Weekly Menu

Did you miss me? It's been a busy week and I spent my evenings grocery shopping, wrapping gifts and getting ready for a special 5 year old's birthday.  Writing blog posts just didn't seem to fit into the schedule! So I'm trying to pick back up with the weekly menu and have my plan written .  . .we'll see how things go!

Friday - My in-laws are coming over to celebrate Josh's birthday (it just keeps going HA) and my MIL offered to provide dinner - who am I to say no to that?? :-)  So, I'm not sure what we are having yet.

Saturday - Taco's (since we didn't have them on Friday).  I actually have left over Meat from thebirthday party in the freezer so it will be an easy meal.

Sunday - Chili Dogs and Fries (we didn't have these last week) and then Pot Pies for dinner (again, we didn't eat those on Sunday night - we all ate left overs from the weekend.

Monday - Balsamic Slow Roasted Pork Loin, Crash Potatoes, green beans and bread

Tuesday - Lemon Chicken, Savory Rice, Corn, and bread

Wednesday -Amish Breakfast Casserole, Fruit and Pancakes (more for the kids)

Thursday - It's Halloween!  Pizza it is!  I like serving pizza on a night like tonight - we can eat early and then head out to get free candy :-)

Weekly Menu

I think, maybe, cooler weather is really here to stay.  I'm so thankful because some of my favorite things to cook are "winter" meals like Chicken and Dumplings, Lasagna, all kinds of soups and things that simmer on the stove like "Beef Drip" and Root Beer Pulled Pork, just to name a few.  I enjoy cooking so much more during the cool (and cold!) time of year verses the summer.  Nothing makes a house smell better than a roast that has slow cooked in the oven for hours - that is something you just don't want going on in the summer when the kitchen is already 3 million degrees ;-)

Here's the plan for this week!

Friday -  Beef Strogneoff w/Noodles and Salad.  This is a carry over from last week that we just didn't get to eat.

Saturday - Today we are having a small birthday party with my family for Josh who is turning 5. I asked him what he wanted and he said Taco's so I guess we'll have Taco's!  I'll make up some fresh Pico de Gallo and Guacamole w/lots of toppings.  I'll probably also make a Mexican Dip to go with chips and possibly some finger Jell-O (because he loves Jell-O) and, of course, Cake and Ice Cream.  It will be a chocolate cake (Josh said, "Mom ask me if I want chocolate or banana cake."  So I did and he said, "Chocolate of course because that is my favorite . .. color??" hahaha ) Oh, and Josh said Nate can have a hot dog because that is what he likes . .. .good thing I have hot dogs on hand!

Sunday - Lunch after church will be Roast, Potatoes and Carrots - it is that time of year after all :-)  Then for dinner we'll have Pot Pies and the kids will have Mac and Cheese.

Monday - Biscuits and Gravy, Fried Potatoes, and roasted Veggies.  Again, a carry over from last week. 

Tuesday - Today is Josh's 5th birthday so we are going to have Spaghetti with Mushrooms and Garlic Bread.  It might seem like an odd meal  for a birthday but it is one of his all time favorite meals.

Wednesday -My in-laws are coming over today to celebrate Josh's birthday so we will have Amish Breakfast casserole with Pancakes (because my kids love them), muffins of some sort and nice bowl of "Ken's Fruit Salad". 

Thursday -Chili Dogs.  I have left over chili from a few weeks ago, in the freezer so we'll add that to good old hot dogs and some fries or tater tots.  Tonight is also our town's harvest fest.  I'm not sure if we will go yet - it includes a lot of walking and my husband is still healing from his back injury and walking is not on the top of his list as of yet.  We'll see!! 

Making Your Home a Haven

I must admit that I did not light our candle every day this past week.  It was hot out and a candle on a hot day just doesn't do much for me but it is cooling off again so that candle is lit once again!

This weeks challenge is to spend time with your family; to plan time with them.  Our kids are not big movie watchers yet and we are just getting into games.  I haven't yet figured out what we can do for a family night yet . . .they really want to carve pumpkins so maybe we'll do that :-)

You can check out the post over at Women Living Well.

"Let Children Be"

There are times in my Homeschooling adventure that I feel like I have to defend what I do.  One of those areas is when I choose to let my children play.  There have been days when the weather is fantastic and the boys go outside and play for hours; or the car rugs spread across the living room cars and they play for hours; or the blocks come out and they create houses and cars and castles.  I have personally felt that when those moments are happening I need to "let them be".  They are learning and they are only preschooler's.  Yes, I have goals to accomplish and lessons they need to learn but a huge part of a child's learning comes from doing. 

It felt . . .good . . .to read this post over at  The Better Mom about this exact topic - "Learning to Let Children Be". 

Weekly Homeschool Report

I decided to change the title on this weekly post.  I was tired of typing the other one :-)

We did not have school this week.  Next week is actually supposed to be our week "off" but due to lots of things I decided to make this week our week off.  Between my husband being off work, me being gone at the end of the week last week, and really nice weather, it just seemed to fit.  I just told my husband a few days ago that I am officially sold on the 6 weeks on/1 week off because this week has been a wonderful break.  Even Josh, who loves school, was happy to have the week off.  When we have school - my entire morning it taken up with setting up for the day, teaching, and then cleaning up.  By the time I finish, it is usually time to start getting lunch ready.  So, to have a week where I don't have to do that, well, that is nice!

I thought I would show you what our "classroom" looks like now that we've lived with it for awhile and I've cleaned up and changed a few things.  I'm living with it like this for now to see how we really use things before I figure out what I want to get from Ikea.  I have a few ideas that will make it look "cleaner" when I can get the things I want but considering the fact that I have already changed, moved, and downsized some things, waiting is good.  Plus, I will be cleaning out my books and selling them to a Christian Bookstore that sells used books and then those shelves in the basement will become my school shelves where I can store things we aren't using on a given week.

 Our "wall".  This wall is where all of our daily items are posted.  From the calendar to our clock to sight words.  It is in easy view for the kids to refer to and also to review throughout the day.

 This corner is "command central".  The table houses the stereo, my cricut (since I use it for school projects too), carts with supplies, the kids baskets/bags with crayons and markers, bookshelf and games plus the yellow table holds their computer. 

This is hard to see but I moved our family photo wall to this small wall.  It also houses our American Flag :-)

Since our dining room is used for class and for meals it takes a lot of effort each day to keep it "up and running".  I finally let go of keeping something pretty on my table since I was constantly moving it off to do class or eat meals.  No more table clothes for now either since they make it difficult to do school work.

I also thought I would share what our playroom looks like too.

 From the doorway. 

 The main area.

My "closet".  Right now the closet houses my crafts, school stuff and scrapbooking stuff.  I'm really leaning towards moving most of this down to the basement on storage shelves once I sell those books.  Then we can use the shelves to house kid stuff, like games and puzzles.

I also have bigger storage plans for this room, again, from Ikea.  That will help with Lego storage, Lincoln Log storage, cars, trucks and other fun stuff.

So, that's our daily life in school.  That dining room table gets a ton of use . .. we looked at replacing the chairs this year because they are so uncomfortable but have yet to find what we like and we sat on a lot of chairs!!

Things my kids say

* I recently asked Josh wanted he wanted to dress like for halloween.  His response was, "Ummm I'll just wear my clothes".

*Nate's brain works faster than his month so often I hear things like this, "I for togot do that mom!"

*Nate has a new joke:  Mom, do you remember when a giraffe licked a hippo and a hippo licked a giraffe.  That's funny mom".  Seriously, I laugh out loud every single time.

* My husband back is injured . . .Josh made a large ice pack for him by freezing water in a ziplock bag so now, every time Darryl says something about his back, Josh runs to the freezer and brings the frozen brick of water for Darryl to lean against.  It may or may not be causing MORE pain ;-)  Such a thoughtful little boy though!

*I asked Nate what he wanted to be for Halloween . .. to which he said, "A banana, an orange, a donut, no mom, a rainbow, no mom a banana and an orange.  Maybe I shouldn't ask.

* Josh spent about 30 minutes (or more) one morning trying to put his own jacket on.  He wanted no help, works of advice or even the sound of my voice to grace his presence.  Poor kid.  He is super independent and just a little bit stubborn.  Oh, and did I mention he is a perfectionist?

* Nate refused to get dressed one morning because his cool shirt, which he wore the day before, hadn't been washed yet.  I may need to buy multiples of that shirt . . ..

* Nate has finally outgrown the "bumper" on his twin bed. .. I figured when he could slip through the hole in the fabric and slide onto the floor, it really wasn't working HA Over the past month he had managed to push his feet against it so much that he ripped all of the fabric.  I was slightly disappointed - not because it came off the bed (I highly disliked it - it made putting sheets on very difficult) but because I had planned to sell that stupid thing HA!  Instead it went right out to the garbage.

*Josh has learned to make it to the toilet to puke.  Enough said - this is a true milestone though.

* Nate informed me that we need to hang bats, maybe some witches, and a skeleton, which your whole body in bones.  He loves Halloween!

What a Trip to the ER Taught Me

Recently, my husband had to go to the ER due to severe back pain which, as we learned that day, was being caused by a bulging disc.  We had to take the boys with us to the hospital for the "day".  I semi-frantically packed for a "who knows how long" of a stay at the hospital so we could get on the road.  On a side note, this is one of those times I was so thankful my boys are now potty trained.  No diapers; diaper changes; grossness etc.

 I was grateful to find a very small kids area that entertained my kids for like 5 minutes.  That gave us enough time to get in and find a place to camp out for awhile. 

 I did think to pack some things for me that my kids ended up using - paper and pen.  Even with cartoons (the kind we don't watch at home due to the scare factor) on TV, they wanted to draw. 

 This is what I carried around most of the day!

 Crazy Nate and the camera!

The "sicky" - he's a little drugged up at the moment :-)

So, now, what did I learn?  I need to have an "emergency" plan.  It doesn't even have to be a trip to the hospital - it could be an unplanned road trip, a trip to someones house, or a dentist appointment.  That plan needs to include:
1) A bag.  Our diaper bag is no longer a diaper bag but a cute 31 bag that can now be used to carry anything.  I call it our "travel bag"
2) Inside the bag I need the following: 2 pads of paper; 2 containers of washable markers (crayons melt); and a couple of pens; Stickers; a couple of toys - right now that would be dinosaurs and cars.  Oh and wipes - hospital waiting room personal give out suckers to kids . . .sticky, sticky suckers.
3) Food - snacks and drinks are HUGE.  So from now on there will be the following on my shelves (which I happened to have on hand today)  A Box of juice boxes in my kids favorite flavor.  A box of Fruit and Grain Bars and a bag of crackers. Plus a special treat - my kids like Smarties - they don't melt and aren't sticky so I think those need to go in the bag!  Oh, and some kid friendly cups and Crystal light lemonade pouches for individual bottles of water (those are a life savor in a restaurant too!)
4) I also need to have a change of clothes in the bag for each boy.  Last year, I picked up some very inexpensive pants and shirts that just stayed in the bag all of the time.  I need to do that again - just the $3.00 stuff at Walmart.  When I can plan the bag, I usually take a nice outfit for each kid but I need that backup outfit in case someone spills, pukes, or any other bodily function that may happen.
5) Blankets need to be in the truck too - Josh has one that is supposed to stay in the truck and I have the fleece to make one for Nate - I need to do that soon!
6) The last thing that is a must - I need to stick a little money in my wallet that is for emergencies.  Enough to put gas in the truck if needed and to buy snacks/lunch/dinner if needed.  The boys and I enjoyed lunch in the hospital cafeteria and I was surprised by how affordable it was - the three of us ate for less then $10.00 and we had left over food.  

So, that's my plan.  Now to work on getting that stuff together.  Months ago I posted about vehicle organization - I've yet to do my version but I think now is the time and I need to combine it with this list - some of the items on my list can just be in the truck all of time, not necessarily in the bag.  :-