Weekly Menu and lunch with Cooper

This last week went SO smooth because I was prepared and made my weekly menu.  Seriously, life is less chaotic when I am organized.  We pushed the lasagna to Sunday because I had a last minute dinner night with my sister and mom but other than that, we stuck to the schedule.  Here is my meal plan for this coming week.  I am trying to cook more "meat and veggie" meals Mon-Fri and reserve "carb" meals for the weekends.

Monday

Whole Chicken in a Crock Pot (will use any leftovers for salad toppers for myself for lunches)

* Will use the leftover bones to make homemade bone broth

Homemade Pinto beans (defrost leftovers from last week)

Roasted Vegetables

Fresh Fruit

Tuesday

Beef with Snow Peas

Steamed Asian veggies

Fresh Fruit

Wednesday

Asian Turkey Meatballs with Lime Sesame Dipping Sauce

Creamy Cauliflower Puree

Green Beans with Almonds (my family LOVED this last week)

Fresh Fruit

Thursday

Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops

Roasted Corn

Steamed Veggies

Fresh Fruit

Friday

Slow Cooker Shredded BBQ Chicken

Roasted Broccoli

Pickle Spears

Fresh Fruit

Sunday

American Goulash

Soft Garlic Knots

Veggies

Fresh Fruit

Cooper has had a great first week of school. Shawn and I took lunch on Friday and ate in the cafeteria with him.  He was so excited.

On the first day of school, Cooper came home telling us about a new boy in his class- brand new to the school.  Cooper has taken him under his wing and been a sweet friend to him this week.  Makes my heart happy to see him being so sweet.  He picked him to eat lunch at our table with us.   Super sweet kid from what we can tell. 

I don't make a ton of sweets since we try to limit our sugar intake but I found this gluten free cookie dough and wanted to try it.  I'm trying to cut down a bit on gluten and wheat because of my eczema issues.  These turned out really yummy!  And they have ingredients you can actually pronounce.

My mom has been in town this week, staying with my sister, so we met Friday night for a GNO.  Dinner and drinks with my 2 favorite girls.

Cooper starts school.....

In the world of coffee.....this is my first coffee in the last few weeks.  This day it was required. #sleepy

Cooper started school on Monday, Aug 24.  I woke up and walked down the hall to head towards the boys bedrooms to wake them up.  The kitchen light was on and this guy was at the table. dressed, and ready to go.  Can you tell  he is excited?  Sweet boy!

4th grade!

With brother.....who was not thrilled to take a picture.  But I feed him so he has no choice.

With Mrs. L

Seated and ready to go.

On the way to school this morning, Cooper was quizzing Hudson for his test he had today.  They really can be sweet to each other at times.

This is the second week that sweet boy and I have taken the boys to school and hit the trails near our house.   We are determined to get in shape!  #hatebeingfat

Today, I met with these sweet friend for mimosas and facials.  Girlfriends are good for the soul!

Grammy came over for a quick visit this afternoon.  Cooper insisted they play a game of Dominos.  We sure love our Grammy!

Weekly Menu and Coopie

This summer I have fallen off the weekly menu train.   Goodness, I was gone half the summer and the rest was filled with boys at camp or time with grandparents.......so cooking wasn't something I did a ton of.  I am SO ready to get back into it and be organized in this area again.  Here is what I've got planned for this coming week:

Sunday

Pasta alla Vodka

Steamed Veggies

Green Salad w/ homemade vinaigrette dressing

Monday

Praline Pork Tenderloin (I'm only making one tenderloin so cutting the recipe in half)

Garlic Snap Peas

Homemade Pinto Beans

Tuesday

Pot Roast with veggies

Green Salad

Wednesday

Bruschetta Chicken

Green Beans with almonds

Baked Garlic Rice Pilaf

Thursday

Mini Cheddar Meatloaves

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Steamed Broccoli and Carrots

Friday

Slow Cooker Lasagna

Green Salad

Herbed Dinner Rolls

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On Thursday, Cooper knew that he would get his teacher letter from school.  We heard the mailman drive by and he was out the door.  Can you tell he's just a tad bit excited?

He was really hoping he would get Mrs. L......one of the teachers that Hudson had it 4th grade.

And he did!!  He's thrilled.

Cooper has been asking to go to CEC for a while.  Hudson doesn't really love it anymore so we took advantage of just having him. 

Loved getting to spend some time with just my Cooper.

Friday night, Hudson was tired from his first full week of school.  So we ate dinner and then decided to watch the original Star Wars.  We are going to watch all of them since the new one is coming out this year.  This was the first time for them to see it.....and they really liked it.  Jason would be so proud!

One of their favorite things about the weekend is getting to sleep in the same room.  On Fri and Sat nights......we pull the trundle out in Hudson's room and after hanging out as a family, we say prayers and tuck them in and they play games or watch Netflix on the computer together.  I love that they look forward to this!

July Goals recap and other stuff

Last weekend, Shawn and his dad installed a new sink in our kitchen.  I was planning to post a pic of the old one but I'm too embarrassed to do that.  I didn't realize how bad it was.  We are starting to check things off our list in order to update our house.

New faucet

Work hard, play hard.  Middle of the week movie date.

This little guy spent a couple of days at Mimi's house since school doesn't start for him until Monday.  One of her friends had some old Goosebumps books and she offered them to Cooper.  He is so excited and proud of them!

Today, the weather has been amazing.  It's super overcast with rain in the forecast.  Such a nice change from the 100+ weather.  We enjoyed our morning walk so much more.

Letting Cooper get a few minutes of play in before we turn around and walk back.

Our trail has a few random art pieces....all this metal put together to form a castle.

Hudson's school has a memory verse every week that they have to memorize.  His Bible class is covering Proverbs.....and this is his first one.  I have a few around the house so that when he is brushing this teeth or winding down for bed, he can grab one and memorize.  Love this school so far!

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Thought I should recap my July goals to see how I did:

1.  Lose weight-  yea, that didn't happen in July.  Between trips and the boys at camp and convention.....we ate out way more than I wanted.  I probably even gained a little.  Ugh.

2.  Find one healthy recipe

I tried my hand at making homemade bone broth.  Ya'll this was so easy.  I roasted a whole organic chicken and then kept the bones for making the broth.  There are a ton of health benefits to drinking this daily.

3.  1 on 1 date with Cooper- this did not happen unfortunately.  Our summer was so incredibly crazy this year.  I'm adding it to my next set of goals.

4.  Start exercising- yea, this didn't happen either.  I suck.  But the good news is that sweet boy and I have started THIS week.....and even though it's August, its better now than never, right?

5.  Do a 5 day Cleanse- also didn't happen in July but we are on day 4 right now so thankfully I can check this one off tomorrow.  Done!

6.  Organize the linen closet- seriously, I feel like every square inch of my house needs to be organized.  I tackled the cabinets in my bathroom, under the sink:

Much better!

It always gets bad before it gets good.

This was my linen closet.  It was bad.  Things would fall off the shelf when I would try to reach in for something.

Shawn had SOOOO much medicine.....most of it expired....that he tossed.  Thankfully because of our oils we really don't need this stuff anymore.

I got a few of these......

and one of these......

The finished product.  So much better and easier to find stuff.

All my oils and YL products organized and easy to find.

I will be writing my September goals this week since August is almost over.  Hoping to continue to check things off my goal list :)

Chemical Free Living

Packing up some incentives for a reader that ordered a Premium Starter kit.  I'm sending her wool dryer balls so that she can ditch her toxic dryer sheets, concentrated Thieves cleaner so that she can ditch her toxic cleaners, a lavender lip balm, an empty contact case to put coconut oil in (this will be here carrier oil she uses to mix with her oils that need diluting) and some blank capsules.

You only have about 2 weeks left to take advantage of Young Living's Light the Fire discount.  They are offering $10 off the starter kit.  Regularly $160.......you get all of this for just $150 plus tax and shipping.  Plus the goodies above.  And I also send you reference materials so that you know how to use your oils.

You can read a little more that I posted last week here.

To order, go to www.youngliving.com/vo/#/signup/start

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Sweet Friends and Hudson Starts School

When Hudson was just a baby, I started having little playdates with some friends from church that also had baby boys.  We got together 1-2 times per week up until they started kindergarten.  Once they started school, we didn't get to see each other as much......and eventually I started attending a different church after Jason died.  

This week, we were invited to dinner with our friends and we got our boys back together.  These 3 are all starting middle school in the 7th grade.  

And here are the rest of the siblings.  Sweet boys!

Summer is closing on us quickly so the boys and I are taking advantage of the down time.  Last visit to the waterpark.

This guy has grown so much this last year.

Yesterday, Hudson started school.  We made the decision to put him in a private, Christian school near our home.  We were unsure about the middle school in our district and we just really felt this is where he needs to be. Smaller classes, Christian influence, and a sense of "family" is what we want for him.

This little guy starts school on the 24th.  He has one more year in elementary school and then we plan to send him where Hudson is going.

I said lots of prayers for him on is first day.  New school, new friends, new schedule...... lots of changes.

His friend, Trent (in first picture) goes there too so he at least had a friend to walk in with.

After dropping Hudson off, we had a little time before we went back for their opening chapel ceremony.  Took this boy to IHOP for breakfast.

His Grammy has spoiled him by introducing him to chocolate chip pancakes.  This boy loves his food!

I picked Hudson up yesterday and he said it was a great day.  He was assigned his computer (they get MacBook Airs) so he is so excited about that.  Looking forward to a great year for both of these boys.