I've been in 3 countries in 3 days!

Before I get to that, I'm gonna list out my menu for the week:

Dinners:

Italian Chicken in the Crockpot

Chicken Caesar Sandwiches (with mashed cauliflower)

Vegan Curry Lentils

Chicken Fajitas

Sausage & Bean Soup

Turkey meatballs (with spinach) and pasta

Lunches:

Bagel with PB&honey, banana, carrots

Boiled eggs, waffle, and grapes

Leftovers

Spinach quesedilla with black beans

Annie's mac&cheese, apple slices, broccoli

Breakfast: 

(all served with apple or carrot juice)

Cereal&fruit

Yogurt&smoothie pop

Waffle with PB&honey

Oatmeal

Eggs with English muffin

Snacks:

Hummus&crackers

Smoothie

Fruit kebobs

Broccoli and greek dip

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Now onto the travels:

Tuesday, Ben took some leave and we got to go on a little vacation.  He was gone most of the summer, so being able to take a trip together was really awesome.

We headed out on Tuesday after Delilah's gymnastics class and drove straight to Trier.  It's the oldest city in Germany and is just BEAUTIFUL.  We parked in the city center and just started walking around.

St. Peter's Cathedral!

In front of the Cathedral

In the Porta de Nigra

Ben and Delilah in front of Porta de Nigra

After we were done wandering around, we went to our beautiful hotel overlooking the river and had dinner.  

Next day, we headed out for Waterloo, Belgium to see Butte de Lion.

These steps were AWFUL to climb. It was so steep!

It was super windy

Stayed at the Air Base in Belgium which was pretty OK.  Had dinner at a Thai place there before heading to bed completely exhausted.  Next day, we headed to Bruges!  We had heard that Bruges is much better than Brussels (and didn't have the dirty cat pee smell to it either), so we decided to go there.

Famous Bruges belfry. Built in the 1400s and we got to climb the narrow spiral staircase all the way to the top!

Hanging out by the canals.

On the way back to the hotel after Bruges, Ben took us along the coast of the North Sea. This is on a beach in Oostende, Belgium.  It was beautiful.

The most well traveled kid. She had a great time and was amazing on our little adventure.

I cannot wait to go on the next trip. It was so much fun.  So thankful to be living out here!

Starting anew.

It's been over 4 months since I last wrote an entry.  I honestly was going through a lot, and I couldn't find the words to express how I was feeling...and I also didn't want to share  lot of that with the world.  At the same time, I couldn't write about my life without skipping over a lot of what was going on, so I just decided to take a break from blogging.

I'm a refocused and am taking charge of my life again.  I'm living in Germany with my family right now, and our travels (and my domestic side) are going to be the focus of the blog.  Occasionally, I'll put in some personal insight or opinions on things, but for the most part, I'd just like to focus on traveling Europe, household DIY projects, and meal planning for my family.

This week, I started a firm meal planning routine.  Too easily, I let Ben distract me from my schedule of what I'm making for meals, and I'd really rather just keep to it.  In an effort, I'll be posting my weekly meal plans (including snacks) on this blog.  I'll take pictures (although I forgot to the last 2 meals.  whoops).  

Breakfasts:

Nutella pancakes

Yogurt and dry cereal (Delilah's fav is Cracklin' Oat Bran)

Fresh fruit

Cereal+toast

Whole grain blueberry waffles

Lunches:

Egg+cheese quesedillas

Pasta tossed with olive oil+spices

Pinwheels+veggie

Grilled cheese sandwich 

Peanut butter and banana quesedillas

Dinners:

Chicken burrito bowls

Chicken fingers and quinoa salad

Homemade tomato soup w/ grilled cheese sandwiches

Quinoa patties w/ sweet potato fries

Ziti bake

Snacks:

Whole grain crackers

Parmesan goldfish

Grapes

Broccoli

Cauliflower 

Apple

Avocado

Fruit snack

We've had the quinoa patties and the tomato soup for supper.  Both were GREAT.  I think I'll double the quinoa recipe next time so I can freeze some of the patties for later or save some for lunch the next day.  

This weekend, we are hopefully going to do a bit of traveling, so I'll have some pictures to share.  

That's all for now!