Menu Plan for the Week of 5/31

Greetings. We had a wonderful holiday weekend, and I hope you did too!

This week we have baseball, of course, but not really much else, which is super exciting. I am looking forward to staying home a lot this week and getting some schooling and housework done!

MONDAY

giant salad with grilled chicken breast

TUESDAY

stuffed pepper soup

(I have a bunch of frozen peppers from the winter that I need to use up)

WEDNESDAY

Thai noodle salad

THURSDAY

Kids--cheesy barbeque beef casserole (I know. I know. It tastes better than it sounds, but you'll note that it's only for the kids.)

green beans

Parents--date night! We signed up for 2 free spicy chicken sandwiches at Chick-Fil-A. Yes, we're cheap. But whatever. You're just jealous.

FRIDAY

beef stir-fry

(We are getting our first CSA share today, so I'll use whatever veggies I get, or just clean out all the little bits from the fridge and freezer. Or both!)

SATURDAY

Something with CSA veggies and chicken

SUNDAY

Mom's

I ran calling WILDFLOWER

Okay, that isn't how the old song goes...but still.

Yesterday I took my lovely little Flour Children out for a nature walk with some family friends. We went to the Raccoon Creek Wildflower Reserve. If you are in the western Pennsylvania area, I highly recommend the trip to this obscure park! The whole park is lovely, quiet, and not busy at all. It's like it's a secret park!

These really were great trails for the kids. The trails weren't very hard, and there were so many flowers, butterflies, fungi, and tracks for us to look at. This particular group of kids did very well, as we ended up following blazes for about 2 hours! We had no idea we were gone that long. But it was very fun, and the kids really enjoyed it.

This is Outdoor Hour Challenge #4, and later this week we'll use our pictures to form the list for Challenge #5.

One last, lonely, elusive trillium. This is the first one I've ever found. (It's hiding underneath the leaves.)

Phlox. It was everywhere!

Tiny snail on the underside of a mayapple.

Blackberry.

Spiderwort.

I used my Wildflower Fandex and this website to identify the flowers. If I got any wrong, please let me know! I'm still working on my identification skills!

One man's trash...

Here, Funny is enjoying her last few bites of dinner.

I had the following leftovers:

turkey

peas

rice

Now, I could've been boring, and just reheated it all and thrown it on our plates. But instead I turned it into soup. We'll be able to eat the soup for a few days, too, so we actually get more out of it. I love that about soup. It's just magic.

I used some homemade chicken stock that I pulled out of my freezer, though you can certainly use canned or boxed broth. Because I used homemade, I did add salt to my soup. Don't add salt if you use canned broth!!!

I threw the broth into the crockpot and let it heat up. Once the broth was hot, I added the leftover rice (about 2 cups), leftover peas (about 1 cup), and then I decided that we need more veggies! Soup is so great for getting rid of all the bits of veggies you have hanging around. I threw in about 1 cup of frozen green beans, about 1/2 cup of frozen chopped spinach, and one chopped onion.

I added some salt & pepper, then decided to add some no-salt seasoning (similar to Mrs. Dash), because I was feeling lazy. I also added some fresh rosemary & oregano that I have in a little herb garden. Then I just left it in the crockpot, on low, until dinnertime. It probably crocked at least 1 hour once everything was in it.

This made a very tasty, pretty soup. Even the kids ate it without complaining. I like it when that happens.

Get me off this pedestal, people!

Here's a secret that homeschoolers don't like to tell, for a number of reasons:

Sometimes, homeschooling is really, really, really, really hard!

We don't want to let on because a lot of people are just waiting for us to fail. Some people really enjoy saying, "I told you so!" And so we plaster on our smiling faces and tell you that, yes, yes, it's all going so very well! Thanks for asking.

I am not saying that homeschooling isn't awesome, because it is. It works very well for my family. Like anything else in life, some days aren't that stellar.

In reality, I yell at my kids at least once every 15 minutes. Sometimes I pray a band of gypsies will appear on my front lawn. And, yes, sometimes I want to throw in the towel and send them to school so I can get a job where I don't have to clean up macaroni & cheese and tell a child again that an S should not look like a 2, and 21 is not the same as 12!

For those of you that stayed home with your little ones before school, or that spend any time whatsoever with your little blessings (I suspect that's all of my 3 readers), you know that it's mothering that really makes a woman crazy! It isn't the homeschooling. Anytime I want to give it up, it's really only because I am tired of repeating myself, or picking up dirty socks and underwear, or I just want to be left alone to pee!

Homeschoolers do not have extra patience. Anytime you have said to a homeschooler anything that resembles, "gee, I don't have the patience for that," or "wow, you must really be patient," said homeschooler is laughing on the inside. There's no patience fairy! If only. It's merely a decision that we've made to spend our days delirious and walking the fine line between sanity and the nut house.

The fact is, we're all mothers no matter how we educate our kids. We probably could all use more patience, which is why God has sent us such trying little darlings.

Maybe my point is, that instead of putting us on some kind of Pedestal of Patience, and instead of homeschoolers putting public/private schoolers down, we should all be fist-bumping for motherhood. Because it's hard, but awesome.

And now I must go admire some chalk art.

Menu Plan for the Week of 5/24

I took last week off from menu planning, and boy, did I regret it. We ate nothing but garbage all week. Yuck. So I am back to the planning, and even a day early!

I am going to try to stay out of the grocery store this week. I think it can be done.

We recently purchased 1/2 a cow from my aunt & uncle. So you'll start seeing more red meat recipes, now that we have some meat!! These were pretty happy cows, that got to forage and walk around. I am a cheap shopper, and I demand quality (oh, I am such a food snob...), so I try to buy good meat (organic if I can (which is almost never), definitely hormone-free, etc.). That means that we don't really eat a ton of meat, generally. If I can find it on sale, I'll buy some. The meat from my aunt will last about a year or so. We are also still working through 1/2 a pig we bought with some friends. We have maybe 1/3 of that left. If only I had a chicken dealer...

MONDAY

turkey, rice & veggie soup

(made with leftover turkey from Sunday, and leftover rice & vegs)

TUESDAY

Asian shredded beef

rice

stir-fried peppers, onions, and snow peas (if I have the peas...)

WEDNESDAY

lasagna w/sausage & spinach

green beans

THURSDAY

leftovers

FRIDAY

steak

garlic carrots

bulghur pilaf

(boy, I really wish I had potatoes)

SATURDAY

hamburgers

corn

rice

(I really, really want to make fries, but alas, no potatoes!)

SUNDAY

Mom & Dad's house

(I hope!)

I suppose if I break down and buy anything, it'll be potatoes! They weren't on sale last week, so I didn't get any. As you all know, I don't mind paying more for better food, but they are the same ol' potatoes that will be on sale soon enough. So I'll just wait.