Flylady round 5,895

OK not really but I have done Flylady more times than I count. It is a wonderful program that does do wonders for you if you stick with it. I just have issues sticking to anything for more than a couple of weeks. But with a little poking from a friend who is starting Flylady for the first time I decided to give it another go. I need structure and a plan for my house so I'm looking forward to getting started. I have held on to some of the ideas from Flylady even during the time I wasn't following her program so I should be able to just fall right back into place without too much trouble.

And since it's Day 1, it means my first task was shining my sink.


All done :-)

Planning for next year

Christmas isn't even over for us yet, we celebrate Old Christmas with my parents on Jan 6th, but already I'm getting in gear to plan for next year. Christmas comes on Dec 25th every single year, so why aren't we all better prepared for it? Did you know that if you set just $5 a week aside until the first week of November starting the first week in January you'll have $215. That's a nice little chunk of money set aside to your Christmas shopping. If you can spare $10-$20 a week instead of just $5 you can double or even quadruple your Christmas budget. You can also start with the after Christmas sales to start your shopping for next year. Get a plastic tote and set it in your closet, spare room or somewhere else in your house where you have an empty corner. As you pick up little things put them in your tote and come Christmas you have a nice stockpile of gifts already! Make a list of all the people you normally buy for and keep it in your household binder, Holiday notebook, etc so you can jot down gift ideas, gifts that you pick up for them, etc.

Remember, gift sets on clearance now can be taken out of the packages and put in a nice basket or other container next Christmas and you have a super cheap gift that looks expensive.

You can also buy your Christmas cards on clearance this year so you're prepared for next Christmas. Same goes for wrapping paper, tape, gift tags, etc. It takes a little organization but with some planning you'll be on top of the Holiday season before it even gets here. And don't forget about those stamps! Purchase a couple books of forever stamps throughout the year so you'll be ready to mail those cards without having to make a special trip to the Post Office.

What else can you do now to get ready for Christmas 2011?

Commercial Breaks

In our roles as moms we sometimes have periods of time where we just get burnt out and unmotivated to do anything other than laze around spending time online, watching cartoons with our kids or mindless TV while the kids play and playing cars or tea party. There is nothing wrong with that and we all need breaks from the housework. But let's face it, when you're the only one taking care of the house we can't take but so many days off. And after 1 day off, it's easier to turn it into 2 days, then a week and that just can't happen if we want to be able to find our way out of one room and into another. LOL So like anything we need to find a way to get our toe back in the water to get motivated again.

So that's what this blog post is all about. Dipping our toe back in the water with Commercial Break houseworks. The average commercial break is what? maybe 3-4minutes long. Imagine all you can get done during the commercial breaks of a 1 hour TV show. I've made a short list of chores for each of the "public" rooms in the house to start with. Do 1 or 2 chores during a commercial break and before you know it you have a whole room clean!

Bathroom-
Wipe down toilet
Wipe down sink, counter and mirrors
Wipe down bathroom
Sweep & mop (I use a Swiffer type mop so it only takes a second to mop the floors)
Empty trash

Living room-
Dust surfaces & knick-knacks
Vacuum
clean the TV screen and inside the windows
Tidy up the room

Kitchen-
Wash a sink full of dishes
Dry & put away the dishes
Wipe down counters
Wipe down stove
Wipe down Fridge/freezer
Sweep
Mop (again I use the Swiffer mop)
Clean off the table
Wipe down small appliances
Take out trash

Laundry-
Sort the dirty laudry
Put on a load of laundry
Switch the laundry in washer/dryer
Wipe down the tops of w/d
Fold & put away laundry

You could also get a quick workout in by walking in place, jumping jacks, crunches, etc or get the kids involved by having them pick up their toys or put away their clothes. The possibilities are endless!!

Next time we'll talk about my cleaning bucket. It makes my housework so much easier!

Christmas to-dos

I know I know. I'm back to posting and it's all about Christmas. What can I say? This is really my favorite time of the year. I still have lots to do to get ready for Christmas. I have lists in my Holiday binder of all the things I want/need to do and get so I thought I would share them.

Houseworks-
Clean spare room
move corner storage unit from Boo's room to spare room
switch dressers from our room and spare room
take any donation items to thrift store
hang garland on porch
clean walls

Food-
Sugar cookies 10 dozen
Double layer pumpkin pie
Cupcakes/Cake
Plan Christmas morning breakfast
Plan Christmas Eve supper

Other Christmas-y Stuff-
Order Christmas pictures
Sign Christmas cards
Address Christmas cards

Christmas Traditions

I just love all the traditions that come with the holiday season. Over the past few days I've really been thinking about the traditions that my little family has and the new traditions I want to start. From cookies and milk for Santa to staying up late and wrapping gifts on Christmas Eve to looking at Christmas lights all the way. It all just makes me so giddy and feel like a child again. I remember when my husband and I were engaged, it was our first Christmas together and he said "you know I don't really like Christmas that much". I just thought Are you kidding me? How can someone go through the holiday season without feeling all the love and magic that comes with the holidays? Lucky for him I stuck it out even though he was a Scrooge. And over the last couple of years since our son has been born I've noticed every Christmas he gets into the Christmas Spirit just a little bit more than the year before. It feels my heart with joy. And then there is our little one. This year all the magic is really alive for him. Even though this is his 4th Christmas, this is the first one that everything is starting to come together for him and he really GETS Christmas this year. Every morning he is so excited to open the next window in the Advent calender. Even though I know it's only because he wants the chocolate it's still so cute to watch him get excited about it. Next year I plan to start earlier and make our own Advent calender with activities in the windows rather than candy but I didn't think about it until too late this year.

When we happen to be out past dark his eyes light up at all the Christmas lights. I can't wait to take him out riding just to look at lights closer to Christmas. It's going to be awesome.

So until next time..
Happy Holidays!

25 Days of Christmas

The 25 Days of Christmas start today! This is my favorite time of year and this year is especially fun because CJ is REALLY into the holidays this year. Christmas morning is going to be such fun and I can't wait. Yesterday we made a foam gingerbread ornament together to hang on the tree. It is proudly hanging front and center, though if it's anything like the rest of the ornaments it will have a new home on the tree shortly.

I've been burning the Glade Winter collection candle in Sugarplum. I got it at Dollar General for $0.67. Totally worth full price though, it smells so yummy and really scents up the whole house.

Today we also started our Christmas countdown calender. It's a chocolate Advent calender that we found at the Christmas Shop at the beach. CJ was so excited to open up the first window and get the chocolate out of it. He wanted to open all the windows to get all the chocolate out of it though. LOL

The 25 Days of Christmas start tonight on ABC Family tonight. Even though we've already been watching Christmas movies for a couple of weeks, ok all year, I can't wait to curl up at the end of each day with my little family to watch the featured movies.

I'm anxiously planning out holiday parties and activities in my Holiday notebook and looking forward to all the family time in the weeks to come.

Last Day of November

Wow It's been a while since I've blogged huh? It's been a hectic few weeks around here. I've recently started getting back into couponing focusing on shopping at Food Lion and Dollar General. I've gotten some amazing deals like free bottles of Gain dish soap, Secret deo and Olay body wash, $1.25 bottles of Axe body wash and boxes of cereal for around $1 each just to name a few.

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving, ate lots of great food and spent time with our families. And thanks to some great co-ops, sales and Black Friday Santa is officially done with gifts for Boo. The house is decorated for Christmas, stockings hung and tree decorated. Not to mention the yummy smells of the holidays are starting to fill our home.

I'm going to start making it a point to blog a little each day so keep checking in!

Time 4 Learning Review

It's time to review our trial with T4L.

What can I say about T4L? We LOVED it. CJ asked to play on it and caught on to the games really fast. He never wanted to turn it off. I was really impressed with the quality of the games and how easy they were for him to navigate. I'm really no good at detailed reviews so take my word when I say, it's a wonderful program for kids and we really enjoyed our time with T4L.

Am I late getting my post up today or what?

Wow I am super late getting my menu plan and my 5 minutes a day post up today. Goodness. So let's just merge them into one big post today shall we?



First let's do our menu plan for this week. As usual we're doing Menu Plan Monday over at OrgJunkie.

Monday: Baked Potatoes, Salad
Tuesday: Marinated Chicken, Green Beans
Wednesday: Cheeseburgers, Fries
Thursday: Beef chuck steaks, butter beans
Friday: Meatball Sandwiches, Fries or Mac & Cheese

Breakfasts:
Pancakes
Chocolate Chip Muffins
Coffecake Muffins
Toast

Lunches:
Hot Dogs
leftovers
Teriyaki Noodles


And now 5MAD!


Today's task is to clean out your kitchen sink and wipe it down.

What we had for dinner

I've been slacking a bit with my blogging and I apologize. There hasn't been much going on to blog about. Tonight I figured I'd at least get some kind of post up so let's talk about what we had for dinner tonight. Yesterday we went to the grocery store and they had whole chickens for something like $1.39 a pound. I really should've bought more than one and I might run back and get 1 or 2 more before they go off sale. I got a while chicken for less than $3. Yes they are smaller chickens but we'll get at least 2 meals from one.

I put the chicken in the crockpot and put 2 big pats of butter under the skin and 3 small pats on top of the chicken with some herbs. I used Penzey's Bavarian Style Seasoning but any mix of herbs will work. I let it cook in the crockpot all day until cooked and tender. Man did it make my house smell good! Then for the sides I chopped up some potatoes, carrots and onions. I put them in a pot of water with some butter and some seasonings. (I used Penzey's Bouquet Garni Seasoning. And no these aren't affiliate links, I just happen to love Penzey's) I also added a cup of the juices from the chicken. I brought it up to boil, put a lid on the pot, turned it off and let it sit until we were ready to eat. They were nice and tender but all the veggies held their shape really well.

Come back tomorrow for MPM!

8/13 5 Minutes A Day

Good Morning! Here comes the weekend. Are you doing anything exciting? Well before you take off to start your weekend activities let's do a 5 minute task.

Today we're going to spend 5 minutes cleaning/decluttering a spot in your house that collects clutter.

So excited!

I’ve been invited to try Time4Learning for one month in exchange for a candid review. My opinion will be entirely my own, so be sure to come back and read about my experience. Time4Learning can be used as a homeschool curriculum, for afterschool enrichment and for summer skill sharpening. Find out how to write your own curriculum review for Time4Learning.

I am really excited to see how CJ does with the T4L website as I have heard great things about the program.

8/12 5MAD

Good morning! Isn't it a fabulous Thursday? I haven't had much time to blog this week but tomorrow I'll do a longer post about our week.

So today's task is to clean out your refrigerator. Or at least work for 5 minutes on it. Clean out all that old food and mystery containers and make room for fresh groceries.

8/11 5MAD

Are you ready for our 3rd 5MAD? Did you finish yesterday's task? My front door is looking extra pretty!

So today's task is simple. I want you to take 5 minutes and go outside and enjoy your surroundings. Take a deep breath, look around and just enjoy the world around you.

I will definitely be doing that today as we're about to head out to spend the morning in the water! Have a great day!

8/10 5MAD

Good Morning fabulous ladies! Are you ready for a new 5MAD? Did you complete yesterday's task?

Today's task is to wipe down your front door.

5 minutes a Day

5 minutes a day is a daily series I am going to be doing here at At My Sink. The goal is to do one small task every day that takes around 5 minutes to complete but helps to improve your life and home. Make sure you have a timer handy. I hope you all will join me. Be sure to leave a comment letting me know you're playing along!


Todays "5MAD" task:
Set the timer for 5 minutes and dust the walls in one room.

Menu Plan Monday 8/9

It's that time again! Time for Menu Plan Monday. :-)

Monday: Sloppy Joes, fries
Tuesday: BBQ Chicken, mashed potatoes
Wednesday: Baked Mac & Cheese, Salad
Thursday: Homemade Pizza
Friday: Marinated Chicken, roasted carrots

Check our our new series "5 Minutes A Day"

And don't forget to "like" our page on Facebook! When we hit 100 fans there will be a giveaway. At My Sink on Facebook

Totals for this week

I went to 2 different stores this week, Food Lion on Friday and WalMart on Saturday.

Food Lion $32.44
5# sugar
Pop-Tarts 2 boxes on sale for $2 each
potato chips
Baked Beans
hamburger buns
hamburger 4.5#pk
chicken breasts 2pks
lettuce
fries

Walmart $59.48
toilet paper
paper towels
5# sugar
coffee
clothes hangers
tea bags
salad dressing
sour cream
popcorn
chef boyardee
flavored powder for milk
macaroni noodles
spanish rice mix
cheese
carrots
butter
cilantro
cereal
green peppers
cucumbers
lettuce
tomatoes 3pks (pack of 3 tomatoes for $1)
hot dogs
limes
bacon bits
bbq sauce
taco sauce
bananas
tortillas
hot dog buns
hamburger buns
bread
tee-shirt

Coffee with Friends

Good morning friends! I just found the most wonderful little blog called Home Sanctuary and she has a series called Small Things. It's all about doing the small things to make your home into a sanctuary. I am thrilled to be participating.


Tonight for dinner I'm planning on making Pioneer Women's Tequila Lime Chicken. I love all things mexican food so I am so looking forward to making this dish. Topped with some fresh pico de gallo and sour cream. YUM! For now though we're about to head out to the lake.

Funny how life works out

Do you ever have one of those weeks where you plan to do nothing and then all of a sudden you have something every single day? That has been us this week. It's our first week of school so I had a planned a quiet week at home getting CJ into a nice little routine but as is life, that has not happened. Monday and Tuesday went basically as planned. Tuesday I was just exhausted though! Do you ever have those days? You wake up tired and nothing you do makes you have more energy? Well that was Tuesday for me. We did spend an hour or so up and down from the table coloring and practicing writing his name. We started writing the letter C but he insisted on finishing it out and writing CJ instead, but that's ok by me. I did little to no housework Tuesday though. Wednesday we made a day of it and went down to see my Mama. My van has been in the shop so I went to pick it up and spent the rest of the day with her. We went and got some goodies from a local bakery and met a cousin to loan her a Moby wrap for her new little one. On the way home I picked up KFC for supper (Thanks Mama!), came home, ate supper and did little else the rest of the day.

So then that brings us today. My husband was unexpectedly home today so I took advantage of having an extra pair of hands and got a few things done that I couldn't do myself. The backseat of our van has been sitting in our living room since we moved into our house in June and CJ's bed frame has been sitting on the front porch waiting on a 2nd coat of paint. It's just been way too hot to get it painted though! Both of those things are now in their proper homes. Then last minute we were invited to lunch with his parents for his aunt's birthday. My house was a mess and I needed a shower so I opted to stay home and clean while he took CJ with him to lunch. My house thanks him for it too. I had about 6 loads of laundry to do, dished piled up and a living room that looked like a tornado went through it. I'm almost done with my to do list though, just waiting on the washer and dryer to do their thing, so I sat down to plan next week's menu and blog.

Tomorrow we're planning to spend most of the day out at the lake with my best friend and her little girl and have a picnic lunch, then CJ is supposed to spend the night with my parents so I might get to enjoy my clean house for at least a day!

Days 1 & 2

We completed day 2 of preschool today. So far so good. We worked on writing the letters A,B & C, we colored a picture of a farm, worked on recognizing letters and practiced walking in a straight line touching toe to heel. Here's a few pictures from the last 2 days.

Kitchen organization

The kitchen has to be one of the hardest rooms to organize. It needs to be functional while still being pretty. Ours serves not only as a cooking space but also our dining area and school room so I'm constantly trying to figure out a new way to make it that much more organized. One of the hardest things to organize are my spices. I have lots of bottles of spices but they are just kind of everywhere. I can't use a spice rack because all my bottles are different sizes and shapes. So currently my most used spices just sit on my counter and the rest are in a plastic container on top of the fridge.

Today the plan is to get in the kitchen and do a little more organizing so I'm not constantly back tracking and everything flows a little better. So tell me how YOU organize your kitchen to make it more functional for you and your family.

Week 2 Detailed Guide

Here is our Week 2 detailed guide.

Theme- Under the Sea
Life Skill- Table Manners
Physical Skill- do the Hokey Pokey
Cooking- Help make muffins
Vocabulary- Letters D & E
Reading/Oral Language- Read a book out loud together
Math- Numbers 1-5
Hands on- Trace Square
Handwriting- D & E
Craft- paper plate Fishbowl

Monday-
Introduce life skill- Table Manners: sitting at the table properly, asking to be excused, etc
Handwriting- Show how to write letters D & E. Practice writing these letters
Coloring- Color a picture of sea life. Talk about different types of sea life

Tuesday-
Physical Skill- Dance the Hokey Pokey
Vocab- Recognize letters. Worksheet- find and circle the letters D & E

Wednesday-
Math- Sort shells into groups of 1-5
Reading- Read a book outloud. Encourage child to repeat words or sentences.
Craft- Make a Paper Plate Fishbowl (color a plate blue and draw fish or use stickers)

Thursday-
Hands On- Trace Squares
Cooking- Make muffins together
Bible Lesson- Read the story of Jonah. Color a picture and talk about the story.

Friday-
Review the lessons for the week

Menu Plan Monday

Yes I realize today is Sunday. But I'm putting my menu up now while I have a minute since we have company coming later. Over at orgjunkie.com Laura has Menu Plan Monday. I will be participating in MPM this week! Any blogger is welcome to join so if you menu plan I recommend joining.

Sunday- Beef chuck steaks, mashed potatoes, Eclair Cake
Monday- Taco Salad
Tuesday- Chicken & Rice
Wednesday- homemade Pizza
Thursday- Sloppy Joes, homemade fries
Friday- marinated chicken, potato salad


And just a little self promotion here. lol We have a brand new Facebook page if you want to become a fan HERE

And one last thing, We are raffling off a Red Bilibo on AMH! Bilibos are great toys to get your child(ren) using their imaginations. You can find out more info HERE

Adding Bible lessons and some worksheet links

I decided to make a change to our Thursdays. I am adding a Bible lesson to this day. We are using the Alice in Bibleland books as the guide for our lessons. If you don't have these books or don't want to use them you can easily use the Bible to read the story or any other Bible story books.

So week 1 we are going to do the story of Creation. We will read the story, do a coloring page and talk about what the story was about.

Here are some coloring pages you can choose from:
http://www.coloring.ws/creation.htm
http://www.theideadoor.com/Coloring%20pages/fr07feb33_creation.jpg
http://i2.squidoocdn.com/resize/squidoo_images/-1/draft_lens9573001module85423571photo_1266469126Genesis_coloring_pages.jp


And here are some worksheet printables that we'll be using this week as well.
http://www.kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/pre-print/pre-print-horizontal.htm
(except cutting we'll be tracing)
http://preschoolpalace.org/images/scissor%20skills%20-%20straight%20line%20fall%20theme.gif
http://www.ziggityzoom.com/images/activities/letter_A.gif
http://www.ziggityzoom.com/images/activities/Alphabet_b.gif
http://www.ziggityzoom.com/images/activities/letter_C.gif

Grocery budget for this week

Last week I was over in our grocery budget. I spent $75 (including the chicken I posted about the other day) at Food Lion and $17 (pullups and a few snacks for the house) at Dollar General. We opted to save the gas money from driving an hour to Walmart and stick to shopping near home. It cost a little more but it evened out with the gas.

This week however I was visiting my family so I was already near WalMart. I did pretty good this week. I spent $72 but that includes some school supplies and sunscreen that I needed as well. I stuck to my grocery list though so I'm proud of myself!

What I bought:
Lettuce
Tomato
Bananas
bell pepper
2 big packs of top sirloin that were on sale for $5 each
loaf of bread
box of tea
bag of rice
cheese
gallon of milk
cool whip
Jello (4 boxes, to make Jello jigglers)
Jello pudding (to make a chocolate eclair cake)
graham crackers
pack of cookies
chocolate frosting (for the eclair cake)
bottle of marinade
paper plates
plastic cups
box of apple pies (groan. My son begged for an apple pie all day long. I don't know where he say apple pie or why he wanted some but all day he asked to eat apple pie. So I picked up a box of those apple pie snack cakes)
2 cans chef boyardee
pk of juice
tortillas
2 pks toilet paper
jiffy cornbread mix
salsa
pencils
modeling clay
folders
glue
paint
paper bags
notebook paper
sunscreen

Rotisserie chicken

When I was grocery shopping this weekend I decided to make a little "splurge" purchase. We're trying to cut down on our eating out but that doesn't leave a night off for me and we all know that we moms need a night off once in awhile. So I stopped by the deli and got a cooked Rotisserie chicken for $7. Then I picked up a package of Uncle Ben's rice that you cook in the microwave for 90 seconds for $1.25. The chickens are on the smaller side so our family of 3 ate half the chicken and the pack of rice for supper that night for a total of $4.75. Much better than a meal out at a restaurant that usually costs around $20.

The other half of the chicken I shredded up for some chicken soup. I didn't have any egg noodles but I had half a box of lasagna noodles in the cabinet , so I took the lasagna noodles, broke them up into smaller pieces and put them in a pot of water with the shredded up chicken. I added some chicken bouillon, garlic powder, onion powder, and some herbs and let it cook. The total for this meal was around $4.50 or so when you add in the price of the spices. Our family of 4 (we have a house guest, Chris' 10yr old cousin, this week) ate out of this soup and there is at least enough for one more meal, most likely a lunch for me, CJ and our house guest this week. So that brings the cost for one meal of the soup down to $2.25.

So this $7 splurge item gave us at least 3 meals. I think I'll have to "splurge" a little more often.

Chore Chart

I have been toying with the idea of making a chore chart for CJ. He loves to help do things around the house and he loves sticker charts so I decided it was finally time to give him his own chores. I took a piece of poster board, cut it down a little and used my yard stick to make a chart. I left empty spaces so that I can add new chores without making a new chart. I decided to go with the little star stickers because I can peel them off at the end of the week and start over. You can get a pack of 400+ for around $1 plus $0.50 for the poster board so it cost a total of $1.50 to make this chart.

Right now his chores are:
Get Dressed
Make Bed
Brush teeth (he gets 2 stickers each day for this one, one in the morning and one at night)
Pick up toys (2 stickers here as well, we do toy pick up after lunch/before quiet time and before bed)
Put clothes in hamper
Set Table (there is a possibility to get 2 stickers here as well, one at lunch and one at supper)



He also has some other "chores" that he helps me with during the day but I decided not to add those to the chart because they aren't consistent every day things he *has* to do, if that makes sense.
Sort clean silverware and put in drawer (forks, spoons, measuring spoons and butter knives only)
Take clothes out of dryer
Help Vacuum
Fold wash clothes and dish rags

One more thing I also started this week is quiet time after lunch. CJ gave up naptime way before he was even 2 and by mid-afternoon he is super cranky. So today I set the time for 20 minutes, turned on the TV in his room and put him in his bed. He stayed in there for the whole 20 minutes, laying quietly on his bed so I'm hoping this will help with the crankiness.

Last note- I'm going to be making a few changes to the curriculum guide tonight. I will leave up the old guide and repost the new one when it's finished. It's basically the same with just a few tiny changes.

Preschool Week 1 Detailed Guide

This is our week 1 detailed guide for Preschool.

Theme- Animals
Life Skill- Proper Hand washing
Physical Skill- Walk in a straight line touching toe to heel
Cooking Lesson- Make PB Sandwich
Vocabulary- Letters A,B&C
Reading/Oral Language- Read a book about animals out loud together
Math- Numbers 1-5
Hands on Skill- Trace straight line
Handwriting- letters A,B&C
Craft- Animal Paper Bag Puppets

Monday-
Introduce new Life Skill: Show child how to properly wash hands. Continue to teach this lesson throughout the rest of the week until it becomes habit.

Handwriting: Show child how to write letters A,B&C. Practice writing these letters together using a dry erase board (or paper/pencil)

Coloring: Color animals together. Practice staying in the lines. Talk about each animal and their sounds as you color.

Tuesday-
Physical Skill: Demonstrate how to walk in a straight line touching toe to heel. Have child repeat the action.

Vocab: Worksheet- Find & Circle letters A,B&C on the page. Alternatively you can use pages from a magazine, newspaper, etc.

Wednesday-
Math: Count out loud to 5, Worksheet- color groups of animals. Count the animals while coloring.

Reading: Read a book about animals together out loud. Encourage child to repeat sentences or certain words.

Craft: Make animal Paper bag Puppets. [Supplies needed: paper bags, construction paper, glue or glue sticks, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, etc to make faces]

Thursday-
Hands on Skill: Trace straight lines

Cooking lesson: make PB sandwich

Friday-
Review handwriting, vocab & math lessons from the week.


These are some sites I like for Worksheets:
http://www.tlsbooks.com/preschoolworksheets.htm
http://www.kidslearningstation.com/
http://www.first-school.ws/theme/handwriting.htm


These are some additional items I'll be purchasing to use as an addition to our curriculum:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006JZCG/ref=oss_product
http://www.amazon.com/Melissa-Doug-Deluxe-Wooden-27-Piece/dp/B000GIJ4Y4/ref=pd_sim_t_5
http://www.amazon.com/Melissa-Doug-Lace-Trace-Shapes/dp/B000O7KR0W/ref=pd_sim_t_3

Preschool Curriculum

I have been searching and searching for a curriculum for our 3yr old. But everything I found was either too expensive or not what I was really looking for. So I decided to throw caution to the wind and create my own. Afterall, isn't that one of the advantages of homeschooling? At first I was hesitant about doing a more structured curriculum with CJ but again, one of the joys of HSing is being able to adapt the schedule as needed. This guide that I have created is just structured enough to give me a plan for the day rather than a set in stone curriculum.

So here's how it's broken down. Written out in a list like this it's going to look like a lot but it's spaced out over the entire week with no more than 3 lessons a day. It would be easy to change the days around, adjust the lessons for your child's needs, etc. My personal goal is to have the lessons done before lunch so the afternoon is free for free play, etc. Each week will also have a theme.

Overview of the week-
Life Skill (personal care, manners, new chore, etc)
Physical Skill
Cooking lesson
Vocabulary
Reading/Oral Language
Math
Hand's on lesson
Handwriting
Craft

Monday-
Introduce new Life Skill
Handwriting
Color Page (that goes with the week's theme)

Tuesday-
Physical Skill
Vocab

Wednesday-
Math
Reading
Craft

Thursday-
Hand's on lesson
Cooking lesson

Friday-
Review of the week's lessons

The except to this guide is the last week of the month. (or every 4th week) This entire week will be a chance to review all the new things we have learned. So it will look something like this:

Monday-
New Life Skill
Coloring Pages

Tuesday-
Review Physical skills for this month
Review letters/words

Wednesday-
Review numbers (or math lessons)
Reading
Craft

Thursday-
Review hands on skills
Cooking lesson

Friday-
Fun Day!!
This day will be dedicated to focusing on doing something fun.

I will post the first week's detailed guide soon.

This week's menu and budget total

Let's start with the menu for this week.
Sunday- Tacos
Monday- Chicken & Rice
Tuesday- Swiss Steak
Wednesday- Cheeseburgers, Fries
Thursday- Homemade Pizza
Friday- Baked Potatoes, Salad

Lunches:
Corn dogs, Hot dogs, Pasta, Leftovers

Snacks/Desserts:
Magic in the Middle Cookies, Chocolate chip pound cake

And now on to the grocery total:
Walmart-
1 gallon milk 3.18
freezer bags 2.48
juice boxes 1.68
cheese 1.96
bacon 2.08
hot dogs 1.50
sour cream 1.12
salsa 3.00
tortillas 1.14
pasta .88
bell pepper .98
3lb onions 2.98
Angel Soft 1.18
juice 3.47
pull ups 8.47
paper plates 2.48
plastic cups 3.00
5lb flour 1.58
5lb sugar 2.54
cheese 2.50
can pineapple .67
juice boxes 2.88
1# hamburger 2.48x2
tomato sauce .56x2
tomato sauce .26x2
carrots .88
corn dogs 4.47

total 63.70

5/10-5/16 menu plan

Yesterday I had plans to make a birthday dinner for my hubby. But since he had to work late that plan was nixed. I ate soup and grilled cheese and CJ had pizza at my mom's. I am glad we celebrated his birthday on Saturday with the family rather than waiting for his actual birthday. I'll just have to save his birthday dinner for this weekend.

So here is the menu plan for this week.
5/10- Grilled Cheese & Soup
5/11- Sloppy Joes, Mac & Cheese, Baked Beans
5/12- Roasted Chicken, Sweet Corn
5/13- Pot Roast, Potatoes, Carrots
5/14- Tacos, Mexican Rice
5/15- "At home date night" Pizza & a movie
5/16- Maple Glazed Salmon, Rice, Broccoli

Saturday we will be having a yard sale as well. I am sorting through our entire house and doing a major declutter in preparation for our move at the beginning of July. It is such a wonderful feeling to be freeing the house of all our unused items. I am really looking forward to a house without all the clutter and am wondering what took me so long to do it. lol

I also wanted to share something we got in the mail on Friday, Laptop Lunch boxes. I purchased an LL before but never got around to using it. I think when I bought my first one CJ was really too little to really put it to good use, especially with me being a SAHM. So now, with the arrival of our second LL, we will each have one and I hope it makes lunch time around our house more varied and healthy. I put his lunch in it Monday and he really seemed to enjoy having his own little lunchbox with a variety of foods in it to choose from. I can't wait to put it to use again tomorrow. (We skipped today bc he was back and forth between our house and my mom's house all day)

Until next time...

Birthday week & Menu plan

My hubby's birthday is Monday. So in the spirit of a tradition I started this year with CJ we are celebrating his birthday all week. Monday afternoon CJ and I decorated the kitchen and the table with birthday decor. The living room still had the decor up from CJ's birthday in March. Opps. Saturday night we will go out with our families and have dinner for his birthday as well as do a little shopping. I still haven't decided what to get him for his birthday though. So I think instead of a gift I'll make him his favorite cake, a special dinner and have CJ help me make a homemade gift for Daddy.

Now for the menu plan for this week:
Monday 5/3- Pioneer Woman's Sloppy Joes, Chips, Baked Beans
Tuesday 5/4- Chicken Tenders, Waffle Fries
Wednesday 5/5- Beef Tips with Gravy, Mashed Potatoes
Thursday 5/6- PW's Cajun Chicken Pasta
Friday 5/7- Tacos, Mexican Rice
Saturday 5/8- Dinner Out for Hubby's Birthday
Sunday 5/9- Family Mother's Day Dinner ~Cooking Glazed Carrots & Neiman Marcus Bars
Monday 5/10- Hubby's Birthday Dinner ~Maple Glazed Salmon, Rice, Broccoli, Refrigerator Cake

Menu Planning for a family of 3

Let's talk about menu planning. This is one area that took me a little while to master but now that I have it down it has helped so much. I started writing out one week's meals at a time and I gradually increased to a month's worth of meals. This will be especially helpful when we move because we will be an hour away from WalMart and around 2 hours from Aldi.

So what I do is first I go through my freezer and pantry and make a list. Then I write down enough meals using those items and our family favorites to cover the whole month, minus each Sunday as it has become a family tradition to watch a movie and have pizza on Sundays. I tentatively set each meal with a day of the week, but I use it more as a guideline for the week/month switching around meals as needed.

Then I go through the first 2 weeks meals and write down every single ingredient I will need for each meal. I check off each ingredient that I already have on hand and write my grocery list using the items left. So basically I'm shopping for 2 weeks at a time.

I keep a copy of that month's meals in my household binder. I bought a wipe off calender from the Dollar General for $2.50 that sticks to the fridge, it isn't dated, but it has spaces for each day of the month. I write my meals on that as well so I can see what the plan is at a glance.

And now here is March's Meal Plan-

1- Sloppy Joes, fries
2- *Take out* (had to work a double and got home late)
3- Ribs, Mac & Cheese
4- Tacos
5- Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes
6- Pork Loin, Green Beans
7- Pizza
8- Cheese Quesdillas
9- Baked Potatoes, Salad
10- Breakfast
11- Swiss Steak
12- Sloppy Joes, fries
13- Sandwiches
14- Pizza
15- Roast Chicken, Sweet Corn
16- Tilapia/Salmon, Boiled Potatoes
17- Turkey Wraps
18- Cheeseburgers, Fries, Beans
19- BBQ Pork Sandwiches, Chips
20- Tacos
21- CJ's 3rd Birthday and his Party *planned take out day*
22- Salads
23- Chicken & Rice
24- Soup & Sandwiches
25- Baked Chimichangas, Mexican Rice
26- Beef Stew
27- Sloppy Joes, Fries
28- Pizza
29- Breakfast
30- Terayki Chicken Legs
31- Pork Loin, Potatoes

February in Review

Hello there my dear friends,
After months of not blogging, creating a new blog and then taking a break from that one I have decided to unearth this blog and make a fresh start. No more big plans for the blog either. I just want a place I can talk about everything and nothing in particular.

So let's start with this last month in a quick review. Actually it will be more like 2010 so far in review.

To start, I went back to work. From 2000-2006 I worked as a waitress at my grandparents seafood restaurant. And this year when it opened for the season I said why not go back and help out the family and make a little extra money. So that's just what I did. I miss CJ terribly during the day but I do enjoy being back at work. When we close again in April I won't return to work, I'll continue to be a SAHM but for the time being I am enjoying it.

Also in big news, we are planning a move! By April we will be out of our current house and into a new one. I am hesitant about leaving my family, I will be an hour away, but I am looking forward to a new chapter in my little family's life. I am using this an opportunity to free our home from all the clutter that we have been collecting for the 4 years we have lived here. If we don't absolutely need it or love it, its going out of here! And then even some of that stuff is getting tossed as well. The Salvation Army will either love me or hate me for the next few weeks.

And now onto something equally important. My Budget/household finances. I created a new household binder right after Christmas and it is a must have for any Domestic Goddess. I will do a detailed post about my binder later. I also have been menu planning again and it has made a huge difference in not only my day but my grocery budget as well. I have almost cut my monthly budget in half since 2009! I will post about menu planning later as well. We do need to seriously work on the amount of money we spend on junk food, eating out and other "treats" but I also know with the move that will take care of itself.

Now here are my totals for February.

Grocery: 205.24
Health & Beauty: 15.94
Pet: 48.60
Treats/Misc/Eating out: 206.61
Clothing: 58.49
Holidays: 76.40
Diapers: 9.01

Notes:
Under Misc- New Bedding, Ink for printer, workbooks/craft items for CJ
Holidays- 4 birthdays and Valentine's Day
Clothing- Not typical to spend this amount. But I purchase a new pair of shoes, some shirts on sale for $1, several items from the thrift store as well as a pair of rain boots (aka Wellington's) from Target for $25