zach n kali

I am in a horrible dinner rut. When I plan our weekly dinners on Sundays, all my creativity seems to leave my body.  It doesn't matter that I have a shelf full of cookbooks, that I am addicted to Pinterest, or that I watch several different Food Network shows.  All I can think of are turkey burgers, spaghetti, tacos, stir fry, pancakes.  Almost every single week.   Even Peyton is eating more interestingly than the rest of us are with her crazy combinations of zucchini and bananas!  I think it's to the point where my family might mutiny. So I'm issuing myself a challenge: for the next month, no staples.  No spaghetti with marinara.  No burgers.  No pizza with chicken sausage, bell peppers, and onions.  I love to cook, but I'm bored with my cooking.  Here's how it will work:  each Sunday I will pull 6 recipes out of my recipe box, which is full of recipes I've clipped from places like Everyday Food, Penzey's Spices, and my mom's own...

It's time to be updated!  It's time to move on from "The Five Year Plan - Revised" because Zach and I are now on the other side of our first 5 years!  This also means that I am only two years away from being thirty... but more on my own aging issues later. I cannot tell you how many couples I have met who tell me that they plan on having kids "probably in about five years".  Why is 5 the magic number?  Please do not take this condescendingly - I was one of them.  What do we think would happen in these five years that would make us ready for children?  What do we hope to accomplish?  Where do we want to travel?  How many bucket list items do we hope to cross off?  I had it so nicely planned out.  Married at 22, career at 23, kids at 27, house by 30...  With these numbers I'd probably be telling my kids that I would be a grandma at 60 - no arguing!  Who did I think I was?  God?  Thankfully he is patient and didn't s...