I CAN DO THAT and I WILL!

#1. So I decided today that on Monday, after the snow we're supposed to get tomorrow and Thursday(its May by the way), I am going to cancel my contract parking, conveniently located just one block from work, and start biking to work.  HELLS YES its going to be hard biking to work and home everyday - thats 16 hilly miles each day but will I love it?  I think so.  Will it be just another avenue during the day for me to get outside, yep!  Will it save me almost $1000 dollars between June and October?  YEP!!  SIGN ME UP!  I think it will take me about the same amount of time (and in some cases less time) to bike to work than it takes me to drive.   I'm pretty dang excited!  I still have to bring the boys to daycare and pick them up so the bike trailer is going to be their transportation.  It should be an interesting change and transition but I can do it because i'm a freaking mother and I can do anything!  ROAR!

#2. I decided yesterday that my ass, inner thighs and saddlebags needed some work.  I found this website www.prevention.com/fitness/strength-training/love-your-lower-body. I started it doing yesterday and HOLY CATS are my ass, inner thighs and saddlebags sore!  I even had a hard time on my run today - its amazing how much running doesn't touch those important areas :)  My abs need some work too - grr.

#3.  I started walking Wilson every morning before I bring the boys to daycare.  What a lovely experience to walk the dog without any kids!  Its so relaxing, quiet, we don't take up the whole sidewalk and we both love it!  Thursday we will be a full week into our morning walks and I am more productive than ever at work.  I hope these walks continue with the biking into work but we'll have to play that by ear.  My real plan was to start by walking him them get into running in the morning but really, thats not likely to happen.

#4.  I'm totally only on bag 34 of my 40 bags in 40 days.  I have eleven days left.  AHH!!  I need to get things out of here but I'm so out of ideas!   I have three computers that still need to go and a mattress and box spring.  St. Paul's clean up day is May 11th so I'm hoping I can take more stuff there. 

#5.  Dinner this week.  YAY to me, by the way, for planning my meals on Sunday and going shopping to get everything I need.  Since I cleaned my house and we don't have anything to eat since I donated it or threw it away I know exactly what we have in the house and I had to go buy the things we needed.  I'm trying to not to go Target now until Saturday or Sunday but we'll see how that goes.

Monday - Grilled pizza with spinach, broccoli, red pepper flakes, goat cheese and garlic and strawberries for a side. yum - it was good.  

Tuesday - Sloppy Joes and corn on the side.

Wednesday - Ranch Pork chops (one of my favorites because its so easy and good) and roasted green beans and the rest of the strawberries on the side.

Thursday - ugh, I have softball on Thursday at 6 and its supposed to be 40's and rainy.  I hope they cancel it.  Quick dinner of Taco's.  Raw carrots for a side.

Friday - Lemon Pepper Chicken and roasted broccoli on the side.

Two little boys and a mom have allergies really bad.  We're hoping to get some relief with the cooler weather coming in tomorrow but the warm temps sure have been great!!!

I hate these weeks.

Some weeks I am full of ideas and have no problem coming up with a menu.  This week is not one of those weeks.  I hate when that happens.  This should be easy, though...  it's a "short" week.

Sunday - yesterday we were On Our Own.  I had leftover Sweet and Sour chicken, but the chicken was dry, so I ate the rice.

Monday - BOO!  Nothing planned, so what do you do?  Throw noodles in a pot of boiling water and top them with sauce from a jar.  Serve with heated garlic bread from the freezer...  if you have some.

Tuesday - ???  I have ground beef.  I have no creative ideas for it.

Wednesday - Pork Tenderloin with some kind of side (the pork is pre-marinated.  I just have to cook it.)

Thursday - Left overs (a.k.a. clean-out-the-fridge-because-we-are-gone-for-the-weekend)

Friday and Saturday - We will be freezing our butts off in Northern Wisconsin.  It's Opening Weekend and there is supposedly still ice on the lake.  That makes for one boring and cold opening weekend!

So, Missy.  If you have any ideas for ground beef, send them this way.  OH!  Maybe it is time to play on Pinterest!

Have a great week!

Change of plans for dinner since we finally got temps above 50!!  Wahoo!  WE had the easiest but really good Garlic Chicken and I had everything for it at home already.  Here's how it goes....ONLY THREE INGREDIENTS

3 boneless skinless chicken breasts - pounded out flat and beat to hell with a chicken smasher hammer.
one can of chicken broth
2 cloves garlic, minced (I just used McCormick dried minced garlic)

put garlic and broth in big ziplock bag.  pound out the chicken and add it to the bag to marinate for 15 min.  Then Grill for 15 min turning often and basting each time you turn.   I actually added red pepper flakes to it while it was grilling, it was an added bonus since my guys like spices. Wallah - DONE! BAM!  so good :)

We had roasted carrots with it too - 400 degrees, 25 min.  Carrots, olive oil, salt, pepper, honey.  thats it.  I let it roast while I prepared the chicken and grilled it.  Both boys ate all of it along with two pieces of honey toast.

Ann, I make my meatloaf cupcakes w/ onion soup mix too - my boys love it!  We use ketchup as the "frosting" and I let them pick them up and eat it like they're cupcakes too.  Now, chick parm risotto, yes please - send me the recipe :)

I have to admit, I am blessed that my boys eat everything (except eggs!?)  Thats my next thing is to get them liking, eggs - I'm going to try this weekend....with chocolate chips as bribes - which is what seems to work most of the time :)  Paul and I eat 18+ eggs/week - it would be great if I can get the boys eating them too!  Healthy, cheap, delicious!

Alright, so I'm growing a lot of plants inside my house right now and JOHN has really grown fond of them.  He pets the leaves and sometimes I find piles of leaves he's pulled off.  Interesting kid.  Jaime never once would have thought about doing that.

Time to take my swollen ankle and get the boys in bed.  Take care, good night and MISS YOU!!

I wish I had the energy for 40 in 40.

I'll be honest.  This pregnancy hasn't been horrible.  I never felt too sick or too tired.  But I have been lazy.  I used to get so many things done around the house on non-work days and on work days when I am home in the afternoon.  I cleaned, organized, made dinner and went for a run.  I still am managing to make dinner (see below), but everything else either isn't happening or isn't happening very much.  Oy.  I think I have made the turn and am feeling less like I have to eat constantly, which is a good thing for the scale and for my running.  When I was eating constantly I never felt like the food had digested enough so that I could run.  Running has been suffering.  I have no idea if I am going to fun my half in June or even if I am going to manage walking it at the rate I am going ;-)  So, Missy, you are not alone.  Maybe we both are taking a break from running.  No problem.  We can get back into it together again, just like we did last time!

This week's menu (in retrospect):

Sunday - We were out of town, no dinner necessary
Monday - Leftover Spaghetti with meat sauce
Tuesday - 15 Minute Chicken Parmesan Risotto (one of my FAVORITE dishes...  too bad Mya only eats the chicken and Jaeden only tried the dish after 15 minutes of crying that she didn't want it and I bribed her to try some).  If you want the recipe, I can get it to you.
Wednesday - Frozen Island Citrus Margaritaville Shrimp and rice (Jaeden only ate the rice because it didn't have any "sauce")
Thursday - "Homemade Salisbury Steak" (a.k.a. Meatloaf).  My kids love Salisbury steak, the kind in the Family Size frozen tray that you cook for 45 minutes and Bam! done.  But that's not what we had.  I made Souperior Meatloaf (meatloaf made with an Onion Soup packet).  It is awesome.  But to get her to eat it, we told her it was homemade salisbury steak.  She was either really hungry or she loved it because - WOW!  Did she eat a lot!
Friday - On your own.  Dad is working in the evening, so it is leftovers, or breakfast for dinner or something easy....
Saturday - Jaeden loves pizza.  Correction, she loves to assemble pizza, but won't eat it.  So we are splurging.  We are assembling pizzas.  Jon and I will eat them, maybe Mya, too, but Jaeden will have something else.  Even though she loves to "sprinkle the cheese", etc.  Seriously, kid?  Are you ever going to eat normal?

That's it!  Take care of yourself and your loved ones.  Next week's menu coming soon!

40 in 40.

Running hasn't been going well.  I honestly don't have time this year since Paul has class until 11:50pm or 9:30 each night.  I tried during work which worked until I had to run 10 milers on Wednesdays and I was away from my desk like 2+ hours. Then I got really dehydrated (which really isn't good by the way - I really had no idea how bad it was!) so whatever.  While I haven't decided if I'm going to run the marathon I do know that 1. if I do run it I will not be fast.  I will finish but it might take me 6 hours and I'm fine with that (sort of, OK maybe not - I'm not really a half ass type of person - more of an all or nothing type of person.).  2. I need to take care better care of myself.  I am always last on my list of take care of's and running 17 miles after not drinking any water for three days isn't good.  So, to fill my void of achievements I decided to "spring" clean my house -  YES, we have gotten 12 inches of new snow in the past week and its APril 23rd but whatever - spring will come and I may as well clean now so I can garden later, right?  I decided that I would get rid of 40 garbage bags of "stuff" in my house.  Toys, clothes, garbage, junk, etc.  Today, I'm 23 days in and 34 bags and I love it!  After this weekend I should hit 40 and I'm pretty proud of that :)  I donated 11 bags of clothes yesterday to a place called Josephs Coat which is a place people in need can go to get free clothes - I felt so great when I dropped them off.  They get them free.  FREE!  While I was emptying my car a man came up to me and asked if I had any mens dress shoes in my car.  I would have LOVED to give him some but I didn't have any :(  Hopefully he will wear something of Paul's next time he goes there to get some clothes.  That guy wanted dress shoes so he could get a job.  How awesome is that?  He was a great guy. 

So 40 bags in 40 days.  My house is empty.  Everything has a place.  There are no more messes, no more bins of stuff I don't know whats in them.  No more extra computers (we had three!), no more Xbox, old cell phones, McDonalds toys, etc.  No more bowls I never use or forks I don't like or anything in my pantry or fridge that we can't use in the next week.  Speaking of the next week, I found enough food that I also don't need to go shopping at Target this week - saving us hundreds of dollars.  Here is my menu:

Yesterday:  Beef stew I had made earlier this winter and frozen.  Bam, done.

tonight:  Chicken and Planko nuggets.  We had two half boxes of planko so some were lemon pepper, some italian.  I also had half a bag of broccoli so we had that and a can peaches.  Perfect.  Done.

Tomorrow:  Its Wine Wednesday so it has to be something quick so we can get to my wine :)  Hamburger and Rice hotdish. Paul hates it but he can have leftovers.  Easy.  Done.

Thursday.  "Silly Supper" (aka Pancakes for dinner).  Yup.  w/ Eggs and bacon.  Yum (and yes, done).

Friday:  I don't know Friday yet (not done) - it will come though and it will be out of my pantry/freezer because I am having a Target-less week!  Except for Milk, shoot, I might have to get milk.  Thats fine. 

Ann, I saw a picture of your house today and all I could do was stare at your green grass!  I can't wait until we can see ours again.  Its supposed to be warm this weekend so I'm sure it'll be mostly gone by then.  ITs getting a little annoying.

Take care, have a great week!

The Easiest Menu EVER

I think it's time for a REALLY easy menu.  I've been trying to keep up with things around the house despite being preggers and feeling nauseous at the first sign of hunger or sleepiness.  Thus meaning I eat all the time and take more naps than I would like to admit.  But, (knock on wood), I think all of that stuff is coming to an end - I am 10 weeks tomorrow - almost thru the first trimester!

Anyway:
Sunday - Dinner at Mimi and Bapa's
Monday - Leftover Chicken Marsala from last week.  Good taste, needed a lot more salt or seasoning.
Tuesday - Spaghetti with meat sauce.  We didn't end up doing this last week because we were working on cleaning leftovers out of the fridge.
Wednesday - Dinner at the Treptow's
Thursday - Dinner on the road (Road trip to Ohio begins at 4:30pm).

Maybe the menu is easy because I will need to rest up for the road trip???  I will let you know how 4 days away from home goes ;-)

Of Course I Can Do That, I'm a Mom (of THREE!?!?!?)

I'm not sure how it happened (figuratively speaking, of course), but wow.  I am still in the surprised phase (upgraded from stunned).  I will be excited, eventually!  Anyway, I have my moments of wondering how the heck I am going to be able to manage three kids.  On of the things I take solace in is knowing that I've mastered (or am doing a whole lot better at) having menus for the week and having food on the table almost every night.  That being said, last week wasn't great (we worked on lots of leftovers).  This week, however, I am pretty pumped for our dinners.  They may not seem like much, but they are different (not the same old stuff), and Jon is even excited for two meals he picked that he would have gagged at in recent months.  Here goes:

Sunday - Tacos

Monday - Chicken Marsala, slow cooker: http://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/slow-cooker-chicken-marsala/d00785b5-3bcb-4a19-a752-d175d763441f  Seems easy, peasy!

Tuesday - Beef Stroganoff: Tastefully Simple, slow cooker (OK, I make this more than I make other dinners, but I really like it and both kids eat some component of it).

Wednesday - French Toast

Thursday - Spaghetti

Friday - Pizza or Dinner at the Millers?

Saturday - Confirmation Party, no dinner needed.

YUM!  Have a tasty week!