No baby yet...

And I'm getting a bit uncomfortable and cranky. And extremely anxious. And very excited.

Thankfully my mom came up to stay with us on Monday so we have Granny here now to watch the kids while we are at the hospital. That is a load off my mind and I'm so thankful that she is here!

Otherwise, it is business as usual until baby arrives. I made muffins this morning, made a double batch of hummus for lunch, and chili is in the crockpot for supper. Laundry. Errands. A trip to the library. A walk and bike ride with the kids. Soccer tonight. Life goes on as we try to wait patiently for the new addition to our family.

Menu Plan - week of 9/26/11

Baby #3 is due to arrive this week....hopefully. I'm still hanging in there - trying to enjoy my two little kids before I head off to the hospital without them for a couple of days, trying to keep the house clean and laundry done, and still trying to menu plan because the family still needs to eat! Here is what we have planned this week:

Breakfasts:
Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, melon
Cereal and toast
English muffins and scrambled eggs
Oatmeal Breakfast Bars

Lunches:
Poor Man's Pizza, orange slices
Pita chips, hummus, carrot sticks with ranch dressing
Creamy Mac and Cheese, apple slices, raw broccoli with ranch dressing
PB&J, crackers and apple slices
leftovers


Suppers:
Monday: Slow Cooker Angel Chicken with broccoli, lettuce salad

Tuesday: Slow Cooker Turkey Chili, cornbread, melon

Wednesday: Chicken Wild Rice Soup made with leftover Angel Chicken, cornbread, apple slices

Thursday: leftover buffet

Friday: Hot and Sour Soup, potsickers and eggrolls (store-bought from the freezer), green beans

Please stop by I'm an Organizing Junkie for more menu planning resources!

More nesting

By 10:30 this morning, I have done the following:

- made a double batch of homemade applesauce in the slow cooker
- made ranch dressing mix
- finished two loads of laundry
- played Barbies with my daughter and son
- cleaned out and organized our freezer
- baked a loaf of banana bread
- organized three kitchen cupboards
- finally unpacked and put away our china in the hutch from the move in May

You think I'm nesting, per chance? :-) This is what happens when you wake up at 5:30 a.m. with a contraction, hop out of bed and get ready for the day thinking "this could be it", and then.....nothing else happens. :-)

Have a very happy Saturday!

Friday Favorite Finds - 9/23/11

Today I'm participating in Friday Finds hosted by Finding Joy in my Kitchen. This is a short list because baby will hopefully arrive in the next few days so I'm trying to be realistic! I still have a lot of apples to use up from our recent apple orchard trip so I focused on a couple of apple recipes. Here is the list of recipes that caught my eye the past couple of weeks and I'm looking forward to trying soon:

Healthified Fresh Apple Cake
(Photo and recipe courtesy of Eat Better America)

Creamy Apple Cinnamon Quesadilla
(Photo and recipe courtesy of Eat Better America)

Spicy Chicken Sandwiches

(Photo and recipe courtesy of This Mom's Happy Life)

Please visit Finding Joy in My Kitchen for more great recipe ideas!

Finally...a manicure!

I've wanted to get a manicure for some time now. I rarely get them - maybe once or twice a year. Pedicures - yes, I get them quite often during the summer. But manicures? I have a hard time justifying spending the $20 on something that looks good for a day or two and then starts peeling away. Plus, when I do get time to go to the nail salon by myself, my time without kiddos is so limited that I choose getting my toes done (which involves more pampering!) over getting my nails done.

So, I enlisted my own little beauticians in the making the other day who gave me a fabulous manicure. Their names are Alison, age 4, and Christopher, age 2. I highly recommend them. They are very friendly, talkative, and accept tips in the form of Goldfish crackers.

Here is the end result of my recent manicure. Beautiful!!



This post is linked to Works for Me Wednesday.

This pregnancy - Gratituesday

Only nine days to go till my due date. I'm huge, uncomfortable, and I have to admit, a little on the cranky side a good portion of the day. But, on this Tuesday when I'm linking up with Laura at Heavenly Homemakers for Gratituesday, I am taking a moment to be grateful for this wonderful pregnancy and savoring every minute of it. More than likely, this will be the last time I will be pregnant. I am trying to savor every single kick, squirm and roll in my belly. I thank God that He has allowed this pregnancy to go full-term and that it has been a relatively smooth nine months for me. I am in awe of how you can fall so deeply in love with someone whom you have not yet met, do not know what they look like, and don't even know if they are a boy or girl!

So, during these last few days of pregnancy, I am going to try to forget how hard it is to sleep, how much I miss being able to bend over to pick something up off the floor without grunting and acting like a contortionist, and how tired I am of going to the bathroom every thirty minutes (seriously, that last one isn't even an exaggeration.) Instead, I will focus on this blessing God has given us, how cute my kids are in their excitement of waiting for the new baby's arrival, and how grateful I am that I am able to be a mommy.

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Menu Plan Monday - week of 9/19/11

Last week I made everything on our menu plan (that may be a first!) and everything turned out really yummy. As I posted earlier, we really enjoyed the Kielbasa Bow-Tie Skillet and I hope you give it a try! I'm looking forward to breaking into our freezer stash of this meal in the upcoming weeks.

The kids and I visited an apple orchard last Thursday and came home with a ton of apples, so I'm looking for some good apple recipes to use up my stash. I'm looking forward to making the Apple Pie Bread for breakfast one morning (thanks to April at Angel Foods Kitchen for pointing out this recipe last week!) I also made an apple pie and homemade ice cream on Friday evening (of which we are still enjoying the leftovers!) Any other ideas? Please leave a comment with your favorite apple recipe - I'd really appreciate it!

Anyway, still no baby...so I've planned another week of meals. Nothing to double or freeze because my freezer is nearly full. Here's what we have planned so far:

Breakfasts:
Cereal and toast
Waffles and bananas
Honey Crunch Granola (another great granola recipe from Sarah at Clay in His Hands) with yogurt
Apple Pie Bread (new recipe), fruit

Lunches:
Tomato soup, grilled cheese, carrot sticks with ranch dressing
Pita chips and hummus, fruit salad
Homemade Chicken Nuggets, cottage cheese, apple slices
Creamy Mac and Cheese, apple slices, carrot sticks with ranch dressing
leftovers

Suppers:
Monday: leftover buffet from the weekend (ham fried rice, pasta, whole wheat oatmeal pancakes, fruit salad)

Tuesday: Burritos (I have 17 of these babies in my freezer which I'm saving for after baby arrives, but I'm making a fresh batch for us to eat at my hubby's request. I use ground beef instead of chicken), chips and salsa, apple slices

Wednesday: leftovers or out to eat (soccer night)

Thursday: Homemade Pizza, lettuce salad

Friday: Hot Beef Cheddar Subs, sweet potato fries, green beans

Sat. and Sun.: ?? (I don't plan on the weekends anymore because everything is always so fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants)

For tons of menu planning ideas, please check out I'm an Organizing Junkie.