Fun in Forest Falls

We love the outdoors and hiking is something we can enjoy as a family, however once the heat of summer is here we rarely get to hike because of the heat. Last night the girls each had a friend sleep over, so today we thought it would be great to hike with friends. We packed lunch and headed up to forest falls, where we could enjoy a little cooler weather.
We hiked up to the falls, swam in the freezing water (the kids did, not me) and ate some lunch! Such a fun summer day!!

Meals and Menus

Be prepared to the longest blog post ever! But it's worth it, I promise!

Awhile back I posted on Facebook that I meal planned for all of May and June, as I was super excited to have that done. Well, I guess lots of people don't like this chore and/or struggle in this area and have asked me how I do it, will I do it for them, can they just have my menus, etc...

First of all, I love being organized!!  Second, I enjoy cooking healthy foods for my family and Third, I like to challenge myself to spend as little as possible when grocery shopping for our menus.
To me, meal planning is a pretty simple task that makes the rest of life go much more smoothly. Feeding 7 people for each and every meal at home is time consuming, costly and not very much fun when at 5 pm you have no idea of what to fix and have to be somewhere at 7. :/ I started meal planning in the beginning just to give me an idea of what was for dinner, but as our family grew and my time didn't multiple like our family did, meal planning became a necessity. During much of our school year we have nightly obligations every night except Friday and Saturday, so without planning it becomes a disaster quickly! when I haven't meal planned, I don't feel like cooking, we grab something out more often and lots of other areas tend to follow suit being unorganized.

For my menus, I have done them a number of ways over the years, on a calender, in a meal planning book, using an app on my phone, but lately I've been using a spiral notebook and a do a week a page. This seems to work well for a number or reasons...although, I like keeping things electronically, I still like using a pen and paper. I can look back over the weeks (when my mind seems a little cloudy) and make sure we are getting a variety and I don't repeat the same meal too often. The downside is if that spiral notebook magically disappears, then I feel kind of lost, which isn't fun. When I start meal planning, I seem to just get on a roll and then before you know it I have 10 or 12 weeks planned, which feels glorious! For ideas, I ask my kids and hubby what they would like to eat, look through my cooking magazines and browse pinterest. I start our weekly menu on Sunday and most always include one dessert a week. I don't generally plan a full meal for Thursday night, as James and I are gone every Thursday night to our small group. On those nights the kids eat something easy, like quesadillas, breakfast or if I have an extra planned meal that didn't get cooked I'll do that or my parents will bring something they had. Other than Thursday nights I plan every breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack for the entire week. By planning out even our snacks, I feel like I spend way less money and it makes food prep during the day much quicker, especially during school, that way we can get right back to school, instead of spending an hour on snack time...

I have a chalkboard up in my kitchen and each morning I write down our menu. This not only saves me time, but also from hearing "Mom, what's for snack/lunch/dinner?" a million times a day, and then there is a lot less rummaging through the pantry and fridge. I always have fresh fruit, veggies, dried/canned fruit and nuts in plenty, just in case we have extra mouths to feed, which is a couple of times a week. As for the menu, once it's on the board, it is take it or leave it. I remind my kiddos that I work hard to prepare the menu and meals and they need to be grateful we have food to eat whenever we are hungry. (and I might tell them there are kids starving in Africa once in awhile too) :)

After the menu is made I make a grocery list according to each menu. I have a 5x7 weekly calendar that I use to write down my list for each weeks menu. I write down absolutely everything I'll need for each meal to start and then before I go shopping, I'll cross off what I already have, like cheese, milk, quinoa, etc...Some weeks, if I'm running short on time, I'll just bring my menu notebook to the store and look at the meals, but mostly I make the list as I meal plan, a. because I'm already sitting there and b. I won't always know the ingredients for new recipes.

A note about my menus. I make almost everything from scratch. We eat mostly organic, whole foods, little sugar, no dyes and nearly no gluten. We love dairy, fruits and vegetables, fish and nuts. I don't eat red meat, so I only cook it on occasion. I buy as little processed foods as possible and really enjoy spending time in the kitchen. There are a few things I don't take the time to make-like ravioli, tortillas, bagels, flax crackers, sweet potato chips and occasionally I'll splurge out of convenience on fruit leather, granola and/or granola bars, and sometimes hummus, salsa or apple sauce.

So, now for the menus...I'm going to start with 5 weeks of dinner and see how that goes...Every dinner is gluten free, unless otherwise noted.

week 1
S- pizza, salad, banana cream dessert

M- Apricot chicken, quinoa, carrots, salad

T- Mexican casserole, salad

W- Turkey stroganoff, roasted brussel sprouts, salad

Th- Quesadillas

F- maple glazed Salmon, stir fried veggies, brown rice

S- Italian flying saucers, broccoli, salad

week 2

S- Chili, cornbread, chocolate chip bars

M- Coconut mahi-mahi, jasmine rice, green beans, salad

T- Ravioli, cauliflower, salad

W- orange chicken (pinterest), chow mein, stir fry veggies

Th- Sour cream enchiladas, crock pot beans, rice, salad (we hosted small group)

F- Chicken and rice soup, fresh bread

S- Asparagus pasta, salad

week3

S- Sloppy Joes, corn on the cob, salad, berry cobbler

M- Spaghetti, salad, garlic toast

T- Scrambled Eggs, bacon, cinnamon rolls (pinterest), sliced melon

W- BBQ chicken, ranch quinoa, green beans, salad

Th- Quinoa minestrone soup, (pinterest) fresh bread

F- Tuna noodle casserole, broccoli, salad

S- Mahi Mahi tacos, beans

week4

S- Crock pot salsa burritos, salad, watermelon

M-Citrus salmon, pumpkin quinoa, broccoli, salad

T- Garlic brown sugar chicken (pinterest) mashed red potatoes, asparagus, salad

W- Baked Ziti & summer veggies (pinterest) salad, 

Th- pizza

F- Nachos

S- Cauliflower casserole (pinterest), salad, sliced melon

week5

S- Crock pot roast w/ veggies & potatoes, salad, brownies

M- white chicken chili, biscuits, salad, strawberries

T- Crock Pot mac n' cheese, roasted brussel sprouts, salad

W- Baked Potato Bar, salad

Th- cereal (great meal, I know, but the kids love it!)

F- Grilled Tilapia with mango salsa, corn & bean quinoa, chips & guacamole

S- Crock Pot Ranch Pork chops over pasta, squash, salad

So there you have it! 5 weeks of menus and a few recipes to boot! If you would like a specific recipe for any of the meals, just ask, I'm happy to oblige :)

Sharing this makes me happy, so if this makes your life easier or gets you out of a meal planning funk, then yay! Feel free to share!

More later...

Skating fun

My last blog post was pretty intense, so I wanted to share something fun! :)

Our homeschool group is BIG and we get to do so many fun things as a group. Every year we have a skate party celebrating the end of the school year and my kids LOVE it!
I didn't take very many pictures, but we had a blast! The big kids are skating maniacs :) and the little boys did so great! Grady actually figured out how to skate on his own after using the "skating walker"...not sure what it's actually called, but it's pictured with Wesley. Wesley was going around the rink with his walker without any help and was so proud of himself.
With the exception of sore tail bones from a few falls, no-one had any injuries!
All the kids asked if we could go skating again over summer, so we added it to our summer bucket list! :-) Bring on the summer fun!! (Excuse the bad pictures from my phone)

Consuming

Do you have something in your life that is all consuming? Something that controls what you get accomplished during the day and how you spend your night? Something that controls what you can eat, the places you can go? For some people this might be fear or disease, financial strain, loss of a job or other circumstances.

For along time, it was fear and disease that controlled my life. Having cancer changed me as a person. Now, I live daily with my new normal and while everything may appear perfectly normal on the outside, the pain is real and affects my every move. Although, I have been cancer free for a few years now, I am consumed with the way cancer changed my life. I no longer am consumed by the fear that I will get sick again, however I am still consumed by its result. There are things that changed for the better, my perspective for instance, my love for life and appreciation of the little things. However, the damage to my body, mind and soul sometimes can be overwhelming. Since having a radical neck dissection and complete parathyroidectomy in the last days of 2007, I have struggled with anxiety and severe nerve and muscle damage that has resulted in debilitating migraines.

Some days, weeks even I feel hopeful that I have them under control, that is until another one hits. I have tried pain clinics, medication, nerve therapy, massage, chiropractic care, diet change, you name it, nothing seems to work. I have read numerous books on healing, migraines, cancer, etc...I pray for relief and still little seems to help.

Some days are worse than others, aside from the headache, the emotions that come with feeling a lack of control and the desire for change can get the best of me. A pity party results...

While I am certain that I serve a loving God that can do miracles, as was evident in my healing of cancer, somedays I lack faith. Funny, for a woman named Faith, huh?

Today had been one of those days...
Last night, we were relaxing out back, playing games and enjoying a drink while listening to music. I was really enjoying the fact that there was time to relax and the weather was beautiful. As bedtime approached, so did my headache. By 1am I could hardly think straight, I did my routine of warding off the migraine and finally fell asleep about 4am. But by 9am I felt like vomiting from the pain. It's now after 6pm and I've done little other than lay on the couch, yell at my kids and hate life.

My life is truly blessed, I realize this. But sometimes, just sometimes I feel jipped. I HATE that a diagnosis of cancer changed the way I am able to live life.

Tomorrow is a new day and with it is His promise that joy comes in the morning. Tomorrow, I will choose joy. I won't let a stupid migraine control me.

When life gives you lemons...

This past week, two different friends brought me bags of lemons. The kids begged to make lemonade, so we did!
After making a few pitchers of lemonade, lemonade slushies and tazo passion tea lemonade, I had a huge bowl of lemon peels and didn't want to just toss them. Good thing I have pinterest :) After finding a recipe that looked good, I made a huge batch of lemon sugar scrub and put it in jelly jars with cute fabric and made some labels.
I love creating and this was so easy! I'd you want a jar of lemon sugar scrub, let me know, I'd love to share :)

My epiphanies...

I'm just like every other woman.
I want my life to be picture perfect.
I am "type A." I'm a procrastinator. (Those 2 characteristics don't always go well together.)
My life is a "little" crazy.
My life is NOT picture perfect.
I hate doing laundry.
We are clothes hogs.
I have a lot of laundry to do.
Sometimes, if things can't be "just right", I'd rather not do them at all.
I am a child of God.
God doesn't care if my life is picture perfect.
God made me just the way I am.
My friends love me for who I am, craziness and all.
Life is best shared with those you love.

So, with all that said...
I guess one of my pitfalls with blogging, is that I want it perfect. I want my pictures edited, I carefully think about what I'm writing in my posts and worry more about what others think, than the importance of documenting our life for my kids to enjoy later on. I read others blogs and compare myself and end up feeling like a loser mom for not doing more, being this or that...You know the feeling, like after spending too much time on Pinterest or Instagram or looking at "The Pioneer Woman"  Or am I the only one that does this??

After talking with many moms, I realized we ALL struggle with some of this. Life isn't perfect, NOONE has it all together.  I was reminded of this after sitting at our homeschool park day the other day and talking for a long time. The thing is, the world would like us to believe that we can achieve perfection and that we aren't good enough unless it is perfect, but that simply isn't true. God has given each of us a different set of circumstances and abilities. God didn't design me to be a "pinterest" worthy crafter, a "perfect" mom, a gourmet chef,  a crossfit champion, an award winning photographer, or the do it all homeschooler. God made me, ME.  God doesn't need me to be perfect at anything. I do enjoy doing crafts, cooking, working out, taking pictures and homeschooling, but those things aren't what give me value, those are all extras. My value comes from Him. If I am finding joy in Him daily, my joy will be complete!

However imperfect my life is, it is beautiful. I am blessed!

So, it's okay to blog about the little things, for life not to be perfect and I need to be reminded of this daily!

I'm back...

I've been composing blog posts in my mind for the last year and a half, since I actually posted a real post...(I know it's ridiculous how long it's been) but I'm back with some great epiphanies and want you to know big things are happening!!! Changes are coming to the Oates household, please bear with me as I attempt to blog again and would love for you to share this journey, called life, with me.