This side of the trough.

We have some bizarre weather going on here in the U.S.  The states, at least when I watched the forecast this morning, was split in half with a large trough of cold air across the west and a big trough of warm air to the east.

I'm in the warm air trough.  Well, that is at least until the weather changes tomorrow evening.

K and the neighbor friend played outside in the melting snow pile that used to be the igloo in the front yard.  They also were out back on the swing set.

What about me?  I opened up all of the windows and turned the fans on low.  I'm trying to air out the infectious funk that has been floating around here for about a month.  I had the windows open until 7:30 PM.  It was delightful!

Still, I miss the snow.  I welcome its return.

Pow! Right in the kisser!

The snow is melting and K and her friend were playing in it for a little while after school.  Michelle and I were hashing over some PTA stuff as K came up to me with a "snow" ball.  She raised it up and I said, "K, don't--" She threw it anyway.  It was an ice ball and smacked me in the side of the nose and mouth.

I was not happy.

I yelled at her.

"But Mom, I didn't mean to!"

I told her that I knew she didn't, but I told her not to and she did anyway.

That was 2 hours ago and my face still hurts.

I didn't lose any teeth and when I came in, the phone was ringing.  It was the neighbors across the street.

"Did you see me get bailed into the face with an ice ball?"

"Glenn told me to call.  He swore you got hit in the eye."

I told him I didn't get hit in the eye, but the nose and mouth.  K was in time out for about a half hour.  They asked if I had a bruise.  I don't think I do, but by golly it hurt.

Can't wait for soft snow to fall again.

"A B as in Boy minus!"

The phone rang at work today right on schedule-- 2:40 PM.  It was my rather excited child.  "How was your day, babe?"

"Mom, guess what?!"

"What's that?"

"I got my math test!"

"What did you get?"  I admit, I was silently cringing.

"A B!"

"A B?"

"A B as in Boy minus!"

I cried.  Literally, I had tears.  The child has worked so hard.

Hooray!

Weekly menu day!

The snow is falling softly outside.  It's that beautiful kind of snowfall that you see in the movies.  It is a grand thing.

We're gearing up for K-'s return to the local elementary.  Frankly, the 16 day break has been lovely, but we're ready to return to the grind.  With that, we've scoped out the lunch menu and other than tomorrow's Grilled Chicken Sandwich with Sweet Potato Tater Tots and Baked Beans, the rest of the week is (what I term) illegal.

Keeping that in mind, we also sat AS A FAMILY (as we will each week) and crafted a family dinner menu for the week.  Last night, I went shopping just for the additional things that we needed to make that list happen, as well as lunch items for the week for all of us.

Do you know how hard it is to shop for food that is good for you?  I mean, you have to dig through all the pre-boxed and all that to get to the nitty gritty.  It took me a while and I ran into a school dad who talked and talked and talked some more.  He's a lovely guy and I didn't have K- with me, so it wasn't a problem.

Here is week 1 of our menu planning:

Sunday:  Chicken and noodles with vegetables.  Broccoli salad.  (Reserve 1/2 chicken for Thursday.)

Monday:  Homemade macaroni and cheese, peas and salad.  Hubs will have leftover chicken and noodles, since mac & cheese is digestively illegal for him.

Tuesday:  Hubs is at a conference and K- has dinner with my in-law's.  Often, they reserve some leftovers for me.  If not, I'm sure that Mac & Cheese will be left over.

Wednesday:  I'll be taking K- to a school skating party, so I'm going to do a fly-through to pick her up.  Hubs will have a sandwich and a smoothie.  I can have a mushroom burger when I get home.

Thursday:  Chicken Salad Sandwiches (reserved and frozen from Sunday chicken), baked beans and salad.

Friday:  Morningstar Chick'n Patties, Sweet Potato Fries (do freezer clean-up on a few open bags we have) and coleslaw.

Saturday:  Soy "meat" tacos (with brown rice and corn) and Spanish Rice.

My MIL passed on her Cooking With Paula Deen Magazine and I've found a few recipes that I would like to plunk into our menu someday.  Here they are. (Click on the recipes to make them larger.)

 
          Credit for both of these recipes to:
           Cooking With Paula Deen, Nov/December 2012, Vol 8, Issue 6


Both recipes sound pretty good, but I know that the Broccoli Potato Soup is completely illegal for Hubs.  As for the Chicken Taco Soup, I may need to tweak it a bit, but it seems doable.

Have any good recipes that you've run across lately?  Feel free to link to your blog in the comments!

Have a great day!