We are in a meal rut.  We seem to eat the same things over and over.  Partly because it’s easy, and partly because it’s tried and true.  However, I’m starting to feel like we need to branch out.  I’m excited to try something new and hopefully add to our repertoire of monthly meals.

So, after some digging (okay, just 10 min of internet searching) I’ve decided to try three new “Sheet pan meals” this month.  Basically you prep your stuff (cut into strips, etc) and then spread it on a pan and bake it.  Boom.  I like the idea, because I can prep everything earlier and then just run into the kitchen pour it on a pan and shove it in the oven in between lessons.  And my amazing new oven even has a delay start so I can have the oven all ready to go! Here are the three I’ve settled on to try out:

1. Sheet Pan Bruschetta Chicken
2. Sheet Pan Greek Chicken
3. Sheet Pan Teriyaki Chicken and Pineapple

See? Don’t those sound interesting?  I’ll keep you posted on how they turn out, and what everyone has to say about it…  🙂

I’m feeling good about January.  I finally have two massive things off of my endless To-Do list.  These are things that I have been meaning to do for MONTHS, and kept rewriting them as I would update my list every week or two.  That’s always depressing… rewriting the same task.  Ugh.  But this week, I got it done!

First I scheduled dentist appointments for all the kids!  Yes!  Our last dentist retired (say wha!? I know!  Dentists aren’t allowed to retire.  Don’t they know that?  Haha!).

And Second, I cleaned off the kids school board/backpack area.  It still had papers in it from the end of the LAST school year.  Ooopsie!  But, look how pretty it is now!

I’ve already accomplished so much, and it’s only January 11th.  I’m on a roll!

One of my favorite gifts I got on Christmas (my first favorite was my amazing oven… oh, and another amazing one was a folding 3 tiered dessert tray that’s so cool and compact!  but I’m getting off topic…) was this mug and gift cards from Tim and the kids.  It’s filled with gift cards–labeled, one for each month–for a cup of coffee at  Caribou.  And or course, the mug says it all.  My family knows me oh so well!!

I decided to try to make chicken noodle soup in my instant pot this weekend–and I LOVE it!  It’s a smidgen peppery for me, but not bad.  (as opposed to the egg noodles I made the night before in the instant pot and I read the directions wrong and DOUBLED the amount of salt I needed–they were horrendous.  So. Bad.  In my defense I was making them in a hurry, but still… I could taste salt in my mouth for hours after supper.  Yuck.)

But, back to the soup!  It wasn’t necessarily a fast recipe, but it was really nice to be able to make a nice large pot and only get one pan dirty.  I’m thinking I should try out different soups over the winter.  I do really like soups but I don’t make them much because most of the family doesn’t care for it.

Here’s the website I got the soup recipe from.  I’m not going to link the address, so you’ll just have to copy and paste it into your search bar.  I’ve been getting a TON of spam comments recently, so I’m just playing it safe.

Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup: https://www.jocooks.com/recipes/instant-pot-chicken-noodle-soup/

So much of life is a choice.  You can choose to see the good in the little things or you can choose to see the negative.  I strive to see the good!

Today I am focusing on how happy I am that I’m (almost) not sore anymore after restarting my exercise program with the new year.  It’s taken a week, but I’m finally starting to feel like I can get up and down the stairs again without wincing.  Hehe!

In other news (that I refuse to call bad news but rather surprising news), Tim had to go back to work today.  He’s working today and tomorrow on that massive job.  They were supposed to finish up before Christmas but 5 stones were delayed and they want to set them in thawed ground, so the homeowner needed to thaw the ground for them… and so without notice, the homeowner decided now is when he wants it done. So, off Tim goes.  The good news is that it shouldn’t take more than 2 days.  It’s only 5 (REALLY, really big) stones.  And in all seriousness I am so thankful that Tim’s business is doing so well.  Even if it means going to work in January.

It’s become sort of a tradition that we do a puzzle on Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We aren’t always around for the Thanksgiving gathering at Bakers, but I know they’ve been doing a puzzle for a few years now.  The whole point, of course, is to finish the puzzle in one day.  We go this one done a just a couple hours.  It goes fast when 4 people are working on it!  I so enjoy just sitting around talking and laughing and just hanging out–all while doing something productive.  Well, if you can call doing a puzzle productive… but you know what I mean.

Jen and Abby really love the Thomas Kinkade Disney puzzles. Lots of color and details.  This one was Under the Sea.  Very fun!s

Right before Christmas Jen suggested we take the older 3 kiddos to see fun lights again.  We went to the house in town that is amazing–they even have a small trail you can walk around their house. The yard and house are really, really small, but they sure jam in a TON of lights and displays.  I admit it was a little less magical for me with out the nice white layer of snow, but the kids still had a good time. 

Christmas Jammies!

I have a few pictures from Christmas that I just love… I’ll be posting them over the next few days.  It’s so fun to think back over the last month and remember all the fun we had!

The picture below shows the real reason behind the bunk bed.  Levi has really started playing independently and we wanted to encourage that–plus he LOVES cars and trains.  So, we decided to resurrect the train table we had stored from when Josiah was younger.  Levi.  Loves.  It. (and so does Maddie, and Josiah… haha!)  Oh, and as an aside–we still have all the pieces after all these years!  I’m pretty pleased.

Here we go.  A new day.  A new year.

I’ve let go of setting resolutions.  But I do enjoy a fresh start.  Actually, what I think I enjoy most is a fresh new calendar. I love the new pictures and clean slate that a new year brings.

Tomorrow the kids go back to school.  We’ve had a fantastic break, doing nothing spectacular but loving it.  But I also know how much we will love getting back into the normal routine of school and work again tomorrow.  And yes, even the kids will love it.  Even if they loudly voice their unhappiness right now.  I know better.

My big accomplishment from break was deep cleaning and purging the kids rooms, basement and my bedroom.  I took two big loads to good will and many, many bags of trash to the garbage bin.  It was wonderful.

Another big accomplishment was the boys finally getting a bunk bed.  Josiah has been anxiously awaiting this day for a long time.  Levi isn’t quite ready to transition to a regular bed, but he will this summer when I potty train him.  So for the rest of the winter/spring we decided to simply put his crib under the bed