A few shapshots of some things happening behind the scenes here at the Peaden home this November.
I decided to try my hand at Monthly Meal Planning. I usually plan 10 days out (we call it the 10 day forecast). But my planner (quick note: I designed this planner for Lioness at the Door and it's really cool to be using a planner I designed myself), has a monthly meal planning page and I am surprised at how much I liked it. I think it's a little tricky, because if you miss a day when you're planning 10 days, you just plug that meal in as your first meal of the next plan - but when you miss a day on this meal plan you have to move a different meal in order to use the ingredients you have before they go bad. It requires more shuffling. But it is nice to be planned so far out. And with the Walmart Grocery pickup, it's nice to be able to shop for almost all the things for the whole month at one time because they bring it right out to your car and you don't have to wander around the store - and then you just have to come back to pick up the milk/produce for the second half of the month. So positives and negatives. It will be really interesting to see if I keep up the monthly meal planning - but it's stretching my meal planning muscles and that's a good thing. I've been in a bit of a slump lately and I need a push to be more on top of things. vvv
^^^ Having Lydia gone to school in the mornings while Caleb takes his nap means that Austin and I get some quality time. I usually have a giant list of things to do, but I try to make sure that I give him some time just for him to do puzzles or read books. The rest of the time he helps me with the dishes or the laundry or plays with his toys while I try to get things done.
When I picked up Lydia and Austin from Jenna's house after she volunteered last minute to watch them so I could go to Park City with David, I volunteered to taken Camille and Jason home with me so Jenna and Kevin could have a little break. Miraculously I was able to fit all five carseats into my van (I've been griping about the fact that you can't fit five carseats in our van basically since we bought it, but I was proven wrong. It was tight, and the only way is to have the baby in the very back seat - but it was possible. So I stand humbled and grateful that I could fit all five kids with me to come home). We had a great weekend and I looooooove having Jenna close enough to be able to swap weekends like this with. vvv
^^^ We've started to play a lot of games together. It's a good age right now! Candy land is the favorite. My mom brought it with her when she came to visit a few weeks ago and we've been playing it ever since.
Lydia and her writing skills. 1) Practicing writing words/spelling on the bathroom mirror. It's more fun than paper, and hopefully will help her learn. And 2) She's started making these cards for anyone and everyone. It's amazing to see her writing skills skyrocketing.
Austin and the things he loves: Power tools, specifically his power drill. And street sweepers.
Austin helped me hang this shelf that my dad built me in Caleb's bedroom. It's been sitting in the closet since we hung the larger shelves in Lydia and Austin's bedroom several years ago because it didn't fit in the space I originally intended it to go in. But it's perfect for storing the baby books in Caleb's room. I just want to hang a little sign above it and then I'll post a picture of it. vvv
^^^ As far as Austin's love for street sweepers goes. He randomly pulled a non-fiction book about street sweepers off the shelf at the library and fell in love with it. We read it over and over again and renewed it until we couldn't renew it any more - then returned it and immediately checked it out again because he was wandering the shelves looking for his "street sweeper book". Then one day when we were at the park, all the sudden I see Austin and Lydia yelling with excitement and running toward the road because they saw a street sweeper coming down the street. I jumped up and joined them and we watched in wonder as it passed us by. It was so much fun to see how excited they were, especially Austin. Then one day there was a street sweeper going up and down Lehi Main street, so I pulled off to the side of the road and unbuckled everyone so we could watch it. It's such a cute thing for him to like so much. (He doesn't know it yet, but he's getting a toy street sweeper for Christmas!!!)
Grandparents are the best. We went to the Peaden Home to do some Thanksgiving baking. (Rolls and such). Almost as soon as we started, Lydia started telling us that she wanted to make a Turkey out of roll dough. We were going to give her a small amount of dough to do what she wanted, but then we realized we forgot the sugar in the Richersweet dough. It would have been fine, but definitely not as good as it should have been. So we decided to start over, which meant that Lydia got almost a whole batch of dough for her turkey. Sue took the time to help her create her very own roll turkey and Lydia was thrilled. I was just filled with gratitude for such good grandparents. vvv
^^^ Lydia loved it so much that when we were talking about desserts to bring for Thanksgiving, she asked if we could make another Turkey and put cinnamon and sugar on it, so I made some pie crust and we made another one.
This David-Dad is just the best. I know I say this all the time. But it just needs to be documented. He works hard all day, then comes home and gives all his love and attention to us at home. The kids adore him. I snapped this picture one morning when Austin woke up really early and David pulled him into bed with him, calmed him down, and they both fell asleep.
^^^ It seems like it never fails that when the fire alarm batteries die, it's during the middle of the night. Never does it go off in the day, always at midnight. David is always the hero who saves the day and replaces the battery before it wakes up any of our sleeping children. Our fire alarms are starting to die, not just the batteries, but the actual alarms. It's so hard to know whether we should get all new expensive fire alarms or whether just regular fire alarms. I have been having nightmares about our house starting on fire during the night and it's terrifying to me. I just want to keep our children safe. We are hoping to make a decision soon, before more alarms start to die. But there's not much solid information out there about what is actually the best alarm. It's frustrating. (That was a random side-note, but it's something I've been thinking a lot about lately.)
