Blerg

So I got the plague. Ok, ok, not the plague. But I did get strep throat. And that did put me down for the count. Huzzah! I spent the better part of four days curled up in a ball on the couch. A couple of nights I didn't even attempt sleeping in a bed and just stayed cemented to that couch. Thank goodness for a comfortable couch, I suppose.

So here I am on the other side. I'm not feeling as sick, though the effects of antibiotics are not all stellar. But I can actually swallow without difficulty so I think it's a significant step in the right direction. For those couple of days, we were in survival mode. My husband still had to work and the kids were still home with me all the time because school is out. So it was a lot of makeshift, grab what you can and be grateful, kind of dining. Oh, and perhaps some Subway as well, I won't lie. (I also won't lie and deny loving Subway.)

So now that it's officially the new year and I can stay in an upright position for extended periods of time, I can be productive again! I have Big Plans for myself this year. I have some rough ideas for blogging. I have some dietary changes to make and some 'splaining to do to all ya'll nice people. I have some ambitions for our family, and hopefully some of those things will be ironed out in the next few days so I have yet another thing to stress about. I need to make a new chore chart that is actually workable for our house(since moving, I have never been able to iron it out to be reasonable but actually keep the house clean). And even more than that, I need to stick to the chore chart.

Ok, well, there's so much to do that I could totally overwhelm myself just sitting here. But the husband is out watching a movie and the kids are in bed so I have a few things I need to mark off my to-do list. One thing I already completed tonight was setting up the boys' reading lights by their beds. Their bed frames are super thick, so the clamp wouldn't stick which was frustrating. So I trawled Home Depot until I found a bracket type of thing to screw into the bed frame and clamp the light to. It works, and the boys are happy to have reading lights. Now they don't have to suffer through the indignity of getting out of bed to turn off their overhead light.

Bring it on 2013

It's almost the new year! How can 2013 be coming right down on us already? It's terrifying! And really exciting all at once. So many opportunities in front of us. I don't really 'do' the New Year's resolution thing. But I'll fake it this year and resolve to actually blog again. I fell off the wagon when our family went through some big disruptions and I lost my mojo for a bit. Sometimes it was just enough to get through the day with everyone clean and fed. But now I need to do better. Blogging will help, I hope.

This did cause to me to scroll back through my old blog posts. There were more than I remembered. I guess I was maybe a little better at this than I thought. I also flipped back through my old entries to find my ranch dressing recipe and used that today.

And times have changed since I was posting here last. I had to update my profile because it said my boys are 4 and 9 when they're now 6 and 10(soon to be 11)! Both of them are in school now, kindergarten and fifth grade. Things are definitely different than they were before.

I'll leave you with a Christmas picture. Because yesterday was Christmas. And because I can.

Yay baby!

First off, big hugs to a friend who's in the hospital right now about to have her baby Charlotte! Lots of love ya'll's way! So excited for you!

I've been down for a couple of days, fighting off some kind of sickness that fortunately never completely surfaced. I think I caught it early enough I was able to sleep it away, thank goodness. I'm really grateful my kids are old enough that I can put a movie on, set the house alarm, and go lay down without worry. Of course, they never actually sit through a whole movie and do come to ask me things, but that's ok. I survived.

This is going to be a busy weekend for me because I have a test to take on Tuesday, and I have a lot of studying and preparing to do.

I also need to confess that these past two days, while I've been sick, I haven't stuck to the meal plan. On Wednesday I ordered pizza and that's basically what we ate the last two days. Failure on my part, no question! So we're back on the wagon today. Pretty excited about it, actually. I also need to get the house whipped into shape.

Over the next couple of days, I'll be posting about our backyard chickens, my chore chart, and probably a recipe or two, we'll see how it goes.

Dun-dun-dun.... School lunches

Oh my, school lunches. Heated topic. Anyone seen Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution? Or checked out the awesome blog, Fed Up With Lunch?(I've been following it for a while) There's tons of info out there on why school lunches are terrible. And they are. Where we lived in Virginia, they were pretty bad. But here in Georgia, I would have to say they are far, far worse.

For example, at my son's school today, this is their meal:

Choice of: Cheese or Pepperoni Pizza w/Garlic Breadstick, Manager's Choice, or PB&J

With(pick two): Pasta Salad, Peas and Carrots, Fresh Veggies/Dip, Fresh Fruit

And of course, milk or chocolate milk.

So, possibly, a child could get pepperoni pizza, breadstick, pasta salad, peas and carrots, and chocolate milk. That is a LOT of carbs and sugar. Wow. And the food is all so highly processed that it's scary. Needless to say, I send lunches to school with Kadin. He might on rare occasions buy lunch, but that's it. I think he's bought lunch twice so far this year, and his school has been open since the first full week of August.

I decided it would be fun to show you guys a week of what I pack Kadin for lunch. I will admit, usually there would be more redundancy, but for the sake of the blog I made sure not to have any repeats of main items. But I will vouch for the fact that this is representative of what I would send for him, and he does eat it. One day this week he didn't eat his apple, but that was because he said he didn't have time(he likes to talk). But other than that, all of this was actually eaten. Oh, and they don't have snacks at school anymore.

Monday:

This is basically dinner leftovers. Beef and bean burrito, salad with french dressing, white grapes, and water.

Tuesday:

Nitrate-free bratwurst on a whitewheat bun, green bell peppers, apple, and water.

Wednesday:

Greek honey yogurt, apple, pretzels(it's a pretty big bag, fyi), and water.

Thursday:

Ham sandwich on whole grain bread with lettuce and mustard, red grapes, rice cakes, and water.

Friday:

Peanut butter and Nutella sandwich on whole grain bread, apple, whole grain Cheez-Its, cucumbers, and water. I have no idea what of this he'll eat, but if I took any one part of it away, it looked naked.

What's your child's favorite lunch? What was your favorite as a kid? I used to look forward to tuna sandwiches.