It has been awhile...

I have been busy.  You know how it goes... the usual things like working, gaining weight, being an assistant troop leader to Princess's Daisy Troop, celebrating Birthdays, planning Birthday parties, over-eating, Holiday stuff, gaining wait, etc. have consumed all my waking hours.

Well I bought a treadmill and today was the first day I used it (it was delivered 6 days ago - don't judged me!  I am slow to start anything new).  I walked for 20 minutes or so this morning - ADG had to practically push me out of bed, there was more sweating than I anticipated, and Princess was disappointed I did not wake her up so she could watch me (weird).  Besides all that it felt pretty good.... I had oatmeal for breakfast and the healthiest lunch I've had in a long time!  We will see how long it lasts.

Angel of Darkness - WTF!

I totally feel like I am behind in getting ready for Halloween this year.  Butterball has settled on being a "pumpkin head" (or just a pumpkin, because pumpkins do not have bodies) this year - I have tried numerous times to persuade him to choose something else... I was only finding pumpkin costumes worn by girls!  I tried to push suggest being a cowboy, rock star, football player, fireman, monster, Twist from the Fresh Beat Band... but he held strong and demanded a pumpkin head costume.  So yesterday I finally ordered him a "puffy pumpkin" costume... and I was happy that in the 3rd image of the costume showed a boy wearing it... would have preferred it had been the 1st picture, but at least they showed it on a boy. 

Princess has requested an Angel costume... which I recently figured out has been her choice because she is scheming to have me purchase white high heel shoes to wear with the costume...not real high heels but those white (or ivory) dress shoes sold at Payless around Easter time with a 1 inch block heel... I do not but them at Easter, and I am not planning to buy them for Halloween either.  I asked her this morning which was more important to her - a fancy Angel dress or the white shoes, because I was not going to be buying both.  She thought about it for a while and (thankfully) choose the dress.  I am having a difficult time finding an Angel costume that:

1. is not hideous
2. is not slutty - seriously Halloween has become too provocative!
3. does not cost more than $25... I am fairly certain my mother did not spend much money (if any) on my costumes growing up!

I did find one Angel costume that met all of my requirements, but it is actually a "Christmas costume" (meant for Christmas pagents I guess) and is currently on "pre-order" whatever that means.  I am keeping my eye on that one while searching for something else that will fit the bill.

Oh, did I mention that I overheard Princess tell Butterball that she is going to be an Angel for Halloween, but that she really wants to be an Angel of Darkness... *sigh* but Mommy won't let me *sigh*.  She is 5 (almost 6) years old, the fact that she even knows the term Angel of Darkness is weird and somewhat disturbing... damn you Wizard of Waverly Place!

Remember how I told you Princess was so excited at the thought of bringing her lunch to school she could hardly stand it?... well the excitement has waned a bit.   Do not get me wrong she loves the lunches I have slaved over and poured my heart and soul into, but apparently the meatball sub and slice of pizza lunches offered by the school have caught her eye.  The school just changed the process for ordering lunch - instead of a daily order you now review a 2 week menu on Monday and make your selections and send in the order and the money by Thursday... sounds easy enough. Princess and I reviewed menu Wednesday night and she only found one item she thought she would want - a cheese burger - which is being served on the Thursday of the 2nd week.  I filled out the form and sent in the money.  You can only imagine how thrilled I was when Princess announced Friday night that she REALLY REALLY wanted to order the pizza next week.  I asked her why she failed to mention that she wanted pizza when we went over the 2 WEEK menu the other night!  Of course she had no response and I knew she wouldn't, but it had to be asked... now I will be spending some time this week figuring out how to get in a one off lunch order... what else is new.


In other news - Sunday was another prep day - I made mini-meatloaves and taco meat for 2 dinners this week, and I got my Betty Crocker on and made a loaf of banana bread... I had a number of over-ripe bananas (1 went into the bread, the others went into the garbage). I am not sure what I am doing wrong, but every time I make banana bread the bottom is over done (not quite burnt, but close). No one seems to really love banana bread in my house (except for me) - the kids love bananas - but not so much the bread. 

Today's lunch:

Class Parent

I had a big decision to make last week... a notice was sent home from Princesses school regarding "Class Parents". The noticed asked whether or not you wanted to be considered for the role of Class Parent... here is peek at my inner dialogue:

Super Mom: Of course you want to be class parent! It will be so much fun, Princess will be so happy, maybe you will get to do some crafty kind of stuff, you can become friends with the teacher and get to find things out first... oh you really want this!
Realistic Mom: Are you NUTS - how will you handle being class parent and working full time... she is in kindergarten, you have 6 more years to do this! Wait until next year!
Super Mom: But if I don't say I want to be class parent this year they might put me on the list of parents who they will never allow to be class parent!
Realistic Mom:  There is no such list - you are being ridiculous...
Super Mom:  I know that list exists! If I don't say I want to be class parent they will think I don't care about my daughter and her class.
Realistic Mom:  Who is they? Why would anyone think that?
Super Mom:  The person/people who decides who gets to be the class parent! And people do think like that!
Realistic Mom:  You should not care what other people think and besides you have a lot on your plate right now.
Super Mom:  I know... you are right, but what if no one wants to be class parent! I do not want the class NOT have a class parent.
Realistic Mom: That is not going to happen...
Super Mom:  Oh I know... because I signed the form and said I would be happy to be class parent. Realistic Mom: Of course you did - for your sake I hope you do not get picked.
Super Mom: Oh same here... Hey, I wonder what will be my first task as class parent will be?

Princess's lunch today: Ham sandwich (cut into flowers), a hard boiled egg (white only), cherry tomatoes, mandarin oranges and cookies. She also requested a sun capri (otherwise know as a capri sun).





Preparing for the week

As I told you yesterday I am somewhat obsessed with coming up with ideas for my daughters lunch... and in order to subside some of the stress (I have created for myself) I created a spreadsheet. Some people like to go for a walk to relieve stress, others may lay down with cucumber slices over their eyes... I like to create lists and spreadsheets. They are comforting to me... each item sitting nice and pretty in its own cell and separated by columns... just waiting and ready to be checked off or crossed out. Can't you just feel the stress leaving your brain while thinking about it! (OK I know this may only be the case for some people, but you should try it!)


Saturday morning I created the following table of meals and snacks for the upcoming week:

 

From this table I created my shopping list - I like to organize my list according to the lay out of my supermarket and the different sections within the store...

 

• Produce
• Deli/Prepared Goods
• Meat/Seafood
• Frozen
• Dairy
• Grocery
• Non-Food Items

  

I believe this a fairly common practice for creating grocery lists... I started doing it after I read it in Ina Garten's Back Basics cookbook - I think Ina likes lists too!

We (meaning the whole family - which yes you are correct is totally insane) went food shopping Saturday afternoon. Then Saturday night ADG and I went out to dinner with my sister and brother-in-law - it was a lovely dinner at a greek restaurant followed by a block-party fundraiser where I met my new best friend... the margarita fountain! Rita (that is what I call her) is an electric light-up fountain of margaritas - don't worry I have already put it on my Christmas list! As you can only imagine this new friendship resulted in a slow start for me Sunday morning.

Once my dose of 2 Aleve and a large cup of coffee kicked in I began preparing the beef brisket to go in the slow cooker for 6 hours and then made a double batch of turkey meatballs. Lastly I prepped the chicken breast by cleaning and pounding them a little bit. Last night's dinner was on the table in less than 10 minutes! One day down... 5 more to go! 

 

My evenings this week are pretty booked up - Princess had her 1st gymnastic class on Monday night, Butterball has his gym class tonight(Tuesday), my first PTO meeting is Wednesday and dinner with my girlfriends (don't worry Rita is not attending) Thursday... Friday I planning on going to bed at 6:59pm!

 

 Here are pictures of the lunches I made for yesterday and today:

 



Monday

Tuesday

Kindergarten

So Princess is now officially a Kindergartner!  I am officially a wreck... my head is spinning with all the changes and additional events happening in our lives.  All of these changes are good, and I know things will calm down in a couple of weeks/months (at least I hope they will).  I am struggling with the idea of the kids being in 2 different schools (Butterball at daycare and Princess at the elementary school at the end of my street) - this translates to 2 drop offs and 2 pickups... that's a lot of in and out of the car, buckling and unbuckling of seatbelts, parking, wandering around trying to figure out where to go, etc.  I know I will get the hang of things, but no one likes being the "new girl" in an otherwise known process. 

Now that Princess is in public school we are responsible for providing her lunch... don't misunderstand me we have always been responsible for providing her lunch - I paid the daycare to feed her!  And that process worked out beautifully!  The public school offers lunch and I could buy that too... but Princess is so excited to bring her lunch to school (transaltion - I make the lunch) she can't barely contain herself!  So in true fashion of being me I have become obsessed with her lunch (and snacks).  I wanted the lunches to be balanced, nutritional meals that were also eco-friendly... I like to make things difficult for myself (you might have noticed that about me).

I ordered a bento box set from Laptop Lunches, then spent an entire weekend trying to find a lunch bag that it would fit in (and yes you are correct I should have just purchased the lunch bag from the site as well... but I didn't so just keep your eye rolling to yourself).  I also purchased a thermos (Princess refers to this as a "Heater") so we could send pasta and/or soup for lunch, a water bottle, and yesterday I picked up a separate small insulated bag for her snacks. 

I spent hours searching for lunch menu ideas that would work with the bento box situation, and there are a surprising number sites with photos and ideas for inspiration.  I was starting to feel more confident I could make this work.  To really give myself another level of comfort I created a full listing of Princess's lunches and snacks, as well as our dinners for the week in a lovely comforting spreadsheet... aaahhh who doesn't love a nice neat spreasheet!  I get a warm feeling just thinking about it!

I will share my spreadsheet with you tomorrow, along with what I did to get a head start for the week!  For now I will leave you with a photo of her 1st day of school lunch:

Ham Sandwhich, hard boiled egg, strawberries & bananas, and oreos

I am back....

and I am tan!  Yes I have spray tanned my lovely self and I can honestly say this could become addicting!  Let me clarify - I did not actually spray the tanning stuff on my own body... I had a lovely gal from Beach Bum Tanning do the application.  And yes it is somewhat awkward to stand in front a slim, toned, overly tanned 20 something year old and have her spray you down with tanning solution... all the while trying not to think about what is going through her mind.  I definitely think I provided some potential birth control thoughts... because I (and  many other women who) have had 2 c-sections (and rarely get the appropriate amount of exercise) can instill a fear of a flabby, stretch marked stomach into all those who lays eyes upon it!  Look away - just LOOK AWAY I tell you!

I am off to Philadelphia this weekend for a wedding (hence the need for the spray tan) - thank you to my in-laws (once again) for being our saviors and watching Butterball and Princess! 



taken with the Hipstamatic App on my iPhone