Accoutrements

16 Jan

Our littlest is 3 years old and is constantly carrying around little toys. Her brother never did this, but from the time she could walk she’s been carrying toys with her everywhere she goes. Sometimes it’s little stuffed animals, sometimes Little People toys, sometimes action figures that actually belong to her big brother. Around here we call them her “accoutrements” and they shift and change every week so you never know which are her current favorites.

This habit could easily drive us crazy, but she’s pretty organized and responsible with her little habit…

  1. When we leave the house she always has to take something with her, but I can tell her how many she can take and she will immediately evaluate what she has and put toys away until she gets down to that exact number.
  2. When we’re going to someone’s house – especially Grandma and Grandpa – I let her take more than usual and she puts them in a bag or box to take with her.
  3. She’s really good at making sure she puts them in my purse rather than setting them down if we’re in a store or restaurant, so I don’t think we’ve ever lost one.
  4. She knows she can’t take any toys into school with her so she’ll take them with her in the car in the morning, but leave them behind in her car seat so they’re still there when I pick her up.

It’s gotten to the point where she wants to take them with her to bed every night and then back downstairs every morning, which might not be a problem if there weren’t SO many to carry up and down. So now we have a pink basket. Every night the basket goes up to bed with her and every morning they come down in the same pink basket.

Here’s the beauty of it… she leaves them in the basket sitting at the foot of her bed until morning. Then when she wakes up she has all of her favorite toys with her, so she sits up bed playing with her “accoutrements” until I come up and get her. It’s usually just long enough for me to take a shower in peace, which, as most moms know, is a pretty big deal.

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Old School Lunchboxes

15 Jan

Our Emily is obsessed with little toys. It makes it tricky to store her toys since I’m a little particular and like to keep “like” toys together in small containers.

One of the toys she likes is Squinkies. If you’re not familiar with them, they are itty-bitty rubbery toys that come in all kinds of different characters. One of my favorite storage containers for these little guys is an old-school metal lunch box and they have tons of them at Party City. They’re with all of the party supplies and come with LOTS of different characters on them.

Now Emily knows where she can find her Squinkies each morning AND even better… she knows where to put them away each night. The one we use the most happens to be Dr. Pepper, because we’re slightly obsessed with it around here, but they have all kinds of cute kids characters for boys and girls.

Oh, and they’re portable!

Easiest Pasta and Broccoli Recipe

3 Jan

I made a new dish for dinner tonight knowing it was going to be a risky one. No one in my family is a fan of vegetables, but especially broccoli and this one had a lot of it.

The recipe was super easy and I thought it was delicious. Nicholas ate almost his entire bowl. Good signs right? My husband picked around the broccoli (claiming I gave him way more than everyone else) and then…. (insert ominous music) he didn’t go back for seconds. He ALWAYS goes back for seconds!

Looks like I may have to reserve this one for either (a) lunch or (b) evenings when my husband isn’t home for dinner.

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A Few of my Favorite Things

11 Dec

I know I mention Pinterest an awful lot here, but it’s pretty amazing and I am not afraid to admit that I’m addicted. Here are some of my favorite things this week:

I don’t know who thinks of these things, but this is awesome. If only I had the wall space and this amazing collection of heels.

Source: Uploaded by user via Becky on Pinterest

I recently went to the hardware store and grabbed color swatches in the colors around my house, but this is an even better idea. Dip paint sticks into the actual paint you used to paint your house, drill holes and attach to an O-ring.

 

Source: nattybydesign.blogspot.com via Becky on Pinterest

Tomato Basil Parmesan Soup in the Crock Pot! This sounds SO delicious! It’s definitely on the new recipe list for next week.

Peanut Butter Honey Breakfast Bars

8 Dec

Nicholas recently started a new medication that requires us to make sure he eats a good breakfast before school each day. The most important part is that it be packed with protein to keep him going all day. We’ve always made sure the kids eat breakfast before school, but it’s often packed with carbs – bagels with cream cheese, cereal, waffles, etc. Nothing terribly unhealthy, but certainly not balanced.

I was really excited when I came across this super-easy, super-fast recipe for Peanut Butter Honey Breakfast Bars. AND… everyone loves them! Even Chris is easting them every morning and he rarely eats breakfast.

 

1 cup peanut butter (be sure to use natural peanut butter with only peanuts and salt in the ingredient list!)
1/2 cup honey
1 egg
1/4 t. vanilla
1/8 cup sesame seeds

Mix all ingredients well.  Spread mixture into a 8×8 pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Allow bars to cool completely before cutting.

Big thank you to Heavenly Homemakers for the great recipe! Now I’m on the lookout for a banana breakfast bar recipe that is just as easy. No luck so far!

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The “Magic” of Christmas! [Insert Sarcasm]

6 Dec

It’s wonderful and amazing that my 9 yo still believes in Santa. Honestly, I was beginning to wonder if he really believed or if he was just saying he did to ensure those presents still show up on Christmas morning. Well, my question was recently answered and I now know for sure that he not only believes in Santa, but also the tooth fairy. Oh, and the Elf on the Shelf (Mark)!

You’d think I’d be thrilled about this. You know, that whole magic of Christmas thing. The challenge is that the older they get, the harder it gets to keep up. For Christmas he asked for a $400 Lego Death Star. Seriously?! A $400 toy is a tough one for us even in a good year, but for various reasons this Christmas is going to be a little tight for us. There’s no way we could buy him an expensive toy like that unless it was the ONLY thing he was getting, which is obviously out of the question.

Then last week he tells me it’s ok because he figured out a solution. He’s going to ask SANTA for the Lego Death Star. Gee, thanks!

We think we dodged that bullet by getting another (less expensive) toy that he’s been asking about for years, so cross your fingers for us on Christmas morning.

Just as we thought we were in the clear with Santa, tonight he lost a tooth. One of his close friends gets Pokemon toys instead of money for his teeth, so Nicholas decided tonight that he wanted the same thing. Come on now! The Tooth Fairy brings money, not toys!

Luckily, I remember we had Pokemon toys stashed away for Christmas. Now I am writing this post as I wait for him to go to sleep so I can sneak into this room, grab the tooth and leave behind this….

Note to self… don’t forget to buy more Pokemon Plush. This kid still has a lot of baby teeth!

Another note to self… don’t forget to buy a replacement Christmas toy for that Pokemon Plush we had to rob from Santa to pay the Tooth Fairy.

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Basic Frame + Free Printables = Decor for Every Holiday

4 Dec

Here’s a quick and easy top for decorating for different holidays and season. Buy a basic frame and use a Google Image Search or Pinterest to find free printables for each holiday and season.

I had this frame in my old office along with at least four others. I’ve had them tucked away in our guest room figuring I’d use them for a craft project or in a new office down the road. Then I found some really cute Halloween printables a couple of months ago and decided it would be perfect for them. I’ve now used it for Thanksgiving and here is the Christmas version. I found these cute prints on Pinterest. I pulled them into Photoshop Elements (PSE), resized them and printed them out on cardstock. You could also use Picnick if you don’t have Photoshop or PSE.

By the way, if you haven’t jumped on Pinterest yet I highly recommend it. Almost every idea I have for home decor or craft projects originates from there.

Countdown to Christmas

1 Dec DSC_0001

Ever since I had Nicholas I’ve been fascinated with different ways to countdown to Christmas. Every year I try something different hoping to build more and more excitement for the kids and find a tradition we can stick to each year.

Early on I tried the same thing my parents used to do with us, which was the classic construction paper rings. We would sit down every year to make and decorate them and then tear a ring off every day until Christmas. Somehow it didn’t have the same magic it did when I was a kid.

Some years we’ve kept it really simple and bought a simple wall hanging that we changed the date on each day. We forgot about it most days and it was rather uneventful when we did remember to do it.

One year we got a little crazy and even tried the Sock Advent Calendar, which Nicholas loved because he got a presents every day, but I hated because it was REALLY hard to find reasonably priced items that fit into those little itty bitty socks. Side note: if anyone needs any baby socks let me know.

Well, this year I may have gotten just slightly carried away…

We have the simple foam door hanging where we change the little red stopper each day.

We have the classic “piece of chocolate each day” countdown that I got on clearance after Christmas last year. Those chocolates may or may not poison my children.

We have the Lego Advent calendar Nicholas has been begging us to buy for weeks. We caved. His reaction when he opened it was completely worth it. He was over-the-top excited.

Last year we decided to go the same route everyone else was going nd adopted an Elf on the Shelf. I can’t for the life of me remember what we named him, but he’s definitely making an appearance again for 2011 since this will  be the first year Emily really “gets it”.

We can’t forget about the giant Christmas countdown sign I made over the weekend.

And last but not least, this evening’s addition to the already ridiculous list… the Holiday Book Countdown. I read about this idea on Pinterest over the summer and started planning and collecting immediately. I finished up the collection last week with a few recommendations from friends, and got them all wrapped and numbered tonight. If I can keep Emily from opening every one of them by 7am tomorrow morning I will have accomplished something big.

Now if I can just remember to open/change out/move/build/eat/hide to keep everything going for the next 25 days.

Anyone want to take any bets on how likely that is?

Hint: Not very! 

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Our Ongoing Struggle with Lunch at School

15 Sep

When Nicholas was in first grade I made an honest effort to make his lunch every day for school. It turned out to be too much for us, so we pulled back and started splitting the week – a few days we would make lunch and the rest he would buy at school. Eventually, even that didn’t work out and he bought his lunch every day for the remainder of the year.

When Nicholas was in second grade we started out splitting the week – a few days a week we would make his lunch and the rest he would buy at school. Eventually, we got lazy busy and he started buying his lunch every day. Towards the end of the school year I noticed the amount of money in his lunch account was dropping really quickly. Turns out he was buying ice cream EVERY day. Ugh! Time for a new plan.

So when Nicholas started third grade a few weeks ago I decided we better get organized so we could stick to the plan a little better. The plan being to take lunch three days a week and buy lunch at school two days a week. He looks at the menu at the beginning of each month and decides what days he wants to buy so we can keep track on our weekly schedule.

First, a little background… when Nicholas was little I wasn’t very good about insisting he eat his fruits and vegetables. Unfortunately, it’s made it very difficult to convince him of why he should now. I hoped that since his Dad and I are eating better and his sister has always been a good eater that he would come around. You know, that whole “set a good example” thing. That hasn’t worked out for us. He tries it, but then balks at it because he doesn’t like the taste. So when we were preparing for third grade I decided to give him a little incentive.

Click for a larger view.

Here’s what we did…

  1. We sat down together to come up with a plan. He LOVED that he got to be a part of the process.
  2. We put together a list of foods he could/would eat for lunch when we made it at home – fruits/veggies, bread options, main dishes and sides. That way we can quickly put together our grocery list each weekend AND quickly make lunches in the evenings. All we have to do is pick and choose from our list.
  3. We came up with a set of rules about lunch. He has to eat a fruit or veggie every day, he can only have ice cream on Fridays, etc.
  4. We also put together the DNE (Do Not Eat) list as we call it. These are foods he can get at school that we don’t let him eat at home. Schools get a little better every year with their menus, but whole grain or not, Pop Tarts are still a no-no in our house.

The key to all of this as that he gets rewarded if he eats well all week long. We use a marble rewards system – also something new around here – so he gets extra marbles if he follows our rules.

So far things are going well. We’ve determined that some items need to be removed from the list – he doesn’t like carrots and apparently grapes make him feel like he’s going to throw up. We’ve also figured out that he likes celery with peanut butter, loves applesauce and will tolerate apples and oranges. That’s major progress for us.

Maybe by fourth grade he will be making his lunches himself.

Slow-Cooker Lasagna Takes the Lead

14 Sep

I’ve been trying to beef up my supply of Crock Pot recipes since it’s often much easier to prep meals early in the day than at dinnertime. I can prepare everything around the time we’re eating lunch and basically forget about it until dinners ready to be served at 6pm. I’m a big fan of that.

Lately, I get most of my new recipes from magazines – Cooking Light, Real Simple, Parenting, etc. – so I had a file full of unorganized magazine pages. Over the weekend I decided to get organized, so I put them all into plastic sleeves, categorized them, and put them into a binder.  Those that I have online I’ve bookmarked under “recipe” on my Delicious account, so I have two go-to places when it comes time to plan meals for the week.

Besides being unorganized with my recipes, I also have a habit of sitting down to determine meals for the week, making my shopping list based on that and then throwing my shopping list out when I’m done at the store. Suddenly, I can’t remember what recipes I’d planned for or why I bought the random foods I’m finding in my pantry and fridge. This week I decided to start keeping a list of recipes we have food for, so we can quickly determine what we’re going to eat each afternoon/evening.

Now to the point of this post… slow-cooker lasagna. This is a recipe I pulled out of Kraft’s Food & Family magazine almost a year ago now, but never took the time to make. Boy have we been missing out! Keep in mind, I’m really picky about lasagna. My mom makes lasagna that is to-die-for. I never order lasagna in a restaurant and have never had anyone else’s lasagna that touched my moms. My moms is still the best, but since I can’t seem to repeat hers no matter what I do, I needed my own.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb ground beef (I used 90/10 and it was great)
  • 1 jar (26 oz) spaghetti sauce
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 container (15 oz) Ricotta cheese
  • 1 pkg (7 oz) 2% milk shredded Mozzarella cheese, divided
  • 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
  • 6 lasagna noodles, uncooked

Directions

  1. Brown meat in large skillet; drain. Stir in spaghetti sauce and water.
  2. Mix Ricotta, 1 1/2 cups mozzarella, 2 tbsp Parmesan, egg and parsley.
  3. Spoon 1 cup meat sauce into slow cooker; top with layers of half each of the noodles, broken to fit, and cheese mixture. Cover with 2 cups of the remaining meat sauce. Top with remaining noodles, broken to fit, cheese mixture and meat sauce. Cover with lid.
  4. Cook on LOW 4-5 hours or until liquid is absorbed. Sprinkle with remaining cheese; let stand, covered, 10 min. or until melted.

What comes out is yummy goodness that everyone in my family loved. Well, except the baby who is once again sick and won’t eat anything except Annie’s fruit snacks, but she doesn’t count.

I cooked ours for just about 5 hours and it ended up with those burnt cheese edges that my husband and I both fight over. We had enough for all four of us, plus leftovers for about two more people – or one if my husband gets a hold of them.

I also just noticed that the recipe has a tip about making everything the night before, layering it into the Crock Pot liner and refrigerating it overnight. Then the next day all you have to do is pull it out, drop it in Crock Pot and turn it on. Genius!

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