Menu Plan Monday- Jan 14, 2013

I'm not sure what to say right now. Mark got back Saturday and I was very glad to have him home. Monday and Tuesday for the most part were good days. I decided to try something new for dinner and tried out the Curried Carrot Soup from Simple in Season. As I really wanted something more than just soup I thought it might be a nice topping over rice or quinoa. I tried quinoa. It wasn't as good as I thought. As a soup the topping would be great. It needed more salt but other than that it had a nice flavor. I used some sweet potato in addition to carrots. The boys liked the curried carrots but not so much the quinoa. They seem to like quinoa better when it's flavor is masked with a strong dressing, etc. Oh well. Now I know. Today has been crazy. Luckily I didn't have to cook. Got to love church meals! :) The boys all have activities on Wednesday afternoon now. Aiden has dance from 3:30pm till 4pm. Cai then has dance from 4:10pm till 4:55pm. Ian has tennis lesson from 4pm to 5pm. So today Aiden, Cai and I got in the car and picked up Ian from school. Then we took Aiden to dance class. Dropped Cai off at Mark's work, which happens to be right next door, and drove to Ian's lesson across town. Mark then picked up Aiden and made sure Cai got to his class before returning to his office to work till Cai was done. Ian and I then met up them at Mark's office after tennis. Then Ian stayed at the office to work on homework while the other 2 and I went to the grocery store. Martin's  in Goshen is currently selling a personal size gluten free frozen pizza for $2.99. I picked up 3 this morning and went back this evening for more. When gluten free frozen pizza is normally 6 to 8 dollars depending on the brand, I could not pass up this price. We have enough to last Cai for months. :) I don't remember off the top of my head what this brand was. It was not one I have tried before. But as Mark pointed out Cai won't care. Even when I don't like it, Cai will eat it if it means that he gets what everyone else is getting. If he gets to eat pizza he is happy. I feel very blessed that he is so good about trying almost anything. And the fact that for the most part he doesn't fight about not getting exactly what everyone else is getting is wonderful. He seems to accept that he can't have gluten and that means there are many things he can't have. Luckily there are so many things he can have. And the boy loves rice. What a blessing! Okay I've rambled enough. Here is the menu. Sorry it's late and out on Wednesday and not Monday.

Monday: Spaghetti with tomato sauce, frozen peas
Tuesday: Curried Carrot Soup (from Simple in Season) served over quinoa
Wednesday: Mid Week Meal at church
Thursday: Chili with corn bread
Friday: Family Movie Night- Order pizza- Book It coupon for Ian- Frozen GF pizza for Cai
Saturday: Spaghetti Pie, frozen peas for the kids and Grandma- Date night for Mark and I
Sunday: Leftovers


Go visit Organizing Junkie for more meal plans. You know you want to ;)

Jan Pinterest project- angry birds pizza

So I saw this pin on a friends board and quickly showed it to the boys. The boys love angry birds and this pizza was so fun. They of course wanted me to make it. I put it off. Of course in my defense I haven't made homemade pizza is weeks. Sadly I should confess that when we have had pizza it's been take out or even store bought frozen. Anyway last night I didn't feel like making curry as I had planned. So I asked everyone if pizza sounded good. It's not often pizza is turned down.

I used a gluten free crust that was given to me by friends. I then made two pizzas. One into Red and one into Chuck. Here is where I should note that at our house we know all the names of the Angry Birds. Cai bought the National Geographic Angry Birds book at Ian's school's book fair. In addition to learning about angry behaviors of birds we learn a little about all the Angry Birds. Really it's a great book. Anyhoo! I wanted to make two pizzas because I've been feeling that one hasn't quite been enough. But the thought of having 2 Red birds seemed silly. So the advantage of making Chuck is that he's yellow. Around our house people like Hawaiian pizza, well if you exclude me it's still not my favorite.  Pineapple is yellow! Tada I had my second pizza. Like the pin, I used pepperoni for Red.

 I didn't have mushrooms so I just used more cheese for the eyeballs. For Chuck I shaped the crust into a triangle. In some ways this might be easier with gluten free crust, seeing as how gluten free dough is more like a thick cake batter or cookie dough than traditional bread dough. I could use my spatula to help spread the batter into the correct shape. My original idea was to place pineapple chunks along with ham all over the body. Turns out I didn't have pineapple chunks, just crushed pineapple. 

The over all look is probably more what I was going for. Sadly this meant pieces with no ham on them. I had a bowl of ham that could be added on after the fact. Really I think they look very good. And they tasted good. And probably the most important  the boys loved them. We even started talking about what other angry birds we could make into pizza. Pesto and spinach pigs? Blueberry dessert pizza blue bird? A whole black olive pizza Bomber bird? There are lots of possibilities. We might just have to get creative with our pizzas :)

He Lost a Tooth!

Ian's front teeth have started to wiggle just alittle bit for the last several months. They barely moved but they moved and that was exciting enough for Ian. The past several weeks he has been working on wiggling on of the front teeth on the bottom. We told him that if he kept wiggling it would eventually come out. The past couple of days he started to be able to wiggle it with his tongue. The joy and excitement in his eyes when this happened was awesome. At night when I lay in bed cuddling him he would show me how much it wiggled. It was so close! Today he races into the van as I pick him up from school smiling widely at me. As I am in the pick up line and other cars are behind us I quickly tell him to get in his seat so we can go. "Mom, Look!"

The tooth was gone. He proudly told me that it came out at lunch. He had been wiggling it with his finger and pulled his hand away and there it was. "Right in my hand" Apparently he then got to go to the school nurse, who put the tooth into a plastic tooth shaped box and hung it around his neck. So very very exciting.

 Of course then we had to skype with Grandma Cindy to show her the gap. And we had to tell Dad (who being in meetings just got a message on google talk. And as soon as we saw Uncle Tex and cousin Josiah we had to show them. Growing up. Ian is growing up. My big 6 year old, kindergarten boy has lost his first tooth. And he is very very proud of the fact.

 So proud that he refused to put said tooth under his pillow. Another night he told me. He is not ready to part with this new treasure. Not even for the joy of  a special gift from the tooth fairy. Which he has already told me is money. It's okay though. I'm not sure I'm ready for him to be so big. So if he wants to hold onto that tooth for awhile longer, I think I'm okay with that. Maybe I too can hold onto him being little. Surely he won't grow up too fast. Please.

Menu Plan Monday- 7 Jan 2013

Okay, I'll be real honest here and say this will be a very very short post. Yesterday the boys and I drove Mark to the airport in South Bend where he flew to Atlanta, Georgia for the week. His company is having their annual meeting. He'll return on Saturday around lunch. Having him gone is weird for sure. Luckily our family is helping out. Yesterday we ate dinner with my in-laws. It was nice cause then I didn't have to cook. And given that it was alittle after 5 by the time we got back to town we got to eat almost right away. Anyhoo the menu this week is pretty lacking. Monday and Tuesday we ate at my mother-in-law's. Mark's aunt and uncle are in town in addition to his brother. It has been nice to spend time with them. My sister-in-law Rachel is bring us a meal sometime this week. She was just going to double one of her meals. I'm very grateful. For the rest of the days I figure we'll eat macaroni and cheese one night, cause Mark doesn't like this anyway, and enchilada casserole another.That should cover us till Saturday when we pick up Mark. Saturday night I think I'll make curry. And Sunday can be popcorn, apples and cheese. Pretty simple week. Well as least as far as meals. I'm not sure the week will be simple in any other matter. Wish me luck. I think I might need it.

Do be sure to visit Organizing Junkie as well. I'm sure there are much more impressive menus there. ;)

Pinterest project- Jan 2013

This was not what I imagined for my first post of 2013. But right now this is what is on my mind. My one new year's resolution thus far is the following. I want to work on completing at least ONE project I've posted to my pinterest boards. The way I see it, I've pinned lots of cool crafts, recipes (which I actually do use), games, etc, etc. But half the time after I pinned them I forget what I pinned. Until I'm trying to look up some other pin and see it again. The whole thing is silly really. So my goal: complete one of those great ideas a month. The whole thing will feel less silly. And pinterest as a whole will hopefully feel like more than a time suck. Although to be honest I'm not on all that much. My time is wasted reading fictional stories, either online, on my kindle or in a physical book. ;)
Anyhoo, for Christmas I used one of my many pins to make a gift for my nephew Josiah. When I saw this pin I immediately thought of my large motor skills, very active nephew. It was perfect. This hopscotch mat looked like something I could easily put together and Josiah would love.

Hopscotch mat for Josiah

 And hopefully it would be good for my sister-in-law, who like me needs ways to direct play in a productive manner while still allowing for those large motor skills to be used. (They are going to run all over the house unless you give them something else to do with their bodies. Sit down games only last so long)
In the end, it really wasn't to difficult. I bought 2 yards of canvas from Walmart and cut it in half. This was great because then I could make one for my boys as well. I cut numbers our of blocks of felt and used the numbers on the second one.

Mat made from extras for my boys. I used fabric pant to draw the boxes 

Using a zigzag stitch I sewed around the edges to hopefully deter unraveling. Unlike the blogger who originally posted the idea, I used fabric paint in addition to felt.

Tic-Tac-Toe outline

 For the back tic-tac-toe game I cut out rectangles and painted x's and o's on them instead of adding felt letters. I also used paint to write the numbers for the dart/bomber game on the back.

Bomber/Dart game

Because there is snow on the ground and I had no desire to dig for rocks, the bomber bags double as both bombers and hopscotch rocks. Josiah seems pleased. And the boys played with it some last night after we exchanged gifts. All and all I too was pretty please with the results. I sadily didn't take any pictures of the tic-tac-toe pieces or the bag I put it all in. It was one I made a few years back, but it was brightly colored and the right size. I wrote hopscotch in fabric paint on the bottom.
 My boys now want me to add a tic-tac-toe game and bomber game to the back of ours. We'll see. For right now thought the hopscotch mat seems enough for them.

On a side note, we have hard wood floors and canvas sides very easily across the floor. While places heavy books on top of the canvas can work it doesn't work well. I have been using the double sided tape from our plastic window coverings used to winterize the house. I have used these sheets for several years now, with the exception of this one (I decided after last year and the cats slashing every single one it was not worth the work). Because the tape is meant for the wood trim around window I figured it would be safe on my floor. So far it has not caused any problems. Of course by the end of day two the fabric decided it does not want to stick anymore and you have to replace the tape. But that's better anyway. If it doesn't stay long on the floor it has less potential of ruining the finishing.