So, you’ll be happy to know that I did cook dinner at home every night last week.  It was tough and we had to switch a couple of meals around and improvise a little here and there, but we managed to do it. Yay us! We never made the fish because I kept forgetting to take it out of the freezer. Also, out turkey didn’t thaw in time for Sunday dinner, so we’ll be doing that this week.

This is what I have planned for this week:

Tuesday: Skillet Paella from the Cook’s Country website, green salad

Wednesday: slow-cooker pot roast with carrots, potatoes and parsnips

Thursday: turkey dinner — out turkey didn’t thaw in time to have it for dinner on Sunday so we’ll be having it this week.

Friday: Reuben sandwiches, green salad

Saturday: Chicken parmesan, green beans, garlic bread. This is the last of our Dream Dinners meals that I prepped before Augie was born.

Sunday: pork tenderloin, acorn squash, broccoli

Monday: Thai coconut fish, stir fried snap peas and red pepper

I’m also going to buy stuff for a back-up meal of spaghetti with turkey Italian sausage.

I’ll admit it: this was not my most inspired week as far as the lunch-making went. I’m getting kind of bored with the lunches I’ve been packing. Fruit, salami, tofu, meatballs. Snore.

Also, Wyatt is having one of those weeks where he’s being super-picky and refusing to eat almost everything I make him for dinner or suggest for his lunch. It’s hard to stay inspired when all of your best ideas are rejected.

Our cupboards were completely bare on Tuesday morning, so I really had to dig to find enough stuff to fill Wyatt’s lunch box. I ended up sending some leftover beans from dinner the night before, a banana and the last two frozen turkey meatballs. He ate everything but the beans which is weird because he gobbled them up on Monday night.

Wednesday I made him a mini-burrito full of refried beans and jack cheese. I put it in a thermos to keep it warm, but I didn’t take a picture of that because there are very few things in the world that are less appetizing than a picture of a burrito shoved into a thermos. Instead, I present to you a mini burrito on a salad plate. Ta da! I also gave Wyatt strawberries.

Thursday he had baked tofu, corn and strawberries.

Daddy Bento Alert! I have a cold, so Zach let me sleep in on Friday. He also kindly packed Wyatt a lunch of strawberries, salami and a hot dog bun. I have a feeling this one will be a hit.

OK, so my big goal for this week is to make dinner at home every single night for seven days. Yikes! To many of you, this would probably be no big deal, but we are really bad about getting take out when we are tired, so this is a challenging for me.

We started last night, but I’m just getting to posting our menu today. I’m hoping posting here will keep me on the straight and narrow.

Tuesday: Pork, broccoli and red pepper stir fry over white rice

Wednesday: Skillet Goulash from the latest issue of Cook’s Country, green salad

Thursday: home made chicken noodle soup, bread, green salad

Friday: artichoke ravioli with lemon-artichoke sauce, garlic bread

Saturday: Thai coconut fish, stir fried green beans and red pepper

Sunday: Turkey dinner! I got a free turkey for spending $100 at Lucky, so I’ll be making that along with sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts and stuffing. Our neighbors are coming over and they’ll bring mashed potatoes and a pumpkin cheesecake.

Monday: pork chops with some kind of pan sauce, roasted acorn squash and green salad

I’m also making homemade applesauce and trying a couple of recipes from a book called the Toddler Café
to see how Wyatt likes them. I’ll report back here with the results on those.

Here are some of the things I’m into right now:

Manic Mommies — This is practically the only podcast I listen to. It took me a little while to get into it but now I’m totally hooked. I haven’t spent much time on their website, but I’m going to be checking it out over the next few days.

Bejeweled for the iPhone — I don’t think I can link directly to the iPhone app, but I’ve been crazy addicted to this game over the last few weeks. A good time killer when I’ve been nursing for hours.

Cathy Zielske’s Design Your Life class at Big Picture Scrapbooking — I’m taking this online class right now and I’m loving it.

This cute bon-bon garland — I so want to make one of these for our Christmas tree or to hang as a garland on the mantle. Can you tell I’m into garlands these days?

Pumpkin Muffins — I made my own pumpkin puree a few weeks ago and I’ve been using this recipe to make pumpkin muffins. Yum!

Michelle Obama — Oh, how I love Michelle Obama! She is my new celebrity crush. This is a First Lady I not only like, but one I can really relate to. Just a few years older than me, she is promising to make helping working moms a top priority. She also is a snappy dresser.

Here are the lunch boxes I sent to preschool this week:

Tuesday, I sent applesauce with sprinkles, salami, two home made pumpkin mini muffins and a little chunk of cheddar cheese.

Wednesday, I gave Wyatt turkey meatballs, catsup (in the monkey) peas and some grapes.

Thursday, I sent leftover rice molded into a fish shape with an egg mold (Wyatt doesn’t eat eggs, so I have to use these for something). I added some details with catsup. He also got home made turkey meatballs leftover from dinner the night before. He wouldn’t touch these with a 10 foot pole because I told him they were “special”.  He said he wanted the regular, frozen kind from Trader Joes. Sigh. He also got blueberries.

Friday, I sent leftover spaghetti with meat sauce in the thermos.

I supplemented with these cute strawberry mice and a pumpkin mini muffin.

I love election day! I love it!

It’s so exciting. I love the possibility. The chance to vote the good guys in and get the bad guys out. I’ve voted in all but one election since I turned 18. That first election was great — everyone I voted for won. I remember when I called my parents to share my excitement my mom said, “Don’t get used to it.” Ha ha. She was right, of course. There have been many, many disappointing, depressing elections since then.The last eight years have been particularly bad.

I haven’t voted yet today. We are waiting to vote until after we pick Wyatt up from preschool. I want him to go with us, to see us vote.  I think it’s a very important lesson to teach kids — voting is important. It’s a right, but it’s also a duty. There are many people in the world who don’t have the right to vote or who have great difficulty exercising their right so we have to be very diligent about making sure we do it in every election. It’s one of our family values.

One final note that goes out to any Californians reading this. Please vote no on Prop 8! No matter how you feel about gay marriage — and for the record, I am very PRO gay marriage — it is wrong to single out a group of people for discrimination. This proposition would write discrimination into the California constitution. It’s unfair, shameful and wrong.