MENU: 3/20/14 - 3/26/14

Two new recipes this time.  

shrimp & feta green salad - This is something I made up one night and I loved it!  Salad greens, shrimp, feta, olives, tomato, and pepper.  Yum!

buffalo slaw - The name of this recipe makes it sounds like a salad, but it's not.  It's a lean and green, yummy dish with ground beef, cabbage, and a bunch of seasonings.  

And now for our next menu, which only has two school lunches because next week is spring break.  Can't wait to have all four little Ws home during the day!

BREAKFASTS
* doughnuts
* oatmeal with brown sugar, cinnamon, milk, raisins, fruit, huh-koe-pee milk, and energy mix as optional toppings 
     - with cottage cheese and fruit x2
     - with yogurt, fruit, and spinach smoothies x1
* scrambled eggs (ours are always made with a ton of chopped spinach, sometimes some chopped tomatoes, a bit of pepper, and always a sprinkling of some type of cheese)/toast x2
* almond coconut granola as cold cereal or over yogurt/smoothies (ended up using our snack granola for breakfast last time, so this is on the menu again)

SCHOOL DAY LUNCHES
* cinnamon raisin English muffins with cream cheese/pea pods/carrots/dry roasted almonds
* pbh&b sandwiches/applesauce/pea pods

DINNERS

* leftovers

* tacos (seasoned meat and crockpot beans from the freezer) 

* broccoli & cheddar quiche with brown rice crust/tomato slices with pepper & parmesan

* meatloaf (from the freezer, magic meal from a friend)/spinach salad with almond butter dressing 

* penne & sausage casserole (sauce from the freezer)/rosemary parmesan brussels sprouts

* cheesy green beans/rice

* BLTs on hoagies/pea pods/carrots

SNACKS & DESSERTS

* produce

* hummus for veggies

* nuts - pistachios & dry roasted almonds

* popcorn (kernels from the Winco bulk department & a West Bend Stir Crazy to pop them in)

* spicy crunchy chickpeas (we haven't made these in ages)

* ice cream

3/20/14 THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful that we've always had both access to electricity and the ability to pay for it.

What is something that your'e thankful for?

FOUR RANDOM HOUSEHOLD IDEAS

These are not particularly amazing ideas, but sometimes I get inspired by little things other people do around their homes (including one of the things in this post) and I figure someone else may be able to put one of these ideas to use.  

Drinking Jars - Each person only gets one cup each day around hour house and we used to go with a "dark cup for the dark boy, light cup for the light boy, different color for the girl" method of keeping track of kid cups.  Eventually the big boys started needing bigger cups and we added another person to the mix, so we needed a new plan.  

Tim and I use quart-sized jars for drinking, the big boys use pint-sized jars, and the two littlest Ws still use the same plastic cups we've been using for over eleven years or so (love those cups!). The problem was keeping track of which jar belonged to which W.  I was over at Faith's house a couple summer's ago and she had everyone mark their jar with a Sharpie.  Brilliant!  We've been doing the same thing at our house ever since.  I just initial four clean jars each morning and we're good to go.

Warnings - This old Ziploc box is now being used to hold bag clips, which I guess is an idea of its own.  The box fits nicely in the drawer with other bag boxes, foil, saran wrap, etc. and we just replace it as needed. However, the real reason I posted this picture is because of the words "last box" written all over the box.

One of the household things that drives me crazy the fastest is when people don't tell me they've pulled the last bottle/box/bag of something out of our stockpile and I don't discover we're completely out until I need the item.  One day I opened the drawer with bags in it and found that Tim had written "last box" all over this one.  Perfect!  He had just opened the box, so it was almost full and there was no rush to get a new one, but it was now on my radar that I needed to get more and he didn't have to worry about remembering to tell me when he saw me later in the day.

Bag Storage - We use old produce bags for various things and I used to keep all of them in one produce bag, but they always got in the way of other things and it bugged me. One day I started shoving them in cardboard tubes and now that drawer is tidy again!  You could use wrapping paper, paper towel, or toilet paper tubes, cutting them to the right size if you need to.

Wet Gloves - I don't like to run wet gloves through the dryer, but it can take a long time for the inside of all the fingers to dry out.  My solution is to put one of my cooling racks from the kitchen over a heater vent, fold the wrist part of the gloves back as far as I can, then spread the open part of the glove as wide as possible and set it on the rack. 

Do you do any of these things?  Have any random ideas of your own?

PI(E) DAY POTLUCK - 2014

Every year I see posts from people on Facebook who celebrated March 14th (otherwise known as Pi Day, 3.14) by making sweet or savory pies for their family.  I'm a big fan of finding reasons to have dessert, but I never think of celebrating this particular day ahead of time and am never prepared.  A week or so ago, however, someone mentioned it was coming up and yesterday I asked the kids if they wanted to have pie. They said yes, of course. Then I called Tim to see what he thought of inviting other people over.  He was fine with it, so I posted on Facebook to see if anyone wanted to buy or bake a pie and join us for a pie potluck.

Last night I baked a colonial carrot pie.  I know that sounds weird to a lot of people, but it looks and tastes very much like a pumpkin pie.  We love it!  I also baked a graham cracker crust last night, then made creamy lemon filling, another one of our favorites, when I woke up this morning and tossed the pie in the oven.  However, the creamy lemon pie was a little different than usual.  Last night Silas suggested that I bake it in different pan. I complied.

This pie 'r squared.

This morning Silas decided to make a poster to take to our homeschooling group, which we were going to mid-morning. He tacked it to the wall during our meeting, then made a little announcement at the end to make sure people knew they were invited.

 (Yes, I'm aware of the spelling and time errors.)

We were going to have pie whether other people came over or not, but three other families showed up. Eighteen people (three dads, four moms, eleven kids) + four pies (mixed berry, carrot, creamy lemon, and banana cream) = a fun evening!

(Yes, there's a slice out of one.  It was left at home for a husband who couldn't make it, but understandably didn't want to miss out on  pie.)

I think we may have to make a Pi(e) Day Potluck tradition!

MENU: 3/13/14 - 3/19/14

Ready for some new recipes?  I have four this time around!  All recipes are linked in green.

caramelized onions - I asked Susan what she'd do with some gorgonzola I had sitting around and ended up in a brainstorm with a few friends.  These yummy onions were part of what I ended up doing.

gorgonzola & onion burgers - Here's what I ended up doing with that gorgonzola.  Delicious!

kale & broccoli quinoa - Lemon juice and parmesan make this dish really tasty.

slow cooked coconut chicken - I love, love, love this!



BREAKFASTS
* doughnuts
* oatmeal with brown sugar, cinnamon, milk, raisins, fruit, huh-koe-pee milk, and energy mix as optional toppings 
     - with cottage cheese and fruit x2
     - with yogurt, fruit, and spinach smoothies x1
* scrambled eggs (ours are always made with a ton of chopped spinach, sometimes some chopped tomatoes, a bit of pepper, and always a sprinkling of some type of cheese)/toast x2
* almond coconut granola as cold cereal or over yogurt/smoothies

SCHOOL DAY LUNCHES
* meat & cheese sandwiches/carrots/apples
* cherry oatmeal muffins/pea pods/pistachios/string cheese
* tuna/crackers/olives/apples
* quesadillas/black bean dip/red bell pepper/carrots
* dry roasted almonds/crackers/cukes/red bell peppers/string cheese

DINNERS

* leftovers

* tacos (seasoned meat and crockpot beans from the freezer) 

* crockpot cheese tortellini/roasted brussels sprouts with pecans (skipping the gorgonzola)

* sesame asparagus/rice/buffalo slaw

* lentil bean chili/cornbread (we ended up going out with a gift card one night on the last menu, so this didn't get made)

* shrimp & feta green salad/e-z drop biscuits

* summertime orzo & chicken/roasted broccoli

SNACKS & DESSERTS

* produce

* hummus for veggies

* nuts - pistachios & dry roasted almonds

* popcorn (kernels from the Winco bulk department & a West Bend Stir Crazy to pop them in)

* nutty fruity granola
* colonial carrot pie and creamy lemon pie for a Pi(e) Day celebration

3/13/14 THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful that every bad day and stressful situation eventually comes to an end.

What's something that you're thankful for?

TEN ON TUESDAY - 3/11/14

Baseball - One endcap kid gave the other endcap kid their first baseball lesson. It looked a lot like a golf lesson, but that's beside the point. How cute is this?

Cool Book - We got Big Book of Brain Games: 1,000 PlayThinks of Art, Mathematics & Science for Devon at Christmas and it's awesome!  The book is divided into chapters by subject, but each puzzle is also rated by difficulty so that you can focus on the level that you desire, answers and an index of difficulty in the back, and a code for each puzzle that tells you what you'll need to solve it (mind, pencil, etc.). I think everyone except Teebs has enjoyed some puzzles from this book.

Family Night Out - Devon attends one of six Arthur Academy schools and every year the schools provide a free evening at OMSI for students and their families.  We went last night and had a great time. We would have had gnarly traffic if we'd headed that direction on time, so we left home an hour early and used a gift card we'd received at Christmas to treat ourselves to a dinner out at Subway.  Here we are at dinner, just doing our part to keep Portland weird.

Handwashing Dishes - Remember how I told you last year that I'd finally started using our dishwasher? Well, I stopped.  We've been back to handwashing for a while now, probably a couple of months.  The dishwasher just didn't do as good of a job at getting dishes clean and I rearranged the kitchen counters in such a way that I don't have to have dishes piled up on the counter.

Panhandler - There is a panhandler who is almost always at a particular location in our town and one of the little Ws had been wanting to provide Christmas gifts or do something else for them.  Then the little W discovered the person lives across the street from us.  With their well-fed dog and their steady supply of cigarettes. And the little W lost some sympathy and gained some cynicism.

That can be a tricky thing to deal with as an adult, but even trickier to parent a child through.  It's important to me that our kids be eager and cheerful givers.  It's important to me that our kids have a heart to help those in need, some of which are panhandlers.  It's important to me that they not judge a person solely on what they can see, as circumstances can be better, worse, or just more complicated than they appear to others.

At the same time, I want them to have discernment to know what needs are legitimate and wisdom to know how they should help. Any giver can be taken advantage of or deceived, so I never want them to become hardened toward or judgmental of people who have (or appear to have) taken advantage of others' generosity.  I just want them to have their hearts in the right place and their actions to match up with their heart.

Picasa - You can find lots of pictures of our life on our Picasa page, which is also linked in the blog sidebar.

Science Bowl - Silas was part of the weekly Science Bowl meetings when he was in public school and he wanted to support his friends at the annual Science Bowl in January, so I took him and Devon to University of Portland to watch. We spent all day there, watching his friends compete in the morning, playing frisbee and visiting with them (and the other adults who were there) during breaks, and doing some activities with the group on the afternoon.  It was their first year competing and they didn't place, but they improved so much over the course of the day.  Those kids get asked some hard questions!

Talent Show - Devon's school had a talent show in January, the first one they've ever had, and we went to watch. I think my favorite was the group of kids who taped glow sticks to their bodies in the shape of stick figures, then had the gym lights turned off while they did a dance routine.  So fun!

Tool Time - One of the slats in our fence broke and was falling down, so Devon fixed it for us.

Valentine's Day - Our homeschool group had a Valentine's Day party, so I helped Silas and Naomi create some things for it.  Naomi and I made cards by tracing a heart-shaped cookie cutter on pictures of food from a magazine, cutting the hearts out and gluing them on construction paper, then writing "LOVE" on them. Silas and I baked and decorated a whole bunch of heart-shaped sugar cookies.

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