Meal Plans!

Ok so here it is! This is Week #1 of my meal planning. There's still a lot of tweaking to do as we begin to adhere to the Orthodox Fasts but we'll get there. That little owl up in the corner I drew all by myself! I'm pretty proud of her... she's goofy and fat, just the way an owl should be! I have a huge obsession with owls- especially silly fat ones :) The bible verse up in the right corner was a later addition. I had the extra space up there and wasn't sure what to do. When I stumbled upon that verse I thought it would be perfect! I absolutely believe that food and nutrition play a role in a person's life far beyond just their weight. God gave us food to eat, fruits, grains, veggies, all that good stuff. So often I find myself consuming very little of what God gave me- rather I eat a lot of processed "man-made" foods. Not good! It was amazing how much better everyone felt eating a more "natural" diet. You'll notice a lot of smoothies on the menu- they are SO easy and you can make so many different kinds! It's been a great way to sneak lots of good nutrients into the kiddos.

I'm also making pre-made grocery lists. This one isn't filled out yet (obviously) but I'm going to *hopefully* get to it in the next few days. It'll be so nice to have everything laid out!! Grocery shopping is my absolute LEAST favorite kind of shopping, so this should make it a little bit more bearable. 

So that's my most recent "organization" project. Still a work in progress, but we're getting there :) 

A different perspective

I follow quite a few blogs and caringbridge sites and yesterday one of them wrote about a Bible passage I had read a hundred times before but never thought of it like this.

Matthew 14: 24-31

²⁴ But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary.

²⁵ And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.

²⁶ And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.

²⁷ But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.

²⁸ And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.

²⁹ And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.

³⁰ But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.

³¹ And immediately Jesus stretched forth [his] hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?

I've always read this passage and thought about doubt- not trusting in the Lord. But yesterday when I read this persons update they made reference to the fact that it's also about focusing on the Lord, not the storm swirling around you. That and what I had always thought go hand-in-hand but I'd never realized that. It's so easy to get caught up in the storm. To worry and toil over it. But in order to truly trust Him we must point our eyes toward the Lord. Focus on Him. And let the storm worry about itself. I found this incredibly applicable to my life- I'm a worrier! Even before the storm hits I find myself staring at the ominous clouds getting ready to consume me- looking in the wrong direction. I think that if I truly trusted the Lord, with all my heart, soul, and being, I wouldn't be watching the storm- my eyes would be on Him. And so that's what I'm going to try to do. Focus on the Lord. And let the rest worry about itself.

Scatterbrained

It's been awhile since I've updated this- not for lack of ideas, there are so many things I want to blog about. But unfortunately so little time. I've kind of been all over the place recently. 
As far as things with Jack, every thing's going really well. I had another meeting with the school last week and although it was pretty much the same meeting we've had 4 times already it seemed to stick more... Hopefully. There were lots of great ideas thrown out and they've already begun implementing some of them which is awesome. I don't think that this is going to fix everything but I think we're moving forward. And I think that the teacher is finally taking Jack's sensory needs seriously. Unfortunately Thursday he came home with a letter saying that one kid has chicken pox followed up with Friday a note about another child having Strep throat and yet another with some sort of mystery illness. So here's hoping that we don't all get super sick. Jack's definitely coming down with something over the past few days. Chances are he won't be in school for the beginning of the week. Preschoolers are like walking petri dishes! 
His new tutoring is going really well! We've had two sessions now, one at home on Thursday and one down at their clinic on Saturday morning. Thursday was a bit rough but that was to be expected since this is all really new to him. Saturday he hung in there like a champ! Two hours of intensive learning is a lot! But he did it! He even got his "special activity" for the first time because he worked hard, played nicely, was happy, and listened :) If he does all 4 of those things each day he gets to do something fun- he got to paint a little clay teddy bear that morning and LOVED it! I really think that this new program is going to make a huge difference. I hope that it carries over into school!!
So how am I? Such an interesting question. Very up and down. I have really good days and other days just feel like complete failure. Thankfully I've been pretty productive which helps with my overall mood...
Last week I finally broke down and tackled the toy closet. We have SO much stuff for these kids having had therapy for Jack out of our home for nearly two years now. Jacob swears that I'm crazy and they're just spoiled but I can justify (or so I think) the vast majority of the stuff for it's educational value. It really looks like a preschool in their closet (which is a walk in closet, that gives you an idea of just how much stuff I've got). Everything has a place now and every container has a neat little label I made on the computer with pictures and laminated. I'm hoping this will help the boys help me get stuff put away in the correct places. So far I've been doing most of the clean up, so it's still looking good.
In a desperate attempt to find last years tax information (which has self destructed, I swear! It's not here!!) I've knocked out a room a day trying to find the darn thing. It's nice to have stuff getting back to a manageable order. Sometimes things are just out of control- which is how I feel about the vast majority of our house at this point. But we're getting there, slowly but surely. And hopefully the darn tax paperwork will show up!
I've been pretty good about doing my bible reading. I've stumbled here and there but have caught up fairly easily. Right now I'm a day behind. I haven't felt good at all today so I haven't done today yet but I'm hoping I'll get to it tonight. I've gotten through Matthew and Mark and am about halfway into Luke now. It's really exciting! I can't believe I'm actually doing this! Haha, who'd have thought?!
We officially became Catechumens last night into the Orthodox Church. Which is really exciting but it was a horrible experience. Usually we don't bring the boys to Vespers on Saturday nights because they go to bed at 7 and starting a service at 6:15 with them is just plain foolish. But since it was a special occasion for us we brought them with us. Well we were supposed to do the service before Vespers but Father was late and so we had to wait until after. Liam was just being defiant. Every time I asked him to whisper he would very loudly reply that he didn't want to! Finally I took him outside to the car to talk because the more I talked to him the louder he got. He decided he wanted to just stay in the car so we spent the last half out in the car. Finally at 7:15 we went in and had our little service- at which point Jack repeatedly asked Father where the bread was (they get blessed bread on Sundays) and Liam refused to participate in any capacity. But we made it! And we're officially members of the Russian Orthodox Church! From here we'll be chrismated and baptized at some point down the road and then we'll be full-fledged, 100% active members of the church! I'm really excited! 
I've really dug down deep lately, plugging along with all this organizing. I've come up with a plan as to how to organize our eating. I'm so terrible about making meals- if I don't plan it out, I just simply won't do it. And so I've begun creating meal plans. I'm going to make 4 weeks and just rotate through them. Along with each weekly plan I'm going to make a master shopping list that corresponds with each of them individually. Sounds like it should work right? I hope so! Now I just have to dig out all the old recipes and start actually plugging in meals to days. It's been a really fun project- I actually drew little pictures to put on the calendars in Photoshop- something I've never done before. Jacob was shocked and impressed. I may be able to create things on the computer but I've never really actually drawn anything from scratch. When I get a menu finished I'll post it on here!! I'm hoping to get it done by the end of the month so we can start using them! 
Instead I'll finish with a couple of pictures of the boys from last night.