All Things Hold Together

I just want to take a minute to say, “thanks,” to Laura from I’m an Organizing Junkie for getting me into menu planning. It really does make my week go so much smoother when I plan my menu in advance. Not to mention how much easier grocery shopping is.

Tonight, my husband, Bob, is going to be getting home late, so we have a kid-friendly menu, since it is just me and the boys.

Monday: Chicken nuggets, fries and carrot sticks. (Chicken nugget tossed salad, for Mom)

Tuesday: Baked ziti w/ sausage and French bread

Wednesday: Taco salad

Thursday: Chicken pot pie

Friday: Slow cooker red beans and barley w/ kielbasa and corn bread

Saturday: Leftovers!

That’s our menu for the week. Be sure to head on over to orgjunkie.com and see the rest of Menu Plan Monday.

I am still not fully healed from the flu that I have had for the past 10 days or so. I lose my energy sometime in the afternoon (no, more than normal) and I have a bad cough still.

Every night this week, I have been up coughing. I take cough medicine, to no avail.

Last night, I was coughing so much that I threw up three times!

After I brushed my teeth and had some water, I was still coughing. I realized that I had thrown up the cough medicine and I was wondering what to do so that Bob and I could get a good night’s sleep.

Then I remembered reading an article about a study that showed honey to be an effective cough remedy for children.

I went and had a spoonful of that delicious raw raspberry blossom honey that I told you about and went back to bed.

I coughed once more when I got back into bed, but after that, I was out like a light and did not cough even once throughout the night!

I still have the cough this morning, so it is not gone. The honey quieted my cough for the whole night.

I was so amazed by this, I had to share.

I have had this song in my head for days. I think I heard it at Easter. At any rate, I thought I would share it.

Because of Your love, we’re forgiven
Because of Your love, our hearts are clean
We lift You up with songs of freedom
Forever we’re changed because of Your love

This was my first attempt at amigurumi. I made this bunny for Little E for Easter.

I found the small stitches to be kind of tough on my hands. My fingers ached when I was finished. Next time, I will have to take more breaks.

Little E loves it though!

As I anticipated, I have been sick with the flu all week. It has been horrible!

Fortunately, I didn’t get sick until after I made this wonderful New England Boiled Dinner for St. Patrick’s Day.

Doesn’t the meat look tiny compared to the vegetables? That’s because Bob won’t eat beef unless it is local (and rightfully so) and the local corned beef at the co-op was $8.99 a pound!

It was the most amazing thing I have ever tasted, though.

I had pictures of the cupcakes that I made, too, but I dumped them onto the computer before the re-installation of the operating system and I have not put the old data back on yet, so I cannot get to them right now.

I am still feeling pretty lousy. I just hope I am better in time to make something half-way decent for Easter.

At least we have no company coming this year.

And to think, I was disappointed at not having company for Easter for the first time.

I guess it was for the best after all.

Well, that’s what has been going on with me all week.  How about you?

Lately, our computer has been acting up. I have had to shut it down using the button on the computer, instead of closing down Windows properly, at least once a day for the past week.

I decided that it is time that I let my husband reinstall the operating system.

He has wanted to do this for some time, but I always protest because I have so much stuff on the hard drive and I don’t want to deal with backing it all up.

Yes, I should have it backed up anyway. And I could lose my data anyway when the computer crashes. But I still don’t want to deal with it.

Imagine a giant, three-car garage, filled to the top with boxes of stuff. Some boxes are labeled, but many are just boxes of random, assorted things that you got tired of cluttering up your house, so you threw them all in a box.

Well, my hard drive is the computer version of that garage.

When my desktop gets too cluttered, I throw everything into a new folder, instead of sorting it out.

I could just back it up as is and deal with it later, but I really should take the time to sort it all out into meaningful folders, so I can find things when I need them.

Who knew there was a digital equivalent to cleaning the house that I would dread doing just as much!

This week, we are dealing with a nasty flu.

My mother-in-law had it (just as we were leaving from our trip to visit her) and her fever lasted for 6 days.

My husband has had it since Thursday, stayed home from work on Friday, and hasn’t been out of bed all weekend.

As of yet, I have not had the full-blown symptoms, but I am not feeling well at all.

So, Sunday morning, I went through the sale fliers, gathered up my coupons, and headed out to shop for a week of ready-to-eat dinners!

This is a new thing for this cook-from-scratch mama.

Monday - St. Patrick’s Day - Corned beef and cabbage w/ carrots and potatoes. No green beer for these flu-fighters, but there will be cupcakes with green sugar sprinkles.

Tuesday - Chicken Breast Tenderloin sandwiches (frozen) and French Fries (also frozen) w/ baby carrots.

Wednesday - Frozen mini pizzas w/ salad

Thursday - Fettuccine w/ bottled Alfredo Sauce and Broccoli (frozen)

Friday - Slow Cooker Red Beans and Barley w/ Turkey Kielbasa (I add chili powder and cumin to that recipe and use chicken broth instead of veg.)

That will be the least cooking I have ever done in a week, while still eating decent food.

To check out more menu plans, head on over to Organizing Junkie.

When I was visiting my parents-in-law last weekend, my MIL was making dinner in the Crock Pot.

I overheard Little E say to her, “My mom has one of those.  Hers cooks slow, so she calls it a slow cooker.”

I mentioned a few times in the past that I had some struggles with my faith last year. I wrote a couple of posts that laid it all out there, but I never published them.

I decided that I do want to share, but since this is a long post and not everyone will be interested in the subject matter, I am going to snip it here. Click the link if you want to read on. (more…)

I am just testing out the “more” feature.

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