This Week

Retreating
I'm so exited to be going on to our church's women's retreat at a beautiful spot in the mountains. It has been a few since I last attended and am looking forward to the break from routine and daily responsibility and looking forward to encouragement through the Word and fellowship. Oh, and I'm looking forward to the delicious food that requires no work from me, too. :)

Homeschooling
We are into our 10th week of the school year and I am losing steam. So this week are doing a review of all of our previous weeks of memory work and the kids will carry on with light to moderate work with their independent work. We are not part of a Classical Conversations group, but we are using their resources and we're all enjoying the content and approach.

Planning
I really need to get it together and make may plan of attack for Christmas shopping and for the items I am hoping to make for gifts, as well. I have a start but I am really in need of nice, but economical ideas for teacher gifts. Any ideas?

Cleaning
Really our whole house is need of a deep clean due to some neglect over recent months, but this week I'm going to focus on giving the bathrooms a good scrubbing.

Purchasing
I'm putting in my first order with Zaycon Foods today to order boneless skinless chicken breasts at $1.49/lb. I'm not sure how often they will come to Colorado, so this time I'm ordering 80 lbs. (2 cases). It is always nice for me to have options in my freezer and with our growing family I'm hoping 80 lbs. is a reasonable amount to stock.

Cooking For My Family
We are in a tight season right now so I am trying to get extra creative in feeding us relatively healthfully with what we have. Anyone else feeling the pinch with rising prices and growing kids?
Monday
B - cinnamon rolls, bananas
L - sandwiches & leftovers
D - pulled pork in the crockpot w/ homemade sauce on buns, green beans, garlic mashed potatoes (I bought a box of these at Costco for $9-10 and they are pretty good, especially considering how easy they are and how short the ingredient list is.)
Tuesday
B - cinnamon bread, yogurt, o.j.
L - quesadillas, leftover chili
D - pulled pork, spaghetti squash, green bean casserole
Wednesday
B - scrambled eggs, toast, o.j.
L - grilled turkey cheese sandwiches, leftover green beans & mashed potatoes, apples
D - ham & white bean soup w/veggies (I cooked the ham bone from a dinner last week so I'm starting with a quart of soup base from the freezer), whole wheat bread, chocolate chip cookies
Thursday
B - oatmeal, raspberries, yogurt
L - homemade mac & cheese (make 1 extra pan), peas
D - homemade pizza (large batch)
Friday
B - granola, apple slices
L - tuna cheese melts,
Weekend options for my husband to fix. There is no budget for him to take it easy and take the kids out to eat, so I want to leave lots of ideas and options for him. I'm so thankful that he is a great dad and that he takes such good care of our kiddos. I seriously have no reservations leaving the kids in his care for a weekend.
- leftovers
- burritos (freezer)
- fish sticks & peas (freezer)
- mac & cheese (fridge or freezer)
- pizza & frozen vegetables
- spaghetti w/sauce & maybe a little pepperoni?
- turkey cheese quesadillas or sandwiches
- breakfast items: scrambled eggs, bacon, cereal, toast, oatmeal, granola

Have a great week!

Life is full of surprises....

...and this is a good one. Surprising, indeed, but it is good. The kids are excited and those we've shared the news with have been excited for us...and maybe if they think we are crazy or aren't thrilled, at least have been kind enough to keep that to themselves. We surely love all the kids God has blessed us with and hey, is being a family of 7 going to be all that much more chaotic than being a family of 6?! God will provide.

I am feeling so much better now at 16 weeks. The first trimester was very difficult, but we all managed to make it through, even though naps were frequent and housekeeping was, well, infrequent. I have the bonus this time of getting to be categorized as Advanced Maternal Age as of next month. Yikes!