Meal Planning

I have been saying lately that I am in the "Mom's taxi" phase of life. My boys are 14 and 9 and both are rather self-sufficient except for getting themselves places. (Although I have taken them on bikes to show them how to get the library and a close by shopping center safely. And DS14 has gotten the bike out a few times this summer and trerated himself to McDonald's. )

At the beginning of May I knew it was going to be a hectic month with baseball games and practices. We had just recently purchased a membership at Costco and if there was not a plan in place for meals, Hubby would default to eating out eventhough he is trying to plus that hole in his wallet. Thus I made a monthly menu. I did write down somethign for each day, but at least the days when I knew we woudl be rushed. I also did a first of the month shopping trip to Costco (I get paid once a month, so that was the easiest) and divided up super-huge parcels of meats into meal-sized or individual sized servings (such as hamburger patties).

My family liked having that spreadsheet ont he fridge so much. My 9 YO has a habit of asking first thing in the morning or when he gets pciked up "What's for dinner? If the meal planned was an oven thing, I could have it prepared in the fridge and have the 14 Yo put it int he oven so it was ready when I walked in the door.

So here it is, the end of July. I am ready to start this process for August, I have the 14yo's band schedule (I think) but I only have information on the 9 YO's first Football practice.

I am worried. the 9 YO will be at after school care. Most liely we will not have time to take him home before football practice. He will have to be fed soemthing before practice. He's not much of a sandwich eat, so that will most likely mean fast food (Yuck! and expensive).

So here is what I am thinking:
1.) load some gift cards for Wendy's for once a week. I think football for the 3rd and 4th graders will be 2 nights a week.
2.) Make him eat a sandwich the other night.
3.) I will be picking the 14 yo up at school after practice. So we will need something quick.

I know a lot of busy people use their crock pots. I find that many of the crockpot meals I have tried do not hold up well after 10 hours. I just do not find them appetizing.

Anyways, I'll update on my progress.

Be careful what you wish for..

I'd love to elaborate, but I am also not willing to spill my guts right now. There is a tropical storm brewing at work. My employment is not in danger, but my current position is being brought into question. My ego is taking a pounding. However, there could be a good side to this.

So is a hurricane going to develop out of this or will the storm break up. Like the weather, it's hard to tell. There can sometimes be some blustering, however, this same question has been brought up before.

There could be some advantages. A lot of what I do, I would still do. There is a public relations aspect to my job that needs work. Do I still have the competitive spirit and drive to attain the skills, knowlege and abilities? I don't know. Now that I am not the main breadwinner in the family anymore, do I want to fade in the background more?

Sometimes the Almighty Father answers prayers in a way you don't expect. But then again I did not think my occasional fantasies of a less intense career were prayers.

A Post about nothing

Oh how I wish I was full of witty posts that has people rolling in front of their monitors. I'd love to be another BooMama or a Mrs Dryer, But I just don't have it in me. Heck. Shalee is a Mom who works outside the home and she posts more regularly that I do.

I stead I give you pictures of my wind-ravaged home and my boys in their sports. But maybe because my life is pretty confined these days. I sleep, work and drive. I take time out to eat and use the bathroom. Take yesterday, I got up, showered and dresses, referred arguments between Whiney (the 9 YO) and Meanie (the ADHD 13 Yo who's meds had not kicked in yet). The 9 YO has been making things with Legos, He had a cars that was made out of DS13s Legos. the 13 YO demanded him Legos back. Yelling ensued until the bus pulled up. I did spedn 30 minutes on the home computer until it was time to pick up my carpool friend. I did have to stop and get gas. Then we came to work. Then we came home. Just as I am 3 minutes from Carpool friends house, Hubby calls me. he got out of work late. Was I closer to school to pick up the 9 Yo from after school care? Yes. So I go back and pick up the ( YO. In the meantime I call DS13 to tell him to eat before football practice and to be ready because i would probably have enough time to pull into the driveway, jettison DS9 to Dad's care and have DS13 climb in to take to football practice. (Lets do a time check: leave work at 3:45, pick up DS9 about 4:35, pull into the driveway about 5:08).

I drop off DS13, and go find the Kroger. I went to the second closest one because of traffic. I got a package of California rolls - Yum, Dinner) and juice boxes to send in for Ds9's class. I stop at Trader Joe's looking for Flax seed supplements. Then I decide to go to Whole Foods - it's another 2 exits up the expressway (yes a lot of my driving is my own fault..) I find Arnica Gel

I sit waiting for football practice to end for about 30 minutes. It's awful dark, but I guess the two little street lights are enough to do pushups and situps to. DS13 is hungry. Ok, it's 8:15, we've got a 15 minute ride home with a boy who procrastinates on his shower, getting something to eat at home would prolong my agony by 20 minutes at least. So it is a stop at McDonalds. Bu=oy are they busy. So I hand the boy some money. He goes in with $8 and comes back out with $5. Hey, not bad. We drive home. Ah, I can now kick off my shoes and change out of my work clothes.

So am I crazy to be starting a very expensive workout program? I am working with a personal trainer. Hubby is behind me. I have not been able to exercise for about 2 years. I have developed chronic tendonitis in my ankle due to my extremely flat feet. Working with the Podiatrist, I have a rigid brace that I am supposed to wear most of the time. Surgery is the next step. I don't like the idea of surgery so I want to work with a personal trainer to find workouts that won't aggravate my ankle. My goals for exercising are:

1. Stress relief
2. Stave off Diabetes for another 20 years
3. Of course it would be nice to drop some weight. (Goal is about 65 lbs)

So to find the time, I and going to work out at 5 AM Tues and Thurs and 7 AM Saturdays. Wish me luck...

When will it end?

So I'm all ready to go to work today. The boys are settled, DS12 has agreed to be the babysitter and has a list of phone numbers and another list of do's and don'ts.

Guess what, my car will not stay running. I start it and it stalls. So before 9:00 am I have found a repair shop close to my house, called a towing company. My car was loaded on a flat bed and I have a reciept for just under $70 for towing my car about 2 miles. Who knows what the repair will be.

It's a good thing I am a state employee with a gazillion sick days and a Gazillion +1 vacation days.

A boy and his arm

The boy's surgery went well. Were got home at 2:00 PM. He puked at 4:00 PM, but has been eating ever since. he just asked for Orange juice. I offered 7-UP. He got some water.

He cannot understand why I won't let him go find his friend next door or let him invite the friend over.

I have been away from work 8-1/2 days out of the last 10 business days. My blackberry has gotten quite a workout. While I have the sick and vaction time, i feel like I do need to show my face in the office for at least half days next week. The Doctor was unsure about sending the injured boy back to Daycamp, but I am going to call them to see if they have accomodations for a boy who cannot swim. If on friday their field trip involves water (today's was a trip to the local waterpark) I can keep him home.

My Commute and my boys

So I drive 50 miles one-way to work. See this post and this post for reasons.

But now that my boys are out of school, I am taking the 7yo to Daycamp at a YMCA about half way for me. Yesterdy morning we are about 25 minutes into the drive and he asks "When are we going to get there? I am tired of riding." I guess he thinks if he's going to be int eh car for more that 20 minutes he'd better be going someplace exciting, like Grandma and grandpa's (That's about a 9 Hour drive) or to Chicago to see the other Grandpa (5 hours) or even to Uncle Bill's (about 50 miles). I just can't belive him. But he's also the boy who walks into the kitchen where there are 2 analog clocks and three digital and demand to know what time it is.

My 12 YO is riding all the way with me. He is attending Baseball camp in the morning and hanging out in my office in the evening. Last night on the way home, he observed: " Only 4 more days of this"

Me: "Of what, hanging out in my office?"
12YO: "No, riding in the car this long."

Sigh. I could at least hope for some empathy or appreciation of what I have been going through for the past year.

VA Tech tragedy

So it's almost the end of my day and scanning my Bloglines I see a lot of blogs I follow have put up posts praying for the victims of the rampage. My prayers certainly join them.

But earlier today I had to deal with the tragedy in a different way. What if this happened on our campus? VA Tech was sending emails to their students. There website was up and down. What if something similar happened here? Could the email system that I manage handle the traffic? Could students get the message to stay inside, not come to campus. Could students communicate with paretns and friends that they were ok?

Scary Day.