**This post does contain some affiliate links which could possibly earn me a small commission if a purchase was made through them. These links help to support our blog and our family.
Hmmm… have you thought about what you’ll be feeding those hungry learners? If your kids were in public school you may not have had to think much about it before. If you plan to homeschool then you will be feeding them at least three meals a day and maybe a few snacks in between.
This can turn into a chaotic juggling act if you aren’t prepared. How do we prevent meal time chaos in our home? By meal planning. I even plan out snacks sometimes so I don’t forget to include them on my grocery list. Check out this link for some Healthy Snacks to Go.
It might seem like a lot of trouble but when you find a system that works for then it is so easy. It will actually save you time and money in the long run. This is also a helpful thing even if you don’t homeschool.
**This post does contain some affiliate links which could possibly earn me a small commission if a purchase was made through them. These links help to support our blog and our family.
I can remember how excited I always was on my first day back to school. I loved school as a kid and I was always so eager to learn. My best memories were of the teachers who let us play games or gave us special treats on that first day. Maybe they were just trying to bribe us but it was something I remember.
**This post does contain some affiliate links which could possibly earn me a small commission if a purchase was made through them. These links help to support our blog and our family.
If this is your first year homeschooling this is an important step to making sure you get your year off on a good start.
You don’t need a huge Pinterest perfect school area as I’ve talked about in this post but you do need it to be organized if you want to be successful. Having stuff here and there is a surefire way to get overwhelmed in a hurry. Trust me, I know this from experience.
Our main area is our dining table. We have some bookshelves which hold the majority of our books plus I have another shelf with the books I am using that are specific to our curriculum for this year. Continue reading Is Your HomeSchool Area ‘School Ready’?→
As promised I will share the recipe for the cookies we made earlier today. These are super easy to make and I had made two batches, or about four dozen cookies, in less than 30 minutes.
I’ve always called them haystacks but Mr. Awesome knows them as Noodle Cookies. You can probably add other ingredients, desired or maybe even swap the butterscotch chips for chocolate ones.
Mr. Awesome likes them without marshmallows but with plenty of peanuts. The kids like them with marshmallows. That’s how I ended up making two batches.
Haystacks aka Noodle Cookies
Ingredients:
11-12 oz bag butterscotch chips
3/4 c. Peanut butter
10-12 oz Chow Mein Noodles
1/2 – 1 c. Salted peanuts, optional
3 1/2 c. Mini marshmallows, optional
Directions:
Line two baking pans with wax paper.
Place the chips in a medium to large size bowl. Microwave on 50% for 1-2 minutes or until mostly melted.
We have had quite the week again. Fun and crazy as usual. Keep reading to find out about some of our many adventures here in the little house on the pond. We have included affiliate links to some of the products mentioned in this post. These help to support our blog.
Monday
Elephant fuzz here, elephant fuzz there, elephant fuzz everywhere… sounds a bit like a children’s book, doesn’t it? So what is elephant fuzz? I asked the same thing when I first saw this all over the house:
The kids were quick to reply that it was ‘elephant fuzz’…. ok, but where did it come from? Here is the answer:
It appears that this little pillow has a hole and is leaking elephant fuzz… lol… kids come up with the darnedest things don’t they? Well, I got the hole taken care of and hopefully that’ll be the end of the elephant fuzz.
Monday our regular club dance was ‘dark’ to support a reunion dance that was being held locally. Here is a short video from the event:
We had a good time and got to see old friends plus we made some new ones while we were there. Afterwards we ate at Texas Roadhouse and an exceptional server named Terrence.
Tuesday
I got a call from the Florida Gardiner Scholarship telling me about a glitch in the system which had caused some of my orders to be denied… this meant I had to go back into the system and resubmit the orders… oh what fun!
I also figured out that I can ‘Air Drop’ pictures from my phone to my tablet… this makes life so much easier!
The kids are loving their new routine chart:
I am working on ordering some different magnets because the stars don’t stick very well. I may also paint or paper the board. There will be a post about this sometime in the future.
We read a chapter from the Laura Ingalls Wilder biography before bed and had a short discussion about the things we learned from the chapter. The kids are super excited about the new school year.
They were also very happy that I had ordered more of their favorite toothpaste:
We all love the lemon flavor and I love the fact that it works so great! I always buy the triple pack and the first time I ordered I bought the multipack so we could try out all the flavors. The kids didn’t care for the peppermint or cinnamon as they thought they was too spicy. Some of us older folks liked the wintergreen flavor but lemon was the majority vote.
I actually found a little time on Tuesday to paint my nails too! Mommas need a little bit of pampering from time to time. 😊
Wednesday
Wednesday morning we changed our breakfast routine a bit. Instead of Muffins the kids had a bowl of fresh fruit and a cup of yogurt.
I’m really loving this new fruit bowl I got earlier this month. It is so much bigger than the one we had, plus it’s not as fragile. The banana holder is a great feature as well. It keeps the kids from dragging out and bruising all of the bananas just to find the ‘perfect’ apple.
While cleaning the bathroom I got a call from Walgreens …. NOT… it was a telemarketer call disguised as a local business. I HATE these kind of calls. They wanted to help me with my interest rate on a card they knew nothing about.
After politely asking a strongly accented Chris Sawyers to remove me from the list I had to threaten to report them to the authorities for FRAUD. He asked me to hold online while he removed me from the list. I did hold, with the phone muted and the receiver set on the shelf, and an hour later I was still on hold… haha Mr. Sawyers from card services you’ve won a mention on my blog. Congrats!
After our morning chores were finished we played one of the new games that we’ve gotten:
Bugs Building is similar to the once popular Jenga game. They had a lot of fun playing the game but then we had some major midweek meltdowns!
Luckily I still had a hidden stash of FREE chocolates…
Thursday
Hmmm… Thursday was a kinda gloomy day, very rainy and windy too. We didn’t get our laundry done because of the weather but it got finished up on Friday. We were also without power for a little while that morning.
The kids made the best of no electricity and played some board games. I think they thought they were getting out of chores but everyone had to help finish up the chores when the power came back on. Then it was time for some lunch which was Grilled Cheese Sandwiches.
After I got the kids down for quiet time I got this text message from Mr. Awesome:
Oh boy do I love these kind of messages. I dug my outfit out of the closet and got to work on making some dinner. I had planned to make Spaghetti but opted for Sloppy Joes when I realized I didn’t have any noodles.
Unfortunately I didn’t get any pics of the Pink Cadillac Dance or our super cute outfits because my phone was acting up again.
Friday
Friday was Moon Day and we celebrated with some Moon Pies for an afternoon snack. That morning we finished up the laundry for the week and caught up on few things that needed done around the house.
After paying a couple of bills I went ahead and renewed our ABC Mouse that the kids have been begging for. They wasted no time getting on their and taking care of their virtual pets. Joey also made sure to update his avatar:
Those glasses look almost like his and they are just too cute!
That afternoon I went to make some our favorite Cream Cheese Chicken with Rice and Green Beans only to realize I didn’t have any cream of chicken soup… I don’t know what happened when I went grocery shopping last week but I guess I didn’t do a good job. I did finish dinner and it was really good with the substitutions I made so I’ll try to get that updated recipe posted soon.
That evening we went to the square dance. Again I didn’t get any pics because my phone died but I did get that video finished. I’ll have it at the end of the post.
Saturday
I had planned to get the porch cleaned up a bit but the constant thunderstorms kept us inside. The morning was spent tidying up around the house and then we went out to eat at Golden Corral. It wasn’t the best experience and we probably won’t visit that location again but the kids enjoyed it.
After eating we headed to the movies to watch the new Ant Man movie. It was pretty good and everyone had a great time. All in all it was a good week and we are really looking forward to a great time in the upcoming week.
This week I plan to get some of the lessons entered into the Homeschool Manager app and also set a date for us to start school. I will also be working on a couple of more promo videos for square dancing as many clubs will be starting classes in September.
As far as cleaning the FlyLady missions will be in the Master Bedroom this week. I just need to do a tidying up in there so I’m not really sure how much I will get done in there. I would really like to get the porch cleaned off and have some usable space out there but the weather hasn’t been cooperating.
What are your goals for the upcoming week?
Below are some other things that we’ve done this past week and that video we put out for square dancing.
I decided to celebrate the middle of the year with a look back on my blog’s top ten blog posts for 2018. Can you guess what they were? The results certainly supervised me!
So it seems that everyone really likes recipes and food as those post had half of the top ten spots. Of course we have to balance that out with holiday ideas, special promotions, and just good ole’ family stuff.
Anyway I just wanted to take a minute and say thanks to everyone for such a great first half of 2018. It really does mean a lot that everyone reads and follows along on our adventures.
Teach Kids These 5 Habits for Lifelong Healthy Eating:
What are the best habits you learned from your parents? What are the most important habits you’re teaching your kids? #2 on this list is especially good:
Kids say the darndest things sometimes and I just don’t know where they come up with some of the things that come out of their little mouths. My five year old told me yesterday that ‘the nicer you are the happier you are’. I asked him where he had heard that and he said he learned it from one of his video lessons.
Wow! I am amazed at the things they pick up sometimes and this time I am so glad that it was a good lesson. We all had a quick little discussion about whether or not that statement was true as Caitlyn (10 going on 30) insisted it couldn’t possibly be correct.
She later changed her mind after realizing that the old advice ‘Do unto others as you would have others do unto you’ was probably the reasoning behind her brother’s remark. We also discussed ways to be kind to one another and how we would want to be treated in certain situations.
All in all it was a very good, but impromptu, lesson in character.
What have your kids said lately that has surprised you?
So this weekend was really cold, again, and the kids were getting a bit antsy while being cooped up in the house. Luckily Momma has a drawer full of items that need tested out and the kids really wanted to help. They have been begging me to make cupcakes so I decided to give these Russian Piping Tips a try. (Yep, Affiliate Link… so if you did decided to purchase these I might get a small little kickback.)
Well, I hope your kids aren’t making you too crazy yet… I’ve already stepped off the loco train a long time ago when I decided to homeschool but that’s another story. Here are a few crafts to keep those entertained and hopefully out of your hair. (I’ve also included a couple of affiliate links to some crafts you can buy on Amazon… at no extra charge to you! You’re welcome!) Continue reading Kids Driving You Bonkers Yet?→
I have been working on a Home Ec class for my kids. (Its printed and waiting to be bound and/or laminated.) One of the activities is setting the table. When I came across this post on my Facebook feed I felt I should share it as many of us do get confused and some of us really don’t care.
