Anywhoo, yesterday I defrosted three packages of chicken legs with the intention of making this. Obviously, based on that sentence I didn’t do it. So I made it today. Let me preface, we’re not a strict paleo-eating household, but I can get behind the diet in theory. I <3 bread. And butter. And heavy whipping cream in my coffee. So full-on paleo is not going to happen.

So I set this up around 3 PM. I changed the recipe a bit. I left out the tomato paste. I used the greens from some leeks I chopped months ago and froze (and not enough). I used more chicken stock. The recipe in the iPad app did not call for white wine like the one on the webpage does.I used a little more fish sauce than it called for. I layered my chicken legs and turned on the crockpot and walked out the door.

But wait. We walked in the door around 6:45 and it smelled delicious. At seven I pulled the lid and it smelled better. I drained & removed the chicken to a container (less clean up as I knew I’d have leftovers) and put the leeks and broth and garlic into a pan and took my immersion blender to it. I boiled it a little more to thicken it a touch. I gave each of my kids two chicken legs, about 1/4 cup of the gravy and tossed a bowl of strawberries on the table. Dinner was devoured.

My oldest is making dessert smoothies now and looking for spinach to toss in there with it. I <3 my kids.

Malachai is verbal now (meaning we still have days we cannot understand him but they are few and far between and his teacher and classmates have no problem with him and he is no longer frustrated because he can communicate now), and is still in OT and takes Taekwondo (last year it was acro at my daughters dance studio – he was awesome! This is in lieu of PT) but has really come so far. He learned how to tie his shoes this year!

So our pediatrician (normal ped, not a specialized ped) throws out “like Tourette’s” yesterday. Wow. Really? Don’t just throw things like that out there and then gloss over it and move onto the next thing. Which is exactly what he did. So I put it to the back of my mind. Where it percolated. I ignored it. I did. I kept busy.

But then a siren named Google called to me. So I did it. I googled that shit.

And proceeded to GO, did not collect 200$ and freaked out. Because the first sign/symptom is excessive blinking. That I brought up to our ped a year ago. A year ago. I could have been on top of this shit for a year. Not now that it’s gotten to excessive that other people who aren’t his mother are noticing. I am not am alarmist. I don’t go to the doctor for every paper cut and bruise. In fact, I avoid the doctor like the plague,  because if I don’t already have it I don’t want to get it in the waiting room.

We immediately called around and now have to wait all summer to even start figuring this out. We got an appointment with a pediatric orthopedist in late June (for his in-toeing and femurs, which we were told last July are torsioned but only told they don’t do anything until age 14 or older and to get him better shoes from the running store. Which we did, which haven’t helped) and got an appointment with a new neurologist at the end of August.

Yes. The ass-end of August. So I have three more months (four, really) in which to freak out and imagine the worst things possible. Google can kiss my read end, I’m breaking up with it.

Upfront – I totally get a kick back if you register from this link:
http://emeals.com/amember/go.php?r=292582&i=l0

I do not get a kick back if you register from this link: http://emeals.com

So while this isn’t a sponsored post, I do get a kick back if you sign up using my link. But I use their menus more often than I don’t. So there you go.

That out of the way, I love this site! Yah, I can meal plan my damn self for free. Except it costs me more than I pay in time, so for weeks I haven’t planned or days I don’t want what I’ve planned, it’s fab!

I subscribe to the Whole Foods plan, but you can obviously shop anywhere. I just like the meals better on that one. They try to tie the plans into that weeks sales too, if you pick a store (like Publix, or Whole Foods, or WalMart or Aldi, theres more too!). I also get the Clean Eating plan, which doesn’t make my kids happy, but I enjoy it, so it gives me lunch ideas. It also has a complete break down of how much your shopping trip should cost you. It averages about 150$ a trip, but I shop every other week and don’t shop strictly to this menu and spend about 400 – 500$ a trip for seven or eight people.

You can get sample plans here: http://emeals.com/meal-plans

I got this as a Groupon a few months ago, so I got a year really cheap. They recently sent out an email to extend my subscription by a year at half off. Now, I’ve been printing out my PDFs (and saving them too of course) and sticking them in a folder in my kitchen, so by the time my year is up I’ll have 52 solid plans. I didn’t need another year. What I did do was email and ask if I could get the same renewal rate but a concurrent subscription to another menu and they hooked me up within an hour. So now I get the clean eating menu as well. There is also a “freebie” every week – this week it’s a Cinco de Mayo plan. They had one for St. Patricks too (IIRC it was a crock pot recipe and sides), and one week it was a recipe for cake pops, and another it was a lemon cake. You just have to remember to log in to get the freebie – but they email the PDF to you every week so you don’t have to remember to log in to get your menu.

These are super easy things my 11 y/o can make too – easy to follow directions, includes a side. It’s perfect for us. They have a Mother’s Day menu this week that I’m going to give him so I don’t see the same toast and yogurt mix I usually get (Not that I am knocking toast and yogurt, and I love love love he brings me breakfast in bed multiple times a year, but yogurt is hard for me to face at 7 in the morning)

Like I said, I do get a kick back if you sign up – and if that makes you uncomfortable and you still want to sign up, feel free to go directly to http://emeals.com – but I bet you can put together a pretty comprehensive set of recipes just from the free samples!

As I said, I was using another service (also a Groupon steal!) but I really prefer this one. Do we eat all the recipes? Nope. But after three weeks (that’s 21 plans!) I had a pretty good plan of attack and can put together two weeks at a time easily. Now that I’ve had it for a few months it’s even easier.

There are free sites to do this too, and I use Paprika as a recipe manager (that is a whole other post! Maybe later!) and can do it through that, but sometimes I just don’t have time or get overwhelmed looking through so many recipes. This just limits my options and makes life way easier for me.

But no. While I’ve been rushing about from activity to activity, thriving on iced coffee (both bought and home made) and otherwise forgetting about anything outside of my tiny part of it, the world has gone on! It tends to do that you know. Since 8 Feb we’ve had more dance performances and competitions, signed up for TaekwonDo, started a new book series (Kingdom Keepers – you should read them!), applied to the local charter school (and at least once of us is hoping D gets in!), gone to dentist appointments, started tutoring, and about a million other small, insignificant things that add up to all my time.

On  the bright side of things, I am still obsessing over recipes and pinterest.

Speaking of food, you should absolutely make this:

Sausage & Zucchini Arrabiata. It was originally sausage & eggplant, but I had zucchini is my fridge the night we had this. Cook pasta according to directions and set aside. Take three (or four, or five) sweet (or hot, your choice!) sausages out of their casings and cook until not quite pink and crumbly. Add zucchini (I used 3 or 4, chopped), onion (~1/2 C chopped), garlic (as much as you want), and salt (I omitted, but I always do!) and cook for ten minutes, stirring occasionally. Add about three pounds of chopped tomatoes (I used a mix of roma and beefsteak), 1/4C chopped fresh basil and 2T chopped fresh oregano and cook until tomatoes break down. Yum! Serve over pasta, or mix it, or add some parmesan (or sardines!) or whatever!

Malachai's Chart, click for larger view

They each have one customized to their needs, but they are all similar. I used her perpetual calendar to save myself some design time and just dropped in my own text. It was pretty easy and I guess I could have used any old calendar layout, but this had the “check boxes” (the date box) and everything already done.

Et voila! Print it out, stick it in a dollar store picture frame, hang it on the wall, give your kid a dry erase marker and it”s their new favorite way to keep track of their allowance!

Well, for my kids anyway. Their allowance is now 100% dependent on how filled out their chart is and how accurately it”s filled out. Mama isn’t stupid. She knows what you do all week long. She just wants to make sure you know what you do all week long.

Time with mom is scheduled, because our week is just that busy. I like to make sure I get one-on-one time with everyone, even if it”s just for an hour while we do something else. Dorian (11) makes dinner with me on Friday, so he is “excused” from tidying his bedroom that night. Mal gets me on Saturday, so he gets to skip tidying that night. Esh gets me on Sunday. It”s totally nice to catch up with my kids, find out what they are into this week and what they want to be into next week (or next month or next year).

Do I freak out if something doesn’t get done? Nope. Sometimes shit just happens, and that’s ok. It’s the beauty of being flexible, but the stuff in the boxes is the minimum expected stuff. The stuff under the boxes is mostly all extra.

Our group won gold for their age group (over all 5 – 8 ) and first place for their dance/size/age group, which is phenomenal considering most of our group is barely six (and a couple that are five, and a couple that are 7) and they were exhausted and it was the first time out for all but three of our eight. Phenom indeed. Oh, and they *might* make it onto the upcoming episode of Dance Moms. How exciting. Oh, did I mention we had to wait around till something like 7 PM for the awards ceremony? Oh yah. We played twister. We ate. We ran. We rested. We shopped. And then around 8/8:30 we packed it in and headed home. We dropped our passengers off at their home and I decided “daddy is still at work… work is on the way home… let”s visit daddy!” So little miss raccoon eyes and I swung by the shop and hung out for a bit. We made it home around 10 PM. Then we took off the make up, and fed the bellies and crawled into bed. I bet there was more, but really, who needs more?

It took me all weekend to recovered. Kudos to those who had to be there both days. I am decidedly not looking forward to then. Maybe E won”t be participating in Company by then… but I”m not holding my breathe.

No photos please, my raccoon eyes aren't photogenic

I have anywhere from one to two hours a day where I am alone, but I usually reserve them for catching up on work, cleaning, menu planning or something else for the “house” (read: not something selfish just for me). I’m all over this experiment, especially this week, because my next almost three months are full of booked-solid weekends. Kenahora! I get chills just thinking about it.

So, 30 minutes reading. Or gardening. Or drawing. Or something that is selfishly self-indulgent. What do you do that qualifies?

Competition season has started and we are off to Hollywood Vibe tomorrow. Now, if you are unfamiliar with Hollywood Vibe, it’s a weekend long convention that runs classes and competitions. My little one is in the “mini” category, so she (thankfully!) only goes one day, but what a long day it is! We’ll be up no later than six tomorrow morning (no big deal some of you may say, but she has a hard time rolling out of bed by 7:45 most mornings… so do I!) and we won’t be home until probably close to ten at night.

Today my day will be filled with packing up her makeup case, costume, extra clothes, her dance bag, curling & cutting her hair piece, last-minute rehearsals, it just goes on and on and yes, on. It’s now hours after I started this post. I have a quick run to CVS to make. My hair piece will not curl. Hopefully they have something close to matching that will be good enough just for tomorrow. The suitcase is packed. It’s overkill for one costume *but* it’s also holding the makeup box, all the shoes, jacket &pants… everything really *and* it should free up an arm (or two is E can pull it!)

I don’t even want to think about it.

Have I mentioned I took one dance class in my entire life? When I was maybe four? So last year I was a hot lost mess. This year I’m on the ball. This year is going so much smoother. I love this year. My little one is taking four classes this year, which is no means a lot, really, considering some of those girls are there from nearly open to close four and five days a week. It’s a lot to me though. Some weeks I feel like I never see my boys, and part of me goes “better to not see them than to drag them all over creation attending dance things where they will be bored to death” and part of me goes “but… but… we miss them we does!” (part of me is Smeagol on occasion) I think Sunday will bring some intensive family time doing something or other. Well, in between Hebrew school & music classes.

Last year I used the Listography planner and it was a hit. This year I tried to use a plain old Mead school planner and it’s a complete bust. I don’t know what the appeal is about Listography, but I suspect I am on my way to purchase a 2012 version. (I am actually trying another option this week, but Listography is on my mind… I <3 lists – they are scattered all over my home.)

This month I am cheating and using Meals by the Week, which I do not get a kick back from, sadly, and I love it! I don’t love all the meals, but I do love that I can adjust it to feed 8 without trying to convert my measurements *while* I am cooking. (I regularly feed anywhere from six to eight) I love that it gives me my shopping list all together without it taking me an hour to do it by hand.Last week I brought my iPad to Publix with me and made it through the store in under an hour. I should have enough on hand in the house to prepare next weeks menu without needing another trip out. Exciting times people!

There are some other excellent places around the web to get a free monthly  menu plan. Erica over at Confessions of a Homeschooler puts together an amazing plan every month that includes breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner. She even offers it to download, for free, in both editable word doc and pdf format. It even links to recipes she’s posted in her blog. Genius.

I’ve got a million recipes. I’ve got recipes I’ve cut out of magazines. I’ve got too many cookbooks to fit on my cookbook-only six foot bookshelf. I’ve got a nifty little program called Paprika that is on my desktop and on my iPad and it syncs and it’s got a calendar and shopping list too. I’m systematically adding all of the best-loved things I make. Meal planning, at it’s most basic, means I have everything I need in my pantry, fridge and freezer and everyone knows what to expect. I often change around nights, and some nights I order in just because, but for the most part it’s a predictable plan that keeps us from eating the same thing day in and day out.