Stone Soup for Five: November 2011

Instilling some TRADITION and Menu for the week

We don't really have many traditions in our family.  We have Friday Night Pizza Night, and a few things we do over special holidays like Christmas and Easter, but nothing that I can really call "OUR Family Traditions".  Neither Mr. Measure nor I had many traditions growing up.  He comes from a family of 7 brothers, so I think mom was mostly busy keeping up with them.  And I grew up with a new step-mom every year or so, so no real traditions developed from that other than the consistency of not having traditions.  :o)

So I'm learning as I go. I'm doing the Beth Moore study "Believing God" and she was just talking about our heritage, and how crucial it is to pass on traditions to our children.  To do special things to celebrate our special God and firmly implant in them their heritage.   I want my boys to grow up with traditions (more than just Pizza Night too.)

My first instinct is to jump in and start 20 traditions ASAP.  But I know that will fizzle out, stress me out, and be completely the OPPOSITE of what tradition is supposed to be.

So, I'll start with one simple tradition I'd like to implement and see how that goes.   We're going to start having Sunday Tea instead of dinner.  Usually Sunday dinner is just hunt and find because I don't want to cook after church, grocery shopping, and school planning, so this should work well.

One of my favorite blogs posted about it being part of their traditions and I love it, so we'll start there.

I had to go to the store today, so I added a trip to Tuesday Morning to see if they had a teapot, and they did!  So we're starting a tradition tonight!

Sunday Tea Menu:  Hot tea, crackers and cheese, lunch meat rolls, pickles, muffins, apple slices and oatmeal cookies.  I'm excited!

Menu for the week:

Breakfasts:  (all served with fruit or applesauce and usually eggs)
eggs and ham  (I'll make a big batch of scrambled eggs--a dozen eggs--and keep extras in the fridge for later in the week)
oatmeal
pancakes
cereal
waffles
baked oatmeal

Lunches:
left overs
sandwiches
pizza monkey bread  (thanks Jenna!) --I'll make extra and freeze for quick meals later
hot dogs and mac
salads/soup

Dinners: (we're doing something different for December, the theme is repeats and EASY)

Quesadilla bar (left over turkey, and other toppings with the George Foreman at the end of the assembly line for custom Quesadillas.)

Pasta bar (two kinds of pasta with two kinds of sauce --marinara and cheese sauce) with meatballs/salad

Amish Haystacks (another customizable kind of meal) taco meat, cheese, rice, saltines, whatever else you want.

Mexican beef layered enchiladas (made with a roast I made last week and froze the leftovers)

Homemade pizza night (my boys MUCH prefer restaurant pizza --Papa Murphy's, Dominos, etc-- but I've convinced them to eat homemade 3 times a month by including Hot Fudge Cake with the homemade pizzas.)

Lasagna, salad, broccoli

*****UPDATE****
We had our first tea tonight (see pic above) and everyone loved it.  It was fun for me because it was easy, quick, and NO one complained about the food.  Conversation and attitudes were enjoyable.  Mr. Measure loved it too.  New tradition that will definitely stay!

Menu and new goals for the week

I am setting a couple new goals for this week in hopes of helping me achieve a few of my goals.





One of those is staying current on my Bible Study (Beth Moore's Believing God--so good and a little painful). And lately I've been slacking off big time on getting up on time.  I'll snooze for about an hour and then be rushed, short on time, and lacking concentration because I know the boys will be up before I finish the study... and I haven't taken time to pray, which I REALLY need to spend more time on.

1.  NO snooze button.  Not allowed.  GOT to get up on time.  It'll be worth it, I promise.



 





I've also been trying to learn how to run.  Which is really funny to even type, because my "run" is more like a slow, limping jog... but I'm doing the Couch to 5k method, which so far hasn't killed me (though I think I might have had close to a stroke on day 2 of week 4 though... it was TOUGH!)  I'm using a free podcast from itunes that is helping a TON.  Seriously.  I ran one day without it (because my battery was dead) and it was MISERABLE.  If you want to try it, search NHS Couch to 5k on iTunes.  It helps.

2.  Finish Couch to 5k Week 5 this week.  (3 days of running.)  Ugh.











I'm also loving my to-do list with post it notes.  It has helped me so much stay on top of stuff, and even get to a few of my less important but "someday" things I'd like to do... but for the last couple weeks I've been doing just the urgent post its and having a lot of carry overs.  So this week I hope to clear my week with NO carryovers.  I'm going to have to really stay on top of each day to pull it off.

3.  No carry over week.





My last goal is to write everything I eat. I usually do good during the day, and then forget to measure and write down my dinners... I want to really focus on losing 3 more pounds this month and have to be diligent!  (I'm down a total of 15lbs since starting Weight Watchers this summer!)  My goal is to lose 65 lbs by Oct 2012, which means I need to lose about 5lbs a month. So far so good.

4.  Write all food down!



Now, the menu:

Breakfasts (I usually have either oatmeal, eggs, or cream of wheat)
Cereal
oats
monkey toes
eggs and sausage
McMom's sandwiches
Amish Baked oatmeals

Lunch (I usually have soup, salad, or sandwich)
quesadilla
leftovers
sandwiches
mac and dogs
grilled cheese
leftovers till they're coming out our noses

Dinner (this I have with the fam, but measure my portions according to how good or bad I ate during the day)
Chicken Curry Broccoli Bake, salad
Crockpot shredded beef
Deb's cheese enchiladas, rice, salad
Fish Tacos
Taquitos and crockpot green chile rice (made from leftover shredded roast)
Pizza (saved money from the food budget to BUY pizza this week... my boys will rise up and sing my praises!)
Cheeseburger soup and rolls