Tot Time: Our First Week of Preschool

It's true!  We started Preschool on Monday, August 29th.  After months of planning, printing, laminating, and wondering how I would keep my 1 1/2 year old from learning too much while I was teaching his brother (ha!) it all came together.
 
I learned a few things right off the bat on day one.  First, I had been a little mindful of the fact that I didn't want my 1 year old starting "preschool" just because his brother is right now.  Well, I had no worries because he is not interested!  He doesn't mind coloring (or eating the markers) but beyond that he just wants to go play.  Another thing I learned is that I really did over plan/over expect.  The biggest area is Bible and I'm already altering what I'm doing.  The curriculum I'm using has a 2 year old plan and a 3 year old plan.  I've moved back to the 2 year old plan because I feel like my . . ummmm . . 2 year old will learn more and remember more if I slow it way down.  Yet another thing I learned is this, as posted at Confessions of a Homeschooler about starting her 2.5 year old with some tot time
 "She is currently 2.5 years old, so we’re keeping it light. She is excited about school this year, and is eager to have her own work to do! I want to point out that I do most of this because she has older siblings. If your toddler is your oldest, don’t feel pressure to do tons of activities with them! Let them lead you, if you sense they are frustrated, take a break for the day or move on to something else. At this age, just keep it fun and light!"
So, with that in mind, I'm also going to be cutting back on some of the other things I have planned.  I still plan on doing the ABC's and 123's because he is already very interested in that stuff.  I also plan on incorporating a book or two each week for specific learning.  Reading is so fundamental and both of my boys love to be read to so picking out books for an intentional purpose is always a good thing!  Beyond that I'm going to focus on colors and shapes.  I'll pick activities we can do that are fun and entertaining but I also only plan to do planned activities on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  Tuesday and Thursday will be free days - I might try to sneak in a few games but it will be driven my my son more than me. 

I knew I would learn some things right away as I started this program and I was right.  I think I was more excited about it than anything and just really wanted to start this now instead of waiting a little longer :-)
On to the fun stuff! 

This week we are learning about Creation during Bible time.  I am using ideas found at ABC Jesus Loves Me for Bible.  This Creation Book idea was linked through ABC Jesus loves me and is from Blessings for Bible School Teachers.  I prepared all of the papers, they just had to glue them together.  When we are done, we will have a nice little book to retell our story.

Josh really loved using these Paint Dot Markers on this letter A Do-A-Dot page from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  I will be using a lot of printables for our ABC learning time.  I also had a Letter A coloring page to color that I found at Meijer.  It is a roll of coloring pages from RoseArt and includes one page for each letter.  
Our book this week is 5 Little Ducks and all we did today is read it using hand motions.
One other things we started today (Monday) that was a HUGE hit was we read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and put the Letter "A" on our Coconut Tree.  Josh LOVED this book.  When we finished our morning time, he pulled the book out of the basket and held onto it almost all day. I think I read it 6 times throughout the day.

On Tuesday, the Magnetic Calendar because the teaching tool of choice - Josh absolutely loved playing with the tiles - taking them off and than matching them back to the right squares.  Self directed learning is sometimes the best kind!

How could I not share this picture of Nate on our first day?  (You can see the RoseArt coloring page . . .I photo copied one for him).  Notice the crayon is going in his ear, not the on the paper?? HA! 

Weight Watchers Saturday

I really don't have an update this week :-)  I am missing the weekly meeting due to the Holiday weekend and lots of family plans

Just a few things though - I've learned something this time around.  If I don't plan my breakfast and lunch meals for the entire week, I struggle with my eating.  By plan, I mean plan completely, right down to the points when I pick out the recipes/ideas.  Even snacks I want during the day and in the evening.  Dinner isn't as hard especially when I keep it simple and don't make big pasta or casserole dishes.  For example, last week, I REALLY enjoyed eating Fruit Loops for breakfast (yep, nice healthy Fruit Loops BUT they have more Fiber in them now :-) ).  Than, about mid-morning, I had a tassimo coffee which held me over until lunch.  This week I grabbed a box of cheap frozen waffles - they were really high in points.  I didn't even plan my lunches so I did not eat well at all.  I'm going to work on being more specific with our menu.  I like to give the kids fruit every day with lunch (because they eat it and love it) so instead of justwriting down "fruit" on the grocery list I'm going to be very specific such as 3 cans of peaches (a favorite!), 6 bananas, 3 apples, etc.  I also want to have my own fruit so I'm going to list my own numbers.  I'd like to have 1 piece of different fruit each day. 

Also, remember my challenge last week to drink more water/crystal light.  After tracking it for 3 days, I discovered I drink more than the required amount every day so I'm doing better than I thought :-)

I don't have a recipe to share this week because . .. I didn't plan anything! 

Hopefully next week shows good results - we'll see!

Weekly Menu - Week of September 3rd

Welcome to another week of my Weekly Menu!  Last week provided me with several great recipes.  I did run into one problem when I went shopping. . .the story was out of fresh parsley.  Seriously???  That threw off about 4 recipes but I made due :-) 

We are spending the weekend with my oldest brother and his family so that means I have less meals to plan and, because we are traveling, we are using are grocery budget for the next week for gas :-)  That's ok, I can usually do a week a month on a super tight budget buy using up things in the house.  It is amazing how things pile up after awhile due to recipes not made one week or just stocking up on sales periodically. 

So, this is the plan for this coming week - nothing very exciting :-)

Saturday:  With my Brother's Family

Sunday: With my Brother's Family

Monday: (Labor Day) Steaks, Sweet Potatoes and Salad

Tuesday: Spaghetti, Garlic bread and Green Beans

Wednesday: Pancakes and Sausage with Fruit

Thursday: Beef Tips and Noodles

Friday: Mini Sausage Quiches and Lemon Blueberry Poppyseed Bread

We'll be eating a lot of sandwiches for lunch this week too :-)

Enjoy!

Show us your Life Friday - Favorite Blogs

This week over at Kelly's Korner the theme for Show us Your Life Friday is . .. Favorite Blogs!  I thought I would pick 2 or 3 from each of my blog lists and let you know why I love them :-)

1. Pumpkin Pie Painter is written by a college friend of mine.  She is a great writer and a fantastic artist.  She really is an artist with words - I'm always amazed by what she writes; her creativity is endless plus she posts some of her talent as well.  I never realized in college how talented she really is!

2. Eclipsed is the story of a weight loss journey.  I have been intrigued and encouraged by her writings and her journey. 

 

3. Confessions of a Homeschooler is a fantastic resource for teaching your kids.  I am using a lot of her ideas/printables for teaching my oldest preschool this year.  She also gives other ideas as well and it ias always well written.

4. Mel's Kitchen Cafe is where I get a lot of recipes that we love and use a lot.  Her site is well organized and she isn't afraid to admit a flop :-)

 

5. The Better Mom is a site I've just recently found but have been encouraged and challenged already. 

6. Women Living Well is a fantastic blog for spiritual leading.  Courtney's post are uplifting and thought provoking.  She is also part of the Good Morning Girls group as well which is another great resource for accountability in your daily walk with God.

 

For more great blogs, check out my left sidebar for Buttons for such sites as Oopsey Daisy and Craft-O-Maniac and read through the lists on the right sidebar for tons more!  I love to have lots of blogs to check up on, as you can tell! 

Recipe Friday! Citrus and Soy-Marinated Grilled Pork Tenderloin and Chicken Fried Steak

Welcome to Recipe Friday!  It is the time that I share recipes with you.  Lets set the record straight . . every recipe I have comes from someone else.  I seldom create something of my own but I like to try what others share and tweak it to fit my family :-)  I realized that when I posted "What to expect from this blog" a few days ago that I said each recipe would have its own post . . .that could get long.  So instead, I will include them in one post but they will have their own links on my Recipe Tab at the top of the page.  (Ummm . . .I try to update that every few weeks, it doesn't happen right away).  These recipes will be things I have (usually) made recently and are often featured on my Weekly Menu posts.  Not always - sometimes there are too many good ideas so I may be quite a bit behind my weekly menu posts :-)


Citrus and Soy-Marinate Grilled Pork Tenderloin
Adapted from : Mel's Kitchen Cafe

This is a fabulous marinade!  We cooked it on a charcoal grill and it took a little longer to cook all they way through but it was so yummy it was worth it.  I usually like to share what sides I made with the main dish (since that is one area I always struggle with - creative sides!) but, for the life of me, I can't remember what we had with it!   I also can't find the picture I was SURE I took of this recipe so this picture is from Mel's Kitchen Cafe.

*Serves 6

2-3 pounds pork tenderloin
3/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (from about 1 lemon)

Combine all the ingredients except the pork and mix well. Pour the marinade into a ziploc bag or baking dish and add the pork tenderloin, making sure the marinade completely covers the pork. Marinade for 8-10 hours.

Preheat an outdoor grill (charcoal or gas). Grill the pork tenderloin about 3-4 minutes on each of its four sides (the exact time will depend on the temperature of your grill) or the internal temperature is about 150 to 155 degrees. Remove from the grill, tent with foil, and allow to rest 10 minutes before slicing and serving


This second recipe is actually one I found months and months ago and can't believe I have posted it yet!  It has become a family favorite - true Home Cooking at its finest!

Chicken Fried Steak with Parsley Cream Gravy and Fried Corn
Adapted from: Paula Deen Recipes; found at Jenna's Journey

This caught my attention more so because it is a Paula Deen recipe :-)  I knew my husband liked Chicken Fried Steak but I had never made it  . . until now.  Yummy!  I also like it because the meat used is quite inexpensive making this an easy recipe to throw in on those "lean" weeks. 

Again, I have no picture of my own so this picture comes from Jenna's Journey. Next time I make it, I'll have to snap my own photo and replace it :-)

Vegetable oil for frying

6 cubed steaks (I usually just buy one package which is only 2 large steaks.)  

2 t steak seasoning

1 t garlic powder

1 C flour

1/2 t baking powder

Heat oil. Sprinkle steaks with seasoning, garlic and, I added S&P. In a shallow bowl, mix flour and baking powder. Dredge steaks and shake off excess. Fry 3-4 minutes per side. Put in a 200 degree oven to keep warm while making the gravy.

Parsleyed Cream Gravy:

2 C whole milk (I use what ever I have on hand - either whole or skim!)

1/4 C flour

1/2 t salt

1/2 t pepper

Reserved drippings and brown bits from the Chicken Fried Steak

1/4 C Parsley (fresh parsley gives the gravy the most flavor but you can use dried or leave it out and add more salt/pepper to give flavoring)

Whisk milk, flour, S&P into drippings & brown bits. Cook for 6-8 minutes (mine cooked in about 4) whisking constantly until thickened. Add in parsley. Serve.  I usually make up a small batch of Mashed Potatoes to serve with the gravy too.

Fried Corn:

4 slices of bacon

3 C fresh corn kernels (I use either 1 bag of frozen corn or 1-2 cans of corn)

1/2 C water

1 t salt

1 t pepper (Ummm . . this is ALOT of pepper . . .)

1 t sugar

Cook bacon until crispy. Remove and drain. Add corn and water to drippings. Cook over med high heat for 6-8 minutes stirring often. Stir in salt, pepper and sugar. Cooke for another 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Top with crumbled bacon

Aren't those ymmy sounding???  I hope you enjoy! 

Linking up over at:

What I'm Reading

I really enjoy sharing the books that I'm reading because, simply, I love to read.  It is something that was instilled in me as a little kid.  Television was not something we really had growing up except I do remember a black and white one that always sat in the basement.  Rather, we were encouraged to read and, we were read to.  A lot.  Funny story - my parents bought my brothers and I a colored TV, VHS player, and Nintendo one year for Christmas (the "Family" gift)  We were beyond thrilled.  Especially when the annual showing of the Wizard of Oz came around that year.  We so wanted to see the horse of many colors (which we had only seen in black and white) . . .when the movie started, we thought the colored TV was broken.  Why?  We had no idea that the movie started in Black and White LOL  Imagine our surprise when it changed to color when Dorothy arrived in Oz!  Anyway, back to books :-)  I've always had bookshelves of books in my room . .. and now my home.  Just a few years ago I had to consolidate 5 bookcases down to two . . .that was hard.  Some day I might get a Kindle but for now, I still read the cover and pages kind of books :-)

Well, what have I been reading?  Here ya go!

The Daughter's Walk by Jane Kirkpatrick is a book I just finished this week.  My mom actually passed this book on to me recently. 

Synopsis: Nineteen-year-old Clara Estby is hauled by her mother, Helga, on a 7,000-mile walk from Spokane, Wash., to New York in 1896. The fashion industry is looking for promotion of the new, shorter dress for women; Helga is looking for a 10,000 prize to save the family farm from foreclosure. The historically factual walk is only the first half of the book; the rest follows Clara after she leaves her family, becomes a businesswoman, and makes her way as times change for women at the turn of the century. Kirkpatrick has done impeccable homework, and what she recreates and what she imagines are wonderfully seamless. Readers see the times, the motives, the relationships that produce a chain of decisions and actions, all rendered with understatement. Kirkpatrick is a master at using fiction to illuminate history's truths. This beautiful and compelling work of historical fiction deserves the widest possible audience

My Opinion: I've read other books by Jane Kirkpatrick and she tends to be a little deeper then a lot of the current authors I read.  I enjoy the way she tells the complete story; from start to finish.  I think one of the things I enjoy about her writing is simply that not every story has a happy ending or a "perfect" setting.  Her stories are genuinely factual and historically accurate plus they are so much more real than reading about someone whose father coach's NFL, wins parts on Broadway and makes more money in one week than most people do in a year . .. just saying.  I find I can relate better to the characters in Kirkpatrick's book not because my life is all lemons but, rather, because there is often reconciliation or a realization that what you have is good enough. 

My Rating:  This is something new I will start doing, not that my rating means anything HA!  But I will rate it from 1-5 stars, 5 being the best.  Generally anything 3 and above is a pretty good book and one I will keep on my shelves.  Anything that gets a 1 or 2 rating wasn't great and will be leaving my precious shelf space.  So, my rating for this book is * * * *.  Yes, it really was that good.  (To get 5 stars, it would have to be perfect . .. that is hard thing to achieve!) 

Sons of Thunder by Susan May Warren is the book I'm currently reading as I write this post.  I'll share the synopsis, opinion and rating once I complete it :-) 

I'll be starting back up soon with my Good Morning Girls accountability group (I can't wait!) and will be picking up a couple of books I've put down throughout the summer.  I look forward to sharing more about those later.  Also, just the other day I updated by Reading Goal for the rest of the year.  I'm hoping I will have some really good Non-Fiction stuff to share as I read through each of those books! 

Finally, one last book for this post! 

I've shared this book before but I am picking it back up now and just wanted to mention it. It Starts at Home by Kurt Bruner and Steve Stroope is A practical guide to nurturing lifelong faith.  Throughout this past year I've really felt a call . . or maybe a need . . to really dig into information about building faith.  Not the faith and Bible teaching/learning that you get in the pew each Sunday (if you can stay awake . . just saying) but a faith that will last my life time.  I've come to realize that as important as the fellowship and teaching is from being in a local church, church often disappoints and sometimes hurts.  My faith cannot be grounded in the church but rather, needs to be grounded in the word.  This book brings faith back home.  The first section deals with Marriage because without a strong marriage, how can you have a strong family?  I'm excited to be beginning the 120 day challenge for my marriage in September.  The authors give several ideas on what to do for that 120 days and I have chosen the date night concept.  I'll be sharing more about this challenge in a future post but I'm excited about this endeavor.  My husband and I have gone through some tremendous changes over the past year and before that we had kids HA!  Those changes have made us stronger and helped our family but we have also lost the time we used to have to ourselves.  So I'm hoping that by planning some specific date nights (most at home - so be watching for some good ideas too!) we can pull out a few moments from our days to focus on each other.  Yes, this book is that good :-)  Until I finish it, though, I'll keep my Synopsis, Opinion, and Rating to myself.  I do plan on continuing to read this book even as the challenge is going on - I want to read about how to help my kids with this process too!

That's it for today.  I'm usually reading more books at once  . . .don't worry, I'll get more going soon :-)

What I'm Loving Wednesday!



I'm loving . . .that football is back!  Yes, it is only preseason but it won't be long and it will be real!

I'm loving . . . That the Detroit Lions look great AND that all of the announcers/commentators are actually throwing around the "P" word (Playoff). 

I'm Loving . . . this fantastic weather.  The nights are cool, the days are sunny and comfortable. 

I'm loving  . . . that I found my truck key :-)  I had lost it about 2 weeks ago and was sure it was gone.  Than, on Saturday, when we were driving to the Zoo, I was digging through my purse looking for my sunglasses and there was the key! 

I'm loving . . . that we discovered on Saturday, after owning my husbands old Grand Am (I think it is like a '92 . . or maybe older LOL), since March . . .that it has an automatic starter. Seriously.  It doesn't have Air but he can start it from the house! HA!  Josh was playing with the keys on the table when I heard the car start.  I was SURE someone was stealing our vehicle - talk about being confused!

I'm loving . . . my little family.  We had a fabulous weekend and just enjoyed some wonderful family time. 

What are you loving today?