this week so far

Currently:  I am enjoying a cup of tea while two loaves of homemade bread are baking and two children are resting peacefully in their rooms.  Today has proven to be a much better morning than yesterday (in regards to how much more smoothly scheduling baby has been, and how much calmer I have been because of it).  Which is surprising, considering my morning started with a lot of poop.  Hey, you talk about your cats throwing up and peeing, I will talk about my children's poop.

Hailey "went" this morning at 6:30am.  And it started OOZING down her leg (she saves it up and it is runny.  No idea why, guess its just the way her digestive system is working right now), all over our sheets.  yuuck.  I jumped up and hosed her down in the shower, while Jeremy grabbed off the sheets (and then made his way to to sleep on the couch - such a boy! He came back and helped after I complained though).  We got tucked back in bed and the baby went back to sleep at 7, which turned out to be perfect for her nap, because she woke up at 8 and was ready to go down at 9:15 exactly (which is when I NEED her to go to sleep for preschool).  PHEW!  Shea also woke up and pooped while I was making breakfast.  I sent him to the bathroom to wait for me, and he decided to take off his clothes and dispose of his diaper himself...yeah, that was another wonderful mess for me to clean up.

At least you girls with cats will be ready for this fun aspect of child rearing. haha.

Anyway, I thought I would share my preschool binder with you.  I started out with a 1" binder.  Oh foolish me.  I have since upgraded to a heavy-duty 3" binder.  Here it is in all its glory.

And my to do list for today when we go to the church (it never seems to get much smaller, because I only get to one or two things before Hailey is crying or Shea needs something).

And a glimpse at my Letter A week...which, I think I finally finalized...I keep adding more things.  I think I am being very optimistic with how much we can get done. haha.  Oh well, it really doesn't matter if we don't do it all, better to have more than less though!

I think my biggest "problem" is that I want to make everything myself.  There are a TON of free worksheets and resources (many of which I AM using, because they are good enough and it is way less work than recreating it), but aesthetically, I don't like them at all.  I'm sure I'll get less picky as the year goes by, though.  My classroom is almost all set up and organized - I'll have to take a picture and show you soon.  I still need to finish one bulletin board though, and put up some more posters.  School starts on Tuesday!  I am so excited!

Jeremy and I have decided to go grocery shopping once a week with meals planned out.  I can't believe how much easier it was to shop this way!  I wrote up a meal plan (mostly dinners, but also some lunches for Jeremy), and then broke up the grocery list by type.  It is wonderful to see that we bought mostly fresh food (only one frozen item) and staying inside of a weekly budget seems much more manageable to me.  I hate getting to the last week of the month and not having money left in our monthly budget for food items and then we have nothing well-rounded to eat!  We also did all our shopping at our local whole foods store, and I have been trying out new recipes.

Yesterday, I made beef stew in the crockpot for the first time, and mainly used vegetables I bought at the farmers market last weekend.  We had Pho the night before (it was good, but I need to keep working on the recipe to get that broth down!).  I have been baking fresh bread every other day, and today I made ahead salads for us.  Two big salads, which will be enough for with dinner for our family, and two smaller ones that Jeremy or I can grab for lunch.   I saw the idea online, and I love it because our produce doesn't go to waste.  I used up all our lettuce, which usually goes bad because I don't feel like making a salad.  I put dressing, green peppers, sprouts, kidney beans, tomatoes and lettuce.  YUM.

I got to work out for almost an hour (did 20 minutes ab and about 20 minutes strength training), then I cleaned out our vacuum.  I mean CLEANED it out.  I got out a screwdriver and took it apart.  Cleaned the roller thing, took out the filters and compartments and washed them.  Then I got the hose unclogged FINALLY.  The vacuum has been barely working, and I think this will fix it.  I think the problem was that I never cleaned out the filter...and I've been using it for um, 5 years?  yikes.  That needs to be added to my annual cleaning list.

Then I took a shower, semi-straightened my hair, and found a pair of jeans that fit.  I just pulled out all my pre-preggo jeans, and most I still have a few inches to lose before I can really fit int hem properly, but at least I have 2 or 3 pairs I can squeeze into.  Here I am.  Messy-ish hair, no makeup, and my favorite hoodie.  Is it okay to wear the same hoodie like every day?  Because I love this thing.

And I HAVE to share this picture.  Yesterday Shea went down for his nap, and for some reason he wanted ALL of his stuffed animals in his bed.  I don't know why, but I found out that he has way too many stuffed animals.  Anyway, we had to wake him up early to go somewhere and when Jeremy and I walked in, his bed was completely empty, animals were thrown everywhere, and he was sleeping in a nook between his nightstand and his toy workbench on the floor.  I don't know how I didn't hear him doing any of this.  At least he was asleep though.