On The Menu This Week

Thank you, Lisa, for inspiring me with your menu plans! Since making my own menu plans, I have been able to keep more organized with my life and not having to wonder at 5:00 what we’re going to have for dinner. Menu planning also really helps with grocery shopping and keeping that bill as low as possible! So here we go. On the menu this week…

• Chili Dogs. We have some buns we need to use up, and who doesn’t love a good chili dog anyway?
• Porkchops, baked potatoes, and corn. I’m not sure how I’m going to fix the porkchops yet. I will have to figure that out sometime today… one of my favorite websites for recipes is Tablespoon. You can type in your main ingredient and find all sorts of recipes for it!
• Chicken sammiches. We always have something simple on Wednesdays since Wednesday night is Bible Study night.
• Burgers – either just regular burgers or if it sounds good to Hubby, we can do Burger Burritos. If we end up doing this, I’ll be sure to post a recipe on my recipe blog.
• And Friday is Game night at our house, so we asked everyone to bring something we could all share.

That’s the menu for Monday-Friday! I am certainly no chef, but I really have enjoyed being able to be in my own kitchen amongst my own familiar appliances and utensils and all that good stuff. You never realize all you take for granted until you are in a position where you don’t have all that!

our house!

Finally I have some pictures to show for our new digs. Oh yes! You’re really excited, I can tell! I don’t blame you! I love our new house!

Ben’s bathroom.

Benjamin’s bedroom. You may see a few pictures with him in them because he was following me around… or I was following him. Either way…

Dining room…see what I mean? There’s Ben!

There’s the entry way…
{boy these neighborhood dogs sure do like to bark all night…}

Guest room.

Kitchen… and I LOVE the red.

Laundry area

Living room!

 

Of course, it’s not completely put together but it’s so very close. It is so homey and nice and we just love it here! We are just so blessed! God is good!

Also, a little update on Benjamin and a prayer request. Prayers first. Benjamin is sick. We are probably going to try to get him in to see the doctor this week. Please pray he starts feeling better. He has a runny, cloggy nose {I seriously wipe his nose all day long. He comes to me and goes, “TISSUE! TISSUE! NOSE!” while his nose just drips and drips}, a nasty cough, and he wheezes when he breathes. Sigh!

And the update is that tonight will be the fourth night in a row that he has been sleeping in his big boy bed without any problem at all. This transition has been so easy. We still push the pack-n-play up against his bed until we can get some rails up. But he does so well. We are SO proud of him.

Ahhh my big boy! Now if we can just get him to use the potty….

I’m Not Gonna Lie

I seriously love this kid.

Fix-It Friday!

It has been a while since I have done a Fix-It Friday with I Heart Faces, but I couldn’t resist this one … you can see below that it was just absolutely precious, too precious to pass up!

Here’s the Original:

and here’s my LR edit:

She sure is a cute little punkin! Benjamin thinks so. He walked up as I finished the edit and said, “Oh! Coooot! Coooooot!” Of course, that means “cute”, which he just now started saying… which I think is very coot. I mean, cute.

Link yours up to I Heart Faces, and check out the other edits!

the makings of a big boy

Last night was a big milestone in Benjamin’s short little life. It was the first night that Benjamin slept all night long in his big boy bed, which actually is my old twin bed that I grew up sleeping in up until I got married. We didn’t have any rails on his bed and maybe we don’t need them {though it would give me peace of mind if we did have some on there}. We shoved his pack-n-play beside his bed and put pillows in there in case he flipped up over the side of the pack-n-play {you never know, right? right?}. We gave him everything he needed. Hubby checked on him about 30 minutes after putting him down and sweet Benjamin was out like a light.

We checked on him before I went to bed, too, and he was still asleep.

And this morning he was still in his bed! We are so proud of our big boy who gets bigger and bigger every day! It’s kind of ironic though because I put him back in his bed to get just ONE good picture of him in his big boy bed and he flipped out baby-style because he thought I was putting him back to bed.

So… imagine that as a smiling face. Yeah, that’s better.

Oh why does he have to grow up so fast?

oh! my heart!

I just came across this old picture of Benjamin…

Oh! my heart! Why can’t he be small again?
Of course, having a two-year-old is great fun
{most of the time}
But I sure do miss him being so small!
Sigh.
Time sure does fly.

cooped up

It feels weird to have just posted pictures of Benjamin outside in short sleeves without a jacket, and now to be cooped up inside because I don’t want to brave the freezing temperatures (and the ice – no snow, just ice). I am so thankful for heating! At least we can be warm and toasty inside.

Actually we have been cooped up for the past few days not only because of the cold, but because of the rain. It’s just been a gloomy week so far. The good thing is we finally got the rest of our furniture without any more hitches and we are enjoying it! The bad things are that the car has to be fixed, and my vacuum cleaner bit the dust this morning. In a bad way. It’s busted. (I hated the thing anyway so I’m not sad that it’s dead, but I am sad that I have to spend money on a new one eventually)

Being cooped up isn’t such a bad thing, though, I guess. It’s the perfect kind of weather for some cuddling and some of our favorite little shows or movies.

Or for playing with trains…

for being glued to Kai-Lan (or however you spell it)…

for focusing on the wrong eye…

for looking like a big boy…

and continuing to be glued to Kai-Lan…

for being otherwise adorable…

for not wanting your picture to be taken…

for getting it taken anyway…

and for not caring because you’re too glued to Kai-Lan.

 

If you’re cooped up at home, I hope you find something good to keep yourself busy with! Benjamin recommends Kai-Lan.

I recommend busting your vacuum. Or maybe I don’t.