Take back your Turf Thursday-5 ways how to simplify your meals

Tackle your meals and fridge

I want to give you a  few tips on making meals easy and quick.1.Pick 10  go to dinners that you can alternate.2.Have the kids pick what they want for dinner that night.3Re-use things to make other meals. I like to get Rotisserie Chicken,especially in the summer. If you don't get rotiserie chicken grab your meat for the week and cook it all at once and assemble meal kits.I will talk more about that in a minute.4.Assign different categories for meal nights.Tuesday is pasta night.Thursday is leftover night.Friday is pizza night.You will always know what you want to cook and it takes the guess work out of it.

 This weeks Menu:Using a Rotiserie Chicken

Monday BBQ Chicken with rice,corn and green beans

Tuesday:Spaghetti with my home made sauce that I can freeze for another night.It is basically pasta night.

Wednesday:Creamy Pesto Chicken pasta

Thursday is leftover night or clean out the fridge night.Stirfry's are great for this night.Throw in your leftover veggies and meat.I have gotten really creative where I can just use my leftovers and make something completly new!

Friday is Pizza night or breakfast for dinner.If we are lucky we can get a date in for the week!

Saturday is something new or crock pot.I haven't decided yet for this week.

Sunday is dinner with family and I get a break from cooking.

If I plan my meals ahead of time I can pick a day to make meal kits where I cook all the ingredients,chop everything at that time.I got a big container to put all the food for that week in there so I know where it is and I just have to grab the individual zipper bags.On Saturday I dump whatever is left in there.You can label it so you know too. I organzize my fridge so like items are together.My kids often mess that one up but I have the dressings together, the sandwich making stuff,the drinks,my yogurt and all the snacks.If you know where everything is you will save energy because the door won't be open to long while you search the fridge.Things won't go bad and be forgotten.Try to use your produce and veggies first because they go bad faster.I also recenty bought stackable freezer containers to stack and take less room in my fridge. This is great for soups,gravies,creamy white sauce,almost anything you can freeze and they stack!

My final tip:At the end of the week your fridge should be almost empty or less full then on shopping days.Use this time to take inventory of what you have and need.Clean up spills and go through crispers.It only takes a second.If you go shopping on Saturday then do it on friday.Also trash day for us is Wednesday so it is a good time to go through the fridge again. Make your list starting with using up what is left in the fridge,then go from there! I hope this helps you to have more time during the week and less stress of what is for dinner?

Value of the week-6 Be's

For those of you who don"t know what the 6 bes are.President Gordon B.Hinkley, Prophet of the Curch of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.He gave a talk about the 6 be's.

1. Be Grateful.
2. Be Smart
3. Be Clean
4. Be True
5. Be Humble
6. Be Humble

We gave the children each bookmark with them on it.We are focussing on being grateful. We all have the choice to be happy or the opposite.Kids can be grateful for what they get and don't throw a fit. That is a saying in our house. It seems like kids today have so much that don't know how to appreciate it. Please and thank you which once was expected and revered are now replaced by so called"attitude" and bratiness.What do you do at home to help them be gratetful for what they have? I always catch myself now what do you say? We have to strive more than ever as parents,educators and friends to teach children at home so when they go out of our home and are faced with peer descions they were taught and they know what to do.Don't just give them a time out, talk to them about what was wrong and give them case senarios.What do you do when somone opens the door or brings you something.You say thank you. How can you show someone you are thankful? You love and do a service for them or a just because.I like to do a month of writing down all that we are grateful for during Thaksgiving but we will be doin it this month too!

5 ways to make your shopping trips with kids more fun and educational.

Letter of the week-G

ASL letter G.If you move it forward and back it means green.Two g words for the price of one!

How many times do we go to teh grocery store and we wished we had left our kids at home.Today was one of those days.I got some whote elmers glue that my 5 yr old gave to the toddler and he opened it all over himself! That is a first for me. Usually it is potty stops and the case of the I got to have it! If I play one of the following games I usually can make it a little longer. If I want to come clean I usually try to see if Dad will do it or I go by myself.They have to learn some how though. Just make sure they are not tired or hungry or you are in for it!

1.Give them each a list.For the oldest I had him write a list and decide what we would have for dinner. Then I do pictures for the youner 2.They love crossing things off their lists.
2.Next I make it a matter of finding colors.The produce section sure has a lot to offer.When we got home today I made a game where I wrote down the different colors. Then I cut out different items and had them sort them into colors. They did this game for a while.

3.Have the children count how many items.How many yellows?How many greens? How many apples do we have?

4.I had Corb put things in Alphabetical order.We read the book 10 items or less.A Mommy and daughter go shoppping and count what they put in the cart.They have to keep it 10 items or less to go in the express lane.I chose 10 items we bought today and had him put it in order.1.Bread 2.Corn 3. Eggs 4.Ketchup 5.Milk 6.Pasta Sauce 7.Spaghetti 8.Strawberries 9.Tomato 10.Yogurt

                            

5.Abc Race-Using the store adds have the kids find letters A-Z and see who can find and circle them all first.

10 minute challenge-one on one time with kids

This Summer has been crazy! How is everyone doing on their happiness blueprint? Have you breathed deeply today?I have definately had my ups and downs this month.I have really been enjoying teaching my children. The time is already flying by.

If you want your family to be happy then Mom needs to be happy.As parents we are like ships heading out to sea.We all embark on our journey with bumps along the way..One thing that I didn't count on was that my boat would get a hole in it. A friend of mine who has Fibromialgia was trying to give me some ideas on how to get my energy back.She told me that if your boat has a hole in it you have to fix it before you can row again. I have been thinking a lot about this and that many people do not understand our struggles and have even made me feel bad for mine.They see me not rowing and tell me to pick up my ores and paddle.They can't see the real problem. Before you can really write a detailed blueprint you need to look at every detail,fix what isn't working.Evaluating is the next step after we examine ourselves.Are you writing everything down?Get a special journal where you write your thoughts,goals, and anything you want to add so you don't forget.Write it down and you cant forget.We should learn from our mistakes.We may jump back and forth from examining to evaluating.Ask yourself the hard questions. I felt like I was just floating each day and so I found teaching and blogging to bring me out of my funk.It really did! I feel alive again!

My challenge to you is to look for ways to spend one on one time with their kids.Find at least 10 minutes to play with your kids,read to them or just get down on the floor and play what they want. There are ocean currents of family and outside influences. Home is our safe harbor,where we can fix the holes in our boat.We need to be awake enough as parents and well enough to realize our home is where they learn and grow and where they can rely on their parents. My husband and I have weekly couples inventory and we talk and pray about one of our kids in depth each week. Praise your children more than correct them.Find time to tell them what they are doing right.Tell them you love them.

Breath,relax and be calm

Letter of the week D-The Dino days of Summer



ASL letter D and some silly children

 Dinosaurs come out with your scales up!
I found these cute masks from sparklebox.co.uk


I made these clay fossils the night before.It was a lot of fun but time consuming.I thought that they turned out pretty good.What I did was print out printable dino skeletons and then used those papers to know where to carve into the clay.Some of it I did more elaborate than others.


Burry fossils in the sand.Give soon to be paleontologists, brushes and let the dig begin!



Assemble the dinosaurs.We found a T-Rex tooth and we are missing the body of one.



We found the body to a Brachiosaurus.These are not to scale ha ha.

Just for fun here is a real casting of a raptor like claw so it is a replica.It is of a new discovery of a Mongolian dinosaur.It is in in the Dromaeosaur family, including Utahraptor,Velociraptor and Deinonychus.Below is a fossil of an Ammonite.Class:Cephelopod.Age:Devonian to Jurassic(417-144 million years ago.

 

We learned about different dinos.
We also made our own dino necklaces.



Materials: cereal with a hole in the middle,marshmallows,string, and scissors.

Step 1.Cut marshmallows into triangle shape.

Step2:Cut string into necklace.

Step3:Attach tooth to necklace and add your rings


Step4:Eat and enjoy.The mellows get sticky.


Corb-Write about 3 different dinos

We did cluster work on er-ir-ur words.I got this idea  and prehistoric punctuation from fabulousfish-stephanie.blogspot.com


I also found these cute play-doh mats @ sparklebox.co.uk.

The 3 little Dinosaurs by Jim Harris. tied right into our theme and number of the week! It is a spoof off of the 3 little pigs.We ran our of time to act out scenes from the book with play-doh.

Take back your Turf Thursday!

I have been losing the battle in my home for a while now but it is time to take back my life and I want you to join me!

Please tell me I am not in the battle alone of getting my kids to pick up and do chores!I call chores family contributions.They can't argue with you when you ask.Did you eat dinner with us?Then you contributed to the mess.I started out with Zones.I have seen several different people using Popsicle sticks.There is Zone1:entry way and living room.Zone2:Kitchen counter and table.Zone3:sweep dining room and kitchen.Zone4:Bathroom.These are ones that have to be done on a daily basis.They are the high traffic areas and dump zones.

I have tried many charts and given up on their effectiveness.I started writing other jobs on popsicle sticks and a popsicle maker.I let them chose an animal to represent them.Corb chose a tiger and Lex chose a unicorn.Each job is worth 5 or 10cents.I have a chart that says what they can earn after earning so much.For example a $1 earns them mom time or a treat from the family store.

I also came up with this cleaning game.I drew different items of clothing and what it meant when you landed on each one on the corresponding board.It was mostly pick up this or double the number of what you rolled and that is what you have to pick up.

I also found this cute magnetic board with magnetic letters to write what is for dinner.

                                                                                  

What have you done to take back your turf? Does anyone have a good one for paper? I wish the mailman would just shred and know what I don't want and then I would only have the bills which I only worry about twice a month.


I have a binder for my school stuff.I have labels for each letter of the alphabet.So I try to keep that in control.Thats it!Share your ideas and take back your home,your turf!

Lettern of the week letter C

                                           For Circle time we talked about cars and my rule of not playing in on or around cars.I asked them why we have traffic lights and what would happen without them.Safety is important in the car.We need to stay in our seats,keep our hands to our self and not be a distraction to the driver.

We picked out and sorted cars by their colors.



The graph:

                                         

What car is the fastest?slowest?

They guessed mine as the fastest and Ro as the slowest.

We are going on a bear hunt!

Gonna catch a big one.

We're not scared!


 
I gave the kids binoculars and magnifying glass.

In preparation for our hunt I made tracks and put them all over the house.We had a paw print for going through the grass, walking through water(bin of water to wade through),trudging through mud(bunch of blankets,going throght the forest and snow till we reach the cave.As we walked I read the book.We had read it previously on letter b week so they were familiar with it.

We went looking for tracks.That is not a bear track.




It's a tiger!He crawled on our couch for a nap.

That is not a bear track.


It's a giraffe!He was found in our kitchen by the fridge he must have wanted a salad.

Ah ha! A bear track!




Tip toe.Tip toe.

Ahhhhhhh a bear!


Nothing like cooling off from a bear hunt then a popsicle and splash pad.