rachel's continued ramblings

at the risk of pridefully congratulating myself on having already accomplished my grocery shopping this morning, i will simply say that i have been BLESSED by the return of my NORMAL schedule and am SO thankful… that sounds kind of bad, like i’m glad to be rid of shane (since i had identified him as my biggest shopping hindrance). really, it’s just the flaky person’s reliance on schedule to make things happen… without further ado: monday: navy bean & ham soup; sourdough (finally! i had to keep putting this off because the beans have to soak overnight and i kept forgetting!) tuesday: leftovers wednesday: loaded baked potatoes; salad thursday: mom’s mac & cheese; peas & carrots friday: pizza; beans saturday: chili & cornbread sunday: pancakes; bacon

this thing has been going around facebook and i think it’s so hilarious, so i decided to do it for my whole family… Rachel needs to refer to Web sites, manuals, and a variety of documentation. Rachel Needs Your Help rachel needs 2 get over herself and she needs 2 do it NOW! Rachel needs to have blush that is very bright and colourful. Rachel needs to throw more. Rachel : NEEDS BEARDED DUDES Rachel needs some serious dosh for dental surgery. Rachel needs bigger car seat. Rachel needs to join the Original Jyter's Group. Rachel needs guidance and normal supervision. and now… Dave Needs is on Facebook. Dave .[ NEEDS A BAND]. Apparently Dave needs pants. dave needs a bike. dave needs a shower. dave needs to use the facilities. dave needs work. dave needs a new home. Dave needs help walking through doors. Dave needs to make a pit stop on the way home. and… Shane needs to lay o

so tuesday, i managed to dig around in my hat a little more and discovered a rabbit named papa john.  essentially, i shuffled the week again, and had our friday pizza on tuesday.  and, in actuality it’s something that was going to happen anyway because we were so excited about having the new papa john’s open up, but realized that we were not going to be home on friday (date night!!!).  SO, that was my excuse. anyway, yesterday, i finally HAD to go.  i had been wondering if it was really so bad, or if it was just one of those things that i was building up in my head as awful and making it worse and worse every time i procrastinated longer. i had to head to redmond, so i figured i’d go to the bella bottega qfc, rather than my usual stop at safeway.  that was my first mistake.  no, actually, that was my last mistake.  the first was not doing it sooner, the second was taking all 3 kids with me.  if it is possible to make grocery shopping with 3 kids WORSE, i did by going to this store.

… the necessity of grocery shopping that is. i cannot tell you how much i DON’T want to go grocery shopping right now.  i need to.  we will have nothing for dinner if i don’t, but i really REALLY don’t want to do it.  it should be done by now. it should have been done yesterday.  but it’s not.  why?  because of stupid mid-winter break!  i have this routine.  i make my menu plan and grocery list on sunday.  then on monday morning, i drop shane at his 9:00 class, and the little kids and i run to safeway before we have to pick him up at 9:50.  we’re already out, we have to get everyone buckled into carseats anyway, so we may as well get it over with.  it’s really not bad.  well, there was no class yesterday and therefore, shopping didn’t happen.  grrr.  we managed last night by shuffling the menu around and fixing sunday’s dinner.  as it was, i had to have dave bail me out and stop at the store for eggs, since i only had 5 in the carton.  but it was a good dinner, everyone enjoyed it an

here we go again… monday: upside-down pizza casserole; salad tuesday: chicken w/ black beans and rice wednesday: navy bean w/ ham soup; sourdough thursday: chicken quesadillas; beans & rice; carrot sticks friday: pizza; beans (PAPA JOHNS IS OPEN!!!) saturday or sunday: ham & cheese scrambles; hash browns monday’s and tuesday’s meals are new recipes out of a cookbook i got recently, but haven’t used much.  i never made the navy bean soup last week because we had a bunch of leftovers that needed to be eaten, so it got bumped.  and we’re going to be going tubing either saturday or sunday w/ friends, so we’ll eat w/ them after. now my challenge is getting to the store.  shane’s off this week, so i didn’t have my usual shopping time when he’s at his morning class, and i HATE taking all 3 kids with me to the store even more than i hate going to the post office.

so i sat micah at the table today to eat his lunch.  he had a plate of food, a fork to eat it with, he was buckled into his seat, and had shoes on his feet.  i left the room and came back to find him out of his chair, done with his food, and this scene:    want a closer look?  i know you do…     yes, that’s a fork IN the shoe.           have i mentioned he’s a total houdini?  the straps are still buckled and it’s impossible to get them tight enough to keep him in.  but i’m loving that he left a shoe behind.  it’s so cinderella. i’m kind of thinking at this point that i should maybe look inside the shoe, just to be sure he didn’t stash any of his lunch in there. i’ve said it before, i never claimed to have normal kids. at least he ate…

here are layla’s curtains!  actually up on the window! i have to say i’m quite pleased with myself for actually getting this done.  but i have to give credit where credit is due… so thanks to my MIL for going to the fabric store w/ me and helping me with measurements and all that.  AND, thanks to debbie for letting me use her sewing machine and for ironing all the hems for me!  YAY!!!!

so last week was horrible in the ways of all things homemaking.  i think i made more mess and distress than home.  but i’m back on the wagon this week so here we go. monday: ham, baked potatoes, green beans tuesday: beef stew, sourdough wednesday: soy chicken, rice, salad thursday: meatloaf, fries, peas & carrots friday: pizza & beans saturday: navy bean & ham soup, sourdough sunday: waffles, sausage now here’s my gripe of the day:  how big of idiots do people think we are?  a couple of weeks ago, i went to buy a pack of tortillas. i generally buy the soft taco size, since that’s usually what i’m using them for.  i was dismayed to see that they now sell them in 3 sizes; small, medium and large.  WHAT?  no burrito size?  makes them sound really authentic, huh? today, i was at fred meyer and i needed a package of navy beans.  so i go to the bean aisle.  there were no navy beans.  there was something that i can assume is navy beans, b

here’s a random post for you.  a smorgasbord of tasty day-to-day anecdotes with no topic in particular. HOW TO MAKE “D-CHEESES”   - just in case you find yourself in charge of my daughter around snack time. i have no idea where she came up with this, or why it is called ‘d-cheese’, but if she asks for d-cheese, this is how you make it:   the stacking is key! if you should, for some reason decided to cut one half and then the other half, you’re asking for it.  the two halves must be stacked and then cut. and all 4 pieces must be stacked on top of each other before handing over.  how she came up with this, and how i figured it out, i have no idea. i never claimed to have normal kids. BREAD ANYONE? the other night we had bread with dinner, but forgot to eat it. micah found it a little later and decided to have a little snack.            he was reaching into the bread and digging it out.  do you see the hole he put in that piece? and finally, WANNA FEEL LI

i’ve never claimed to be the smartest person in the world, but i’m not exactly an idiot.  i went to college – for a long time, i haven’t exactly lived under a rock, i function well in day to day society, but lately i feel SO STUPID! why, you ask? because of one phrase i hear a lot of lately… “in this economy…” i just don’t get it.  i mean, i get the general idea of economics… buying, selling, investing, consumer trends, etc.  but what exactly is an economy, like as a noun.  and i don’t understand what makes it bad or good. or maybe i’m just too poor to know when things are bad or good. my dad was a stock broker originally.  his degree is in finance.  i grew up having the nightly business report and wall street week imposed upon me on a regular basis.  but i will NEVER understand the stock market.  how sometimes stock is worth more and sometimes less, how things lose value.  how money loses value, for that matter.  the whole idea swims around in my head in a big swirl of green

okay, well i got some of my list done yesterday, (and a little more of it done today). i did manage to get showered and dressed – although, now i need to do it again. the dishwasher got unloaded, reloaded, and run – twice! unfortunately, it now needs to be done AGAIN (sensing a theme here). i went to the meeting, i uploaded the pictures and posted them to facebook… still need to do a post here about the weekend. i went to the grocery store today and did some shopping. unfortunately i didn’t get the menu plan done or the list first, so i spent more than i probably would have otherwise, and i will have to piece together meals from what i bought and what we have. grrr. i’m really kicking myself about this now, but i was OUT, we needed stuff, and i figured i’d better do it then cuz i didn’t want to have to do it later. i picked up some of layla’s room but there is so much more to do and i did 4 loads of laundry yesterday (so i’m pretty sure dave is wearing clean underwear today) but t

ugh. i have so much to do today, and i don’t want to do any of it.  i’m tired and living that vacation/reality aftermath where you got all used to not having to do your normal stuff and now you don’t want to. at any rate, this is what i have to do today: laundry, laundry and more laundry unload and reload dishwasher vacuum living room pick up layla’s pig sty bedroom meeting w/ shane’s advising teacher week’s menu plan grocery list grocery shopping shower and get dressed (preferably before the meeting/grocery shopping happens) upload photos of the weekend and post all i really want to do is sit in a chair in my jammies and knit!  i wonder why?  ;-)