the other later in the week. It’s going to be an interesting schedule, but I think we will manage. I’d rather get it all over with in one night like that than have classes four or five nights a week! At least this way, they each have a few nights without anything and they can use that time for schoolwork and resting.

We had a great weekend – cramming in the last gasp of fun for the summer.  SuperMan had Friday off of work, so I took the day off as well and we went to tour a dairy that is close by. Well, not the dairy per-se, but the bottling facility.  It was about two hours away and we toodled around in the mountains on our way home, eating lunch by a river in the National Forest and stopping to pick up some fresh summer fruit for canning on the way home.

Now, I have to figure out how I’m going to get a half-bushel of peaches put away in the freezer that is already overflowing! But I am looking forward to having them this winter, so I will figure it out somehow. I need to get a new freezer – we used to have an upright freezer but it won’t work anymore – I miss having that extra space for storage.

This week’s menu planning is a little challenging for me. Today is the “last hurrah” at the neighborhood pool, with friends coming to swim with us right up until suppertime. I’m trying to figure out what I can prepare that would be ready when we get home from the pool (and everyone is starving) and I’m leaning towards the leftover spaghetti/lasagna from last week that I have in the fridge. Quick, filling, and get rid of the leftovers. Sounds like a win-win to me.

Then tomorrow the girls have their open house at school, which is from 4-6 and I know we will probably want to eat right after we get home. I’m thinking about some type of Mexican casserole that I can pop in the oven before we leave and have it ready when we get home. Maybe I’ll invent something. I have a Mexican Potato casserole I used to love, but can’t eat anymore because the potatoes have too much sugar for me. Maybe I’ll improvise and substitute something else (tortillas?) for the potatoes. I’ll let you know how it comes out.

Wednesday, I’m leaning towards something BBQ-ish. Not sure yet. And then Thursday is the first day of school, so I want something hearty and filling to give the girls because I know they will be hungry and tired. I’m thinking about making this cheesy chicken pasta recipe (or maybe this one that Big Girl loves).  Friday will probably be an eat-out night – maybe at our favorite Mexican restaurant. SuperMan had their flank steak last week and it was to-die-for. I’m still thinking about the taste I had. It was so good!!

I’m also in the mood to make something with an Asian flair.  I’ve got a good recipe for an Asian Flank Steak that I may dig up and cook. Or, I’ve found a recipe in a Sandra Lee cookbook for a beef & veggie stir fry I may try. It sounds yummy. So, that may be a weekend choice.

SuperMan made my favorite Chicken Lettuce Wraps (a-la PF Chang’s style) last night. That will be my lunch today and  probably tomorrow, too. They are SOOO good. I’m hoping to get the recipe to share with you but he is worse than I am about “a pinch of this and a dash of that” so I’m not sure I can replicate it reliably enough for you to try… I will see what I can do.

Well, that’s it for our eating plans this week.

Hop over to orgjunkie.com for some more great menu ideas!

What a whirlwind weekend.  Friday we spent a good part of the day buying school shoes and finalizing our back-to-school shopping. We’re all done (thank goodness) and I’m now broke (ha!) so I guess that is a good thing that we’re done.

I also spent some time Friday evening organizing my recipe books. If you recall, I bought these adorable cookbooks that I had planned to use for storing my recipes. I finally sat down and sorted and organized and purged and organized and… well, you get the idea.

Now I have three adorable cookbooks on my shelf - 

One for the “regular foods,” one for baked goods and another one that has all my cookie recipes, Christmas/Holiday recipes and candy recipes. I have quite a few cookie recipes because I hosted cookie swaps for about six years at Christmastime and everyone shared their recipes – six years times ten or twelve people per year and you end up with a lot of cookie recipes! (maybe I’ll do a virtual cookie swap this year?!?)

Anyway, back to the weekend –

Saturday we went to a sweet wedding shower for a girl who used to babysit the girls and attends our church. We’re friends with her parents, too, and it was so nice to be able to celebrate her upcoming marriage with them. The girls loved being a part of the festivities – Big Girl took pictures and Little Bit helped to hand out the gifts.

Then we came home because I had a serious migraine headache and needed a little down time. SuperMan was gone all day and Big Girl had a friend over that evening for a sleepover. Between all of that and the huge storm we had that knocked out power for about 3 hours, it was a heck of an afternoon.

Sunday we were at church and had plans to veg at home for the afternoon, but some friends gave us an offer we couldn’t refuse – to spend the afternoon at the lake with them. So, in spite of my lingering migraine, we headed to the mountains for some swim time.

Today has been all about homemaking – and work, of course – I’ve made my weekly loaf of homemade bread, gave the girls homemade chocolate, chocolate chip muffins for breakfast and baked the family’s favorite banana bread for a breakfast treat later this week.  I’ve also whipped up some spaghetti sauce and got my lasagna going in the crock pot for tonight’s supper. (and now I am tired!)

Tomorrow is a dentist appointment for me (I broke a crown last week 😦 That will be fun – not!) so I picked something easy for dinner (and soft) because I have no idea how I’ll feel after my dentist visit. I also have a meeting Tuesday night, so I wanted something I could make quickly that SuperMan and the girls can eat while I’m out.

Here’s what else I have planned for meals for the week:

• Monday: Crock Pot Lasagna with garlic bread & salad (never made it last week)
• Tuesday: Creamy chicken with pasta & veggies
• Wednesday: Mexican casserole (or meat loaf, depending on my mood)
• Thursday: Stir fry chicken
• Friday: Homemade pizzas
• Saturday: Chicken lettuce wraps (SuperMan helps me with this dish)
• Sunday: Grilled chicken & veggies

Join us over at orgjunkie.com and share your menu plans – or pick up some great ideas for your own family dinners!

Wow – do you realize we are halfway to CHRISTMAS!!  Goodness.

It certainly doesn’t FEEL like Christmas outside. As a matter of fact, it feels as far away from Christmas-y weather as you can get. We’re baking (or, rather, steaming) away here in the South.  Temps are in the high 90s and humidity levels are in the ungodly ranges – 60-70%. UGH. 

Even us southern belles who claim to never sweat can’t escape the heat – or the sweating.  I rode bikes with Big Girl yesterday evening and we both thought we were going to die from the heat.  Granted, I was (stupidly) riding in jeans.  But it was hot regardless of how you were dressed.  You know it’s hot when you don’t mind having ice cubes rubbed directly on your skin – it actually felt good!!

We do have rain predicted for this week, but I’m afraid it’s only going to make things muggier, not cooler. We will see. It will depend on how much rain actually falls.  Those quick little afternoon “pop up” showers do little to cool things down. They just make you feel like you are in a steam room.

Ah, well, such is life in the south in July and August. I can’t complain. It is what it is. I have to say, I’d much rather deal with this than months and months of snow and below-freezing temperatures like my friends in the northern lands deal with (Wendy!)

I’m trying to get myself back onto a schedule this week after a week of total fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants-ness.  Staying at Mom’s last week meant cooking on the fly and eating out at our favorite local restaurants… much good food, but very little planning.

This week, I’m hoping to start to get the girls back into a routine, waking earlier (ugh) and eating dinner earlier in preparation for those soon-to-be-here school days.  We have two and a half weeks before school starts, so it’s time.I let the kids help choose the meals for the week this week. They picked some favorites and I filled in the blanks.  I have to go grocery shopping today so the day I cook each meal is not set yet, but here’s the general plan:

• Taco Salads (little bit’s choice)
• Grilled chicken w/ veggies & hobo pocket potatoes (SuperMan’s request)
• Beef tips with egg noodles & mushroom gravy
• Grilled steak (maybe, if it is on sale at the store) (another kid request – figures)
• Crock pot lasagna (big girl’s choice)
• Asian chicken

I’m hungry for grilled shrimp, so I may pick some up at the store and toss them on the grill one night, too.  Big Girl is not much of a shrimp eater, but the rest of us love them.

What about your plans for the week? Hop over to orgjunkie.com for more menu planning ideas.