A Mother's Ramblings

Last week I spoke with the Dietician about the families diet and if there were any changes that could be made as Dan Jon's cholesterol is raised. It was agreed that we have a pretty good balanced diet and didn't need to add or change anything.... but I used the time to speak with the professional about some changes that Flyfour, Top Ender and I have been talking about in order to help the entire family lose a little weight. The dietician agreed that everything seemed good with our "diet" plan and so said we could go ahead! The good news is that it isn't really that different to what our current diet is, we're just making sure there are extra veggies at each meal, eating a Salad with each meal and thanks to Top Ender that we have enough calories left to enjoy some sweet treats too.

I always love a food challenge month as it makes meal planning so easy. Top Ender helped me come up with some great meals for some of the nights this month, but with having limited (well not really that limited) ingredients to pick from it means there isn't a whole of lot of options to pick from but I am trying to pick some meals that mean I'm stretching the palates of my family... they are not so keen on this!

I've been thinking a lot over the last month or so about saying no to God. It started when a friend and I were chatting about how we knew what to do with our lives. The friend had been certain that there was a position at a school that he was right for. The School was lovely, the staff he had met were terrific, the interview went amazingly and to top it all off it was a near-perfect distance away from his home. He didn't get the job. Instead, he found himself accepting a role in another school. A school that he now realises is even better than the one he'd fallen in love with, he has developed deep friendships with the staff that he works with and has been able to share his faith with several of them and it's again a near-perfect distance away from his home. We'd been chatting about how sometimes God says No to us, and how sometimes it is because the plan is better than we could imagine and we just need to hold on, and of course, me being contrary it got me to think

Our food challenge starts this coming Monday and thanks to the lovely Top Ender sitting with me and helping me plan a few meals, I've managed to come up with not only this week's meals but meals for the entire month of February! Here are the meals for this week.

I had everything ready last week to post, and for some reason just didn't get around to posting. This did mean I had no clue what we were supposed to be eating each night, did accidentally not eat two of the meals I'd purchased ingredients for and now have so little space in the fridge and freezer that everyone has been reminded that lunches should be "typical" lunches and not something we'd have for an evening meal! Honestly, whilst I do kinda love the lockdown lifestyle (I could live with never seeing anyone), I do miss the bit where the children (and husband) don't eat us out of house and home and only leave the "healthy" ingredients in the fridge untouched...

Every February I plan a food challenge. I'm well aware that the rest of the family merely tolerate these adventures, but the point is that it gets us out of a rut with regards to the food we are eating, it helps us to be more mindful and it also encourages some of the family (cough Top Ender and Flyfour cough) to try something a little out of their comfort zone. Okay, so at times a LOT out of their comfort zone.