Even with the leftovers from Thanksgiving, we still needed to get groceries for this week.  To be a little honest with you, I'm getting tired of turkey leftovers.  Here's my dinner plans for the week:

It's only been within the past year that Michael has really gotten into actually wanting to sit down and play board games with us.  I love that he's finally taken an interest in them, just we don't have many that are age appropriate for him.  I've come up with a list of games (some we do have and play often) that I feel that any 4 year old would love to get as a gift.

Thanksgiving is right around the corner.  I had already purchased my turkey weeks ago because I wasn't sure what our budget would like this week.  Here's what's planned for this week:

Ever get in one of those ruts where you're making the same meals over and over again?  Yeah, I seem to get them all the time.  That's when I head over to my ever growing food boards on Pinterest to find something that at least Jon and I will both eat.  I ran across this recipe on my chicken board and was a little hesitant about it because of the fact that Jon does not like Ranch.

It's the middle of the month and I'm slowly getting tired of planning what to have for dinners.  I wish I was good enough to make a plan at the beginning of the month and have already prepped dinners.  Even though I'm a stay-at-home mom, I'm all about simplicity.  Since that's not happening anytime soon, here's what I have planned for dinners this week:

Review guidelines:
1 Fork = I would rather eat dog food.
2 Forks = I would eat there if I was starving.
3 Forks = Not bad; someplace I would occasionally consider eating.
4 Forks = A good place to eat; I will put it into my rotation of places I dine frequently.
5 Forks = One of my all time favorites!

One caveat to note – I am allergic to fish and seafood, so if you are looking for those recommendations, you will have to consult someone else.

Because I have a daughter-in-law with Celiac and a really good friend who is Vegetarian, I will try to point out whether those options are present when I review a restaurant.

This year has been the crappiest year of my entire life.  I think during the past 9 months, I have probably shed the same amount of, if not more, tears that I have shed during my whole 34 years on this Earth.  Yesterday was my dad's birthday.  The first birthday that I've not been able to call or text him to wish him a "Happy Birthday".  The first birthday that I didn't go searching (even though I did) for a birthday card and then accidentally send it to Dad late.  I wanted to be able to enjoy my dad's birthday and not morn it.

Review guidelines:
1 Fork = I would rather eat dog food.
2 Forks = I would eat there if I was starving.
3 Forks = Not bad; someplace I would occasionally consider eating.
4 Forks = A good place to eat; I will put it into my rotation of places I dine frequently.
5 Forks = One of my all time favorites!

One caveat to note – I am allergic to fish and seafood, so if you are looking for those recommendations, you will have to consult someone else.

Because I have a daughter-in-law with Celiac and a really good friend who is Vegetarian, I will try to point out whether those options are present when I review a restaurant.

Since last year everyone was impressed with my Toy Story trunk-or-treat theme, I had to up my game when it came to this year's trunk-or-treat at Michael's school.  I knew that whatever I did, it wasn't going to work with my trunk.  My brother was awesome enough and let me borrow his SUV.  I knew that the theme had to be Peanuts.  Here's how Jon and I pulled it off:

Several weeks ago we went and picked a half bushel of apples at one of our local orchards (Apple Picking at Marker-Miller Orchards).  Once we got home I started looking for ideas of how to use the apples.  One of my food blogger friends, Sissy over at The Busy Cooking Momma, had just the recipe that I needed!

Is it me, or does Christmas just seem to come faster and faster each year?  Well, it's fast approaching and that means filling stockings for the Loudoun County's Holiday Coalition, "Neighbors Helping Neighbors" through Michael's preschool.

This week's grocery trip was rather simple since we had most of the items already.  Here's the meal plans for dinner this week:

Review guidelines:
1 Fork = I would rather eat dog food.
2 Forks = I would eat there if I was starving.
3 Forks = Not bad; someplace I would occasionally consider eating.
4 Forks = A good place to eat; I will put it into my rotation of places I dine frequently.
5 Forks = One of my all time favorites!

One caveat to note – I am allergic to fish and seafood, so if you are looking for those recommendations, you will have to consult someone else.

Because I have a daughter-in-law with Celiac and a really good friend who is Vegetarian, I will try to point out whether those options are present when I review a restaurant.

I was really debating on doing Operation Christmas Child this year just because of our money situation.  Plus now that Michael is in school there's more spending with their Christmas project and different fundraisers.  I decided that since this was a wonderful organization, I had to at least do one box this year.  I chose to pack a box for the least packed group of kids, the 10 - 14 year old boys.  It really wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, just the boxes aren't exactly big enough to hold all of the items.

A few weeks ago, we took Michael to the Pumpkin Village at Leesburg Animal Park to have some Fall time family fun.  A few years after moving here, we were taking a drive and ran across the animal park and it all decorated for what they used to call Pumpkinville.  I knew that once we had children, we would want to take them there.  It took a few years, but we finally got around to go.

Last week I did go grocery shopping and did have a meal plan, but we unfortunately did not follow through with the laid out plan.  I had gotten lost track of time every night due to working on getting the trunk-or-treat theme done (look for a post for that later).  I didn't get around to going grocery shopping until today because of Michael being off from school and my mom visiting.  So, here's the dinner plans for the rest of the week.

Review guidelines:
1 Fork = I would rather eat dog food.
2 Forks = I would eat there if I was starving.
3 Forks = Not bad; someplace I would occasionally consider eating.
4 Forks = A good place to eat; I will put it into my rotation of places I dine frequently.
5 Forks = One of my all time favorites!

One caveat to note – I am allergic to fish and seafood, so if you are looking for those recommendations, you will have to consult someone else.

Because I have a daughter-in-law with Celiac and a really good friend who is Vegetarian, I will try to point out whether those options are present when I review a restaurant.

Review guidelines:
1 Fork = I would rather eat dog food.
2 Forks = I would eat there if I was starving.
3 Forks = Not bad; someplace I would occasionally consider eating.
4 Forks = A good place to eat; I will put it into my rotation of places I dine frequently.
5 Forks = One of my all time favorites!

One caveat to note – I am allergic to fish and seafood, so if you are looking for those recommendations, you will have to consult someone else.

Because I have a daughter-in-law with Celiac and a really good friend who is Vegetarian, I will try to point out whether those options are present when I review a restaurant.

Does anyone else seem to have a hard time trying to stick with the meal plans?  I was hoping that this month would be different from September and that we would make almost all the meals planned.  Here's what was planned for October.