Menu Plan Monday 4/28-5/4

Yes, it is that time again! I have been feeling really bad because I really have not been feeding my husband since I went back to work. I have simply been too lazy to cook! Hopefully, having a plan will get me back on track.

Monday: Beef paprikash with green beans
Tuesday: Speghetti with tossed salad
Wednesday: Sloppy joes and oven baked fries
Thursday: Baked chicken breasts, rice and cabbage
Friday: Chicken enchiladas and steamed carrots
Saturday: Fend for yourself!
Sunday: To be determined.......

The Internet and my resolutions

I just want to say that the internet is a wonderful place, that can provide wonderful things! A co-forumite of the Dollar stretcher, responded to my post about babies and infertility, and it was an amazingly uplifting moment for me. So I have decided that I am going to do what I can do to get what I want.
In 3 months I will once again have medical coverage, so I am going to use it. However, I want to get the most possible out of it in order to increase the chances of it being successful. To do that my goals are:

1. Save money! This has a two fold purpose.... to help pay for any medical assistance that might be nessacary and to help with me second goal...
2. Losing weight. How does saving money help with losing weight? It reduces eating out and encourages eating in season. My weight is such a touchy subject. I have always been on the heavy side, just like all the women in my family. The first time we began to delve into the fertility treatment world my weight was almost 40 lbs. lighter than it is now, and I was being told to lose weight. Ironically, that just compounded my weight issues and I gained instead of lost. I think I will have a much better chance this time because honestly, I don't care iof I lose weight. I care that I get healthier.
3. I am going to work on being okay with myself. I don't want to go into fertility treatments hating myself, or feeling guilty and inferior. I am going to be proud of who I am, how I am no matter what that ends up being.

I guess I am a little terrified about all of this because of our last experiance. The way they handled my issues seemed so unimportant, when it was the most important thing to me. The only suggestions they had were to go on birth control for a year, and when i was still not having regular menstral cycles, the solution was clomid. True, Mark and I decided to not follow through on more than two cycles because we were in the middle of buying a house, but at that point it seemed so pointless. Maybe we just gave up so too soon. I think this type I am going to seek out a reproductive specialist from the very beginning.

Babies and Infertility

My best friend is pregnant with her fifth child. My last girlfriend to not have kids, just delivered her first. Then there's me. Mark and I will celebrate our fifth anniversary in September and we are childless. We want kids. Desperately. It just hasn't worked out, and it doesn't look like it ever will.
As an electrician, Mark is in a career that he loves, and I would never take that away from him. Yet, the truth of the matter is that being an electrician is not that lucrative. He will probally top out at about $50,000 a year. I have dream of being a full-time homemaker, even though I currently work part time. The dilemma is that Mark will only rarely have health insurance coverage offered through employers, so fertility treatments are only a dream because of the cost issues. Adoption is also cost prohibitive, and we might not be able to adopt because of a stupid moment when Mark was younger that resulted in him having a very minor criminal history. That History also puts foster care out. We really don't have any other options and sometimes I think its killing me.
I could commit to working full time to finance an adoption (crimnal history allowing), or to pay for the fertility treatments. Yet at what cost? Our home still needs to be maintained and it is alot to do with us both working. I feel like our overall quality of life would decrease. Right now we are trying to elimante debt as fast as possible in an effort to get to a place financially where it might be possible, but....it's so hard to wait. Does anyone have the magic solution?