Summer UnSchool

As a teacher, I'm always looking for opportunities to teach our kids. But I also teach for a living, so sit-down-do-this just isn't my style with my little people. Nor is it THEIR style.

We don't even plan a lesson daily, or weekly. I just look for fun things that we can do to increase their learning. And that's cool with me.

This year, our Wreck This Journal has been a source of education and fun this summer. This week we did ONE page. One. That's it. They're 3 and 4, folks. I really just want them to practice sitting at a table and following directions.

Last year, I'd pull up Pinterest and would find a quick and easy craft to do based on something they were interested in that day (like that one time ANTS infiltrated our home so we made a A anthill with finger prints and we learned that they don't have ears). I just keep markers and dollar store construction paper on hand. Boom.

Bur this year, we just flip to a WTJ page and follow instructions. Cam didn't want to come, so Car and I stated without him. Car really just wanted to dump water into our water colors... that's cool too, I guess. So I started putting fingerprints on our page and closing it up  (hello, symmetry lesson!)

Soon Car joined in and Cam became jealous enough to come help too.

We mixed colors (hello, art and color lessons), added water (dilution!), and made a mess (no lesson there... but they liked it.)

Sometimes I'll search Netflix for a show that complements something we learned. I love that Magic School Bus and Bill Nye are available! And a quick Google search helps me find one fast!

So, I'm just trying to keep it fun. And EASY. We probably spend less than 20 mins doing an activity.

Because I've got coffee to drink and lunch to make before the little lady wakes up from her nap! ;)

Weekly Meal Plan

Here we go again. I repeated a few meals from last plan since we still have a few of those ingredients around. The prices next to the meal plan are from the Budge Bytes recipes linked at the top. 

And we got away with a tab UNDER $100 for our family of 5 again! 

Breakfast will be 

blueberry frozen waffles or PB Toast or oatmeal with either a banana or orange.

Lunch will be 

PBJ sandwiches with fruit

Snacks include 

Crackers, pretzel sticks, cheese (block cut into slices), and I even scored some salted caramel chocolates to hide away from little people. Shh.

Day	Dinner
M	Pasta and Sauce with frozen veggies
T	Orzo Salad
W	Southwest Mix w tortillas
R	White Bean Spinach Salad
F	Summer veggie pasta
S	Lentil and Veggie Soup w bread
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
Tortillas

R

3 cups cooked no-salt-added cannellini beans, from 2 (15-ounce cans) beans, drained and rinsed

1 small red onion, quartered and thinly sliced

4 cups tightly packed fresh spinach leaves, tough stems removed

2 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

2 1/2 tablespoons cider vinegar

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

Crunchy Bread

F
12 oz. bow tie pasta $1.39

2 medium roma tomatoes $0.61

1 medium summer squash $0.39

1 medium zucchini $0.39

1 medium broccoli crown $1.27

½ medium red onion $0.57

⅔ (15 oz.) jar roasted red peppers $1.34

½ bunch parsley $0.49

VINAIGRETTE (Or store bought vinaigrette)

• ¼ cup vegetable oil $0.16
• ¼ cup olive oil $0.44
• ⅓ cup red wine vinegar $0.21
• 1 Tbsp dijon mustard $0.06
• 1 tsp dried oregano $0.05
• 1 tsp minced garlic $0.12
• ¾ tsp salt $0.05
• to taste fresh cracked black pepper $0.05

S
2 Tbsp olive oil $0.32

2 cloves garlic $0.16

1 medium onion $0.50

½ lb. (3-4) carrots $0.55

3 ribs celery $0.80

1 (15 oz.) can black beans $0.89

1 cup brown lentils $0.31

1 tsp cumin $0.10

1 tsp oregano $0.10

½ tsp smoked paprika $0.05

¼ tsp cayenne pepper $0.02

Freshly ground black pepper $0.05

1 (15 oz.) can petite diced tomatoes $0.85

4 cups vegetable broth $0.52*

½ tsp salt $0.02
Bread

3$ DIY Cast Cover

Remember that song about the monkeys jumping on the bed? Well, apparently they can do a bit more damage than just a bump on the head.

Cam fell off between the bed and the nightstand and broke his arm. We had to make an emergency call to Dad at work and go right to the ER. It was obviously broken. One of those "Arms are not supposed to bend that way" breaks you'd expect from a skateboard incident gone wrong...

After 6 hours at the ER, Cam got his own XRAY images and a brand new, generic, Emergency Room, boring white cast.

He. Was. Stoked.

I was not. How on earth do you keep a 4 year old who needs to stay away from water clean enough to rock a white cast? I knew we needed to cover it for a couple reasons.

1. Fiberglass casts are strong, light weight, and are as rough as sandpaper. Cam is running around scratching everything in sight. Including us!

2. White is boring.

3. Patterns are fun.

We did something simple. We headed to our local Walmart and I looked at all the adult tube socks. We found one that matched his super hero obsession  (Hello, Captain America).

We simply cut the toe off of the sock, keeping the stitching attached to the tube part and not the toe part.

Then we just slipped that sucker on. We didn't cut a thumb hole, because the velcro like fiber glass is keeping it in place just fine. And we can switch it out with fun patterns easily and still have his white cast easily available for fun signatures.

Be sure to keep the sock OFF the skin of the arm. You don't want to restrict blood flow to a healing arm. Keep the sock only on the cast.

I've seen other tutorials that use nylons or adult tights to cover a cast. They wraped it in a bandage to prevent it from tearing on the fiberglass, but the sock was just the perfect size for a 4 year old and snagging wasn't an issue.

Hopefully, Captain America heals quickly and doesn't use his super hero skills to jump any far distances in the future.

(But who am I kidding).

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!