twice a month menu planning

one of our family goals (ok, so its mostly just my goal) for the year is to do our grocery shopping/menu planning 2 weeks at a time. i wanted to do it for time saving sake and also for the sake of ease-so our meals would be clearly planned ahead of time. adam and i both liked the idea of the possibility of saving money and wasting less food.

today i knew that we needed milk and bread (no, i wasn't just freaking out because of the snow predictions) and i decided that i would just go ahead and get our first 2 weeks of february groceries during my lunch break. last time, i did 2 days of shopping so i could go to aldi one day and walmart the next in hopes of saving a little more. i didn't have time for that in just one hour, so i did all walmart (as aldi doesn't always have all of the things we need.)

well folks, i am very very proud of myself today. friday evening after hubs and i had our budget planning meeting, i was very discouraged and afraid to stop working when our sweet bundle of joy arrives--but after my successful shopping trip today, i am feeling much better about it. if i can keep our spending close to what it was today-we can easily cut our grocery budget to $200 a month.

are you ready for the grand total? and this is without coupons because it was a spur of the moment trip and my coupons are at home. $86.52!!! i will say that we are going out of town next friday and saturday for our baby shower with my family, so that cut 2 meals out for us, but still-i think we did pretty well.

so here is our menu plan for the next 2 weeks:

monday: whole wheat spaghetti with ground turkey and sauce
tuesday: taco salad
wednesday: family night worship-mission meal
thursday: chili
friday: probably wendy's on the road (and we do dollar menu, so it may cost $5)
saturday: dinner in celebration of my daddy's 50TH birthday!!!!!
sunday: super bowl foods

monday: tex-mex chicken and rice
tuesday: chili (left over)
wednesday: 3 cheese tortellini
thursday: homemade pizza (i'm gonna try my hand at homemade crust...we'll see)
friday: cheese-filled meat loaf and baked potatoes
saturday: valentine's date
sunday: tex-mex chicken and rice (left over)

since we have lunch foods in our house, we are going to try to do more left overs for dinner when its a meal that makes a large quantity. smaller meals like the spaghetti or taco salad we can still take for lunch when there are left overs. how do you menu plan?

yes, i cry over...everything!

last night when adam and i were getting ready for bed, i maybe had my silliest pregnancy cry yet! you know, its hard to get comfy when you've got a big ol' belly that you aren't quite used to. as i was rolling around trying to find a good spot, i accidentally poked adam in the eye. he did not poke me in the eye; he did not get angry. but me poking him in the eye sure did make me cry. it was the strangest thing. and as i sat there crying, i thought about how ridiculous it was that i was crying over something so...dumb. i'm so thankful that he is so patient with me :)

bella joy shower-take 1

we had our first shower in honor of miss bella joy today. her auntie amanda was the host and all of adam's family (and my mom) were the guests. we had a great time and are so thankful for the generosity and love of our families. and we still have 2 big showers to go! this little girl is loved!

on a less happy note, this morning i woke up kinda stuffy. and tonight it has turned into full blown feeling like poo. i'm hoping it is something that passes quickly.

10 things-take 2

10 THINGS I WILL MISS ABOUT BEING PRENANT

1) being able to blame things on being pregnant (ie. i forgot-it must be baby brain and yeah i cry all the time because of those crazy pregnancy hormones!)

2) knowing that my body is protecting my baby girl from harms way.

3) being able to feel my baby girl move inside me (although i'm looking very forward to feeling her move outside of me!)

4) having my sweet husband freak out anytime i say "ouch". its precious really, but i have a feeling i'm going to be saying ouch a whole lot in about 10 weeks and i hope he is ok with that!

5) having my sweet husband put my socks on for me and offer to help me get dressed (although, i think he does the latter for his benifit too.)

6) having a preggo belly-i've always loved cute little pregnant women.

7) having an excuse to eat mexican, i mean i'll still eat it, but its so nice to be able to say "its all that sounds good, and you know i have to eat!"

8) attention. i know that probably sounds really selfish, but i don't mean it that way. i just love that so many people are so concerned with the well being of myself and our baby girl.

9) having an excuse for ridiculous amounts of weight gain. (10ish weeks til i'm back to work!)

10) seeing dr. d so often! he's such a sweet little man. even though he doesn't say much, i kinda feel like we are best friends!

30 week update!!!!!

how far along: 30 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
total weight gain/loss: its sad really. way too much. definitely more than the recommended 25-30 lbs.
maternity clothes: yep. and adam's tshirts.
stretch marks: a big unfortunately yes on this one.
sleep: its going down hill.
best moment this week: watching my belly deform as bella joy changes positions. we laughed very hard that day.
movement: yep. constantly. she's our little maniac :)
food cravings: same as usual, although the other day i did crave something i haven't yet...a cream filled long john, and when i got it like 3 days later, it was fantastic!
gender: GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
name: bella joy
labor signs: thankfully, no still.
belly button in or out? its definitely more out than in, but not out all the way yet.
what i miss: if you tuned in yesterday, you know what i miss.
weekly wisdom: listen lovingly to the advice of women who are already mothers, but sift through the information. its not all good.
milestones: can we say being 3/4s of the way through this thing! i also think it is very neat to be able to actually feel her body through my belly when she moves certain ways. God is so good, and so creative!


now for a non-pregnancy related request. please be praying for miss megan haug. she is a friend of adam's family and is in haiti right now. she is fine (praise GOD!) but isn't sure if the orphanage she works for is fine or not.

10 things...

in honor of having 10 weeks to go (tomorrow) i thought it would be fun to make a week out of it, or at least 3 days! tomorrow i will have a 30 week update and thursday will be another 10 things...

todays 10 things is:

10 THINGS I WILL NOT MISS ABOUT BEING PREGNANT!

1) nausea, just when you think you might be over it, it comes back! (like this morning!)

2) crazy pregnancy emotions (i think adam jochim would second that one!)

3) weird pains in weird places

4) getting up to pee a million times a night! (i used to never wake up to pee in the night!)

5) needing help putting on my socks and shoes.

6) not being able to eat things that i usually loved to eat.

7) baby brain (although, i hear this one kind of just turns into "now-i-have-kids-brain")

8) i will not miss not being able to stand right against the counter when cooking or getting ready in the mornings because i've my giganto belly.

9) heart burn. yuck, yuck, yuck.

10) did i mention crazy preggo emotions! they've been really bad lately!

in other news, one of my very sweet friends had her baby last night. it is a boy and bella and i are going to go meet him this afternoon. i'm sure he will be her boyfriend in 10 short weeks!

snowed in

with the amazing 2 inches of snow we got last week, this pregnant lady was snowed in. we live in the "country" and our roads aren't great to drive on even when they are clear. after adam made it to work on thursday, he decided it was best for me to stay home. and that is exactly what i did on friday too. he was bold enough to brave the cold to take some pictures of our very first snow in our very first house.

the field across the street.
our backyard. so beautiful!

our happy little home, all covered in snow. my car sat in the garage from wednesday night until this morning. it was happy to get some attention!

while home those days, i got some long overdo scrapbooking done and i also cut all of the pieces for my sweet baby girl's quilt that i am making for her. thursday, i stayed in my pajamas all day and did a lot of sleeping. it was a nice relaxing break, but i'm glad our roads are now clear and i am free to travel!

welcome home!

on saturday, my sweet friend jj and i had the joy of driving to louisville to be a part of the homecoming of another sweet friend chelsea. she left in mid july (just days after we found out we were expecting) and has been serving in east asia since. it was so fun to see her face. everytime i have been out of the country, she has been one of my travel buddies. she has definitely seen me at my best and my very very worst and still chooses to call me a friend and i am so thankful for that!



the following are pictures of chelsea being reunited with her sweet little 2 year-old niece. she was so excited to see her "chesie".

the awesome beville fam even had jj and me over for dinner after we left the airport. we had a great time and are so thankful for their hospitality. welcome home cbev! welcome home!

bella's room update

our sweet baby girl's itty bitty room is coming along quite nicely. last week her awesome daddy installed her new light. we put up curtains and hung a couple of shelves. she will be here before we know it and we can't wait! sometimes i just walk in her room and turn on the light....just to be in there. i can't wait til she is in there with me. well, i guess she technically is everywhere i go right now, but you know what i mean :)

new light, changing table, and door. the little bins in the changing table will hold diapers, burp cloths, etc.
new light, curtains, crib and fun new rug!

and there are the happy shelves. they have a few more things on them now.

any suggestions for the rest of her books in this small space? we want them on a shelf, but i think because of lack of floor space, we'll have to do a hanging shelf. what do you think?