Home of Slightly Cracked Dreams

Another Monday, another Menu Plan. Another day of hoping I actually stick to it.

I have been very busy this weekend cooking some foods so this week things might run a little smoother. I can try right?

Monday: Lamb chops with mashed potato & vegetables

Tuesday: Spaghetti Bolognaise

Wednesday: Pot roast with roast vegetables

Thursday: Curried Sausages

Friday: Chicken casserole with rice and vegetables

Saturday: Roast chicken rolls

Sunday: Spaghetti & sauce

Last week of term here so the last week of running around like headless chooks every day of the week.

What’s on your menu plan this week? Do you have a menu plan? If not, check out my How to Menu Plan post and then head over to Orgnaizing Junkie and post your menu and see what everyone else is eating this week.

I don’t know if you’ve seen it, it’s probably taken me a while since we hardly ever watch channel 9, but am I the only person who is annoyed by the new show “Random Acts fo Kindness”?

What’s random about it? The acts of kindness are only ever to those channel 9 think deserve it. Should we only show random acts of kindness to people we think deserve it? When going through a toll booth with a bit of extra change, do we check the person behind us is worthy before we pay their toll as well? Do we grill people before we bestow on them a gift?

I suppose the show wouldn’t have the same ring to it if it was called “Acts of Kindess to Those We Think Deserve It”. Or “See, Karma is Real!”.

So, is it just me?

I’m still studying for my exams.

Well, occasionally.

A lot has happened, but then, not a lot has happened.

One thing that has happened is that I have decided the time is right to finish my Dip Ed that I started in 2002. I applied for readmission last night, with 3 subjects left to complete, and pending successful completion of those at the end of this year I will be a fully qualified Business studies and Legal studies teacher.

This does of course mean the law degree will be put on hold for at least six months. Possibly 12 depending on the work I get next year (if any).

I also have one exam down and one more to go.

I’m hanging out for it to be over to be honest - Only 26 hours to go. Not that I’m counting. Much.

Honest.

Although I’m a little scared now. The subject I was most afraid of has turned out to be the easiest, and the one I thought was going to be a breeze, well, not so much.

On the plus side I managed to change my location of exams and I’m now sitting them at the university that’s about 2 minutes drive, rather than some building in the busiest part of the city with no carparking and limited public transport starting at 8:30am which would mean leaving home at 5am just to get there, not to mention carting my 6!! textbooks plus notes etc from the car into the exam (yeah, it’s open book).

So I think that’s a bonus. Hubby still needs to take time off - and he gets to take Miss Moo to her swimming lesson. But it’s one less thing to stress about.

Still, I wish there were more hours in the day.

While I won’t say my habits are “bad” I can tell you they’re not as good as I would like.

I’ve been sporadic at best with exercise since, well, leaving school. I enjoy playing sports, I’m LOVING coaching my girls soccer team (even if it is for only half an hour a week), but for some reason, making it a habit hasn’t been as successful as I’d like. Actually, not a lot of my habits stick, at least not for long.

Lately I’ve been doing something that HAS been working.

You know how some things stick with you? I will never forget my step-mother telling me how she would practice pool on the pool table while waiting for the washing machine to finish.

What with 5 people in the house, there’s always washing to be done., and since that’s part of my morning routine I thought I would try riding my bike while that first load of washing is on in the morning.

So now at 6am instead of hitting the snooze button and going back to sleep, I’ve been staggering to the laundry and putting the first load of washing on for the 30 minute wash, and then jumping on my bike until the load is finished.

I didn’t do this all in one hit. For a week (or two) I committed to getting up and just chucking that load of washing in the machine. That was it. Surely that wasn’t too hard and even if only that became something of a habit, things would be better off .

The first few times I tried it I had a few false starts. Kids waking up earlier than normal and needing food/clothes/etc, batteries dying on the bike etc etc etc.

But it seems to be working. I’ve already lost a couple of kilo’s, but more importantly, feeling a lot better for it.

A wonderful side effect is that at least one load of washing is getting done each day. And now I’m finding it even easier to deal with that washing when I get off my bike (the bike being in the room next to the laundry) and put another one in - means 2 loads are getting washed without me having to think about it much.

And with exams just over 2 weeks away, listening to lectures as I ride is certainly reinforcing the study I’m pretending to do doing.

What tricks do you have for changing habits? How do you go about it?

Well after the shock of last week, I think we’re doing ok with the food. Kiki is trying lots of new food, unfortunately not liking a lot of them, but we’ll keep trying. Hopefully we’ll find some things soon she likes.

So for this week:

Monday - Haystacks

Tuesday - Grilled Chicken & vegetables

Wednesday - Crumbed steak & vegetables

Thursday - Pasta and pasta sauce

Friday - Fish & Chips

Saturday - Roast Chicken and roast vegetables

Sunday - Breakfast for dinner - Pancakes.

What’s on your menu plan this week? Do you have a menu plan? If not, check out my How to Menu Plan post and then head over to Orgnaizing Junkie and post your menu and see what everyone else is eating this week.

Things are definitely getting into a routine here. Miss Moo has successfully completed the migration from 2 day sleeps to 1,  and is much more predictible with her routine.

So here’s how things currently look:

6:30 - 8:30 Morning Routine (including getting 2 loads of washing out on the line)

8:30 - 9:00 School and/or daycare dropoffs.

9:00 - 11:00 Errands & cleaning with Miss Moo underfoot

11:00 - 2:30 Cleaning/study/work that needs to be done WITHOUT Miss Moo underfoot. Including lunch for Kiki and any other odd things that need doing.

2:30 - 5:30 School/daycare pickup and after school activities. Sometimes in there I can get other things done, like on Monday’s putting the bins out, and Wednesday any specific shopping that can be done without venturing too far from the jazz lessons

5:30 - 7:00 Dinner, cleanup, kids bathed, pyjamad and ready for bed.

7:00 - 8:30 My evening routine, including putting clean clothes away, tidying our bedroom, bathrooms and something nice for me.

8:30 - 10:30 TV or study.

So that’s my rough routine these days.

Now to stick to it….

I did a menu plan this week, but didn’t get around to posting it on Monday. As it turns out, I may as well have not bothered.

After years of agonising on my part about her behaviour, eating habits (or lack thereof) and general health, an allergy test yesterday showed Kiki (and likely Miss Moo) is allergic to: weat/gluten, all dairy (including sheep and goat dairy) and soy.

If you can imagine, that pretty much exludes so much of her already limited diet of yoghurt, milk, cereals, breads, cheeses, pastas and rice.

The doctor has been fantastic, and loaded me up with reading material, lists of books to track down (including recipe books) and a promise of a referral to a dietician if we see an improvement with replacing or cutting out these foods.

On the plus side, I have so far found gluten, dairy and soy free: bread mix, milk, pasta, biscuits, butter replacement, flour, cereal and noodles.

Kiki is excited about the prospect of these new foods (which she helped me shop for) and the fact her stomach is likely to stop hurting in a week or so. To be perfectly honest, so am I.

It has been a long road to get to this point, starting I guess when she was 6 weeks old and I was crying on the phone to the health nurse because she wouldn’t feed or sleep or stop screaming. She has only started reliably (ie more often than not) sleeping through the night in the last 18 months. If she eats too much lactose or rich foods she vomits.

She is still complaining of a sore tummy today, but she is already much happier and loves a lot of her new food (most of which she has eaten before anyway.

So now I’m on the lookout for new recipe’s to try for the whole family (I figure if 2/5 of us have it, it’s likely the rest of us will feel better if we all eat this way) and ways of modifying my favourites (the doctor has already given me a variation for my apricot chicken I’m keen to try) in keeping with our new diet.

If you have any you would like to share, or websites you know of, feel free to leave links to them in the comments (or use the contact form).

With exams and assignments coming out of my ears - this week will be a week of basics, and slow cooking.

Monday - Spaghetti Bolognaise

Tuesday - Chicken Casserole

Wednesday - Lasagne

Thursday - Beef Stroganoff

Friday - Noddles

Saturday - Breakfast for dinner

Sunday - Crumbed Chicken

What’s on your menu plan this week? Do you have a menu plan? If not, check out my How to Menu Plan post and then head over to Orgnaizing Junkie and post your menu and see what everyone else is eating this week.

2 blocks of chocolate

2 bowls of cauliflower soup

8 cans of Pepsi

2 cans of Lemonade

2 packets of pretzles

1 frozen lasagne

and 60 hours later the take home exam is done. I’m now a total expert in the Native Title Act 1993, and its 1998 amendments, the Fauna Conservation Act 1974, and the ficticious Save the Turtles Act 1980.