Jolly Green Mommy

Aloha Friday

2012-02-10T06:00:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks ago, I took Jolly Green Daddy, Sprout and Small Fry to a local farm to pick tomatoes and strawberries. We had a lot of fun, and then we had Homemade Strawberry Preserves and Roasted Tomato Sauce.

My question is:

Do you enjoy going to Pick Your Own Farms? What do you like to pick?

I have picked strawberries, tomatoes, blueberries, apples, peaches and pumpkins. I love going to You Pick It Farms.

Thank you for joining me for Aloha Friday. Feel free to join in the fun at An Island Life.

Once a Month Shopping

2012-02-09T21:22:00.001-05:00

This month I thought I would try out Once a Month Shopping. At the beginning of the month, I planned out the meals that we will be eating this month and planned out my shopping for the month as well. My hope was that I would be able to do the bulk of my shopping at the beginning of the month and therefore use my budget better. I know that I will need to go back to the store for foods that perish faster, like milk. I also knew that I would be able to supplement my menu with the produce that I would be getting from the organic buying club.

To give you a feel for what I did. I will recap my shopping trips thus far this month.

I started at Publix. Here I bought many of the basics I knew I would need for the month. I bought some frozen fish, canned tomatoes and artichokes, some pasta, eggs, salsa and canola oil. I spent $70.12 (saving $20.02).

After Publix, I went to Whole Foods. I went while the kids were napping on a Monday afternoon. I was shocked at how busy it was. I tried to go shopping, but when I was about to lose my mind and hadn't passed the produce section yet, I knew that this was not the time to attempt this shop.

From there, I went to Winn Dixie to pick up a couple items that I didn't get earlier, but knew we would need before I could get to Whole Foods. There I spent $7.88 on milk, spinach and orange juice.

The next morning, I went to Whole Foods early and felt much better when I walked into the store. Here I bought cheese, milk, rice, beans, a lot of veggie broth (10 containers, on sale with $1 off coupons), some produce, oats and quinoa in bulk, and some cereal (that I plan to use in recipes for other things). I spent $164.84 (saving $22.45). If I wasn't looking for organic dairy and grains, etc., I probably could have spent less. However, with how I choose to feed my family I was happy with this.

So my major shopping for the month was at $242.84. This left me with 40% of my grocery budget left for the month.

We'll see how the rest of the month goes...

Disney Wordless Wednesday - Love Is In The Air

2012-02-08T07:28:00.000-05:00

Or link up at The Info Mouse!

Let's Go Giants

2012-02-05T07:12:00.000-05:00

The Super Bowl make me happy. Since I was little I remember looking forward to the Super Bowl. Even when I had no idea who was playing, I was still excited to sit down and watch. Even if at some ages I just wanted to know who was going to win the "Bud Bowl."

We never had any big parties, and I don't really remember going to any, but this was the game to watch every year, and I was going to watch. I was raised a Giants fan. Being that I grew up closer to New York than to Boston we tended to be more interested in the New York teams, and I followed the trend. I remember when I was 10 or 11. I had to give a "speech" about my hero. I think it was a week or two after the Super Bowl and I chose Jeff Hostetler as my hero. He hadn't been their QB for long and against the odds he led the Giants to win the Super Bowl! I hope I can say the same of Eli Manning tomorrow!

As I got older, I've become more and more interested in football. Including the football elimination pool, I partook in with my husband, mother and uncles. (I'm almost ready to forgive the Giants for knocking me out...). The war in this house is which team the kids will like. Sprout seems to be a Dolphan, though she knows Mommy's team is the Giants and will cheer them on too. I'm now working on Small Fry.

The last time the Giants were in the Super Bowl (hmmm... against New England who had not yet lost a game), I was pregnant with Sprout. I remember saying that if I had been further along in pregnancy, I might have delivered that night with all the jumping, yelling and elevated blood pressure. Now, she will watch some of the game with us this year. Hopefully, they will do us proud!

Go Giants!

Happy 93rd Birthday!

2012-02-04T21:19:00.000-05:00

The above picture was taken when I was younger than Small Fry.

A couple days ago I wrote about what I wished I could have said. Today I can tell you what I did say. I called my grandfather to wish him a happy birthday today. Today was his 93rd birthday. He is the proud father of 3, proud grandfather of 5, and great-grandfather to 3. He worked as an accountant for many years. Even upon retiring to Florida, he continued to work and volunteer his services. He did this both for his community as at his synagogue where he has been an active member since moving to Florida 15 plus years ago

Last April, he was honored with a select group of men throughout the county, as Man of the Year for synagogue. This was a great celebration as we had almost the entire family together to celebrate.

These pictures were taken at this celebration. The first is my grandparents dancing with Sprout. The second shows you how clearly they love each other 68 years into their marriage.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

Let's Talk Budget

2012-02-04T09:32:00.003-05:00

January Budget Recap

Well, as a whole, I feel better about our spending last month than I have in a while. I think the fact that we were tracking our spending on an almost daily basis really helped. I can tell you when I slacked at my record keeping at the end of the month, things did not go quite as well. But I'm going to take that as a learning experience and make sure that I am better about tracking our spending.

The grocery and food budget had to be adjusted. There was just no way that I could keep within the $400 budget for everything. So it was adjusted to $400 for groceries and $150 for eating out. As I have said that I need to be honest with myself, I will be honest with you too. We spent $472 on groceries and $165 on eating out last month. As I said before I feel better about our spending, but it's still not perfect. I would like to stay more in budget so that we have more money to put into savings. If we keep working at it, I think we'll do better.

What did I learn last month?

If I'm debating if we are going to use something or might need it in the future, it's not worth getting. As someone told me "A deal is only a deal if you're going to use it." I think I spent too much time and money convincing myself that we would use something and realizing later that we aren't going to.

I need to have a plan and know what I'm doing or dinner becomes a much bigger deal. It also means that if I don't feel well, Jolly Green Daddy can help me out and make a meal. I have a meal plan for the month and am hoping that it will help me out.

It is important to keep track of spending. It is the only way to make sure we're spending wisely.

If one shopping strategy isn't working try another one. I'm giving Once a Month Shopping a try this month.

February's Budget

As I mentioned above I had to amend the Grocery and Food Budget. For February we have $400 to spend on groceries and $150 to spend on eating out. Small Fry turns 1 this month and I'm hoping not to go over budget even with having a small family get together. I do have a separate area of the budget set aside for birthdays and gifts, so some of the spending will come from there too.

I will post the details of these trips later, but for now, here is how our budget is looking. Remember, that my plan for this month is to do the bulk of the shopping at the beginning of the month with small supplemental shops for dairy and produce later on.

Starting Amount $400

Publix Trip 2/1: $70.12
Winn Dixie 2/1: $7.88
Whole Foods 2/1: $164.84
Whole Foods 2/3: $22.94
Target 2/3: $8.41

Remaining Budget: $125.81

Aloha Friday

2012-02-03T07:00:00.003-05:00

Yesterday afternoon, I flushed the toilet in our most used bathroom to find that it was draining very sluggishly. It was gurgling and wasn't filling right too. Ugh! Time to get the plunger. No change. I poured a gallon of very hot water down the drain. It drained, but didn't help. Then I used baking soda and vinegar (that stuff is amazing), still nothing! Uh Oh!

This was the final blow for this toilet and off we went to a big box store to get a new one. We had replaced the toilet in our master bath with an American Standard Cadet 3 Right Height Elongated toilet. It had been recommended to my parents by their plumber, so we went with that one. Jolly Green Daddy and I installed it on our own and knew we could do it again. So when we went to get our new one we were looking for the same toilet. We found the same toilet and it's "brother" with a dual flush.

Picture from American Standard

So we brought home our new dual flush toilet and waited for the kids to go to bed. We were getting ready to install our new toilet. We took out the old one and found that the flange that the new one was going to be attached to was broken. It looks like when they redid our tile floor they broke it! And just did what they could to make work. Grrrrr...

Looks like another trip to the hardware store. JGD comes back with a new flange and a repair kit. When we look at what we have in the floor, we finally decide that it is time to call a plumber. Ugh! So now we are waiting for a plumber to come and fix our flange and install our new toilet. And Sprout is wondering why the potty is in the backyard.

So my question is, what do you do around the house and what do you call/hire someone to do for you?

As I discussed above, I do most of the minor plumbing in the house and electrical. When it comes to rewiring, repiping, flooring and other complicated tasks, I call someone.

Thank you for joining me for Aloha Friday. Feel free to join in the fun at An Island Life.

Meal Plan - February

2012-02-02T08:16:00.002-05:00

Or at least sane!

I did my meal plan a little differently this month. In the past I was doing 1 week at a time and hoping that I would be able to get the grocery store to get what we need. If I didn't (which was not uncommon), I was left to come up with something else, which often left me stressed out.

This month I decided to try to do a Monthly Meal Plan and do 1 big food shop at the beginning of the month. I know there will be smaller shops to fill in other items we need (dairy, produce), but I'm hoping that this makes everything else easier and helps us to stick to our budget better, but that's for a different post.

The other difference with our meal plan, is that I made a list of meals that I will make depending on our mood and needs at the time. I didn't want to give everything a set day because for some reason that also stresses me out. I did try to assign things to a specific week so that it won't be too much of the same thing all the time.

** Are items that I need to prepare ahead of time.
^^ Will post a recipe.

Week 1:

Breakfasts:
Waffles (freezer)
Muffins - strawberry
Leftover Quiche
Cereal

Lunches:
Tuna
Caprese Grilled Cheese
On Your Own (kids have PB & J or cream cheese and Jelly on crackers)
Broccoli and Cheese Muffins
Sandwiches
Leftovers

Dinners:
Stuffed Peppers
Beef Kabab/Tuna Steak, rice and brussels sprouts
Tilapia, creamed kale and potatoes
Spinach and Feta Quiche (This was for a night when Jolly Green Daddy is not home) ^^
Meltdown night (Yes I had a mini meltdown as I prepared for the month, and we went out for Mexican. That's another post entirely.)
Pizza Roll Up
Chicken???/Veggie Pot Pie (Depends if Jolly Green Daddy wants to go to Kosher Market to pick out meat. Doesn't really make sense for me to go on my own.)

Week 2:

Breakfasts:
Baked Oatmeal
Mini Quiche **
Granola **
English Muffins **

Lunches:
(Jolly Green Daddy will not be home for most lunches this week, making it a little easier for me)
Chicken Salad (JGD is responsible for this)
Macaroni and Cheese
Broccoli and Cheese Muffins (from last week)
Pizza Muffins **
Peanut Butter/Cream Cheese and Jelly
Quinoa Cakes

Dinners:
Super Bowl! Go Giants! - Mexican Egg Rolls and Spinach Artichoke Pull Apart/Stuffed Bread
Bobby Dean's Oven Fried Chicken/Gardein
Beef Stew??/Mushroom Barley Soup, rolls**
Fish???
Spinach Ricotta Gnocchi
Veggie Something (depends on what we get from the Buying Club)
Quinoa Spinach/Broccoli Bake (JGD will not be home for this one) **

Week 3:

Breakfasts:
Mini Quiche/Frittatas
Granola **
English Muffins **
Mini Quiche **
Quinoa Pancakes

Lunches:
Southwestern Rice Cakes
Tuna Melts
Sandwiches
Leftovers
Pizza Muffins **
Peanut Butter/Cream Cheese and Jelly

Dinners:
Veggie Dumpling Soup, Crusty bread and salad
Cod, Rice, veggie
Veal/Tuna
Polenta Cakes (When JGD is not home.)
Lo Mein/Soba (maybe add chicken)
Ravioli or Tortellini
Chicken Piccata/Chickpea Piccata

Week 4
Small Fry turns 1!

Breakfasts:
Cereal
Granola **
Dutch Baby
Cranberry/Blueberry Breakfast Cake
English Muffins **
Muffins **
Quiche/Frittata

Lunches:
Sandwiches
Macaroni and Cheese
Pesto Pasta Salad
Caprese Tart
Chinese Chicken Salad
Peanut Butter/Cream Cheese and Jelly
Leftovers???

Dinner:
Meatloaf/Veggieloaf???
Burrito/Fajita Bowls ^^
Salmon Fish Sticks
Cottage Cheese Pancakes (JGD won't be home.) or maybe something I can make ahead
Lasagna (either crock pot or made ahead)
Chicken Drumsticks
Pizza

Extras:
Will make 2 loaves of sandwich bread each Week
Make challah or some other kind of special bread
Granola Bars **
Popcorn
Always searching for more healthy snacks
Sorbets
Ice Cream
Pretzel Bites

There may be some changes and adaptations for we get from our Organic Buying Club.

This will be linked up at I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Happy Birthday!

2012-02-02T00:00:00.000-05:00

Today is my mother-in-law's birthday. I wish that I could drop by and bring her a cake to celebrate. I would love to bring her grandchildren by to visit her. Even a phone call would be lovely. Doing any of these things would be wonderful, but I can't. Sadly, she left us 4 years ago. 5 and a half years ago she was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. While we had more time to spend with her than most with her diagnosis. My children never met their grandmother and she never had the chance to meet them.

Addition: I'm sorry for the downer of a post. I just felt the need to talk about her today. Sadly, she is not spoken about enough around the house. And normally it's by me. I wish that my husband would talk about her more and tell the kids, mostly Sprout right now, about his mom. She was a great person (as was his father) and I think it's important that they know about her. There is only so much I can tell them about her, but I do my best. He has no problem keeping "stuff" from her house, but doesn't really talk about the memories or tell the kids stories about things they did. I keep hoping that as they get older that will change. We'll see. Again, I'm sorry for the down post...

Dinner at our House

2012-02-01T21:23:00.003-05:00

While, I would love to invite you all to share a meal at our house, I know that really isn't possible. I did want to tell you more about how we eat. It might help when trying to understand our Meal Plans or why I ~~have a tough time staying in~~ budget the way I do.

We have a kosher home. This means that we do not eat pork, bacon, sausage, shellfish or any other fish that don't have scales. In fact we just learned that catfish isn't kosher because it doesn't have scales. It also means that we do not mix milk and meat. Yup, that's right no cheeseburgers for us. We buy special meat from one of our local Kosher markets. It's actually less to get it there than the supermarket. Winn Dixie doesn't carry any Kosher meat, Publix is 8.99/lb for chicken breast and I don't remember Whole Foods' price, but you can just imagine... This does limit the amount of meat eaten in our home.

Kosher Symbol

The other limit to the amount of meat eaten here is that the main cook, me, doesn't eat meat. I'm a vegetarian. Well, I guess, I'm technically a pescitarian. I eat fish, but nothing with legs. It used to be that my husband would eat meat when we went out. He believes in keeping "Americanized Kosher." The meat at the restaurants doesn't have to be Kosher, but he won't eat anything that is outright not Kosher (ie pork or a cheeseburger). Since we are trying to limit how often we go out, I am trying to serve more meat to appease Jolly Green Daddy's inner carnivore. It also helps that our local Kosher Market had a living social deal. We got 2 certificates each for $20 worth of food for $10. That means $80 of food (mostly meat) for $40, and being that we bought the certificates a couple months ago, it's not coming out of my current budget. Anyway, I digress...

I am trying to break my meat and potato husband of this desire and broaden his horizons. The organic buying club we belong to has helped a lot. This has helped us to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables than ever before. Which works well because Jolly Green Daddy is not a fan of frozen veggies. He grew up on canned and if it's not fresh that is what he prefers. Being that the salt content is through the roof on these and, oh yeah, the green beans are brown, I won't buy them, serve them, go near them. I volunteer to coordinate my local group every other week, which means that I get my food for my time. This is a great help to our budget!

I am trying to serve my family as much whole food as possible and get rid of the processed foods. I have finally been able to make a tuna casserole without the cream of mushroom soup that my ~~family~~ Jolly Green Daddy will eat. This was the hardest for me to master. We do still have some Annie's Organic Macaroni and Cheese in the pantry, though I'm not sure if I'm buying any more after we finish what we have. And there is some Stouffer's Macaroni and Cheese in the freezer for JGD. I am also trying to lessen my processed soy. I know that there is a lot of debate over soy and its benefits or harm. I'm not going to get into that here. I'm just going to say that I am trying to lessen the amount of meat substitutes I eat. I am eating Tofu and we do have Soy Milk in the house (mostly for use with meat meals or making bread).

We are also wondering if we might want to try some other diet changes to see that can improve our general health (Sorry, Mom!). But for now (at least through Small Fry's birthday) we will stick with our regular diet and decide what we want to do come March. I'm also leery to change my children's diets without talking with their pediatrician or a nutritionist to make sure that I really am doing what is best for them.

I bake most of the bread we eat, and am trying to make whatever I can. I have made some strawberry preserves and tomato sauce for fruit that we picked at a local farm.

I think that about sums things up. I hope that helps you to understand why we do what we do around here.

Anyone else have a house like this, either Kosher or mixed diets? I'd love to hear what you do.

2012-01-28T14:37:00.001-05:00

As the first month of the year comes to an end, I am looking at the ~~resolutions~~ goals I made (mentally) at the beginning of the year and how I'm doing. Wow, as January ends, Small Fry's 1st birthday is approaching quite rapidly. I can't believe he's going to be 1 already!

I've decided to put my goals for February in writing.

Have fun celebrating Small Fry's birthday.
Blog more regularly. I have so many ideas, but for some reason I never share them with you. I need to do that. I sure need the "conversation."
Continue tackling the budget.
Complete the 28 days of organizing tasks from Get It Together Girl!: A 28-Day Guide to Practical NOT Perfect Home Organization (Get It Togther Girl!)
Finish and utilize my Household Notebook.
Create a better cleaning concept. Probably creating a cleaning schedule.
Create more educational printables. Anyone need anything?
Create and stick to a workout schedule. Maybe go back to use Wii Active and Wii Fit.

Try to once a month meal plan and shop (maybe do 2 weeks at a time).
Try to use more Love and Logic in parenting.

Keep a positive outlook.

Where have I been?

2012-01-17T21:36:00.000-05:00

Honestly, I've been a little overwhelmed by everything the past week or so. I will say that we did a great job of sticking to our meal plan last week. Then the weekend came. This included Jolly Green Daddy's birthday. This on it's own was enough to throw me off. Though I knew it was coming, I didn't properly budget for his birthday, which meant that I was left looking for how we could make his restaurant of choice work. Mind you, he really wanted to go to Texas de Brazil. This would have been great, but for the fact that for birthdays the kids come along. Small Fry is not really into sitting for long meals. We are lucky to get him to sit through any meal. I'm not going to say quietly because anyone who has met Small Fry knows that quiet is a not a word I would ever use to describe him! We ended up at a local Italian restaurant. The food was good as always, the kids were pretty well behaved, and as a bonus I got to watch the New Orleans - San Fran football game. The only downside was that our waitress brought out the check before asking about dessert. Jolly Green Daddy didn't want to deal with the hassle of trying to get her back, so we went home. Sprout is still asking me about Daddy's cake... He may not have had cake, but he did have these Cinnamon Rolls.

Picture courtesy of AllRecipes.com

Then came the Giants game. I am a Giants fan at heart (even living in Dolphin's territory). Now, if you saw this game, you might understand why I was distracted. Especially, since, my meal plan for the week had ended. I didn't have a new plan, and I'm kind of low on food. Ugh. I managed to feed the kids, but Jolly Green Daddy and I ended up with Five Guys. Thankfully, we were on the cheap side for this dinner. But now I am determined to eat at home for the rest of the month... Wish me luck.

So the no food thing, and the 2 young kids at home thing have me thinking about the people who do Once a Month Shopping. Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy has a great tutorial on doing this. I'm still trying to decide if it will work for our family. And with what I have left in the budget for this month, I'm thinking that I'm going to try and buy food to get us through the end of the month. We also have a produce delivery next week. This will be the biggest help for doing this kind of shopping.

I'm currently trying to plan out meals for the next two weeks. Jolly Green Daddy would like to make sure we have a variety of foods for lunch. I guess Cheese Quesadillas, Grilled Cheese and Macaroni and Cheese is too much cheese for my carnivore husband. Anyone have any suggestions? I have a list of ideas and things that I would like to make and freeze for easy lunches (and breakfasts too). Hopefully, I will be able to make these over the next 2 weeks. I'm sure that Sprout will be happy to help me out.

Add into that the fact that Jolly Green Daddy and I have discussed possible changes to our diets. We are wondering if making some changes to our diets might help our overall health and well being. Honestly, the idea of changing our diet further is really scary to me. I'm already a vegetarian and we already have a Kosher home. Further changes could make things even more intense (or intensive for me). I think I've decided that we will wait until I can sit down with a doctor or nutritionist to really decide what will be best for us.

So now to go plan out the shopping I hope to get done tomorrow...

Menu Plan Monday

2012-01-09T08:53:00.001-05:00

Welcome to week 2 of 2012. Here's hoping that this week's Menu Plan is better than the last.

My plan is to get to the grocery store today to pick up some items that we need. This week I'm going to list what we are eating, but not give it a specific day. We had spaghetti with "meat"balls for dinner last night. I hope to get my version of what we ate sometime this week.

This week we are getting a box of produce (yum!), and it is Jolly Green Daddy's birthday.

Breakfasts:
Waffles (need to make more)
Cereal & Yogurt
Cranberry Orange Breakfast Cake
Cinnamon Rolls

Lunches:
Pizza puffs (No pepperoni)
Sandwiches
Leftovers

Dinners:
Caprese Tart & Leek Potato Soup
Quiche (something with the frozen spinach Jolly Green Daddy refuses to eat)
Green Bean and Potato Curry
White Pizza with Broccoli and Mushrooms
Some kind of meat

Treats:
Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies

Basics:
2 Loaves of Bread (At least one with be Honey of an Oatmeal Bread)
Rolls?
Pizza Dough
Pie Dough

If you want to join us and share your menu plans for the week, you can do so here. Thank's Organizing Junkie.

The Food Recap - Jan 1

2012-01-07T20:40:00.000-05:00

Well, I had the best of intentions when I created my menu plan last week. What is it "they" say about the best of intentions? Yup, it all blew up in my face, but for the most part I was able to recover.

So what did we eat last week?

Sunday:

Well, I did the post on Monday, so I knew what we ate Sunday. Yeah, I cheated a little. But at least that plan worked.

Monday:

The plan was to have Lettuce Wraps for dinner. The chicken wasn't defrosted, so I had to come up with something else. I though about making the lasagna, until I realized that I didn't have the ingredients. Oops! So I made a Marinara Sauce and we had it over spaghetti with garlic bread. It was a Giada recipe, and was really easy and came out great. I cut in half as I only needed enough for dinner. Next time, I will have to double it and freeze some for future use.

Tuesday:

Thought about making the lettuce wraps, but it was cold for Florida and I couldn't really wrap my head around the whole idea. And I think we needed lettuce. What we had left wasn't going to work. I made mini veggie pot pies. I wish I had a recipe to share with you, but I kind of made it off the top of my head. I used purple potatoes, carrots, peas and chard. I also used the Puff Pastry cups, as I had them in my freezer. It was a great change for this classic dish.

Wednesday:

I was already to make a chicken stir fry (I gave up on the lettuce wraps). That was until I opened the chicken and it smelled funny. Ugh! I had exhausted all of my last minute ideas, and was stuck. We ended up going out for dinner. :-( I was really bummed and felt like I was failing my family 4 days into the new year.

Thursday:

I worked hard to recover from the night before. We had lasagna. Jolly Green Daddy's request, so he went to the store and bough what we needed. He was very happy that he saved $3.40. I am too, but he spent more on some items than I would have. But I knew what I was getting into when I sent him to the store. So, that trip to the grocery store took another $14.54 out of our grocery budget.

Friday:

I pulled some meat out of the freezer. I thought it was a roast. There was something on the label to give me that idea. So, I planned on making Momma Neely's Pot Roast. When I started cooking the meat, I found out that it was not a solid roast, but some kind of flat piece of meat that was tied up like a roast. I cooked it as I had planned. By the time it was done, it was falling apart. I've heard that's a good thing with meat, right??? Jolly Green Daddy and Sprout enjoyed it.

I made Delicata Squash and Kale Minestrone in the crockpot. I used this recipe from The Sweets Life as my base. She used butternut squash, but I had the delicata in the fridge, so that was what I used. My only other comment. Is that I did add the elbows at the end of the cooking process. When I went back for seconds it was clear that they were continuing to absorb the soup and by the time I got to the leftovers for lunch there was no liquid and it was pretty much mush. Such a bummer for such a great soup. Next time, I think I will make the elbows separately and add them to the bowls, so that they don't get mushy. Sprout liked it, Small Fry ate some (though he was quite fussy and didn't really want anything) and Jolly Green Daddy said it was good except for the squash, but he doesn't like squash so I wasn't surprised.

The final part of our meal was Challah (I'll have to type up my recipe at some point). The only problem was that the oven was being used to make the Pot Roast. I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I decided to hedge my bets and try making it in the toaster over. Yes, I baked my challah in the toaster.

Saturday:

On the positive side, we had very little food left in our fridge this morning. Sprout was asking for fruit, and I had nothing to give her. So I thought we would go check out our local farmers' market. (One of the plusses to living in Florida is that we can get fresh local food in the winter. The summer is questionable, but the winter no problem.) So $50 later we had brussels sprouts, the biggest portobello mushrooms I have ever seen, strawberries, grapes, leeks, a red pepper, local honey, smoked white fish dip, smoke salmon dip, fresh local mozzarella and kettle corn (that was for Jolly Green Daddy). That should keep us going for a while.

Tonight we had portobello mushrooms stuffed with spinach and artichokes. Wish I took a picture. I used this recipe from The Savory Sweet Life, added frozen artichoke hearts and used whatever fresh spinach we had left. Jolly Green Daddy and I really liked it. Small Fry ate every bite I gave him, and Sprout was being persnickety, though she did eat (and ask for more) all of her brussels sprouts.

Budget:

Starting Amount: $300
Amount as of 1/4: $291

Amount as of 1/5: $276.46

Amount as of 1/6: $227. 48 (found a really good deal on Brother's All Natural, both kids eat these so they're good to have on hand and tough to find a good price on)

Amount as of 1/7: $182.08 (kettle corn not included)

I will make this work!

CVS Trip

2012-01-04T21:52:00.001-05:00

Today I went to CVS. I had mapped everything out thanks to CouponMom and Living Rich with Coupons.

I took Sprout after her gymnastics class today. I knew that bringing a 3-year-old with me gave me a good chance of messing it all up, but thought we would try it anyway.

We went to the CVS I thought we would have better luck at, only to find that they didn't have the items I was looking. Sprout told me we should try a different CVS. So, we went to the one that is closer to our house, but I don't typically have good luck there.

Transaction 1:
4 Nivea Lip Care Products - $2.50 each
3 Special K - $3.33 each
1 Colgate Toothbrush - $2.74
1 Colgate Toothpaste - $2.74

Coupons Used
Nivea Coupon (1/1 RP) - $3.00/2
2 Nivea (printable) - $1.00
Special K (printable) - $1.00/3
Colgate Toothbrush (1/1 SS) - $.75
Colgate Toothpaste (1/1 SS) - $.75

Spent: $18.46 ($11 ECB)
Nivea - $5.00
Special K - $4.00
Colgate - $2.00

Transaction 2:
4 Pantene Hairspray - $3.33 each
3 Duracell Batteries (8 pk) - $5.99 each

Coupons Used:
2 Pantene - $3/2
CVS Coupon - $1.50
Duracell (12/11 RP)- $1.50
2 Duracell (1/1 P&G)- $.75
$11 ECB

Spent: $11.58 received $10 CVS Cash Card

Total Spent: $30.04
Total Saved: $30.05 (on top of sales)
Everything purchased was on sale: Total Savings: $54.47 or 65%
Received $10 CVS Cash Card to spend in the future

Budget:
Starting Amount: $300
Amount as of 1/4: ~~$280.27 (batteries not included)~~
I am adjusting this to not include toiletries. I have given them their own area in the budget.
$291

Tiggerific Tuesday Blog Hop or Bounce

2012-01-03T09:50:00.002-05:00

It's Tuesday and that means it's Tiggerific Tuesday. Join Magical Mouse Schoolhouse and Return to Disney and get to know fellow Disney folk. Join in on the fun.

If you are visiting from the Bounce be sure to let me know that you stopped by!

Hope you have a Tiggerific Tuesday!

Budgetting in 2012

2012-01-02T21:18:00.005-05:00

I'm rather shamed to admit this, but for the first time in my life my family has a formal budget to use. In the past, we always had ballpark ideas, but this year we have decided to be more formal about things.

In 2012, we are going to use our budget to manage our money and our spending. I have to say, I am feeling a little nervous about is. Having never done this before, I'm wondering how hard it is going to be, and if failure is looming off in the distance. We have determined how much we have to spend everything month, and have spread it out amongst our needs and expenses. I am using You Need a Budget to manage this. It is an electronic version of an envelope system. This means that we can still use our credit cards (which will be paid off in full each month) and get the benefits involved (i.e. 5% off at Target).

I will spare you most of the details of our budget, but I will discuss food. Anyone who knows us well, knows that we like to eat out. I've always known that this is an expense that we should try to limit, but... Well, it was just too easy to go out. As a vegetarian with a meat eating husband, it was easier to go out and please everyone than to plan out our meals for the week in a way that would please everyone. The plan is for that to change. Over the past couple weeks we have been really good, and I'm hoping that will continue.

Now, I will admit, that I probably fudged things a little and tried to start 2012 off with a clean slate. I'm not sure how legit this is, but I wanted to start off feeling like I was getting ahead of things, not falling behind before we even started.

We have budgeted $400 a month for our family of 4. This will include food, personal items, and non-prescription medications. It will also include eating out, as a family. If someone chooses to eat out when running errands without the rest of the family, it will come out of their own "mad money." Now, I will admit that every other week, we get a $45 box of organic produce that I work for, coordinate and distribute to other members of the group. As a result, I don't have to pay for my box.

As of today, we have $400 to spend on groceries and food for the rest of January. I hope to keep an ongoing tally of what we have spent and what we have left to spend.

Does anyone have any tips for me?

Menu Plan Monday - 2012 Week 1

2012-01-01T22:29:00.000-05:00

Welcome to 2012! One of my goals for this year is to get my act together and have regular meal plans that we stick to. I spent the past 2 weeks practicing and we did pretty well. I'm feeling good about this coming week as I am stocked up on groceries.

I need to continue to stock up on basics...

Here is what we are going to eat this week:

Sunday

Dinner: Katie Lee's Fish Tacos from Rachael Ray, Guacamole and the remains of our 7 Layer Dip from New Year's Eve. I'll share the rest of our New Year's treats in a different post.

Monday

Breakfast: Yogurt and Cereal
Lunch: 7 Layer Dip (Yes, we still have more.)
Dinner: Lettuce Wraps (Chicken and Tofu), Fried Rice

Tuesday

Breakfast: Waffles & Fruit
Lunch: Sandwiches
Dinner: Lasagna, Garlic Texas Toast, Salad

Wednesday

Breakfast: Smoothies (Sprout has been asking for them, so I'll see what I have in the freezer.)
Lunch: Macaroni & Cheese
Dinner: Chili and Cornbread or Johnnycakes

Thursday

Breakfast: Pancakes?
Lunch: Chili/Lasagna
Dinner: Pizza

Friday

Breakfast: We'll see what strikes our fancy, but probably something from the freezer.
Lunch: Tuna
Dinner: Chicken

Saturday

Breakfast: ???
Lunch: ???
Dinner: Pasta?

If you want to join us and share your menu plans for the week, you can do so here. Thank's Organizing Junkie.

Chanukah - Last Night

2011-12-27T20:47:00.000-05:00

Tonight is the last night of Chanukah. As a friend said... "though I hate to see it go, as a parent a 357 day break doesn't sound so bad.

I felt that I couldn't have 8 nights of Chanukah music and not include Debbie Friedman. She was an icon in Jewish music. Sadly, she passed away this past year. She will be missed in the Jewish community, but her music lives on!

Happy Chanukah Night 7

2011-12-26T19:00:00.000-05:00

Tonight we spent the night with my husband's family. My daughter was very excited to get to spend some time with aunts, uncles and cousins. As a special treat, my brother in law was in from Vermont. We had a great Chanukah party!

Tonight's song is "The Hanukkah Song" from Special Agent Oso. Disney Junior is big in my house, and I am always happy when they show something for Chanukah too. This song came from an episode where Oso helped children get ready for Chanukah, Christmas and Kwanza. I'm not sure how long Disney Junior will keep their Magical Holidays on their site, but be sure to check it out. Oso has an activity than encompasses the three holidays from the show.

Hanukah Day 6

2011-12-26T08:04:00.002-05:00

Good Morning! By the time we lit our Chanukiah (menorah) and got the kids to bed last night, I was a little tired and I guess spacey. Sorry...

Here is the Maccabeats Chanukah song for this year, Miracle. As you watch the video, you will notice references to the Miracle Match Campaign. This is being done through Gift of Life. This is a great organization, trying to help find bone marrow and stem cell matches for people with Leukemia, cancer and other hard to treat diseases. My husband worked for them and would travel around the country helping and caring for the amazing people who took time out of their lives to donate a part of themselves to save another. What is specifically important about this organization is that it is getting the word out in the Jewish community. You are more likely to match with someone with a similar background to yours. The more members of the Jewish community to register, the more people can be treated. The test is a simple swab of your mouth and is not painful at all. If you haven't done so already, getting swabbed could save someone's life, and there is minimal interruption to your life.

Happy Chanukah!

Chanukah Night 5

2011-12-24T20:42:00.000-05:00

I have XM radio in my car, and have spent the last several days listening to the Chanukah station. Now they have a very interesting mix of music. We have heard Barbra Streisand, Fiddler on the Roof, Debbie Friedman, and then some odd forms of Jewish rap. (I wish I could think of some the groups or songs we have have heard. If I can find them I will post them for another night.)

I was listening yesterday, on my way to Publix (bad idea on the Friday before Christmas weekend) and heard a song that really caught my interest. Throughout my shopping trip I was trying to remember "Rabbi Neal Katz" so that I could find it for all of you when I got home.

Here is Rabbi Neal Katz singing "On the Air."

Hope that you are all having a great Chanukah, and wishing, those who celebrate, a very Merry Christmas!

Chanukah, Night 4

2011-12-23T19:00:00.000-05:00

It's Friday, so that means we lit candles for Shabbat and for Chanukah tonight. My island is aglow with two Menorahs and the Shabbat Candles. I love watching Sprout's face as we go through this nightly ritual. I'll try and get pictures one night, it's just tough when holding Squeaker to take pictures.

Here is the Maccabeats' song from last year "Candlelight." We I really enjoy hearing modern music for Chanukah (and Modern Jewish music, in general). Not sure how Jolly Green Daddy feels, I think it depends on the song, and the kids think it is all the same.

Have a great weekend!

Chanukah - Night, err... Morning 3

2011-12-23T06:46:00.000-05:00

I wanted to get the song up last night, but it just got lost in my sleepy brain last night. Hopefully, we will be better today.

I don't have much to say about this song, other than Jolly Green Daddy and I thought it was funny. Hope you enjoy it too.

Chanukah Night 2

2011-12-21T21:39:00.000-05:00

I am happy to say that my house no longer smells like latkes. As much as I love to eat them, living with the smell for days is not as enjoyable.

Here is my song for tonight. This is : " Light One Candle" sung by Peter, Paul and Mary. This was a favorite of my family growing up. I can remember singing it in Hebrew School music class. Admittedly, it is a little dated, but the message is still a good one.

Happy Chanukah - Night 1

2011-12-20T20:08:00.000-05:00

This is the first year where my Sprout is really beginning to understand about Chanukah. (She is also more aware of Christmas this year too.) This has made for much more interesting conversations. I love watching how eager she is to do projects, light the candles and play dreidel.

On the first night of Chanukah, we had latkes and apple sauce and stuffed cabbage. Thank you Michael Symon! They were great. In fact, I think this year's latkes are probably the best I've ever made. Who knew that I needed to use that much oil!?

I'm going to try to include a song for each night. Here is the first:

A special thank you to The Angel Forever for introducing me to this song.

Disney Wordless Wednesday - Thanks for the Memories

2011-11-23T07:01:00.001-05:00

Mr. Toad in the Haunted Mansion Cemetery

I apologize for the fence post.

Disney Trip - Raglan Road

2011-11-15T21:15:00.001-05:00

Again, I apologize that there are no pictures. I think I was too busy keeping Sprout and Squeaker entertained (no naps) to take pictures.

I was looking forward to trying Raglan Road. I had asked Jolly Green Daddy to try a few times, and he was reluctant. On this trip, he agreed. I think it was the best meal we had the entire week.

We loved the atmosphere. The step dancers were a great way to enhance the environment. They were great. We also had a fabulous waiter. When I asked if the soups he mentioned were vegetarian, he said that he thought so, but would double check, and then told me the dishes on the menu that I could eat. This was very helpful, as I normally have to ask if menu items have any meat in them.

Before we ordered the waiter brought us their Irish Soda Bread. I have had Irish Soda Bread before (I think I even made it for a project in school), and have never been a fan. Raglan Road's bread was great. It was also a great filler for Sprout as I fed Squeaker and we tried to decide what to eat. If you would like to see our options, you can see the menu, at AllEars.com.

I started with a Butternut Squash Bisque. JGD (who doesn't like Butternut Squash) thought it was great. Sprout loved it too. I thought it was a good soup, but was disappointed as a Butternut Squash soup, as it didn't taste like squash. However, I had no problem in finishing it all. I then shared the Raglan Risotto with Sprout. It was a basic risotto with shitake mushrooms and peas. This was a real treat for me as most restaurants use chicken broth in their risotto.

Jolly Green Daddy took advantage of the fact that we were at an Irish pub and had a Guiness. He started with a Caesar Salad, which he really enjoyed. And then had the Lambo. This was a lamb shank that was braised to the point where the meat was falling off the bone. JGD loved this!

We then finished our meal with the Strawberry & Apple Crumble. This was enjoyed by all of us.

We would go back to Raglan Road in a heartbeat. I reiterate that I believe it was the best meal we had all week.

Wordless Wednesday - M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

2011-11-15T20:29:00.001-05:00

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party 2009

Disney Trip - The Hotel

2011-11-14T07:39:00.001-05:00

This time we stayed at Port Orleans - Riverside. I apologizer that I don't have any pictures of the room or the resort. I really have no excuse... The above Mickey greeted us on our first trip to Port Orleans in May 2009.

They have since redone the rooms. We stayed in the Mansions both times. To see pictures of the resort and the newly refurbished rooms in the Acadian House visit AllEars.com.

This is our favorite Moderate Resort at Disney World. We find that setting to be very calming and makes us feel worlds away from the hustle and bustle of the parks. (Though I will say that we feel that way at many of the resorts.) We also love that we can a take a boat ride down the Sassagoula River to Downtown Disney. It is so nice to feel so far away from everything, but be so close.

It is a good size resort, but if you request one of the rooms in a closer building the walk to the Riverside Mill Food Court (I will do a review of this in a day or 2) is not that bad. There are several bus stops around the resort, so you don't have to walk to the main building to go to the parks. We drove to the parks (it's easier with the double stroller), so I can't really talk about bus times to the parks. Though I will say in general, this is the one frustration JGD and I have no matter which hotel we're in. But it always seems like the bus we want is the one that is running off schedule or left just before we got there.

There are also several smaller pools in addition to the main one on Ol' Man River Island. Sprout loved the big pool, the kiddie pool and the playground in this area. She wanted to go down the slide into the pool, but JGD and I were not sure how Sprout would handle the splash at the end. We would like her swimming to be a little stronger. There were several parents with kids a little older than Sprout who were either catching their kids as they came down the slide or had them in life jackets. Honestly, I had to laugh at the kids in the life jackets as the skidded across the surface of the water at the base of the slide.

A great perk of the resort is Bob Jackson, also known as the Piano Man. He plays at the River Roost Wednesday through Sunday nights. His show is a great one if you can catch it. It's kept very family friendly, so have no fear about bringing kids to the bar to watch. He sings plenty of classics (including some for the kids in all of us) and has a great time interacting with the crowd. This was a great way to end the night and wind down. You can see some of his performance here.

We definitely recommend this resort.

I will post more about our trip including restaurant reviews and thoughts about our days in the parks.

Menu Plan Monday

2011-11-14T06:40:00.001-05:00

Forgive me for saying "I'm back" and then disappearing for a week. We had a family trip planned to Disney, and it gave me some time to get back to me...

Anyway... for this week's Menu Plan. It's a short one, as I'm taking the kids up to my parents for Thanksgiving at the end of the week. JGD will be at home, as he has a class to teach Wednesday nights. :(

Sunday

Dinner: Veggie Pot Pie Soup and biscuits (J.P.'s Big Daddy Biscuits).

I used Rachael Ray's recipe as a base. I think I used too much wine, but the concept was good.

Monday

Breakfast: Yogurt and Cereal
Lunch: ???
Dinner: Parmesan Tilapia, Spinach and Wild Rice

Tuesday

Breakfast: ???
Lunch: Tuna (and Elbows)
Dinner: Chili and Cornbread

Wednesday

Breakfast: ???
Lunch: ???
Dinner: Probably Breakfast for dinner. I will let Sprout pick.

If you want to join us and share your menu plans for the week, you can do so here. Thank's Organizing Junkie.

Wordless Wednesday - Disney

2011-11-10T06:30:00.000-05:00

Flower and Garden 2010

Happy Birthday to me.

2011-11-07T07:09:00.001-05:00

When I started the new blog, I felt that it better fit what I was trying to achieve by blogging. Like so many other mothers, I am struggling with the need to do it all and do it "perfectly". Well, I know that it can't be done perfectly, but still... So, I began my quest to find the best me. This is an adventure that will never end, and I'm prepared for it. I, also, felt that I could use the blog to try to hold myself accountable for the things I am trying to accomplish. A few days ago, I realized that the reason I hadn't posted anything to that blog recently, was because it didn't feel right. So I decided to come back here.

Now, a couple things have changed since I took my "blogcation." The biggest of these is that we have a new addition to our family. Squeaker joined us on February 20th, 2011. (I'll save the story of his birth for another day. It's a good one.)

Squeaker, a few days old.

8 months

Sprout is now 3, almost 3 and a half. Where has the time gone. I can't believe my little itty baby has become such a little person. Well, "big girl" as she calls herself.

Sprout's first Halloween. (Dronkey from Shrek)

Sprout, age 3. Cowgirl (like Jessie and Woody, not supermodel.)

The rest of the changes are mostly, within me. As I mentioned above, I am trying to be a better me. On Friday, I decided that this is an important objective for me over the next year. I have decided if I want the world around me to be the best it can be, then I need to look at how I view the world differently. Some of that means that I need to work on my physical surroundings, and some means it is time to work on how I think about things.

My goals for the next year:

Have a clean house, or at least one that can be company ready (without a dash and stash) within 15 minutes... Everything needs a place (even if it means leaving the house). I plan to use the FlyLady strategies to do this. I have found them to be a good way to start to integrate this into my life. One of the things I love about this strategy, is that FLY actually stands for For Loving Yourself.

Get fit. I don't care about the number on the scale (well not too much). I want to feel like I'm in shape. I want to have energy to keep up with my kids. I'm also debating trying to start running. I go back and forth on this. In the past, I found that I didn't like running, but there is something in me, that says I need to try again. I would really love to run in one of the runDisney events. I would, of course, start with a 5K. I'm also thinking that I might try to do a run to earn money for charity.

I want to spend more quality time with my family. I love them and enjoy spending time with them. I really want to make that time be the best it can. Which does mean that we need to turn the technology off more.

I want to make and stick to a budget. No matter what income bracket you're in, there is always more you want, but still less that you could live with. I think we often forget this. I am working to remember this, and trying to make our family the best it can be for less. This does include couponing, like this trip to Walgreens, and I'll be investigating other deals too.

I also want to find me. I'll let you know what that means when I figure it out.

So why, did I make this resolution, and why did I make it last Friday? It was my birthday.

Here is a picture of the chocolate chip cookie cake, I made.

Here is the cake as I made and decorated it.

Sprout wanted to help.

Mental note, need to add sprinkles to the shopping list.

The final product. The sprinkles made it better.

This year, my birthday gift to myself, is me!

Trip to Walgreens

2011-11-05T11:20:00.001-04:00

So, the Jolly Green Mommy is not only trying to be green. I'm trying to save some too. I am going to try to keep track of the deals I get and what I spend. I hope this is helpful to other people who are starting to coupon. I know I like knowing I'm not alone.

Jolly Green Daddy was saying that the stockpile of deodorant I had gotten a couple months ago is now gone (guess I need to keep better track of it). So I was looking for deals on Old Spice. They were few and far between, but I did find that Walgreens had it as part of a deal with razor blades. If you bought $30 worth of product you would get a $10 RR.

Here's what I bought:

Transaction 1:

2 - Gillette Venus Embrace Refill $16.99 each $33.98
2 - Old Spice Deodorant $ 3.99 each $ 7.98 (on sale, normally $4.99)

Total (pre-coupon) $41.96

Gillette Venus Embrace - $ 4.00/2
Old Spice - $ 1.00/2

Total Spent $36.96 + tax
Received $10 in Register Rewards

Transaction 2:

Nursery Water $ 1.69
Garnier Fructis Curl Crea $ 3.99 (on sale, normally $4.49)
Walgreens Cotton Balls $1.79
Conair Bobby Pins $2.99

Total: $10.46
Register Rewards -$10.00
Total Spent $0.46 + tax

Total Purchased: $54.92
Total Spent: $37.42
Saved: $ 17.50 (32%)

I'm Back

2011-11-04T22:22:00.002-04:00

It's been a while since I've posted on this blog. For a while, life just got too busy for me to keep up. I started another blog, but it just wasn't home for me. So, I'm coming back to Jolly Green Mommy. I was going to write a good first post, but I've been too busy checking out the changes blogger has made, and playing around with the blog. My first real post will have to wait for tomorrow, as I am off to bed now.

Good night.

Blogcation???

2010-06-26T14:04:00.000-04:00

For the past past week or two, I haven't been blogging much. I seem to have been in another world. And honestly, I'm not sure I can tell you where. I think my brain has been so obsessed with Sprout's 2nd birthday, can't believe she's going to be 2 next week. My parent's visit (yea!). Our crazy mixed up life. Keeping up with Sprout and just trying to keep up with life in general.

I had all of these ideas and objectives about what I wanted to do over the past few weeks, and I feel like I have accomplished very little. Even with Sprout, I have had ideas as to what I wanted to do with her, and for the most part it just hasn't happened.

The other day, while I was doing laundry, Sprout came into the laundry room (where her supplies are stored) and pulled out the paint and a tray to put it in. It was almost time for bed, so I told her that we would paint the next day and put the paint on the counter. Then next morning, she was sitting next to me on the couch, while I was talking on the phone. I looked at her to find that she had opened the paint, and had a little in the tray (thankfully not all over my couch). Man, did I feel oblivious!!! I got her set up at her easel with the paint she picked out. As she painted, I thought about the fact that this wasn't an activity I picked for a tot tray, or an art project I planned out, but that my daughter was having a great time. Isn't that what it's all about???

The other thing we've been doing a lot recently is Preschool Time Online. Sprout really enjoys this as she works on letters, numbers, shapes, computer skills, etc with all of her Disney friends. I love watching her as gets something. It amazes me how she picks up on the things. She pointed at the letters on The B Book and said "B-O-O-K." I know she didn't really spell a word, but I loved listening!!

We've also been trying to get outside, but with the crazy hot weather we have here, it hasn't been much.

Though this isn't a typical Tot School week for us, I am going to link up with Tot School, as this is what we have been up to recently. I will try to do a post of the other activities we've done when I have a chance.

Menu Plan Monday - 6/14

2010-06-14T13:15:00.000-04:00

I was going to post this yesterday, but last night I realized my original plan needed some rethinking. I had planned to make Veggie Pot Pie for dinner Sunday night, but after being outside for a very limited about of time, I realized that when it's 90 degrees out, veggie pot pie doesn't sound all that great.

This is a kosher meal plan for me and my family. This means that there will be some meat for JGD and Sprout, but there will always be a vegetarian (or fish) alternative for me. We try to eat as naturally and organically as we can. This is limited some by budget, but we're doing the best we can.

*** means that we have no tried this recipe yet, but I will try to give you a review later in the week or in next week's MPM post. I know I owe you a couple from last week. I'll try to get to them for you.

Monday - Drumsticks (if they defrost in time) for JGD, still not sure what I'm eating
Tuesday - Pioneer Woman's Pasta Primavera
Wednesday - Lo Mein (chicken for JGD and Sprout and Tofu for me)
Thursday - Falafel (didn't make it last week)
Friday - Chicken

Recap of last week
Monday - Rachael Ray's Fettuccini Alfredo *** & Caprese Salad.
Didn't make the caprese salad, and wasn't a fan of this recipe. Maybe it was the pre-grated cheese I got at the grocery store.

Tuesday - Tilapia (probably picata), broccoli and angel hair (salad?)
This is an old standby that I haven't made in a while. I will say a bigger pan would have been good, and I need to work on that whole sauce concept.

Wednesday - Skirt Steak ***, portobello mushrooms, tofu?, carrots (salad?)
Turns out JGD wasn't home this night so I didn't make meat. Sprout and I had veggie fried rice.

Thursday - Falafel ***, pita bread ***, hummus, tahini
The skirt steak had been marinating from the day before so we at that instead. I used lemon juice instead of lime as that's what we had. JGD said it was good. My mom told me I totally changed the recipe. I'll have to do it the right way next time. I also did sweet potatoes, onions and green beans on the grill. Yummy!

Friday - Honey Glazed Chicken Dump ***, Gardein, Green Beans, Challah
I did make chicken, but forgot I had planned this recipe. We'll do this one this week. I made a Rachael Ray recipe instead. This is a good one to make for us because the sauce is made separate so it's not hard to do real and "fake" meat.

Become a Savvy Shopper in 12 Weeks - Week 1

2010-06-11T14:18:00.000-04:00

At the beginning of this week, I joined in the Coupon Teacher's Become a Savvy Shopper in 12 Weeks online class. She did give us assignments for everyday this week, but seeing as how she listed them all in one post, I thought I would post my "homework" in one post as well.

Monday - Set a budget.

This is definitely a very hard assignment for me. I know what I spent on groceries last time I shopped, which was 2 weeks ago (since JGD was out of town). I knew that I wanted to be lower than that. Though I was really happy when I saved $30-something.

This week I had a number in my mind and was hoping to stay under it, but I went over by $20. When I looked at receipt to see what I could have done differently, I couldn't really come up with anything. I felt really defeated, and wasn't sure how I was going to fix it in the future.

Then I got an email from the woman who heads up the Organic Buying Club I help coordinate for asking me if I wanted to go to weekly coordinating instead of biweekly. After debating the time this would entail, and if we would be able to eat the food, I went back to this week's receipt and added up my dollar amount for produce which was $20 - $30. Between taking part in the No Dining Out In June Challenge and trying to make a dent in our grocery budget, I decided to go for it! Hopefully, that will help.

Tuesday - Choose a coupon organization method. Be sure to check out Become a Savvy Shopper in 12 Weeks for more information.

Well this I did quite some time ago. I use the Couponizer.

Wednesday - Set up your organization method.

Thursday - Make a space for the stockpile.

Well, I guess I still need to do this. I'm working on clearing the cabinets in the master bath so we can use those for stockpiling toiletries. Paper goods are going to go down in the laundry room, and food goes in the pantry.

Friday -
1. Biggest newspaper circulation in the area. - Well we already get the one paper. It is suggested that I get 1 for every person in the house. I am having a tough time with this one because I don't want to waste a newspaper by buying or subscribing to a paper we're not going to read. I feel like it's a waste. Though it will go in the recycling bag later, I'm still a little iffy on this one.

2. Frugal blogger that covers my area stores. There are several.
The Prudent Patron
Frugal Follies

I Heart Publix

Looks like we survived week 1.

Aloha Friday #3?

2010-06-11T09:47:00.000-04:00

Hmmm... it's been another busy week around here, and I have been making many resolutions to try to improve... well everything. Yes, I know I beat myself up too much, but I'm working on it.

I have so many questions for the blogosphere right now, I am having a tough time choosing one. In a post earlier this week, I mentioned that my family went from a 1 income family to a no income family (in December). Well, as of this week, we have a part time income (I think), so maybe it was just time for us to be honest with the cosmos so that we can change direction.

Okay so my question for this week... Do you budget? And if so, do you have any tips for someone who is just getting started in the world of formal budgeting (and working with someone who doesn't understand the meaning of the word)?

Menu Plan Monday - 6/7

2010-06-07T15:30:00.000-04:00

This is a kosher meal plan for me and my family. This means that there will be some meat for JGD and Sprout, but there will always be a vegetarian (or fish) alternative for me. We try to eat as naturally and organically as we can. This is limited some by budget, but we're doing the best we can.

*** means that we have no tried this recipe yet, but I will try to give you a review later in the week or in next week's MPM post. I know I owe you a couple from last week. I'll try to get to them for you.

Monday - Rachael Ray's Fettuccini Alfredo *** & Caprese Salad.

Tuesday - Tilapia (probably picata), broccoli and angel hair (salad?)

Wednesday - Skirt Steak ***, portobello mushrooms, tofu?, carrots (salad?)

Thursday - Falafel ***, pita bread ***, hummus, tahini

Friday - Honey Glazed Chicken Dump ***, Gardein, Green Beans, Challah

To see what other people are planning for this week go to Menu Plan Monday.

What's going on with Tot School??? and life in general

2010-06-06T20:46:00.001-04:00

You may have noticed over the past few weeks, well maybe the past month we have been slacking on Tot School. This is definitely my fault. We went to visit my parents, and I've had a tough time getting back into the "swing of things." Part of this is I am trying to focus on so many things right now, that I haven't really had a chance to work on the curriculum I was creating for Sprout.

(We are now going to pause for a Blogger identification break.)

I haven't mentioned any of this before, but I'm feeling the need to share, so bear with me. In December JGD lost his job. So we've been coping with the fact that our originally 2 income household, which dropped to 1 when Sprout was born is now.... um.... in trouble... JGD has been working very hard to find a job, and I have been working very hard to figure out how I can help. I've decided that I will be opening an Etsy shop where I will sell crocheted products. Here are some of the blankets I have made.

I am currently working on a basket weave pattern for Sprout and I will upload pictures of that when I'm done. I think my plan for right now is to load pictures of the blankets I have completed and make them to order. Based on my time right now, I think this is best way. If you have any suggestion I would love to hear them.

In addition to that, I am working on creating and sticking to a budget. This has included couponing and meal planning. I am currently, really into one man's story of living on $1 a day. He has shown me that if he can find food and other products to donate while living on $1 a day, then I can get some products to donate to the local shelters and food banks.

I am also trying to decide if I can work from home, and what I can do that will fit into our lifestyle. It's important to me that anything I take on not interfere with my time with Sprout.

I will say that on the plus side of this JGD has finally been given the push to really pursue the career that he has wanted since graduating college and receiving his Masters. This will probably mean a move for us, which I wouldn't mind (I think) as it would probably move us closer to my family. I'd love to be in driving distance to my parents and brother. I feel very far removed from them down here. Especially, considering that JGD isn't all that close to his family, who does live here.

Anyway... thanks for listening to my babble...

(Now back to our regularly schedule program.)

I think I've decided to use established "curriculums" and enhance them when I can. Several months ago I downloaded ABC Home Preschool - Age 2. So that is what we'll be using, with addition and enhancements from other areas. It is a 9 month program, but I may extend it seeing as how we are starting in June. We'll see how Sprout does as we go along.

The first month is working on A, B and C and 0, 1, 2 and 3, transportation, and general good health practices. I will continue to give a guideline of these activities on the side.

Aloha Friday

2010-06-04T11:15:00.001-04:00

I really like the idea of Aloha Friday. Not only does it give me the chance to check out new and different blogs, but I get to "converse" with other adults. Thank you to Kailani for creating this great meme.

A couple posts ago, I talk about my great plans for this week. Well, so far I have accomplished none of them. I really do want to accomplish something, but at the same time when Sprout takes a nap, it is far more appealing to take a seat and have some "me time." I really do want to help get my house organized (I accept that I am part of the reason it's not).

My question to you this week, is what do you to get organized??

Wordless Wednesday

2010-06-02T11:13:00.000-04:00

The photo credit on this one goes to my mom. Thanks mom!

What are you doing this week?

2010-06-01T22:09:00.000-04:00

I ask because all all of a sudden I have big plans for this week. Though none of them all that fun. I shipped JGD off to Las Vegas for a conference this week. And wondered when will I get to go to a conference??? I think that SAHM's should have conferences. Do they, and I don't know about it???

So for the next week this is my four legged "man of the house". Don't let the sleepy face fool you, he is actually very protective!

So anyway my plans for this week are to try to get the house in order while JGD is away.

Clean the outside refrigerator (This would be from when the breaker got turned off and everything spoiled. I will admit sadly that we haven't want to approach it, and it had sat untouched for a while. Which is both an energy and wallet drain.)

While I'm already in the garage, I should probably work on straightening the garage as best I can. This will be a major trick, since I think half of my mother-in-laws 4 bedroom house currently resides in my garage.

Clean out the kitchen so Sprout will not be able to dump stuff off the tables and counters anymore. Wouldn't it be great if the counters were actually clear???

I guess that would include trying to straighten out the "tupperware" cabinet. Ugh.

Actually put the childsafe lock on the drawer in the master bath.

If I'm already in there, I should probably clean out the cabinets under the sinks so that they are ready for stockpiling.

Put away everything in the study that we took out when we were "cleaning" the closet.

Which means that I need to clean out the filing cabinet too.

Make a pillowcase just for Sprout. Who knew it would be so hard to find a just a pillowcase for a child? I have a plan, the question is can I execute it?
Clean up the laundry room, and downstair bathroom cabinet. Again looking for room to stockpile. The laundry room is also where I store everything for Tot School. Looks like that needs some looking at.
Straighten up the living room. While it looks like a furniture showroom due to the very different couches that currently reside there.
Try to set up a chore schedule that meets our needs.

Including a laundry schedule.

Try to create a daily schedule for Sprout and I that includes exercise, Tot School and outside time.

I would love to hear any suggestions anyone has because I am trying to overcome the Messies and get organized. As I love to say I am the most anal disorganized person I know. My files are color coded, but no one said there's actually anything in them :-).

Happy Memorial Day!

2010-05-31T10:46:00.000-04:00

I was trying to find the right words to say thank you to everyone who has made any kind of sacrifice to support our country.

I would like to thank all of the vet's, military spouses, and families of those we have lost who fought to protect our country (my Papa included).

In my typical mindset, a Disney short came to mind. It's from 1943, so it's a WWII reference, and worth watching through the end if you haven't seen it before.

Menu Plan Monday - 5/31

2010-05-30T21:11:00.001-04:00

I took the last couple of weeks of from official Menu Plan Monday. I did plan things out, but we went to go visit my family, and I didn't feel like posting it when we eating away from home more than at home.

This is a Kosher meal plan, with vegetarian meals and meat meal with a veggie equivalent. As I mentioned before we are part of any awesome organic buying club. This is our week and we are getting a great selection of goodies. I'm looking forward to the asparagus, which is coming at a good time. JGD will be away for some of the week and doesn't like them. (I won't tell you what he says they look like.)

So here are our plans for this week: There are some new recipes that I haven't tried before (***). I will have to let you know how they go after we try them out.

Monday

Hamburgers
Mushroom Burgers *** (Handy that mushrooms were on sale this week!)
Oven fries or potato salad
???

Tuesday

Buitoni Mushroom Agnolotti w/ a browned butter sauce (apparently, I'm planning a lazy night)
Salad
Roasted Asparagus with balsamic butter?

Wednesday

Quinoa w/ black beans

Thursday

American Chop Suey with fake meat (again planning a lazy night)
Broccoli

Friday

Something with eggplant, maybe moussaka with fake ground beef ***

Saturday

Maybe some kind of orzo, spinach, feta concoction (something like this.)***

Sunday

Breakfast for dinner?

To see what other people have planned for this week go to I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Hope you all have a great week!

Night 1 (Aloha Friday)

2010-05-28T22:03:00.001-04:00

I was going to wait to post this until I found the cord for the camera, but I just have to share.

I woke up this morning to my little one babbling in her crib (as she does every morning). But this morning was different. Soon after I woke up, I heard a "thud" and then crying.

Yup, you guessed it... she escaped. I knew it was coming, but I was hoping that she was happy enough just hanging out and reading books in her crib, that my little monkey might opt to stay in her crib. Alas, she did not make this choice.

After her escape, we decided to convert her crib to the toddler bed. Come to realize we didn't buy the toddler rails because I would love to move her into a double bed (but I'm not buying one right now). So she is in a daybed, surrounded on 3 sides.

We survived nap, and when I heard her chatting and went to get her I was greeted at the door. She was clearly ready to go.

Now, I am sitting here trying to pretend that I am not listening obsessively to the monitor to try to figure out if she is getting out of bed.

After seeing a few blogs linked up to Aloha Friday I decided to join in. So my question to you is, what did you do to help ease this transition for you or your child?

Dear Mama Bird

2010-05-16T15:11:00.000-04:00

Dear Mama Bird,

I know that you are just protecting your babies. I understand that, really I do. I would do anything to protect mine.

But can we come to a compromise? We will leave you and your babies alone if you stop attacking us.

I know that nature doesn't understand the laws of man. Hey, sometimes I don't understand them either, but we need to co-exist. You and your babies will be safe, if you let me and my family come and go as we please.

Sincerely,

Jolly Green Mommy

Now, does anyone know how to translate this into little black bird??? No, seriously any suggestions on how to take care of this? By the time I tried calling Audubon today they were closed and they don't open until Tuesday.

Tot School - If you give a Tot a book...

2010-05-16T14:35:00.003-04:00

Sprout is 22 months old

This week we focused on Laura Numeroff's books, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and If You Give a Pig a Pancake Big Book. These are two of my favorite books for little ones. As we were reading these, I kept thinking about all the activities we will be able to do for these when Sprout gets older. I love how the same book can be applied to kids of different ages, and they all get something different out of it. I know that it will be great in the future.

Tot Trays

This Tot Trays we did this week were:

If You Give a... File Folder Game
Playdough
Stickers

Again, this week there were more activities out, but Sprout wasn't all that interest. Ironically, she had been trying to get at her Tot Trays whenever we walked past that room, but when it was actually time she decided she would rather be doing other things.

Like...

I guess it's time to actually put this in the garage and not just out of the family room.

But she did play with her new file folder game a little. I think mommy liked it a lot more than she did.

Of course, she loved playing with stickers again. This seems to have become a new favorite.

I was shocked when she pulled out the playdough this week and actually wanted to use it. Usually, this one just sits on the shelf and she ignores it for the week.

She also thought it was fun when I was showing her how to roll the playdough into snakes and balls. This is what she did with the balls. I thought it was pretty creative.

Projects

This week I thought we would make pancakes and cookies to go along with our books. One morning I thought we would make pancakes, and asked Sprout to help. She decided it was more fun carrying on with her current activity.

But she did enjoy eating them.

I spent the rest of the week trying to find the time to make cookies. As it turned out we made them one night toward the end of the week after dinner. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of the actual process, as I was a little too hands on. Here is Sprout checking out the cookies in the over making sure everything is okay.

And of course she loved eating these too. JGD took these pictures, as I was trying to make sure that my couch didn't get smudged. (I know using her chair at the table would have been a good idea, but for the amount of time it took her to eat the cookie, it would have been more time getting in and out!)

We also made a pig and a mouse to go along with our books this week. (These should be our stART craft for the week, but so far I haven't gotten around to the separate post).

For the pig, I cut out a red circle (I didn't have any pink construction paper, and Sprout picked red) for the head and a smaller circle for the snout. Then I cut out a couple ears and gave Sprout the googly eyes.

I was so impressed with where she placed everything.

Until... the ears. This is when I had the "bad mommy moment" of taking them off and asking her to put them on again. And sure enough she put them back in the same spot. "So there, Mommy!"

When we made the mouse, we used a sheet that I had printed off a while ago from First School. We just did the head. Somehow, I accidentally printed off two. So I cut one out myself, and let Sprout work on one.

These scissors are still tough for Sprout to use. I think I'm going to get her these (Melissa & Doug Educational Toy ChildSafe Scissor Set) instead.

I glued the pink part of the ear on to the grey to make it a little more toddler friendly. Sprout did the rest.

And even though I didn't get a picture before she dismantled the whole thing, it looked a lot like her pig!

Practical Play

We decided to take a family field trip to a local landscaping place that also have a U-Pick it area. This was a lot of fun for us. (Well, so I heard, JGD took Sprout, while I picked some things for dinner.)

We were greeted by:

and

Then we found

Then it was time to go pick some food. They had:

Red Chard

Strawberries

Chives

Kohlrabi

Bell peppers

We also picked some spinach, but that's not that interesting to look at. They had eggplants, blueberries, onions, lettuce, and a whole bunch more. And this is the end of the season for us! (Backwards, I know!)

Sprout's Books
I've been meaning to put these in a post for a couple weeks. These have become Sprout's go to books.

She loves her Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Look and Find book. She is now at the point where she understands what she is supposed to do and will point to the object/character in the box and then find them in the picture!

She also loves her Little Einsteins Animal Alphabet book. "Eo!" She loves look at this book. She is getting really into letters (even though we haven't really worked with them), so she loves looking through this book.

This week she got a set of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse mini board books in a carrying box, and loves her "Gickey" books. She carries them all over the house. I think she likes taking them out and putting them back in more than reading them right now, but she does let us read them every once in a while.

Next Week

Next week is kind of up in the air right now, as I have just realized it is going to be a really crazy week or two. We'll see what we can get done.

Hope you all had a great week! To see what other Tots were up to this week go to 1+1+1=1.

To see what other stART projects people did this week. Go to A Mommy's Adventure.

Pampers, are you kidding me?

2010-05-15T20:50:00.001-04:00

This post is part of the Real Diaper Facts carnival hosted by Real Diaper Events, the official blog of the Real Diaper Association, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to cloth diaper education. Participants were asked to write about diaper lies and real diaper facts. See the list at the bottom of this post to read the rest of the carnival entries.

Okay, I don't normally get into the political universe that is cloth v disposable diapers, but I can't leave Pampers alone on this one.

Disclaimer: (If you do choose to use disposable diapers because that is what works for you please do not take offense at the following post.)

When my daughter was born, I was debating how I wanted to diaper her. I knew that JGD was not keen on the whole diaper concept at all and didn't know how to make the "jump" without his support. (As it turns out, I trained him very badly as he very rarely changes a diaper, and I decided I didn't care what he thought.)

Pampers

Myth: Disposable diapers are harmful to the environment.

Fact: All of the component materials in Pampers diapers are gentle to consumers and safe for the environment. Pampers diapers are made of materials that are also frequently used in a wide range of other consumer products. We are committed to continuing to reduce our environmental impact. For example, Pampers has decreased its diaper weight by one-third and packaging weight by two-thirds. And innovative technologies, raw materials, and product design improvements have led to significant reductions in energy, water use, emissions, and waste at our plants. We are working so that our diapers in the future will have less impact on the environment than even today's diapers.

My fact:
The first thing that I changed was that we I started to flush my daughter's bm's down the toilet and did not throw it out with the diaper because I read that human waste in the landfills is the first of many problems involved in using disposable diapers. As it is a source for disease growth and infections. Upon reading this I began flushing.

Secondly, it takes 500 years for a diaper to decompose. How can this be good for the environment??? In no way shape or form is this good!!! I'm glad to hear that Pampers is working to make their diapers have less of an impact. When they can biodegrade in the same time frame that a gDiaper can, I'll consider using them again (50-150 days).

Pampers

Myth: Cloth diapers are better for the environment than disposables.

Fact: In October 2008, the United Kingdom's Environment Agency published an update to its 2005 Life Cycle Assessment study on cloth versus disposable diapers. The update confirmed the earlier study's findings that there is no clear winner in terms of environmental impacts between disposable and cloth diapers in the U.K., once all factors such as water, energy, detergent, and disposal are considered.

My fact:
Well, see above...
And, are you kidding me? I know that when I first started using cloth diapers I was using more water to rinse out the soap in the diapers, but after finding the right detergent (Rockin' Green). I now do maybe 1-2 extra load(s) a week to wash my daughter's diapers. This is nowhere near the environmental impact that disposable diapers has. (Oh and just so I am not singling any one diaper vendor out, the president of Seventh Generation made a similar claim a few months ago.)

Pampers

Myth: Cloth diapers are better for my baby.

Fact: Disposable diapers like Pampers were developed to offer babies benefits that cloth diapers could not meet. That goes beyond convenience to helping keep babies' skin dryer and more comfortable by reducing leaks and locking wetness inside the diaper in a way that cloth doesn't. As a result, doctors and parents simply don't see the same level of diaper rash that used to exist before disposable diapers.

My fact:

My daughter has had far less diaper rashes, leaks and blowouts in cloth diapers than she had in disposables. And I will admit that part of the problem is that I didn't feel the need to change her as often. This was because you feel that the disposable diapers give a false sense of security as they are able to absorb to much waste. (I remember trying to figure out exactly how much, and was blown away by how much water 1 diaper took in.) I reconsidered my view on this when we made the change to cloth, and it was definitely a help.

And let me touch on one more common myth (well I know JGD believes and dispenses this one).

Myth:

Cloth diapers are more difficult to use than disposables.

Fact:

No way. For the most part we use one size pocket diapers. The actual putting on of the diaper is no more difficult than using a disposable diaper. It is just as easy to diaper my daughter with cloth as it was with disposable. I wish I could say easier, but really they are the same. So fear of difficulty should not hold anyone back.

And on the positive side using one size cloth diapers has saved us so much money (that JGD does brag about)!

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and (however poorly worded) this one is mine.

This post is part of the Real Diaper Facts carnival hosted by Real Diaper Events, the official blog of the Real Diaper Association. Participants were asked to write about diaper lies and real diaper facts. See the list at the bottom of this post to read the rest of the carnival entries.

My First Blog Award - Yea!!!

2010-05-14T14:27:00.001-04:00

The Rules:

1. Thank the person who gave you this award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Pass the award along to 15 bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic!
4. Contact the bloggers you've picked and let them know about the award.

Okay, so on with the show.

Thank you to Libby from Latte Mama. I can't believe I have a blog award. I am so thrilled that someone thought enough of what I write to send me an award. Thanks!!!

7 things about me???

Really, I'm not sure I'm that interesting that I have 7 things to share. This has been hard for me to think of. So, let's see.

I am 14 years (minus 1 week) older than my brother. And coincidentally, he is 14 years older than my daughter.
My husband and I went on a cruise of the Greek Isles for our honeymoon (which he won), which coincidentally was the same the thing my parents did for their honeymoon. (Also, our anniversary is 1 day after theirs, also a coincidence, I think.)
We have just started "gardening" and we're learning as we go. So far I have an herb container garden (my Mother's Day present), and some flowers that we have planted around the house (some of which seem to be dying). We have high hopes and plans for a butterfly garden in the near future.
In "real life" I am often thought to be on the quiet side by people who don't take the chance to get to know me. I am working on breaking out of my "shell," but it's an ongoing process.
I am a Yankee (not the baseball kind) through and through and desperately miss living in the Northeast. I really don't understand why people like living someplace where there are no seasons (well unless you count hurricane, as one of my students once told me.) No offense meant for anyone who does love living here, I just miss the leaves in the fall, the snow in the winter, the buds in the spring, and not have 95% humidity all day, everyday during the summer.
I would like to be crafty, but not sure if I'm succeeding. I learned to crochet in high school, and have gotten back into it recently. I'm hoping to start an Etsy store in the near future. I have a sewing machine because I would love to sew stuff, but I'm wondering if I'm in over my head. I think my first project is going to be a quilt from the many extra (and old) t-shirts my husband and I have.
I am pretty good with mechanical stuff, plumbing and electrical stuff. Nothing major. I'm not planning to rewire my house anytime soon, and I am happy to admit when I think something is beyond me. I have changed out door knobs and locks, installed all the baby locks, changed out a toilet (with help from JGD, someone had to do the heavy lifting ;-)), fixed the innards of all of our toilets, and stopped the leaks, changed out our thermostat, and all of the light switches and added dimmers for the fans in the house.

Okay, enough about me. Now, it's time for the bloggers I have recently discovered and think are fantastic.

Adventures in Mama-Land

Oh, I just know that I missed someone. Hopefully, if I did I will be able to pay them kudos in the future.

Thanks again Latte Mama.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-05-12T13:41:00.003-04:00

Join others at 5 Minutes for Mom.

Menu Plan Monday - 5/10

2010-05-09T22:30:00.000-04:00

Here is our Menu Plan for this week. We are part of Annie's Organic Buying Club. I do biweekly pickups and this is our week. So this is my week to finish up what we got. Here is what I have planned. It's not overly creative, but I hope it will be a yummy week.

Just as a reminded we are a Kosher home, and while my husband and daughter eat meat I don't. So there is always a vegetarian alternative.

Monday

Steak
Zucchini Pancakes (I will post a link or recipe after I make them)
Corn on the Cob
Salad?
Rolls?

Tuesday

Fajita Bar
Mexican Rice
Guacamole
Avocado & Tomato Salad?

Wednesday

Lasagna
Garlic Bread
Salad

Thursday

Vegetarian Korma
Rice (cook in coconut milk?)
Naan

Friday

Chicken
Gardein
Challah
Israeli Couscous or Angel Hair
Salad
Green Beans?

Weekend

Mushroom Barley Soup?
Cholent?

Extra Ideas

Tuna Casserole
Spinach Ravioli

Lunch Ideas

grilled cheese
quesadillas
peanut butter and jelly (apples)
Muffin Tin Monday
pasta salad
leftovers
turkey ("Tofurky) sandwiches

To see what others have planned for the week go to Menu Plan Monday at orgjunkie.com.

Thank You

2010-05-09T10:29:00.003-04:00

Thank you to my daughter for allowing me to have the best (and most challenging) job there is, being a mom.

Thank you to my mother-in-law,  Your spirit is with us always, and I learned so much from having the opportunity to know you.

Thank you, Nana,  You instilled a wonderful sense of tradition and love in me. I hope that I can carry on your traditions, and do as great a job as you did.

Thank you, Grandma,  You taught me that food and love are eternally connected. I hope that I can pass this on to Sprout as she grows older.

Thank you, Mom for helping me to traverse all of this, and still come out whole! There is just so much to thank you for that I can't put it all in words. So I will just say "Thank you!"

Be sure to thank someone today!

Tot School - Goodnight Moon

2010-05-08T21:11:00.006-04:00

Sprout is 22 months old

This week we focused on Goodnight Moon. While I was trying to map out our themes for the next few weeks, I started looking for books to fit the themes. As I was doing this, I decided to make a book the theme instead. I think this was great for this week, and am looking forward to continuing this.

Tot Trays
This Tot Trays we did this week were:

Goodnight Moon Tot Pack
Color Wonder - Playhouse Disney
Stickers (counting)

There were more (different trays) laid out for Sprout to use, but this is what she ended us doing this week.

I made a Goodnight Moon Tot Pack for Sprout. Check out the Tot Pack and Trays page to see more than what I'm showing you here. I made a coloring book that went along with the book. There were a couple other activities too. Including a pairs matching game which I'm sorry I don't have pictures of, and without the tennis racket from last week Sprout wasn't that interested in.

I also put out some stickers for Sprout to use, and I included a paper to start our counting practice. This was the first actual activity we did that was a "counting activity." Normally, I integrate it into everything else, but for this one it was the skill. This is Sprout's final product. (That is before she found it again a couple days later and pulled the stickers off.)

After she finished I let her put stickers on a different paper.

While she enjoyed doing that, she found other more interesting uses for the stickers.

Sprout also found her Color Wonder markers and coloring book (which I normally have on hand for restaurants). And wanted to color.

Projects

To go along with Goodnight Moon, we made a "bowl full of mush."

This was actually oatmeal playdough (a bit sticky, but perfect for mush). It was 2 parts oatmeal, 1 part flour, and 1 part water. This was a great playdough recipe to make with Sprout because it didn't involve heat or boiling water. (Notice she didn't mind getting her hands in this mess!)

Note (5/10/10) - When I went to set up this week's Tot Trays I noticed that some of the "mush" was overflowing out of the container I put it in. I tried to just get rid of the hardened part and realized that it stank! If you make this dough, just be sure not to keep it around too long.

We also painted a red balloon, using a comb. Sprout didn't love using the comb because she got paint on her fingers. So we moved on to a paintbrush and she was much happier. This was our stART project for this week.

Sprout also had a great time using her favorite dot markers. I got this page from Making Learning Fun.

I was very proud of her for actually "dotting" in the dots.

And of course we wore the tops on our fingers.

Practical Play

This week Sprout thought she would help me with our Challah. I had already put everything through the bread machine (yes, I cheat) while she napped. So all that was left when she woke up was to braid it. I'm sorry I don't have a picture of my part of the product.

Just like my challah, she made 3 different parts.

Not like my challah, she thought that they would make a great beard/chin guard when mushed all together.

We also made a Mothers' Day card for Bubbie (my grandmother => Sprout's Great-Grandmother).

After a variety of failed ideas, on my end. This was our final product for the card.

Amazon.com Widgets

Next Week

Next week we will be doing Laura Numeroff's books If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and If You Give a Pig a Pancake Big Book.

Hope you all had a great week! To see what other Tots were up to this week go to 1+1+1=1.

Friday Follow

2010-05-07T11:11:00.000-04:00

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stART - Goodnight Moon

2010-05-06T21:20:00.000-04:00

I love combining literature and art, and now that I am creating the week's theme and activities on a book, this is a great activity for us.

This week our book theme is Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. We have been doing a lot of activities to go along with this book, including our stART project for this week.

I thought that our project this week would go along with items found in the book. I drew a balloon on easel paper for Sprout and gave her red paint and comb to paint the balloon.

After trying this for a little while, we found that it wasn't really working for us. (Sprout did not like getting paint on her fingers. Even when I showed her that she could just wipe it on the paper.) So we changed over to using a paint brush. Sprout was much happier with this option.

Here is Sprout's final project.

To see what other stART projects people did this week. Go to A Mommy's Adventure.

Wordless Wednesday - Daddy's Girl

2010-05-05T09:32:00.000-04:00

Sprout reporting for duty.

(Don't know what's up with the cocked head!)

Where's the fire?

Join other at 5 Minutes for Mom.

Wii Active 30 Day Challenge - errr... Day 3

2010-05-04T08:29:00.000-04:00

Okay, so after my last workout, I had a tough time sorting out my schedule to fit in a time to workout. As I mentioned, I prefer to do it before Sprout is up. I'm not sure why (though it is probably because the sun is up earlier) she decided to get up earlier last week, which completely messed me up. Now the question is before she wakes up, during nap, or after I put her down for the night (by which time I just want to sit down)???

Workout
Day 3
Medium Intensity

Projected calories burned: 80.5
Calories burned: 92.0

Workout time: 22:39
Exercises completed: 1/16

Trophies received: None

Challenges: Conquering my schedule, and side jumps. I hate those things!

How do I feel?: Upper legs hurt a bit (probably from lunges and side jumps).

Next workout: Tomorrow, not a Wii Balance Board Day, oh no! More jumps, squats and lunges this time! And some boxing.

Menu Plan Monday - 5/3

2010-05-02T22:09:00.002-04:00

Here is our Menu Plan for this week. We are part of Annie's Organic Buying Club. I do biweekly pickups and this is our week. I am really looking forward to our yummy produce!!! Here is what I have planned. It's not overly creative, but I hope it will be a yummy week.

Just as a reminded we are a Kosher home, and while my husband and daughter eat meat I don't. So there is always a vegetarian alternative.

Monday

Citrus Tilapia ***
Salad
Sweet Potato Fries
Carrots

Tuesday

Lasagna
Salad
Garlic Bread
Broccoli?

Wednesday (Cinco de Mayo)

Fajita Bar (mushrooms, onions, peppers)
Mexican Rice
Avocado & Tomato Salad
Guacamole

Thursday

Mushroom Risotto
Roasted Garlic & Focaccia bread
Salad
Kale? (from the buying club)

Friday

Mushroom Chicken
Mushrrom "Chicken" using Gardein
Challah
Israeli Couscous or Angel Hair
Salad
Green Beans

Weekend

Mushroom Barley Soup?

Extra Ideas

Tuna Casserole
Spinach Ravioli

Lunch Ideas

grilled cheese
quesadillas
grilled peanut butter and jelly (apples)
Muffin Tin Monday
pasta salad
leftovers
turkey ("Tofurky) sandwiches

To see what others have planned for the week go to Menu Plan Monday at orgjunkie.com.

Tot School - Butterflies and Bugs

2010-05-01T22:31:00.001-04:00

Sprout is almost 22 months old

This week we focused on butterflies and bugs. Honestly, for some reason, I had a tough time getting back into the swing of things this week, and we didn't get much done. Hopefully, I'll be better off for next week

Tot Trays
This week's Tot Trays were

Visual Discrimination Matching Game
Playdough
Stickers
Wooden Lacing Beads
Sorting/transferring pompoms with tongs
Foam Shape Butterfly

These were the Tot Trays that were laid out for Sprout, and she was somewhat interested in them, but for the most part she made up her own activities this week.

She did play with the Melissa & Doug Primary Lacing Beads and had a great time. We are still working on lacing more than one bead on the string. Sprout did try this...

But soon decided that it was far more fun to wear them on her fingers.

Even while riding her car.

She is still learning how to use the Alligator tongs. Here she is trying to figure out how to use them.

Sprout also found some blocks that we bought for her from IKEA. She thought these would be a good addition to her Tot activities. And really, how could I say no?

Projects

We had two project this week to. The first went with Eric Carle's Very Hungry Caterpillar. Sprout really enjoyed reading this book. We made a coffee filter butterfly, using dried markers to watercolor.

Sprout then used the stamp markers (we normally use them to "reward" her for cleaning up) to decorate the doll clothespin we used to make the body of the butterfly.

I'm sorry I don't have a picture of the final product.

Our second project was our stART project for this week. It went along with The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle. We made a contact paper/tissue paper suncatcher.

Tot Pack

I had planned on using parts of the Tot Pack from 1+1+1=1, and making some elements of my own. I made a good number of activities, but didn't really use most of them. The one that we did use was a butterfly shape matching game. Go check out the Tot Packs page to see what else I made.

Sprout really enjoyed the butterfly shapes matching game. I wasn't sure how she was going to respond to this, because (as I've said before) she's not always into "traditional" matching ideas. I guess you could say she wasn't into the "traditional" methods this time either. She made her own activity. I gave her 3 wings and then showed her a wing to match to one of those 3. Apparently, she thought she needed to look at them from a different point of view.

After doing this, she thought that it would work better to put the cards on the tennis racket and work from there. And you know what? She loved playing this way, and did a great job making matches.

Practical Play

Sprout wanted to try out the camera again this week. I will admit that it is getting harder to take pictures of her working on projects because she wants to check out the camera. She took this picture while sitting on my lap. Yes, she figured out which button made the camera take a picture, and proceeded to take 3 of these pictures. (Please ignore the toys under the chair, they have been picked up!)

Other Stuff

We took Sprout to a Garden Center nearby that has a Butterfly Pavilion. We're thinking about planting a butterfly garden in back, so we thought we would check out what the garden center had while showing Sprout the butterflies. They didn't have many, but she loved watching them fly around.

(I'm sorry there are no pictures, I forgot our smaller camera and my iPhone chose that time period not to work :-(. )

Amazon.com Widgets

Next Week

While planning for the next couple weeks, I decided that we would pick a book to establish our theme and work from there. Next week's book is Goodnight Moon.

I'm really looking forward to this theme and have been working to create projects and Tot Activities for Sprout to do next week. We'll let you know how it goes.

Hope you all had a great week! To see what other Tots were up to this week go to 1+1+1=1.