I was able to get a few photos off our SLR and my iPhone but I lost the ones planned for the post! Guess I will have to keep Avery away from the camera a little bit longer so we don't have anymore deleted photos!

Sunday January 31st

Monday February 1st

Friday February 5th

This week has been very uneventful in our house. We stayed home much of the week and just relaxed, my body is starting to have a little trouble getting around. Friday was our most eventful day of the week, a storm came through dumping big huge heavy snowflakes on us for a few hours but by evening the roads were nicely cleared and we were able to hang out with friends. It was lots of fun hanging out and the kids just enjoy playing with each other!

Its not too late to join in on the fun over at Jessica's Blog The Mom Creative for her weekly post on your Project Life or Project 365 Pictures!

Avery's Favorite Things: Leap Frog Letter Factory Video, Tracing Book by Kumon (I cut out the pages and put them in page protectors so she can erase and do again) All the cooking activites

In the future I hope to start sharing pictures of our previous week with our schedule but I just keep forgetting!

I got a great email a few days ago from a reader who found my blog through Menu Planning Monday!! She was wanting to know what cookbooks I use! I think this is great and hope to have this done by next week for you all! I love many of the books I have and would love to share my thoughts about them.

Breakfast: Carrot Muffins, Green Smoothies and English Muffins/Jelly

Lunches: Bean Burritos, Salads, Quesadillas and Leftovers

Dinners:

• Potato Skins (went another direction for super bowl since only got 2 in CSA box)
• Potato Corn Mash and Salad
• Spinach Lasagna Roll-Ups with Green Beans
• Broccoli and Cheese Soup in Bread Bowls
• Veggie Pizza and Salad (made this last week and it was so good and easy making again!)
• Mexican Salad Quinoa
• Mushroom Marsala Artichoke Pasta, Salad and special valentines day dessert (not sure of this one yet!)

Check out other Menu Planning Monday Bloggers over at I'm an Organizing Junkie!

Mango Green Smoothie

ingredients

• handful of kale (any green you have on hand will work)
• one mango
• banana
• flaxseed oil
• 1/4 cup water

directions

place all the ingredients in the blender and blend till smooth. pour and drink!

I have decided to try my hand at one more project each week to help me work on my photography skills, I am going to try to participate in I Should be Folding Laundry's You Capture! This weeks focus was faces and while Avery gives me some pretty crazy faces throughout the week, the one I got was one that captures her in the way she would want it most! She loves having pictures taken close up and she loves projects and being a mess!

If you have not been over to I  Should be Folding Laundry, you should hop on over and check her out! I love everything she post they are real and dont hold back on the emotions and realiness that life gives us. Beth and I are both mommies who have lived through stillbirth and just so happen to be having a baby in March this year! She is a great writer and great friend when you need support!

One area that I will not back down on is dairy products and meats. I refuse to purchase meat or dairy that isn't organic or from a company getting as close as they can to organic without paying the cost to get certified. Remember if it says all natural, that can mean nothing at all unless you research the product you are buying. I do not want to feed my daughter or husband anything that is feed animal byproducts (which includes waste), given antibiotics before they are sick or genetically modified to grow into something unnatural. I personally don't eat meat but I feel if you are getting the best quality meat (which is usually locally grown and grass fed) you are not supporting the industries that are doing things horribly and instead choosing to give your family nutritious meat that isn't going to jeopardize your health to save a buck now.

I understand that the cost can be a very scary thing to many when it comes to organic, but after hours and hours of research it really isn't a choice for me to buy the other stuff. I can't willing put all that into my family on a daily basis, it is just not worth it to me. Too much research does point to these products not being good for our health (unless you are reading something funded by the companies that produce these products). I have learned that with finding local resources through CSA, farmers markets or growing my own garden that the cost is still the same every month for us. I no longer buy very much food from the center aisles of the store and make it a point to do what I can at home, even if my time is limited. Its just a choice I have made and can feel good about when I am fixing dinner.

I watch documentaries, study articles on the internet, read research, take health classes at a local college and read books all the time about this topic. It is one that I cant seem to get off my mind or budge on in any debate. I am choosing health now and in the future for my family so that instead of buying the processed foods that are so easy to want to buy, I choose to take the time and and make it at home.

Instead of buying the easy to whip in the oven chicken tenders that my daughter would eat for every single meal I decided to start making them at home. The organic selection was small and the ingredients were anything but healthy. I normally would just plop a piece of chicken on the grill cut it up and give it to her but apparently she "cant want to like that". She likes them being breaded, so I had to put on my thinking cap. I found lots of great ideas on the web and decided to just make what I could from what I had.

Homemade Chicken Nuggets

ingredients

• two organic chicken breast cut into bite sized pieces
• 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 tsp milk
• zest of a lemon (you could use lemon pepper seasoning if you didn't want to zest the lemon)
• pepper

directions

heat oven to 400 degrees. place the whole wheat flour, bread crumbs, lemon zest and pepper into a bowl (just use enough of the zest and pepper to give a nice mixture of it in the bowl).  Mix everything together. place the milk and eggs in a bowl, mixing together well. dump chicken and milk mixture into dry ingredients and mix around until all chicken is well coated. place onto a baking sheet. cook for about 15 minutes.

I than placed the nuggets on a baking sheet and flash froze them for about 30 minutes and placed into a container in the freezer for easy grab and make! Avery eats them and says they are just fine, B tried them and said they were too small so not meaty enough for him. 

A few months ago I wrote a post on how I try to keep up with the bloggers by using a planner to write down any ideas for blog post and scheduling what I would write each week! I still use this and a few other things to help me keep on track!

The biggest thing for me in January was committing to post a blog post every single day. Now that is somewhat hard for me on days where I am out running errands or working around the house. I don't always give myself enough time to sit down and write one, or I cant get my mind to want to post. I found two solutions for both of these problems and am happy to say in January I hit my highest amount of visitors since moving to squarespace and I posted all by one day the entire month! Some days I was even able to post a couple of entries a day, which in the past I would have never dreamed of!

My first solution to the problem was to keep track of everything that I need or want to post about! The way for me to do this is my planner (tracking my ideas so I don't forget them while out and about) and sticky notes on my computer! Sticky notes was one of the main reasons I begged my husband to buy me a mac, unfortunately he didn't but Windows 7 added them and several programs are available to download for windows now! Sticky notes have now become my information resource center. I keep my menu plan on them, my to-do list, grocery list, target list, anything that I need to keep on hand is right on my computer screen. Anytime I make a new recipe but haven't posted about it yet, I put it down in my things to blog about list, if I have an idea for WFMW, down on the list it goes! This has really helped with my major blogging problem in the past, figuring out what to write!

The second way I am able to keep up with posting on a daily basis is scheduling my blog post! I know this one is fairly simple to do and I should have been using it years ago, I am glad I finally figured it out now. I am able to take advantage of my daughter sleeping time or hanging out with nana to write up as many post as I can. Once I am finished writing up the post I can schedule it for a certain date to publish or keep it in my drafts for a day to come! This has worked out great for me and if I know a certain day will be busy and I will not have time to publish a post on my own, I can schedule ahead and know I am keeping up with my goal for blogging once a day!Currently I have seven post already written in draft format for days to come, 5 scheduled for this week and a good list of post ready to be written!

My last tip for blogging is just do what makes you happy. I went through periods where I wanted tons of readers and did giveaways all the time but it wasn't the reason I was blogging. I became exhausted with keeping up with everything and most of the giveaways were my own out of pocket expenses so that was taking a toll on me also. I didn't want to have to bribe people into reading my blog so I have been taking a break from that at the moment and really blogging about what I love: family and food! I think having giveaways is perfectly fine if that is what you are looking to doing but if it stresses you out, dont worry about doing them. Find your niche and stick with it, network with other bloggers who you love and eventually you will be happy with the readership you have and maybe even love blogging everyday like I do!

So if you have some extra time today, check out this weeks Works For Me Wednesday Post! It really is great to get your started on blogging, building a network or understanding the host you use! I know I have sure learned a lot today and appreciate all the tips! 

How do you keep up with your to-do list when you are also trying to relax?

My Project Life from Amazon arrived last Tuesday and have yet to even open it up! I want to be able to be able to open it and fully enjoy the project, not just open it, look at it and wait to really get into it! Hopefully since most of the house is organized I will get some time during nap this week to open it up and enjoy it!

The past two weeks have been a frenzy to clean and get the house all organized before the baby arrives! My favorite organization project was adding baskets above my cabinets (1/24)! It looks so clean and was exactly what I had been imagining for a long time! Another great clean up was our carpets, they look beautiful now and I feel much better having them done before a new little one is laying all over them! Daddy and Avery had to take a break from the chore but it was worth it for some race car time (1/30)!

One big thing that we accomplished was Avery finally going poopy on the potty again after 4 months of holding it till she was in a diaper! We took her to the store that day and let her pick out any helmet she wanted! Of course the red one popped right out to her and she wanted it, because it was a Queen Queen one! Since it was just plan red I bought a few stickers and added them on, she loves it!! She even tried to wear it to bed that night (1/18)!

A favorite activity around the house has been pretend play for Avery, she uses her chair to be a ticket person at a movie theatre, (1/25), makes a big bowl of soup in a tin beverage holder (1/29) and making her chair into a playground(1/27)! When knew that her chair would become so versatile!   She also loves to paint anything, I think her catepillar preschool project was her favorite (1/20), it was planned for the next week but she wanted to do it as soon as she saw me working on it! She also loves to paint her face when I am not looking, this time I caught the bandit before it got too bad (1/28)! Once all her playing is done she is usually so hungry that she asks for her favorite lunch these days, butterfly pizzas (1/26)!

January has been a good month for us.  I think having these goals in place really helped to keep on track and set my to-do list each week. I don’t think I will be adding any goals to the month of February because I just want to lie low this last month before baby girl gets here.  (I took off the goals for my 2010 list that can’t apply to this month, just so it’s not long and overwhelming. Bold is what was completed in January)

Personal Goals

•  Keep on track with my way of eating- This is going great for us and has really opened our eyes to some wonderful new meals! February might be harder with getting down to the uncomfortable days of pregnancy but I plan to try my hardest on keeping on track and not letting convenience take over.
• Read at least one book a month (can be an audible book if need be!)- In January I read the Happiness Project, will post my review very soon! I am also still working on What to Eat by Marion Nestle, great book but very long! In February I hope to finish What To Eat and Food Rules by Michael Pollan. During all my of NSTs I plan on listening to Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver.
• Be a better wife to my husband- this is something I need to work on every day. In February my goal is to let him do things he loves before baby two gets here and life is going to change!
• Be resourceful with my garden- I plan to start getting the garden seeds sprouting at the end of the month, so I need to get my plans in gear this month!

Family Goals

•  Be more active with Avery (just cause I love being at home doesn't mean Avery does)- with me having so many doctor appointments Avery gets to play with my sister twice a week and is loving her play time away from home!
• Set up a learning schedule each week – this is going very well, while I have changed several things, it is working great for us and I see improvement in Avery each week. I hope in February to plan two months of school in advance so we don’t get off track too much with baby around the house.   
• Have a date night with my husband at least 2 a month (hey we already get to see free movies, shouldn't be too hard right!)- we had a few nights this month where we were able to just stay at home and relax with some movies and go out to dinner with friends a few other times.
• Have 2 nights a month (not including date night) that we don't have distraction such as TV, computers, video games, cell phones! Just time to talk, read books and play games together.- work in progress. Goal to get this started this month!  
• To be more patient- work in progress

Blogging Goals

•  Setup a schedule and stick to it- so far doing pretty good on a blogging schedule each week, January has been my best blogging month since moving to Squarespace in July. I have several recipes I have ready to post and my schedule of Menu Planning, To-Do List, Preschool and Project Life all help to keep me up-to-date with posting
• Try to post every day of the week (planning in advance of course!)-  I have posted all but one day this month, including several days with more than one post! Above should help with this.  
• Try more foods I have not had and blog about it- I just started this last week and posted about my try of the week, eggplant! I already have one new ingredient to try in February planned!  
• Share my passion about food- still nervous to do this, my passion is a little over the top and afraid I will scare you all. Look for a post about chicken very soon; it was so passionate I had to take a lot out!
• Just be consistent, really!

House Goals

• Get and keep areas organized on a regular basis. I can’t believe how much I was able to organize in January! I will soon post about all that has been done! Apparently my need for nesting is working out great! For February I want to finish organizing the nursery, finish organizing closets and figure out recycling area.
• Setup a schedule and try to stick to it 
• Be more consistent on menu planning and sticking to it. So far so good!
• Recycle more than I throw away- work in progress but doing great!
• Create a workspace for me- got storage area for workspace all in place, putting up the desk this month!
• Create a learning area for Avery- finished!!
• Finish up the nursery- This is pretty much done!! My mom is making a few more things and we have a window picture frame to hang up and we are done! Pictures coming soon!
• Organize closets- only need to organize coat closet and nursery closet, rest are all done and looking beautiful! Should have both completed by the end of the month.  
• Clean Carpets- this was finished this weekend! My in laws came over and helped do much of the work and they look beautiful! The best part is the carpet machine is not toxic at all!