working outside

Jackson has recently started signing "outside". He signs it a lot too. He loves playing... and working outside. On the windy days, I bundle him up and he plays while I pull weeds. I've been getting a lot of yard work done lately because he wants to be outside so much. He throws a tiny fit when he can't play outside when we go from the car to the house. I'm sure he thinks we are teasing him by taking him outside and not letting him play.

He really likes all the rocks and finding Daddy's tools. He also likes to get into the dog food and give it to Kaeli.

the bike trailer

Here is our bike trailer we got. It's the walmart special. I didn't want to spend too much on it. Nicer ones are definitely nicer, but also a lot more money. But this one works for us just as long as it doesn't break. Yesterday we rode to the library and park. It's a good ride for the both of us - good workout for me and not too long with two fun breaks for Jackson. Today it's raining and even though the trailer has a rain cover, I don't on my bike and I might melt, so no bike riding today. But we are collecting rain water in our buckets!!

Menu Plan Monday

Dan is busy a bunch this week, so dinners will be off a bit. Because of that, my goal was to do a lot of pantry/freezer cooking this week and to have a short grocery list. My reason to have a short grocery list is to one save money and two ride my bike to the store instead of driving. I will tow Jackson in our bike trailer and then have some room to put the groceries too. Mainly we just need a gallon of milk and loaf of bread and a couple other small things. I'm excited to not need many groceries and be able to ride my bike to get groceries! I think on more regular grocery weeks, I'll drive to pick up the main groceries on Monday and then if there is anything else I need later in the week I'll ride my bike. And maybe a good idea would be to plan for one short grocery list a month ...then maybe someday the goal could be two trips a month for groceries in the bike!

But here is my plan for the week:

Monday: leftovers

Tuesday: dinner with friends

Wednesday: frozen store bought lasagna (that I've had for awhile now)

Thursday: Pepperoni pizza or frozen meatloaf...can't decide

Friday: leftovers

Saturday: at a wedding

Sunday: at the in-laws for dinner??

love the weather

Today was gorgeous. And there is just something about hanging laundry (today was diapers) out on the clothes line to dry. It's so peaceful and relaxing. Even when Jackson keeps getting his fingers stuck in the dog door and I have to keep walking over to him to unstick them. Probably most of it is just that I'm outside doing housework, which is much better doing it outside than inside (when it's nice out of course). And then just getting the diapers hung to dry in the bright sun that helps bleach out any stains that have accumulated over winter's use. It's just such a great feeling. I wish we had weather like this all year long ... but then I probably wouldn't cherish little things like this as much.

Happy Earth Day!

For Earth Day I am going to try to keep power usage to a minimum and ride my bike and tow Jackson in our new kids bike trailer! We are usually pretty good at turning off lights and other stuff when not in use, but I'm going to try no to even turn the stuff on to begin with. I'll try to limit water usage even more than usual too. Last week I also started collecting rain water. I will use the rain water to water plants outside when we are between rains (which is pretty often in the summer). Another goal is to start watching weather more and plan on using the outside laundry line. I haven't really used it all winter and I want to start using it, but it will just be a little hassle at first during spring to dry laundry between rain showers. And I'm super excited to start using the bike trailer we just bought! Jackson likes it, we've gone on two short rides around the neighborhood and he talks (mumbo-jumbo-talk) and looks all around. Plus he's pretty cute with his new helmet too. I'll put some pics up soon. (And just to note, we don't have our monitor back yet. But a friend brought us an extra one to borrow today, so I'm able to do everything at home and not have to go use the library's computers! So thankful! However it was kind of nice not having the computer around. It's a nice reminder that I don't need to be on it too much.)

Menu Plan Monday

Here's my plan this week:

Monday: chicken packets from Once a Month Cooking

Tuesday: Salmon and potatoes

Wednesday: Chicken Enchiladas

Thursday: Taco Pasta

Friday: leftovers

Saturday: frozen chili

Sunday: Stir fry following Joy of Cooking

Dinners this past week

This week, the Chicken tetrazzini was excellent! I doubled it and froze the other half too. It was a new recipe and also the Chicken pesto pizza was a new recipe too. The pizza was also very good.

I've pretty much already have next week planned and the grocery list made too! My goal is to have the week planned and grocery list made on or by Sunday night. Then to go grocery shopping on Monday morning (or sometime during the day).

sad monitor

Luckily my mom is here for a little bit longer with her laptop. Our computer monitor got sick and I took it to see about getting repaired today. It might be gone up to three weeks! Ugh! So, I won't be blogging much in the next couple weeks.

my new pedometer

My mom is visiting us this week and we went and both got pedometers.

This is the pedometer we got. It's somewhat fancy.

I also checked out Pedometer Walking at the library last week and have read through it.

It says that you should make 10k steps be your daily goal (or higher if you want more benefits. And yesterday was my first day wearing it and I did 9,712 steps. I was close! I didn't exercise, but I mowed the lawn and yard work, grocery shopped, and chased around a one year old. We got little notebooks to record our steps.

Menu Plan Monday

Here is my weekly dinner plan!!!

Monday: Shrimp Salad and homemade bread (from Artisan bread in 5 mins)

Tuesday: Chicken Tetrazzini (from Once a Month Cooking)

Wednesday: leftovers with salad and bread

Thursday: Meatloaf or hamburgers

Friday: Chicken pesto pizza or chicken wings

Saturday: birthday party and a wedding shower

Sunday: leftovers or find something easy

crazy bed head

The other day Jackson fell asleep in his car seat with his winter hat on (because we are still having freezing weather, ugh!). When he woke up, I took the hat off and this is how he looked.

It didn't stay this way long, but I sure thought it was funny looking.

Playing in his room

Jackson will go in his room and play with his toys. I think it's pretty cute. He has liked it more since after his birthday party too. Before the party, we had little stations of toys around the house, about one in every room. For the party, we cleaned up all the toys around the house and moved them in his room and have kept them in there now too. And he got even more toys added to his room from birthday presents too. He really likes going in there now to play.

Tamale pie, apple crisp & dishes

I made Tamale Pie and Apple Crisp last night for dinner. It looks like it takes me about 24 hours to blog about it too.

My tamale pie did not look like the picture on the box. At all.

The recipe for tamale pie was from the back of the cornmeal box. It was pretty good. I thought it was a little dry, but Dan liked it and said he'd eat it again.

This recipe for apple crisp is from The Joy of Cooking cookbook. It's different than what I'm used to from Betty Crocker's version. The top uses white sugar instead of brown sugar. Still very good. I love apple crisp. It's such an easy desert to make.

This is the part I dislike the most. The dishes after all the cooking is done. And then if I'm not right on top of getting them cleaned, they build up more! Especially since I'm cooking more than I used to. Oh well, after I finish dishes, I always realize that it doesn't take much time to do. Like running, it's starting that is the hard part.

Menu Plan Monday

So, I'm wanting to do this... Menu Plan Monday.


I've been having problems being consistent at our own menu planning, so maybe if I do this it will help. So my goal is to start doing it next monday. We'll see how it goes.

Happy Easter!

I made these tonight for Easter tomorrow. I got the idea/recipe from Kellogg's. They were pretty easy to make. The coconut died green was the easiest, which I expected that to be the hardest. And getting the rice krispies into the muffin pan was the hardest, which I wasn't expecting it to be that hard. But overall they were still pretty easy and quick to make.

We went to an Easter egg hunt today in Powell Butte. Thanks to Amy that told us about it. It was a fun one. Way better than last year's, which was in the middle of a street. Jackson was ready for a nap and it was pretty cold out, so he didn't last too long. He did like finding a couple eggs though.