Menu Plan Monday

OK, it's time for me to join in the fun again. I've been winging it for the past couple of weeks and I need to get everyone eating good stuff again. My menu this week consists of dishes that we've had many times before.

Monday: Spaghetti w/ meat sauce, Garlic bread, salad

Tuesday: Tasty Onion Chicken, Honey Garlic Angel Hair, vegetables

Wednesday: Going to the Fair. Yippee!

Thursday: Hot Swiss Chicken Sandwiches, Honey Garlic Angel Hair, Salad

Friday: Shrimp Dinner, Ahi Rice, vegetables

Saturday: One Pan Taco Dinner

Sunday: Lasagna, Garlic bread, salad

For other great menu plans, go visit Laura!

Cool Shades

I didn't plan on posting this, but I've been seeing it a lot on other's blogs. It grows on me each time I see it! So here it is. Is our Holy Father cool or what!

H/T to The Curt Jester

Back to the 80's

I just love the 80's music so when I found out that the Psychedelic Furs were coming to town, I just had to go. Steve got the tickets and that's where we went Tuesday night! The Fixx and The Alarm also were on the playbill. It was great! It reminded me of what fun times I had in the 80's, way back when I was younger and real wet behind the ears. Glad to say I've matured a bit.

I've always liked The Alarm but kind of forgot about them because they weren't a prominent band like the Psychedelic Furs. I was glad to hear that the lead singer, Mike Peters, still has a great voice. He mentioned that he had leukemia. Upon reading about him, I found out that he's battled it twice and apparently is taking medication to keep it under control, at bay or something to that effect. At the concert, he had super energy, was upbeat, and had such an inspiring attitude.

Here's a YouTube video of the Psychedelic Furs in case you're unfamiliar with them or if you just want to re-live a little bit of 80's music!

The Week So Far

This week has gone by pretty fast. Most of it has been spent doing routine housework, cleaning kitchen appliances and working in Kathryn's room to get ready for Miss Emily to move in. I don't really get as much done as I'd like because I also need to make sure all three kids are safely occupied and not pestering each other too much. I've pulled my hair out more than once with all their arguing! I'm sure they're tired of hearing me say, "Can't you all just get along!!" I'm tired of hearing myself say it! I've done a little academic work with them, but it hasn't been consistent. I'll try to do better with that.

Yesterday we took a little drive to visit Grandma. We had lunch, then the kids played around while I chit chatted with Mom. That is always fun. She has a nice patio and garden with a large yard for the kiddos to run around.

Today was lunch day with Dad. Every summer we have one day a week or every other week when we go to Steve's work, pick him up and have lunch at a park. I packed lunch for me and the kids and off we went. Today, we didn't actually go to the park this time. I had to do emergency grocery shopping and Steve kindly gave up the park so we could get the bread we really needed. If you can guess, I really, really don't like to go shopping with all three kids. So, even when we don't make it to the park, we all like to visit with Steve even if it's just for one hour during the day.

Tomorrow we head off to the library. Ryan just got a library card and he's excited to be able to check out his own books. His interest right now is insects. So, we'll probably check out some beetle or grasshopper books. I'm actually learning new things, like there really is a difference between bugs and insects. I never new that. I just used the terms interchangeably
I probably won't be able to look at books for myself. By the time everyone has their books picked out, Emily will have had enough and start getting unruly. We'll see!

Summorum Pontificum celebration

Yea!

Motu Propio

Well, the long awaited Motu Propio (Summorum Pontificum) has been released. I so hope this is the start of bringing back reverence to the Mass. I'll have to wait and see how the bishop here will respond, but I'm hoping I will have an opportunity to attend my first Latin Mass in the near future. I've never attended one before and the main reason I want to is to experience a sense of the reverence, awe, and emphasis on the "Sacrifice of the Mass." I've had plenty of experience with hand holding, let's be community type of worship. Now I'm not opposed to being a community, but I don't like that being emphasized over the sacrificial aspect of the Mass. I don't foresee going to a Latin Mass regularly, but I do want to see what the Mass may have been like before Vatican II. I'll see what transpires in my diocese.



For some good analysis about this document, check out Fr. Z.

Happenings

Our Fourth of July was spent just being together. We attended our neighborhood annual parade. Everyone dresses for the occasion, decorates their strollers, bikes, wagons, pets, whatever and goes around a couple of blocks in the neighborhood. Lots of people sit out in their front yards and wave to those of us walking in the parade. A firetruck usually leads the parade.

Afterwards, everyone gets an ice cream treat!

Usually at night we try to see the fireworks show from Dis*neyland at a nearby parking lot. This year Emily tuckered out early and fell asleep before we could go. I stayed home with her and Ryan chose to join me. Steve and Kathryn went to see the fireworks show. All was not lost as Ryan and I got to see the neighbors doing their fireworks. Not too bad. We also got to see some shooting off in the air. I actually think those are illegal. The ones that are sold in the stands don't shoot up in the air. I don't know where people get those other ones, Mexico perhaps? Don't know.

Yesterday, I got quite a scare. I was out on the front porch sweeping and just knocking off dust from the windowsills. I went back inside and the kids stayed out there. Ryan yells that there's a wasp nest out there. I said no, there was one last year but I haven't seen one this year. Well, out of curiosity, I took a peak and sure enough, there was a small hornet's nest! We ran back into the house and looked at this nest through the window. Yuck, it was ugly. It was only about the size of an apricot but it had a lot of those combs. There were about ten hornets all over it. Man, I was not about to mess with that. The nest was situated near our front door. I don't know why we didn't notice it before! We are in and out all the time. I didn't want to wait for Steve to come home and I wouldn't want him to try to get it either. It was in such a position that the hornets would swarm straight at you. I called the exterminator and he quickly came and took care of it. He handled it quite easily. You could tell he was an expert! I wish I would have thought of taking a picture of it, but I wasn't thinking of that at the time! It seems like we get these hornets each year, but we manage to mess up the nest before it gets bigger. This year they kind of fooled us with the location.

4th of July

Happy Birthday to The United States of America!

God Bless America!

Nutrition & Cholesterol

Yesterday I went to a class held at the local hospital about nutrition and managing cholesterol. It was very informative. When I was pregnant with Emily, about three years ago, I developed gestational diabetes. I had to meet with a nutritionist and develop a meal plan that would help in managing my blood sugar levels. I learned so much and during my pregnancy. My blood sugars stayed in the normal range and I developed healthy eating habits to last a lifetime. Well, since then, I've little by little neglected the good that I learned and replaced that with my previous bad habits.


Well, I've decided that I need to get back into the healthy lifestyle that I had with my last pregnancy. So, I enrolled in this one time class so that I could hear a lot of what I once knew with renewed motivation. Here is some of what I learned:

---There is good cholesterol (HDL) and bad cholesterol (LDL). Some ways to combat the bad cholesterol is to cut back the fat in our diets. Eat more dietary fiber, found in fruits, vegetables, and whole grain products. Exercise regularly.

---Keep blood pressure in check by exercising regularly. Limit sodium intake. Eat a low fat diet.


---We went over the dietary guidelines and how to choose wisely in the different food groups.


---Bad fats (saturated, trans fatty acids). Good fats (Omega 6, Omega 3, monounsaturated)

---Reading and understanding a food label will help in making healthy food choices.

---Benefits and importance of fiber.

We also received numerous charts about the different foods and their amounts of fat, cholesterol, fiber, sodium, etc. All this information is a little overwhelming for me right now so I've decided to concentrate on improving one part of this at a time.

My goal right now is to drink at least 6 glasses of water a day (working my way to 8). I also will try to increase my fiber intake. I haven't been doing too well in the fruit and vegetable area, so that is where I'll start. Increasing the fiber should be done a little at a time because if it's done too quickly, abdominal distress can result.

Hopefully, I'll be on my way to a healthier me.

This 'N That

Steve finally sold his car that he was trying to sell for the longest time. He already has another one picked out. He just has to wait for the other party (it's a used one) to receive the pink slip from their financial institution. Once he gets the "new" one, we'll finally have some reliable cars. We both have had some bad times with previous cars. The car I'm driving now is very reliable and I've had no problems with it.

Until Steve gets the new car, hopefully within the next few days, we'll be sharing mine. Hopefully we'll get all our respective errands done. He'll probably be driving my car when he returns to work on Thursday. I'll be left at home with the three kids, YIKES!

Today's agenda is to take care of whatever errands we can so that we can enjoy a leisurely 4th tomorrow. Tomorrow our neighborhood has its annual 4th of July parade. We need to put air in the kids bicycle tires so they can ride them in the parade.

It's been hot here the last couple of days. We're in the high 80's. Usually when it's this warm, our nights are so nice that we like to take walks along the beach. Maybe we can do that tonight.

Yesterday, I went to an interesting class about nutrition and managing cholesterol. I used to be more conscientious about my eating habits before, but I kind of let it slide and now I want to get back into developing better overall health habits. I hope to write about that in another post.