Menus and Mayhem

Life is a little crazy in our neck of the woods right now. I am currently at 30 weeks with this pregnancy. It has flown by, and it still kind of blows my mind when I think about just how little time we have until the new little person arrives.Trust me when I tell you I have a long "to do" list to cross off in the next few weeks.Thanks to the maker of this handy dandy maternity support belt which has given me a new lease on life, they might actually get accomplished.

I skipped Bible study this morning. There, I have confessed. See, each small group has to help with the children once during this study. Today was our day. My kiddos are in preschool during this time and don't attend with me. I am in a season of life where I just honestly do not want to be around children that are not my own. I don't mean that as an insult to friends (I do like your children, I promise). But right now, child-free time is precious, and I don't want to add children to that time. Call me selfish if you want, and I am perfectly okay with that. My favorite age is the 2-4 age range, and I know that one day in the future I will find joy in helping with those ages again. Right now, as a stay-at-home-mom that is all I do, so I am perfectly happy to let those who miss this time step in and fill my shoes :)Speaking of what I do - here are some pics of the boys and what they have been doing lately.

One afternoon, the boys wouldn't stop climbing, so I decided to get out all the spare pillows in the house and let 'em go at it:

 Then there were Halloween parties at school:

Notice that little blue cast on Connor's arm? Yeah, he fought the end table and lost. Of course, it hasn't slowed him down at all. We finally carved a pumpkin yesterday. Connor jumped right in and started scooping out the guts while Jake said it was yucky and he took a pass.

I love this hair!!!

Since I did skip Bible study this morning, I knocked out grocery shopping. I made sort of a last minute decision to do some freezer meals with some of the meals I was planning. Jason is off today, so I had a little extra time to do a few things. I cooked a bunch of chicken breasts for casseroles that I will shred and freeze. Ground beef was on sale, so I bought 3 packages. I browned a pound and seasoned it for spaghetti, and into the freezer it went. I am making a pot of chili with another for the freezer - I will include the world's easiest chili recipe below. I did mix up the Pioneer Woman's sloppy joes and got 2 freezer bags ready for later in the month. Right now, our meals must be kid-friendly and fast. Here is the recipe rundown for many of our meals this month:

Pot Roast with Mashed Potatoes and a veggie
Pot Roast Enchiladas made with leftover roast
Sloppy Joes and fries
Cajun Chicken Pasta and garlic bread (one of our faves)
Chicken Piccata served with pasta and a veggie
BBQ chicken with some baked beans and potato salad
Feta Shrimp Pasta 
Poppyseed chicken making one to eat, one to freeze, served with mashed potatoes and veggie
Spaghetti - can thaw meat from freezer and add sauce
Breakfast for dinner
Chili

One of the nurses I used to work with made chili for work one day. All of us talked about how good it was. She laughed and told us her "recipe". If you need a quick and easy chili, here it is:
1 lb ground beef, cooked and drained
1 can kidney beans, drained
1 envelope chili seasoning
1 large jar thick and chunky salsa
Place in crockpot on low for several hours and done! I usually add a little water. I am going to freeze until we are ready to eat, but seriously, how easy is this?

A few nights, I am sure the kids will get some mac and cheese from a box or frozen cheese ravioli that I boil and throw some sauce on, but this menu should get us through most of the month. Hope this helps any other busy mamas with ideas. Right now, I must go shred some chicken :) Until next time...