A lunch rut is an Ok Thing!

I recently read a blog article over at weird unsocialized homeschoolers (don't you love that name?) that summed up thoughts I've had perfectly:

"I have decided that we are definitely creatures of habit. After years of stressing over a lunch menu with variety, our lunch menu has evolved into one of sameness."

I've talked about this topic in the past (HERE) and was fretting over feeding my kids a variety of things.  I found great blogs on Bento's and other lunch ideas like cutting everything with cookie cutters.  I also got this great recipe book called Funky Lunch that has really cute ideas for making sandwiches fun.  While I love the book, my kids don't appreciate my artwork yet LOL 

So, after reading what Kris does for lunch, I breathed a sigh of relief that I'm . .NORMAL! LOL 

I thought I would share our "Rut" - maybe it will do for you, what she did for me . .. take away the silly "lunch" guilt!

Well . .lets start with the breakfast rut! . Recently I said to my husband, "I wish I was one of those moms who made breakfast every morning"  to which he replied, "Than why don't you?"  (A lot of help he was. ha!)  Maybe in a few years when my kids get themselves up and dressed but for now, no way, no how!  So our breakfasts consist of :

Sunday-Saturday: The boys have a Nutrigrain Bar.  They LOVE them.  Isn't that enough?  Nate also has a serving of Cheerios or Kix cereal because he is so hungry in the morning.   I have a mini-bagel with cream cheese or cereal normally.  The only change to this is the weeks I bake bread, when we'll eat Banana Bread (or what ever I make) a couple of mornings :-)

Now, on to our Lunch rut:

Monday: We still do Muffin Tin Monday - This is our variety day - I'll make Cheese Tortillas, cut up cheese to go with crackers, or have hot dogs for the main part of the meal; fruit, crackers and a special treat like chocolate chips or a cookie.  For myself - I have a Frozen meal depending on what is on sale or make a BLT if I'm using Bacon for something else in the week.

Tuesday: Grilled Cheese and Soup - The kids usually have Chicken Noodle and I have Tomato

Wednesday: Peanut Butter And Jelly, Fruit, Crackers for the Kids; I have Tuna or Egg Salad on little bread bakes.

Thursday:  Mac and Cheese, Fruit, and Animal Crackers or Hot Dogs, Fruit and Crackers

Friday: Chicken Nuggets and Fries for the kids.  I make a salad and use the chicken nuggets on my salad as well.

By having the same thing, it makes it easy to plan and shop each week!  You might wonder where I got my "rut" ideas - basically, I have just picked the things that the kids love.  We waste a lot less food this way.  I'm sure that the lunches will change over time but for now, these work for us!

What do you serve for lunch?

 

Getting To Know YOU!



Well, my normal Sunday posts of challenges (aka a no brainer type of post meaning that I don't have to think of the topic!) seems to be dwindling for now so, I have seen this one going around and thought I would link up for a few weeks at least.  You can link up by clicking HERE or you can just go blog stalk people and learn all kinds of things about people you don't know LOL

1. What's your favorite rainy day activity?

I love to curl up with a good book or a good movie and just kick back in the recliner for the day.  Now, with little kids - that doesn't always work out that way but that is how I would spend them if I could!

2. What time do you go to bed?

Normally I go at 10:30 during the week but on Friday and Saturday night it is often closer to midnight.

3. How many magazines do you subscribe to?

I only get one and that is a gift from my mom - Country Living.  I used to subscribe to quite a few but made the decision to let them all expire and than decide what I really wanted.  I have requested quite a few free issues of various magazines but none have enticed me enough to buy them.  BUT my mom passes her magazines on to me so that is very nice!

4. Did you sell all your belongings because you thought the world was ending yesterday?  No I didn't but I do want to say that I actually feel very bad for Harold Camping and all of those that truly believed his prediction.  I don't think he was out to do anything wrong but rather, really believed, after all of his study, that he was right.  I don't think he should be mocked or made fun of but rather, left alone.

5. What's your beauty obsession?

I don't think I currently have one.  All of those things were put aside for now - obsessions cost money LOL

6. If you could only wear one designer/brand for the rest of your life . . .what would it be?

I have no idea.  I used to only shop at Lord and Taylor years ago and loved their clothes but right now I'm more casual - jeans, t-shirts, shorts - anything that is easy to crawl on the floor in is good for me.

7. What's your summer must have?

Flip Flops and Sandals. 

8. Do you make weekly dinner menus?

Absolutely!!  I would be lost with it.

There ya go :-)  Hope you had a wonderful Sunday!

 

Happenings in this House

So due to Blogger being down last week and a super busy weekend, I didn't get to share our week :-)  I actually haven't been good at taking tons of pictures lately but I did get a few fun shots so check these out!

 This was one of our free time activities - playing with the Sesame Street Bus - both boys love this toy!

 Despite being way to big for it, Josh loves to sit in the Jumparoo every once in awhile.  I use it for the little Munchkin but, sometimes, it is just too fun to pass up.  He will sit in that thing for over 30 minutes just playing around.

 He conquered the slide!  He can now go down all by himself. 

 Last Saturday was an Openhouse for my niece Marisa.  This is Marisa (sitting down), my niece Alicia (standing - who just became an RN!!) and Alicia's boyfriend Alex.  We like Alex :-)

 The boys were waiting for Grandpa to come up to the church!!!!

 And when Grandpa arrived, well, they couldn't leave him alone.  They love Papa.

 My oldest brother Kel, and my niece Marisa.  Kel and his family live in Brazil where they are missionaries so we don't see them often.

 My nephew Micah - He and Nathan got along very well.  Nathan kept trying to touch his face. 

 I just love this picture - Josh wanted to sit with his cousins, Kate, Seth and Braedon.

 Nate playing in the fresh cut grass.  No pants :-)

 Making his favorite new face and saying "ewwwwww" LOL 

 Yep, he was that tired.  I was making lunch and saw him standing on the couch looking out the window, when I went to get him, he was sound asleep.   It was too cute!

Finally, the boys playing outside.  We did get to enjoy being outside a few days this past week but right now the mosquito's are really bad and Josh gets gigantic welts whenever he gets bit so, until we spray, we are stuck inside!

Hope you had a great week :-)

Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Bars

I enjoy baking alot but, I just confess, I seldom make "bars" . . .I always make cookies.  I have this aversion to "bars because I feel like they are dry and not like a real cookie.  But, I wanted something easy to make this week to have cookies for my husbands lunch.  I came across this recipe from over at


 

and am so glad that I tried it - you'll notice in the picture, we had to taste-test it and, well, it was a big test :-)

These are beyond good.  They are soft and chocolaty!!  So, whip some up today :-)

Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Bars
adapted from 24 Hour Menu

1 3/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup oatmeal
3/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
12 ounces semi sweet chocolate chunks1 cup chopped walnuts (optional – I left these out)

Preheat oven to 375. Whisk together dry ingredients and set aside. Beat butter, sugars, egg and vanilla till fluffy and add dry ingredients. Stir in chocolate chunks and walnuts. Press into a greased 9×13 inch pan and bake for 18-20 minutes until light golden brown. I have also doubled the recipe and pressed into a large sheet pan (11X17) with great results.

A few tips: Don’t over bake!!! I over baked them the first time I made them and when I actually baked them correctly the second time (perhaps even under baked by a minute), they were 100 times better. Also, the second time I made them, I doubled the recipe and instead of adding two bags of chocolate chunks, I added one bag of chunks and one bag of mint chocolate chips. Fabulous!

I have nothing to add to what was stated above - I took her advice and took them out right at 18 minutes and they were perfect. 

a href="http://comfynkitchen.blogspot.com/search/label/Fellowship%20Fridays" >

(Sorry for that weird line of "code" - not sure why it is doing that today)

Mommy Time - Apples . . ..

Another week, with lessons learned!  Before we get to the lessons though, I wanted to share a few posts with you from other sites.

Serving Pink Lemonade did a post this week on some of their favorite books. All of the books she listed are books I've never heard of - I want to try and get them from the Library to see if we like them as much as her children do. If you scroll down the right side of her blog, you'll find a list of topics and within the topics is a category called "Stories/Songs/Book Reviews" - you can read all of her posts on other books as well.



Now, on to our lessons with the letter :

Lesson learned (and re-learned and re-learned and . . you get the idea) I HAVE to get all of the things ready for the week on the weekend before.  This is a must!  I did not do this over the weekend and we are not doing well this week.  We have been reading a few of our library books and we made applesauce (and sang "A is for Apples" but every time I ask Josh to say "Apple" he looks at me, smiles, shakes his head and says "noooooo mom" hahahaha   Another lesson I was reminded of this week - I HAVE to make the time to do things with each of the kids - it is really easy to get wrapped up in my to do list and not stop to play.   I do have books to pick up from the library still too!

So, we I have decided that we will do the letter A for one more week.  Part of this is so that I can order my letter "B" books reserved this week so they are actually in for me to pick up at the end of next week. 

Here are the books we are using for the Letter "A"

This is a oddly cute book - the boys seem to love it but I think they enjoy the art work more than anything.  I haven't quite figured out what the book is teaching yet other than Oliver doesn't like fruit but he likes fruit salad LOL 

Do you remember that old Jump Rope Sing-song about The Lady with the Alligator Purse?  That is THIS book!  I just love it and so do the boys.  This is a book I'd like to get for our library just because it is so cute!

This book is just a cute little book about the family going Apple picking.  Nate seems to really enjoy this book a lot.  If I can find one for a very small price, I would like to get this one as well to use with Nate more :-)

We did make Applesauce again for the letter "A" and Josh loved helping!  He also loved eating it too (ignore the bedhead and PJ top - that was pre haircut and his hair was wild and . .well, PJ Shirts are his favorite right now LOL) 

We'll finish up the letter A within the next week and than will be on track with letter "B" - I'm not really pushing anything but just enjoying as many teachable moments as possible!

Enjoy :-)

Please check out the links below!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

I'm loving . . . Fuze - especially the banana colada flavor.  I was very pleasantly surprised when I tried one!

I'm loving . . . Archway Shortbread cookies.  They are so yummy and buttery!  They are my new guilty pleasure!

I'm loving . . . . the sound of the rain through the open windows as I type this tonight.

I'm loving . . .  I am making progress on my scrapbooking goals!  I WILL be current by year end, I will, I will, I WILL!! :-)

I'm loving. . .  that our grass is thick and green which means no shoes required!! 

I'm loving . . .. spending every day at home with my boys - they make me smile :-)

What are YOU loving today? 

What I'm Reading

I started and finished this book in about 24 hours.  Yes, it was that much of an enjoyable read.  To give you a little background, the Duggers have a "reality" show that airs on TLC.  It is a show I really enjoy because this family is just plain neat.  They have this huge family but all of the kids are just plain good and it is not an act.  I have been intrigued by them so when someone on a blog I follow talked about this book, I decided this was one I must read and I am so glad that I did.  It is written just like Jim Bob and Michelle talk so you feel like you are sitting right there with them.  It begins with a little background on their growing up years, their marriage, and the first years of their growing family.  Intertwined with the stories are the ideas they have used for everything from potty training, to organizing, to chores, to why they have one large clothes closet instead of consistently carrying laundry to every ones rooms.  (what a great idea if you have the space!!).  You will also learn how they got hooked up with a TV series, and how they ended up in that huge house!  This is a book that I will be keeping and using for ideas over and over.  If you are looking for a fun, interesting read- this is it.

 I just started reading this book a few days ago and so far, it seems good.  I don't have a lot to say about it yet since I'm only on Chapter 2 but so far, the author seems to have some good insight; not things that I haven't heard before, but still good stuff.  I'll be sharing more about this as I read deeper into it in the coming days/weeks.

I also just started this book last week and am enjoying it 100% more than I though I would.  I mentioned in a previous post that I won this on a give away otherwise I would not have picked this book.  From the very first chapter, I was intrigued.  I have enjoyed reading about Candance because I watched her on Full House through the whole series - it is very interesting to see how that shaped her life, both good and bad.  Beyond that, though, she teaching how to get discipline in your life, her main focus is in the area of health, but it could apply to many areas.  I plan on sharing more specifics about this book once I've completed it and throughout some future posts as well (hopefully!) 

Yes, I'm still working on this one as well.  It is an awesome book, but as I mentioned last week, I slowed down on this one, I felt like I wasn't really grasping all I should so I took a break and am  picking it back up this week with my devotions. 


All of the above books are on my current book Goal.

One last thing, check out Good Morning Girls for the next session that began on Monday.  This session is based on the book Ministry of Motherhood as well as following the S.O.A.P method using various scripture sections.  By clicking on the link, it will take you right to the page where you can print the reading guide for the session as well as other documents to create your own journal.  I really enjoyed this form of study last session and look forward to getting back into it (and continuing to chip away at my though the Bible in a Year plan.