BOOKS I FINISHED - JANUARY 2012

I haven't done any reading the last few months, not even for school, but decided it was time to get back in the habit. I didn't read much, but at least it was something.

FOR SCHOOL

The Great Turkey Walk, by Kathleen Karr
Read aloud for Silas. It's the fictional story of a fifteen year old boy, one who makes up in street smarts what he lacks in book smarts, who ventures out to walk 1,000 turkeys from Missouri to Colorado. We both enjoyed this book.

FOR MYSELF

Sisterchicks on the Loose!, by Robin Jones Gunn
This was on display at the library and I'd heard about the author's books, so I snagged it. It was a good choice for delving back in to the world of reading. Funny and light-hearted in places, a little more serious with life lessons in others. It's the fictional story of two close friends, one mellow and predictable and the other adventurous, who go on a last minute trip to Finland to meet one of their relatives.

p.94, Is it possible that arrogance can masquerade as being "more experienced"?

MENU - FIRST HALF OF FEBRUARY 2012

I actually got this menu done ahead of time and went shopping on Saturday. It's nice to be a little bit ahead of the game!

BREAKFASTS
oatmeal with brown sugar, milk, raisins, and energy mix as optional toppings x9
smoothies or fruit x2
breakfast burritos
waffles
Rebecca's granola
lemony sour cream muffins
blueberry oat muffins

DINNERS
leftovers x2
tacos x2
chicken tortilla soup (crockpot)/cornbread
olive and feta pasta/salad
baked potatoes/best bean salad
turkey pot pie
pork apple burgers/potato wedges
Tig's black bean chili (freezer)/cornbread
bbq chicken salad/toast
sesame chicken/rice/peas & corn
egg salad sandwiches/fruit
Thai chicken & coconut rice/Leslie's salad
turkey/stuffing/cranberry sauce/mashed potatoes
new sandwich recipe (not bad, but not anything to write home about either)/coleslaw

SNACKS & DESSERTS
produce
popcorn
muffins (doubling the breakfast ones so we can snack on extras)
pumpkin chocolate chip cookies
s'mores bars

THE COOLEST QUILT EVER

Mrs. Tardiff and Mrs. Brannon, two of the teachers at Tim's school, had their students make a paper quilt for Tyler in the days before Christmas break. Here it is hanging above his crib.



Here's a closer view of the squares the students designed.



I've never seen a paper quilt before. Isn't it awesome?

1/26/12 THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful we have so much food that there are usually leftovers after dinner and that those leftovers make easy lunches.

What's something that you're thankful for?

TIM WON A PRIZE

This was given to Tim by one of his students when he returned to work after Christmas break. Cool trophy, huh?! He brought it home to show us, but it's now back in his office at school. Tyler, the real prize has to stay home, but now Tim has a replica to make him smile at work.

A BASKET OF MONEY

I have a basket that I got on a trip to the Philippines several years ago and every coin I get goes straight into it. I don't remember when I started collecting change there, but it's been a while. The basket had gotten pretty full, so I decided we'd cash in all the coins at the end of 2011 and do something fun as a family with the money. I'm truly horrible at things like estimating how much money was in the basket, but I was hoping we'd have enough to take the kids out for dinner, miniature golfing, or something like that. Maybe fifty bucks?

Well, Tim and the three oldest kids headed to the bank a few days ago to have the coins counted. They came home and told me there was over $250!!! Yowzers! I had no idea there was that much money in our coin basket. Needless to say, we've got a little more wiggle room in our planning now.

We've already started collecting coins again, but I'm not sure when we'll cash them in. We may do it annually or just wait til the basket is full. Either way we'll have fun thinking of how to spend the money as a family, even if it's only enough to rent a movie and pick up a couple cartons of ice cream.

Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to at least having a few handfuls of coins in the basket again because that money entertains the kids for hours. They dump the coins out, then sort them by value, date, or state (with quarters), sometimes with each other and other times on their own. It's also a perfect activity for them to do while I'm reading to them for school.

Do you save coins? How do you determine when to cash them in? What do you do with the money after it's been cashed in?

JUST A GOOD DAY

Tim got to have breakfast with a bunch of other guys at someone's house.

Silas and Devon got to attend Forts & Floats, which is one of their two favorite events of the year.

I, along with the two littlest Ws, got to visit with Michelle at Starbucks after dropping the big boys off at church. It was my idea, but she generously picked up the tab and brought Naomi some of the cool soaps she makes.

We swung by our old apartment complex after Starbucks so that the office ladies, who we love, could meet and snuggle Tyler.

I napped.

A friend that I haven't talked to in a few months called. She's in love.

The sun came out.

I did a load of laundry.

The kids play outside together for over an hour between the big boys returning home and all of us sitting down for dinner.

We ate one of my favorite dinners.

A couple we met in Ashland, who now live in Newport, offered to help a group of school kids from Vancouver, one of whom goes to our church in Wilsonville. That kid's mom had asked me to post a request on a site I run for folks from our church, but it didn't meet the criteria for the site. I passed the message along to the Newport folks on the off chance they knew someone who could help and it turned out that they had a solution that hadn't even crossed my mind.

I got the freezer organized.

I finished reading a book I enjoyed.

Tim and I watched a Thou Shalt Laugh movie.

SALEM, SCHOOL, SPLITS, STITCHES, & SILVER LININGS

Many areas of Salem are flooding this week because of heavy rainfall, so Tim's school decided to cancel a training session that was supposed to happen last night. Of course, my ringer was off and I didn't know Tim had called to give me that update. About 4:20, which was five minutes after the training was supposed to start, I was surprised to see him pull into the driveway. We'd had two very long days and I hadn't slept enough, so I was happy to find out that he would be home for the evening and I wouldn't be single parenting as psycho mom.

Silas was entertaining himself, Devon and Naomi were happily goofing off together, and Tim was snuggling a screaming Tyler. About two minutes before I was going to feed Tyler and put dinner on the table, Devon tripped.

And landed on his face.

And put two teeth through his lip.

All the way through.

It was now ten minutes after Tim came home and we had rice done cooking, a pot of chili ready to take off the burner, a seven year old with blood pouring out of his face, a nine year old who wanted to know what's going on and how he should help, a four year old was weepy because her brother was hurt, and a six week old baby who was still screaming his head off. Loudly.

Chaos.

We got Devon to the sink with ice, a rag, and a bowl to spit in, took all food off its respective sources of heat, gave Naomi a hug, had Silas get some Tylenol for Devon, and nursed Tyler.

Calm.

The first time I looked at Devon's mouth I could tell that teeth had penetrated his lip, but things were still so bloody that it was hard to tell how bad it was. I know that mouth injuries are often left alone because they heal quickly on their own, but I wasn't sure how bad it had to be to get stitched. We were debating whether or not he needed to be taken in, so I hopped on Facebook to ask how bad a cut had to be for stitches to be required. A few minutes later Tim told me he thought Devon needed stitches. One side was punctured, but the other side had a pretty decent gash in it. I went back to look and realized my Facebook question was pointless. The bleeding had stopped and it was clear that he definitely needed to get things stitched up.

Tim loaded up the boys - Devon for medical care and Silas because he wanted to come along - and headed off to immediate care. I stayed home with Naomi and a crabby Tyler. Naomi and I ate dinner, then watched a movie while I held a sleeping baby. After two very long days of parenting, it was actually nice to sit in a dark, quiet house and relax. It's not exactly how I'd have gone about getting that mellow time, but we've got to play the hand we're dealt.

Devon ended up getting three stitches in his lip. He's the only one of our kids to require stitches and it's the second time he's had them, both times on his face.

Silas got dropped off at home to eat dinner, which was now two hours late, while Tim and Devon went off to pick up antibiotics. And a milkshake, per the doctor's orders. Devon had to be on a liquid diet last night and the doctor thought he may as well make the best of it. By the time they got home it was time for him to get ready for bed and for Tim to eat a very delayed dinner.

Quite the grand finale to two lousy days, huh?

I was exhausted, getting quite irritable and weepy, but Tim had news when he came home. The district had called while he was out and school was cancelled for today because of the flooding.

Cloud? Devon tore up his lip. Silver lining? The two teeth in question, which are permanent teeth, didn't get knocked out.

Cloud? An extra day will be tagged on the school year in June to make up for today's cancelled one. Silver lining? Tim was home today while we all regrouped and having two adults home meant extra things got crossed off the "to do" list.

Cloud? A town is flooding. Silver lining? Tim was home last night, which meant I got parenting support. It also ended up meaning that I didn't have to haul a screaming baby, a bleeding kid, and two other kids off to immediate care right at dinner time by myself.

Never a dull moment around here! Actually, there are lots of dull moments, but stuff like this keep life interesting.

Of course, a post like this would be incomplete without pictures, so without further ado ....


Split ....



and stitched.

MENU - SECOND HALF OF JANUARY 2012

Here's what the Ws are eating these days.

BREAKFASTS
oatmeal with brown sugar, milk, raisins, and energy mix as optional toppings x9
smoothies or fruit x2
pumpkin bread (from freezer)
breakfast sandwiches
Tam's granola
poppyseed banana muffins

DINNERS
leftovers x2
tacos x3
lentil bean chili/brown rice
tomato navy bean soup (from freezer)/cheesy muffins
lasagna (freezer)/salad
Mexican casserole/cornbread/salad
crispy chicken/wild rice mix/Napa cabbage salad
chicken & black bean soup (freezer)/cornbread
upside down pizza/Leslie's salad
creamy shells with ham & broccoli/peas & corn
peanut butter noodles/peas & corn
quinoa & black beans/tortilla chips/salad
Seattle cream cheese dogs/fruit

SNACKS & DESSERTS
produce
popcorn
cherry oatmeal muffins (from freezer)
sesame cookies (didn't make these last time)
oat & almond bars

1/19/12

I'm thankful for the person who paid our bill at Red Robin last night.

What's something that you're thankful for?

DECORATING THE MAIN BATHROOM

Welcome to our main bathroom! I just used the toilet in this bathroom for the first time last week and discovered it's the shortest toilet in the world. I apologize in advance to anyone taller than myself who has to use it. Maybe we'll get a taller one someday, but that's at the bottom of the priority list. Short toilets work well for short little Ws anyway and they're the ones using that bathroom every day.

Enough about the short toilet.

Here's what we're working with. This is the entrance to the bathroom. The orange is not something we have to keep, though all the kids are fine with it. It's a happy, gender neutral color, after all.

This is what you see as you stand in the bathroom door.



The seashell wallpaper at the top of the wall? It will be removed. Absolutely. Gag-o-rama. The uneven towel racks that are also different sizes? They've also got to go. I really like symmetry and balance, so those racks drive me batty. Not a huge fan of silver either. I'd like to keep a white shower curtain, partly because I like white and partly because it keeps that room bright. I think I want a framed print of some sort above the toilet, but I'm not sure what I want it to be of. Something bright, maybe a little random or funky.

Moving on to the left side of the sink.



The previous owners installed some shelves here. The two rounded ones are fine, I suppose, but the one that extends the counter bugs me. I understand the desire for extra counter space, but I think it looks tacky.

Want to know what's ridiculous about this bathroom? The toilet paper holder is mounted to the left side of the cabinet. See it peeking out in that picture? There's really no great place to put it, but lame, lame, lame!! A person shouldn't have to turn nearly 180 degrees to reach the toilet paper. Right now we're keeping the toilet paper on the counter so that the kids can reach it. Eventually I want to get an adhesive holder and mount it on the inside of the cabinet under the sink. I know that's an odd place to put it, but an adhesive holder wouldn't have screws that bust through the cabinet door and it would be easy for everyone to access.

The biggest problem we have in this room is that we need somewhere to hang four towels, but there's very little wall space. I saw a towel rack on Pinterest and got inspired on what to do with this corner. Here's the rack.



This particular rack connects to the door hinges, which wouldn't work in our bathroom. However, I could use the same idea with swing arm curtain rods. I'd just tear out the shelves that are mounted to the left of the sink and hang the rods in that corner, pointing toward the toilet. I like that the towels would hang flat against the wall, but that we could pull them out and stagger them when they needed to dry. Brilliant, huh?

Here's the view of the sink.



There's not a lot to say about this part of the bathroom. I love the white cabinets and mirror!! The mirror is also a cabinet, in case that matters to you. Still not digging all the silver, but I could swap out the knobs at some point.

This is a similar shot, but it shows you the light fixture. It's very pretty and silver. Not bad, necessarily, but not what I would have chosen. Even the standard row of round lights would be more up my alley. I'm kinda plain and simple when it comes to that kind of stuff.



Here's the right side of the sink.



That's another rounded shelf. One rounded shelf. One rounded shelf that isn't even with either of the two on the other side. AAAAAGGGGHH!!!

And towel racks. Two different kinds, a hook and a ring, right next to each other. At least they're even.



But wait, we wouldn't want to leave the bathroom without throwing in one more towel rack. Or hook, as the case may be. There's one mounted to the right side of the cabinet.

And that, my friends, completes your tour of our main bathroom.

So, here's what I want.
* Suggestions for paint color. This is the only room where I truly don't care (within reason, of course) what color we go with.
* Pats on the back for my towel solution or other ideas that are equally brilliant.
* Pats on the back for my toilet paper holder solution or other ideas that are equally brilliant.
* A fun print that could be framed and hung above the toilet. It's entirely possible that I would choose the paint color based on the print. Keep in mind that it's for both genders and that I don't want it to be childish. Just fun. I think I'd rather have one larger print than a collection of smaller ones, but I'm open to all suggestions.
* Sympathy for the fact I have to see such an assortment of mismatched and uneven towel holders on a regular basis. It's traumatic, I tell ya!

HELP ME DECORATE!!

We've lived in our house for over three months now and I've done nothing, absolutely nothing, to decorate or make it look like it's our house. Now that I'm not hugely pregnant or recovering from surgery I'm ready to start decorating.

I'd love to have some help, though. Why? Because I know what I like when I see it, but I'm not good at pulling all the pieces together to create what I like on my own. Not at all! I actually created a Pinterest account about a week ago so that I could look for ideas and I've found some, but I'd love to hear or see what brilliant ideas you can give me.

I'll start by telling you a little about what I like. I like colored walls, a bit of light or medium wood, and a lot of white furniture. I'm always drawn to rooms with that combo, even if the style doesn't strike my fancy.

As far as style, I'm not solidly in one camp or another. I like the rustic look of farmhouse decor, but am not into roosters, apples, or Americana. I guess it's just the furniture, particularly the old (or old looking) wood stuff, that appeals to me. I like the comfy, airy look of cottage decor, but don't like ruffles or tons of floral prints. I love the blues, greens, and touches of nature that are in coastal decor, but don't like lighthouses, anchors, or boats. I also like the occasional touch of whimsy, the little random things that say something about our family.

So, there's a little idea of what I'm looking for. My goal is to have a plan for each room, then slowly pull the rooms together as I find what I want, budget the money to buy what I need, and have time to paint walls. Your job is to help me come up with the plan.

I think what I'm going to do is just tackle one room at a time. I'll post pictures of the room, explain what I want or need, then let you guys give me feedback. Sound like a plan?

We'll start with the main bathroom tomorrow. I figure a small room is a good one to do first. Right?

I LOVE OUR HOUSE #3

I haven't told you about our house in a while. Honestly, I'm having to work really hard at not having a bad attitude about our messy garage, bare walls, and rooms with poorly arranged furniture. So I'm going to show you some more things I like. It will help me to keep my focus on the good stuff while I wait for the time, energy, or inspiration to tackle everything else.

Ready?

The center of our home has the kitchen, dining room, and a little bonus area. It's a fairly long room with a sliding glass door that opens to a covered patio on one end and a window that opens to a covered porch on the other end. Needless to say, there's not a lot of light that comes in that area.

Except for one thing.

The solar tube.



That glowing circle on my ceiling brings so much light into our home. I love it! Even in this dark time of year, we get enough light that we are usually able to do school and eat lunch at the table without turning a light on. On sunny days it's so bright that you'd think we had a light on if you walked into the room and it works like a nightlight when the moon is big.

1/12/12 THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for sun shining in the windows and the Stevie Wonder station playing on Pandora when it's time to clean house.

What's something that you're thankful for?

WE HAVE A CAMERA... AND A CUTE BABY!!!

Our camera died a couple days before Christmas, right as we were opening our family gifts. Huge bummer! We bought one on Christmas Eve, but it took horrible pictures and we returned it. Last night Tim bought another camera and we're back in business.

It's just about killed me that we have about five pictures of Tyler. The unexpected hospital trip, surgery recovery while parenting three other kids, and death of our camera more than two weeks ago resulted in him having very few pictures taken in his first month of life. Oh well. We're moving on and plan on making up for lost time, so brace yourself for more frequent pictures.

I thought I'd post a quick picture of him before I make dinner, just to satisfy the requests I've been getting. Here's the little man at five weeks old.



We originally said he was colored like Silas, but we were a little off. His skin color is definitely the same, but his head hair is a shade lighter and his facial hair is super light. Silas, on the other hand, has always had really dark hair on his head and face. So Tyler may end up in the middle of the color spectrum we've got going on. Time will tell!

THREE SMALL GOALS

I'm a list maker. I'm a box checker. I'm a lover of productivity.

I recently had a very uncomfortable pregnancy. I recently moved. I recently had an unexpected surgery.

These little details add up to someone who expected to have things happen more slowly than usual and was fine with that, but eventually got really discouraged that the "need and/or want to do" stuff was adding up much more quickly than she was able to tackle it.

My home, which I knew wouldn't be decorated as quickly as usual, felt impersonal, and that frustrated me. My ongoing "to do" list, which I generally find handy, was overwhelming. My house was cluttered and dirty, which stresses me out when not taken care of on a daily basis. My stack of papers to deal with was growing taller by the minute and that was discouraging.

Basically, I've been really overwhelmed by all I need to do and discouraged that I have no time for the stuff I want to do. Something had to change or I was going to lose it.

A couple weeks ago I grabbed a little white board and wrote "THREE SMALL GOALS" across the top. Each morning I write down three things that I must get done that day. Some are things where time is of the essence, others have been waiting to be done for months. Some are about cleaning and organizing, others are about paperwork and scheduling.

Can I just tell you how great this has been for me?! A list of three things is easy to make. Three is a manageable number of things to do at this point in time. Being able to cross three things off proves productivity. Being productive makes me happy. A happy wife and mom means a happy home.

I still have my ongoing "to do" list because I need a place to write down all the things that need to get done and Tim uses it for ideas when he's wanting to help with stuff around the house without having to ask me for ideas, but the having a short list has saved my sanity. Even if the house is a wreck or our living room is completely undecorated, I can remind myself that I did get something done over the course of the day. Three somethings, to be exact. And in the midst of all that productive happiness, I often end up getting some extra things from my regular list crossed off.

Do I ever fail to complete my three small goals? I have a couple times. One day I didn't do a single thing on the list. However, that was also the day a friend spontaneously took the three older kids out for a chunk of the morning and I napped in the afternoon. Another day I totally forgot to do something until the kids were in bed, but it was something I needed them to be awake for. I didn't mind my uncrossed list either time. Mature of me, huh?

I decided not do do my three small goals on weekends. Of course, I refer to my ongoing "to do" list and we still get stuff done, but things are just more relaxed.

The walls of my house are still bare. I haven't figured out how to arrange the furniture in a couple rooms. There is a laundry basket in my room filled with random things that need to be dealt with. The kitchen counter has a pile of paperwork to go through (hmmm ... maybe I'll throw it all in that laundry basket). There are some things on my "to do" list that have been there for months.

However, I'm way more relaxed because I know I'm making progress, even if it's slow. I think I'm balancing my forest tendencies with three trees a day.

TWENTY YEARS

Today is the twentieth anniversary of my mom's death. Twenty years! That's a long time!

The last year has been a hard one for me in regards to her death.

I've had a friend reach what she called "the beginning of the end" of her battle against breast cancer. I've never met her in person, but we've known each other online for years. We've had conversations about being the child of a mom with breast cancer, as she's made decisions about how she parents her kids, who are about the same ages as our boys, in the light of her diagnosis - info they may want to know later in life if and when she dies young, ways to share her wisdom and practical info after she's gone, etc. Those conversations were hypothetical when we had them, but things change. The day I found out that she'd gotten a bad update I just sat at the table and sobbed. My heart breaks for her. For her husband. Especially for her kids. She is my first peer to reach that point with cancer and it's a really unnerving for me.

I've had another friend just get diagnosed with ovarian cancer last weekend. While it's a different cancer than my mom had, it's still a reality check.

A gal I'm acquainted with at church is going through chemo. She's about my age with four kids about the ages of mine. Another reality check.

While seeing women in my life, my peers, battle cancer has been hard for me, there are two other things that have been harder.

First, I'm getting older. Not just older, but very close to my mom's diagnosis age. She was 36 years 8 months when she got diagnosed. I'm 35 years 7 months. I'm 13 months away from the age she was when she found a lump in her breast. Only 13 months. That's not very long.

I often think about how I'd feel if I got a diagnosis at the same age. Specifically, I wonder about what kind of regrets I'd have as I faced the possibility of dying at a relatively young age. Sometimes that helps me keep things in perspective, other times it makes me beat myself up more over the areas I feel like I'm failing.

Second, I just had a baby. As I've said before, my worst fear is not living long enough to raise my kids to adulthood. The older our kids get, the less anxiety I have about that, as they're more likely to remember me and the time I spent with them, but I'm back to square one with Tyler ... with less time on the clock. That bothers me a lot.

I realize what happened to my mom may not happen to me, but you just never know. If she could die in her thirties of breast cancer without any family history of the disease, then it's obviously possible that I could, especially since I do have a family history. Ugh.

I hate that these thoughts are always lingering in the back of my mind. I hate that they're based on something that could happen, not something that is happening. Sometimes I feel a little crazy.

WEEK ONE? DONE!

This was our first week of real life since Tyler was born. Tim went back to work, the boys started school, and I had to get dinner on the table each night. At this moment all four little Ws are napping and Tim will be home shortly after they wake up, so I'm declaring this first week finished.

It went well, actually. My attitude was significantly better this week than it's been in months. I think that feeling well physically (no gargantuan stomach, aching back, or fresh incision), having structure to our days (oh, how I love order and routine), and a few new tricks I'm trying (I'll get back to you about those on another day) have made a big difference in my outlook on life. And naps. Can't forget the power of a nap for a mom who gets up a couple times a night to lactate!

My house is messy, I haven't checked science worksheets or math, I have unfinished projects, some of our meals came from the freezer, and there were only four days in the week, so it's not like I was some overachiever or anything. But I was an achiever. A fairly happy and content achiever. I consider that success.

1/5/12 THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful to be sitting alone at my table, listening to the Pepe Romero station playing on Pandora, eating a bagel sandwich, and enjoying some solitude. In other words, I'm thankful that Yvonne showed her love for our family today by picking up three little Ws and taking them to burn some energy at the McDonald's playland and that Tyler is napping for part of the time they're gone.

What's something that you're thankful for?

FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING

Tonight was time for the walk of shame.

I am the parent of four children who have lived a combined total of nearly 22 years and have never had to be called out of a church service to attend to one of them.

Until tonight.

Tonight I got paged because Tyler was crying and the nursery workers, who are fantastic, couldn't make him happy.

I got paged while sitting in our usual spot on the center aisle, about the third row from the front, in a full sanctuary that probably seats 1,000 people.

I got paged right when our pastor was in the middle of explaining why our church doesn't let babies stay in the service.

I was waiting for him to make a perfectly timed wisecrack about me walking out of the sanctuary right then, but he didn't.

People who don't know me probably think I was walking out because I was offended, but I wasn't.

I was just doing the walk of shame. The loooong walk of shame. One of the perks of parenting that I'd never experienced until tonight.

MENU - FIRST HALF OF JANUARY 2012

We've had three weeks of being blessed with meals from various friends and family members and I never made a menu or went shopping in the second half of December, but now it's time for me to get back in the swing of things. Thankfully, we were given some freezer meals over the last couple weeks. I'll be using five of them during the first part January in an attempt to make life a little easier while I get more active, school starts again, and we get used to our new normal. I made a menu on Friday, we hit WinCo and Franz on Saturday, and now we're ready for the following meals.

BREAKFASTS
oatmeal with brown sugar, milk, raisins, and energy mix as optional toppings x9
smoothies or fruit x3
apple buttermilk bran muffins (from freezer)
leftover oatmeal pancakes
egg & potato scramble
cranberry granola

DINNERS
leftovers x3
tacos x2
calico beans (freezer)/rice/salad
orange lentil soup/garlic bread
chicken enchiladas (freezer)/rice/salad
rice, kale, & eggs/fruit
taco soup (freezer)/cornbread
birthday party with dinner served
quinoa & black beans/tortilla chips/salad
Cajun sausage & beans (crockpot, double & freeze half)/rice
new chicken recipe (crockpot)/rice/broccoli
upside down pizza (freezer)/salad
chili (freezer)/cornbread

SNACKS & DESSERTS
popcorn
produce
Christmas candy
sesame cookies
oat & almond bars