Meal Planning

Meal plan for this week was not too adventurous, in fact it was quite boring :-( because I was working with what I already had in my fridge and pantry. Hubby seems to be fine with this new mission, I hope it lasts!

Monday Brown Rice, mixed vegetables and tomato stew with turkey

Tuesday Okra(with shrimps, mushrooms and spinach) and Oat Fufu

Wednesday Pasta and ground turkey sauce

Thursday Black Bean Salad and Fish Tacos

Friday Roasted Potatoes and Peas and Sweet Corn and Tilapia filet

Seriously Need to Give Meal Planning a Try

Pardon my absence, this past week has been quite busy with going back to work, I had to adjust to missing my babies and getting my brain back to work mode. Alas, I have survived one week and this long holiday weekend could not have come at a better time.

Something I have been meaning to try but failed and failed again is meal/menu planning, its a wonderful idea for many reasons:

• Shop for groceries within you meal plan in mind which would save dollars!
• Not having to think too much of what to cook for your family - less stress
• See if you have variety or lack there of in your meals 
• See if you are eating healthy week to week
• Eat out less, again saves BIG dollars!
• Less trips to the grocery store
• Plan for busy days - leftovers anyone?
• Waste less groceries since you will use exactly what you have

So the main reason for my many failed attempts is that somehow I deviate for the plan, which totally defeats the purpose, or I write recipes (from the tons I have saved on Pinterest) and when it comes to executing them it's and ultimate failure, or my hubby requests to eat something different even though I have shared the meal plan with him.

To make this different, I am going to work with what I have in my fridge since I did my bi-monthly grocery shopping already :-(, stick the meal plan on the refrigerator with a magnet so that its constantly visible for all to see, and I will prep food a few days before it is needed e.g chop onions, marinate meats etc

The next big thing for me after this is to buy a slow-cooker, I've heard great things about using this for one pot meals, I can throw my ingredients in it the night before and have it ready the next day, how cool! Any recommendations?

Will share my meals and give you an update in the next post!

Cheap Date

Last year my husband and I went through the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University program, check it out a www.fpu.com I highly recommend this to everyone, no matter your financial situation, we've always had different approaches and understanding of how to approach our finances and this gave us some common ground and lots of information that we were not aware of. 

So the focus this year has been to be practical and work hard on saving, investing, and paying off debt. Ultimately, we want to make sure we leave an inheritance for our children's children and stop the cycle of bad habits. In looking into alternative ways of cutting costs, we took the scissors to our date budget, we used to have dates once a week (before kids) and it could be anything from dinner and a movie to concerts etc etc. Now with our 4 month old babies we don't have that much time for a date, and we have not had one in months. It's honestly very hard for me to leave my babies for too long in anyone's care, ugh! 

However, a couple of days ago, we decided to create time to have a date. Now, this had to be a cheap date, I consider a date to be spending valuable time together doing something you enjoy and just enjoying each others company. We were home alone with the babies, I gave them a bath and put them to bed, like I said, our date budget is very cheap, when I say cheap, I mean $10 cheap! It was going to be a pizza and a movie night kinda date. At first, I wanted to order food with my $100 restaurant.com coupon, but you can't place a delivery order with that coupon, you have to dine-in. Oh well :-( Since we needed the food quick and cheap, we decided frozen pizza would be best, we looked up recommendations for the best frozen pizza, and for the movie we went with Blockbuster express kiosk, both of which will be picked up at the grocery store 1 block away. Being the "get the good deal" girl that I am, I looked up to see if there were any deals on the movie and lo and behold I found out you can get up to $3 off a movie, amazing! So our movie was free, check it out here http://www.coupondad.net/blog/blockbuster-express-free-rental-codes/ . We topped it up with frozen greek yoghurt (now I truly feel spoiled!) for dessert, yum!

So there you go a cheap date, no dress up needed, no babysitter, not a lot of money spent. I know its just temporary and what matters to me is to continue to connect and build up my marriage, so the pricey dates can come later. Do you have any cheap date ideas?

What to do, What to do....

What can you do while you are waiting??

This blog post idea came to me because I read a blog that mentioned about making lemonade out of lemons, the lemons were situations in the author's life which were not ideal but she made up her mind to make lemonade out of it. I realize that there are a lot of couples dealing with infertility and it is so bothersome and such a heavy weight to them that it becomes the main event in their lives and forget about how to make some good lemonade out of it.

I just want to emphasize that I believe you have already been blessed with children according to God's promises, and His Will will be established at the appropriate time. Having said that, here are some tips of what you can do while you wait -

• Do fun activities that you enjoy - for me that included traveling, working-out, volunteering, training for 1/2 marathons e.t.c. This allows me to live my life and I really enjoy doing that!

• Host baby showers for friends - There is nothing like honoring others and sharing in their joy, do unto others and it will be done back to you in ways that you cannot imagine. I think I am a pro at hosting baby showers, I even have a toolkit with some supplies for such events! It just makes me happy to see my expectant friends and all that blue/pink/yellow is so exciting! Of course, I am collecting tips on how to throw a fab baby shower of my own. I read on another blog that talks about infertility and the blogger wrote about how she told her family and friends to stop inviting her to baby showers, this really made me sad to think that someone could be so overwhelmed with their present condition that they refuse to celebrate others.

• Spend quality time with your spouse - Since we all know that once the children start popping out, the couple-time will drastically reduce for at least the first few years, from poopy diapers to mid-night feedings, to kissing the boo-boos, to chasing after happy feet toddlers, there is a whole lot to anticipate! So why not take time for the two of you and enjoy each other. I have taken full advantage of this, we go out on dates at least once a week and have deep conversations. It's so much fun and I feel like my "couple-time cup" is already very full and it will sustain me for a while especially during the baby phase. An added plus to this is that you are building on your foundation as a couple, and you can even discuss the type of parents you want to be. You can also start to form your own traditions and recruit the kiddies into this at the right time.

• Prepare yourself financially - There are costs that come with children, from before birth right up to college-bound kids. Any financial strain on a family is not healthy so why not device a plan right now to get out of debt, increase your savings, invest properly, create a budget e.t.c. We have done all these and my favorite is our "baby savings", its just an account that we invest in periodically and its amazing to see the numbers grow.

Hope these tips help, it won't be for much longer, so enjoy this period while it lasts. Feel free to share any tips you have. Happy Waiting!

Update 03/11/11:
Just wanted to share some inspirational Word about waiting, click below:
http://www.youversion.com/notes/781402/beginning-with-god-devotional-by-pastor-lan-march-the-patience-test