Hello Monday!!

Hey friends!!

Happy Monday!!

How was your weekend??

Our's was good! If I am being COMPLETELY honest...at times- it felt, a bit, ahem, long. HA!

Aaron worked allllll day Saturday and for most of Sunday...so the kids and I were flying solo and it was just bit much at times. HA! Just keeping it real!! ;)

(You'll be proud of me though...I kept my feet planted firm where God put them and just prayed to have a joyful heart even in the midst of some pretty "special" behavior moments we had! HA!)

The kids and I went and did a huge grocery shopping trip at Aldi on Saturday and we are pretty stocked up for the next couple of weeks.

I snapped a couple pictures of some meal ideas from things I buy regularly at Aldi!

These are our "salad" staples for the week. Mini cucumbers, shredded carrots, a big container of spring mix (it's prewashed and ready to go!) and croutons!!

 And for Taco Tuesday- here's what I always have on hand!

Taco seasoning mix (for ground beef or for shredded chicken in the crock pot!), brown rice (takes 90 seconds to cook in this package- YES!), shredded cheese, salsa, fat-free refried beans and taco shells! We alternate between having ground beef or shredded "salsa" chicken as our protein on Taco Tuesdays!

Saturday night, Aaron met us out for dinner and then we went to get frozen yogurt to celebrate the girls getting straight A's! 

Sunday we had church in the morning and then in the afternoon, I decided to be a "fun" mom and let the kids decorate a gingerbread house. We picked up four gingerbread house kits at Aldi when we were grocery shopping the day before. They were marked down to $0.25 per kit- so I figured..."what the heck?" HA!

The mess was ABSOLUTELY epic...but the kids had a blast and it was fun to use a "pre-made" kit. We always make our own gingerbread houses, very simply, using graham crackers and homemade icing...so this was definitely a fun change!

After I cleaned up the last bit of candies and icing off the floor and every other surface in our kitchen- we headed to Walmart to return this Dyson Handheld Vacuum. We wanted to LOVE this vacuum!! We were SO excited to use it! But- truth be told- we just didn't think it was worth the money! 

We currently have this Black and Decker hand vacuum- and it works just fine! It's nothing special, but it gets the job done. However, we've been noticing it's kind of losing it's suction lately...so that's why we thought we'd try out the Dyson! 
So- basically- you need to tell me what hand vacuum is your favorite. Before we got our Black and Decker hand vac, we had a Shark hand vac...and that worked great too! The problem is- we literally use our hand vac MULTIPLE times a day and we have them for about 1-2 years...and then they just seem to stop working as well as they did initially. 
I feel like I just spent way too much time talking about hand vacuums. HA!

Anyway...back to Sunday afternoon :)
We got home from Walmart...made some dinner and got everyone showered and in bed. 
I made Aaron one of his favorite desserts- APPLE PIE- and we caught up on a couple of our "Chicago" shows that we missed this past week! 

And now it's Monday!!

My kiddos are off school...but I have a work training all day.
We're taking them to daycare this morning and then Aaron is going to pick them up at lunch time and they get to spend the afternoon with Daddy!
I would definitely rather be hanging out with my kiddos today...but I am thankful for a husband who does A LOT of rearranging of his own schedule so that the kids don't have to be at daycare all day today! 

What are you up to today??
Do you have the day off? Kiddos home from school??

Before I forget- here's our family's menu plan for this week!!
Hope it helps a little bit if you are stuck on what to make your crew for dinner!!

Kid Version (and sometime's Aaron's version- HA!)

 Grown Up Version!

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Hope you have the BEST day!!

Linking up with some of my most favorite bloggers: Heather, Johannah, Tanya and Lindsay!