Mother May I?

Chicken Noodle Soup, Chicken Parmesan, Cheesy Spaghetti, Cookies (no-bake), Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Danish, Cheeseburger Roll-Up & NO I didn't plan it with all C's, it just happened. But don't you like it when things 'just happen'?

2 1/2 hours later my cooking extravaganza is complete, now 'mother may I please be excused to leave on Thursday for a 4 day weekend in the rolling, beautiful hills of Galena, IL to stay at my 'all time' favorite B&B with food only to DIE for? 4 days with no one else but my handsome Mr. Milo. Mother, may I PLEASE be excused? Food has been prepared in advance for the children, childcare is all lined up, transportation issues resolved, & activities covered. Mother, May I PLEASE be excused?

So to give my weary feet a rest, I thought I would pop in for a bit before I methodically plan out all my outfits and make-up for our upcoming 4 day weekend. Trust me, I take this stuff SERIOUSLY cause it only happens once, sometimes twice, and if I am REALLY lucky..three times a year. Trips away with only me and my man! Trips that I count down the minutes to, plan meticulously for (ok..may be I plan meticulously for some other things too), and wait with EAGER anticipation.

Do you think I am excited?

So this weekend, me and the girls laid low. Mr. Milo aka...dishwasher boy and garbage man left on Saturday AM for his annual Green Bay Packer weekend with the boys. I refer to him as dishwasher boy and garbage man because of all the things in the world for him to be psycho about, it would be those two things. Thankfully I have successfully accomplished both tasks not once, but even TWICE in his absence.

BTW...when your hairdresser speaks, ONE should always listen. On Friday, I needed a little tweaking on my most recent hair cut. It seemed that a few weeks ago, Beth (aka.. my hair dresser) didn't quite do enough texturizing and my football helmet was starting to show with still 3 weeks until my next cut AND a very important weekend coming up. So a quick 911 to the salon and imagine that, she had a cancellation on Friday morning, that I managed to squeeze into my schedule.

So I shared with her my 'secret mission' for the weekend - more later - and she thought that instead of just gathering all my supplies and waiting to put them all together on the day of, I should really put EVERYTHING together before hand! WHEW! Am I lucky, that I needed a quick tweak on my hair in order to grab that piece of wisdom. 7 hours later, my secret mission was complete, which by most standards encompassed MOST of my Saturday. more later..but I do have to say...'They ROCK'! I seriously think I should consider a career outside of caskets and cremations.

So one last thing before I head up to wardrobe central, last September I started this notebook and VOWED to do it for one ENTIRE year. Now trust me there where moments when I thought I simply could go no further. It was painstaking, but so worth all the time, energy, and thought. YES! I am talking about my 'meal planner notebook'. YES...laugh all you want, but one year later...is my life EASIER?

So for one entire year, I planned all our family meals one week at a time. Every time I tried a new recipe, the rule was EVERYONE had to give it a thumbs up, in order for it to stay in 'the' notebook. Now one year later, I simply flip to the designated week, make up my grocery list and DONE, well with the exception of thumbs DOWN recipes, those I replace with new ones. Little to no thinking, meals change with the seasons, it has provided a VARIETY of things for us to eat, and it has freed up one last task on my to do list every weekend. My goal is when all there is in the notebook is thumbs up meals & snacks, to make a cookbook to give to the girls, so they to will have one less thing on their weekend to do lists.

Well, that is about it...Mother May I please be excused now to comb through my closet to find the perfect combinations for my upcoming 4 day weekend? Did I mention I was just a BIT excited?

toodles..