Catch-up....or is it catsup?

Good morning, all.

It's been awhile, huh?  I guess that's what happens when you take a vacation that stretches out to 10 days (5 of them driving..) and you make a commitment to not eat fast food gourmet on the way or in the hotel rooms.   Yep, that was my life for the last month.   I doubled a week's worth of meals and froze them, and we trekked them to and from FL with us, eating them in the hotel room every night (One plus of being "too big" of a family for a regular hotel room:  we're forced to book the suites, which tend to have more options for making food).

But now we're back and re-adjusting to real life.  With a baby who is now walking.  And getting into everything.   And refusing to eat baby food, be fed by someone else, and (as of today) insisting that all drinks come in sippy cup form.  Which means that my baby pretty much always looks like this now:

Which also means that my dogs are in doggie heaven.

And that you should not look at my floors when you come visit.

Anywho....it was a fantastic vacation.  We headed back to my hometown for the week, and spent it soaking up the sun on the beach, watching the Blue Angels, exploring the historic village, and dolphin cruising.   Wanna see pictures?  Of course you do!    I'll try to keep it to the bare minimum, as some of you have already seen these on Facebook, I'm sure:

Historic village tour....old Protestant Church....adopted child pretends to serve Mass.....hilarious

Grahaminator's science lessons had been on the ocean recently - including marine animals.  All he wanted from vacation was to see dolphins.....mission accomplished!

Driving the dolphin cruise

Stopping to see dear friends on the way home....so blessed

Love the Blues

Living it up, resort-style

This child is going to keep me on my toes.  She is an adrenaline JUNKIE

Biggest child left this for the housekeeping staff at the hotel to "make them laugh because their job is so hard"

Theo LOVED vacation!

It was an added blessing to share the week of fun with my mom (Nanny) and my grandma (More Nanny)

Early morning nature walks TOTALLY make this a school day, right?

You may have noticed something about the pictures above........a certain little face maybe?  

Right before we left for vacation, this happened:

Yeppers!  Theo is officially Theo, and we are so very very grateful.  This little man brightens our days and fills our hearts.  He's a special little guy, that's for sure!!!

Alright, I need to go pick said little man up from school, but I'll be back.  SO MUCH HAPPENED during our week that I need to process (reflections on mothering, family, adoption, faith, you name it....pretty much everything was questioned or illuminated this past week, including a very anxiety-ridden lunch stop for me that brought A LOT of things to the surface).    I'll be back to do so as soon as we are unpacked.....

You turn around for ONE measly second to wash dishes and...

....this....

...turns into....

....this.....

I guess she wanted a bath.  Haha

Five Faves: Easter Weekend

Linking up with Jenna again today, to tell you a bit about our Easter Weekend!

I'm not gonna lie, Holy Week was a doozy for me.   Our oldest Circus clown serves at pretty much every service during the Triduum, and that made for lots of hurry-up-and-waiting for us at the Circus.   Lots of scrambling to get kids up from naps and dressed and ready to go.....just to go wrangle them in a pew while big brother helped to prepare the church.   A couple times, I managed to sneak out on my own and leave the rest of the rascals with Mike, but there was still a lot of hurry-up-and-wait for that, too.  Didn't want to leave the poor man without a packed diaper bag or dressed-up little girl!!  

Anywho, because I'm feeling lazy, here are my five favourite things from this weekend.....

1.

Dyeing Easter Eggs

I don't know if Theo had done this before in his home country, but this was his first time doing it with us.  I'm pretty sure it was the highlight from my weekend - he would squeal with laughter (loud, pure joy kind of squeals) every time the white egg came out of the cup of dye a bright colour.   Loved loved loved it.

2.

"Egging" our Friends

I'm only able to tell you about it here because they all figured it out, but after Easter brunch, we loaded up the clowns and snuck to a couple of friend's houses and "egged" their yards.   A sign and 12 plastic eggs were quickly placed in their yard and then (if they were home), one of the boys did the whole "ring the doorbell and run" trick to the waiting getaway car.  Lots of giggles, lots of smiles, and just a fun way to spend the afternoon as a family.   I hope it catches on and that next year we are joined by some friends!

3.

Opening the Pool

The chemicals were finally perfect, the pool was finally clean, and the water was finally 84º degrees, so on Easter afternoon (after the egging), we jumped in!  So much fun, right in our backyard!   We've been back a couple of times a day since jumping in over the weekend, and every time I find myself so incredibly happy to see the kids playing and goofing off together.   We are so very lucky.

4.

The Easter Vigil

source

This is actually a picture from a previous year (last year, maybe?), but it was just as beautiful this year.  I absolutely love our church - the building itself is just so amazingly beautiful - and the Easter Vigil really shines (haha, literally!).   You can't help but gasp in response to the light spreading through the congregation.  I love it.  Favourite mass of the year, by far.

I also love seeing how my kids see the Vigil.  Every year, I give the littles ones crayons and a blank book ($1 spot, Target!), and I tell them to draw what they see.   We never allow them to bring toys/things into church normally, so this is a BIG DEAL for them and they take it pretty seriously.   This year, the candles seemed to be the focus of the littlest clowns....

5.

Just getting to spend time with the family

I know it's cheesy, but just being able to spend time, at home, with the whole family and do fun things like Easter eggs or brunch or watching basketball games (Go State!) or movies or swimming or going to the vigil together was the highlight of weekend for me.  It's nice to know that Mike isn't going to get paged away from us or we don't have schoolwork hanging over our heads.  I hope your Easter was as relaxing and enjoyable as ours was!

Happy Easter from the Circus!

How to Mop the Bathroom, in 10 Easy Steps

1. Change the baby's diaper and notice that she's kind of stinky and needs a bath.

2. Leave the baby's diaper off while you let her crawl on the floor of the bathroom.

3. Start running her bath.

4. Look over at baby and notice that she's peed ALLLLLLLLLL over your bathroom floor in the last 30 seconds.

5. Use a towel to clean it up. Bathe baby.

6. Decide that the 5 year old is also kind of stinky and you should bathe him, too. Call him into the bathroom and get him undressed.

7. Lift 5 year old into the tub. Forget to remove the hair washing bucket before turning around to redress the baby just outside the bathroom door (since the floor had pee residue on it).

8. Dress baby. Hear a SPLASH!!!! and remember that you forgot to remove the hair washing bucket from the tub before putting the 5 year old in.

9. Panic while watching the flood of bathwater spread quickly all over the bathroom floor. Let the baby crawl away, half-dressed (but with a diaper on!), while you hurry and soak up the water with all available towels.

10. Text your husband to tell him that you mopped the bathroom floor this morning. 

Five Favourites: What I've Been Reading

Linking up with Jenna today!

Feeling a bit lazy - well, honestly, more tired than lazy - after our big ol' field trip to the state house today to see the Senate and the House of Representatives at work, so I'm kind of taking the easy way out today (tonight?).   I've not had a chance to do real reading this past week, so how about I throw some links at you?   For your reading pleasure.......

What I've Been Reading, Five Favourites-Style!

1.

Starting it off with one of my favourite bloggers, Brianna .  There are some bloggers that I'd love to meet in person and chat with over a cup of coffee, and she is one.    This post, about why it's okay to have a large family, really spoke to me today.   Go check it out, but here's my favourite part:

There was a time when I too would have questioned the judgment of a married couple throwing caution, good sense, and money to the wind in exchange for a fifteen-passenger-van and four sets of bunk beds.  But that was before I had the misfortune of actually using the pill to prevent pregnancy, and it was before I became a mother, and before I encountered the life-giving truth about the vocation of Holy Matrimony.  Now, I’m raising my eight kids, ya’ll!  Which is funny, because I never really anticipated having a big family, but here I am.  And I don’t worry too much about whether or not other people think that’s the best thing or a good thing or the right thing for kids, because I know, I know, that children are not only a precious gift but that they are also natural to, and good for, marriage.  And I now know too that children are a gift to one another.

Contrary to what people on Facebook were arguing, raising many children is not the same thing as being a teacher or running a daycare, neither of which ever appealed to me in the least.  And contrary to what most people think you don’t have to be a saint.  Kids (usually) come one at a time.  You learn as you go.  Sometimes you mess up.  There are happy moments and sad ones, too.  It’s life, and it’s full.  Oh.so.full.

2.

We had a long break between Nicholas and Ruthie, and a couple of miscarriages along the way.  There were times during those two rascals where I wondered if we were ever going to be blessed with biological children again, and struggling when I saw families around me growing in leaps and bounds.   Comments were made - even by representatives of the church - about our family size and the fact that there were "only" three children.   I feel like now we're on the "large family" side of the rude comments....but there was a time when we weren't and when every pregnancy announcement felt like a knife-stab into my heart.   Where I'd lock myself in the bathroom and cry because, once again, another friend was pregnant and we weren't....but yet, we were one of the "lucky" ones who had been blessed with children before this happened.   

If you don't read anything else that I link to here, please read this post.   It's important to remember that there's another side to the inappropriate comments and questions about family size.

We Said Yes, Too

3.

I read this one earlier today and it made me so very sad.    There's a lot of truth here about the state of our Church and the role of the family in passing on the faith - and a definite wake-up call to us parents.

What Children's Confessions Reveal

4.

Not into March Madness?   No worries......here's a different kind of bracket competition....Catholic- style.  ;)

March Madness, Catholic Style

5.

I posted this the other day on our Facebook page, but if you happened to miss it, please do us all a favour and go read it now.     Simcha has managed to put my entire life experience of owning animals into one hilariously perfect blog post.   I couldn't stop laughing!

****

And a bonus one, in case you still need some reading material.   Check out this hilarious song, and make sure you read the comments!!

Weary Parents of Church

my must-do-this-or-life-stinks list (aka Five Fave Parenting Hacks)

I was going to keep this for tomorrow's "Five Faves" but I decided to go ahead and write it today while Theo is super happy and occupied with his bowl of leftover pho and the three other boys are happy with schoolwork and the baby is sleeping.  No guarantees that it will happen again tomorrow, so today's the day.  I'll probably cheat and still link up with Jenna tomorrow, though.    

I couldn't decide what to call this, so Parenting Hacks it is.  It's not really a list of TRUE life hacks, since I'm not repurposing something to make life easier.....but these five things are necessary in the Circus household.  Without them...I'm pretty sure I'd be curled up in the fetal position on the bathroom floor, bawling.

Too many words, not enough hacking.  

Sorry.

Let me fix that.

Hack #1:

Music.  Never underestimate the power of music.   We are huge Pandora fans here, and let me tell you, I've got that thing trained.  We have schoolwork music.  We have playtime music.  We have Advent music.  We have Lent music.  We have quiet time music.  We have dance party music.  We have "everyone's-a-grump-and-we-need-to-break-the-grumpies" music.     

Need a change in attitudes?   Change the station.  Play it loud.    Need to get the kids on task with whatever they need to be doing (quieting down to signal that it's time for the babies to nap?  Done.   Time to pull out the books and get cracking on schoolwork?  Done.  Time to be goofy and keep the baby out of Mommy's hair so she can make dinner?   Done - it's 80s dance party time).

This works for the car, too.   Once I figured out that classical music calms down the rascals in our tight-fitting car (I love it, but every seat is full and as the boys grow.....so do the fights over space or toys), I mandated that it was the only thing we were listening to on our long drives back and forth to gymnastics practice.    Drives are soooooo much nicer now!

Along those lines, my secret weapon in the car can be found online for free OR at any public library.  

Audiobooks.

God bless the person who first decided to read a book and record themselves doing so.   They have saved our road trips.

Hack #2:

Keep nap time going.  Long after naps are being taken.

So far, all of my boys have ended their napping routine at a different age - Joseph made it to kindergarten before giving up his afternoon naps.  Graham made it until age 4.  Nicholas started sleeping 12 hours at night and not napping anymore around age 3.  Theo's still going strong with naps at age 5.  We'll see how Ruthie does, but my guess is that she's going to move into the same "one nap a day" rhythm that everyone else has had pretty soon.    Eventually, she and Theo will be on the same napping schedule completely, and it will match up with the rhythm that I have guarded like a Mama Bear the past 10 years:  busy all morning, lunch time, quiet time.

Even the non-nappers recognize and respect the schedule:   schoolwork and playing all morning, lunch time, then it's "feet-off-the-floor" time.  I don't really care WHERE they do their FOTF time, but it has to happen.   Quiet time reading, writing, drawing, or puzzle or Lego building happens immediately after lunch.  (And yes, quiet time music is its own station on Pandora).   

I *need* that quiet time to recharge for the rest of the day, and we will guard it until the last kid leaves the Circus.   I think one of the reasons dinner time can get so chaotic and so many parents struggle with a "witching hour" just before bedtime is a complete abandonment of nap time.   I refuse to give it up!

Hack #3:

Never start a load of laundry that you won't be able to see through to the very end.  As in, folded and put away in the right drawers/closets.   If you don't have time to wash, dry, fold, and put away a load of laundry, don't start it until you do.    Following this philosophy has made a WORLD of difference in our home life, and honestly, our level of frustration.   Meaning.....the frustration with housework is WAAAYYY lower than it once was.  Sometimes I think I'll be able to see a load through to the end and life happens and I end up not getting to it, but those times are few and far between.    It's amazing - without that back up of laundry staring me in the face, I don't feel as incompetent as a mom and housewife.   I actually feel - most days - like I'm relatively equipped for this job I've found myself in!

Hack #4:

Again related to the previous hack....get rid of at least half of your kids' clothing.   You really don't need it.   Especially once you get up to having as many kids as we do, you're going to be doing laundry on a daily basis, anyway, so your kids will have those clothes back in their drawers in no time.    I've found that the perfect amount of clothing for my boys must include:  3 play shirts and 3 play pants.  5 pairs of underwear.  5 pairs of socks.  1 pair of church pants.  2 church shirts.  At least one hoodie (although my big boys get these often as "complimentary" at gymnastics meets, so we have more of these hanging in the closets).    They don't typically wear pajamas, but just sleep in boxers and tshirts, but we do always have one pair of pajamas per child in case they visit somewhere OR we have houseguests.    Ruthie has even less clothes - about 3 sleepers/pajamas, and probably 3-4 outfits, 2 pairs of tights, and a couple of pairs of socks.

Why only 5ish days' worth of clothes?   It's really simple:  they can start to dress themselves earlier - finding outfits isn't as overwhelming for little ones.    There's less clutter.   Things actually get worn until they're ready to be replaced by the next size, instead of brand new outfits going unworn before the child is too big to wear them.   Sorting laundry is easier, especially for those of us with the same gender all wearing about the same size - it's easier to call to mind a picture of which child wears which article of clothing if you see it worn more often.

And the number 1 reason to thin out closets until you only have 5 days worth of clothing?    

It's similar to making it easier for you to do the laundry:   because they wear the same clothes over and over again, the kids themselves recognize their clothing more easily and can FOLD AND PUT AWAY THE LAUNDRY FOR YOU.   

Hack #5:

Teach your children to cook.   Even if it's simple things, empowering them in the kitchen will make everyone's lives easier.   By 6, all of my kids can make a salad, peel and prep vegetables and fruit like carrots and apples, warm up and cut up their own frozen pancakes, and make their own instant oatmeal.     At 7, they start joining me in the kitchen and start learning how to scramble, fry, or hard boil eggs, cook noodles and sauce, or cook rice or quinoa.   At 8, they start learning how prepare meals out of this book.  (that book is, by far, our favourite "kid cookbook", because of the simple-to-read instructions, large photographs, and varied recipe options).  Teaching the kids to cook simple things may seem really overwhelming at first, but, let me tell you....it is game-changing as a parent.   Being able to ask Graham to go make some egg salad sandwiches, from start to finish, for lunch - and being able to trust that he can do it well - is a huge life saver when the baby is teething and only wants to be held by Mommy.   Seriously.  Game-changing parenting move.

*****

So, there they are.  My five fave parenting tips that were passed on to me and that I refuse to ignore.    

What are your must-do-parenting things?  Share on FB or in the comments below!

Late night rambling.

I should be in bed right now, because Theo has school tomorrow morning and I have to get us all out of the house by 8 am to get him to school in the morning, but, well, I had a coffee after dinner.   So now I'm awake.  The rest of the house is asleep, and I'm sitting here planning lesson plans for our FL vacation in two months (my poor kids.  Even vacation means schoolwork!).

Today was pretty good - it started rough with tired kids and adrenaline crashes now that the state meet is over and cranky, bickering kids, but we pulled it together and ended up laughing like crazy at a Vietnamese restaurant and neighbouring gelato place and then literally marching (Mr Theo insisted that we all march in a line) down the sidewalk in small-town Maine.    It took a "go back to bed and we'll pretend to start the day over" wake up call.  (Yes, I did that.  I sent all of the boys back to bed at 10 am and made them stay in bed until I walked down the hallway at 10:10 am singing "Time to wake up!!" and telling them good morning.   We needed a reboot), but we made our way into a good day after all.   We had a state champion gymnast (Graham) and two little boys qualifying for the regional meet to celebrate, after all!

Mike had a day off today (yay!), so we packed up the car and went on a field trip to a museum about 45 minutes away.   It was all about the history of shipbuilding and everything-sailing-and-transporting-via-water in Maine, and it was really interesting.  The two oldest boys really enjoyed it, but Nicholas struggled a bit.  It was a very reading-intensive kind of museum, and he's not quite there yet.    Graham caught it on camera:

haha whoops.   I look pretty firm there, huh?  pointing my finger and all

Overall, it turned out to be a really nice day.

It's time to deactivate our FB account again, I think.   The meet is over, so the reason for even being ON FB is gone.  While part of me will be sad to see it go, I'll have to admit, I'm actually looking forward to deactivating again.   It's such a time drain.   And honestly, BOTH Mike and I noticed a drastic change in our emotional states these past two-ish weeks, back on FB.   We both have had the same reaction - we're discontented, distracted, and honestly, emotionally tired.  The best way to describe it?   We're "blah."  Just not as happy or as fulfilled as we were without it.   It's actually slightly shocking that we both were struggling with this overall sense of unexcitedness (is that a word?) about life, and when we talked about it, we realized that the ONLY thing that had changed at home was the re-introduction of Facebook.   It's like it sucked the joy right out of our emotional states.   It almost feels liberating to leave it again.

(That being said, I will keep the blog page going, since it's so easy for everyone to follow it.  Just go here and "like" the page and the blog updates should show up in your newsfeed).

We got the first court date for finalizing Theo's adoption, and are working on getting everything in order for that.   I can't wait for all of this paperwork to be finished - adoption is NOT for the faint of heart,  I tell ya!  This little boy is worth every bit of it, but, man, it is so hard at times!  Legalese is not my first language, and I actually think all of this paperwork has made me *more* nervous to fill out official forms than before the adoption.  I'm always so scared that I'm going to make a mistake and set us back months or screw something up.    There's so much pressure!

This weekend slightly sabotaged the diet/exercise plan.  We've had so much sugar and processed foods over the past two days, and have missed workouts on the same days.  Weigh-in day was on Saturday, and I'm officially down 7 pounds since Valentine's Day, which is fabulous!  Halfway to my goal of 15 lbs by our Florida trip.  Yay!   Tomorrow's going to be rough for all of us, though.  Detox days (no sugar or processed foods, back to the workouts) are struggles.   It's amazing to me just how quickly your body starts to become addicted to junk when you have a "cheat day."  

Alright, I really need to go to bed.   Baby Girl should be up to eat soon, and I want to sneak in some sleep before that happens!   Have a great night, all!  

Thoughts on parenting

I know, I know, there are four million blog posts out there about parenting.   Feel free to pass over this one, I'm sure there's nothing new in it.   If you do choose to continue....consider yourself warned.

****

Quick interruption:   Please, right now, pause and say a prayer for Mike's Baba (grandma).  She fell this morning and probably has broken her hip.  Last we heard, she was heading in for x-rays after being rushed to the hospital.  Considering that she's 92, a broken hip is kind of a big deal!  Please and thank you!

****

Okay, back to the regularly scheduled programming that you've been warned about.  Parenting.

I'll admit, I'm not SuperMom.  Or anywhere close.  Ask my children about the time I called Mike at work crying because I obviously wasn't cut out for this.   Oh, which phone call, you ask?   Pick one.  There have been a couple.  ;)

But, anywho, one thing that I think I've finally figured out in the 10+ years that I've now spent parenting is this:   I'm tired of parenting for other people and their approval.

Maybe it's getting older, maybe it's getting wiser, maybe it's just getting more and more sleep-deprived, but I've realized recently that I've stopped surrounding myself with people (or virtual people) that make me feel badly about myself and my parenting (translating:  this does not mean that I only surround myself with people who praise me and my parenting.  Not at all.  I want to be challenged to do better, to grow in virtue - I want to be surrounded by those who build me up.  I'm not talking about being challenged...I'm talking about being led to be jealous, to be petty, to beat myself up over stupid things...basically, being torn down).    I don't think anyone ever did it purposefully, but back in my earlier parenting days, I spent a lot of time wondering what so-and-so was thinking about me, my kids, and/or my life in general.   

I spent waaaaayyyyy too much time focusing on other people's approval.    I never would have come right out and said it in those words, or even admitted it, but I did.  The boys had to be perfectly dressed, perfectly clean, and perfectly behaved because "gasp!  What if *insert someone's name here* thought I was doing something wrong?"

I still want my children to look nice....well, at least clean, I guess.   Clothing battles aren't high on my list, so the colours might not match, but they'll be clean!   I want them to have clean faces and take care of themselves and maybe, just maybe, not stink (although that's getting harder as the boys get older and do more and more working out in the gym!).   I still want them to behave well and make a good impression.

But while my desire that their behaviour or appearances be positive may not have changed in the past 10 years, the motivation behind that desire has changed.   Drastically.

I'm no longer parenting for the playgroup's approval.   

I'm parenting because I want them to have the inner knowledge as to WHY they should strive to take care of themselves.   I want them to know WHY they should treat themselves and others with respect and compassion.   I want them to know, deep down inside themselves, this one simple truth - we are created in God's image and that should direct every single thing that we do, and every single interaction with another person.

I don't really care if the playgroup thinks....but I care ever so much about what my child thinks.

I want my child to know that he/she is a temple of the Holy Spirit (shout-out to last weekend's readings at mass).  I want them to know that with every single fiber of their being.

So, I've stopped parenting for show....and started parenting for knowledge.   For dignity.   For Truth.

Lentil recipes, Hagia Sophia, and why every little boy needs gymnastics....

Howdy.  

Today was one of those days that seemed much longer than it really was.   We rushed through schoolwork to try and have a free afternoon, which we then spent sitting around and staring at each other while waiting for various contractors to show up at the house.   The first group did show up, which leads me to celebrate because THIS will be happening soon:

Why yes, that IS our indoor pool! 

The second appointment didn't show, so we sat around and watched a PBS NOVA episode about the Hagia Sophia, and called it bonus schoolwork.   That led to this in my dining room:

That was quickly followed by making dinner, with my little sidekick:

And during all of that, I finally connected the camera to the computer and found these gems:

Which led me to contemplate just what it was about gymnastics that I loved so much for our boys.   There are so  many things (the physical strength and learning how to control their muscles, their awesome coach who is a great role model for them, and the focus on sportsmanship (the judges do NOT take lightly to non-gentlemanly behaviour!)) that we love about the boys being in gymnastics, but honestly.....the thing  I think we love the most is this:

They might get to compete individually, but gymnastics really is the best of both an individual sport AND a team sport.  These boys (this is only half of the team - they were split up into two sessions at this meet, unfortunately) are taught from the very beginning that they are a team of gymnasts, not individual athletes.  They might not be passing balls to each other on a field, but they are very much competing as a team and supporting each other as a team.  I love that about this sport - they learn how to handle the stress of individual performances, but yet have an amazing support group holding them up.   It's an awesome dynamic.

It can get to be an expensive sport, but man, it is worth every penny to me when I see what these guys can do and how much they love each other.

But back to dinner.   We got dinner made, and the table was put back together, so I started moving plates of food onto the table to eat.

I came back into the kitchen and instantly knew that Theo had been there.  How did I know, you wonder?  Because of this:

It's like one of those Poltergeist movies or something around here.  ;)

But he also does this, so he can stick around forever and ever, amen.

Yes, friends, he cleans up after himself, too.  Love this kid.  

And because she's the only one not yet featured in today's post, here's a pretty Baby Girl:

Alright, I need to get rascals in bed, but don't you worry!  Here's tonight's recipe, courtesy of Mr Grahaminator!

Lentil Sloppy Joes

1 cup dry lentils (I usually use green, because they're the easiest to find around here)

2 cups vegetable broth

1 cup water

1 green pepper, diced

1/2 cup ketchup

1 tbsp yellow mustard

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp vinegar

Bring the broth and water to a boil in a medium saucepan.   Once it is boiling, add the lentils and cover.  Reduce heat and simmer until the lentils are tender (stir often and add water if it gets too dry).

Once the lentils are cooked, move them to a large frying pan, along with the green pepper.   There should be some water/broth mixture left in the lentils, but if not, add water to cover the bottom of the pot.   Simmer until the green pepper is tender.

Add the ketchup, mustard, sugar, and vinegar.   Continue to simmer, this time covered, for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  You want the lentils to kind of fall apart and get "mushy."

Add ketchup, mustard, sugar, or vinegar, to taste.   These are the quantities that we used tonight, but you might have to adjust it to suit your family's preferences.

Serve warm, on buns.   Sweet potato fries are the perfect side dish with these sandwiches!

Feeding a family of 7.....and trying to stay in budget

Hi, y'all.  Happy Sunday!

I don't usually go grocery shopping on Sunday, but this weekend seems to be shaping up to be one of those weekends where we make an exception.  After being seemingly healthy this last week and into Saturday, Baby Girl had a really rough night on Saturday night (she just couldn't seem to get comfortable), and then woke up on Sunday morning with a rash that looked very similar to what I remember chicken pox to look like.    She's not running a fever or really even acting like she doesn't feel well, but the rash is still there and I'm just planning for staying home all week to keep her away from the general world.

Anywho, the possibility of a self-quarantine means that my normal Monday grocery shopping trip might not happen, and I needed to go today while Mike could hang out at home with the rascals.  

I sat down after Mike and the boys got home from mass (Ruthie and I stayed home this morning to keep her away from others) and started my weekly routine of taking stock of what we had in the pantry and forming our weekly menu.....and building the all-important grocery list.  

It's hard to stay in budget, and it seems to be getting harder and harder.  One of the things I miss most about living in Arizona would be the cost of groceries - it was pretty easy to stay in budget out there, and even throw in some "special" items throughout the week.   Back here in New England?  Not so much.   Things are pricy....and getting worse.

I recently bumped up our budget to $150/week for feeding the family of 7.  This is supposed to include things like the baby's formula and paper products.  I've switched to buying both of those things at a wholesale club in town, which helps immensely, but it still takes some planning and commitment to trimming waste.  We use every single morsel of food that I buy, even if it means that the chickens are eating it instead of us.   Waste is a four-letter-word around here!

Add to that the fact that the two older boys are in the height of their gymnastics competition season and working out HARD and competing even harder and......well.....we're eating a lot of food.   Which means that I'm buying a lot of food.   Keeping it to that $150/week for all 7 of us is hard, but I'm managing, even with allowing us one "going out" meal a week.  (I put it in quotations because it's technically take out from the local Thai place, but we call it our "night out" meal.   That runs us $32/week, so I'm really working with about $120/week for groceries).

Here's how I did this week:

The Menu

Sunday:

Breakfast - scrambled eggs, fruit (dozen eggs, produce)

Lunch - leftovers (we always start the week trying to clean out the fridge) or hummus wraps

Dinner - Roasted butternut squash and apple soup, salads (just needed to buy produce)

Monday:

Breakfast - smoothies (frozen fruit and veggies, almond milk)

Lunch - pita tunafish sandwiches, salad, fruit (pita is homemade from ingredients I keep on hand, in bulk, purchased tuna and produce)

Dinner - spaghetti, green salads (1 jar of spaghetti sauce, fresh mushrooms and tomatoes and frozen spinach to bulk it up, store-bought noodles)

Tuesday:

Breakfast - pancakes (all things I have on hand)

Lunch - Quinoa fried "rice"  (quinoa I buy in bulk and keep in the freezer, veggies will be whatever I need to use up, soy sauce and garlic I keep on hand always)

Dinner - sloppy joes, sweet potato fries (I did splurge on this one and bought real ground beef at Joseph's request ($8 for just over a pound!!!!! Yikes!  Normally I'd not spend that and we'd just do lentil sloppy joes, at a much much much cheaper $2/lb)   I had to purchase the meat, buns (because I'll not be home to make our own), and a sweet potato to bake up

Wednesday:

Breakfast - oatmeal (bought one box of instant oatmeal - it will give us two breakfasts)

Lunch - make your own salad bar with green salads, black beans or garbanzo beans, hardboiled egg, almonds, and sunflower seeds (bought both kinds of beans to replace the ones that I'd be using up this day since they were on sale, but I didn't *need* to buy them for the week)

Dinner - Burrito bowls using this bean recipe and this rice recipe  (I bought another jar of salsa, bag of rice, bag of beans, and tub of sour cream to replace what we'd be using up, but it wasn't necessary.   I had a bit of wiggle room this week, so I used it to replace things).

Thursday:

Breakfast - smoothies (using frozen fruit and almond milk)

Lunch - homemade "lunchables" with homemade pita wedges,  hummus and veggie sticks (carrots and celery), fruit   (bought cans of garbanzo beans to replace what we'd be eating and another bag of carrots and celery and fruit)

Dinner - this is our splurge take out meal.  We always get Thai food on Thursday.  I'm pretty sure that the boys all think that "Thai Thursday" is the actual day of the week......I bolster it with a choice of salads or fruit so that we don't have to order as much food, but the main dish is something from the restaurant

Friday:

breakfast - scrambled eggs (bought a dozen eggs) and fruit or oatmeal (they can choose)

Lunch - bean and rice burritos, made with the leftovers from Wednesday night, salad and fruit

Dinner - If Baby Girl isn't sick, we might go to the parish Soup and Stations, but I bought food as if we weren't going to go.  Our back-up meal will be Southwest Salads (bought an extra ranch dressing for the pantry in case we used it before).

Saturday:

Breakfast - pancakes 

Lunch - Chickpea "chicken" sandwiches, either on leftover pita bread or tortillas, fruit

Dinner - We're going to try this falafel recipe, with big green salads.   It's a lot of chickpeas in one day, but I really want to try them and Saturday's the best day for me!

So, there you have it.  I spent $85 at one store and $19 at another, so with our planned Thai, that leaves me at $146/week.   Not bad - maybe I'll use that extra $4 to splurge a mid-week treat or something for the kiddos.   It's definitely much harder to stick to a budget now that the kiddos are bigger and eating more food (especially since prices are going up, too!), but I keep trying.   What are your tricks for staying within your planned budget?   Any go-to inexpensive meals?  Share in the comments below or on Facebook!

Alright, my workout awaits me!  Have a great night!

7 QT: American Girl Giveaway, shuttle buses, and T-25

Linking up again today!

1.

I know, I know.  I've been a bad blogger.  I don't really have an excuse, other than, well, I've been busy!  Yes, I know, that evil "busy" word.    I don't know how I feel about that article, but I can see where it's coming from.  When being busy is having a negative effect on your health, yes, I could agree that it isn't a good thing and needs to be stopped......but I don't think the problem can be boiled down to just being "busy".  It's more than that.  It's about expectations and your own desires and needs and putting yourself and your health last.   It's more about what you're busy WITH than the fact that you're BUSY.   But I digress.....

2.

But, yeah, we've been busy.   It's the height of gymnastics season, so we were in Boston last weekend for a big gym meet, and the state meet is next weekend.   This part of the year is our "all gymnastics all of the time" part of the year - the boys live and breathe gymnastics.   If we're not actually AT the gym, they're practicing things at home, talking about their routines, comparing previous scores, and analyzing the competition.   Seriously, I'm pretty sure Mr Graham can't think about anything other than gymnastics.....

My role as a gym mom is to make sure that they're eating well, resting well, and staying away from as many germs as possible, so that we don't have to scratch any meets due to sickness.   With Mr Theo in preschool right now, this has been my sole focus.   Honestly, I've been living and breathing healthy living right now and nothing else.    What we eat, how much we eat, extremely stringent bedtimes and naptimes, and limiting our interactions out in the "real world."    It's not much, but it's what I can do as Mom.   I'm not 100% on board with the whole essential oils thing yet, so my big focus is making sure we're eating well and resting.

3.

Along those lines, naptime has been guarded like crazy.   We're home for naps every day, and the babies are definitely protected during that time.    I would not be exaggerating if I said that our life is based around sleep schedules right now.  Because it is.   Very much so.

But while the babies sleep......Mommy gets to do fun things like this:

I may or may not have had the supplies for months before actually DOING it.   I'm happy with it - I wanted something to put current candid shots up on that was easy to change out AND easy to add things like note cards and notes from the kids.  Bonus - prayer cards fit nicely on it, too!

4.

Talk to me about big cars, y'all.   We're not ready to take the plunge into a big ol' van yet (our cars are hanging in there quite well), but we're starting to look at what's out there.   While we were in Boston last weekend, we test drove this one and this one.  Yep, you read that right.  I drove TWO big ol' vans in BOSTON.   BOSTON, y'all.   Yes, I needed a drink afterward.  It's hard to find these two vans in Maine, so we wanted to check them out in a big city (where there are plenty), so I swallowed my fear and held on tight (literally) and test drove a car in Boston.  

But, anywho, I liked both of them and wanted to know what your thoughts were.   Do you have a big ol' car that you love?  We're interested more in seats than cargo (so no Suburbans or anything like that), so we can cart friends around with us, too.  We need 7 seats just with our family, so keep that in mind.   

5.

Hmmmm....what else?  I'm not following my QT format, sorry.    I'm trying to sneak this in while Baby Girl is still sleeping (everyone else is making coffee filter flowers, in hopes that spring is right around the corner!). 

I did just read a book for fun - I actually splurged on this book after listening to an interview with the authour.  It sounded really good:  a woman's experience with the transition into motherhood after the birth of her first child, along with a struggle with PPD.  Obviously, a lot of that would resonate with someone like me.   

I hate to say it, but I was disappointed.   The story was good, the themes were good (but could have been developed SO much more), but the language was absolutely ATROCIOUS.   I'm not a perfectly clean speaker myself - I've come a long way since college with cleaning up my language - but holy smokes, this was horrible.  I honestly couldn't get past the language to make it into the themes.   It totally detracted from the story to have every other word be some sort of curse.    I'm sad that I paid full price for it, to be honest.   Consider this your fair warning.

6.

T-25 update!   I'm trying hard to work out more days during the week than not.  It's not perfect (he wants you to do 7 workouts a week), but it's better than what I was doing before.   Since Valentine's Day, I've also been tracking my food just to get an idea of what I was doing.  I'm still following Dr Fuhrman's diet plan loosely, but I was curious just how much snacking I was doing mindlessly.   Since then, I've lost 6 lbs, without changing anything except logging my food.   I guess I was eating more mindlessly than I realized!!   

I'm seeing my shape changing more than anything else with T-25.  Obviously, I'm losing weight (see above) too, but things are fitting differently more than anything else.  I definitely feel like I'm getting stronger - when we first started, I could barely hold some of the positions (Hello, plank walk.  I'm talking to you!).  While I still can't hold them as long as he does.....I'm getting there.  I'm seeing a dramatic improvement from just a few weeks ago.   

I'm also really motivated to keep it up - I really, really like these workouts.   They're hard, but they're quick, which makes them easier to work into daily life.   I'm having to compromise and not do them as much as I originally wanted (every day), in order to do things like sleep and homeschool and live in a clean house, but it's soooooo much easier to work into the day than going to a gym or even running on our treadmill.   I would definitely recommend them!

7.

Speaking of recommending things.....have you heard about my friend Kara?  She's a dear friend from our time in Arizona, and we watched her bring home a little guy named Maks just over a year ago.   She and her husband Kyle are heading back to Maks' home country to adopt a second little boy, Truman.   They're trying to raise the funds for the adoption as quickly as possible - it's a very fast moving country! - and are currently hosting an American Girl Doll giveaway.  Go check it out and if you can, support this amazing family in their journey to bring home baby Truman.     Bringing Theo home was one of the hardest, yet most rewarding, things we've ever done, and we could not have come close to actually doing it if it weren't for the support of our extended community (financially, spiritually, and emotionally).   If you can, please help us surround them in the same support that you showed us.