(I didn't get around to a couple of the dinners last week, so sorry for the repeats)
Monday - Ham and Pineapple Pizza
Tuesday - Italian Baked Chicken and Penne (Giada DeLaurentiis)
Wednesday - Chicken Pesto Packets on the grill with baked potatoes and salad
Thursday - Beef Enchiladas (with leftover pot roast)
Friday - Healthy Turkey Pot Pie
Saturday - Rachael Ray's Meatloaf Roll Up with baked potatoes
Sunday - Pretzel Crusted Chicken Fingers
I think I take more family pictures than the average mom. My kids seem to grow and change so quickly and I like having a current picture displayed in our home.
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I realized recently that the family pictures I have on our walls are all from last summer...very unlike me. Too bad I'm huge and pregnant with a round, chubby face right now. (*sigh*) Then it occurred to me that if I wait a few months to get a NEW family picture with the squishy-faced baby in it, I'll not only still have my post-baby weight, I'll also have huge bags under my eyes. And newborns seem to change every week, so the picture would never really be "current" of him until he's about 6 months old. So I wait until April to get a new family picture? I think not.
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Friday night, Mike and I had a date, which usually creates a good family photo opportunity. I go all out for my man and actually shower and put on make up for our dates (I know...I'm a giver...) plus throw on something other than a tank top. But more importantly, what creates a good family photo opportunity on date nights is that my mom is here to TAKE the picture.
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The pictures didn't go well. Kaylin insisted on the cutsie head tilt in every shot...
Ryan wouldn't be serious...
Then when I finally DID get Ryan to calm down, he was trying out this new cheesy closed-mouth smile. (Thinking back, I went through this phase when I was younger, too)
There was ONE picture that was good of all of us (even though Ryan was doing his new smile) that I accidentally deleted when going through the pictures on my camera. I meant to delete the bad shot after it and hit the wrong button. Needless to say, this whole thing was a lost cause.
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But we did get this beauty. Yes, I am posting a picture of me giving myself a double chin. Who couldn't love this pretty face???
I'm still trying to get used to the different dynamic of Ryan being gone all day. When he gets home from school, he and Kaylin take a while to get back into their groove and it takes a LOT of patient reminders for them to be normal to each other. She has a weird, "I'm the queen of this castle" mentality and gets all bossy on him and he has an, "I'm older/mature/cooler than you because I'm in Kindergarten" attitude and I have to gently knock them both off of their high horses to get everyone to get along and be respectful. I wonder if my irritation shows through my forced-patient comments? Because it feels like I'm speaking through gritted teeth. It's hard keeping up my non-yelling-mom self promise when they're so nasty to each other!
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My newest mantra is, "Who is in charge?" I'm done with their over-controlling comments to each other. It's like they're trying to establish rank or pecking order or something. "Stop singing"..."Don't talk to me"..."You can't have more pretzels until your sandwich is gone"..."You didn't ask to be excused from the table"..."That's mine...don't touch it"..."I wanted to put the forks on the table...that's my job!" It's ridiculous.
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And it seems never-ending. "You're not the adult - she can sing if she wants to"..."It's rude not to answer someone when they speak to you - please answer his question"..."It's not your job to tell her when she can have more pretzels"..."Who's in charge? It's my job to remind him to ask to be excused"..."We share our toys in our family"..."You put the forks on the table yesterday - how about getting everyone a plate tonight?"
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The "who's in charge?" question seems to be working. They can't argue with the fact that I'm the adult and they're the kids. I don't want them monitoring each other to make sure they're following the rules. That's definitely my job and I've had to revert back to reminding them that they aren't allowed to tattle on each other unless it's a safety issue.
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Ryan came home from school yesterday announcing that there's a phone in his class that only calls Mrs. Bindergarden. If the kids need to tattle, they call Mrs. Bindergarden "because she cares." (I laughed out loud when I heard that, remembering, "Here's a quarter, call someone who cares," from a few years ago.) They've been instructed to whisper their complaint into the phone, "but she never answers...she just listens." Ryan's Kindergarten teacher is a genius. (hey - I just realized that Bindergarden rhymes with Kindergarten...cute!)
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Ryan only had a half day of school today and lunchtime was rough. Then suddenly, out of no where, the kids started getting along and playing like usual. I don't exactly know what happened or who lost their bad attitude first, I'm just glad it happened. Otherwise it would have been a loooooooong afternoon.
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Now everyone's in their rooms, resting, and all is peaceful again. Ryan was just too crabby to argue that he didn't need some down time. And with that, I am going to go relax myself. My brain needs a break - I don't have much mental energy these days!
In establishing a new routine for just me and Kaylin, I was mentally grouping activities into crafts, learning, alone-time play, games, etc. Ideas were popping into my head like crazy (which is rare) so I wrote them all down. When I meal plan, I pull from my list of recipes and online links...why not do the same when helping Kaylin find something to do?
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CRAFTS/ACTIVITIES (to do with me nearby)
- Stamping
- Cutting and pasting (toy ads, shapes, etc.)
- Glue pasta, cereal, buttons, confetti shapes, etc onto paper
- Painting, finger painting, pudding/Kool-Aid finger painting
- Play Doh
- Popsicle Stick and Pipe Cleaner crafts
- Paper Plate crafts
(the Family Fun website also has a bunch of great age-specific craft ideas)
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CRAFTS/ACTIVITIES (to do independently without me nearby)
- Coloring
- Stickers and foam pieces on paper
- Blowing up a balloon and letting it go, watching it fly all over the house (repeat entertainment for my kids)
- Aqua Doodle
- Puzzles
- Mr. Potato Head
- Magnetic dress up dolls, Princess color forms
- Blocks, Legos, Tinker Toys
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GAMES (to play together)
- Memory
- Connect 4
- High Ho Cherry O
- Tea Party
- Dress Up
- Ring Toss, Bowling
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LEARNING ACTIVITIES
- Letter tracing books, maze books
- Color and shape flashcards
- Sorting colors, doing patterns (using Legos or other colorful toys)
- Opposites
- Sequencing cards
- Lacing (helps fine motor skills to prepare for writing)
- Letters and sounds of the day
(When I was considering homeschooling, I stocked up on flash cards for letters, sounds, numbers, and time, plus tracing books, matching games, sequencing cards, things like that. So I have a huge pool of resources to keep Kaylin busy - and help her learn - while I assist Ryan with homework every afternoon.)
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OUTSIDE ACTIVITIES
- Swimming, Slip 'n' Slide, swing set, park, go on a walk
- Bikes, scooters
- Sidewalk chalk
- Bubbles
- Balls, frisbees, kite, water guns
- Watering can and buckets
- Bucket of water with paintbrushes to "paint" the sidewalk
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I'm pretty excited about this list. It contains most of the stuff my kids enjoy and when I'm having trouble coming up with something, I know I'll refer back to it. Do you have anything else to add or activities we should try?
Due to all of the birthdays and several invitations to friends' houses for dinner, I haven't meal planned in a couple of weeks. It was nice to take a break, but the couple of times we DID eat at home, coming up with dinner on the fly stressed me out. A couple of times, I waited to make dinner too late and Ryan needed to be in bed for Kindergarten, so we had smoothies for dinner. Pathetic! Shockingly, the kids didn't wake up as malnourished and starving as I would have thought. I'm very glad to be back in planning mode. For now, I'm just going to plan dinners this week.
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Monday - Crock Pot BBQ sandwiches with green beans
Tuesday - leftovers
Wednesday - Chicken Pesto Packets on the grill with baked potatoes and salad
Thursday -Chicken Noodle Soup with Whole Wheat French Bread Rolls
Friday - Beef Stir Fry with brown rice
Saturday - Breakfast for dinner: Waffles and eggs
Sunday - Italian Baked Chicken and Penne (Giada DeLaurentiis)
I had a nice little birthday today. Mike tried bringing me breakfast in bed, but I was in the shower when he came upstairs, so it was really more like breakfast in the shower...poor guy, after rushing around before work and everything!
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Then once I decided to stop hand-washing dishes with hot water and folding hot laundry and pitting out my shirt before leaving the house at 7:45 to walk to his bus stop Ryan in the hot 100++ Arizona sun, I relaxed and enjoyed my day.
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This is me at 33 years old and 29 weeks pregnant. Can you say, "Holy Fat Face, Batman???" And how do you like my new stripper boobs? They arrived last week. None of my bras fit...back fat spillage is not a good look for me. I'm 90% sure this is what I looked like when I delivered Ryan and I still have 10.5 weeks to go. And I surpassed what I looked like when I delivered Kaylin over a month ago. Either this kid is going to be huge or I'm going to have mega weight to lose postpardum!!!
I prefer this impromptu picture that Kaylin took. I'm just going to pretend that my face looks this thin all the time. I might even replace it as my profile picture since I'm sportin' my new hair color.
Mike's mom watched Kaylin while my mom took me to lunch, shopping for a birthday gift and a couple of fun outfits for the baby, then for pedicures and a polish change for my hot date with Mike tonight.
Then she babysat while Mike and I went to dinner. We missed all of the 7-something movies, so headed home early, just after the kids were in bed. Overall, a wonderful, relaxing day.
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And thanks to Facebook, I think I received more birthday wishes than I ever have in my whole life! Seriously, like over 50!!! Not counting e-cards and emails. I love my friends. And the old classmates on Facebook that I haven't talked to in 15 years. And those of you who are my Facebook friends that read my blog but I've never met. I just feel...loved.
This idea was taken from the book, Home Improvement, The Parenting Book You Can Read to Your Kids, by Dr. Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller, RN, BSN.
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Sometimes the best way to help a child is by doing nothing and staying out of the way, allowing a natural consequence to provide the teaching. You’ve probably learned a number of things through natural consequences. Maybe more than you’d like to admit.
- save your sales receipt so you’ll have it if you need to return what you bought
- buy gas when your tank is on “E” even if you’re late for work
- don’t forget to water your plants
- don’t wash your husband’s red sweatshirt with his white underwear
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Natural consequences allow life to provide its own lesson without outside intervention. When a parent intentionally stays out of a problem and makes little or no comment, the child has an opportunity to learn from life.
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In the Bible, Peter was allowed to experience a natural consequence of lack of faith when he stepped out of the boat in Matthew 14. After he began to sink, however, Jesus was there to help him. Jesus also allowed Peter to make the mistake of denying him three times. No lectures or rebukes were needed; just a look from the master’s eyes and Peter was overcome with remorse. Many times in the gospels, Jesus allowed life to be the teacher and he took on the role of counselor or coach.
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Natural consequences often happen if we, as parents, learn to keep quiet. The four-year-old who goes out to play on a hot day wearing a turtleneck learns by experience. The six-year-old who chooses to skip snack because she wants to continue her game may feel the pain later. The ten-year-old who spends all his money on one thing may wish he had not done so. Each of these experiences can be a learning opportunity if the parent responds wisely.
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The question then is how are we going to respond? These may be tempting opportunities for parents to condemn, lecture, or put down a child. When you identify these situations in life, they are excellent opportunities to come alongside, express empathy, and help a child learn problem-solving skills.
didn't want to screw it up.
This post is going to be short and sweet. If you have more than one bathroom (and most of you reading this DO) - I suggest keeping one of each bathroom need under the sink in each bathroom. Beneath the sinks of our bathrooms you will find: a sponge, a roll of paper towels, a spray bottle of homemade glass cleaner, a spray bottle of all-purpose cleaner, a bottle of bleach and Scrubbing Bubbles flushable wipes. (those are my un-environmentally-friendly gui
lty pleasure...I hate cleaning toilets and the flushable wipes go directly into the toilet and break down as easily as toilet paper)
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I got so sick of lugging things from one bathroom to the next that I sucked it up and bought multiples. This way, I can choose to float between bathrooms doing the sinks while the toilets soak in bleach or quickly do one bathroom completely without leaving in search of supplies.
I blogged about some Time Saving Lunch Tips earlier this year, but am getting a little anxious about packing school lunches for Ryan once he starts Kindergarten next week. It recently occurred to me that he won't have a fridge to store his lunch, like Mike does at work. I need to either figure out how to keep fresh fruit and turkey sandwiches cold for him all morning or come up with a few new creative lunch box items to send with him every day.
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The lunches I'm used to making for Mike are boring and predictable: sandwich, chips or pretzels, apple, homemade dessert. Thank goodness he doesn't need a lot of variety! But I know how quickly kids get bored and am hoping to mix things up for Ryan right from the start.
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Of course, then my mom stressed me out further by reminding me of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" where all the poor little girl wanted was PB&J on Wonder bread and her mom always sent her with leftovers, like moussaka, which the cute little blond girls called, "Moose Caca." So now I guess my goal is to give Ryan variety without assisting him in being a freak.
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For creative options for filling foods, I got these ideas from friends:
- yogurt tubes stuck in the freezer stay cold for a couple of hours and defrost by lunchtime, even keeping nearby foods cold, too
- frozen cheese sticks will also stay cold and defrost by lunchtime, also acting like an ice pack
- if cheese sticks are out of your budget, consider buying a large block of cheese, slicing and portioning it, then wrap several slices and freeze to stick in lunch boxes in the morning with some crackers
- if your school isn't nut-free, homemade trail mix with almonds/peanuts, raisins/cranberries, chocolate chips /M&Ms and something with whole grains like Cheerios.
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To keep foods cold (in addition to the above items being frozen) I've heard the idea of freezing juice boxes as an ice pack or stuffing a sports bottle from home with ice and a little water to thaw out all morning.
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Lunch box surprises are also highly recommended. Notes on a napkin, sandwiches cut out with a heart, star or dinosaur cookie cutter, stickers, a fortune cookie or a lollipop...kids love surprises. I like the idea of doing things sporadically, but it also might be fun to make it a habit of including surprises on Fridays to end the week on a high note. But then I need to remember every Friday...why do I always try to put that kind of "Mom pressure" on myself?
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Do you have any other helpful lunch box ideas?
I don't have much to say today, but wanted to share some pictures I've taken for my Project 365 (picture of the day) scrapbook.
I had trouble coming up with errands to run while Ryan was at Vacation Bible School a couple of weeks ago, so Kaylin and I stopped into a shoe store to look around. (I'm sick of my fashion conscious friends teasing me for always wearing my comfy leather flip flops!) I think she had more fun than I did, prancing around in size 10 heels of all shapes and colors.
Ryan's "car" - he called me into the kitchen to ask if I wanted him to drive me to the doctor's office to look at the baby.
Playing dress up as bride and groom. I don't know what's with Kaylin's solemn face, but she totally held out the gown with her fingers without prompting. I noticed it after I took the picture. (this is what the kids were doing while we were on the phone the other day, Mom)
Last week, Ryan asked if he could wash my feet like Jesus did. I sat in the reading chair in his room snapping pictures while he carefully washed and dried both of my feet. It was such a rare and sweet moment! (if I was smart, I'd train him to give me pedicures...)
Kaylin making herself an almond butter sandwich...she's recently started requesting "no jelly" for some reason. Blech. Her left hand stayed in mid-air like that for at least 2-3 minutes straight while she tried to spread the almond butter.
Here are the kids pretending... again. I think Kaylin was supposed to be in the hospital or something. Ryan was helping her up to give her a drink of water. Either that or he was raising her from the dead...I can't remember. She's covered in scarves, which might have been representing the linens they wrapped dead people in 2000 years ago. (her face was also covered moments before I took this picture)
This is currently Ryan's dresser. He is a collector of random odds and ends - I'm not sure where all of this stuff will go when I turn the top of this dresser into the baby's changing table in a few months! But I wanted to be sure to capture how it looks today. Usually everything is lined up very neatly, but on this day, it was sort of all scattered everywhere. Everything on the dresser was placed there intentionally by my meticulous first born.
That's it for now. Now go - take some pictures of the little things in your mundane daily life!
I got an email with the following useful shortcuts...enjoy!
Have you 
ever read an email or an article and seen a cool little symbol like "☺", "♀", or "☼". Many names have a tilde over a letter like "ñ" in the name Peña. For the longest time I've wondered how to type a fraction like this "1¼" instead of this "1 1/4". These may be minor details but wouldn't it be nice to know how to properly spell the name of your customers with Hispanic names like Peña, Muños, or José? For example to type the letter "ñ" hold the "Alt" key down and enter "164" on the numeric keypad (on the right side of your keyboard) with the Num Lock on.
All of these can be done by just knowing the Alt code for the letter or symbol that you want to type. There are hundreds of letters and symbols that are just waiting to be utilized in your everyday typing.
Your wait is over! The folks at UsefulShortcuts.com have made a helpful reference sheet with hundreds of useful codes.
Click here to see the Alt Codes Reference Sheet!
Stonyfield Farms just loves giving away free stuff! YoBaby just came out with a great new 3-in-1 Organic Meal and would like to give one of YOU a bunch of free coupons and some fun accessories.
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Here are the details about the product: YoBaby Organic Meals offer a unique 3-in-1 combination of protein-packed yogurt + fruit + veggie purée in one cup. They’re an easy, delicious and surprising way to help moms give their babies and toddlers a trio of important food groups at every meal.
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Three delicious flavors -- Pear & Green Bean, Peach & Squash, Apple & Sweet Potato – are just right for baby’s growing appetite. And the single serve 6-ounce cup offers 50% more than current 4-ounce YoBaby multipacks. Visit www.yobabyyogurt.com to learn more.
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This tip comes from the book, Say Goodbye to Whining, Complaining, and Bad Attitudes, In You and Your Kids by Dr Scott Turansky and Joanne Miller, RN, BSN.
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Take a few minutes and imagine what your children will be like as adults. Some parents have immediate thoughts of terror and doom, but instead, look at the good qualities your children have and imagine how those qualities will benefit them later in life. Then share those observations with your children.
Envisioning a positive future looks beyond the day-to-day discipline and says, "I see qualities in you that are going to make you successful." Statements like, "With that kind of thoughtfulness you're going to make a great husband." Or "Your thoroughness is going to make you a valuable employee someday." When parents learn to view their children this way, they look past the daily grind of parenting to what their children are becoming. What is my child good at? What do I see now that will bring success as my child grows?
We've probably all heard the statement that children believe what we say about them. If a parent tells a child he'll never amount to anything, he's likely to incorporate that into his belief about himself and it may end up becoming true. We can take that same principle and teach our children to see the good in themselves, the specific ways that God has blessed them.
Interestingly enough, giving our children a positive vision for the future encourages them to live up to it now. The qualities we focus on end up being the ones they see in themselves and develop.
Envisioning a positive future gives our children hope and direction. It says, "You're going to make it." "I believe in you." It's a way to honor our children. Like giving them a gift that will last a lifetime, a hopeful way of looking at themselves and their life.
After all God does this for us on a regular basis. Verses like Philippians 1:6 give us hope to live now to the fullest. "He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."
This may be obvious, but just in case this is a new idea to someone out there, I have to share.
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Whenever we go on vacation, I bring a bag for dirty clothes. All dirty clothes go into the bag and the bag is dropped off in the laundry room before the rest of the luggage is brought upstairs.
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For longer trips, I'll even do two bags: one for light clothes, one for darks. It's so much easier to unpack knowing that everything NOT in a dirty clothes bag is clean and ready to be put away.
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If you forget to bring bags, most hotels have dry cleaning bags in the closet that you can use.
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Like I said, most of you may do this already, but it took me lots of trips in college to figure this one out!!!
Being away this weekend helped me reach my #4 goal to do a three day media fast. I shut off the computer Thursday night and didn't touch a computer or t.v. for a wonderfully quiet three days!!! (For those wondering, the posts you read over the weekend were auto-posted last week...the things I do for you guys! I did jump on last night after everyone was in bed to download our vacation pictures and peek at the 43 emails in my inbox)
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What's ironic is that I didn't even listen to the radio. On Saturday, we spent 2 hours driving around trying to get my battery replaced and once we succeeded, the anti-theft device was activated on the audio system in the van and it locked up completely. Since we bought it used, I have no idea what the code is to get the radio, CD player and DVD working again! I get to call Honda's service department today to try to convince them that I didn't steal this radio from another vehicle and to find out how to reset the system.
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We also crossed #68 off my list of 101 Goals in 1001 Days by eating dinner at Organ Stop Pizza. Mike has great memories of this place
from his childhood, but the kids (who had skipped their naps, swam all afternoon and were already excited to be staying in a hotel) didn't get into it. There have a guy playing a huge organ while you eat with lights flashing, puppets singing, bubbles falling from the ceiling...it's a big production. I just think they were too tired and didn't identify with some of the music he was playing. (The Star Wars theme song, New York New York, things like that. Under the Sea and Beauty and the Beast should have been good, but they haven't seen most of the Disney movies.) The pizza was just as good as Mike remembered and he was really bummed that we had to leave because the kids were whiny, bored and laying their heads on the table because they were so tired. We'll likely try again when they're a little older.
Breakfast
Apple Fritters
Homemade Crock Pot Granola with yogurt and fruit
Whole Wheat Crepes with berries
Banana Bread muffins
Lunch
Pine Nut Orzo Salad
Turkey sandwiches for the kids
Ants on a Log (celery spread with peanut butter and raisins)
Fruit salad
Hummus and crackers
Dinner
Monday - {Healthy} Chicken Pot Pie
Tuesday - Lasagna Roll Ups with Whole Wheat French Bread Rolls
Wednesday - Crock Pot Chicken Burritos
Thursday - Vegetable Penne with Pesto
Friday - Spaghetti Carbonara with salad
Saturday - Sloppy Joes with tator tots
Sunday - Garden Veggie Quiche
Desserts
Homemade Ice Cream
Chocolate Krispie Treats
This is a picture I took of our fridge back in May during the Spring Cleaning Challenge. This is very typical of what our fridge looks like and it drives me crazy. But I'll be the first to admit that it's my fault that it looks this way! School papers are immediately stuck up there, you'll also see the grocery list, a birth announcement, ultrasound pictures, Sunday school paperwork and scripture memory verses. Periodically, I go through and toss most of the contents on our fridge into the recycle bin. And all too often, I don't bury it far enough and my kids come to me asking why I threw something away. (*gulp*)
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