I have been having the "January Blues" lately. We have had such weird weather here in the midwest, one day it feels like spring and the next it feels like winter! That is really playing with my mood and attitude.
I am, by nature, and introverted person. I have always been a low energy, quiet, curl up on the couch type of girl. So for that reason I love winter, its kinda my excuse to curl up and "hibernate". I love cozy slippers, sweatpants and sweaters. I feel bad for my hubby who has to come home to me in my comfy clothes almost every night.
Lately though I have been feeling kinda guilty for feeling that way. Like I should be doing more with my kids in the afternoons. Then it hit me, that if I take some time to rest then I am a much happier mommy later. So I have quit feeling guilty and I take my time to rest in the afternoons.
Its not necessarily that I need a nap, its just a time to recover my brain. So in the afternoons, from about 1:30 until maybe 3 I allow myself to check Facebook, email, play games on our iPad or if I feel it necessary I take a nap.
So what are my children doing at this time you might ask? Well Zach is usually napping, and the other two are usually either playing Legos or watching a movie. I know shocking, my homeschooled children watching a movie! But in all honesty I feel that they need the down time as well. I have tried multiple things to keep them occupied and mostly it just ended in fighting or rough housing. Our house isn't the biggest and there is not really a good place for them to go that isn't disturbing their baby brother who is napping. So yes they watch a movie!
How do you find rest in your day?
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Monday, January 28, 2013
Menu Monday
One of the greatest things I have found that helps my day go smoothly is having a menu plan! I love that its already planned out for me so I am not running around at about 4:30 trying to find something to put on the table at 5:30. Its happened, and its not fun!!!
Here is how I work my menu, first of all I always plan my menu while doing my grocery list. I do this in order to make sure that I have everything I will need for the meals I plan. I usually try to sit down on Friday afternoons and plan my meals for the next two weeks, then I write my list accordingly.
Here is our menu for this week:
Sunday: Leftovers
Monday: Pork Chops
Tuesday: Spinach Lasagna Roll Ups
Wednesday: BBQ Chicken Sandwiches
Thursday: Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: TBD (meaning I am hoping to go out!)
I don't usually plan side dishes because I know that we will either have salad or a vegetable of some kind. My kids do not eat that much so I try not to make too much. You can also see that we are not that adventurous in our eating, once again I have picky kids, so I try to make things that they will eat. The Spinach Lasagna Roll Ups (Tuesday) are a new recipe, I am hoping they won't notice the spinach!
I also have my menu posted in my kitchen, that way everyone knows what is for dinner. Usually Noah will ask Elijah what's for dinner and Elijah will go to the menu and tell him. That saves me from having to answer the question "What's for dinner?" ten times a day!
A friend of mine and I made these cute little menu boards a while back, I love it! I have most of my meals written on cards and they are stored in the little box attached. I also keep a little notebook attached so I can write out our two weeks worth of meals. I then also use it to jot down items that I am running low on or out of.
How do you plan your meals? I would love to hear some of your ideas and maybe some recipes too!
Here is how I work my menu, first of all I always plan my menu while doing my grocery list. I do this in order to make sure that I have everything I will need for the meals I plan. I usually try to sit down on Friday afternoons and plan my meals for the next two weeks, then I write my list accordingly.
Here is our menu for this week:
Sunday: Leftovers
Monday: Pork Chops
Tuesday: Spinach Lasagna Roll Ups
Wednesday: BBQ Chicken Sandwiches
Thursday: Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Friday: Pizza
Saturday: TBD (meaning I am hoping to go out!)
I don't usually plan side dishes because I know that we will either have salad or a vegetable of some kind. My kids do not eat that much so I try not to make too much. You can also see that we are not that adventurous in our eating, once again I have picky kids, so I try to make things that they will eat. The Spinach Lasagna Roll Ups (Tuesday) are a new recipe, I am hoping they won't notice the spinach!
I also have my menu posted in my kitchen, that way everyone knows what is for dinner. Usually Noah will ask Elijah what's for dinner and Elijah will go to the menu and tell him. That saves me from having to answer the question "What's for dinner?" ten times a day!
A friend of mine and I made these cute little menu boards a while back, I love it! I have most of my meals written on cards and they are stored in the little box attached. I also keep a little notebook attached so I can write out our two weeks worth of meals. I then also use it to jot down items that I am running low on or out of.
How do you plan your meals? I would love to hear some of your ideas and maybe some recipes too!
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Frugal Chili Recipe
I am always on the lookout for frugal meal ideas. I have found that any kind of soup or casserole is usually a winner, because I can make a big batch at one time and then freeze it. So today I am going to share our families favorite chili recipe. I call this frugal because the ingredients are pretty cheap and it makes enough for about 3 meals for my family. We have 5 people in our house but two of them are what I like to call "half eaters". So depending on your family size and how thick you want it, will depend on how many meals it makes.
Frugal Mans Chili Prep Time 15 minutes Ready in 4 -6 hours
Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef
2 15.5 oz. cans dark red kidney beans
2 14.5 oz cans petite diced tomatos
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
2-3 Tbs. chili powder
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped or 1 Tbs. onion flakes
1/2 medium sized green pepper, finely chopped (optional)
Salt and Pepper to taste
Shredded Cheddar Cheese (optional)
Sour Cream (optional)
In a large skillet brown the ground beef. Once its no longer pink add the onion or onion flakes and 1 Tbs. of chili powder. Cook for an additional 2-3 minutes. Meanwhile add the dark red kidney beans, petite diced tomatoes and tomato sauce to a crock pot along with the diced green pepper. Then add the ground beef to the crock pot and stir. Add 1-2 cans of water depending on how thick you want it to be. Cook on low for 4 to 6 hours or until ready to eat. Serve with shredded cheese and sour cream. Don't forget the cornbread!
To freeze:
Once the chili is completely cooled, pour into a freezable container, or gallon freezer bag. Label and place in freezer!
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| Another way to be frugal: STORE BRANDS!!! |
Frugal Mans Chili Prep Time 15 minutes Ready in 4 -6 hours
Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef
2 15.5 oz. cans dark red kidney beans
2 14.5 oz cans petite diced tomatos
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
2-3 Tbs. chili powder
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped or 1 Tbs. onion flakes
1/2 medium sized green pepper, finely chopped (optional)
Salt and Pepper to taste
Shredded Cheddar Cheese (optional)
Sour Cream (optional)
In a large skillet brown the ground beef. Once its no longer pink add the onion or onion flakes and 1 Tbs. of chili powder. Cook for an additional 2-3 minutes. Meanwhile add the dark red kidney beans, petite diced tomatoes and tomato sauce to a crock pot along with the diced green pepper. Then add the ground beef to the crock pot and stir. Add 1-2 cans of water depending on how thick you want it to be. Cook on low for 4 to 6 hours or until ready to eat. Serve with shredded cheese and sour cream. Don't forget the cornbread!
To freeze:
Once the chili is completely cooled, pour into a freezable container, or gallon freezer bag. Label and place in freezer!
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
A Day in the Life: Homeschooling Edition
Last year I did " A Day in the Life" post and found it quite interesting. That was prior to homeschooling, so now I think its time to do A Day in the Life: Homeschooling edition! So here it is, this was done on January 22, 2013. I am homeschooling an 8 year old boy, a 5 year old boy and then we also have a VERY active 17 month old boy. For this I just recorded our morning routine and our homeschool day, since it can get a little tedious to jot things down through out the day. I do have to say that it was after breakfast before I remembered that I wanted to record things this day! YUP!! That's how it goes, so up until about 8:15 things are just a rough estimate! With out further ado here is our day:
6:15 Our alarm goes off and hubby get up, I on the other hand get to sleep another half an hour, and by golly I'm gonna take it!
6:45 I get up and get myself showered and together
7:25 This is my quiet time for the day, I do my devotions and have some prayer time. My children are supposed to be either still sleeping or playing quietly, but I hear that things are getting a bit out of hand. So I unfortunately cut my prayer time a bit short in order to tame the madness that is sure to ensue shortly!
7:45 Get Zach up, changed and dressed all the while trying to convince the other two to get dressed. Although I can't really blame them for not wanting to, it is after all a whopping 2 degrees outside! So I give in and let them stay in their PJ's, after all I am in my comfy clothes too!
8:00 Its breakfast time, and of course every one decides they want something different. I normally don't allow this but I realized that we had muffins left over from the other day and they need to be eaten, so Elijah has a muffin, Zach and Noah get pancakes (from the freezer), and I settle for a bowl of cereal.
8:15 After a quick clean up, I take a little time with Zach to play and "fill his attention cup" (something new I am trying). That lasts for about 5 minutes, when Noah comes in asking to play the iPad. When I tell him he can't play right now but he can play after his school work is done, he promptly asks to begin school. He leaves the room only to come back a few minutes later with the book that was in his first box. Meanwhile I have Elijah asking for help with his English assignment. So much for one on one time with Zach!
8:25 Begin school with Noah
8:45 Elijah and Zach get kicked out of the school room for being crazy, they are sent to play blocks in the living room. (During my school time with Noah Elijah is supposed to be entertaining Zach, that doesn't always happen but we are working towards it!) Their play time only lasted about 10 minutes until they were back to wreak more havoc.
9:00 Finish school with Noah and begin with Elijah, while Zach continues to destroy the school room. Noah is finally getting his iPad time.
9:05 Zach begin his daily crying, yes this is a daily occurrence, the kid doesn't deal well with not having someone to play with.
9:40 Finished up Math and History with Elijah and now he is taking his 15 minutes of silent reading time. I try to sit down and play with Zach, but am quickly interrupted by Noah asking if its snack time.
9:50 I give in and give snacks, because since the mention of snacks Zach has been following me around crying and saying "Juice", "Cracker".
10:00 I take this time while they are eating snack to get started on our dinner, which is chili tonight. Upon starting the dinner I wonder why I didn't brown the beef last night while I was making dinner, thinking that would have saved me some time. Oh well maybe I will remember next time! (Probably not!)
10:20 Finished making the chili and cleaning up so I sit down to get on Facebook and check some email, while I listen to fighting boys in the other room.
10:45 I realize that I should probably be getting some cleaning done since they are all occupied. So I get up and start to clean.
11:20 Start preparing lunch, pretty excited that the boys entertained themselves that long so I could get some stuff done.
11:30 Throw in a load of laundry before sitting down to lunch.
11:40 Clean up lunch while the boys continue their game of battle fields or Star Wars, I am never really sure, but they are playing with each other and not fighting!
12:00 Mail arrives with a special package of some new pattern blocks, the boys get pretty excited about helping me open the box. They thought it was legos, sorry boys!
12:10 Change Zach and put him down for his nap
12:15 Begin Elijah's spelling lesson
12:30 Finish spelling and now Elijah will get some iPad time while Noah plays legos.
There you have it! That is an average homeschooling day here! What does a day look like in your homeschool? Do you start early or late?
6:15 Our alarm goes off and hubby get up, I on the other hand get to sleep another half an hour, and by golly I'm gonna take it!
6:45 I get up and get myself showered and together
7:25 This is my quiet time for the day, I do my devotions and have some prayer time. My children are supposed to be either still sleeping or playing quietly, but I hear that things are getting a bit out of hand. So I unfortunately cut my prayer time a bit short in order to tame the madness that is sure to ensue shortly!
7:45 Get Zach up, changed and dressed all the while trying to convince the other two to get dressed. Although I can't really blame them for not wanting to, it is after all a whopping 2 degrees outside! So I give in and let them stay in their PJ's, after all I am in my comfy clothes too!
8:00 Its breakfast time, and of course every one decides they want something different. I normally don't allow this but I realized that we had muffins left over from the other day and they need to be eaten, so Elijah has a muffin, Zach and Noah get pancakes (from the freezer), and I settle for a bowl of cereal.
8:15 After a quick clean up, I take a little time with Zach to play and "fill his attention cup" (something new I am trying). That lasts for about 5 minutes, when Noah comes in asking to play the iPad. When I tell him he can't play right now but he can play after his school work is done, he promptly asks to begin school. He leaves the room only to come back a few minutes later with the book that was in his first box. Meanwhile I have Elijah asking for help with his English assignment. So much for one on one time with Zach!
8:25 Begin school with Noah
8:45 Elijah and Zach get kicked out of the school room for being crazy, they are sent to play blocks in the living room. (During my school time with Noah Elijah is supposed to be entertaining Zach, that doesn't always happen but we are working towards it!) Their play time only lasted about 10 minutes until they were back to wreak more havoc.
9:00 Finish school with Noah and begin with Elijah, while Zach continues to destroy the school room. Noah is finally getting his iPad time.
9:05 Zach begin his daily crying, yes this is a daily occurrence, the kid doesn't deal well with not having someone to play with.
9:40 Finished up Math and History with Elijah and now he is taking his 15 minutes of silent reading time. I try to sit down and play with Zach, but am quickly interrupted by Noah asking if its snack time.
9:50 I give in and give snacks, because since the mention of snacks Zach has been following me around crying and saying "Juice", "Cracker".
10:00 I take this time while they are eating snack to get started on our dinner, which is chili tonight. Upon starting the dinner I wonder why I didn't brown the beef last night while I was making dinner, thinking that would have saved me some time. Oh well maybe I will remember next time! (Probably not!)
10:20 Finished making the chili and cleaning up so I sit down to get on Facebook and check some email, while I listen to fighting boys in the other room.
10:45 I realize that I should probably be getting some cleaning done since they are all occupied. So I get up and start to clean.
11:20 Start preparing lunch, pretty excited that the boys entertained themselves that long so I could get some stuff done.
11:30 Throw in a load of laundry before sitting down to lunch.
11:40 Clean up lunch while the boys continue their game of battle fields or Star Wars, I am never really sure, but they are playing with each other and not fighting!
12:00 Mail arrives with a special package of some new pattern blocks, the boys get pretty excited about helping me open the box. They thought it was legos, sorry boys!
12:10 Change Zach and put him down for his nap
12:15 Begin Elijah's spelling lesson
12:30 Finish spelling and now Elijah will get some iPad time while Noah plays legos.
There you have it! That is an average homeschooling day here! What does a day look like in your homeschool? Do you start early or late?
Friday, January 18, 2013
Our Snack Set Up
A few months ago I got to the point of frustration with my constantly hungry, growing boys! They wanted to eat ALL DAY LONG!! So I started to think of some solutions to this problem. Here is what I came up with:
On Sunday evenings after dinner I set out all of their snack choices on the dining room table. They can choose from pretzels, graham crackers, animal crackers, granola bars, fruit snacks and ritz type crackers. Then I get out their baskets and snack bowls. The bowls I use are just cheap plastic bowls big enough for a snack sized portion.
They each get 5 bowls, 5 granola bars, 5 fruit snacks, thats enough for 2 snacks a day for the week. Occasionally we will have string cheese or a special treat like cookies or ice cream. So once everything is set up they are allowed to come and fill their bowls with what ever snacks they want. I decided that letting them pick their own snacks they would be more happy with what they had. What I found before was that they would just start eating out of the bag of pretzels and before we knew it they had almost eaten an entire bag, so this has stopped that.
So now when its snack time (and yes we do have two set snack times every day, 10 am and 3 pm) they open the cabinet and get out their 1 chosen snack. We have been using this system for about a month and its working amazingly. They love having the "choice" and I love being able to just say at snack time go and get it.
I have recently realized that I need to add one for Zach because now when ever I ask him if he wants a snack he walks over to this cabinet. He gets a little upset when I don't get his snack from there!
I am also still working on a drink system. Right now I still pour them something but I am hoping to figure another solution out soon. We do have a water dispenser on the fridge so that helps. Any suggestions?
What system for snacks do you have set up? I would love to see what you have come up with, so please leave a comment and share!
On Sunday evenings after dinner I set out all of their snack choices on the dining room table. They can choose from pretzels, graham crackers, animal crackers, granola bars, fruit snacks and ritz type crackers. Then I get out their baskets and snack bowls. The bowls I use are just cheap plastic bowls big enough for a snack sized portion.
They each get 5 bowls, 5 granola bars, 5 fruit snacks, thats enough for 2 snacks a day for the week. Occasionally we will have string cheese or a special treat like cookies or ice cream. So once everything is set up they are allowed to come and fill their bowls with what ever snacks they want. I decided that letting them pick their own snacks they would be more happy with what they had. What I found before was that they would just start eating out of the bag of pretzels and before we knew it they had almost eaten an entire bag, so this has stopped that.
So now when its snack time (and yes we do have two set snack times every day, 10 am and 3 pm) they open the cabinet and get out their 1 chosen snack. We have been using this system for about a month and its working amazingly. They love having the "choice" and I love being able to just say at snack time go and get it.
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| This basket is one of the plastic handled ones found at Wal-Mart, I think they are intended for use in the freezer or refrigerator. |
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| They each have their name on one. |
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| This is from today, so the week is almost over, but you can see his bowls and fruit snacks, along with some granola bars. |
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| This is how they look in our cabinet. Its a lower cabinet easy for them to get in. |
I have recently realized that I need to add one for Zach because now when ever I ask him if he wants a snack he walks over to this cabinet. He gets a little upset when I don't get his snack from there!
I am also still working on a drink system. Right now I still pour them something but I am hoping to figure another solution out soon. We do have a water dispenser on the fridge so that helps. Any suggestions?
What system for snacks do you have set up? I would love to see what you have come up with, so please leave a comment and share!
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Its been a long time!
WOW! I've been gone a long time! We had a great Christmas, but very busy, followed by 2 weeks of sickness! Yup, 2 WEEKS!! Our whole Christmas break, where I had planned to have fun, was spent laying around the house watching TV because every body was sick! It started the day after Christmas and ran all the way until January 3 or so! UGGHHH!! I was very upset about that, but oh well we move on!
Last week we started back on our regular schooling schedule, that was a tough week! After being sick and literally doing nothing it was hard for all of my guys to get back into the routine, hard for me too!
I am making a few changes to our curriculum for the "spring" semester. For Elijah, the reading program that came with his curriculum I felt was weak and below his level, so we switched to Rod and Staff Reading, God Leads His People, which is 3rd grade level. So far that is working well, he enjoys it and the stories, I like that its followed with comprehension questions in a workbook. Towards the end of last semester we were just using chapter books that he wanted to read, but I wasn't really asking questions to make sure he was understanding the story. We will work through this series until he finishes and then move onto the 4th grade reader, I plan on this taking us into next school year, which is ok. Another change for Elijah will be his Spelling, he has really been struggling with his words every week and was missing quite a few. I never knew whether to give the words another week or just move on. So just this past week I decided to switch to All About Spelling starting with Level 1, I have heard awesome things about it! So I am very hopeful that this will help him to understand the reasons behind why words are spelled the way they are.
For Noah I am going to begin a more strict preschool/kindergarten curriculum with him. He turned 5 in January, so I am thinking its time to move into more structured schooling. So we will be doing a Letter of the Week program and Raising Rock Stars Preschool, modified to fit our needs. We are going to cover 2 letters a week, because he already knows some of the sounds but not all. Once that is completed, in about March, we will move onto learning some sight words. We will also be working on writing letters and numbers, along with some early math concepts. Along with his book work, he has found a new love for Starfall, so that will be added into his week as well.
As far as Zach goes, I had planned to begin some Tot Schooling with him, but I am a little overwhelmed with the other two right now. So we will not be doing any thing too formal, just lots of learning play and letting him explore with rice, beans, pipe cleaners and such.
My new plan is to write a post every week about what we have been doing. So far I am not off to a great start! Hopefully I will get myself back on track and be able to do that! Here are a few pictures from our break and last week. Enjoy!
Last week we started back on our regular schooling schedule, that was a tough week! After being sick and literally doing nothing it was hard for all of my guys to get back into the routine, hard for me too!
I am making a few changes to our curriculum for the "spring" semester. For Elijah, the reading program that came with his curriculum I felt was weak and below his level, so we switched to Rod and Staff Reading, God Leads His People, which is 3rd grade level. So far that is working well, he enjoys it and the stories, I like that its followed with comprehension questions in a workbook. Towards the end of last semester we were just using chapter books that he wanted to read, but I wasn't really asking questions to make sure he was understanding the story. We will work through this series until he finishes and then move onto the 4th grade reader, I plan on this taking us into next school year, which is ok. Another change for Elijah will be his Spelling, he has really been struggling with his words every week and was missing quite a few. I never knew whether to give the words another week or just move on. So just this past week I decided to switch to All About Spelling starting with Level 1, I have heard awesome things about it! So I am very hopeful that this will help him to understand the reasons behind why words are spelled the way they are.
For Noah I am going to begin a more strict preschool/kindergarten curriculum with him. He turned 5 in January, so I am thinking its time to move into more structured schooling. So we will be doing a Letter of the Week program and Raising Rock Stars Preschool, modified to fit our needs. We are going to cover 2 letters a week, because he already knows some of the sounds but not all. Once that is completed, in about March, we will move onto learning some sight words. We will also be working on writing letters and numbers, along with some early math concepts. Along with his book work, he has found a new love for Starfall, so that will be added into his week as well.
As far as Zach goes, I had planned to begin some Tot Schooling with him, but I am a little overwhelmed with the other two right now. So we will not be doing any thing too formal, just lots of learning play and letting him explore with rice, beans, pipe cleaners and such.
My new plan is to write a post every week about what we have been doing. So far I am not off to a great start! Hopefully I will get myself back on track and be able to do that! Here are a few pictures from our break and last week. Enjoy!
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| Using this cool pocket chart for his 3 Part Cards |
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| The birthday boy, who is now 5! |
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| A little indoor running, because we are in the midwest and its January! |
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| Counting with beans |
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| Yup they got Nerf guns for Christmas! Oh boy, look out! |
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