Menu Plan, Week of 5/30/2011

So I fell off the face of the earth again. Fear not, faithful reader(s), I'm still here. This is what I am eating this week:

Breakfasts:

Homemade granola bars

Homemade banana bread

Fruit

Lunches:

Pita bread, hummus, veggies

Summer rolls

Pasta salad

Dinners:

Summer rolls

Pasta salad

Green salad with chicken

Snacks

Homemade apple sauce

String cheese

2011 Personal Development Goals: April

I'm not even sure I want to post these because I've done so poorly with them this month. But in the interest of full disclosure, here we go:


2011 Personal Development Goals:
- Read at least 3 books per month. Fail. I read most of 1 book.

- Try 1 new recipe per month. Nope. It was enough that I managed to eat this month.

- Attempt 6 "Do it yourself" projects. Half success.
Well I did work on my garden this month which is a do it yourself project but it isn't exactly something complicated so I am not sure if that counts. I'll count this as a half success.

- Volunteer somewhere at least once per month. Fail.
I might need to remove this from my goal list since I have failed repeatedly at it. But better to aim high I guess.

So ya, not a great month but that is life for you! Sometimes you have to focus on other things!

2011 Home Remodeling Goals: April

March and April were VERY busy months so there wasn't much time for home remodeling. But I still managed to get a few things done (though not anything on my original list!).

2011 Home Remodeling Goals
- Tile Backsplash for Kitchen - not yet
- Paint rest of house (dining room, hallways, living room, master bedroom) - not yet
- Replace light fixture in dining room - not yet
- Replace kitchen faucet - not yet
- Replace towel racks in all bathrooms - two down, one to go!

Other:
- Replace master bathroom faucet - done!
- Replace 1/2 bathroom faucet - done!
- Decorative elements in foyer - done!
- Front landscaping - done!
- Back landscaping - done!

Financial Goal Update: April

I've had some busy months but I've been able to stay mostly on track with things. Here is where things stand right now.

- Pay cash for all home remodeling goals so far so good
- Make an extra principal payment each month yes!
- Pay off 5% of my mortgage this year. I have paid off 0.99% so far this year. YAY! Almost 1%!
- Up my retirement savings by maxing out my Roth IRA. 68% funded!
- Continue saving for a new car. Yes
- Pay for all travel in cash So far so good and still saving for summer travel :)
- Pay for Christmas gifts in cash Saving for this goal

Front landscaping

I finally got around to adding some flowers to my front yard. I don't exactly have the greenest thumbs when it comes to flowers so I am hoping that these make it through the summer. So far they are still alive so I count that as a step in the right direction.

Here is my front yard before. I have some tall bushes and then 2 rose bushes. I recently added the cute little solar lights that line my walkway. It is nice to have them on the nights I come home after dark.


So here are the plants I added. I think it is a nice touch. It isn't anything too exciting but I like that it makes my house stand out from the rest a little. I also added the same plants on the other side of the rose bushes.


And here is my cute little house :)

CSA Week 2

Week 2 of my CSA and I am loving all of these delicious veggies in my house. This week was another good one with lettuce, spinach, strawberries, broccoli, and asparagus. Plus I still have a bunch of greens left over from last week. So I need to start eating some more salads.

Here is my half of the haul this week:


In other news, I'm drowning in strawberries. So I might have to get creative to use all of them up!

PS: You may remember that last week I got radishes. Turns out your should not put them in the fridge. So, lesson learned there.

Garden, Week 2

Nothing too exciting happening in the gardening front. My plants are getting bigger and looking good! Here is week 1 for comparison. As you can see pretty much the only difference is that they are a little bigger. The tomato plant has quite a few flowers on it so I am hopeful that I will get a decent number of tomatoes.

And the good news is that no rabbits have gotten to my plants yet!