I hate meal planning...

and grocery shopping...

and cooking.

I really really do.

BUT I love eating.

and I love reading about what other people are eating.

Weird huh?

I LOVE pinterest and all the incredible food ideas I get there.

Anyway, my friend Amy does meal planning monday

{which I LOVE}

and I thought maybe it would be fun to follow her lead,

and I figure it may help me get it together with the whole meal planning thing.

only I don't plan by day...

I just plan a weeks worth,

and then pick from the list.

you know...cuz I'm crazy like that.

1. spaghetti with meatsauce
salad

2. hearty beef chili
cornbread

3. chicken salad
muffins for the boylies
{makes the whole salad for dinner thing work}

4. chicken parmesan
pasta
salad

5. tacos

I'll normally link recipes,

but spaghetti, tacos and salad are recipeless...

and the other two are test recipes for a gf blogger that's writing a cookbook.

{so they're secrets right now... shhh-hhh}

teen 2.0

Colten @13: sigh... my little fireball, is sassy-but-oh-so-sweet, loves shoes & hats most of all {not sure which he loves more}, chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, really hates cheese but loves queso, is crazy messy but somehow knows where things are, wears a hoodie everyday, looooves soccer, minecraft, whipped cream, beastie boys and his ipod & dr. dre beats... my Coley-Opinterest love:

I made this chocolate cake & the chocolate buttercream frosting.

I couldn't try the cake {not gluten free} but the boys loved it...

and the frosting?!? ohhh. sooo. gooood.

just be sure to spray your pans well... the cake will stick.

I also did this...

I debated if Coley was too old for it,

but man... he LOVED it.

{and Jack has already said "I better get some of those money balloons for my birthday" Ha}

HUGE hit.

xoxox.

a few things I'm not very good at

patience

thank you notes

public speaking

time management

driving in the snow

and clearly

blogging...

sorry.

I'm working on it.

Claire: I assure you, you are fine.
Phil: That's very comforting coming from a marketing major at a party school.

It's helpful when blogging again to have a computer that doesn't stop working...
or maybe I have a computer that stops working because I decided to blog again?!hmmm...

I was going to post about my new years resolutions.
that was the post I had started on friday anyway...
but Jared's resolution is
"to be more committed to my faith"
which really made my get-a-six-pack resolution seem shallow...

so let's just talk about oatmeal shall we?
I made a new oatmeal recipe this morning.
I couldn't eat it.
The consistency was just all wrong for me.
you cook it on the stove with the banana...
and the idea is it gets all "creamy"...
which is does.
apparently e is not a fan of creamy (which might also be described as slimy) oats.
I'm going to tweak it and try it again though...
because I do love oatmeal...
and I really did want to love that oatmeal.
thankfully I also love greek yogurt... because that's what I had for breakfast this morning.

the little boys when asked about resolutions
looked at me like I was speaking Russian.
so I helped them out
by deciding that they would be doing more chores in the coming year...
I even made them a chore chart yesterday
a la pre-school
sans the stickers...
although...
stickers would be nice...
Jack came home and did the chores on his list...
mumbling only slightly that he had yet to "hear about how much allowance" he'd be receiving.
Cole came home and looked at the chart and said
"this makes absolutely no sense to me... I have no idea what I'm reading"...
good
try
o.

Speaking of Russian.
Jared does the most fantastic Russian accent...
really...
has me in tears every
single
time.
I'll have to secretly tape him... and post it.
hysterical.
{and probably more entertaining than me talking about oatmeal}

Cole got his chores done and we even made it to the orthodontist on time.
that's another of my resolutions...
to not forget appointments.
because seriously...
the adult ADD...
is like whoa.
I can not even explain how many appointments I've missed this year...
really.
pathetic.
you'd think the giant dry erase calendar might be slightly more effective...
it's not...

mainly I think because it does not actually go to the appointment for me.

Speaking of Cole.
he'd like it known he much prefers Cole...
but sadly can not go by it because his silly parents named him Colten.
while I've explained he can still go by Cole...
which would be a nickname.
he is adamant that no nooooooo...
if I wanted to call him Cole
which is a much better name
I would have named him Cole...
awesome.
please note I'm trying to only call him Cole now.
well that
and sweetheart

Jack quote of the day:

"You haven't used your candelabra nearly enough"

the one I've had since October...

no probably not...

I mean

can one use a candelabra enough?!?

we rang in the new year with champagne and board games
...
I was pretty sure I'd retired from blogging.
the boys are getting older.
and I'm getting boring-er.
and it seemed
unless every blog post were to go something like this:

today I worked out
did laundry
tried to ignore the snow
took the boys to soccer
and made dinner

I would have nothing to talk about.

I decided
I may not have much to talk about...
and what I do say?
well

it may include an awful lot about
soccer
laundry
working out
the craptastic weather in cleveland
and even dinner
and I apologize in advance for that.
but I missed it.
I missed blogging.
I missed the connections I made blogging
and reading my friend's blogs.
I missed being able to go back and "see" our year...
so
I'm back.

now I have to go switch the laundry...

a REAL blog post to follow.

New Year... New Blog

So clearly I sort of took a small hiatus from blogging...

I needed it.

2011 was not my best of years.

While there were some bright moments

(not literally... it's always gray in Cleveland)

overall I'm quite happy the year is over...

so

welcome 2012

I'm excited about you...

xoxe