Wow!

Can you believe June is almost over? It has just flown by. We’ve been busier than ever this summer with adventures every weekend. The kids are bigger this year and that is allowing us to do some things we weren’t able to do in years past – like stay out later and travel a little further from home on our day trips.

Sunday afternoon was spent on the lake in Blue Ridge with some very dear friends. I don’t there is much better than spending the afternoon floating around nestled in the mountains and enjoying the company of people you care about.

We had such a nice time!

But today we are back into what is becoming our weekday summertime routine… work, work, work in the daytime and a little fun in the evenings – usually the pool – before we end our days. I’m planning some easy suppers for this week. I did a little cooking ahead this weekend and some prep work to make things easier on me this week.

Here’s what I have planned:

• Monday: Spaghetti
• Tuesday: Grilled Steaks, Hobo Pockets with potato & veggies
• Wednesday: Calzone w/ the leftover Spaghetti sauce
• Thursday: Grilled chicken & veggies
• The holiday weekend will be left to chance – we’ll be spending time with family and friends and I’m sure grilling will be in our future. Beyond that, I’m not so sure what we will do.

Hop on over to orgjunkie.com for more yummy menu planning ideas.

Happy Monday, y’all!

I had to get up “early” this morning (well, early for Summertime standards, anyway) because of a morning conference call – only to find it had been canceled due to technical difficulties. Can’t say I was sad – I’m not a morning person and trying to be professional early in the morning is a bit of a stretch for me. I can pull it off, but I don’t like to.

I’m hoping this week is better than last week was. It was a hectic, hassled, emotional mess.  The girls are feeling better, so that is a good sign. Lots going on with work, but as long as everyone is healthy, that’s easily handled.

We have a lot of leftovers from Sunday’s dinner – had a few no-shows – so we’ll be eating that for lunches this week. I’ve a great pasta salad improvisation to share with you later this week.

I also want to share a terrific dessert recipe – Oreo pie! Oh.my.gosh, it was soooo good last night!

Dinner plans are below – true to summer, I’m keeping it loose and easy with flexible plans so we can adjust as the week rolls on.

• Spaghetti – requested by the girls
• BBQ chicken – using my dry-rub recipe
• Grilled shrimp (if I can find a bargain at the store) with cheese grits & salad
• SuperMan asked for Salmon Croquettes one night, so this may substitute for the shrimp
• I’m also pulling the slow cooker out – for beef tips in onion gravy one night
• We may also do some calzones with the leftover sauce from the spaghetti.
• Friday night Mexican
• Saturday has become grilled burgers & hot dogs as a standard

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

Well, I survived.

barely.

Well, not really. But it felt that way a few times last week.

What a week.

Gracious.

I am soooo glad I don’t travel for a living anymore. I can’t believe I did it for almost 10 years, but that was 10 years ago and I had more stamina then, I guess. I certainly couldn’t do that full-time again. Nor would I want to.

I ended up sick all week with a rotten cold and so on top of the crazy travel, I had sleepless nights (thanks to the stuffy head and wire-you-up decongestants) and lots of snotty tissues (gross, but, hey, it’s reality)

You may have noticed no posts on Thursday/Friday. Those were my marathon travel days – where I really did feel like I was running a gauntlet.  I was in survival mode and had no extra “gumption” for a blog post.

But, I have to say, the week was a smashing success.  Other than one little hiccup on Monday morning, everything went smoothly and I had the most wonderful time with my colleagues. They are a great bunch of people and I truly enjoyed spending time with them while we accomplished the goals we’d set for the week.

Here was my “office” on Monday:

I worked from the hotel room because my meetings for the day were canceled.

These are the sweet ladies I spent my week with:

  We enjoyed an early Cinco de Mayo dinner on Wednesday night…

This week, it’s back to my usual routine. I’m so happy to be home. Only thirteen more days of school for the girls and then things will really slow down.  The girls were talking about it this morning – about how they can’t wait to wake up when they want to as opposed to when the school system wants them to! I think we’ll all enjoy that.

I’ve got a big shopping trip planned today – restocking the kitchen and back to my normal cooking routine.  Here’s what’s on our menu for this week (so far) – I let SuperMan and the girls dictate the menu to me yesterday so it’s mostly their favorites:

• Pizza Braid (and maybe crock pot lasagna, I’m hungry for it)
• Asian Chicken Stir Fry
• Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo (maybe)
• BBQ sandwiches
• Meatloaf (maybe)
• Grilled chicken (on Friday when SuperMan is home to man the grill)

Join us over at orgjunkie.com for some more menu planning ideas.

I’m traveling this week. Out west for business, not pleasure. Well, it will be fun to see all these people I talk with on the phone all the time, but the family is not with me, ergo it’s not a “pleasure” trip.

I’ve planned out the week’s dinners to make it easy for my mom, who has come in to take care of the kids while I’m gone. I’m sure that there will be adjustments and adaptations – and that is her prerogative. Make it easy on yourself, I told her. Do what works for you.

But here is what I’ve planned out for the week – mostly family favorites that I know the girls like and that are easy to prepare (can you say crock pot, people?)

• Beef with/ egg noodles
• Asian chicken stir fry
• chicken with creamy noodles
• Tacos

I hope you have a great week. I have a few posts scheduled just in case I’m too busy to write some real-time posts, but I’m taking my camera so I hope to share some photos from my trip once I get home!

Join us over at orgjunkie.com for more menu ideas.

The kids are out of school today (queue the choirs of angels singing) and that means a slow, easy start to my Monday. Which I absolutely LOVE. I think all Mondays should be this way. I don’t mind working on Monday, but I think easing into the week at about 10AM should be the way to go. You know, kinda sneak up on things.

Little Bit is still battling her bug… guess that means we’ll be back at the pediatrician today sometime. I’m waiting for her to wake up now so that I know how good or bad she is feeling.

This week may prove to be a bit hectic, I am afraid. I am traveling for work next week and my mom (bless her) is coming up to take care of the girls while I am gone. So, in addition to my normal stuff, I’m going to be working on getting everything in order for her so that it is easy and hopefully low stress for her to step into my shoes while I’m gone. I know the girls are going to love having their Ammi here and will not miss me at all – they will be spoiled rotten when I get home, but that is a good thing to make up for having Mommy be away for a week.

The weather is warming up and I’m craving light and easy foods – chicken salad, garden salads, etc.  I think we will be doing a lot of grilling this week, as long as Mother Nature cooperates and doesn’t give us these afternoon showers that the weather people are predicting. I don’t have a lot of confidence in their forecasts, though. Daddy always said the weathermen lie. 😉

We spent the weekend planting a small garden. SuperMan’s “Easter basket” for me. I am so excited and can’t wait to see things start to grow and produce. I’m sure I will be posting pictures here to share with you.

So, enough rambling – here’s the menu:

• Grilled Chicken, roasted broccoli, potatoes
• Homemade pizzas – still haven’t gotten around to making these! I may change things up a bit and make this instead.
• Another batch of Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo (the kids said they didn’t get enough last week)
• Grilled pork chops, saffron rice & veggies – or maybe Slow Cooker Pork Chops. I have some pork chops in the freezer I need to cook.
• “Rotisserie” crock pot chicken
• Chicken salad made with the leftover chicken.

I’m also going to bake up some of my baked oatmeal bars so that I can take some with me on my trip next week (I’ll freeze them before I go) and have them to nibble on while I’m on the plane and/or in the hotel room.

And, I have some bananas on the counter that are begging to be made into some banana bread.

What about you?

It’s Monday. Again.

Funny how those keep popping up.

Every time I think I’m firmly ensconced in the weekend and loving every minute, Monday rears her head and takes over my week again, forcing me into structure, routine and responsibility. Bah.

Monday, you need to take a vacation and let Sunday cover for you for a few weeks. Two Sundays in my week would be really nice.

Last week was crazy busy and this week doesn’t look to be much better. It’s that season of the year for me – end of the school year and end of the fiscal year (at work) = craziness. June is looking awfully sweet to me right now.

The girls helped me to come up with this week’s menu plan. They had very strong opinions about what they wanted me to cook and I figured I’d go with it – heck, if it means they’ll eat what I cook, I’m game!

Monday: Roast & Rice & Gravy

Tuesday: Homemade pizzas

Wednesday: leftovers

Thursday: Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo

Friday: eating out

Weekend: family togetherness with the grandparents.

What about you? Anything special planned with the Easter weekend coming?