July Meal Plan and Grocery List

I've told a few people about my idea to make a menu plan for a whole year.  I hate planning out my menus, but I've found that it is a necessity.  Otherwise, I head to the grocery store with no idea what to buy and end up getting a bunch of random things that I can't make into (edible) meals.  So, basically, I've been menu planning for the past 8 years and got really sick of it. I hated forgetting where I saw a new recipe, hated making the same old things all the time, and hated frantically sitting down the night before a shopping trip to decide what to eat.

So, when I saw the idea on Pinterest to menu plan for the whole year (with grocery lists and everything) I was sold.  I started working on it late last year and it didn't take long to get pretty much every meal figured out.  I did pretty well with following it and saving grocery lists and all...and then the food adversions and cravings hit when I was about 8 weeks pregnant.  So...I did away with the planned meal plan and just kinda winged it for awhile.  I ended up grocery shopping pretty much every week.  It was easy while Lane was in preschool - I only had to take Katy with me and she was really good.

Then summer hit and I quickly tired of bringing both kids with me all the time.  I tried to go at night when Curtis was home, but I was way too tired.  Then, a few weeks ago was the last straw - both kids cried/screamed the entire way through the grocery store and I vowed that I am never taking them again.  I will only take them to our small-town grocery store where they can push the kids' carts.

So, my plan now is to go to Walmart once a month and stock up on all the non-perishables and pantry staples I need for the whole month.  They are by far the cheapest place to get the basics, even though I don't always like their produce (both prices and quality).  So, my grocery list has two parts - non-perishables for the "big" trip and then a list for each week with produce/dairy/meat.  (This month I ended up buying all my chicken and ground beef at once and prepped everything that first week.  It has worked great and I will probably try to do that all the time!)

I think this idea will work out pretty good once the baby is born...there is no way I'm hauling three kids to grocery shop every week.  So...just because I'm pretty sure I like all of you who read this blog...I'm going to share July's menu and grocery list with you :).  Quite a bit of the recipes are from Taste of Home, others are from blogs (found on Pinterest) and some are from various church cookbooks.  And some are super simple meals that don't need a recipe (pizza!  spaghetti!).  Oh, and double check the recipes against the list to make sure that you have everything you need.  I left out stuff like spices and other staples that I know I always have on hand.

Wow that got really long, but I've had people ask what I do when I say that I meal plan...and so far this is working pretty good.  Now if I can only get disciplined enough to keep up with the grocery lists and put it all in a binder...and not have to do this next year :)

Menu Plan for July
Grocery List for July

Community Days

This past weekend was the annual Community Days...it's a lot more fun now that we live in town!  I don't feel like we have to plan out our weekend so much - if we want to go to something, we can decide at the last minute and we don't feel like we have to stay long!

The weekend started with a BBQ in the downtown park on Friday night.  It was fun to catch up with friends, even though the kids were hot and crabby!  We debated whether we should keep them up late to watch the fireworks that evening.  Lane was super excited about them, so we decided he could stay up.  I found us a good place to watch them down by the lake, but sadly, it was about 10 feet too far for Katy's monitor to reach!  So she got to stay up just because everyone else was.

I was really excited to see my friend Emily and her husband Kevin!  They drove back from KC that night and stopped by our house so they could watch the fireworks too.  They got here a little early (just in time to distract the kids from their crabbiness) so we had some time to catch up.  It was my first time to meet Ayden and he was so cute - and so well-behaved.  Makes me a little more anxious for my own :)

The fireworks were really good!  I was impressed by the show - big and pretty!  Super loud, probably because we were pretty close, but luckily the kids weren't scared.  We heard from some friends in Harvard that they were able to see them from their house!

The next day began with the parade.  I think Lane was hoping for more candy, but it's hard to get a bunch when you're not very aggressive :)

We ended up going home for lunch and to cool off.  It was really hard for me to be out in the heat so much - I'm just not used to it!  I walked around the car show for about 10 minutes before I had to go back inside and take a long nap!

After naps, we headed back to the park so that Lane and Katy could play on the inflatables.  Lane loved the slide and wasn't scared at all, even though he tumbled head over heels a couple of times.  Katy thought the little "maze" was fun, but she was more content to sit in the shade, eat graham crackers, and laugh at Lane.

The kids and Curtis played a round of miniature golf before it was time to head home for supper.  Lane was pretty sure that he beat Daddy because he got his ball in the hole first every time.  We let him think that :)

After supper, we walked across the street for the home run derby.  We thought it would be a lot more popular than it was.  Curtis signed up - and won in his age group!  (Do I need to mention that the only other guy was Brad?  And Brad said he hadn't hit a ball for years?)  Lane even took part and actually hit the ball once!

By that time I was really hot so it was time to go home.  We planned to go to the community church service in the park this morning, but I decided against it when I realized that it would already be 83 degrees by 10:00!  We enjoyed our church's air conditioning instead (and Curtis thought it was cold in church - I wanted to hit him!).

A good weekend - Lane said he had sooo much fun and can't wait until next year.  As long as the kids have fun - that's what it's all about, right?

Canning

I decided to can my first-ever batch of pickles this week.  I'm not a fan of dill, so I searched all over until I found a recipe that I think I might like.  I used the recipe for Sweet Pickle Spears out of the Ball Canning Guide.  Simply sugar, vinegar, turmeric, salt and mustard seed.  Canning was the easy part; the hard part was teaching a little boy to be patient.  He couldn't wait to get his hands on my canning supplies and "can" his own veggies!

He was so excited when I let him use some of my jars.  Even more excited when I let him use the lids, too!

Apparently he watched me pretty closely throughout the whole process - he knew that he had to get the air bubbles out and measure the headspace!

Ready to be canned!  He told me that he was canning cucumbers and watermelon to take over to Kitty O'bey's house because she didn't have any blue supplies - just green ones (which apparently don't work as well?).   He was entertained by everything for well over an hour!

Oh, and my pickles turned out pretty good!  Judging by the amount of blossoms on my cucumbers, I will be canning more in the next couple of weeks!

4th of July Fun

This is the first 4th of July in about 5 years that I actually got to enjoy fireworks - yay for kids that are growing up!  4th of July has always been one of my favorite holidays, but since 2008 when Lane was a baby, I've had to peek at the fireworks out the window or "hide" from them with a scared toddler.

We started with the fireworks show in York Tuesday evening.  I really wish I had remembered my camera - the kids were so cute!  We went swimming beforehand so that they didn't have time to get grumpy.  By the time we headed to York (about 8:45) Katy was pretty sleepy.  She tried to take a little nap on the way, but Lane kept jabbering too much.  Once we got there, they did great!  We met my parents, Bret and Laura, and Craig and Christine and kids and "tailgated" in the parking lot of the fairgrounds.  We all brought lawn chairs and blankets and munched on popcorn, sugar cookies, M&Ms, and Twizzlers (thanks, Laura, for satisfying my Twizzler craving!).  I was a little worried how Katy would react to the fireworks.  I "prepped" her for them all day by saying that they would be loud, but we could cover our ears and just see how pretty they are.  She did great!  We were far enough back that it wasn't loud at all and they really were pretty!  Both kids thought the fireworks were a lot of fun.

Wednesday evening, Craig and Christine invited us to their house for supper and more fireworks.  We weren't sure if we'd stay real long since the kids were beyond tired from the night before...but we ended up staying until just after 10 (the TV has been my friend today!!).

Boys and fireworks...need I say more??

We spent about $10 on "daylight" fireworks for Lane...smoke balls, parachutes, snappers.  He thought everything was so much fun!!  He would get so excited and start talking in his deep voice with all the hand motions.

Craig lit off a "giant" parachute tube...so everyone lined up to catch them.

Turned out to be a handful of parachutes that were all tangled together...and landed on top of the house.

Katy wasn't too sure about all the loud noises and boys running everywhere!  When I asked her if she was having fun, she replied, "Yes.  Toys.  Bret."  She likes being around her uncles!

She was much happier playing with trains and all the toys inside.

By the time we finished our homemade ice cream, it was almost dark out so we decided to stay for the fireworks...

Katy was a little more apprehensive about these fireworks (closer means louder!) but as long as I covered her ears, she was fine.  I'm pretty sure Lane enjoyed them, but by that time he had discovered more toys and was pretty busy with a combine and auger wagons.  But he jumped at the chance to play with the sparklers!

After that we loaded up the kids and hustled them home to bed!  Unfortunately, neither one really slept in this morning.  Looking forward to an early bedtime tonight...and Lane's already talking about next year's fireworks!

Review of My Stubborn Heart

Looking for a book to read this summer while your kids are playing in the pool?  I found that My Stubborn Heart, Becky Wade's first novel, was the perfect summertime read.  From the beginning, I knew where the story was headed and how it would end up; however, I didn't know how the characters would get there.

Kate decided to take a break from regular life in Dallas and travel to the small town of Redbud, Pennsylvania with her grandma.  Gran still owns an old family estate in Redbud and enlisted Kate to help her renovate it.  Of course, the contractor working on the home is Matt Jarreau, famous ex-hockey player and very good-looking.  Through twists and turns, Kate and Matt learn more about each other and their relationships with God.  But can Kate help Matt and his wounded heart without getting hurt in the process?

I loved this book - the characters were funny and charming, and the "old house" setting was a good sub-plot.  It was a little odd that over half of the main characters were over 65 years old, but I didn't find that it affected the tone of the story.  The story was deep enough to keep me interested, but easy enough that I could read it while keeping an eye on my kids.  It was a story of how God's timing is always perfect - something that most of us need to remember - even if we don't understand how He can work it out.

Thank you to Bethany House Publishers for providing me with a copy of this book free of charge.  All opinions are my own and I was not required to give a positive review.

Kids Camp: Dinosaurs

Dinosaur camp looked a little different this past week, but the kids still had lots of fun!  Casey planned to bring Brooks over to my house for everything, but then we found out that some important work was to be done on the farm.  A crane was coming to move a small bin!  Lane couldn't miss that...so we moved dinosaur camp to my mom's house.

First, we read some dino books:

Usborne Discovery Dinosaurs by Rachel Firth

Really Big Dinosaurs & Other Giants and Flying Giants, both by Monica Hughes

Dinosaur Babies by Leonie Bennett

Our craft was making dinosaur fossils!  I stirred up a batch of salt dough, then we pressed toy dinosaurs into the dough to make indentations.  Lane and Brooks had fun coming up with different ideas!  We did the whole dinosaurs at first, but then got more creative and did just the feet or just the tail.

While the craft was baking, Casey fed Keely while the rest of us went outside to see the crane.  (I tried to tie this into dinosaurs by pointing out that some dinos were as tall as the crane, but I'm not sure the kids cared!)

That took up quite a bit of time, but it was pretty exciting for the little ones!  Curtis was mostly excited to have it finished before the sun came out from behind the clouds ;)

Next up was snack time!  Casey made jello "dinosaur eggs" (yum!!) and we ate them with pretzel "dinosaur bones".

By this time the kids just wanted to play, so we put in a dinosaur video (National Geographic's Dinosaurs and other Creature Features) and let them play with the toy dinosaurs.

At home, I made a lunch consisting of cheese sandwiches in the shape of dinosaurs, hard-boiled "dinosaur" eggs, Puffcorn "dino bones", and "prehistoric rocks" (peas and carrots).

We planned on taking all the kids to the Dinosaur Museum in Milford.  I called them a couple of days ahead of time to make sure they would be open...but when we got there at about 3:30 on Saturday...they were closed.  I had one unhappy little boy!!  I quickly remembered that I had heard about a place in Lincoln called "Lost in Fun".  Casey looked it up and luckily it was open.  I think by the time we walked in the door, Lane had forgotten about the dinosaurs!

Brooks is in there somewhere!

Lane had a blast running around to all the exhibits!  Katy was a little more reserved, but she definitely had fun.  I knew she liked it when she abandoned the swings for something else!

Lane was way more adventurous than I thought he would be!  This inflatable slide was actually pretty big, but he went down it with no hesitation!  He also loved the "space pit" filled with foam.  He's asked to go back several times already!

Although dino camp didn't turn out quite like I wanted, the kids still had fun...and we've been talking and playing dinosaurs all week :)