Convos with Kids

July 12
As a mom, my hobbies include shouting "What are you doing?" from another room until I hear water splash on the floor or someone screams "Blood!"

Thankfully today it was just water.

Nope... there's the blood.

July 18
Cam: *Feel my muscles!*
Me: Wow! When did you get so big?
Cam: I just wait for my next birthdays and I just get bigger...

Well. There you have it.

July 19
The boys were getting carrots out of the refrigerator (yes, at 930am)

* Ay reaches for the last carrot *
Cam : No, no, Ay. That's for the snowman.

Christmas in July much?

July 22
"Cam, it's time to let Ay watch Little Einsteins"
Cam: *throws most epic 30min tantrum known to man because Little Einsteins is 'boring'*
Little Einsteins: What's the next thing we need for Rocket's soup?
Cam: MAGIC JUMPING BEANS!

You don't get to play!

Weekly Meal Plan

This week I tried to make my own $100 meal plan based off of different recipes from the Plant Based on a Budget blog. I tried to stick with meals that had cross over ingredients (Hello, carrots) so we wouldn't have leftover groceries. I also tried to find recipes that used a lot of the same items (Hello, chickpeas). Also, I looked for meals with few ingredients.

Our total grocery bill was $100.19. For FIVE (and a half) humans! That includes breakfast staples like oatmeal and frozen waffles (and a box of junkie snack cereal for the pregnant lady... sorrynotsorry), lunches, and lots of snacks. And all. the. fruit. I had to tell Cory to step away from the produce because I was worried about going over $100 with blueberries, watermelon, and mangoes. (One less banana and we would have been golden!)

So here's our dinner plan for the week. With a color coded shopping list.

Day	Dinner
M	Pasta and Sauce with frozen veggies
T	Orzo Salad
W	Southwest Mix
R	Chickpea Broccoli Casserole
F	Veggie Couscous
S	Chickpea Bread Stew
S	*Leftover Night*

Produce Dairy Packaged Goods Spices/Sauces

M
Pasta
Jar Sauce
Frozen Veggies

T

4 cups water
1 1/2 cups orzo
1 cup garbanzo beans, rinsed (canned or pre-cooked from scratch)
1 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes
3/4 cup red onion, chopped
1/4 cup fresh basil and mint leaves, chopped
1/2-3/4 cups red wine vinaigrette
salt and pepper to taste

W
1 can of corn (drained and rinsed)
1 can of black beans (drained and rinsed)
3/4 cup chopped sweet peppers of any color
3/4 cup diced red onion
1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
3/4 cup cilantro
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
juice from 1 lime

R
3 16oz cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
3 large carrots, grated (about 2 cups)
1 large onion, halved and sliced thinly (I used a mix of red onion and shallots for taste and aesthetics, but yellow is fine, too)
1 medium head and stem of broccoli
2-3 Tbsp chopped cilantro
3/4 cup bread crumbs (I used some leftover homemade stuff, but if gluten free, omit this, or substitute 1/2 cup finely pulsed walnuts)
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup vegetable broth
1 tsp salt (or not, depending on how salty your broth is...)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

F
1 cup Whole Wheat Couscous (dried)
1 tbsp Coconut Oil (any oil is fine, can omit)
5-6 Asparagus Spears (large)
1 Bell Pepper (any color)
1 Tomato (medium, diced)

S
4-6 garlic cloves, chopped
1 red onion chopped
3 carrots sliced
1 12-oz can of chickpeas
1 tbsp cumin
2 tsp paprika
juice of one lemon
1-2 tsp salt, to taste
Sourdough round loaf, top cut out
1-2 tbsp olive oil

Caught ya!

I found this idea during one of my Pinterest binges and thought it was the perfect way to bribe... er... encourage the boys to be more helpful. And as a way for us to acknowledge them for good work. I saw the jar here, but we made a few changes.

We used a cleaned out applesauce container and colored our own lable on construction paper. We used way too much tape to attach that sucker on, but they were pretty proud of their work. I wanted the boys to feel involved in the project instead of just explaining to them how it worked. I bought a pack of pompoms from the dollar store and one pack fits perfectly inside our jar.

$ 1 DIY. That's what I'm talking about.

This is where we added a new step. We grabbed a piece of construction paper and I asked the boys different ways to be helpful. Some were silly (Don't break glass... umm, yes, but... okay). But others were spot on (Share. Help our baby sister. Eat our meals.)

Each boy was so helpful making our jar that they already earned two pompoms. When the jar is filled, they each will get a dollar and a special trip to the dollar store.

Maybe we'll have different jars for each kid in the future, but for now, I'm hoping that one jar will encourage them to be helpful together and work on teamwork.

I guess we'll see.

Convos with Kids

July 10th:
Picking up road trip pop tarts.
Cam: Dad, can I have the Saturday kind?
Dad: You mean the sundae kind?
Cam: Yeah, the Sunday kind.

Sure, kid.

July 12th:
Hell hath no fury like a one year old who ate all her blueberries.

Wreck It

Usually I'm not very fond of my kids wrecking anything, but I was really excited about getting THEM excited about journaling, so I got the boys a Wreck This Journal for us to do together over the summer while Ay naps. 

Cam (4, YouTube addict) wants to film our crazy antics. We watched a few kids wreck their book on YouTube and that's all he needed to be really excited (but he still keeps asking for the day we can rub our book on a dirty truck... ew.)

So here's some videos of our first couple wrecks.

Enjoy.

https://youtu.be/qccncRzD0FQ

https://youtu.be/6E2_bYz34V8

Weekly Meal Plan

Aldi is my new favorite place.
We've been able to follow some frugal (but tasty) meal plans and feed our family of 5 (and a half) for less than $100 a week.

Like what.

We adapted this Meal Plan on a Budget plan for our meals this week.

M: Pasta, sauce, with bread and frozen vegetables.
T: Gumbo
W: BBQ Tofu Sandwiches w Veggies (the slaw is our new favorite thing!)
R: Bean and Rice Burritos w Chips & Salsa
F: Chickpea Salad Sandwiches 
S: Grilled Veggie Fajitas w Black Beans

S: Leftovers

Breakfast will be frozen waffles or oatmeal with a banana, apple, or blueberries. Lunch is PBandJ or hummus and cucumber sandwiches with apple sauce or trail mix.

It's not the first time we've adapted this plan, but I'm always astonished how much left overs we still have. Plus we grab some snacks and things (trail mix, muffin mix, fruit bars, freeze pops) that weren't on the PBOAB plan, and still came in way under $100! 

Convos with Kids

Why do they say these things?!

***

Ay climbing up the steps.
Me: Where you going? Everything is shut up there anyway.
Cam: Shut Up is a bad word!

Well... yeah... but...
(June 6)

***

Car, don't eat all those blueberries.  You might turn into one!

Car: *quickly eats all the blueberries* See! Me no turn into a blueberry!

Not this time, kid. Not this time.
(July 9)

Live on the edge.

I was texting my sister in law today about what was new in our lives and we got to talking about how dang hot and nasty it is.

I read earlier that the library was having a drop in craft take-and-make today and was trying to decide of I should drag my three kids out alone, or just shoot myself in the face. I'm not sure which option would have been better...

After wrestling with Cam to put on some pants, dragging him away from Minecraft kicking and screaming, and having a 20 min chat on the edge of the minivan about how this new library isn't "scary" and they probably have computers like the "grown up library" near our old house, I clip all my tiny people in and went on a hunt for the library.

Everyone was in a better mood and I was getting my cardio chasing three kids in a million directions around the blocks, puzzles, and books. I finally tricked the boys into leaving to go make the craft.

A rainbow. Because I love helping two preschoolers tie 5 billion strings of yarn to half a paper plate and cover it with cotton balls.

During all this exciting crafting, Ay climbed up into the umbrella stroller and, spoiler alert, it tipped.

And bigger spoiled alert, she bit her lip. And in true baby fashion, bled and screamed like she was being slaughtered in a horror flick.

Awesome.

Sensing the urgency of the situation, the boys decided they needed rocks taken out of their shoes, different strings tied on their cloud, or that it was a perfect time to do ninja flips in the craft room...

So... that was awesome.

I took Ay to the bathroom in a screaming bloody mess and half cleaned her up and made sure nothing  (i.e. her teeth) was broken.

She was fine. Gross... but fine.

So we walk back to the craft room where the older boys are rolling all around and the two preteen library assistants are wide eyed and confused  (but still attached to their phones). Thanks, girls. I appreciate you keeping my other kids blood free for the moment. Seriously. It takes a village, folks!

We rushed out of that library covered in blood, sweat, and tears, but we made some beautiful freakin' rainbows, yo.

And I was wearing white.

Because I live on the edge like that.

Happy-ish July

4th of July Status PreKids: I love living at the beach! Fireworks in every direction!

4th of July Status PostKids: It's way pass bedtime. You kept one kid from falling asleep and woke up another. Go away, fireworks. You're done now. You're time is up. See you again at New Year's.