I have to admit as much as I love the idea of Gratituesday, writing posts for Gratituesday is sometimes a lot harder than it should be.  Don’t get me wrong I’m not a total grinch, but sometimes all I can come up with to be grateful for are little things that I don’t think anyone wants to read about.  Sometimes, my heart is so heavy, I let that nasty little voice inside my head say “Why would anyone care?”

Today, however, I have an easy Gratituesday post.  It’s my 14th wedding anniversary.  I have to say that some of those years have been pretty long, some of them shorter than others but have aged me significantly.  Overall I have to say I am one blessed woman with a husband who God gifted me with who is just right for me.  Irritating enough to keep me interested, strong enough for me to respect, and who loves me.  Not that noun “love” thing, all though I’m pretty sure he feels that too, but the verb.  He chooses to love me everyday.  When I’m grumpy, when I’m tired, when I’m downright mean, when I’m fat, when I’m irritated with his mother, when I’m irritated with our children, when I’m irritated with myself. 

He makes me garden boxes even though I have a black thumb.  Then he moves them the next year because they didn’t get enough sun (not that the plants died because I have a black thumb).  He used to stay home with 2 babies every other Saturday so I didn’t go insane.  Flowers, chocolate, and romantic getaways are all great, don’t get me wrong, but my man has them all beat.  He cleans up when the kids puke on the floor.  That, my friends, is true love!

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Well, time does fly!  Geesh.  So much for writing regularly.  Oh well, onward and upward!

To catch up, here’s my goals progress list:

#1, 2, & 7 – Routines and housework.  This is actually going fairly well.  I have developed a little daily form that I print out a few weeks’ worth at a time with spots for my to do list, shopping list, the daily schedule, and each girls to do lists, plus a spot with extra chores that need to be done.  Someday I might figure out how to link it up, but until then, email me and I’ll send you a copy.  The girls know what they are expected to do each day, and although there is usually some negotiating on the items they aren’t thrilled about doing and the occasional grumble when the list is long, they are actually doing a pretty good job of keeping up with their lists and that makes me happy!  The house is not a total disaster and that makes me even happier!

The rest of my list of goals isn’t going quite so well.  Partially because I really have not felt well for quite some time.  A series of sinus infections, colds, and general ickyness have slowed me down quite a bit, and now a probably diagnosis of fibromyalgia isn’t making things move any faster.

The one area that is looking up in a big way is budgeting.  I have been pretty good about sticking to a list and only buying what we specifically need.  Cutting back on impulse buying has allowed me to switch us over to mostly organic food without too much impact on the budget.  Things will be getting even better in this department since the Dad is starting a new job with a significant raise in a couple of weeks.  Good by debt and hello family vacations!!!

We also have a sort-of-kind-of garden going.  That is, if you count potted strawberry plants and a couple of blueberry bushes!  I’m wondering if it’s too late to plant tomatoes…

So that’s my update.

Well here we are in the 2nd full week of 2010, and I thought I’d let you know how it’s going.  The menu plan is working wonderfully.  Although I’m not strictly following what is supposed to be on each day, having a list of menu options helps tremendously.  I’m also following along with Money Saving Mom’s eating out of the pantry challenge, and I’m working on getting my freezer cleaned out so I can defrost it. 

The routines are not going quite so well.  We’ve had a wrench thrown into the works by way of a cold that has sidelined me and now Boo.  I’m a big baby when I don’t feel well, so the kids are being fed and I’m assigning schoolwork, but not much else gets done.  Schoolwork actually went really well last week so I’m rather bummed about Boo being sick because it delays us all since I have the girls doing science together. 

This week’s big goal is to get the Christmas stuff put away.  It was too cold last week for me to pull all the stuff down on the outside, and somehow the tree got half undecorated but not finished, but when those 2 things are done, I am done.  I even went through some of the boxes I have put away and purged some Christmas decorations I will never use.

Speaking of which, why is it that I feel guilty about throwing away (donating) things I have been given that I can’t stand.  I don’t like them, I won’t use them, and they take up precious space in my house.  I know in my mind I am fully justified in getting rid of them, but somehow I feel guilty. 

Well I’m off to be productive!  I have blueberry muffins baking at the moment (an experiment with dried blueberries), and I need to go pull my meat out of the freezer for dinner. 

The Boo got a new camera for Christmas.  A nicer camera than anyone else in the family has.  She’s 10.  And she takes pictures like this.

That’s why she gets the good camera.

I am terrible at menu planning.  Actually, I’m terrible at menu follow-through.  I’m actually a wonderful planner.  I make lists, charts, schedules…and for me they are usually a bunch of papers.  I am BAD at execution of these plans.  The big hang-up for me I think is organization.  I am so disorganized it is paralyzing.  So when Money Saving Mom reviewed a service called Stolen Moments Menu Planning, I went to take a look.  After all, I love a good plan.  So, I took and look and I was impressed.

Imagine if someone could come in and see how your family eats, how you like to cook, and then does all the planning for you – menus, recipes, and grocery lists based on the foods your family likes and avoiding cooking techniques that just don’t work for you.  Now, I’m kind of picky.  We have to eat as naturally as possible for Boo (although it certainly doesn’t hurt the rest of us), but if something is too complicated, I won’t make it.  Have you ever seen some of those recipes for “from scratch” food?!  So, with high hopes and a bit of skepticism I signed up. 

I filled out a pretty extensive questionnaire on my family’s likes an dislikes, how I wanted my menus and grocery lists organized, what kinds of cooking work best for me (go crockpot!).  There were even places for me to comment … things like “we use fresh whole wheat flour” which is important because some recipes do NOT convert automatically to whole wheat…and “we avoid MSG” which means no prepackaged seasoning mixes for us.  I signed up for the full plan which includes breakfast and lunch.  Let’s face it, the girls and I are home everyday and it is just as hard to think of something interesting and healthy for breakfast and lunch day in and day out as it is for dinner.

When I got my plan I was even more impressed.  The recipes looked yummy.  They were simple and doable.  As I was noticing how the recipes were simple and doable, I got a brilliant idea!  Everything was all in one place… plan, recipes…directions…the GIRLS could read what was for breakfast/lunch/dinner and then THEY could MAKE IT!!!!!  Dreams of a life of leisure filled my head…

Okay, now I haven’t actually tried any of the recipes yet (remember that execution thing?).  December was probably not the wisest month to try to begin.  However, I am raring to go now, and I will give you an update next week.

The one caveat I must mention as a former desktop publishing guru is the layout of the menu plan.  It arrives in it’s PDF glory (mine was around 50 pages for the month), and I found its layout to be less than polished.  The content was excellent, but recipes broke across pages and the calendar, recipes, and grocery lists ran together a bit.  Now this is decidedly a minor quibble that may only be an annoyance to those of us who fix up these sorts of things for a living, but in my eyes, it is the one thing that keeps the service from being perfect.