Deals

Picked up a few good deals at my Y Neighbours sale this morning. Annika got a new dress-up dress, a necklace and a trench coat that I'm totally jealous of (although it won't fit her for a few years), and Emmett got his first pair of real skates.

Waiting

Waiting at the doctor's office for 25 minutes (past our appointment time) for a 3 minute appointment.  This was the third follow-up appointment from when Annika had an ear infection in April. FINALLY her ear is clear of fluid!

Meal planning and my slow cooker

I've done meal planning off and on for the past several years, and have done it almost every single week for the past 2 years (I plan a week at a time).  I'd like to say that it helps us eat super-healthy and keeps our food budget down, but that's not always the case (although we are eating a lot better than Carey and I used to when we were first married - we were laughing the other day at the things I used to call "dinner").  What meal planning does help with is keeping me sane.  "What's for dinner?" used to stress me out - now I take a little time each week to plan and then don't worry about it.  I don't have a fancy system or a pretty menu board - I just keep track of each week in a simple OneNote document on my computer.  I keep all my past menus, for inspiration when I'm not sure what to put on the list.  Someday I'd like to have a "master list" or "recipe rotation", but this system seems to work okay for now.  I do have a new goal for the winter, though - I want to try one new recipe at least every other week, and I want to use my slow cooker once a week.

I don't have a huge repetoire of slow cooker recipes (yet - I have a feeling a lot of the new recipes will be slow cooker recipes), but here are a few that I've tried and liked (click on the links for the recipes):

Beef and broccoli
Chicken drumsticks
BBQ pulled pork
Chicken tortilla soup

Hopefully by the end of winter this list will be a lot longer.  Let me know if you have any slow cooker recipes that are favorites!

Looks like fall, feels like summer

I meant for this post to go up last night, but I was having problems with uploading the pictures, so here it is now.

Yesterday was beautiful.  I think it got up to about 25C, which is a little unusual for this time of year.  The kids and I went for a long walk yesterday afternoon, and then I convinced them to "pose" for a few pictures in our backyard (and they even happened to be wearing nice coordinating "fall" outfits, which I totally didn't plan!).

"I speak for the trees"

Unfortunately there was no one speaking for this tree today.  We had received notice that it would be "trimmed" so that it wouldn't interfere with the power lines, but I had no idea it would be trimmed this much (although the notice did say they could trim 1m - 4m, so I guess that gives them some leeway :P).  I guess I should've gone out and said something, but I wasn't expecting they would cut so much, and then it was too late. :(

 It started off not that bad...

And he just kept going and going...

...until this was all that was left (he thoughtfully left all the dead branches). 

My poor tree is naked!  

I guess the only plus side is that there will be fewer leaves to rake this fall (and Emmett quite enjoyed watching the whole process).

"Teacher, teacher...."

I made my debut this morning as nursery Sunday School teacher (I've never taught Sunday School before). The kids are 2-4 years old, and there are 7 in the class (Emmett is one of them). It was busy, but overall I think it went well. I excelled at play-doh and snack, and I even managed the flannel board (which is trickier than it looks). ;)

Snip snip

This morning while the kids were at school I went for a haircut. I was badly in need of one, since I had just been getting my bangs trimmed during the summer, but letting the rest of my hair grow wild. I like the length and general style I had, but it was time for something a little different (since I had the exact same hairstyle as my 5 year old). I got a few more layers at the edge of my bangs (kind of hard to see in this picture, but more visible when my hair is pulled back), and some long layers all over. It's not a huge change but I really like it. Makes me feel a little more grown up. ;)