Weekly Menu, July 17

Not only am I a day late, but I am actually a day and a week late. We had family in town last week and I decided since we were going to be following the desires of guests, and eating out a lot it would be better to just wing it. It felt so strange to not have a plan. At first it was a freeing feeling, but by mid-week I was wishing we had a plan. I am very glad to be back on track, even though we started yesterday.
This week is keeping it simple. Ease us back into our routine now that the visitors have left. We are out of our frozen meatball packs, so this week I'll be making 5lbs of meatballs (and hopefully a few jars of reserve sauce for other meals). The pasta is in preparation of our last swim meet of the year.

	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Sunday	bfast casserole	sandwiches Cheetos apple slices	Mac n Cheese fish carrots
Monday	oatmeal	Nutella grahams applesauce chips	steak mashed potatoes mix veggies
Tuesday	pancakes eggs	cheese quesadillas grapes cheez-its	sauted chicken butter pasta broccoli
Wednesday	bisucuits HB eggs	PBJ chips strawberries	burgers baked beans salad
Thursday	bfast quesadilla strawberries	popcorn ham bites apple slices	honey chicken kabobs rice peppers
Friday	biscuits & jam sausage patty	meat & cheese rollups watermelon cheez-its	spaghetti & meatballs veggie mix garlic bread
Saturday	on-the-go oatmeal HB eggs	sandwiches cheesy goldfish watermelon	pizza salad

We only have 3 weeks left of summer break. Yikes! I need to start looking through pinterest for some new lunch and breakfast ideas. The house is also ready for a thorough clean and purge when everyone goes back to school. I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to it, but change is coming and I need to prepare. Have a great week!

Baby Shower Gifts

I don't have too many friends still having babies; I was kind of at the end of the line with all of it. So I was pretty excited when a friend was expecting her first little girl (she has an older son). I was so happy when I found out I was having a little girl after having my son. Boys are awesome, but so are girls and it was nice to have a mix.

I got together with our group of friends and we decided to do "themes" for her. One picked bath time, one picked diaper changing, and I picked the diaper bag. I love bargain shopping and went on the hunt. I was thrilled to find the same diaper bag I use (Columbia) on clearance so I got a great price. Then it came to thinking about what I really liked having in my bag.

I found a travel/restaurant mat for eating finger foods (LOVED that! Very handy.). Of course some baby wipes; I don't know about you but I still carry wipes even though I don't do diapers anymore. It is so handy with messy kiddos. I also found a couple cute toys and pacifiers, but it felt like something was still missing...

I had particularly messy babies. They were both great eaters, but they blurped a lot and I dreaded the thought of not having a burp cloth with me. I carried two with me at all times, you just never know. I also kept a receiving blanket in the bag for ease and comfort during diaper changes in public places.

I didn't have much time left to prepare. Fortunately for me my Mom had all the supplies I needed. Flannel, check. Cloth diapers, check. All I needed to do was cut and sew and I was ready to go.

I made five burp cloths in total, but 2 of them match the reversible blanket I made. I did not pre-wash the fabric; I rarely work with flannel in our heat and didn't realize the two pieces would shrink so differently. I washed them for her before putting them in the bag and discovered my seams didn't line up so well afterwards. Oh well, it's just a back-up to keep in the bag. No worries.

I hope she enjoys the pieces as much as I did. It was a lot of fun putting it all together. Just walking into the baby stores, smelling that smell and seeing all of the adorable baby clothes brought back so many wonderful memories. It was an amazing time that I dearly miss and hold precious.

Now it's back to my amazing preschooler and grade-schooler. They too have their own treasures to share with me. I don't want to miss any of it.

Weekly Menu, July 3

I am going to blame the holiday weekend on my delay to post this. The good news is, I have been following it even though it was complete. I started with Sunday and Monday and now I know what's going on the rest of the week, too. That's good because my son has figured out I do this and he checks the printout I post on the fridge to see what we're eating. Without it, he's been drilling me the last couple of meals.
Now we're back on track. Simple week, but exciting. My sister was able to plan a last-minute trip to visit and will arrive this week. That means I'll be spending a lot of time with family cooking up a storm. That's my favorite kind of cooking. They aren't bored with my experimenting yet.

	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
Sunday	pancakes eggs	sandwiches color goldfish watermelon	crispy chicken mashed potatoes corn
Monday	oatmeal	PB grahams cantaloupe chips	hotdogs & homemade buns salad potato salad
Tuesday	French toast eggs	turkey & cheese sandwich watermelon cheez-its	chicken casserole salad
Wednesday	biscuit & jam sausage patty	picnic lunch: sandwiches goldfish cantaloupe	MAKE AHEAD meatballs egg noodles green beans
Thursday	bfast burritos	chicken salad rollups apple slices chips	Mac n Cheese fish carrots
Friday	cinnamon toast HB eggs	PB sandwich cheese puffs strawberries	Pasta Dinner broccoli garlic bread
Saturday	bfast biscuit sandwiches	sandwiches cheesy goldfish watermelon	Desert Museum Dinner

Last time I did breakfast burritos for our on-the-go breakfast for the swim meet; it was not a huge hit. This time I'm going to try breakfast sandwiches. Hopefully they'll go better. We'll see. Have a great week!