What's For Dinner? Week 5

{Week of August 25-31}

This week, I reverted back to my former habits of doing all meal prep for the coming week on the weekend.  But instead of Friday night, I'm cooking on Sunday at nap time.  And I have a tip for making this bearable!  Pop in a book on CD and listen while you cook!  It's multi-tasking work time and "me time"!  :)  Why haven't I thought of this before?  I do enjoy cooking so it's not a total chore for me, but after working hard all week, it's not fun to commit your precious weekend hours to... more work.  At the same time, now that school is back in session and our weeknights are on a tighter crunch, I can't imagine coming home and prepping a meal in it's entirety before we sit down to eat it.  Over the summer, that wasn't a problem.  Our days and evenings were more laxed and the kids were up a little later and sleeping a little later.  But now, we've shifted back to a more formal schedule and this advance meal prep accommodates the change, making for a smoother, happier evening.

So, as before, the thought process for this sort of planning goes like this:

1) Decide what meals I want to make for the week (I usually plan on 3-4 meals, assuming some leftovers).  I make my plan a week in advance.  We grocery shop on Thursdays usually so our meal plan and grocery list for the following week are finished by that reasonably-flexible "deadline".

2) Look at our calendar for the week and take into account any known evening plans.  There usually isn't much:  karate for Will, occasionally bible study for me (that may be moving to a weekend), occasionally a meeting or basketball game with friends for Craig, and any other randoms.  We try to keep our evenings free.

3) Take into account the complexity of each meal and which will likely have leftovers and decide which meal will be served on each night.  If it's a "casserole", soup or other completely "done deal" after prep time, I typically serve it later in the week when I don't have to worry about cooking the raw meat we just bought within the 2-3 day deadline of its refridgerated shelf life.  If it requires any substantial last minute work, I try to plan on that meal for Sunday.  And if it's not going to provide any leftovers, I know I have to have another new meal planned the very next night.  If I'm going to be out of the house for whatever reason, I make sure there is something Craig can get on the table easily for everyone.

So this week, for example, we had karate on Monday night (Craig's turn to take) and the Fresh Beat Concert on Thursday night (Craig and Will would be home alone while Soph and I packed a hurried pb&j and some apples to go). 

On the menu were: 

1) tomato soup and grilled cheese

2) chicken enchiladas

3) coconut chicken strips with spicy apricot dipping sauce

4) homemade salsa for snacking

5) zucchini orzo for a weekend lunch

6) red beet pancakes for school morning breakfasts

I opted to make the coconut chicken on Sunday night because the dredging and coating is semi time consuming and I would be working with raw chicken.  For the soup and enchiladas however, the prep work left these meals as a "done deal" and I just had to make the grilled cheese while the soup warmed.  So these came on Monday and Tuesday nights and we had leftovers on Wednesday and Thursday.

 Here is our CSA bag for the week:

Contents:  a bag of beets, a bag of green beans, a bunch of basil, four sweet banana peppers and two other kind of hotter peppers, two tomatoes, two potatoes, two onions, four ears of sweet corn.

Fruit for this week was a bag of five apples and two peaches.  :)

Sophie helped me make the salsa on Saturday morning as part of her chill-out-and-change-your-attitude-right-now activity.  She was a grouch that morning and a little hands-on help in the kitchen did her some good.  ;)  She washed everything while stemmed and cored it on the cutting board.  Then I cut it into chunks and she helped me crank the Tupperware chopper that we whizzed it all up in. 

Peeling garlic.  Good fine motor practice.  :)

For lunch on Sunday, I made the zucchini orzo pasta.  Kids found it okaaay.  I love this recipe.  And we have a buttload of zucchini to use.  (Extended post coming soon on those recipes!)

Kids plate:

My plate:

This is an old pic of the coconut chicken with apricot sauce.  I think it looked even better this time but I forgot to take a pic.

Monday (karate night), I did the grilled cheese thing and cut up some raw veggies and apples for our plates to go with the soup.  I swear, besides some favorite salads here and there, the majority of vegetables we eat as sides are raw.  Almost every night, I am cutting up fruit and veggie slices of one kind or another.

Enchiladas, corn on the cob, big bowl of grapes, salsa to top the enchiladas.

Yum.  Craig inhaled this meal.

Friday night we had some awesome pizza for dinner - pepperoni and banana peppers, of course - at the Country Keg in Graytown.

InstaFriday

Another round of Instagram pics from our week:

Saturday, August 25th - and what I thought might be the last swimming weekend of the year.  (Umm... nope!)  Swimming at Nana & Papa's before lunch.

Nap time for our new kindergartner.  After just two school days the previous week, Will crashed for 3.5 hours on Saturday afternoon!  Hence the reason we still nap!!  On Sunday, he slept another two hours at nap time.  The kid just requires more sleep, despite bedtime between 7:30-8:30 on school nights and waking around 7. 

Mowing with daddy and taking the wheel! 

Future farmers. 

Sunday's trip to Maumee Bay was a great outing for some family exercise.  This was just before our hill run.

A quick walk through the neighborhood after dinner on Tuesday night. 

Doing homework on Wednesday. 

Fresh Beat on Thursday! 

This has been my little ritual of "me time" on work days for the past month or so.  It's one hour of uninterrupted (unless Craig gives me a call just to say hey) peace and quiet involving lunch and a book.  I always park my car in the corner of the lot under a nice shade tree and roll down all the windows.  Even on hot days, there's usually a breeze and IT. IS. BLISSFUL.  I bring out whatever I packed for lunch and scooch my seat all the way back.  Sometimes I kick my shoes off and stick my feet out the window.  ;)  And I either listen to my book on CD or read the actual hold-in-my-hands book.  (I usually have two books going at any given time lately.)  Love it!

On Friday the 31st, my parents watched the kids because Lisa was closed.  Will had school but they both got to go swimming for a short time when he got home.

Friday night, we met up with the Rethman brood for dinner at the Country Keg.  (Awesome pizza!!)  Our cousin Brianne recently got engaged and invited some friends there to celebrate with her and her fiance!  We okayed it with her that we bring the kids (thankful for not having to get a sitter!) and we didn't stay real long. 

Congratulations, Brianne!  We love you!!! 

Let's Pack Lunch!

Another school year of Planetbox packed lunches is upon us and, for the time being, I am up for the challenge!  Don't expect this much variety as the year progresses though.  ;-)  Haha!  One nice thing about having purchased a box for Sophie is that, on the other four days during the week that she doesn't need it, I have a back-up box ready for Will in case I don't feel like washing his before packing again.  They're really easy to wash though, so it's not a big hassle.  But it's nice to have that option.

So here are Will's lunches from the first full week of school.

Monday:

Contents:  cherry tomatoes from the garden, baby dill pickles, tic tac toe ham and cheese sandwich (those are sliced grapes and shaved carrots for the x's and o's), sliced nectarine and a couple chocolate covered pretzels.

Tuesday:

Contents:  fruit and veggies mini muffins, grapes and blueberries, ham and cheese kabobs with pickles and tomatoes, cucumber slices and red pepper stars, sweet beet cookie.

On Tuesday, Will accidentally left his lunch bag at school, so I packed his lunch in his Klip It cube instead for Wednesday:

Contents:  sweet potato biscut sammie with ham and cheese, brownie bites, pretzels, apple slices, orange peppers, green beans and cherry tomatoes.

I ordered these mini silicone muffin cups from Amazon to use as food dividers in some of the compartments.

Thursday:

Contents:  nectarines, orange peppers and corn sheets, peas and pasta, sweet beat cookies, some raw nuts, a hard boiled egg, and some chocolate raisins.  (The peas and pasta was definitely a no-go.  Not going to bother repeating it for Will.)

Friday:

Contents:  spinach cake muffins, cheese cube and grape kabobs, orange peppers, cucumbers and carrot sticks, fruit and seed bar and chocolate raisins.

My packed lunches, which happen about 95% of the year on work days (with only an occasional splurge on my favorite Chipotle order or to meet up with my dad for Lebanese food), are usually dinner leftovers.  So you're already seeing most of my lunch meals in my dinner posts!  :)  Here is an example:  coconut chicken strips with spicy apricot dipping sauce, zucchini orzo, raw veggies (peppers, cukes and green beans), an apple from our CSA and some chocolate covered pretzels.  Typically, at least one component of my packed lunch is eaten as a mid-afternoon snack or on my way out the door to head home, i.e. the apple.

Colors! (And K Week 2)

The second week (first full week) of Kindergarten had a color theme assigned to each day and the kids dressed appropriately.  :)  (Beware:  abundance of artificial "camera" smiles ahead.  How are some kids so incapable of smiling on request?)

 

Monday - Red

Tuesday - Orange

Wednesday - Yellow

Thursday - Green

Friday - Blue

The class read books about each color and created their own color books too.  Will came home each day singing a song that spelled out the name of each color.  Very cute - I video'ed him singing them - and he loved to entertain us with this daily serenade.  ;)  Each day, as part of the math lesson, they graphed the number of kids that were wearing the specific color.

 

Mrs. Mullen introduced "centers" to the class this week where they have time each day to work independently on various activities.  We receive a weekly newsletter telling us about the week in review (so nice and appreciated!) and this week I read that their centers included things like:

Math - counting to 5 (he came home with mini counting books that he'd made)

Writing - practiced writing each color name (came home with "color books")

Art - created an orange butterfly

Shapes & Patterns - play doh exploration

etc.

 

In whole-class math lessons, they worked on writing the numbers 1-5 and sorted objects by size, shape and color.  On green day, they did a cute activity with peas where they counted to see how many peas they could fit on a toothpick as well as coloring and tasting peas too!

 

In the afternoon, the students all have a "special" that they go to with a different teacher for 45 minutes:

Monday = art

Tuesday = gym

Wednesday = music

Thursday = library

Friday = tech

We are hearing rave reviews about all of those as well.  The activities that they're doing in each of those specials sound so fun for him/them!

 

When I think about all that Will gets to do in a single day - all the lessons and experiences and opportunities that are provided to him - it astounds me that public school education doesn't cost a fortune.  Will's school fees for an entire year of all day kindergarten were only $100, not including supplies.  I believe they're going to increase to a monthly fee by the time Sophie reaches Kindergarten if they plan to keep it all day rather than half day.  But still!  I am just in awe of all that our teachers are doing for these kids!  And it's so sad the lack of appreciation that they get in the way of funding and respect!

 

Getting back to this week...

They've been focusing a lot on daily routine as the kids all get acclimated to the classroom.  They have daily papers, spaces and belongings to be responsible for and Mrs. Mullen is really working to keep them accountable.  We talk about classroom behavior responsibilities at home each night too after we see the behavior mark he received for the day.  Inside his "Comet folder", there is a calendar starred with each day's mark.  It's a stop light system and green is, of course, good.  Will received one yellow mark on Tuesday on account of talking and not cleaning up after himself.  I expected as much from our easily-distracted, chatty-cathy ;) and Mrs. Mullen and I have been communicating via e-mail almost daily.  It's been so nice to keep in touch about how Will's days are going and get to know her a little better.  She is so loving with her approach to nudging the kids along in the right direction and praising their improvements.  I am just certain that she is an excellent match for Will.  We are feeling so blessed! 

Will is clearly very taken with Mrs. Mullen.  He mimics things that I'm sure he's heard her say in the classroom (i.e. "repeat after me" or "now, boys and girls" etc.) and the other day he told me "she's really pretty".  :)

 

One of the biggest things we've been working on (besides reminding of classroom manners) is handwriting.  Ugh.  It's such a chore for Will because he dislikes it so much.  But when this paper came home this week, I went straight out the next day to get a tablet of lined paper for practice:

He is capable of better than that - I've seen it!  But he doesn't enjoy writing and often gets really lazy and hurried with it.

His only actual homework this week was to practice writing his name across the lines - one row per evening.  He's never written on lines before - not formally anyway - but this week has been a wake up call that we need to get practicing!

Genoa schools use D'Nealian handwriting to teach the children, so we follow along with this guideline.

The breakfast nook counter (with stools underneath) has been Will's usual "homework spot".  It's about as secluded as our house gets and it's right beside our school paper shelves so it works for us.  Each night he's practiced writing upper and lowercase of two letters across the lines and then at least one other thing:  a sentence, the day's color, etc.  I find that he is most interested when the writing has an actual purpose.  For example, I had him write a "I love ____" and fill in the blank with some of his favorite toys.  So he wrote "I love Transformers, dinosaurs and robots."  Robots?  Really?  But whatever.  He actually enjoyed that writing "assignment".  :)

Speaking of organization, the action boxes have been very useful so far!  Will's homework is assigned on Fridays and due the following Friday with something to work on each night.  So it's stored in his box throughout the week.  I've added a sharpened pencil with eraser cap to his shelf for his nightly writing practice and a highlighter to my shelf for various uses.  I am loving this "system" for paper organization!

A quick pic of little sister this week.  :)

And a closing pic of our kindergartner waiting to get on the bus this morning.  :)

It's been a good week!

The Fresh Beat Band!

On Thursday, August 30th, these cutest little ladies went to their first concert!

The Fresh Beat Band came to The Toledo Zoo for a live performance in the amphitheater.  So fun!!!

Casey and I coincidentally heard about this concert on the same day back in April and immediately text each other with the same idea:  let's take the girls!!  So it became a plan as well as a birthday present for all three and we purchased tickets right away.  They'd only been selling for a short time and we were only able to get second to last row seats on the far right corner.  I almost didn't buy them until the customer behind me in line at the zoo's ticket counter said there are really no bad seats in the house.  So I took his word and bought them and it really was a great show and experience, even from a distance.  We could see the stage no problem and it didn't seem that far away.

Before the show, Casey and I got in line to check out t-shirts for our little groupies.  But when I saw that they were $25, I turned right around.  I was highly impressed with Sophie for acting so mature given her tantrum-filled age, after seeing her cousins both get one.  But I promised we'd do something special after the show instead.

Love how cute these two look waiting at the counter for the sales person to help us.

I don't think Soph really grasped what we were doing here or what we were about to see.  But boy did they hold her attention and awe when the Fresh Beat Band members came out singing!!  After each song, she'd ask me "are the Fresh Beat done singing their song?"  And I'd keep telling her "they're done singing that song, but they're going to sing a bunch more!"  P.S. - all the pictures from this night are from my iPhone.

Look at this crowd!  Thankfully, the immense heat of the day really didn't feel too bad this evening.  And it cooled as the time passed. 

The girls stood and danced and waved their arms.  :) 

Sometimes I have to pinch myself to believe that my sister and I were lucky enough to have these three beautiful girls just six weeks apart.  How lucky for them!  And how blessed are we?!?! 

A cool off break with some lemon ice. 

Entranced. 

P.S. - that's marker on her elbow.  Naturally. 

Dancing in the aisle. 

Such a fun date night with my girl before preschool begins for these ladies next week! 

Our "special treat" after the show was a stop at the Dairy Depot on Route 2 for some strawberry cheesecake ice cream.  Yum!  She was thoroughly satisfied with this.  :) 

Love you, baby girl!!!