Meal Planning

I usually have a menu planned out for the month.  I like to search for new recipes and throw in a new meal at least once or twice a week.  I write out my grocery list and go shopping.  This allows me to know exactly what I'm making, when I'm making it and I already know that I have everything for it!  Makes life sooooo much easier!

Well, usually it does....

Sometimes, my hubs and my boys have special requests (me: eyebrow raised... whadda ya mean you want pizza? I'm making green chicken enchiladas!!)  Okay, sometimes they save me from the kitchen  so I can't complain too much about it...  When this happens, I either omit a meal or scootchy them on down a day... or twooooooooo.....  okay, sometimes we are bad!   :o)

Anyway, one of the things that I like to do to make sure that we are successful at following the menu is that I take special requests from my hubs and my sons.  It gives them something to look forward to so that they aren't craving something else!

A few of my family's favs are:

Tacos

Chimis

Baked Salmon with veggies and rice

Chicken Penne Pasta with Spinach

Creamy Chicken Soup with Biscuits

Lasagna

Chili Rellenos

Enchiladas

Wiener Schnitzel

Tostadas

and Tuna Casserole which is what I made last night, which is....

Always, always, always a hit!

I'm happy to share this super easy recipe.  Sorry for the crappy measurements but I usually just throw it all together! 

 Chop up celery and green onions

Put the chopped celery and green onions in large bowl and add:

2 or 3 cans Tuna - depends on how meaty you want it.

About 4 tbls of mayo - depends on how creamy you like it (light is fine)

2 to 3 tbls of sour cream (light is fine)

1 tbl of mustard

I would have added some thawed out peas and grated

carrots but I didn't have any... booooo :(

Mix in cooked egg noodles.

Add salt, pepper and thyme to desired taste.

Transfer the mixture to a 13x9 glass baking dish

Slice up a couple of zucchinis

Grate cheese, I used colby jack, sorta kinda a lot... 

Sprinkle about half (your desired) cheese over the

noodle mixture,

Lay out the zucchinis and sprinkle a little

salt and pepper on them,

Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on the zucchinis

I then bake it for about 15 minutes (just heating it and melting

cheese at this point)

Then, I change it to broil for about 5-ish minutes (just until

the cheese is golden brown)

YUM.  It's a hit.  If your kiddos like veggies, they'll love this!

Cheers my friends! :O)

Rain, Rain, Stay and Play!

Living here in Arizona means I get to experience a LOT of dry... sizzling hot... tumbleweeds-rolling-across-the-street kind of days.  And yes, there are a lot tumbleweeds, mostly at the end of summer when the monsoon season begins.  I actually think it's pretty cool.  Well, that is until one hits my car then all I can envision are the pretty scratches all over the side of my car... Okay, maybe not so cool.

We have had some pretty amazing weather this winter.  It's been raining off and on lately.  I think everything about it is pretty much, beautiful.  I love the water, the sound of the wind and rain, the gorgeous skies before, during and after the rain... the rainbows! Uhmmmm... the smell.  What's there not to love?  Do you have a bad case of the frizzies? I do! Who cares? LOL!  Well t'anyway,  I'm absolutely thrilled with it!  It's cleansing... What a treat!

This is a photo I took from my back window
just after hours and hours of endless rain.

You can't tell me this isn't beautiful...

I don't know if the weather has brought me this strange kind of peace... or the new people in my life... or if it's the fact that going to church has made me see things differently... or that I'll be turning 40 years old in less than 10 days and I'm totally A-Ok with it!  I feel wiser  already... hehe!  Anyway, I say strange peace because I'm not used to being able to let things go as easily, like I have been lately.  Maybe it's a combination of them all.  Whatever it is... I sorta kinda like it  :O)


What weather do you feel brings you the most peace?

Scorpions & Dancing Christmas Trees

Dreams:  A series of thoughts, images, or emotions occurring during sleep.


Let's face it people!

Dreams.
Can.
Be.
WEIRD!!!!

I can still remember dreams (ugh, nightmares) that I used to have when I was a child.  I was afraid to sleep in my own bed until I was about 8yrs old.... and not by choice!  ...because I probably would've slept with my folks longer if they wouldn't have kept kicking me out of their room!  Well, geez, what was my problem?  Ummm, I dunno... could be because I lived in a small town and my bedroom window faced the cemetery that was practically butted up to our backyard and my older cousins used to scare me and tell me ghost stories!!!

Okay so my blog title.... quick version... I was at a relative's house and she opened up a bin of toys for all the children to play with and a bunch of huge scorpions came out of the bin and the scorpions could shoot webs from their stingers so they quickly hid in another room where she had about five Christmas trees and one was about 15 feet tall and it was a dancing and singing Christmas tree.

*whispers*  "Nina... Do you have scorpions and a dancing Christmas tree?"


So this morning, I'm pouring my coffee and in comes my 10 year old... he says "Mommy, I had the NAKED dream!!"  It was like some major milestone he had crossed!! I had to hug my little dude and chuckle as he proceeded to tell me about his naked dream.

School dreams are weird though right? I find myself walking around the halls endlessly because I can't find my class, or I can't remember what class is next... OR why the heck am I (an "almost" 40 yr old woman) in Junior High!!

Peeing dreams... You keep peeing and peeing and peeing and you never feel relief!!!  And to top it all off, the stall you're peeing in has no door... oh! oh! oh! and um, the bathroom is co-ed. Yup...  I can't help but wonder how many of you have actually wet the bed while dreaming that your peeing???  Ha-ha-ha!  Me?  Nope. Not me. Ever. Yet.... but like I said.  I'm gonna be 40 soon.  Give me about 30 more years and I'll let ya know......  that's if I'm still blogging.

Dying dreams... Not too fond of those.  I don't feel the pain but I feel like I'm floating,  numb and very warm and my ears are ringing..... weird.

Dreams about someone who has passed?...  Are they just memories you're revisiting or is your loved one visiting you?  I'd like to think it's a visit.  I have a couple of visitors from time to time ;O)

Dreams about your everyday work life... YUCK!  Like I would want to dream about washing dishes, or waiting tables, or ordering computer parts, or data entry.... Eight hours of a working dream leaves me looking like this!!

ME TIRED :(  cause I basically worked all night!

So my hubs said I should write them down but some are too weird (don't lie... morbid) to share.  I guess I could be the next Stephen King.  Dang... or that Stephenie Meyer... Why couldn't I dreamt of a love triangle between a ditzy, Arizona girl that falls for a vampire but sorta-kinda loves the werewolf too.  Ugh.

I know a few people that say they don't have dreams, or can't remember them.  Do you?  What's your favorite or least favorite dream to have?

Disconnected

We were about a block away from home yesterday when I realized I left my phone charging on the kitchen counter.  We were on our way to a movie and then to get some dinner so I knew that I'd be without it for quite a few hours.  My hubs offered to turn back... We were only one block away.

I had a quick flashback to when there were no cell phones.  We'd leave our home and be completely disconnected from everybody that wasn't with us.  I also thought about how that made it possible to be completely, undividedly, dedicated to the person/people you were with... no distractions, no alerts, no posts, no emails, no games nudging you to take your turn....

"Nope," I said to my hubs.... "I.don't.need.it"

My cousin's hubby told me about a fun exercise he heard about... Go out to eat with friends and everyone puts their cell phones in the middle of the table.  Whoever gives in and picks up their phone first, also picks up the tab!! LOL! I thought that was a brilliant idea!  My hubby, yeah, not so much...

Getting back to last night... The movie we picked was Jack Reacher starring Tom Cruise.  I don't love the dude but I really do enjoy his movies.  So, then, I guess that means I like him...?  Oh and I do have to make a note that I checked the parent guide in IMDb and I wish I would have read it more carefully because I really felt guilty about taking Ethan to see that. (Ethan is 10yrs old)  About half-way through the movie, I made him dim the light on his 3DS and play video games for the rest of the movie... (and no, nothing distracts him when he's playing video games so it was fine)  I thought the violence should have been scored more at an 8/10 not a 6/10.   Lesson learned... ok!  No spoiler here really, just that the character, Jack, talks about how he is completely disconnected from everyone and everything.  He lives his life, day by day with no cell phone or computer and feels that he is the one who is "free"... and the rest of us are not free at all.  I gotta say, in my opinion, he's right!

Okay so I wouldn't want to be completely disconnected like Jack Reacher.  I like my phone and I like my computer and I like feeling connected to some people on a daily basis.


Question:  Being that I was only a block away from home... if it was you, would you have turned back for your phone?  Have you ever been "disconnected"?  For how long?

Frost Bitten Brain

We have had some seriously cold weather these past couple of weeks! We Zonies are not used to our high temps being in the 40's and 50's.  I go into a frozen, coma-like state when I'm cold.  I can't move, I'm sleepy, I'm grouchy, I think too much, and strange but true fact:  My pinky finger on my left hand goes NUMB!  That there is my indicator that I've had enough of this cold weather so I am super happy and excited for this beautiful, mid 70-degree weather on this MLK, three day weekend!

So like I mentioned before... I think too much when I'm frozen.  Lots of good thoughts and lots of bad thoughts.  Lot's of mixed up thoughts and lots of contradicting thoughts.  It's all up in my head like a mush of scrambled eggs and marshmallow fluff.  Gross right? So I've been going on and on about positive this and positive that.... I'm sure I'm sounding like a broken record by now.  I'm doing a little soul searching which brings me to numero uno...


1. Church:  I'm not a super religious person.  I have my beliefs (that are barely hanging on by a thread) but I'm trying to be better about it.  I learned a lot from my cousin and her hubs while they were here over Christmas break.  Made me rethink a whole lot of things about my life and the people that are in it.  It also made me realize... that I need help.  I need guidance.  I need answers and if I can't get them, I need to be okay with that.

2. Family:  I am a very sensitive person and I feel like the people that should treat me the best, are the ones that treat me the worst.  To be clear, I'm not talking about my husband and kids here... they are amazing.  And they should be enough.  But I felt very lonely growing up and I've always felt the need to have lots of people around.  I admit I've made a few bad choices in friends who I can happily say are not in my life anymore because it's easy to cut those ties... but what do you do with family? what do you do? what do you do? WHAT.DO.U.DO?  I dunno.  Not so easy to cut ties.  See #1.Church.

3. Life:  I put my life on hold to be a SAHM (Stay-At-Home-Mom).  Yes I did.  I always knew I'd be a mom and I always knew that I would raise my own kids.  Unfortunately, people try to pressure you to go work once your kids are in school full time.  I fell into that pressure trap a little (okay I'm lying a LOT!)  But I don't feel that pressure anymore.  *BIG SMILE*  I keep myself plenty busy.  I may not make any moola but THIS, (being home with my children, cleaning my own home, gardening, laundry, cooking, errands, paying bills and keeping us on a budget), IS MY JOB.  Sorry, I get a little defensive about the whole SAHM thing.  I shouldn't have to 'splain myself but there are a lot of IDIOTS, I mean, IGNORANT okay, one more time... there are a lot of JUDGMENTAL people out there.  So now my hubs has started his own development company and is working from home.  He can do his job from anywhere. Yup.  You have no idea...  how.bad.I.want.to.move.outta.state.  Running away? Possibly.  Once again, #1.Church: I need some guidance.

One of the things we learned at Church last week is that you should allow yourself to be known.  The GOOD. The Bad. The ugly..... I think I tip the scale a bit on the ugly.  But this, I guess, filters out the people that could be a positive or negative influence in your life.  I'm just not sure if I'm ready for that.

What helps you keep the faith and keep moving forward when you're feeling down?

Happy New Year!

I know, I know... I'm fifteen days late!

My New Year is kinda funky right now.  It has started off good... and bad.

Good news...
I got to ring in the New Year with my uncle and my wonderful, out-of-town cousins.  It was a nice, cozy celebration.  I don't like to go out on New Year's... not yet anyway.  I'm terrified of something bad happening and leaving my boys with no parents.  What else is good? Well, we lived to see the year 2013!  Woohoo! No seriously, I never believed that nonsense!  Let's see... I'm eating healthier and working out again.   And most importantly, we started going to church again!  Looking to take their introduction classes and signing up for some of their study sessions as well as they are very needed and so overdue...

........whiiiiiiiich brings me to the bad news.  ........whiiiiiiiich I realize now that I don't feel comfortable putting it out there so let me just say this.

Family is number one.

FOR YOUR SPOUSE:
Your spouse is your best friend, treat them that way.
Have date night with you spouse.
Compliment your spouse.
Be spontaneous.
Always support their dreams.
Listen to them, don't just "hear" their words.
Be playful :O)
and most importantly...
LET GO OF THE PAST.

FOR YOUR KIDS:
Cherish your children, they are miracles.
Tell your children you love them daily even if they've upset you earlier in the day.
Hug your children, OFTEN.
Respect your children, demonstrating respect is how THEY learn!
Use kind words with your children.
Teach your children compassion, by demonstrating it.
Say sorry to your children when you are at fault.
Always kiss your children goodnight.

FOR YOU:
Love yourself.
Give yourself.
Respect yourself.
Be true.
Be loving.
Learn.
Surround yourself with positives!


Letting people treat you badly over and over again, whether it's verbally, or physically, or mentally is no way to treat yourself.  And yes, if you are allowing it to happen then YOU are basically treating yourself poorly.  I have to add, that sadly, you have to purge your life of those negative things even if it means losing family members.  Some people never change.  Learn from other's mistakes and break the cycle.

This is how I plan on having a fantastic and healthy year and I hope yours is (and has been so far) just as great!

What kinds of goals do you have for the year?

Here I am with my wonderful sons and hubby

of almost 19 years! :O)