Happy October everyone! It finally feels like Fall and I'm so happy about that. My house is decorated with all of my Autumn harvest decor and the weather has gotten much cooler and alas, the rain has returned. I even put away all the indoor fans today :)

I'm so sorry for not posting while I was away. We got back from Sunriver Saturday evening and we were wiped out from our emotional goodbye of Central Oregon as well as the long drive back home. But we had such a fantastic time away as a family. 8 days of beautiful weather and memory making as a family. I know  that some people would welcome the break from their spouses upon their return of vacation, but I think Josh and I were kind of mourning the reality that awaited us. But, we're back home and though I know we would both much rather still be on vacation, that is not the case and so all we can do is jump back into our everyday crazy blessed life and ride the wave. I for one, am excited to start cooking again!

A lot of the meals this week you might recognize from our previous menu, but we never got around to making them due to time and weather.

Wow, this was a crazy busy week! Saturday was full of running errands and then Josh and I came home and just collapsed. He fixed a delicious pasta dinner that warmed us up since it had been raining and we watched an earlier Hitchcock movie and went to bed earlier than we usually would on a Saturday. On Sunday, we took Josh's younger sister back to her college on the coast which is about an hour and a half away from us. And today is Monday, and Josh's other younger sister and her husband are on their way down from Washington to spend a night with us before meeting up with Josh's family who's camping a few hours away.  It's just crazy busy here...and if that is not enough, we are also leaving this week. Saturday morning, we're embarking on a week long trip to Central Oregon. So there won't be a weekly menu next week.  We will be bringing food with us as usual, but I'm not sure what yet and all those fun details. We are really looking forward to getting away with the kids, Sunriver is one of our favorite places to be! So since we're leaving Saturday, I'm leaving our menu for Saturday and Sunday off.

We're all coming off of a very hot week here in Oregon, but last night the temperatures really started to dip.  When we went to bed, the air was cool and there was a breeze. This morning I woke up to clouds and I had to shut all the windows because the kids were to cold. But now it's afternoon and the sun has come out and so has some warm sunshiny rays. We're expecting still a warm week, but quite cooler than it was last week and I for one am ready for it.

This is the time of year where we begin to really reap the benefits of of our gardening. Sadly though, our one huge heirloom tomato didn't make it due to bugs, but, our bell peppers, herbs, and Roma tomatoes are doing beautifully and since I wasn't able to plant veggies like I really wanted to this past spring, but thankfully I have a very generous church family who've been dropping off tons of fresh veggies at our church so we can all take as much as we like. I've grabbed some zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, and cucumbers :) I've got plans for the zucchini and yellow squash this week.

I know it's Wednesday and my menu was supposed to go up Monday. But Monday, was a holiday ( Labor Day) and we were gone all day and put off our grocery shopping until last night, when Josh and Grace ran out to do it for me.  Speaking of Labor Day, how was all of yours? Josh made an awesome dinner at my parents house with our Fish Tacos with Alaskan Halibut, YUM! And then Josh used a new recipe for some shrimp skewers. The food was incredible!

This week is a hot one! I've decided to stay out of the kitchen and only use the grill and maybe the burners this week. You've heard me mention that we don't have air conditioning, so we're going off the use of our fans. I broke down and bought cookies and snacks for Josh's lunches this week. Normally, I would make cookies...but with the heat, it means no oven cooking. How are you all beating the heat? Or has it cooled down for you all already? Next week is looking a lot cooler and I'm getting myself prepared and working on the menu for next week :)

September is this week! For some reason I thought I was still a good 2 weeks away! I feel so scatter-brained. I never got around to making the menu last week. You can blame it on my scatter-brainedness. But we ended up kind of winging it last week and it was kind of fun :) But now, we've gone grocery shopping and my kitchen is stocked with all sorts of Farmer's Market Deliciousness and the temperatures have dropped a little bit which means, I can finally get back to my baking and cooking.

Josh, has been a lifesaver these past few weeks. We've practically grilled something every night. And  last night's dish was awesome! I have to tell you about it real quick. So Saturday, we did a lot of talking about the kind of foods and meals we would like to get better at, etc etc. So after going to the Farmers Market and then picking up a few couponed items at the grocery store, we went home and brain-stormed our menu for the week. We've been really wanting to make a delicious steak dinner. In the past, we haven't invested a lot of money in our steak and because I freak out at the slightest bit of pink in the meat, we've ruined our Steaks.  But yesterday, (Sunday) I was baby-sitting my adorable Niece Lacey and Josh took the girls to get our last of the grocery items. He came back with Steak! Not cheap fatty steak. But delicious scrumptious cuts of meat that had just gone on clearance because they came from the butchers window and needed to be eaten.  Josh ended up making a butter and blue cheese dressing for our steak with a grilled tomato, pear salad and, grilled green beans. We ate by candle light outside with our girls and soaked up every bit of the juicy flavors that came from Josh's perfectly cut steak. As it turns out, Josh fixed the steak as it's intended to be cooked...Medium. Not rare, because that's gross. But Medium was perfect.  It was a good thing we were eating outside in the dark because I could barely see the hints of pink in the meat.  It was such an incredible meal! Grace and Eden scarfed their food down and Grace couldn't get enough, she ate Eden's left over pieces, lol! Josh may or may not blog it yet. We took pictures, but I'm not sure what his plans are yet for those pics :) But it was incredible meal that I do hope we share with you soon.

I'm back!!

We had a fantastic week at the beach, I'm wishing we were still very much there. But there is such a thing called reality and to quote Owl City, " Reality is a lovely place, but I wouldn't want to live there!" Yup, that can sometimes sum up the way I think most people feel sometimes.  Since, we've been back, it's been go go go...but as Josh and I were laying in bed talking last night, we said it was maybe a blessing we were so busy being busy because we have Monday morning on the forefront of our mind, that he would be back to work and I would be here missing him like crazy. However, Monday was a pretty wonderful day because Eden turned 3 years old and that is something to celebrate!

Because of Eden's birthday being yesterday, the menu took the back seat. Well, that and we haven't gone grocery shopping yet either...in fact, I'm sitting here at the desk with the grocery list staring me in the face. I have a good idea of what we'll be making, but I like to post the menu once the shopping is all done. We are going grocery shopping tonight, so at least we will finally get some food in the house.

The order of the menu...except for obviously Monday and Saturday are subject to change...so just go with me here :)