Weekly Menu

Well, we had a curve ball thrown at us this past week - my husband is having some pretty severe stomach issues and was put on, first, a clear liquid diet and then slowly moved to a bland diet with very little "real" food.  He's been eating banana's, animal crackers, and baked potatoes.  I'm at a loss of what to cook most days for myself and the boys are enjoying their favorites - Mac and Cheese, Hot Dogs, and Pancakes.  So, writing a menu for this coming week is a little difficult.  I decided to focus more on what I wanted to eat and then just make Darryl what he can  eat (things like plain chicken, plain rice, baked potaoes ect)

Friday - This is normally Taco night but we'll going to skip tacos for now.  I am going scrapbooking for the evening so I'll leave Mac and Cheese for the boys :-)

Saturday - This is "mom's night off".  I'll get either McDonald's or Taco Bell for the boys and I; Darryl will get a baked potato and some applesauce

Sunday - We are heading to my parents house for the day most specifically to see my niece before she heads to Brazil to see my brother (her dad) and sister-in-law (her mom).

Monday - This is soup night!  This is easy - I'll be making some Meatball soup.  This is one of my favorite soups!  I'll add some homemade bread, which both the boys and Darryl can eat. I think Darryl can also eat the broth and orzo that is in the soup since it is a mild soup.

Tuesday - Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken sounds good to me!  (I'll cook Darryl a plain chicken thigh).  I'll add rice, which everyone can eat, and broccoli.

Wednesday - This is breakfast night so I think waffles, which everyone can eat, and sausage/bacon.

Thursday - I'm going to try something new tonight - Greek Spinach Feta Chicken Pockets.  I'll cook up a plain piece of Chicken for the big D.  I was trying to think of what to cook with this dinner that we could all eat so I think I'll do baked potatoes and  green beans  I might bake some biscuits too.

For snacks this week I'm going to make a great cheese ball recipe that I love (and Darryl doesn't HA!) I'm not sure about a sweet treat at the time of writing this . . .:-)

Harvest Party and Presentation Night

It's hard to believe that our Fall Semester at the Home School Co-op is done!  Considering the fact that it only goes 10 weeks and we missed 3 I guess it is no wonder it went fast!  We had a couple of activities that wrapped up the end of the semester so I wanted to share some fun photos!

So, my boys were beyond thrilled to get to play with all of the other kids in the straw.  It was fun to see their personalities.  Nate just ran to the straw and starting playing - even crawling up three bales and jumping, not caring what he landed on.  Whereas Josh looked at me and said, "Mom, can I go play anything over there? I mean anything? Really?"  He is my more cautious kids for sure!

 Nate took a break after running and running and running AND running!

To say they had fun that afternoon would be an understatement.  Even when the rain started, Josh played outside with kids while Nate went inside and played with the big kids.  They both slept well that night!

Presentation night is the night where the kids get to show what they learned over the semester. 

 Nate's class did played the sticks . . ..

 And then danced to the bean bag song. 

 And also sang the "Hot Dog Song"

 Josh's class sang their ABC song from the semester. 

On the way home Josh said to me, "Mom, next time, I am not going up front to sing.  I do not like to do that at all. " HA!  Nate on the other hand, he did not want to leave the front . . .he loves to "perform".

Josh's Birthday Photos

In October, we had Josh's Birthday Photos taken and this is the first chance I've had to share them!

 My photographer purposefully take a closeup photo that we can turn to black and white for my wall.  I just love that smile!

 This is my favorite over all photo.  It makes him look so grown up!

 Of course, we also got some together photos of both boys - they are best friends!

This was just a fun shot of Josh with a guitar.  By this point of the shoot he was about done with photos :-)

Homeschool Corner

Welcome back to Homeschool Corner!  My original plan was to get back into school this past week . . and we did; just not as much as I had hoped!

I had fully planned to start school on Monday morning but the boys asked for Play Dough.  What they didn't know is that my cousin had given me a full bag of Play Dough supplies back at the beginning of October so I got out all of the play dough stuff.  The boys played with the play dough for 3 full hours.  I think it was a huge success.

Tuesday we actually got some school work done.

We used cars to make "O"'s.  It was a great race track :-)

Then, we enjoyed a concert.

 Josh loves to play the piano.  I have a preschool piano book that he uses; he is not ready for lessons yet . . I've tried.  He is still very much about just playing what he wants to play.  I try to teach him concepts through just conversations and hope that maybe sometime next year he'll be ready for a little more "teaching". 

 While the concert is going on . . .Nate uses a wooden pizza cutter on his face :-/  HA

Notice the tongue?  The higher the notes, the further the tongue sticks out. 

The rest of week was a wash.  On Wednesday the boys were playing so I let them play.  Thursday we took my husband to a doctor appointment.  Friday was the last day of Friday school but the boys actually went to my Mother-in-Laws for the weekend.

Things my Kids Say

* One night, when Josh was going to bed (early because he was so tired) he informed me that his poop wouldn't come out because it was sleeping.  Yep.  He did.

* Nate informed me that other day that a head ache is really something in our tummy's.  So I asked him if a stomach ache is in our heads.  He looked at me and said, "That's so silly mom".

* Anytime Josh is hungry he tells me that his stomach is "waggeling" :-)

*Apparently I'm a mind reader because Nate's favorite thing to say is something like this, "Mom, please put on something that I want to watch."  Me: "Well what do you want to watch?".  Nate: "Just put on something I want".  Every single time I guess, I'm wrong :-)

 *While Trick-or-Treating, Nate kept running ahead so Josh would yell, "Nate, stay with the group, you must stay with the group!".  Then he would look at me and say, "Mom, what is a group?" :-)

* My husband wanted to run a quick errand but the boys decided they wanted to go.  At first he was just going to take Josh but then Nate saw them . . when told he couldn't go this time, he started to cry, looked at me and said, "But mom, I want to go because I just love daddy so much."  Needless to say, no one can say no to that reasoning and Nate got to go too.

* Josh wanted to play catch with Darryl one night before bed.  Darryl was getting ready to throw the basketball (actually a stuffed toy of the dogs) when Josh said, "Catch it to me daddy, Catch it to me" HA!  Well, Josh IS trying to "catch" it.  I should also mention that he would blow on each of his hands before throwing it and, when he threw it in the "goal" he would raise his arms and yell, "SCORE!".  He is learning to enjoy sports ;-)

*Continuing with sports:  Josh announced one night that we were playing football; once we were all "set" he said, "1, 2, 3, START YOUR ENGINES . . GO!"  I think we need to clarify a little better how to start Football. 

*And . . .while playing a weird version of basketball in the living room, Nate, announced that he wanted to play on a real "Baseball Court".  I think next semester we will study the basics of sports HA!

Winter Reading List AKA What I'm reading

The other day I realized that one of the things I've gotten away from is my reading goal.  That stack of books I want to read for the benefit of learning and living better.  Every since I got my Kindle almost two years ago I've found it easy to read for fun but reading the non-fiction "make your life better" books just don't work for me on that device.  I know, weird.  I have a few books on hand that I really want to read (or finish reading) as well as others on my list.  Ironically, and unbeknownst to me when I first starting thinking about this, Kelly over at Kellys Korner did a Link-up just yesterday on this very topic!

"The Power of a Positive Mom" is a book that I started a year or two ago but never finished.  It is a great book and I think is more suited for the season of life I'm in now with two little boys who look to me for all things and need me to be positive!

This book I started with a Good Morning Girls book study and really enjoyed it . . . until I had to return it to the library.  Again, my boys are at the age that they have become my Ministry so I really need this book!

This book is written by Courtney Joseph who writes the blog "Women Living Well".  I was part of the book club to announce this book back in October.  Wait, you missed that?  So did I HA!  Actually we were only given the PDF version of the book which made it difficult to read.  So now I want to get the real book so I can actually read it!

I have never heard of this book . . .until I saw Kelly's post yesterday.  I'm trying to get back to my "living simply" idea so I think that this would be a good book for me to pick up!

"Unglued" has been on my list for awhile :-)  I hope it is good!

That's it for now - I own the first two books so I'm working on reading those and will be purchasing the last three books within the week.  I've also started going back through my OLD book posts and boy, did I forget about a lot of great books.  I need to update my list that is for sure!

Food Friday - Creamy Tomato Tortellini Soup

Creamy Tomato Tortellini Soup
adapted from Key Ingredient

I've had this recipe pinned for awhile and decided to finally make it.  It was simple and had basic ingredients I knew we would like.  It really is just a glorified Tomato Soup with Tortellini but it would make a great "company" soup because it looks fancy but it super easy to make.  One change I will make next time is to not use as much Italian Seasoning - I would probably cut it in half :-)  I served some simple ham sandwiches with this soup - Hawaiian Rolls with a Ham Steak that I had fried up in a pan and cut into small pieces.  It was very good! 

Ingredients

2	whole large Cloves Of Garlic Minced
2	Tbl Olive Oil
2	10¾ oz Cans of Condensed Tomato Soup
¼	cup Sun Dried Tomatoes, chopped or 2 Tbl Of Sun Dried Tomato Paste
2	cups Half-and-half
2	cups Chicken Stock
1	tsp Onion Powder
1	Tbl Italian Seasoning
½	tsp Salt
½	tsp Pepper
1	whole 9 Oz Package Of Cheese Filled Tortellini
½	cup Shredded Parmesan Cheese, for garnish

 

Directions

Saute garlic with the olive oil in a large stock pot over medium heat until golden brown. Be sure to keep an eye on it so it doesn’t get too brown or burnt. When the garlic is done, add tomato soup, tomatoes, half and half, chicken stock and spices. Bring to a simmer. Once simmering, drop tortellini into the soup. Cook according to the package directions. After tortellini are cooked, ladle soup into bowls and top with parmesan cheese