Today I feel refreshed and revitalized. Earlier this week I was ready to throw in the towel, so to speak, as the winter blahs or blues or whatever it was was getting me down. I think alot of it has to do with how much sleep I get, but it's easier to just blame something like weather.
I awoke to the sun shining, and the birds chirping (and we filled the bird feeder to keep them coming) and started the day out beautifully. I had made breakfast last night (steel-cut oats in the slow cooker), so it was ready when we got up. We ate, and I made coffee and then we got in our exercise garb and went down to the high school track in town to meet up with our homeschooling group to run a few laps. The kids in our group are going to do The President's Fitness Challenge this summer, so this was our first attempt. Luke has to run 1/2 mile, so James wanted to as well. I didn't run, but instead walked the track with Isaac in the stroller and Elise walking with me. Getting out and getting exercise without the fear of getting hit by a log truck was exhilarating, especially in the sunshine. Luke said, "feels like an Arizona day", and I had to agree! We had barely got home and some of our friends started showing up for a play date/ladies group.
We had lunch and there was quite a few of us to discuss the topic of meal planning/menu making. I was encouraged to keep on the path I'm on, but I need to set aside a specific day every week for grocery shopping. I've been doing it every 2 weeks, but then the job is gigantic that it requires marathon endurance to accomplish it. And I hate running to town more often than that. My usual town day has always been Friday, but now that Greg has Fridays off, I don't feel like spending it grocery shopping is a good use of our family time. So, I'll keep experimenting until I find a day that works. Maybe I should try in the evening, as some women do, so then the kids could stay with Dad (except that baby does best at home in the evenings, and isn't big enough to leave yet). Or super early in the morning seems to work (then it's kids-in-pj's and pb&j sandwiches for breakfast in the car 'cause otherwise we can't seem to get out the door), so we can get home before noon (when my energy dwindles down to nil). I still don't know how it takes that long! I have recruited the kids to put most of the groceries away, since baby usually needs feeding right when we get home, and that has helped immensely. They are such good helpers.
I feel like our budget is doing well though, even though we now have extra expenses with the food allergies. We are planning on getting a milk goat in the near future (need a fence first), so that will cost more, but will also require staying home more...exciting stuff! We're also experimenting with The Maker's Diet, as listed in my previous post. It is not more expensive nor complicated (unless you go totally organic, which isn't doable for us right now), just takes more thought. (Encourages you to always be preparing 2 meals in advance) for soaking, sprouting, etc. We're just starting small and trying to move towards more whole foods as our goal, and I think we're on our way. I'll let you know how it goes!
To end the day, my husband got home and announced that a coworker may want to buy our camper and was coming over in a few minutes to look at it. Now, we love our camper, but just haven't been able to use it as much as we'd hoped. It just seems like this stage of our life we should rent a cabin if we want to camp. We haven't had that many memorable times, and the last trip was pretty much a write off. And this summer we'll have a 10->12 month old who may or may not be walking, which should be even funner in a campground or camper with very little space. Greg's parents have a bigger trailer now, so we can *hopefully* camp with them when they come this summer, and I'm sure there are other camping-like options out there. And...get this...instead of paying us for it, he wants to give us a few cords of precut firewood. Now, that sounds like a good deal to me. We've been praying for a firewood option, as our former source is gone. (I'm trying not to get too excited in case they decide they don't want it. He took pics and was going to discuss it with his wife.)
Anyhow, it's always refreshing to get both encouragement as well as new ideas to try, and I think today I got a good deal of both (and sunshine).
I awoke to the sun shining, and the birds chirping (and we filled the bird feeder to keep them coming) and started the day out beautifully. I had made breakfast last night (steel-cut oats in the slow cooker), so it was ready when we got up. We ate, and I made coffee and then we got in our exercise garb and went down to the high school track in town to meet up with our homeschooling group to run a few laps. The kids in our group are going to do The President's Fitness Challenge this summer, so this was our first attempt. Luke has to run 1/2 mile, so James wanted to as well. I didn't run, but instead walked the track with Isaac in the stroller and Elise walking with me. Getting out and getting exercise without the fear of getting hit by a log truck was exhilarating, especially in the sunshine. Luke said, "feels like an Arizona day", and I had to agree! We had barely got home and some of our friends started showing up for a play date/ladies group.
We had lunch and there was quite a few of us to discuss the topic of meal planning/menu making. I was encouraged to keep on the path I'm on, but I need to set aside a specific day every week for grocery shopping. I've been doing it every 2 weeks, but then the job is gigantic that it requires marathon endurance to accomplish it. And I hate running to town more often than that. My usual town day has always been Friday, but now that Greg has Fridays off, I don't feel like spending it grocery shopping is a good use of our family time. So, I'll keep experimenting until I find a day that works. Maybe I should try in the evening, as some women do, so then the kids could stay with Dad (except that baby does best at home in the evenings, and isn't big enough to leave yet). Or super early in the morning seems to work (then it's kids-in-pj's and pb&j sandwiches for breakfast in the car 'cause otherwise we can't seem to get out the door), so we can get home before noon (when my energy dwindles down to nil). I still don't know how it takes that long! I have recruited the kids to put most of the groceries away, since baby usually needs feeding right when we get home, and that has helped immensely. They are such good helpers.
I feel like our budget is doing well though, even though we now have extra expenses with the food allergies. We are planning on getting a milk goat in the near future (need a fence first), so that will cost more, but will also require staying home more...exciting stuff! We're also experimenting with The Maker's Diet, as listed in my previous post. It is not more expensive nor complicated (unless you go totally organic, which isn't doable for us right now), just takes more thought. (Encourages you to always be preparing 2 meals in advance) for soaking, sprouting, etc. We're just starting small and trying to move towards more whole foods as our goal, and I think we're on our way. I'll let you know how it goes!
To end the day, my husband got home and announced that a coworker may want to buy our camper and was coming over in a few minutes to look at it. Now, we love our camper, but just haven't been able to use it as much as we'd hoped. It just seems like this stage of our life we should rent a cabin if we want to camp. We haven't had that many memorable times, and the last trip was pretty much a write off. And this summer we'll have a 10->12 month old who may or may not be walking, which should be even funner in a campground or camper with very little space. Greg's parents have a bigger trailer now, so we can *hopefully* camp with them when they come this summer, and I'm sure there are other camping-like options out there. And...get this...instead of paying us for it, he wants to give us a few cords of precut firewood. Now, that sounds like a good deal to me. We've been praying for a firewood option, as our former source is gone. (I'm trying not to get too excited in case they decide they don't want it. He took pics and was going to discuss it with his wife.)
Anyhow, it's always refreshing to get both encouragement as well as new ideas to try, and I think today I got a good deal of both (and sunshine).
