Christmas Notebook

Our black swallowtail chrysalises continue to open. The fourth butterfly was a female. They have more blue than the males. She was eager to be off and flew out of DD’s hands onto the window sill. After I took the picture, DD opened the window and the butterfly flew out and up into the big oak behind the house.

We’re in our fifth week of homeschool. The schedule is still an issue for me. I don’t have the time I had before to do consistently the things like bake the bread, make a big meal, try new recipes. By the time we are done with school, I am doing well to get some kind of meal on the table. So I continue to keep the menu simple, with tried and true recipes. I’m beginning to freak out a little about Christmas…I don’t know how I’ll be able to manage all the baking and decorating alongside homeschooling. We do plan to set up the first tree tomorrow (if you are thinking “that’s *early*!!”, then you don’t know how much Christmas decorating we do!). I doubt we get it decorated, but we’ll get it ready…clean the guest room thoroughly, prepare the stand, check the lights (I know there is at least one string with a problem), assemble the tree, etc. Maybe even put the ornaments at the top where the tree can’t be reached without a ladder. A good job for DH. I’ll let you know how that goes…there will definitely be some kind of schedule shuffling going on to get the Christmas decorating done this year, I am sure. Maybe next year, we’ll have a better handle on homeschooling, so it won’t be the big issue I anticipate it will be this year.

In the meantime, here’s the menu for this week.

Monday
Roast Chicken
Peas
Corn

Tuesday
Ham / Turkey / Cheese deli style sandwiches
Pretzels
Melon

Wednesday
Pizza

Thursday
Baked Penne Pasta with Chicken
Green Salad
Corn / Peas

Friday
Spaghetti / Homemade Sauce
Garlic Bread
Steamed Sugar Snap Peas
Cuke and Tomato slices

Saturday
Lunch ~ Fridge Food
Supper ~ Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry

Sunday
Roast Chicken (The fam loves this so much, we’re having it again, the same week, by request!)
Mashed Potatoes
Steamed Asparagus
Corn on the Cob
Cornbread Muffins

You’ll find more menu and recipe ideas at Menu Plan Monday.

~~Rhonda