Weekly meal plan

The girls and I generally make our meal plan for the week on Saturday so I can shop on Sunday morning while they're at church.  We've been meal-planning for a few years now and it helps cut down on eating out and wasting food a TON!  I also do most of the cooking for the week on Sundays, which makes our week nights much easier since we get home no earlier than 5:30 and the little girl needs an early bed time during the week to function well.

Sunday:  Vegetable risotto
Monday:  Eat at my parents'
Tuesday: Brown rice pilaf
Wednesday:  Eat at my parents'
Thursday: Spaghetti
Friday:  Leftovers/oatmeal
Saturday:  Tofu quiche - this is a new recipe for us

My shopping list is in my purse.  It's going to be a yummy week!

2015

We made it.  2014 was a long and sometimes difficult year.  Still, we made it through and are now relaxing away the first day of 2015.   I like new beginnings.  We had a new beginning in July when we came home but now we get a bigger one...starting the first new year in our rebuilt home.

Unfortunately, procrastination is my BFF and I still have A LOT of paperwork to do related to the fire.  I'm determined to get it done as soon as possible because I need the weight of all of it off my shoulders and mind.

I'm not one to make new years resolutions because I never keep them.  However, I do like to make goals.

My goals for the year include the following...

1. Finish all paperwork related to the fire by the end of February.
2. Get back to a strict budget.
3. Continue to help the little girl on her journey to emotional peace.
4. Support the big girl to continue the success she's achieved in the last part of 2014.
5. Figure out a way to regularly incorporate exercise into my daily routine (I can do it for short times before the little girl loses it do to such rushed and late evenings it creates for her).
6. Start a veggie garden and grow some of our own food.

I would also like to blog more regularly, which seems to be an ongoing, unmet goal.  For now, I'm setting the goal at once a week.  My goal for the blog will be to document our (my) journey to maintain a life of only what we need.  That is a challenge while living with a young hoarder but we'll do our best.  I will also chronicle just a little of our day-to-day lives to have a record for the girls.

Happy 2015 and wishing for a peaceful, healing, and healthy year for all!!!

4 weeks

Yesterday was 4 weeks home.

We were out of town for a long weekend last weekend so we didn't get anything done around the house.  The only thing we came home with was a Monopoly game and some Christmas ornaments.  There was lots of other stuff I could have bought so I'm glad I just replaced some stuff lost in the fire.  We'll have a full tree by December for sure.

Yesterday, we spent most of the day in the kitchen.  My mom came over in the morning and helped us can tomatoes.  She had previous experience but this was my first time so it was nice to have her input rather than just following a website and hoping for the best.  We ended up with 20 pints of tomatoes.  Yay!  We have a few more tomatoes in the freezer too.  As the last full batch was in the water bath, one of the jars broke open so we had to let everything cool to clean it up.  Fortunately, clean up wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  If these end up tasting good, I may do more next year.

I also made brownie bites for the big girl's back to school pot luck.  It was a new recipe but they turned out well. 

This afternoon, I need to cook a cabbage and potato dish (at the big girl's request) for school lunches later this week and then I'm going to work in the little girl's bedroom until time for the big girl's school pot luck.  There are a couple of boxes in there that need to be unpacked so I can get to the top of her desk to finish painting it.  I need to hurry since school starts soon.

The good news of the new house...the big girl has made her bed every single day and yesterday was the only day I haven't made mine.  She's also kept her room neat (although I haven't looked in her closet.)  In fact, the whole house is pretty neat.  It's easy to do when you haven't been home much but it's nice.