Keeping Up With...Food (Meal Plan for July 17 - July 23)

I did great last week with my plan last week to use up everything that we had in the house before it goes bad.  I had to throw away a few things, but nothing really big.  We still have a few cobs of corn left and 2 heads of romaine lettuce so we'll be using them up this week.  We changed our plan for Friday night because I noticed we had a lot of lunchmeat still left to use so I made sandwiches for us to eat while at Zoombeezi Bay & left the chicken frozen.  It worked out great & we will probably do it again in two weeks when we go!

The second half of the week is fairly easy because we're heading out of town to go camping with friends for the weekend.  We don't do a lot of cooking when we camp, we make it as easy as possible on our selves so we can just spend time together as a family having fun.  We'll be having donuts, bars & bagels for breakfast; sandwiches for lunch; and pizza or hot dogs and sausage for dinner.  We'll also pack a lot of snacks, drinks and wine so we'll be ready for a fun weekend!

Here's what we're eating this week:
Monday - Parmesan Tilapia with broccoli and corn on the cob
Tuesday - Taco Tuesday
Wednesday - Deli Meat Salads - to use up the lettuce & the deli meat we have
Thursday - Chicken Thighs with corn on the cob
Friday - Camping
Saturday - Camping
Sunday - picking something up on our way home from camping

Water flavor - Strawberry/Apple - using up the last of some fruit that won't make it more than a day or two

Overnight Oats - I actually have a bunch of these set up from last week that no one ate.  I made too many last week but Adrian also didn't eat them most mornings.  So we'll eat what we have and then just eat bars or something else for breakfast.

Clean it Out Challenge - I'll be using up the rest of the veggies we have (broccoli, corn on the cob & lettuce) this week.  I'm also making banana chocolate chip bread to use up some bananas.

Keeping up with...Family (Weekly Wrap 7/7 - 7/13)

Friday (7/7) Started with us all sleeping in again, we are going to be hurting in 6 weeks when we have to go back to school!  I had to teach two classes at the Garver Y in the morning so we got up and moving and got ready to leave.  We were still up in the air about our afternoon because we planned to be outside but there was 50% chance of thunderstorms.  After class we came out to some pretty dark clouds so we decided to cancel our plans and head home for the day.  We got hit with a pretty bad storm this afternoon so I'm glad we were home and safe.

I had one more class to teach this afternoon so Adrian got home early so I could get to class on time.  When I finally got home we were all really tired and didn't feel like cooking dinner.  So we heated up some chicken strips and I made some nice big salads for dinner.  It was family movie night for us and it was Zak's pick so we watched "Finding Dory."  It was pretty good, better than I was expecting.  AJ wanted to make his own trail mix to watch during the movie so we did that before we started the movie.  We mixed cheddar goldfish, pretzel goldfish, chocolate chips and popcorn.  Zak and AJ both ate and loved that!  Daniel had just plain popcorn since he's not a fan of pretzels.  Nice relaxing family night at home!

Saturday (7/8) started slow and lazy for all of us.  Then I had to get ready to go out for a day full of Zumba.  I subbed a class in the late morning and then headed across town for another Zumba jam.  It's funny that I haven't been to one in close to a year and now I've gone to two in less than two weeks.  I had a great three hours of dancing, laughing and learning with about 15 other instructors.  Again, I loved all four songs that we learned so I'll be bringing lots of new choreo to my classes over the next few weeks.

 

While I was out all day, Adrian and the boys hung out together.  They played a few board games, then went out shopping for more board games.  They went to two different stores and bought a new game that we'll be playing this week.  They also stopped at Dunkin Donuts to buy us breakfast for tomorrow.  When they got home, Adrian grilled amazing steak for us for dinner and we had a relaxing night.  I was exhausted and didn't feel like doing much so we played two board games (Sushi Go Party & Splendor), watch a little TV, ate some snacks and headed to bed.

Sunday (7/9) We all got up and moving and to church this morning.  Second sermon from our new head pastor and once again I really enjoyed it.  I'm really looking forward to where our church is heading under this new leadership.  After church we came home and finished up our weekly to do lists.  We didn't have a lot to do since we just got totally caught up last week so that was nice.  Adrian had some time to play games with the boys and I took some time to practice all of my new Zumba choreo.  We had family dinner of meatball subs and discussed what we would like to do this week.  Then we watched a little TV and headed off to bed.  It's nice to feel ready to face the week and have lots of fun things planned to do this week.

Monday (7/10) We woke up to a pretty rainy day so we decided to skip our planned trip to the park and get a late start to the day.  We had a few errands to run so after lunch at home we headed to the post office and the library.  We got some more new books from the library and also picked up our next round of coupons from the summer reading program.  We also got caught it a horrible downpour on our way in so we were a little wet while we were browsing.

After we finished our errands, we headed to the Y for AJ and Daniel's swim lessons.  Zak and I were lucky enough to get some time in the outside pool, it was just us and a few of our friends, the whole pool for the 6 of us!  While they were in their lessons, AJ conquered a huge fear he has had for years - he finally jumped into the deep end unassisted.  We were all really proud of him!!  After they finished their lessons, they joined Zak and I outside for a few minutes and then we heard the first crack of thunder so we moved to the inside pool.  A bad storm blew in and I was very glad we were already at the Y in time to teach my class.  Since they had so many lifeguards they were able to open the slide so AJ and Daniel did that a few times and then we got dressed into our dry clothes so I could teach my Zumba class.

We got a break in the rain right after class so we could run to the car to get home.  We drove home thru rain and traffic but made it safely.  After a quick dinner, we had family game night playing "Fury of Dracula."  It was a pretty involved game, a little too much for some of us.  But it was also a kind of fun game.  We're going to play again this weekend to try to get the rules down a little better.  After that is was time for snack, show and bedtime.  Thankful we made the most out of a rainy day!

Tuesday (7/11) We woke up again to a forecast of storms today and weren't sure if we should continue with our outdoor plans or change our minds.  We headed to my Silver Sneakers class and figured we'd decide after that.  When we came out, the sky was dark and cloudy so we decided not to do our outdoor plan.  We went home and grabbed lunch then headed to Brain Balance for a follow up assessment for AJ.  He is doing well so we'll keep doing what we're doing at home and then we'll go for another one right before school starts.

Then we headed to Costco because I really needed to restock some of our essentials from there.  It was AJ's first time there and he was overwhelmed, but he loved it!  He thought it was great that he could walk around and get "free" food (samples).  I ended up buying more than I normally would but at least it's all stuff we will eat.  We came home, unloaded all of the food and then had some downtime before we had dinner.  It was a laid back night.  Oh and it never did rain so we could have gone to the park and to the Easton Fountains, sigh.

Wednesday (7/12) We got a late start today because everyone slept in pretty late.  We were going to go see "Iron Giant" at the movie theater but the boys decided they didn't want to do that.  So we hung out at home and decided to watch the movie here tomorrow night.  We had lunch at home and then headed to the Y for AJ and Daniel's swim lessons.  Zak was able to swim with his friends while they were in class.  I did not feel like swimming so I sat today out.  When AJ and Daniel finished lessons they came and joined us outside for a bit.  Then all of the boys decided they wanted to play inside so we went in to swim until it was time to get ready for my Zumba class.  I taught my class then we came home and had dinner.  Adrian went to a BBQ with some of his friends from church so we were on our own tonight, so it was an easy dinner night - frozen stuff for the boys and a big salad for me.  We were really worn out from the pool so we watched some TV and called it a day.

Thursday (7/13) We woke up and got ready to go to my Silver Sneakers class.  It was raining and storms were forecasted for the whole day so we decided to plan something indoors for the day.  After class we headed over to Sunbury to play at a new to us place called "Fun in the Jungle."  We unfortunately hit a horrible rain storm and it took us forever to get there.  But we finally got there and the boys spent 3 hours playing on their play structure and in the arcade.  AJ loved the arcade, especially the Marvel game.  Zak loved the play structure, especially the hanging bags.  Daniel didn't love it, but made the best of it.  I think he is at the in between age, too old for the play structure and too young for the arcade.

 

After three hours of playing, we were ready to head home.  Thankfully the rain had stopped so we drove home without incident.  We did see a lot of flooding on the way home and were very thankful to get home and find a dry street and a dry basement!  We relaxed for a while, had dinner and then had a movie night watching "Iron Giant."  It was a pretty good movie, better than I expected.  AJ and Daniel loved it, Zak got bored and went to play in the play room.  All in all, a nice way to spend a rainy day.

Keeping Up With...Food (Meal Plan for July 10 - July 16)

So I'm not quite sure what happened last week but I didn't stick to my plan at all.  I didn't feel like cooking most nights.  We ended up eating frozen things, moving meals from one day to another and completely changing what we were eating.  I'm thinking it was a combination of the long weekend for the holiday and the fact that it feels like it's the middle of our summer.  We kind of hit a wall all around and were just really unmotivated to do anything.  It's understandable, we've been busy for the past month and have another busy month on tap.  So I'm just calling this last week a lost week and moving on.

This week the whole week has a theme of "clean it out, use it up."  I'm planning meals around vegetables I bought for last week and we didn't use so now they are must eats.  I'm also not grocery shopping at all this week (unless I can sneak in a trip to Costco, we are low on our necessities from there since I haven't gone since the end of May).  We are going to eat what we have and if we don't have what you want, then you need to find something else to eat.  I'm hoping this will clean out a lot of areas in the house including a few half eaten ice cream cakes, 7 open bags of cookies, a fridge full of fruit and veggies and the top of the same fridge filled with chips and snacks.  We'll see how this goes, I'll be sure to report back next week with our results.

Here's what we're eating this week:
Monday - Kale and Potato Soup - I will add sausage to this (I already browned it up) - this will use up kale and potatoes
Tuesday - Chicken & Sweet Potato Buddha Bowls - this will use up some spinach, sweet potatoes & an avocado
Wednesday - Deli Meat Salads - this will use up some lettuce and some deli meat that we opened last weekend for sandwiches
Thursday - Chili Lime Shrimp Fajitas - this will use up peppers that we have
Friday - Shake & Bake Chicken - I bought the chicken but we didn't make this last week.  We're going to Zoombeezi Bay so we'll eat it there.
Saturday - Penne with Vodka Sauce and salads
Sunday - Parmesan Tilapia with whatever veggies we still have leftover (salad, broccoli, potatoes, etc)

I'll be carefully monitoring all of the veggies that I have and if anything looks like it needs to be used up ASAP I will switch the menu around and use it up.  I'll also be using things up for my lunches.  We ended up with a lot of lettuce and spinach so I see a lot of salads in my future!!

Water Flavor - Watermelon - We ended up with 2 huge watermelons, one I bought on sale and one my mother in law gave me.  The one she gave me has seeds so none of the boys will eat it so I'm going to use some of it up in my water this week and eat the rest for snacks.

Overnight Oats - I got a jump on these today and already set up our oats for the week.  We have one serving of Apple Cinnamon left from last week and then I set up Banana Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Peanut Butter and Pumpkin Pie for this week.  This also helped me use up some things that I need to use up - two bananas that were very ripe and some canned pumpkin we opened last week for oats.  We still have more of this so we'll have pumpkin oats again next week for sure.

Keeping up with...Family (Weekly Wrap 6/30 - 7/6 - Part 2)

Monday (7/3) We slept in a little and thankfully Daniel woke up feeling fine.  We did a few things in the morning including finally starting on our basement clean up project (we already got a whole bag of stuff together to get rid of).  We finished up the leftover Jets pizza for lunch then headed out to Westerville Mini Golf for a family round of golf.  We had fun playing, although it was very hot!  When we finished up we headed to the Y for some swimming for the guys and a Zumba class that I was teaching.  Adrian had a great time swimming with the boys, he hasn't seen them in a while and can't believe how much they have improved.

 

After working up an appetite at the Y, we came home and grilled cheeseburgers, hot dogs and sausages.  They were so good!  Adrian is getting really good and cooking on our grill, I'm so glad he got it working again.  When we finished dinner, we decided to skip fireworks tonight and play some board games as a family.  We played Splendor, Quick Cups, War and Slap Jack.  We watched Red, White and Boom (Columbus' fireworks) from the comfort of our couches and called it an early night.

Tuesday (7/4) Happy Fourth of July!!  We were up early to get ready to go march in the Reynoldsburg parade with AJ and Daniel's Cub Scout pack.  We dropped them off at their float and found out they didn't need any more adult help and that Zak could march with them.  So Adrian and I went and got donuts for breakfast and lined up at the starting line to watch the beginning of the parade and wait for our pack.  The boys had a blast marching in the parade!  We saw them pass at the beginning then moved the car to the end and saw them again.  It was a fun morning!!

 

 

 

After the parade, we all came home to cool off and rehydrate because it was hot out!  After lunch and some time inside, we decided to head back out into the heat to go look for some geo-caches in our neighborhood.  We have three here and found two of them.  We think we found the third one but the log just isn't there anymore.  Either that or it is really hidden well!  It was a fun family activity and we're looking forward to finding more over the upcoming months.

Before we knew it, it was time to get ready for parade number 2!  This time we were only watching, not walking.  The boys were upset they didn't get any candy during the first parade so we went to the Pickerington one since it's in the evening.  It was still very hot and we got a spot towards the end so there was very little candy to be had.  But we still made the best of it and had fun watching the parade.

We ran home and had a quick dinner before heading out to Gahanna for the grand finale of the Fourth of July weekend - fireworks at the Gahanna golf course.  This is the first time we have decided to actually go to the place that the fireworks are being set off and watch from there.  We got to the golf course around 9:00 and sat playing video games, listening to music and people watching until the show started around 10:00.  They were amazing!  We had so much fun watching them, the boys were really excited.  It was very easy to get out even though there were a ton of people there.  We will be back for sure!!

Wednesday (7/5) Whew, I think we were all exhausted after all of the fun we've had the past few days!  Everyone slept in past 9am, that never happens!  We planned to go to a park but no one had any motivation to get ready and get out the door.  So we hung around the house, got a few things done, then ran to Giant Eagle for a few groceries before heading to the Y for my Zumba class.  Then we came home, had pasta for dinner, relaxed some more and had an early bedtime.  We'll be back to fun things tomorrow I'm sure!!

Thursday (7/6) We woke up to a rainy day so we had to change our original outside plans.  We got ready and headed to my Silver Sneakers class in the morning.  While we were on our way there, the boys asked to go to McDonald's for lunch, Minions toys and some time in the play area.  Sounded like a good idea to me!  But first, I had a few errands to run after class.  We went to Half Price Books and turned in our June reading logs for 3 new books and 3 new fidget spinners.  Then we ran to Aldi to finish up our grocery shopping for the week.  We ran home to drop off the food and pick up socks for the boys and finally headed to McDonald's.  The boys had a great time playing for over 2 hours in the play area and I enjoyed some quiet time with the free WiFi.

After we got home, we had a relaxing family night at home.  Adrian got home pretty early so we all had tacos for dinner together.  Then we hung out watched TV, played video games and relaxed.  We're having a hard time getting motivated to do much this week, I think it's because we did so much this past weekend for the holiday, and were up late every night for fireworks.  Hoping for some good sleep this weekend!!

Keeping up with...Family (Weekly Wrap 6/30 - 7/6 - Part 1)

Friday (6/30) We woke up to a cloudy day and the boys did not feel like doing much of anything.  We were supposed to head to the Easton splash pads but with a good chance of rain we decided to postpone that trip.  We spent the day relaxing around the house, watching TV, playing video games and doing laundry.  We ran out in the afternoon to use up the rest of our free rentals from Family Video and got 3 video games and a movie.  We got real lazy once Adrian got home and decided not to even cook dinner, just to order Jets pizza.

Adrian and the boys did decide to go out to try to find a local geocache.  They got about 10 minutes away from the house and right where the cache is supposed to be and it started downpouring on them!  They ran most of the way home and showed up in the garage looking like drowned rats.  I thought it was pretty funny, they did not.  After our pizza for dinner, we played a few board games then had family movie night to watch our free movie "Monster Trucks."  It was an OK movie, better than what I was expecting.  The boys all really liked it too.

Saturday (7/1) was a work day for us.  We did a bunch of stuff around the house to get caught up on things that we haven't kept up on the past few weeks.  Plus we have things we do monthly so it was time for all of that.  Adrian and I went into beast mode and got just about everything done so now we can enjoy the rest of the weekend with the boys.  The boys helped us do some of the things around the house and spent the rest of the day playing together or playing video games.  It was a super productive day!

We finished the night with our first fireworks of the weekend.  We went to watch the Pataskala fireworks.  We went to park on the same street that we watched them on last year.  I had told my friend Erin about the spot and as we were deciding where to stop, I saw her and her family so we parked right near them.  They have 3 boys as well so the 6 boys had fun running around, playing with sparklers and then watching the fireworks.  There seemed to be less than last year, but we all enjoyed the show!!  We came home and put the boys to bed and Adrian and I binge watched and caught up on "Younger."  It was really good and we couldn't stop watching!

 

 

 

Sunday (7/2)  We slept in a little then took our time to get ready for the second service of church this morning.  We have a new senior pastor and today was his first sermon so we were really excited to hear him speak.  He did not disappoint!!  I enjoyed his style and felt like I learned a lot from this first sermon.  I'm looking forward to seeing the changes and growth in our church under this new leadership.  If you aren't already connected to a church, we'd love to have you come visit, just let me know!

We got home and had leftover Jets pizza for lunch before Adrian headed out to do some shopping at the local game store.  He got a great deal on two games he has been wanting so it was worth the trip for him.  Then we loaded up and headed to the movie theater to see "Despicable Me 3."  Everyone was super excited to see it!  But that didn't last long.  Zak got bored about halfway thru the movie and he and Adrian ended up leaving the theater.  The rest of us stayed until the end, but AJ and I missed most of the climax due to a bathroom emergency.  Daniel loved the whole movie and the rest of us loved what we saw of it.  We'll rent it and watch it again so we can see the whole thing.

Since we ate three huge tubs of popcorn during the movie, we weren't hungry for dinner.  We picked on some appetizers and then settled in for a quiet night at home.  We played a game called Splendor and tried to watch fireworks from our yard but couldn't really see them that well.  Daniel was complaining he had a stomach ache (probably from all of the popcorn!) so he fell asleep on the couch.  It was a nice relaxing family night at home.

Keeping up with...Family (Weekly Wrap 6/23 - 6/29 - Part 2)

Monday (6/26) I'm loving summer and not having somewhere to go most mornings!  We had a relaxing morning at home watching TV, hanging out and getting ready slowly.  Then we headed out to eye doctor appointment for me and all three boys.  They all went great, the boys have 20/20 vision.  My eye sight got slightly worse and I now need bifocals.  I was not amused - although the print looked amazingly clear with those lens.  After we finished at the eye doctor we ran home for a quick lunch before heading to the Y for AJ and Daniel's swim lessons.

We got to the Y and got AJ and Daniel started in their lessons and Zak swam in the open swim area.  After lessons, AJ and Daniel joined Zak and they swam for about an hour.  No one asked me to swim with them, so I happily sat, watched and played on my phone.  I pulled them out to dry off, get changed and have a snack before I had to get them checked in to childcare so I could teach my Zumba class.  After class, we headed to Jersey Baptist Church for the first night of VBS for the boys.  They are excited for the space theme, I'm excited for some time to myself every night.

I got home after drop off and was shocked to see Adrian already home.  He was supposed to be working late tonight so I was not expecting him.  We had a nice dinner together and then he went to pick up the boys so I could get a few things done at home.  On the way home, they saw a double rainbow.  The boys came running in to get me when they got home so I could see it as well.  It was a really nice end to a pretty awesome day.

Tuesday (6/27) Today was a day of new places for us!  We started out at my Silver Sneakers class in the morning and then hit the road to drive across town to Delaware to check out the dinosaur themed park and splash pads they have.  The boys loved this park!  We spent a few hours playing in the water, having a picnic lunch and running around the play ground.  Lots of different things to do and plenty for all three ages for my boys.  And the weather was perfect for a day outside!

 

 

We were all hungry after running around so I decided to stop by a place I've been wanting to check out, the Cookie Dough Creamery.  It did not disappoint!  You get to pick the cookie dough you want and then add whatever toppings you want.  I had chocolate chip and Oreo cookie doughs with cake batter ice cream topped with Reese's Pieces, hot fudge and peanut butter.  It was delicious!  The boys enjoyed it too, although they didn't love the cookie dough and said they prefer Menchie's.

We made a quick stop at the library to pick up some books and some coupons from the summer reading program before heading home for a quick dinner of meatball subs.  Then I dropped the boys off for night two of VBS and headed to another new to me place, Prost.  It's a local bar that a few friends were meeting at so I decided to go have a beer and chat with them for a bit.  We sat outside on the patio and it was so relaxing!  I should have been grocery shopping but this stop was way better!  I wish I could have stayed longer but I needed to leave to go back to pick up the kids and get them home and to bed.  It was a fun and tiring day of new adventures for all of us!!

Wednesday (6/28) started very lazy for us since we didn't have anything planned.  We slept in, the boys slept until after 8am.  Then we hung out watching TV, playing video games and getting a few things done around the house.  It was a nice respite in a busy week.  We had a big lunch of pasta before heading to the Y for swim lessons for AJ and Daniel and swimming for all of us.  It's working out nice to go swim in the afternoon then get dressed and grab a snack before I teach my afternoon classes on Mondays and Wednesdays.  We'll keep doing it for most of the summer.  Today some of our friends were there so it was nice to the boys to have other kids to play with and me to have other adults to chat with.

After my class at the Y, we headed to night 3 of VBS for the boys.  I dropped them off then ran to Giant Eagle, Aldi & Meijer to do our grocery shopping for the week.  It was really nice not to have them with me while I was shopping.  I got everything done so quick and didn't spend any extra money!  I even got back to the church about 10 minutes before pick up.  After we got home, we had a quick snack and show and then were surprised when Dad got home from work a lot earlier than we thought he would.  He helped do bath and bedtime with the boys before turning in himself after a long week of work. 

Thursday (6/29) I hit the wall for the summer and did not feel like doing anything with the boys today.  So we went to my Silver Sneakers class this morning and then came home and relaxed all afternoon.  We watched TV, played video games and got caught up on a few things around the house.  It was glorious.  Adrian got home and I went to teach my Zumba class this afternoon while he fed the boys and got them ready for the last night of VBS.  We dropped the boys off and then he and I went out for a dinner date night.  We went to a local Mexican place, Nuevo Leon for fajitas and margaritas.  It did not disappoint.  It was really nice to have a night to just relax and chat with Adrian after not seeing him much the past two weeks.  Plus I had so much less clean up to do since I didn't cook dinner.  It was a really relaxing day and I'm hoping the slower day will help rejuvenate me for the weekend!