Summer, Summer, Summertime

Whew, what a semester! I find it horrifying that I haven't had time to write and edit a post since spring break. After the last eight weeks of my life however, I shouldn't be surprised. With Louis going through an awful sleep regression, me being sick and then sick again and finally one last bout of sickness, a campus in chaos, and the every day that is our life, I haven't had much time for the extras lately. 


I spent the first weekend after classes wrapped up moving Jo into our spare bedroom and celebrating Dylan's graduation from UNI. Mom came down for a few days to help and it was fun having her here. Louis received some coveted alone time with Grandma and I had some help with meals and childcare for a much needed reprieve. I wish the rest of the family could have been here, but if we only got together when all eleven of us were free we'd never see each other. After playing too hard, I spent Sunday locked in my bedroom grading my last round of final exams. I had hopes of being done with my grading last Wednesday but a sore throat and loss of voice sidelined my plans. Being done on May 6th for the summer is still pretty amazing though, so I'm not complaining!


Today was my first "official" day of summer and Louis and I filled it pretty well. Last night I cornered Joanna and Nevin in front of Once Upon a Time and we created a meal plan for the week. One of the entries on my summer bucket list is good food! This plan is twofold. First, Louis is used to eating healthy, well-balanced meals at daycare and I don't want to get out of that habit. Second, I love experimenting with good meals with my family, the school year is just usually a hard time to do too much of that. I have been following a bunch of food blogs in my Google Reader and bookmarking ideas for months. This week I really focused in on the basis of a plan on Super Healthy Kids. I'm really excited about the plan and one day in, we're right on track!

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Breakfast	Oatmeal with raisins and cinnamon	Bran muffin with banana	Omelet and toast	Smoothies and toast	Egg sandwiches with strawberries
Lunch	Pizza Pitas and grapes	Leftover Lasagna	Leftover chicken, bacon, ranch wrap (FM 78)	Quesadilla	Strawberry Spinach Salad
Snack	Crackers and string cheese	Apples and Peanut Butter	Veggies With Hummus	Crackers with String Cheese	Bananas and Pretzels
Dinner	Vegetable Lasagna (CL)	Chicken Stir Fry (SIS 65)	Lemon Asparagus Pasta (SIS 57)	Sausage Asparagus Skillet (SIS 56)

I always struggle with finding a delicate balance in the summer between going with the flow and getting things accomplished. I am starting my summer with a cleaning task and a laundry task for each day of the week, but the rest of the time I can fill with whatever Louis and I see fit. 

	Clean	Laundry
Monday	groceries clean refrigerator	Lou’s
Tuesday	bathrooms	towels
Wednesday	store clean kitchen	darks
Thursday	dust	whites
Friday	vacuum	rugs
Saturday/Sunday	farmer’s market meal plan	sheets

I also will benefit from Aunt Jo doing about 10 hours of babysitting per week. I offered her room and board if I can get into the office and get some work done this summer. Lou will enjoy the fun times with Jo and I'll have some child free hours to regain my sanity.

With the first day under my belt, I can say I'm very excited for my summer ahead. Next up I want to finish that summer bucket list I mentioned above. I hate when the months get away from me and I didn't get to seventy-five percent of what I wanted to accomplish!

Spring break

Spring break is always a hard week for me. The weather is starting to get nice and I want to spend my time preparing for the impending summer. I want to clean out my flower beds, wash my windows, and organize my neglected closets and cupboards. I want to spend my time dreaming about the small vegetable garden I want to start this year and get out the patio furniture and grill. I usually spend my spring break grading midterms and lesson planning and reading for the remainder of the semester though. Sadly, this break been filled with neither of these. No spring cleaning but also no grading. Louis has had a 102 degree temperature for two days and he wants nothing but to be held and read to. He isn't eating much and getting him to hydrate is quite the circus act. Poor thing. While I hate that the sickness is commandeering our break, I'm glad I'm able to be home to snuggle him this week.

To make up for my lackluster break, tonight I decided to bust out a couple of the new recipes I've been excited about since my cleanse ended. I have been wanting to bring more home cooking back into our house and this is a good start. I broke out a couple of the homemade granola and Lara bar recipes (Girl-Scout Cookie Larabars, Oatmeal-Raisin Cookie Larabars, Copycat Nature Valley Granola Bars) from Chocolate Covered Katie. I haven't tried them yet, but they're sitting in my fridge waiting for me to need a snack. I'll report back once they have all been tried.

Also, in a last minute decision, I decided to whip up Iowa Girl Eats' Shepard's Pie with Helathified Mashed Potatoes. It's not the leftover pizza we were supposed to eat for dinner, but I'm much more excited about it! The timer just beeped, bring it on!

Day Twenty-Six: END OF MY OFFICIAL CLEANSE

7:00:    Naked smoothie
9:00:    walnuts, dried cranberries, water
12:30:  red peppers, snap peas, carrots, walnuts, water
3:30:    walnuts, dates,water


7:30:    roast beef on wheat, orange, water
Now that I'm back in Storm Lake for a few days, I'm not going to stick to all of my rules. It will be too hard both for my willpower and annoying my family. I plan to be decent with portion control this weekend, but none of the other rules apply. Bring on a cup of coffee, some black jelly beans, and whatever great things come into my life this weekend!

Day Twenty-Five

7:00:    Naked smoothie
9:00:    walnuts, dried cranberries, water


12:30:  refried beans, chicken, rice, salsa, jalapeno, water
At a conference with a bunch of my students today, so I made do. I didn't want to set a precedent that I wasn't eating, but I also didn't want to be eating things that went against my plan. I'm sure the chicken was heavily processed and the beans were cooked with a fatty oil, but the meal was good. I skipped the brownies with no problems.


2:30:    red peppers, snap peas, carrots, walnuts, water


7:30:    honey-barbecue wings
My loving husband picked up some wings for me. While not completely cleanse friendly, I didn't get the french fries so I call it a win!

Day Twenty-Four

7:00:    Naked smoothie
8:00:    orange tea
9:00:    walnuts, water
12:30:  garden-vegetable soup, water
2:30:    avocado with tomato and walnuts, water
6:00:    scrambled eggs, roasted vegetables, water
7:00:    dates, water


8:00:    popcorn with olive oil, water
Yep. Again!

Day Twenty-Three

7:00:    banana-berry smoothie
8:00:    orange tea
9:00:    walnuts, water
11:30:  chicken breast, brown rice, avocado, tomato, water
3:30:    roasted vegetables, sunflower seeds, water
5:30:    baked sweet potato with dates, water


7:30:    popcorn with olive oil, water
I am addicted!!! I cannot get enough of this right now. I'm lucky Nevin continues to make it for me every single night.

Day Twenty-Two

7:00:    banana-berry smoothie
8:00:    detox tea
10:30:  walnuts, water
12:30:  CHICKEN! breast, brown rice, water
2:30:    trail mix
5:30:    veggies (cucumber, yellow pepper, celery), water
9:00:    popcorn popped in olive oil courtesy of my husband