Over the past couple months we have really gotten away from meal planning and regular grocery shopping.

And trying to get supper on the table each night has been quite the chore.  A time of dread and frustration.

We call it playing the dinner game.  What's for dinner?  I don't know.  What sounds good? 

And then the kids all shout out their ideas. 

By the time we figure out what's for supper, make a quick trip to the grocery store,

 get it made and on the table, it's quite late in the evening.

So, finally, this week, I'd had enough.  Time to get back on track. I finally made myself sit down and make a shopping list and a menu for the next several days.

I went through my recipe binder and the grocery ad.  I pulled some recipes that we had made before and a few new ones as well.  I was looking for simple, inexpensive meals.

I also had to be careful since both of our large freezers are still sitting in the garge, unplugged.

So the only freezer space I have is the 2 small freezers on top of our fridges.

 It used to be that we tried to make as much as possible from scratch. 

However, I did decide to include some pre-packaged foods into our meals for a bit.  It seems that we are kind of in a rut at our house. 

 No one wants to go to too much trouble preparing and cooking our meals right now.  Nikki does most all of our cooking.  She is great at it, but she is more of a Rachel Ray, Sandra Lee cook.  She likes thing that go together  quickly and easily.  And that's okay.  She enjoys being in the kitchen and doesn't mind doing the cooking.  She just doesn't like alot of steps, ingredients or prep work.  So keeping that in mind, I whipped up a menu plan and a grocery list.  I had Nikki look them over. Nikki approved, Bob, Jake and I headed to the grocery store.  And we have groceries in the house!!!   It felt so good to come home and watch everyone get everything put away.  And let me tell you, yesterday it was so so so nice not having to answer that question a million times throughout the day.  The menu was posted on the fridge.  We all knew what we were having.  Nikki and I both knew all the ingredients were already in the house, ready to go.  It was nice to have hubby come home, after working a long day, knowing dinner was well under way.  No hassles, no running around.  Supper was a nice relaxing, tasty meal that we were all able to sit down and enjoy together.  We've already begun to find and think of meals to put on next week's menu plan.  The kids have started a list on the marker board that hangs in the dining room. 

Here's the list that I had come up with.

(I don't list breakfast and lunch.  Breakfast is most always toast, cereal or eggs.  Lunch is most always leftovers.  Snack are usually fruit or hot-air popcorn.)

I don't list which day we will have which meal either. 

As long as we decide the night before, so that we can pull any frozen meat out of the freezer, then we're good to go. 

When we came home from grocery shopping the other day, Nikki and I went through together and chose what we would have for supper

over the next 3 nights and left that meat in the fridge for use in those meals. The rest went into the freezer.

Note:  This list does have a bit more pre-packaged food than our family normally uses.

I'm hoping that as we get back into the groove of menu planning, we will also get back to our simple

homemade rice, potato and noodle side dishes, because they are both healthier and

less-expensive as well.

You'll notice that we eat alot of chicken.

It's very cost effective for our family and

thankfully everyone here really likes chicken.

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1.  Panko chicken tenders (3 ingredients: frozen chicken tenders, Panko, and milk for soaking the chicken before dipping in the Panko.) 

Mac and Cheese--Kroger had a great sale ($.49 a box) on Annie's mac and cheese.

Tomatoes and Cukes

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2.  Duggar Chicken Spaghetti (recipe found in their book)

Pillsbury Biscuits

Canned Green Beans

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3.  Salsa Chicken (recipe from a friend, who calls it Hot Mama Chicken). 

Creamy Four Cheese  Rice a Roni (also on sale)

and Chi-chi's corn cake

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4.  Bacon cheeseburger pasta

Martha White Muffins  (we luv 'em)

Canned Corn

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5.  Saucy Pork Chops (recipe printed from a blog, but I can't find the link.)

 Homemade breadsticks

Alfredo Pasta Roni (also on sale)

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6.  Easy Beef Stroganoff (another blog recipe, again, no link)

Homemade Rolls

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7.  Sweet and Spicy chicken (we love this one!!! and I can link it, yippee!!!!)

packaged Au Gratin potatoes

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8.  Chicken in a Crockpot

(again, another favorite)

Homemade mashed potatoes

and

Gravy

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Last night, Jake had to sleep on the couch. 

His bedroom ceiling fell in. 

Yup, that's right. 

The first time we looked at this house, the plaster in his ceiling had a little crack in it. 

 The 2nd time we looked at this house, it had a larger crack and a small hole in it.

Turns out that someone looked at the house between those two times and their teen pushed on the ceiling thus the hole. 

 So, we knew it had to be fixed, but didn't quite think it was a rush job.

  Um, I guess it was. 

 Last night, about 9:30 pm, we heard this huge crash and the house shook. 

 Thinking, someone fell or something, Bob went hurrying upstairs only to find that Jake's door wouldn't open. 

When he finally did get it open, it was filled w/ black dust and plaster was everywhere. 

 Everything the boy owns is a mess. 

However, that is nothing compared to the fact that usually he and his dog are both up there by that time of night. 

 But, yesterday, to do a nice thing, Jake had moved his Wii back into the living room,

so the girls could play and I could watch Netflix, so he just happened to be in the living room playing it.

  I can't imagine how he and the dog would've avoided injury if they had been up there.....pretty scary!! 

So, long story short....Jake has alot of cleaning to do....

and Bob has a project for the weekend, all lined up for him, lol.

Meet Me In The Meadow: Our All in All, Part 2

As always, a beautiful post.

Have a blessed day.

One of my favorite pics of Alli,

it was her 4th birthday.

This morning Nikki snapped this pic of a pretty robin....

a sure sign of Spring.

A great pic, isn't it????

Well, it was nice while it lasted.

Just a little bit ago, I took this pic from our computer room window of our backyard:

Snow and Ice.

We have a Winter Storm Warning for tonight.

Yuck.

We are not excited about this at all.

I hope the poor little robin finds someplace dry and warm to hunker down for

a few days.

After I took the pic I walked into the living room to this:

It reminded me of The Cat in the Hat:

The sun did not shine.

It was too wet to play.

So we sat in the house.

Rotting our brain all the day.

lol~

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The older kids are on Spring Break for the next 2 weeks.

So we are on a relaxed, take it easy kind of schedule.

Today, we listened to Bible Music CDs, did puzzles, colored pictures,

played games (Chutes and Ladders, Mastermind, Old Maid, Princess Yahtzee Jr.)

and we've been doing lots of reading.

Rosie is reading the Michigan Chillers books,

Alli is reading the Animal Ark series of books,

and Abby & I are busy reading lots of different books.

I've ordered some story books about Princesses.

Abby loves princess stories. Most of them aren't

in yet.  We have 2 of them right now and I've already read them to her twice each.

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Yesterday, was our 24th wedding anniversary.

WOW!!!!

Hubby and I have known each other for over 30 years.

That is a long time.

So glad that God put us together.

Looking forward to at least 24 more years

with him. He's a pretty great hubby and

an awesome father to our kiddos.

We didn't do anything special.

We are waiting for a night when everyone is home

and then we are going to make a nice steak supper

and a special dessert.

Right now it's looking like maybe that will be Thursday night.

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Some random pics:

Miss Abby was trying to get out of homeschool.

So she grabbed a big stack of Dr. Seuss books and asked

me if she read of bunch of them, could she count that as schoolwork.

Of course, not one to turn down anyone wanting to read, I agreed.

A bean bag, a puppy for company and she was good to go for a bit.

Not sure what the story was with this pic, but it's cute, so here it is, lol~

Since we've moved into our new house, Sunday night supper is always baked chicken of some sort.

Here's a pic of last Sunday's supper.  I tried to get Aaron and Rosie in the pic, but Miss Abby decided that

her potatoes needed gravy before I was done.

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Happy Friday Everyone!!!

Have a great weekend!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day Everyone!!

Tonight we are having company over for supper.

My parents are bringing a roaster of corned beef dinner.

Yum!!

And we are making homemade mac and cheese for those who don't eat corned beef.

We have found a great mac and cheese recipe that everyone likes.

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Today is Nat's last day of school this term.....Aaron and Nikki are already done....

Jake goes today and tomorrow....then the kids are off 2 weeks for Spring Break.....

Nat will still be busy, working her two jobs.......

Great news!!!!  Aaron had an interview Monday and got a job also.....he will be working in the

tool crib on campus at school....it's not many hours, but they work around his class schedule and it's someplace to start.

Woo-hoo!!!!!

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Well, I'm hoping Jake makes class today.....the kids very rarely miss any classes...I think Nikki is the only one who's actually missed

any, but only when she was really sick......Jake has this weird swelling, between his eyebrows....it's affecting his eye....and his eye

doesn't look right.....we wanted to take him to the clinic last night, but they closed at 10pm....and it wasn't until after 10 that it really looked

strange....I've no idea what it is, never seen anything like it before...it's just a lump....he said he had a headache last night and it hurt....but so far, not too much this morning...

weird, huh???

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We finally got some Springtime like weather.....Yesterday was beautiful!!!!  After Lent church at noon, my Mom came back to the house w/us and had some lunch....

Sloppy Joe (another favorite recipe).....After lunch, she took Rosie w/her for the afternoon/evening......and it was such a beautiful day out that I took Alli and Abby and we headed uptown.

This lady is waaaayyyy out of shape, but it was still fun....we went to a nice little bookstore that is up there and then to a little dime-type store......the girls had fun choosing a book, then some novelty candy at the store.....Thankfully, hubby drove by while were sitting on one of the benches up there and he gave us a ride home.  Today is supposed to be another beautiful day!!!

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Abby just got up and she is trying to convince me that since St. Patrick's Day is a holiday,

she shouldn't have to do any schoolwork today.....

gotta give her an A for effort, lol~

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These pics are from last week.....

Yesterday was a much nice weather day, but

no one took pics....

what you are going to find

when you download pics

from the camera~

At our old house, the backyard was fenced in,

so to let the dogs outside,

all we needed to do was open the door and let them go....

This new house, also has a fenced in backyard......sorta......

it has fence around it, but the fence has lots of gaps.....

so since we've been moved in,

we need to take the dogs outside on leashes...

quite a hassle w/ 3 dogs....and quite the chore.....

unless you're one of the younger girls....and then,

you think it's fun and are always volunteering for the job....

Can I do it????

An especially difficult task while she is doing

one of her least favorite chores....the dreaded lunch dishes!!!

Ah,

Sweet  Sweet  SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!