sundays are feast days in our home. i long to (eventually!) have big mid-day-dinners after church on a weekly basis, with regular guests: friends and family in our home. we probably didn’t do it every sunday, but growing up, sundays in my mind were big roast and baked potato dinners, with guests – who eventually became friends of the family, joining us for thanksgiving dinner each year.

feast days mean that whatever you have given up, you are allowed. fasting is not appropriate for feast days, so we FEAST. we feast when we gather to worship with others…we feast when we break bread, or share a meal as a family.

and tomorrow, not a feast day, opens with fresh mercies. a day that was given to us with life and breath (if we’re blessed) and challenges. in the midst of these challenges, we are able to think back to our feast, as we head back into our fast, and know that we’re not alone in this. thank you, jesus.

with all this blowing wind and snow covering us deeper and deeper…..i’m craving a good old fashioned meatloaf and mashed potatoes meal. not great timing having just won all these great healthy foodie magazines. i have a standby recipe that i love, but i’m ready to “spice” it up a bit with a zesty topping, and more roasted garlic for the taters….my mouth is watering just thinking about it. at least i only have to wait one day to eat it.

i think my menu planning needs a dash of salt. so…beginning with next week’s menu, i’ll be trying at least one (maybe TWO!) new recipes a week, with a full review from each member in the family of how it tasted. it should be at least interesting, and i’m hoping it inspires YOU to try new recipes for your family (i have a very picky 6 year old who seems to change what he’s picky about on a weekly basis. he keeps me on my toes, to say the least!).

without further ado, this week’s menu…

Monday breakfast: baked oatmeal, clementines

dinner: meatloaf, mashed potatoes, petit pois

Tuesday breakfast: malt-o-meal, oranges

dinner: fiesta salad (shredded chicken with homemade taco seasoning served over rice with lettuce, tomato, cheddar cheese, black beans, coconut, and salsa as toppings)

Wednesday breakfast: eggs and toast (adam and sawyer), oats-n-toast (rowan and me)

dinner: sweet and sour meatballs over rice, steamed edameme

Thursday breakfast: homemade cinnamon pretzels and oatmeal, clementines

dinner: OUT

Friday breakfast: cold cereal and fruit

dinner: roast chicken, baked rice, big ol’ salad

Saturday breakfast: daddy’s famous pancakes with homemade berry sauce/compote

dinner: homemade pizza, big ol’ salad

Sunday breakfast: pumpkin bread french toast, homemade applesauce

dinner: OUT

i know i’m not the only one out there that tries pathetically to win the Pioneer Women’s KitchenAid Mixer contests, right? I enter all the time. But with 40,000+ entries each time she has the giveaway, chances are slim…

I just entered another contest a few weeks ago at a great healthy-eating blog. and i won! and it wasn’t a “little” contest either. i won a food scale (a digital one with bells and whistles that i’ve yet to figure out), a new iPOD shuffle (that we’ll save for the boys’ music), scores of foodie magazines (Cooking Light, Cooks Illustrated, Food and Wine to name a FEW), a new healthy eating cookbook and a bottle of tabasco! I’m having fun going through recipes in the magazines and cook book and I might insert a few of them into our spring menu planning.

In the meantime, tonight’s “quick and easy” meal of spaghetti ended up being a bit more involved…but I “won” three full meals out of it! I made meatballs for Kenny and froze about 3 dozen more (for more pasta dinners, and for next week’s Sweet and Sour Meatball dinner that we didn’t get to this week). I made breadsticks that we only ate half of and froze a remaining pizza crust, and we have lots of leftovers from tonight’s meals…so really, it’s like FOUR meals in one.

I feel like such a winner in the dinner-making department these days.

7 Quick takes: The Lent 1 edition

for more Quick takes, visit Jennifer at Conversion Diary every Friday!

1. It was the first full Week of Lent. I can’t say as our family “gave anything up” (although I’m certainly a proponent for doing so during Lent especially), but we are spending more time together in the evenings. We always have the evenings as a family, but our evening time is more intentional during this Lent. Here’s how:

2. For Advent, Kenny made short lessons that were appropriate for each week in Advent. He’s done the same for Lent and so we have now have little pre-school appropriate Lenten family devotions to add to our Advent devotions. I love them…the boys have fun, and they’re learning! mostly because it’s a quick time (5-10 minutes, max) and they get to color (and light candles)!

3. Our two cashmere goats are shedding like crazy. Dune, the sandy colored one is the nicer of the two, and I’ve managed to pull a few of her “tufts” during barn chores. I’m hoping she is able to keep most of her coat until it starts to warm up. I’m excited to start spinning what I’ve got.

4. Speaking of spinning, we’re hopefully getting a shearer in here next month. And hopefully we’ll be getting lambs from at least two (if not three) of our ewes in April. Please pray with us for April deliveries. We have a homeschooling convention that we REALLY want to attend the first weekend in May, and we won’t be able to if we still have pregnant ewes (we’re fairly certain, based on the dates that Mr. SmoothMan was here that they’ll deliver mid-April).

5. Next week is Dr. Suess’ birthday! I remember celebrating his life my first semester of college when he died by writing Suessian poems on the sidewalks of our campus. A friend of mine and I are getting together and celebrating with our kids. Green eggs, read-alouds of his stories, maybe we’ll paint stars on our bellies, just like Sneetches!

6. I can’t wait for our St. Patrick’s Day feast of (my friend Amy’s recipe for) Boiled Corned Beef, Colcannon, Irish Soda Bread, and Whiskey Cake. Fortunately, we share this meal with friends and they’re bringing a tossed salad with them to balance all the carb-heavy Irish delights. Last year’s festivities went well into the following morning. I hope to be in bed by 10:00 pm this year.

7. We’re planning a beach vacation with friends. I can hear the waves now….oh wait. That’s the howling February wind outside. My bad.

one day, sawyer decided to write a book. he gathered up some construction paper, a pencil and our stapler.

adam and rowan like what they saw him doing, so they did the same with construction paper and staples.

each book was called “In the Woods” and the main character, a little boy, goes into the woods and encounters either a monster, a one-eyed alien, or a snow monster.

they were darling, but the staples got in the way of the story. it covered up their creative little pictures because stapling doesnt’ come naturally for young boys (they want to staple the middle of the page, not the edge).

so last night, i was pleased to bump into this site. and now i can’t wait to get to lowe’s and have boys pick out a bunch of colors, and i can raid my floss stash to bind up the covers and give them their own blank books that are easy to draw in and pretty to read.

i will cherish the construction paper and staples, and can’t wait to see what stories these goodies will hold. i might even take a few of my own favorite colors of paint swatches and make a few for my purse (grocery list). it might make a cute little gift for a new big brother or big sister welcoming a new baby sister or for a “melt-down-emergency kit (with crayons)” for the car. endless ideas!

i think i’ve always loved oatmeal. it probably started with the instant envelopes – the peaches and cream were my absolute favorite as a kid and i’d hide them from my brothers. maybe they never noticed.

over the past decade – as a young single woman living on her own, then a wife and now a wife and mother, i love my oatmeal rolled. i’ll admit that i’ve tried steel cut oats several times, several ways, and we just can’t be friends. i love my porridge rolled and old-fashioned, thank you mr. quaker.

our boys eat it just as often as i serve it…we all have different favorites. theirs includes cinnamon, lots of brown sugar or honey and a drop or two of milk to “cool it down.” mine is different every morning: cream and bananas, craisins and brown sugar, milk and a dash of salt and white sugar. whatever my mood…

recently, i’ve found some great recipes that i’ve been trying:  gingersnap oatmeal and french toast oatmeal. i cannot bring myself to try mark bittman’s savory oatmeal. i can’t do onions and oats. yet.

ironically, our donkey, geneva, loves oats as well. she eats hers dry, with mollasses and vitamins mixed in. and maybe an apple treat (if she’s not acting all pouty because we dared to let a few goats live in the barn with her sheep.).

but back to human consumption of oats: i also love a good oatmeal cookie and have found that Joy of Cooking’s recipe is my favorite. I make them for sledding and snowdays – they’re perfect with a cup of cocoa. have you tried baked oatmeal yet? Simply in Season has a great recipe: easy, hearty, yummy!  so how do you like your oats?

it’s just “menu planning” now and not “menu planning MONDAY.” because i’m actually posting this sunday night, and some of you might even be reading this on sunday night and i don’t want to confuse anyone. ya know.

our breakfasts were very relaxed this past week. i can’t pinpoint why, except that the boys have all started sleeping in really late. like 9:15 late (thursday-saturday) and we had a few days of sick boys and tired parents. so yes, it’s an excuse, but i will try harder this week. because i love the idea of warm, home-baked breakfasts most of the week.

monday breakfast: english toasting bread with nutella, mandarins

dinner: shepherd’s pie, big ol’ salad

tuesday breakfast: company muffins, mandarins

dinner: red lentil coconut curry over rice, steamed edameme

wednesday breakfast: homemade granola with yogurt or milk

dinner: Beef Stew over Irish Soda Bread, raw veggies with dip

thursday breakfast: cocoa wheats, toast, clementines

dinner: Sweet and Sour meatballs over Rice, big ol’ salad

friday breakfast: gingersnap oatmeal, strawberry-yogurt smoothies

dinner: LEFTOVERS (our dinner out was canceled again, due to illness in OUR family…so we’re having leftovers this friday night. maybe our plans for leftovers will be canceled and we’ll actually get out!)

saturday breakfast: daddy’s famous pancakes

dinner: spaghetti and meatballs, big ol’ salad, garlic breadsticks

There is still considerable snow on the ground. Our Christmas tree, once a stately symbol of light and beauty, is covered and hidden beneath the cold, killing snow as we enter Lent: a time of somber reflection, growth, and change.

We have placed our (Christmas Tree) Lenten Wreath again prominently on our dining room table, lighting a new candle each Sunday in Lent as we count down to the Resurrection, the center of our faith.

Glory be to Jesus. Let us know Thee mighty to save.

we have two boys with rattling coughs, and runny noses….enough to keep us cozying up together under these cloudy skies we got hanging over us. also, a perfect day to bury our alleluias!

here’s some info on it if you’re not familiar with it – or if it sounds like something you might want to do with your family!

here’s some more info….we just decorate a big poster board that says, “alleluia” on it. i’ll hide it and we’ll uncover it during the joyous occasion that is easter morning!

the kitchen is in constant motion today: i boiled our turkey carcass for turkey broth and made williamsburg turkey soup, on the recommendation of a friend. the house has been smelling like thanksgiving day all morning – i can’t wait for dinner!

i also made the boys some cherry-banana-almond bread. it’s banana bread kicked up a few notches. i love banana bread – especially when there are chocolate chips involved (my sister-in-law, rachel, adds chocolate chips to her loaves which she brings with them when they visit for the holidays). i’ve adapted this recipe to fit the tastes of our family. kenny and i love the coconut, but the boys do not. i also never add walnuts to baked goods (why waste a perfectly good baked good?). also maraschino cherries aren’t my favorite ingredient in the world, but they work really well in this loaf. surprisingly well.

so go bake and bury your alleluias!

are you “giving anything up for Lent?” growing up protestant, we never acknowledged Lent, let alone gave anything up for it. all of a sudden, easter morning just happened…no forewarning! (well, except for a Good Friday service).

i love how weeks of Lent helps you focus on your need for Jesus. traditionally, in the six weeks leading up to Easter Sunday, followers of Christ would deny themselves food and replace eating with full-on prayer. there are many ways of fasting – you don’t necessarily have to abstain from ALL food. when we became espicopalian, i was relieved to hear that it was “acceptible” to “fast” from other things – like tv-watching, or internet-use. but then i read a blog entry recently that has made me really think hard about this. Kerry at A Ten O’Clock Scholar is another classical homeschooling mother, and is Anglican. look at the second bullet point in the list at the top of her entry:

The apostles (and Jesus) fasted from food (rather than scroll-reading or sheep-tipping), so we are following their lead – always a wise thing.

i have no idea when the introduction of fasting from things other than food came about. but it just makes sense. we aren’t dependent on the internet or on television. we are dependent on FOOD, and fasting from it shows us how much more we are dependent on Jesus.