love is...a taco holder, your dad makes, for your husband.

post by casey.

what says "let's make a 4th baby" more than gifting your husband a Valentine's Day Taco Holder that your dad made - hey, I did send him a photo and I diddddd offer to come out and help throw some staples in it;).

so yeah. I didn't have a very big hand in this years Valentine's gift but it's the thought that counts. And all my thoughts are still, obviously, on Tulum! Hence the taco holder;)

Remember this guy?!

it's a holder...of tacos...um?! HEART.EYES.

we didn't quite capture exactly what I was hoping for but I'm absolutely not complaining - because I can't...because I didn't lift a finger in helping create it;). But my dad whipped up a pretty useful taco holder in just a few minutes:)

also, an extensive search for "Wooden Taco Holders" on Pinterest and Etsy brought me to dead-ends. Is there a market for wooden taco holders!? Are you thinking, what I'm thinking? Casey's Taco Holder - wow...that sounds Rated R;). Wood You Like Me to Hold Your Taco HOLDERS. Shop name, to be determined;)

a few days ago, the kids and I did some painting/crafting and made some pretty adorable little hearts. We didn't actually put them to any use, I was hoping to have Homer pass them out to random people today while we were at Rocky's well-child doc visit...but we didn't quite have the time to wrap up that idea:/ Maybe next year!

but setting-up these little projects for them is ridiculously satisfying and productive! There was a lot of drawing and coloring and painting...for at least 40, GLORIOUS, minutes:) After that...Rocky over-turned every paintbrush water cup - yup, took me all 3 to finally figure out how far his reach was;).

valentines really isn't too big of a deal for us and my husband is very thankful for that;) I actually woke up this morning having forgotten that it was Valentine's Day! Oops;) Obviously, I (my dad - THANKS DADDDDD!!!;) still cranked out a little gift. But I have no expectation of receiving anything from Jacob and I actually have encouraged him not to go get flowers and such. That guy...I've told him a million times to just pick some flowers from the ditch on the way home, if he felt the need, but he'll still run into the store and that target on his back has him walking out with a $40 bouquet of Gerber Daisies and yeahhhhhh. I appreciate the gesture but at this point in my life...I'd take $40 in cash and 30MIN alone in the bath;)

happy LOVE day to everyone! Whether you choose to celebrate this day, specifically, or rebel against it, entirely...I hope you're showing your loved ones - and they're showing you right back - daily/constantly an overwhelming amount of love:)

xo

meal planning: supersize style

by *Courtney*

meal planning... I'd be lying if I said this was my favorite thing to do. quite honestly, I don't like it. what I do like? *not* having to worry about feeding this crew!

another confession: I'm not great about following the menu. some mornings I forget that we're having a roast. then at 4pm when the kids get off the bus... I remember :|  too late. moving on to the next item on the menu! which is actually a good thing, provides some flexibility in the menu.

the biggest part about making a menu in this house is having all the ingredients to actually make a meal. weeks when I don't make a menu, I find myself running  someone Dave has to run to the grocery store far too often for one or two ingredients. Dave loves this ;) we tend to eat a lot of meat and potato meals these days/weeks. which is okay, and definitely a perk of easy access to a meat shop. BUT I really like a 'three course' meal. maybe one day I'll be that cool mom who has a fourth course and we have desserts!

for those of you who have commented interested about how this process goes down, here goes... well, some variation of how it goes. because it's almost a whole entire afternoon process around here. kids need butt wiping. toddlers fall. lunches need to be made. naps taken. and let's not leave out the meltdowns ;)

anywho...

I like to prep with my calendar and phone in hand. Then I know what's going on for the week. Who will be home. Where everyone is on what days. Days where Dave won't be around to help with supper, I choose something I won't need to cut up because that's his job while I'm prepping plates ;)

I choose bigger meals like roasts or meals requiring lots of prep and help (homemade pizzas and tacos) for when I know everyone will be home. and maybe because everyone likes those meals best so it's nice to have them all together :)

I like to write my meals right in my paper calendar. I should make a list for everyone to see so I don't have to answer that question 6-7 times nightly ;) BUT I don't. it would also be a good reminder every morning. great, a new addition to my to-do list :| moving on...

right about the time I have all the meals picked and added to my planner, coffee morning is over and it's time to feed the animals. this isn't necessarily a bad thing. gives me a break and makes me not dread coming back to the meal planning.

so lunch is fed. kids are washed up. kitchen is clean(ish). it might even be naptime before I get back to the finishing touches.

next I pull out any cookbooks and recipes I think I might need. I feel like you guys are like... duh, Courtney. all of this is common sense. I apologize if it sounds like I'm making this Dummy Guide to Menu Planning. This is just my process. Take whatever you want out of it, please!

okay, so... I break my list down into sections of the store. This may seem tedious, BUT it really speeds up my grocery run. and when you have a toddler pushing her own cart and a second toddler running low on grapes... trust me, it's a good idea. you can thank me later. now, I go through my menu and write out all the ingredients I'll need for each. evennn if I think I might have the ingredients leftover or that have not been used. 

After I've gone through the whole menu and written down everyyything, I head to the pantry and frig. Anything I find that I don't need at the grocery store, I cross off my list. And I'll add anything we're running low on or any snacks to the list as well... of course in the respected grocery section ;)

I *do* make a list of meat I'll need from the shop. But rarely does that list make it to Dave. And if it does make it to him, I'm certain that list doesn't make it anywhere past the board on the way out of the house. He asks me daily what to bring home. It's a good process we've got goin ;)

Sometimes I rewrite my list so it's allll pretty and neat, but most of the time I'm finishing the list as I'm running out of the house to the grocery store. While trying to dress 2-3 children. And one usually has a dirty diaper *just* as I have everyone's coats on.

how this 'grocery run' plays out is a whole other blog post.

I thought it would be interesting for you to see some of the common meals in our home. I'm not sure why I drew a blank when I got to 14, but I wanted tho to be a solid 15. it is not. so here are the 14 top meals in our house... in no particular order....

* spaghetti

* lasagna or baked penne/layered pasta (this meal usually immediately follows spaghetti on the menu... I'm trying to be better at using leftovers. there may or may not currently be one tupperware of old spaghetti sauce in my frig. rotting.)

* Reuben's (we recently had this, but this is a once a year meal here. it's Dave's favorite, and I try to make it for his birthday meal. not sure why I'm keeping it on the list. everyone loves them though!)

* chicken alfredo (penne noodles usually. fettuccine as of late. got wild!)

* grill out: brats, hot dogs, burgers, chicken, pork chops, pork steaks, kielbasa, steaks, bacon wrapped stuffed chicken breasts... say that last one five times fast ;) (yes, they're as delicious as they sound... and we rotate these meals quite frequently throughout the summer. read: wife of a butcher)

* chili (more during the winter, obviously)

* clam chowder (again, more during the winter)

* chicken chili (recipe from a good friend. crockpot style. delicious!)

* tacos

* enchiladas (recipe from another good friend)

* homemade pizzas (almost a weekly deal)

* breakfast (extreme lazy or mom-forgot-it-was-roast-for-supper days)

* Italian sausage pasta (recipe courtesy of Dave's sister, Renee. we do a variation of this recipe because Renee's recipe is a tad spicy for the kiddos. we use Italian sausage in place of chorizo, and diced tomatoes instead of Rotel)

* zuppa toscana soup (another recipe from Renee and a house favorite. find recipe here. I should have it memorized from making it so many times, but I still go back to her website every time I make it ;)

* beef or pork roasts

bonus, thought of a couple more!
* grilled cheese sammiches and tomato soup (mostly during Lent)
* baked fish (also during Lent)
* ham+swiss paninis 

okay, my brain quit working. I cannot for the life of me think of anything else we eat...

we make a lot of substitutions throughout the planned weeks. sometimes I don't feel like making and/or eating something picked for that day so we move on to something else. if we eat something on the menu, I cross it off just so I don't have to mentally keep track of what meals we've already eaten. if I'm feeling real ambitious, I'll move things around in the calendar so I don't repeat a menu item too soon.

I wish I could say I'm really good at this meal planning bit. but in all honesty, I plan probably 1-1/2 to 2 weeks of a month. then for whatever reason, life maybe, I put off this task and then hate myself for the rest of those 2 weeks. whyyy???!!! do I do this to myself! during those 2 weeks when we do not have a solid meal plan, Dave does a lot of the cooking. we make it work. I don't love it. I'm working on it. but here's a rough idea of how the meals go for a house of 10!

hope you enjoyed. maybe learned something. feel free to email or mention how pointless this entire post was in the comments section ;) OR if you need any of the recipes, I can get you those too!

we'll call this: salvageable

when your husband uses words and phrases like the following, in regards to the dinner you made:

did you check to see if the cottage cheese was good because there's mold on the cover - kids have already been served and are scarfing down

it's salvageable

maybe, start with something simpler next time?

and by simpler are we talking about a bowl of damn cereal???!! Cause I don't know how covering potato chunks with whatevers in the fridge, qualifies as level: difficult.

so I made some potato flats. That's what I'm calling them.

Potato Flats.

aka. Courts boobs after 8 kids - I suppose, my boobs after 3...but mostly, Courts;)

I would tell you how I made them but I think it's pretty obvious. And I need to remember that I'm the minority here...in that small group of people who never cooks;) 
What I think would be more useful to you, is to explain the steps I should have taken...and didn't.

1 apparently, you need to spray the tin foil with something - cooking spray, Pam or any sort of Olive Oil

2 pre-cook the potatoes and carrots before adding all toppings

3 check the cottage cheese for mold BEFORE serving

so there you have it. I'll be honest here...it felt good cooking something tonight. No matter how it turned out;) We recently did a great grocery trip and have an abundance of fruits and veggies in the house and a list of recipes (level: EASY;) for me to get started on. I've also worked-out every day this week (even just for 10min.!) - Jacobs watched me work-out every day this week, bum;). That being said...I've also had a slight slip-up almost every day this week...late.night.binging snacking:/

this is progress, though!!! I'm noticing where changes need to be made...where changes to our changes need to be made;)

the biggest one being those late night snacks. Jacob and I are night owls. We average on a midnight bedtime:/ SO I'm eating shit around 1030PM. This could be entirely avoided with an earlier bedtime. SO tonight I'm shooting for 930PM. Which seems impossible. But I shall try!:)

Potato Flats = delish;)

- casey

what we eat.

soooooo we eat like total shit 90% of the time. This makes me extremely sad. I mean...we're the only ones that can change that or do anything about it and yet we don't. 



most recently, we've been trying to buy fresh fruits and vegetables, increased organic ingredients, make smoothies, eat less processed foods, eat all the salads - although, we can never eat it fast enough and then it seems to go bad:/ - cut down almost entirely on fast foods...but itttttt.isssss.hardddddddd! There are so many days that become 'the last day' we: go to Subway/eat ice-cream/feed the kids Mac&Chs for lunch. And then we vow to start all over again the next day...only to fail miserably all over again after a day or two!

our biggest motivation for continuing to try and make better food decisions are the kids. I mean...Jacob and I can hardly remember eating out during our childhood. McDonald's was a serious 'treat'. So why has it become a bi-weekly habit for us now? Well, we are lazy assholes, is the answer to that. And our kiddos deserve better. It kinda makes me ill to think of the shit I'm putting in their bodies daily because of pure laziness on my part! They deserve better and I damn sure can do better! 

anddddd we're in our 30's (VERY early, younggggg hawt 30's;) and some of this shit is going to start catching up with us. My husband has one of those stomachsssss/belly's??? and it's not a vanity thing...we both just want to be able to run and play with the kids - and not feeling the need to wear Tshirts in the pool would be cool too;). 
And I'm having babies in my 30's and I need to be healthy...as much fun as it is to gain 55lbs per pregnancy...it's just not necessary;) AND being healthy in those pregnancy months has a lot of benefits, overall - healthier baby/birth/recovery!

anyhoo.

where I think we're failing is...overwhelming ourselves. Every time we come up with a plan, it's like 2 pages long. I think we need to be a bit more focused on one area and go from there. Make some small goals, implement them and then build upon them.

what I'm hoping to do - and I'll let Jacob in on this as soon as he gets home;) - is:

- exercise at least 3 days a week
whether that be a quick run (no better time of year to be starting:), 10min of yoga or any googled work-out that you can follow, an hour long walk...blah, blah:)
I've found a lot of these 10min workouts to be amazing...I can get the kids down for a nap, do my workout and still sometimes get a nap in myself...OR if your kids, like mine, hardly ever sync up nap times...10min is the perfect amount of time before everyone is balling;)



- MORE water

- cut a few things out entirely
NO fast food. NO soda (which is something we already cut out of our household a few years ago!!!!) - Although, I do still drink soda if we're out to eat - pizza and water, ewwww!?!?!?;) or at a get-together but now I'm cutting that out as well. NO ice-cream.
What will this life BE without Ben&Jerry's?!?!?!?!! SAD.FACE:(
BUT an alternative way to look at it isn't by what you can NOT have...but what you CAN have. Start brainstorming replacements. If I can't have ice-cream in the afternoon - really;) - what can I replace that with? Fresh strawberries...frozen or dried bananas...yogurt, etc.

- ONE cheat day per week
I don't want to set us up for failure. I realize that it's going to be hard. It's been hard...SO, I'm allowing a slip-up once a week. I'm not sure if we'll put guidelines on that or not but once we cheat, we mark it on the calendar and must get another 5-7 days under our belt before we can cheat again.

here's a simple video that kinda helped motivate me. 

and really...when I really think about it...this has been a long time coming. I want to make these changes. I want our days to be healthier. I want us to feel better and FEEL all the benefits of being healthier!!! 
And just getting up a tad earlier in the morning. Meal planning. Being more active. I feel SO amazing when I do these things. So why am I not making that a daily priority? And bottom line...you are what you eat and so that means we are, basically, a bowl of Mac&Chs with an added can of Cream of Mushroom Soup - HOLY SHITTTTT!?!!?!;) EW.

i'll report back on our progress. I know it's not going to be easy and a lot of this we're already doing on some level but I want to REALLY start being intentional about this list. 
And there's something about putting our goals out there, feeling like you guys are holding us accountable, that motivates me.

i'm hoping that the next time you hear from me, I'm sitting on the couch at noon, writing up my follow-up blog post, with my gallon jug of water sitting next to me - 1/2 empty;) - after having just finished a quick work-out;)

PLEASE share any tips, healthy recipes/treats/snacks and your goals!!!

- casey

grocery shopping is/for dummies.

you know what's delusional funny?! Thinking it'll be fun to take all the kids and a husband grocery shopping;)

so far, I'm a lost cause in the kitchen. I'm starting to familiarize myself with the crock-pot. Occasionally, I'll throw on the adorable - completely unnecessary - apron I was gifted (probably as a joke, knowing that I don't cook - thanks, Carrie;) at my bachelorette party and then toss in some chicken/lime/??/rice concoction. 

i'm sort of a lost cause in those steps leading up to cooking, as well.

think about cooking. 
don't cook. 
nap. 
too late too cook - apparently, the crock-pot takes HOURS!??!. 
wait for Jacob to come home and save the day.

i make a pretty long list of things we 'need' or are out of. None of which actually make a meal. And then I go to the grocery store and come home hours later with an excessive amount of peanut butter and several more cans of black olives to add to the abundance of black olives we already have at home. 

Andddd completely exhausted.

tonight Jacob came along to supervise:) I think we did okay. We're gonna stay married;) I didn't get my ice-cream and Jacob converted me from Brown Sugar Poptarts to Toaster Strudels. So I'd say it was a win-win-WIN for him:)

here's to hoping - cause I'm a crazy dreamer - that I wake up before the kids tomorrow to get my smoothie made and someeeeething in the crock-pot;)

and now we need 3 carts!!!

the only casualty - after hounding Homer constantly not to hit anyone in the ankles with his cart - was me hitting Homer in the ankles with my freaking cart. And you would have thought I ran him completely over...the kids gonna get an A in drama;)

this was Wednesday. It is now Thursday and here's the recap:

- we got home only to realize we'd forgotten 2 gallons of milk beneath the cart!:/

- our dog ate my loaf of bread while I was gone this afternoon - ANGRY FACE!!!!!

- Jacob never grabbed toaster strudels. 

- i did notttt wake up before the kids this morning;)

- i DID prep smoothies for the next few weeks...so I'm all set for a few meals and chicken is currently in the crock-pot for tomorrow. BOOM.

- casey