April's Meals

I have a video of the boys feeding ducks this past weekend that I plan to post soon, but in the meantime I wanted to post my April meal plan since I feel good about making myself do that today :). I didn't do much else beside have a doctor's appointment (everything is doing well) and have a lunch date with Kim (a treat, as always!), but I feel much better knowing what we'll be eating for the next month :). I'll post a few recipes this week, too.

4/1 - Pasta primavera, garlic bread
4/2 - Sweet and sour chicken
4/3 - Hamburgers and oven fries
4/4 - Taco boats with pinto beans, sweet corn cake, chips and salsa
4/5 - BBQ ribs, buttermilk biscuits
4/6 - Beef enchiladas, beans
4/7 - Roast chicken, popovers
4/8 - Omelettes, challah bread
4/9 - Kielbasa skillet dinner
4/10 - BBQ beef sandwiches
4/11 - Mac and cheese
4/12 - Chicken marsala, salad, garlic bread
4/13 - Kabobs, biscuits, fruit salad
4/14 - Leftovers
4/15 - Chicken pot pie, homemade applesauce
4/16 - Black beans and rice
4/17 - Italian sausage pasta, garlic bread, broccoli
4/18 - Fried trout, cornbread
4/19 - Crockpot cranberry chicken, peas, rice
4/20 - Pork roast or carnitas?
4/21 - Leftovers
4/22 - Pasta w/ alfredo sauce
4/23 - Breakfast for dinner
4/24 - Dinner out
4/25 - Nachos with refried beans, tomatoes, avocadoes
4/26 - Chicago style deep dish pizza
4/27 - BBQ chicken breasts, sweet potatoes, dinner rolls
4/28 - Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, carrots
4/29 - Broccoli, potato, and cheese quiche
4/30 - Ground beef tacos

Happy Easter!

Over here at the Campbell household, we're all very glad that it's Eastertime! We had a great Easter yesterday. Since David went to the Easter Vigil mass on Saturday, he planned to stay at home on Sunday morning and catch up on his rest. I could have left the boys home with him and gone to Easter mass by myself, but both David and I really felt like of all masses of the year, the boys should not miss out on Easter mass. So I was thinking about my options and decided to give Kim a call to see if she and Michael might be going to mass on Sunday morning (I knew she would be at their Easter Vigil also, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask!). It turned out that Kim did have to be at church on Sunday morning, so I decided to take the boys on a mass field trip to Aunt Wheetah's church yesterday morning. It was great! The boys were as well behaved as I've ever seen them (Thomas cried a few times but spent the majority of the mass in the pew), it was great to celebrate Easter mass with Kim and baby Michael-in-utero, and everything about the mass was beautiful.

While I was gone with the boys, David fixed us a delicious brunch back home. After brunch, we headed off to an Easter egg hunt and potluck with some people from church, and that went very well. Jack and Thomas got a kick out of finding the hidden eggs (and sampling the candy inside, of course). The highlight of the potluck, though, was probably the baby goats that we got to see while we were there -- They were a week old (and looked just like this picture) and were very cute! The couple that hosted the egg hunt is planning to buy 2 goat kids, so they had the lady who is selling them come by with the mom goat and 4 kids so they could choose which 2 they wanted to buy.

After the egg hunt (which obliterated nap and quiet time, yeow!), we got home and tried our best to keep the boys from self-destructing until bedtime. They had a great day, but were exhausted, cranky, and whiny by the end of it.

Today was Aftermath Monday, so I tried to get through the day with as much sanity intact as possible, but it's been rough. It always seems to take a few days for the boys to settle back into a normal routine after a Big Event, so I fully expect the first part of this week to be full of extra whining, crying, temper tantrums, etc. but I do hope tomorrow is a little easier. I find that my tolerance of the kids' misbehavior is decreasing as my tummy size increases -- I'm trying to be patient, but when Peter is squirming and doing crazy acrobatics inside, Thomas is grabbing at my leg and demanding over and over again "Help, PEAS!" or "All done, PEAS!" and then 2 milliseconds later "No all done, PEAS!" and Jack is saying "I want ____!" (after the millionith reminder to ask for things politely) or "I can't do ____ because my legs/arms/toes/you-name-it won't work", I feel like I'm going to lose what's left of my mind :). It's like there's not enough of me to go around. What was Bilbo Baggins' line in The Lord of the Rings -- something like "I feel thin, like butter spread over too much toast". I hear that. But, I have no doubt that these times are good for my soul, and when I have nothing left to give that's when I'm closest to Christ. It's my job to raise my kids to be disciples of Christ, but that process is a journey for me also, and I know I have my own, made-just-for-Kathy crosses that I'll have to carry along the way as I become a better discipl also. But boy, it can be HARD sometimes!

In other less profound (but exciting!) news, I made my own yogurt today!! I got the recipe last week and tried it out today, and it worked! Yogurt making might not rate too high on some people's excitement scale (I think David might have been underwhelmed), but we go through a lot of yogurt here. The boys love it plain, with berries, with granola, in smoothies, in popsicles, etc. and I like it, too. It's good for us, especially since I buy just the plain, no sweeteners or additives kind. But, it's expensive! I think it's about $3 for a quart of yogurt, and I usually buy about 2 quarts a week. Now I can make my own, for half as much! Milk is about $3 a gallon, and a gallon of milk will make about 2 quarts of yogurt. Now, if I can keep my pumpkin, watermelon, tomato, cucumber, and herb plants alive and healthy for a while, maybe I can actually see my grocery bill start to go down a little. God help us when we're feeding 3 teenage boys!!

29 Weeks

I couldn't really think of a more creative post for this title, so there you go. :). It's hard to believe that I hit 30 weeks next week. In my mind that means things are getting close! I still feel good, although my right hip is a little achy. I feel like my joints are loosening up (I've heard some pregnant moms refer to it as feeling like a cooked chicken, which I can relate to!). There's not much I can do about it, since it's not a muscle pain that can be massaged or anything, so I'm just trying to ignore it as best I can. I do find myself starting to waddle a little, though! Somehow that's just the way my hips want to move, although it makes me feel like I'm waddling because of my largesse.

The boys have been very sweet about baby Peter lately. Both Jack and Thomas kiss my tummy and Thomas says "I ya you!" (=I love you) to my tummy. The other day I was steaming milk with the espresso machine and it was making a lot of noise. Jack, with a concerned look on his face, came up to me and said "Mom, you're hurting Peter's ears!". It's funny that Peter is even on his radar yet, since he can't see him or interact with him.

Other than that, I'm still slowly working on the backyard. Our lemon trees (which I don't think we've gotten good fruit from yet) are starting to bloom, so I'm hopeful that we'll have a good lemon crop this year. There's nothing like fresh-squeezed lemonade!! And our little tomato, cucumber, basil, and pumpkin seedlings are all very happy. Thomas has loved a few of the seedlings a little too hard (i.e. squashed the daylights out of them), but Jack is very good about being gentle with them. I really hope these little plants survive the weather and wildlife long enough to give us some good crops!

Frozen Assets

That's what I've heard some people call the tasty meals that you set aside in your freezer for later use. In my case, I'd love to have about 14 meals frozen before Peter is born so I have 14 guaranteed stress-free dinners when I need them. I'm actually finding the planning and freezing of the meals really enjoyable! I do feel like my freezer is starting to fill up with valuable treasures. I'm trying hard to make sure they'll taste good when I thaw them out (i.e. using good quality freezer bags, squeezing out as much air as possible, freezing the food right after I cook it, etc.).

So far, I have frozen:
-Chili
-Ropa Vieja
-Sloppy Joes
-Meatballs
-Spaghetti Sauce
-Pizza sauce
-2 pizza doughs
-Beef Stew
-Split Pea Soup (only I like this, but still it will make good lunches for me!)
-Chicken Cherry Pasta
-Apple Butter

I still want to freeze beef enchiladas, chicken fajita meat, chicken pot pie, and a bunch of breakfast foods like waffles, pancakes, and bread.

Anyway, for several of these meals I just cooked double the amount I would normally make and froze half of it. It was more work than just making a single batch, but not quite twice as much work, so I figure it must save me some time and energy.

Nothing too new around here

I just posted a handful of good pictures below this post, so be sure to check them out :).

Nothing too new is going on around here. It's been a crazy week -- David was really sick with the flu all of last week, and I feel like we're all still playing catch-up. Fortunately, it seems like the boys and I managed to escape the illness. Last week Thomas managed to lock himself in the house for about 30 minutes while Jack and I were in the front yard. Thomas was in the house and locked the door from the garage to the house, and I didn't have my keys and all of the windows were locked. It was late morning, and David was still asleep since he was home sick, so I thought about my options -- taking the door off the hinge, breaking into a window, getting up onto the roof and making my way to the back deck so I could open the unlocked sliding glass door (I did consider this for a few seconds, but ruled it out once I reminded myself that I am 7 months pregnant!!) -- OR making enough racket outside to wake up David and have him unlock the door, so I opted for the last choice. Thankfully, David heard my knocking and doorbell-ringing after a few minutes and saved the day. Poor Thomas was scared (he was perfectly safe inside, thankfully) because he didn't know what to do. I kept trying to talk him through unlocking the door which he had locked, but he didn't understand what I was asking of him, and that made him cry all the harder. But, he recovered quickly and we survived :).

Other than that, I passed my sugar test so I don't have gestational diabetes, which is great. My blood work did show that I was anemic, so I'm taking a bunch of iron, but that's no big deal. I'm hoping that maybe some of my tiredness lately has been due to the anemia, so hopefully I'll get more energy back soon. It could also be that I'm 7 months pregnant and chasing after 2 boys and that is enough to make me tired, but I'm holding out hope that it's something more easily fixed since I have things to take care of and really don't like feeling exhausted!

This month I'm working on finishing up the brush removal in the backyard. Our dumpster arrived today!! I'm so excited! Next month I'd like to start stockpiling good meals in our freezer for after Peter is born. This is the first pregnancy that I've had access to a large freezer (we bought it at a reasonable price from friends at church who were moving out of state and needed to unload it), so I look forward to taking advantage of it. I'm trying to think of good things to make that come out the freezer tasting good. I know lasagna is a good one, but David's not terribly fond of it. I think a chicken pot pie would be good, maybe enchiladas, spaghetti sauce, pizza dough, pre-cooked taco meat (apparently it freezes very well so you just have to reheat it and serve!). I just don't want to go to a lot of trouble to make stuff that isn't all that appetizing when we reheat it. Fortunately, I thought to defrost and scrub out the freezer last weekend before I start filling it, so it shouldn't give my food an "old freezer taste".

Thomasina, the daughter we never had...

Just kidding! I don't actually make a habit of girl-ifying my boys, but as I was cutting flowers in our front yard, I put one behind my ear and Thomas decided he wanted one behind his ear, too :). I couldn't resist the opportunity to snap a picture. I'll admit that I tried to tuck a flower behind Jack's ear (the only thing better than a Thomasina is a Jacqueline AND a Thomasina!), but he wouldn't have any part of it.

You'll note in the second picture that Thomas is riding Jack's trike. His legs aren't long enough to pedal, but he loves to sit in the big boy trike whenever Jack will let him. We're thinking we might get him a trike for his 2nd birthday that he can grow into. We have a couple of baby ride-on toys, but Thomas is very eager to move on to bigger and better wheels.

Enjoying popsicles

It's been warm and sunny during the last week, and the boys have been enjoying time spent outside. It was warm enough a few days ago that I offered them a popsicle as a snack, and got these pictures. I think it was Thomas's first popsicle -- and of course we weren't surprised that he liked it!

The Ring is Off

The other morning I woke up and my wedding ring felt tight on my finger, so I decided to take it off and tuck it away safely until after Peter is born. My hands and feet don't look swollen, but now that I'm in my last trimester, I'm sure I'll start retaining a little water (I did with Jack and Thomas), and I really don't want to damage my finger or my ring if I wait too long to take it off. Until I get used to not wearing my ring, though, I keep having mini-panic moments when I feel my bare finger and have to remember that I took it off on purpose.

We donated a bunch of stuff to Salvation Army this weekend, so the garage looks emptier than it ever has. It's a good feeling! And, I decided that I'm going to rent a dumpster for a month to dispose of the brush that we're clearing out of the backyard. I've been bundling it, but it's slow going, and my back doesn't take too kindly to all the bending, tying, etc. these days, so I think I'm going to use a wheeled trashcan to ferry loads of brush from the backyard to the dumpster which will be out front. I won't make the trashcan loads very heavy, obviously, since I have to drag them up the hill and up the stairs, but I think this way will actually be easier and quicker than anything else. Plus, it gives me a nice outdoor project to work on while the boys play in the backyard. And it gives me some good exercise to make me stronger for labor :).

Speaking of which, I bought an exercise video a couple of weeks ago that I've been doing semi regularly, and I'm really enjoying it! It's called Walk Away the Pounds, and I had heard good things about it, so when I saw the DVD for sale at K-Mart for $14.99, I picked it up. It's a decent workout (especially since it's low-impact and not too strenuous for this achy pregnant lady), and it's not nearly as annoying as some workout videos I've tried. In general, I'd much rather get outside and walk rather than do a video inside, but sometimes I don't feel like tackling all the hills near our house with a stroller, or the weather is yucky, or I can't find the time for a walk until the boys are taking their afternoon siesta. I hope this extra walking helps make me a little stronger for labor -- but if nothing else, hopefully it will help keep me healthy and help keep my weight gain in check during this last trimester. My weight gain is fine so far (and I certainly don't want to stop gaining or lose weight now!), but if for any reason a doctor or nurse thinks I've gained too much between visits, at least I can tell them I've been eating well and exercising, and there's not much grief they can give me about that! And, I feel like it gives me a little more freedom when I have a craving for something like ice cream or chocolate -- I can indulge my craving a bit without feeling too guilty. :)