Meal Planning

I have had the hardest time meal-planning ever since...well, for as long as I've had to! As a college student, it was just so hard to cook well for just myself. Why put the effort into a real meal? After too much cereal, mac and cheese, and grilled cheese sandwiches, my buddies and I found temporary salvation in the world's best dinner club. Woo hoo!! I still miss it, because meal planning is hard. I don't mind thinking up what to eat. I don't mind cooking something to eat. It's the having the right things that gets to me! I just can't stand wandering through a grocery store, trying to pick out the right combination of things to make dinner for a few days. I can't stand writing down a week's worth of ideas and buying a gazillion things. And I just don't have the time to coordinate recipes that have similar ingredients.

Enter: E-Mealz!



I think I like it, people. Lots of different meal plan options. (Low-fat, low-carb, vegetarian, gluten-free, etc.) Super-cheap. Every week, you get a meal plan with a grocery list. All the meals can be prepared in half-an-hour or less! Easy recipes. Tasty. Easy to scratch off ingredients from your grocery list if you nix one or two of the meals (they label all ingredients by meal). The grocery list even comes organized by aisle. With links to coupons. You can even sign up for a Walmart plan, or a Ralphs plan, or other grocery stores, and the recipes will be coordinated with the specials the grocery store is having that week. Holy cow, they've thought of everything! Try it!

But if you try it, remember two things:
1) Sign up for it by coming back here and clicking my banner link in this post! I get some kind of referral bonus. :)
2) Use the coupon code: dave

I think this may be my salvation. Liking it so far!

Cheers

Lately, I've been watching a lot of Cheers. I watched Cheers as a young'n, and then got into it again when Seth was a newborn (Matt and I would watch it way late at night when it was on during Seth's wakeful times :)). Now it's on Netflix. But this time around, something has changed. Sam Malone has just...


reminded me of...

who? Who is it?

When it came to me, I couldn't stop laughing. Hahahaha!!!

Carbon copies. Even down to the hair obsession. :-) Aw.... Mitt and Sam....

Sure it looks like a chokehold.... :-) But aren't they darling?

Ode to Saturday

Almost exactly one year ago (4/10/10) I started to write this blog post. I guess I didn't publish it because I thought people would misunderstand me as a ... murmurer. Oooh. I can see the stone-casting now! "Murmurer! Murmurer!!" Haha! But after the day I had yesterday—Easter Sunday!—I remembered my little song, found it amongst my gazillions of unpublished drafts, and decided I couldn't wait to share it with the world. Here's what I had written last year:

In my church, there's a cute little kid song about Saturday—all about how it's a special day to get ready for Sunday. Remember being in college (I hardly do! That was a decade ago now!) and watching the clock tick away on Sunday night . . . ? The knot of dread in your stomach just getting tighter and tighter . . . .

It's almost Monday.

Oh no, it's getting closer!

Ah, see.... I feel that still. But on a different day. And I've rewritten the Saturday song to pay homage to the most depressing night of my week. :)

Ahem. [cue best singing voice]

Saturday is a terrible day

It's the day I wish weren't almost Sunday....

I go to bed. And I set my alarm. [AHH!!] And I dream about skipping the whole day.

I think about meetings. And meetings.... And meetings.

And I wish I could just have a sleeeeeep day!

Then I fend off the tears and hope to not hear [my alarm, that is]

And really look forward to Monnnn-day!

Like it? :-)

I have to say that I do find it more than a little bit ironic that I consider Monday through Saturday my six days of rest compared to Sunday. Haha! Oh man.... Sundays.... 


So I don't really have to set my alarm anymore (thank goodness!), since we have church at the blessed hour of 1:00. (Yes, we love late church! Yes, it seems to take up the whole day. Yes, we love that. Lazy peaceful morning, go to church, lazy peaceful dinner and the day is done. We dread the years of 9:00 church. With fear and loathing...!) Last year my meetings started at 7:00 am! Boo. This year is much better. But here is how my day went yesterday. On Easter Sunday, mind you. Easter Sunday! I mean, come on people, this is a family day!

9:00 am—Seth wakes up and comes into our room. "Mom! Dad! You've got to see this! Something amazing!" Haha! Love it.

We go out and enjoy Easter baskets and such. Make some breakfast. Fun times, fun times.

Then, I was off!

10:45 am—Leave for church. Strategizing with Matt about Maren's feeding schedule....
11:00 am—Meeting. On Easter Sunday? Yes.
12:05 pm—Meeting ends. I rush over to the chapel to practice with the choir who were in desperate need of a pianist today. Thank my lucky stars that they managed to find an organist for sacrament meeting, or that would have been me! Oh man. That would have been crazy.
12:40—Texting Matt, realizing I'm not getting any spare time to get home before church like I had hoped.
12:45—Choir practice ends. People beg me to play prelude on the organ since the organist isn't there yet. "My baby is on her way starving and needs to be nursed, I'm so sorry!" I incite panic attacks in old ladies. I feel very bad about this.
12:50—Family shows up. I nurse Maren, glad that Matt got there early enough that I could be sure to have myself put back together before I have to run up and play the piano.
1:00—Church starts. In the next hour or so, I go up to play the piano three or four times. Up, down, up down. Each time, I wonder if I had actually put my clothes back in the right places after nursing Maren. I'm sure lots of you moms can relate! :)
2:00—I realize that I'm going to have to do Sharing Time (two 15-minute lessons) in primary (the kids' two hours of sunday school) at the last minute. Don't have anything prepared.
2:20—Go to primary. One of my counselors (the two ladies who run the primary with me) is home with sick kids. The other has hurt her back and needs to sit. Send the secretary to check on all the classes to make sure we have teachers, and I run the whole meeting by myself. Still not sure what I'll do for Sharing Time.... This goes until 4:00 pm.
4:00 pm—Church is over, and now a million people want to talk with me, addressing various issues in cub scouts and primary, kid issues, etc. I'm always grateful to hear from people. I just feel a little nutso trying to keep track of who all is trying to get my attention, where my stuff is while the missionaries are taking apart the room for a baptism, where Seth is and what Matt's plan is, is everything getting back in the closet and to the library, etc., etc.
4:30 pm—I stay behind for a kid's baptism (sweetest boy ever!) while Matt takes kids home. Coordinating feeding times again.... :-)
5:15 pm—I leave the building! To go have Easter Dinner with my family! Who I've really gotten to enjoy today. [Sarcasm intended.] I realize my wicked headache and body aches are partially because I never had time to get a drink all day and I'm disastrously dehydrated! Also, starting to get sick!

Oh, Saturday! I love my song for you. :-)

And, oh Monday! Monday, Monday!!! "Rainy days and Mondays...." The BEST!!! :-D

I feel another song rewrite coming on.... ;-)

A Comparison:

Nostalgia: Part Three

Thought I'd round things out with some fun pictures of Matt. I wish I'd known this kid! Sometimes I wonder what kind of friends we'd have been if we'd known each other since we were tiny little kids.... :-)

Seth's Dad. :-) He was probably running around singing The Imperial March incessantly, too. :-)

After being complimented on my eyelashes my whole life, I never imagined I'd get married and be totally upstaged by my husband's. He HATES 'em! Always getting stuck in his eye! :-)

Hahaha! This picture kills me. That little girl! So proud of herself. And Matt, sooooo miserable to be paired with her. Hahahaha!! Have you ever seen a funnier pair? It's so classic Matt. :-)

Whenever I see Matt with Brian—whether they're enjoying or harassing each other :)—I feel like, oh! Seth just has to have a brother someday! Some days lately, Seth and Maren feel like a forever team, just the two of them. Time will tell....
But I love this picture.

Hands down, my favorite, favorite picture of Matt EVER. He still has those eye crinkles when he smiles—I've always loved them. Such a twinkle when he's delighted! When I see this photo, I think, ah.... Maybe we don't change that much. I never knew this little boy, but this photo is 100% my Matthew. Love it.
Love him.... :-)

Nostalgia: Part Two

And do you think my mom looks at pictures like these and feels a pang of sorrow for a little girl all grown up...? These scenes could almost be from another universe to me—like Seth's and Maren's kid pictures will be to them someday—but I bet to my parents, it feels like just a blink away. Just a blink, and then it was gone! 

I remember thinking about Seth when he was two or three that, wow, he's such a complete person to us. We know him inside and out. He's whole and amazing and full. But this...this is a him he'll never know! Strange, isn't it...? The other day he couldn't remember something I thought we had just barely done together (it had actually been a year ago...) and it was this little stab to my heart. Ouch! Luckily, as Matt always says, yes, he keeps growing, but he keeps getting more and more great. 

Maybe my parents think the same about me.... ;-)

(And, yes, in case you were wondering.... Maren does indeed look exactly like me! It's weird! But fun, I guess. Especially for my parents who, yes, do miss their little girl, but suddenly have her anew. She does have different eyebrows! Proof she's not actually my clone....)

Nostalgia

Do you ever feel nostalgic for something before it's even past...? The second I saw this photo, I knew it would make me insanely sad-happy one day.

Oh, man! Someday I'll look at that, and that little boy will be gone! All gone! He'll be having kids of his own, working some grown-up job, and will hardly remember that he was ever this little bundle of cuteness. But right now, this photo is just sooooo him. You just have to soak it up, every moment.

When I was in the hospital with Maren, I remember sniffing her little head, and holding her close—feeling how that is to hold a newborn and look into those dark newborn eyes. I remembered how I learned with Seth that the newborn phase is gone in mere days. Why hadn't anyone told me? Seth was five days old, and already so different.

I sat there with Maren saying to myself, enjoy this! Enjoy this! Soak up the present.

Sure enough, that's just a memory now. And the cuteness that she is now will be a memory later. Enjoy every moment....

Last week:

Funny Drawing

So Matt and I taught preschool yesterday (always a bonus when Matt can teach with me :)) and had a really funny moment—a moment when we realized, again, that our kid is just plain hilarious. (Well, to us, at least! ;-)) The topic I picked for my rotation this time around is: my mouth. My three lesson days are the sub-themes: teeth and dental hygiene, nutrition, and communication. Yesterday we started with teeth. We busted out big ol' butcher paper and traced the kids with the thought that they'll decorate these drawings throughout the lessons. Step one, yesterday: draw your face on there, and don't forget your mouth and teeth!

Here were the first drawings we saw:

Then we look over at Seth as he pops his marker cap back on and proudly exclaims: "There! My face looks ALL done...!"

:-D
Hahaha!

Grumpy Monster

Seth has occasional episodes of extreme grumpiness. Most of the time, he's his normal ol' happy self. Some of the time, he's ridiculously happy. And some of the time, he's a total grump! Part of the problem is that he's an INTP, like Matt, and honest-to-goodness cannot relate one bit to the concept of an "authority figure." We are peers, through and through. It's hilarious! Also...it will never change.... (I know this because I know Matt. Haha! :)) We just hope to be able to appeal to his sense of reason often enough to teach him something. "Because I said so" is never, ever, not EVER going to work. Not even with punishment—he'll just take it in stride. Just ask Matt's parents. ;-)

So here's an example of a grumpface conversation with Seth:

Seth: Can I watch a Wonder Pets, please?
Us: No, sorry, no TV right now.
Seth: WHY?!!
Us: Because we don't want to watch a lot of TV.
Seth: IF YOU DON'T LET ME WATCH WONDER PETS, THEN YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE CONSEQUENCES. SO I SUGGEST YOU LET ME WATCH IT! RIGHT! NOW! [Hahaha!]
Us: Seth, see? Wonder Pets is making you talk meanly. It's ok to be disappointed. It's not ok to be mean. You need to calm down and talk nicely.
Seth: I am very MAD at you! If YOU don't let me watch Wonder Pets, then you can NEVER watch ANY tv. AT. ALL.

At which point, I can't often resist saying something like, "oh, ok. Who is going to stop me?!" (Haha! Ok, not that bad.) It will mean nothing to him, but I sometimes say things like, "hey, I'm the mom, and you're the little boy...." Pointless. :-)

Anyway, Seth does relate to our reasoning—sometimes it helps him learn things, but sometimes he just turns it right back on us. It's hilarious. He really, truly, honestly thinks we're all on level ground together. Not because he's at all insubordinate; just because it's his innate view. (He really is a little Matt. I love it.... :))

This whole story is just to be able to show a couple of pictures that have been cracking me up all day! I was with some ladies the other day who were all talking about kid challenges, and one of them mentioned taking her 6-year-old to therapy to confront some anger issues. The therapist made the girl name her "Angry Monster." There was a chart on the wall at home. Every time she was asked to do something, a point went to her, or it went to her Angry Monster, depending on her response. He challenged her to not let her Angry Monster beat her! She had to win!

I thought that sounded totally brilliant. The mom said her little girl—who had been throwing tantrums her whole life—totally changed in a matter of weeks. She really could see how frequently she was giving over her control to her anger, and that she had the power to beat this. Brilliant...!

We decided to try this with Seth. He named his "Grumpy Monster." It's very creative: Grumpy. Hahaha! (I think it started out "Grumpies," which is kind of cute, but it morphed to "Grumpy.") We've been talking about it a few days, and today I finally made a chart. My initial inclination was to put a picture of Seth versus a creative picture of "a Grumpy Monster," but then I realized that I wanted him to see what we see when he's grumpy. It worked! He was completely taken aback when he saw the picture of Grumpy. All day he's been trying to get me to change it to one of the drawings he brings me of the Grumpy Monster. (Ha! I win!) I catch him staring at the two pictures sometimes, and if I ask him who he wants to be, he's pretty emphatic that he wants to be Seth, not Grumpy. He's been fantastic all night...! Happy as can be. Will it last...? It might be a fluke. I mean, this kid is happy most of the time anyway.... But maybe it has something to do with these two great pictures! And, really, which one would you want to be?! Hahaha!!

Hahahahaha!!! Will it ruin everything if he catches on to me that when I'm totally delighted and laughing, it's over Grumpy's photo? HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

I adore this kid. There are no words.... :-)

Thanks for the tip. :)

Courtesy of Copper Mountain Ski Resort in Colorado. 

Stressed?

Want to know how to reverse it?!

One word: desserts.

No, really. It's the reverse. Don't EVEN try to say it's not because, look! It is! I need more chocolate....

Yayyyy 30!

Anyone who has asked me about it knows that I have been way, super-duper excited to turn 30. I've been looking forward to it for years!

It's just been sort of . . . embarrassing . . . the last few years to . . . admit to my age.


Still in my 20's? You kidding me? 

Would they never end?!!!! ;-)

I remember my friend, Amy, mentioning her sister's observation that: "You know the picture in your mind when you think of yourself as an adult? That's your thirties! They're the best!" I realized this must be true. And somewhere along the line, I also realized I was ready to not be a juvenile 20-something anymore. Ready to move on! Own it, baby! Own it! Woooooo hoooooo!!! Thirty!

(I haven't outgrown my juvenile shouting.... ;-))

In honor of achieving the birthday to which I've looked forward so long, I thought I'd document the mood of all the birthdays I remember. It's a little bit funny to look back and remember a distinct excitement (or not) for each one, and why. And since 30 isn't actually that adult, listing all my birthdays just doesn't take very long....

I'll start with not the first birthday I can remember, but the first when I actually cared about the age I was turning. Eight!

8—Super excitement. I felt old and cool.

9—A little bummed to not be 10, but a little excited to be that much closer.

10—SUPER excitement! I still remember everyone in my class (they were all one or two years older than myself) actually seeming excited for me. "How's it feel to be double-digits?" Oh boy. Like I was on top of the world. (Interesting: just now I was thinking about talking with everyone about my birthday, and remembered standing near class with everyone talking about, whoa, being at war! I looked it up: the war actually did start that week!)

11—Already looking forward to 12.

12—WOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!!

13—I'm a TEENAGER!! YES!!! A teen! I could already see myself being 16 and kissing boys.

14—Eh.

15—Driving permit, baby!! (And, since I was the youngest in my class, I actually did get my permit right after my birthday. Very, very, very cool.)

16—Oh boy. THE. Best. Birthday. EVER. (Even though my super-moral me had sworn off kissing. Hehe. And even though I wasn't the 5'10" blonde I'd always pictured for my 16-year-old self. Hahaha!)

17—It seems impossible, but I'm pretty sure I was even more excited about 17 than I had been about 16. I was graduating from high school this year and going off to college. And maybe something inside knew I'd meet Matt that year.... :)

18—Eh. I liked being a 17-year-old college student better. Plus, I had Mono. (No, not from kissing. ;-))

19—I was excited about that one, but my family might not have believed it. I left a series of messages on their voicemail playing "I Hope They Call Me On A Mission" and other missionary tunes in a minor key with sounds of wailing. Haha! If I were male, I'd have been in the MTC that week, starting a mission. It was my dream.

20—Kristin decorated the London Centre with happy birthday signs! Then she helped me get home when I felt totally sick at the Tower of London. Best of times and worst of times! As far as the number is concerned, I was not all that happy about it. I was studying psychology at the time and was overly amused at being classified as an "adolescent." At 20, I was an adult. That sounded too normal. I wanted to be weird. ;-)

21—WAY excited to turn 21! And I wrote in my journal: "Now I don't have to be too embarrassed that Matt and I are seriously dating." Haha!

22—Now I didn't have to be too embarrassed that I was newly married. (Although, with a little hindsight I realize, whoa! 22 is still SUPER young!)

23—Thought it was very aesthetic.

24—GOLDEN YEAR, baby!!! I had been looking forward to it since I was a child and had first heard of a "golden year." (Your "golden birthday" is when your day of birth and your age are the same number.)

25—Sad to see my golden year end, happy that it had ended so happily with miraculously getting pregnant with Seth. Also happy that 25 sounded more "legit" than the early-20's. My suspicion was confirmed when some ladies at work were hassling me: "Ohhhh.... It's your birthday. What are you, like twenty-three? Twenty-four? Ooooohhh...." I laughed and said, "25." And—no joke!—they all went, "oh, ok! Happy Birthday!" New respect was in their eyes, I could tell. Hahahaha!!

26—Eh. Not aesthetic. Kind of blah.

27—I thought 27 sounded AWESOME. I still do.

28—Eh. I really wished I were turning 30. Or staying 27. But 28 just sounded blah.

29—Even more disappointing than 28! Let me be 30 already!!

And then there was 30, which was the most eagerly-anticipated since...well, since my Golden Birthday. :)

Funnily enough, I was too tired on my 30th birthday to do much of anything. An omen of the decade to come? Hahaha!! Even funnier, I just didn't care that I was too tired. I thought, "woo hoo, 30! Now let me sleep...." And I was totally happy with that.

Time can only tell how I'll feel about 40, but for now I'm still thinking that getting older is good stuff.

Our Sweet Boy

Sometimes I look over at Seth, and his eyes are doing their Seth-thing, and he absolutely takes my breath away. Oh, I love this boy.... :)

One of the unpublished posts. From September.

One of our more intentional goals as parents has been to help our kid not be afraid.

We might be too good at this.

(Hahahahaha!!!)

So, a few weeks ago, Seth was out playing the backyard when all of a sudden, he comes crashing through the bathroom door (I was getting ready for the day) and announces: "Mom!! You've GOT to see! I found a cockroach!!"

And he runs back out.

I go back to my mascara, thinking...great. A stinking cockroach. (And around here, that means the BIG outdoor buggers.... Not those little gross guys in the kitchen. The BIG dudes.)

Five minutes later he bursts through again! "Mom!! I'm building a house for him, mom! It's a GREAT house. It's just for the cockroach!"

So now my son builds cockroach habitats...!

When I got outside, the cockroach was on his back in a pool of water, and Seth was trying to feed it an ant. HAHAHAHAHA!!! Even better, there were a bunch of goldfish crackers strewn around. I guess when the cockroach failed to be interested in cheese crackers, Seth got a little more practical. An ant. Perfect.

"I poured him some water so he could have a drink...." Ohhh. Ok. What a great plan! (I'm thinking of the legs-up result. Most excellent!) Then Seth tells me something about how the cockroach was soooo happy to have a great house and food and water that he did a little dance and flipped onto his back and wiggled his legs. "Like this, Mom...."

HAHAHAHAHA!!!!

[The next day, the water had evaporated and there were still a few dead ants laying next to the dead cockroach, laying next to the cockroach house Seth built from sticks, with goldfish crackers all around. What a funny cockroach grave.... Seth said, so matter-of-factly: "Welllllll. I think he must be dead." Not a little dance after all....]

Random Thoughts. Shelved.

I have so many posts I wrote while pregnant that I never published. Too much thought-dumping, I guess....

Now you know.

But now, here are some pictures. ;-)

Seth and cousin Kenny! Don't you think they look like they're singing a bar song right here? Haha! Cute boys. :)

Handsome boy #1....

Handsome boy #2.
And...3.... ;-)
You never know what might happen when you conk out at Christmas.

Some More Pictures

The sad thing is, you delay publishing a post for a few weeks and the pictures already look like an era gone by.... My goodness! The newborn phase passes in such a hurry.

This is where Seth decides it would be great fun to burp her. I just kept taking pictures, perhaps a little too confident he wouldn't just drop her. Haha! She dealt with the abuse like a champ. ;-)