Meal plan for October 6th – 12th

I did a terrible job of posting last week.  I’m sorry.

I have a really really good excuse though.

I was tired and feeling L-A-Z-Y.

Every night when I got home, Troy would say something like “hey, the contractors are going to cut a hole in our wall tonight, so we need to pull everything we own from the closet and um, find a place for it”.

Or, “we need to move everything from the master bedroom in to a tiny corner of our bedroom”.  Side note, even with everything packed more tightly than a Jenga tower, both Troy and I agree that it is still a bigger space than our bedroom in our Los Angeles apartment.

And so, we would move everything, and it would take 15 times longer than expected.  And we’d finally get everything moved, and then collapse because we were tired and sick of moving crap already!

I currently have about 10 outfits shoved in to Jack’s closet, and the rest of my belongings in plastic garbage bags in the attic.  I hope no one at work minds that I’m wearing essentially the same clothes daily at work for um, the next two to three months.

Also, there is a door, in the wall of my bedroom that leads to essentially nowhere.  It’s neat.

They’re coming for our bathroom next week, so we’ll be sharing with Jack for the foreseeable future.  That is not my ideal set up, because I am convinced that boy pee smells approximately 1,592% worse than girl pee.  #truth.

Today is my birthday, which I once heard is the most common birthday in the US.  Happy Birthday to everyone else whose parents got freaky on New Years Eve.  Yuck.

I spent all night Friday canning applesauce (24 quarts), and got only five hours of sleep.  And Jack decided that after a week of sleeping in on the daily, he chose to wake up at the buttcrack of dawn.

When Troy asked me last week what I wanted for my birthday, I reminded him we haven’t exchanged birthday (anniversary, Valentines, or Christmas) gifts in almost five years.  And I wouldn’t have it any other way; totally takes the pressure off.  I told him what I really wanted was three hours alone in the garden to put it to bed for the winter, clean up the chicken yard, and plant the garlic for next year.  He looked at me and said “okkkkk, I think that can be arranged”.

And he made it happen.  My hero.  With Harry Potter on audiobook on my ipod, I worked my butt off.  I pulled all the tomato plants, and salvaged any that were still good (later made 1.5 gallons, yes gallons of salsa), cleaned the chicken coop, ripped up all the green beans, added compost to that bed, planted the garlic, and then moved all the blueberry bushes under our kitchen window to give them a little bit more space.

FYI, for all you city people, putting a garden to bed means pulling up (to compost) all the summer plants that are no longer producing, adding compost to the beds, and covering with straw.  It is NOT tiptoeing around and putting blankets on the plants, which is what my friend Elaina assumed.  She’s cute.

We’re still getting enough raspberries to where I haven’t chopped the canes down yet.

After my shower, I sat down for the first time in what seemed like a whole day.  When I went to get up, I made the “dad noise” and for the first time in my (now) 33 years, I felt old.  Everything hurt, and I was exhausted.  It’s all a downhill slide from here right?

I received some really lovely gifts from friends and family this year.  I am the easiest person to shop for because “garden and kitchen shit” pretty much sums me up.  My in-laws got me a new pair of gardening boots.  My previous ones were 11 years old, and just held together by chicken poop and feathers.

My friend Elaina got me pretty much the best cheese knife in the world.  When she was visiting in January, she watched me struggle to cut some Tillamook with my chef’s knife, and an idea was born.  I’m not linking it so you can see, because she said if I looked at the price, she’d cut me.

My friend Anne gifted me a lovely convection oven.  I’ve wanted one ever since I saw her bake cookies in one when it was approximately 102 degrees outside without heating up her kitchen.  I’ve mentioned here before that my kitchen is the hottest room in the house in the summer, and this little beauty will help keep us a wee bit cooler next summer, without having to compromise yummy cooked meals.  And cookies.

I’m very blessed, and am hoping this year is a good year.  I’m hoping, I’m praying, and wishing that this year is a really good year.  May all the balls our family is currently juggling align in to something fabulous.

Hee hee, I said ball juggling.  Apparently 33 is the not the year that I’ll actually grow up.

Meal time?  Meal time!

Monday:: Having a friend and her kiddos over for homemade pizza, cut up veggies, and fruit.

Tuesday:: Baked potato bar featuring “World’s Second Best Baked Potatoes“, roasted Brussels sprouts, and fruit.

Wednesday:: I’m calling this night “mystery meat”, rice, lumpia, and fruit.  We have three small unlabeled canning jars in the freezer filled with various kinds of shredded meat, and I’m going to thaw them and see what’s what.  Note to self: label…

Thursday:: Tomato soup, biscuits, and fruit.

Friday:: I’ll be spending the weekend with my mom while my dad goes fishing, so the boys will have popcorn, and mom and I might go crazy and have…popcorn.  And watch Project Runway, and lots of HGTV while I soak up their cable tv.

Saturday:: Frittata, salad, and fruit.

Sunday:: No idea what we’ll have for Sunday dinner, but I’m in charge so I better figure that out by Saturday.

This week I spent $3.50 at the farm for raw milk, $14.78 at a local farm stand (they’re not all local, but many of their products are local, and a good fall/winter substitution until my favorite local farmstead opens up Father’s Day weekend), $42.15 at the grocery store, and $5.99 at Costco (I’m headed there after church, but we only need a loaf of mozzarella for pizza).

What are you having this week?