Ribbit, ribbit croaaaak

We've all been sick on and off with colds for the past two weeks. After my initial first week of exhaustion like symptoms I bounced back pretty quickly. Only to find myself starting with a cough last Thursday. Others in our house have not fared so well. O has persisted with a runny nose for the entire two weeks and developed a chest cold last week. J and E have bounced back somewhat slower but are pretty much over it by today.

Imagine to my surprise when I went in to work Saturday night to find myself with a squeaky voice. We had had a particularly stressful day with the kids, we showed our house in the a.m. and I defy anyone to clean and keep it clean with three kids under 6 without yelling at least 2

0 times to put the toys back. It wasn't until I got to work though that I lost my voice. I thought this was strange and then I put it down to I had finally given my voice a break from dealing with kids all day (no I did not spend the whole day yelling at them) and when I did, my voice gave up.

So I am on day three with a gravelly voice much to my husband's amusement. I get this weird squeaky little laugh and every time I make a joke it cracks him up even more to the point that I'm getting just a little annoyed until I figured out what he was laughing up. Then I played it up even more. It was cute to hear little J go and tell upstairs Nana that mommy had a frog in her throat. Daddy asked her if she saw the frog to which I had to then open my mouth and let her look. They all got a kick out of that.

Despite the no voice thing, we had a pleasant weekend. We spent an hour or so on Saturday wandering a small forested area by our home while waiting for it to be shown. My children absolutely love being outside and in an "interesting" place like this. It doesn't take long for

E to make herself a home in the roots of a tree and thus began the bunny game which has continued all weekend culminating in her attaching a balloon to her bum for a tail and a headband with floppy ears to her head. Pretty soon all three children had balloons attached to their bums.

Sunday being a nice day we went to a beach nearby. We barely made it to the picnic area, not 30 yards from our car when they absolutely had to eat the snack we brought and this area being already in a sandy area, the kids were content to play there for ages thus allowing K and I to sit for a time drinking the hot tea we had brought. Then we played on the beach and the kids made sandcastles. It's amazing how kids don't care if the sand is wet or if their clothes are going to get dirty or the sand is cold. They just dived in. The sand was relatively dry so it wasn't that messy but I knew there was no way I could sit on the sand with them and not get soaked through. So mommy was the treasure finder, finding all sorts of lovely shells and

seaweed to decorate their lovely castles.

I love days like this. It was just so peaceful. We had no time pressures, no where to be at. When we came home we were greeted to the wonderful scents of a pork roast slow cooking in my crock pot. Yum.

Have I mentioned that I am attempting meal planning? I'm not sure if I have. This is my second week at it and so far I am enjoying having a plan for dinner everyday. The hard part is remembering to look at my menu and make sure I take whatever I need out of the freezer for that day in time for it to thaw before I cook. I downloaded this great form from The Project Girl.

I have determined to use my crock pot as much as possible on those days that I have to

work in the evening. It frees up my time in after school dinner preparations and leaves me with time to help E with her homework. This way I can do minor things and over see supper instead of a full on meal preparation and all the work that it entails after school.

The whole idea behind meal planning is that it is supposed to save you money. I think it does help because it keeps you focused on what it is exactly what you are eating and you're not just buying a large variety of things to cover all the bases when you are flying by the seat of your pants. Last week I did manage to save money but this week I know I won't because we have Turkey dinner to prepare for the family.

It has worked out well so far. I was even able to spend some time playing with the kids

before supper on Friday afternoon because I knew the entire meal was bubbling away in the crockpot. In fact, K had even come home without me hearing him and was getting the plates and all that out while listening to us play over the monitor. So taking a few extra minutes during the day to get supper on while the kids are otherwise distracted has smoothed out the stressful dinner hour somewhat. Not to mention it has given me a chance to try out some new recipes.

I have gotten tired of cooking plain meals because that's the only way the kids will eat them. So many of the easier dishes like casseroles are out of the question. Well, too bad. I'm going to make something and they can just all either eat it or wait until snack time. After a week of this, we found them eating their entire supper last night without a single complaint. Usually it's a I don't like this chicken (everything is chicken to them) but they just ate it all up, knowing that they had to anyways I guess. I said to K that I wondered if that was because we're exposing them to more variety and insisting on that they try it. They all even ate brussel sprouts last night. BRUSSEL SPROUTS. without one single complaint. Call Guiness cause that's gotta be a world record. *L*

E even ate this amazing cheese tortellini pasta in a tomato sauce with ground turkey without one single complaint the night before. We all loved it but I was sure E would complain because she only likes plain tomato sauce and is always worried that I've snuck onions into a dish (cause K and I LOVE onions). But nope. She just sat there and spooned it up and told me it was delicious. I guess after the claim chowder I made earlier in the week, cheesy tortellini was heaven to her in comparison to eating clams. *L* The clam chowder was amazing by the way. E liked the broth part but the chew clam part was just too much. I wonder what she's going to think of the Acorn squash soup we are going to eat tomorrow. I make up for the soup part by making soda biscuits with cheese.

Hmmm I just might have to go back to my Recipe Tuesdays. ;)

Well I had quite a bit to say today... for a frog. ;)