Meal Planning

I haven't been much of a meal planner these last few years, but I promised myself I would try it for the whole month of January. We had some unexpected expenses in December that caused me to make some adjustments to our budget. You can read about my personal finance challenge here on my friend Kelly's blog. I think I did pretty well sticking to our $200/month grocery and supply budget for January (it's usually more around $325), and if you are curious how I did it, here's my weekly updates along with my meal plans.

Week One
Week Two
Week Three
Week Four

I really did enjoy this challenge, it was very freeing to not be throwing meals together at 4pm. Kelly has been kind enough to include a lot of my writing on her blog, www.faithfulprovisions.com. If you want to save money and aren't already reading her blog, it's a great resource. Check it out and subscribe!

Kids in the Kitchen

Our kids really want to cook (especially Daniel), but I struggle with ways to include them in the kitchen that are safe and don't cause too much extra work for me. This week while Dave was gone, I came up with the idea of personal pizzas using my homemade pizza recipe. Everyone got to pick the toppings for their own pizza, everyone was happy to help cook, and everyone ate their dinner!

(Notice Wesley is posing in front of our NEW oven, which was replaced along with our dead microwave this month).

I can write my own name!

I suspect he's had the skills to be able to do this for awhile, but this week I "tested" Daniel on his name writing ability. What a fun milestone! Today at church he wrote his name on all his papers. He was so proud!

Subscription Options

Hey friends, family and other blog lurkers! A little light housekeeping today: If you want to read this blog more often (and I know you do because many of you tell me how much you enjoy it), you have several ways to subscribe without having to check this website all the time (or if my obviously obscene website has been blocked at your workplace).

1) Sign up for email delivery at the very bottom of this web page. Scroll all the way down to the bottom, enter your email, and you will get a confirmation pop up window. You will have to click on a link you get in an email, but after that, you are done! Whenever there is new content, you will get an email, around 10am in the morning.

2) Use Bloglines (a blog reader, where you add subscriptions to all of your favorite blogs). You just set up an account and "add" all of your favorite blogs. I was a faithful user for many years, until I found:

3) Google Reader! Which is the same thing as Bloglines, but a little easier to use and a little better organized. The trick to adding my blog to your Google reader account is to copy and paste this address into the "Add Subscription" bar exactly:

http://www.blogger.com/feeds/11170308/posts/default

There you go! If you already subscribe, thank you for being a faithful reader. I know you await anxiously all things Stewart to make sure you are in the know. I'll do my best to keep you informed!

Note to my fellow geeky techy friends: I find it deeply ironic that Blogger (owned by Google) will not let me burn an external feed, even via Feedburner (owned by Google), since I publish directly through FTP server to my own domain. So Google Reader will not pick up the RSS feed for my blog, which is published using their software. I used Bloglines (not owned by Google) to discover the alternate Blogger feed which is pasted above and can be used in Google Reader. I think Google is dissing their own customers here and I am seriously considering a switch to Wordpress.

It's a New Year- 2009

I just went back and read my 2008 goals for our family, and I think we did pretty well: I updated my wardrobe, fed everyone nutritious food, and planned a ton of creative activities. Dave bought a flat screen tv, Daniel is completely accident free, and we even made it to the beach for our first official family vacation! It was a successful year!

Here are some of our new goals for 2009:

1) Time with the kids: We will read from the Bible daily, continue to work on snacks, chores, scripture memory, and have lots of fun. I plan to continue with my summer playgroup from last year. We love to entertain other families and we want to focus on intentionally inviting them over more often to have fun with us. We want to have a backyard camp out this year and also go back to the beach if possible.

2) Christina: I plan to read 52 books this year, re-join BSF, continue to support Dave in his career, and accept God's plan for my life right now. I will continue to write as much as possible for this blog and other opportunities, trade tax returns for goods (my own special barter program), and I am considering a 4-5 hour a week accounting job. I want to give lots of grace and TIME to our kids.

3) Daniel: He really wants to learn how to read this year, and he might be ready by next summer. He wants to also play soccer and take golf lessons. He also asks all the time to go to Bible study, a main reason for me to re-join BSF.

4) Wesley: Wes would also like to play soccer and take golf lessons, but he will just get to be an observer this year. We hope to start potty training by the end of the year. Wesley is also aiming to be the 2 year old world Wii champion.

5) Dave: He wants to take me on a 10th Anniversary Cruise to the Caribbean (I approve of this goal) and play lots of Wii. I don't have his approval to post any of his other goals, but he does have some ambition beyond these items, I promise.

We have other family, church and financial goals too, but we don't want to bore you with everything. This just hits some of the highlights so you'll know what we will be up to this year!

Best Books of 2008

One of my 2009 goals is to read 52 books, or one a week. Now before you fall off your rocker laughing at me, you should know I have almost completely quit watching tv (no cable= less time wasted), I am a very fast reader, and as best I can tell, I read 26 books in 2008 (possibly more, but I didn't start keeping track on www.goodreads.com until May). So I'm really just doubling my efforts.

I mostly read non-fiction, but I read a few great fiction books this year so I might try some more this upcoming year. Here are some of my favorites from this past year, with a few random thoughts:

Fiction: "These is My Words" by Nancy Turner (Compelling, as were the sequels), "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" by Kim Edwards (sad but intriguing), "American Wife" by Curtis Sittenfeld (fictional account of Laura Bush's life from a liberal viewpoint)

Non-Fiction: "Epicenter" by Joel Rosenberg (a must read immediately for any Christian who wants to understand current world events. This book blew me away).

Favorite "on the job" books: "For Women Only" by Shaunti Feldhahn (this was my second study of it, so I practically have it memorized, but it is so helpful) and "A Mother's Heart" by Joan Fleming (a spiritual classic for all SAHMs).

My financial career/interests: I did read "The 4 Hour Workweek" by Timothy Ferriss (he has a big of an ego) and"Hot Flat and Crowded" by Thomas Friedman (interesting but uninspiring), but I wasn't particularly impressed by any of the finance and economics books I read. So I'll wait until 2009 for a new favorite to emerge...

You would never guess I would read these books, but I loved them: "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver (if anyone could convince me why to go organic, it would be her), and "Dreams from My Father" by Barack Obama (it was fascinating, I think everyone should read the life story of our new President).

Happy Reading! I haven't compiled my official list of "52" yet, so if you have any suggestions, send them on.

Friends on the Job

As I mentioned previously in our Christmas letter, I have some fabulous friends. I always dreaded the isolation part of being home alone with kids, but it has been easier than I thought to find some great new "co-workers" while being on the job at home. The last four years have been some of the most fun of my life and I have been able to share them with some great women.

One of my dear friends has been traveling down a different road I cannot share in completely. She is probably going to be mad at me for talking about her, because she's "no drama" (I think she advised Obama on this topic). Missy has been one of my faithful friends since Daniel was about a year old. She even kept Daniel in her home the last few months I worked part time. When her third baby was born last July and two months later diagnosed with a malignant tumor, I was a little mad. Missy already had her hands full, and now she has to walk down this road? I wanted to just swoop in there and fix a few meals and make it all go away (I think about a thousand other people out there had the same idea).

Baby Cooper had his second surgery yesterday. It was very successful and his surgeon removed everything he could find. We are praying so hard for a quick recovery and for there not to be any remaining cancer cells. But I can't help but think of my friend all day today as I cleaned my house. She is sitting in the ICU with her baby, worn out, and trusting God with the life of her sweet little boy. I get to sit here in my own home tonight and sleep in my own warm bed. And I don't get to understand "why" for a long time. But I can pray for her and you can too. Please do, right now, if you can.

Missy would want me to stop talking about her now. She wants to start a blog and I can't wait to read it. I have so much to learn from her, as I do all of my friends. We are all in it together, and we share in the difficult parts as well.

Christmas pics

We had a great Christmas time this year with family and friends. The boys loved seeing everyone and all the gifts they received. It seems fitting I post the pictures today, after I've put all of the decorations away. It's a good time to wrap it all up: