Weekly Meal Plan 4/15-4/21

Our family has had a pretty expensive month, so this week I had to dig around in my freezer and cupboard to come up with meals for this week & next week. So glad I found a bunch of meat in the deep freezer and planned meals that use very few ingredients. I'm still following my theme nights for simple meal planning and it really helps take the guess work out of the whole process. Love love love my meal planning, even though I am soooo not a planner. :)

Here you go!

Monday 4/15 - Veggie spaghetti sauce with brown rice noodles

Tuesday 4/16 - Yogurt Baked Chicken & mixed greens salad (this chicken is incredibly yummy!!!)

Wednesday 4/17 - Chicken Teriyaki, Rice & Salad

Thursday 4/18 - Slow cooker ham & great northern beans (using left over Easter ham)

Friday 4/19 - GF homemade-ish Pizza (using Hodgson Mill gluten free Pizza Crust Mix)

Saturday 4/20 - Pancakes & fruit salad (the kids' favorite night!)

Sunday 4/21 - Turkey Burgers with either a fruit or veggie


Thanks for stopping by!!

Simple Meal Planning

Do you hate scrambling to figure out something for dinner last minute? Dread noticing that it's 4:00pm and your family will be expecting some sort of meal soon? Meeeeee toooo!!! Another problem I had was the number of times I went to the store each week was getting out of hand. Taking 3 small children with me was really draining physically,  mentally and financially  Everyone knows how you walk in the store to by milk, bread and bananas and end up spending $50. I knew something had to change but I was complacent about doing anything about it. However, a few weeks ago I noticed a lot of monthly meal planning ideas on Pinterest but planning for a month seems kind of daunting so I started planning 2 weeks worth of meals. Even with breaking it up into 2 weeks, I was running out of ideas. My husband suggested that we eat the same thing each day. So, Sunday would be chicken tacos, Monday stir fry, Tuesday spaghetti and so on. Ummmm no. I need a little more variety than that and the option to try new recipes . We then decided that each day would have a theme. Knowing that Monday is Mexican or Italian night really helps narrow down the recipes that my family enjoys or ones that I have been wanting to try. I print out a cute monthly planner from imom.com and get to work. I keep my calendar on the fridge for easy viewing and to help with compiling my shopping list. Doing 2 big shopping trips per month and 2 smaller trips to stock up on things like milk, bread & produce have really helped us stick to our budget and saved my sanity.

Here's our dinner theme schedule. You can use mine or switch it around and add new ones that fit your schedule and favorite meals.

Sunday: Something new
Monday: Italian or Mexican
Tuesday: Soup, Salad and/or Sandwiches
Wednesday: Asian
Thursday: Crockpot meal
Friday: Something simple & easy (usually something like quesadillas, hot dogs, sandwiches, or leftovers)
Saturday: Breakfast for dinner

Five to ten minutes is all you need! Go ahead, try it out and let me know if meal planning has simplified your life...even just a little.

My blog has a name!!

I would like to warmly welcome you to REALISTIC HOMEMAKING!! I guess I could have done better but I think the title it fits me and my life. I don't have a family command center, I don't have a binder that organizes our entire lives and I don't have a perfectly clean house. Does that mean that I can't make things work and that our family can't thrive? Certainly not! It's not that having a super organized house and life are bad. I wish I had that but it just isn't in my DNA. My motto for housekeeping is pretty simple, I do things when I can, and I set realistic goals. I'm not putting myself down what-so-ever; I think my home is nicely decorated, I love to cook & bake, I meal plan and I have fun with my kids. I can't do it all and I'm okay with that. :)

Blog name and living room revamp!

You would think coming up with a blog name would be pretty easy but it's not. I'm serious. I've come up with a couple but they are taken or there is something out there similar. Any ideas? I'm taking suggestions.

In other news....We got a new sectional today! I'm so excited! I have been wanting a new look and more seat in our family room for ages. We walked in the furniture, saw this beauty and bought it. In and out in 10 minutes, we were thrilled for it to be so easy. New throw pillow fabric has be bought, just need to make them or have them made and I already have fresh new paint color all picked out. Right now the room is looking VERY beige; beige walls, beige curtains, beige sofa, neutral flooring. We are not that boring, I promise, we used to have a leaf green sofa in the room and colorful throw pillows. I can't wait to pull it all together!! The hardest part will be finding an opportunity to paint with 3 small children. Me and the kids are going out of town soon so I'm hoping I can talk the hubs into doing it while we are gone. The color I've decided to go with is Rainwashed by Sherwin Williams click here to see a room in the color. I just love it! We might even paint our kitchen the same color and carry the same color theme in there but I'm getting way ahead of myself. My husband says I do that a lot, but I think I'm just a planner and a dreamer. Stay tuned to see our progress and the finished product!! Thanks for stopping by. :)

Nice huh?! See what I mean by boring? Not for long!

New accent fabric. So cute and fun but still sophisticated.

 

I love this fabric!

 

 

Changes!!

I obviously have not posted anything in a long time, it has been very busy around here! Anyway, I've been at a loss as to what direction I should take this blog. Should I have it be about my home life, or about my kids or about decorating or about how our family of 5 fits in a 1200 sq ft. house or about gluten free cooking & Celiac Disease (more about that later). After careful consideration I will write about it all!! About my life. My ups and downs, my struggles and joys. I am not a master of domestic endeavors but I make it work and I think I may need to give myself more credit. Through this blog I hope to connect with other women and moms and it be a place for me to talk about the things that I want to talk about. If I help someone along the way, then that is fantastic!

My goal is to write 1 blog post per week and one favorites post per month. I think that's doable. 

I also think my blog needs a new name.....hmmmm.....

What's coming up!

I will be starting to work on some new thing for my blog coming up next week. This week we all have the stomach flu so things are kinda on hold right now. I really want to start posting about the main reason I started the blog. My quest to become an reasonably awesome homemaker. I'm not aiming to be Martha Stewart and Betty Crocker rolled into one but I want to do a better job. I will be posting my triumphs and failures, as I navigate this crazy world as a wife, mom and zoo keeper of my home.

Some things that are in the works:

- 20+ Freezer meals in one day
- My cloth diaper stash and washing routine
- Making our master bedroom over for free or close to free
- Laundry stain tips 

Stay tuned!! :)

Our new addition!

Mommy and baby in the NICU

Hi there!! A lot has happened since my first and last pregnancy update. I'll get right to it! First off, I previously stated that I had 2 1/2 months left, however, I ended up only having a month and nine days left. Baby #3 was born via emergency c-section on May 12th (original due date was June 18th). I was visiting my parents 3 hours away to "relax" a bit before the baby came. Sweet Pea had other plans it seems. The night before we planned to go back home I started to have contractions. They were more painful than braxton hicks but I was only 34 weeks so I wrote it off. Over the next hour or so they did not die down and were lasting a minute at about 4 minutes apart. I went to my parents' local L&D to get checked out just in case. I was totally closed but having regular painful contractions. They did various tests & an ultrasound and had no idea why I was contracting on a regular basis but not dilating. I kept waiting and begging them to send me home, thinking it was just false labor. They tried several drugs to stop my contractions with no luck. My nurse was just about to start me on Magnesium when I had a contraction, and felt a pop and a gush. I knew my water had broke. I immediately started bawling and called my nurse. I was not ready for her. I still had 5 weeks to go and I wasn't at home! I felt the pad under me to see if it was wet and it was but I was not prepared for what was on my finger. Bright red blood. I knew something was very wrong. The resident doctor came in and check me and I went from 0 to a finger tip dilated in about 15 minutes and my contractions were on top of each other...literally. They were overlapping and you couldn't even see the peaks on the monitor. It was the most painful labor I had ever experienced. The on-call doctor came in, took one look at my contraction pattern and bleeding, and diagnosed me with possible placental abruption and informed me that I would be having a c-section right now. What? What? Wait! I'm alone! My husband is at home 3 hours away! I can't be having my baby right now! I had sent my mom home a few hours earlier thinking I would be discharged after the attending doctor came on shift, so I was really alone. My sister drove like the wind to be there with me during the delivery while my husband headed there too. Everything is a blur. Papers to sign, giving blood samples, and being prepped for my delivery. Mind you, before this I had only had normal uncomplicated and easy vaginal deliveries. I was taken into the OR and about 10 minutes later my precious baby girl Abigail was born screaming her little head off. Such a wonderful sound. My sister described how she looks and what the NICU staff was doing to her. She was having some problems breathing so off to the NICU she went. I did get to see her and kiss her and she looked just like her daddy. She was perfect. My head was spinning with what had happened. I finally got to see my hubby in the recovery room, he brought me my mother's day cards and let me cry. She's here, healthy and absolutely beautiful. If the hospital would have discharged me when I want to I could have been on the freeway heading home when all of this went down. I know for a fact God had his hand over us keeping us safe. Sweet Pea is truly a gift from Him.

I am also working on a story of Sweet Pea's time in NICU. Thank you for reading!  

Going home!!!