A Week of Dinners
Around the time I started making dinner again most nights (once the twin newborn baby insanity calmed down a bit -- before that Lonnie cooked after work), I started trying to menu plan for the first time in my life. Up until then I'd shop for fresh things and keep a well-stocked pantry, and we'd just fly by the seat of our pants. Which was fine -- I think between the two of us we can think up and cook up a ton of great meals that way. But, once there were three kids on the scene, shopping took on greater importance. Or rather, shopping effectively, so that we are prepared for the whole week and don't have to run to the store any more than necessary. It also helps with the budgeting and shopping cheaply, which I have been trying to do (somewhat).
We still like a little wiggle room so we tend to stock both our freezer and pantry pretty well and don't always stick to the plan, but mostly we do. I often only menu plan 5 days a week, leaving two free, and sometimes I just plan out a certain number of meals for the week and decide the day of which meal to make that night.
So here's this week! I always save them so I think I have close to a year of these plans now -- I kind of want to collect them into a big list or idea binder or something (because its kind of ridiculous for me to keep creating it from scratch every week), but what that will look like is still percolating....
Note that we don't eat beef or dairy (all parts cow) for dinner due to Lonnie's allergies. Occasionally I will cheese up the rest of our portions, but mostly its free of those ingredients. I also sometimes add extra foods for the kids (yogurt, applesauce, frozen peas, etc) not included in the menu.
Sunday: Awesome sweet and spicy Asian pork shoulder (in the slow cooker), with bok choy, coleslaw, brown rice, roasted carrots/parsnips
Monday: Curried chicken salad with grapes (using Costco rotisserie chicken) on brown bread rolls, artichokes*
Tuesday: Something with tofu & asparagus -- any suggestions? Stir fry or soup with rice or pasta if nothing more exciting comes to mind.
Wednesday: Hilary's Heavenly Eggs (Eggs braised in tomato sauce on crusty bread), green salad with pears & nuts
Thursday: Bean, sausage and pasta soup (leftovers, from the freezer), glazed carrots
Friday: Fish & potato combo (tin foil packets, or maybe our favorite baked fish --subbing mayo for the butter in that one -- and oven fries), pureed squash (from the freezer) and asparagus.
Saturday: Fried chicken drumsticks, cornbread, Waldorf salad
Sunday: Hmm, Easter dinner! Not sure yet what our plans are or if it will be something fancy or not...
* Today's dinner was all thanks to Costco (well, the chicken, grapes, rolls and artichokes) where I had a great shopping trip with ALL THREE kids today, woo hoo! Its not my first time doing this at all, but I still always feel great when I manage to pull it off without a hitch. Lonnie made the chicken salad with homemade mayo and it was delish! All three of my kids ADORE artichokes and Costco is one of the only semi-affordable places to get them...
Toss me a bone, give me a click! Thanks!
Struggling with my early birds
A few weeks ago lots of parents I know were cursing the upcoming daylight savings time switch. For the most part, I didn't get what the big fuss was about. Just switch to the new time when you all get up, and over the course of a day or two everyone will settle back into the routine, right?
Ha ha.
In the past, this mostly has worked for us, and I guess I was lucky! Its not like we've not faced our share of sleep issues, that is for sure. But since our bedtime routine got set in stone (when the babies were around 6 months, more like 2 years old for Emma) bedtime is generally pretty smooth, no matter what. The sleep cues just WORK for my kids, thank goodness, knock on wood, yada yada yada. If the routine is done, they start to yawn, they lie down and (generally) go to sleep. I am SO thankful for this and feel like its payoff for a lot of hard work early on (but also, just really great luck, I am sure).
But. Mornings & middle of the night are another story. Unrelated to DST, Elsie and Delia have been waking up too much, as I mentioned in my recent post about nightweaning. The past week or so I have been mostly sticking to the "no milk until 2am" rule, and while one or the other baby still wakes somewhere between 10pm-2am, they usually go back to sleep (with or without a little complaining) if I go in and tell them that its not time yet. Which is great, in some respects. Could be worse!
But then, they sleep until 4:30-5:30am. Which is way past my 2am rule (and what I wanted - to keep pushing it out further and further until we just nurse upon waking for the day). So they nurse, but instead of going back to sleep for one more stretch, then they are UP! As am I. Until daylight savings time, they were waking twice in the night, but sleeping until 6:30. Emma was also sleeping until 6:30, but is now regularly waking at 5-5:30 (today it was 4:30, though thankfully she fell asleep for another hour). So we've all lost several hours of sleep and are not making it up! And since its still dark outside then, its not that (we have blackout shades to help with that in the summer months, anyway). Is it just that their clocks are still set to the old time?
Emma has also pretty much dropped her nap in the past two months (though she still has nap/quiet time each day and occasionally falls asleep), which I think its normal for a almost 4 year old, but thats another 1.5 hours lost for her. Her mood is definitely reflecting it some days! We were doing so well for awhile!
I am not sure what to do. Its not that this is new territory, either -- we've dealt with the early bird waking off and on for years with all three (and Lonnie, too, ha ha). I feel strongly about the "sleep debt" thing, though, which I read about in the book Sleepless In America. In that book she talks about how a lack of sleep leads to less restorative sleep and more wakeups, which in turn creates more sleep issues. Basically, you need to break the cycle and get everyone caught up on sleep to get back on track. I have definitely seen this happen here. But how? Do I need to start putting them to bed at 6:30? Their bedtime now is 7:30 and that seems pretty early. Maybe we'll compromise and try 7? Or will that just lead to more 4am wakups (yeowch!). Or do we just ride it out and hope that they gradually start sleeping later on their own?
Parents, what are your experiences with sleep these days? Any adjustments needed since DST? Any other early risers out there? What would you do in my shoes? I miss my beauty sleep (and am definitely NOT a morning person like the rest of this family).
