How I plan our menu

I honestly don't know how people can do dinner every night without a menu plan! It may just be me. I have to have a plan and recipe for almost everything I cook. My husband Kyle can just open up the pantry and refrigerator and whip up a 3 course gourmet meal. It's annoying but at the same time awesome! I do wish I could provide 'made from scratch' meals like that for my family but God did not bless me with cooking skills!

Here's how I plan our meals:

I use these cute menu planning sheets to write everything out. Since we homeschool, I try to plan breakfast, lunch and dinner. (I am also not a mom that does hot breakfast. I stay up late waiting for Kyle to get home from work so we sleep in in the morning! The boys must fend for themselves most mornings.) I also try and plan snacks. With 4 boys, someone is always hungry!

I use several sources for recipes. One of my new favorites is Pinterest. SO many great food ideas! Several of the dinner and lunch ideas I have in the photo are from Pinterest. My favorite this month are the pizza rolls (so awesome with homemade ranch!). I also use several blogs, such as Heavenly Homemakers, which has lots of healthy-ish and organic recipes. (I am not an organic mom by any means, but I try here and there to buy less processed food and make more things from scratch). I also like Pioneer Womans website for recipe ideas, like the Marlboro Man Sandwich (which we call Cowboy sandwiches).  I also have several cookbooks I'll refer to every once in a while.

I'll just make my grocery list from the recipes listed on the planner and then I am ready to go! I make little checkmarks in the boxes after I have made sure I have written down all the ingredients for that dinner. Menu planning Works for Me!

Thanks for stopping by and checking things out! Check out other great tips at Works for Me Wednesday at We are THAT Family!

Aidan's 8th Birthday!

Being Silly!

Birthday boy!

A video camera!

Aidan had been asking us for this crazy notebook for months!

He really is excited about this shirt, I promise. (And don't worry, I did not pay $25 for this shirt, I got it on sale!)

That's our crazy little Boo!

Aidan wanted the nastiest Spongebob cupcakes from Sam's. I don't even know if he ate one!

It is a tradition be pinned with money on your birthday here in the Big Easy! Aidan made about $14 this way : )

Blowing out his candle!

He loved all of his gifts!

I thought this was a cute way to give money as a gift!

Aidan had a great time. He and his friends went to the movies with Kyle to see Tin Tin and then came back to the house for pizza and cake!

Zoo Visit before and afters

I love playing around with PSE. Here are a few pics from the zoo that I played around with. Kyle took the first two and I took the last two...

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Judo!

The boys have been taking Judo lessons for about a year now. There is a man at our church who gives them lessons twice a week for free! I love all the things they are learning in this class...discipline, respect, self defense. We love Judo! Here are some pictures from our first tournament at Tulane.

(The red belt is just to tell one opponent from another, if they are both yellow belts then they won't know which one to score.)

Stretching!

Serious about his first match.

Colby wins!

Jackson is actually pretty good, but did not take this tournament very seriously...he lost both of his matches, but had fun anyway!

Colby's next opponent was a beautiful redheaded girl...he beat her too!

Tyler and Kyle were the only kids in their weight class, so they had to fight each other like they do in class every week. Tyler won one and lost two.

This kid has Aidan pinned...I think this is the one he lost. He won two other rounds though...

Waiting on his match...

Aidan beat this black belt!

Colby, Tyler, Mary, Aidan, Jackson, Kyle and Mr. Larry.

So I can't find the pics of my tree or wreath right now but here are a few random pictures of crabs!

LSU crab shell ornament-Tiger eye

Jackson at the craft fair

Some of the crab shell ornaments Kyle had at the craft fair.

Time for a new blog post.

I am tired of looking at the football pics every time I look at my blog.

So here is a new one! Even though it is Christmastime, I am gonna post a pic from Halloween!

We trick or treated in the area around our church while also

collecting food for kids at local schools to bring home. We didn't have the extra funds for new costumes so we had to use a little imagination. Colby is an artist. Jackson is wearing a 3 year old costume that we found a free printable mask for online, Aidan is wearing a costume that used to be Tylers when he was that age, and Tyler is wearing his dad's hunting gear and using his air soft gun to be a hunter.

In November we had a table at the craft fair here on campus and Kyle made and sold crab shell ornaments, which were pretty popular. He is still getting order for them a month later. Here are a few of my favorites:

Not the best light in the kitchen at night...but you get the idea.

Cute snowman scene

LSU crab shell ornament - Tiger Eye

Saints

Saints crab shell ornament

I don't like Alabama, I just like the detailed work on this one. (Alabama ornament)

This was a popular one.

Sorry this one is not too clear, its from Kyles iPhone.
 You can order your own custom crab from Etsy at Crescent City Crab Shells.

He made a lot more ornaments, a lot of them being SEC teams.

On to other news...we are getting ready for Christmas over here! We have our tree up and decorated, and we also have our LSU tree all trimmed and lit up. I'll try to get a few pics when I have better lighting of our trees and our front door decor.

Fall = Football

My cute little hubby loves competitive sports. He plays flag football here on campus. I thought I would share some of his cuteness : )

I thought he looked kinda funny in this one but he said
 "I am in correct throwing form" to me...I still think he looks funny ; )
Also, his left foot is completely missing! They keep the grass really tall on campus...

I liked this one because he seems genuinely happy to have that football but little does he know that fella in red is about to steal his flags : ( Plus check out that calf muscle!

This is what Jackson looks like while his dad plays football.



He is really determined to take this guy down...you can see it in his face...he has determination eyebrows.



but he was too slow!

He is in "the zone"... and so handsome in this pic!

He coming for ya...be afraid!

I love this action shot! Get it Kyle! Interception?



Nope! So close. Get his flag instead!


Good times!