I've Gone International!

Hello! If you're here from Tina's blog, welcome! Pull up a chair, sit back with a cup of something nice and warm to drink (since here in MN it's nearly freezing!) and enjoy! Take a trip through the archives if you're really bored. :)

And, if you're one of my regulars, I've gone international, Australia to be specific. And while I'd love to say I'm live blogging from the land down under alas, I am only appearing as a guest blogger on her blog! I've been reading Tina's blog for I have no idea how long now. She's witty and she also has a whole houseful of young'uns, five to be exact. So, if you're interested in seeing what else I have to say today you can head over here!

Tutu day!

With Halloween coming the boys have been spending lots of time upstairs with their costume box. I will take them to a local church party and they can dress up, but I won't spend a dime on their costumes. They've had tons of fun playing with the wide variety of costumes. However, I notice that all of the costumes are distinctly "boy" costumes. And the costumes that *could* be for a little girl are simply too big. So, I broke my spend-no-money rule and invested in some tule and elastic to make Avery a tutu! I found the easier than pie instructions here, spent a whopping $5.80 on tule and elastic for results that can be seen here on Mel's blog. What, you don't think I'd make a princess fairy tutu for Avery and not one for her Little Miss A do you???

Edited to note that her Little Miss A is the one in the pink shirt and dark hair. Avery is the one with the purple shirt and the lighter hair.

She's a girl

Evan had to make a model of a Little House on the Prairie house in a shoebox a few weeks ago. We have yet to disassemble it, but that doesn't seem to matter. Avery is sitting in front of it, taking the little lego people out of it, rearranging the lego and clay furniture, and making little toddler "conversations" for the people. It is so darn stinkin' cute! Any guesses what's on her Christmas or birthday list???

Don't read this blog unless you have lots of time!

Every Saturday Shannon gives us some new things to read. Sometimes it is a fun article, sometimes it is a cool website she found and sometimes it is a particular blog entry from someone she reads. Last Saturday 6yearmed was on the list of things to read. I have no idea what else was on the list because I never made it back to Shannon's blog! Jim and I spent all of Saturday and Sunday fighting over the computer to catch up on every one of her entries! Danielle has chronicled her years of med school and all the other different levels of doctor-ness with excellent writing, poignant stories and a great dose of humor and reality. When you go read her blog bring with you a tissue. You'll be laughing so hard you'll cry in one entry and so touched by the raw humanity you'll cry some more at other entries.

You're welcome and I'm sorry you won't be getting anything else done today.

201!

This is my 201st post! Happy 201st post, reader!

For my 201st post I would like to tell you how disgustingly easy I am to please. As you know, Jim and I are hauling the family back to town and giving up our rural life for a more in town life. When we moved out here we had to give up our in town phone number in exchange for the rural town number. Well, I called the phone company recently and discovered that our old number is still available! So, yeah for us, we get our old phone number back!

I know, pathetic the little things that thrill a SAHM. :)

Works For Me Wednesday

I thought of this post actually two weeks ago, but with getting ready to move and all I forgot to post it last week! What works for me this week is making lunch ahead. I know many people make their kids' lunches the night before (and if you don't you totally should, it takes a ton of pressure off the morning!). I take it a step further and more nutty. Three weeks ago my favorite bread was on sale. I bought three loaves and made 32 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, put them in individual baggies and then back into the bread bag. Evan (and Jim) can now just whip out a sandwich, throw it in his lunch box, scrounge for sides and he's done! And the best part? I don't have to clean up a jelly mess every morning from where he made his own sandwich!

You might ask, "how lazy are you? It only takes five minutes to make a sandwich for heaven's sake!" Yes, it doesn't take long to make a sandwich. But, it only took me thirty minutes to make and clean up from making thirty-two sandwiches. Even if you're really fast I highly doubt you can do it in under a minute!

One thing to note if you're going to do PBJs ahead of time. You do have to spread the PB on both slices of bread so the J doesn't soak into the bread as it freezes and thaws. I used crunchy on one slice and then a really thin layer of creamy on the other slice, just enough to cover it.

You can also do meat and cheese and have the same results! Try ham and cheese on a bun, wrap it in foil and freeze it. Let them thaw for a few minutes, then pop them in the oven for a hot ham and cheese for dinner one night!

Works For Me!

A recipe for you!

My good shopping buddy Mel and I were in our favorite store yesterday. It is not the cheapest store in town, but they provide the valuable service of taking care of our kidlets for us, so I'm willing to shell out a few extra bucks for groceries! We have shopped together for about eight years now and have quite the system going. Nine times out of ten we're able to manage to get a week's worth of groceries for two families into one cart and we have a grand ol' time doing it. Yesterday the cashier actually asked us if we share a day care or something because of our shopping habits!

Yesterday Mel pointed out a new produce item...broccoli slaw. It has broccoli, carrots and cabbage all chopped up into skinny teeny strips, mixed together and packaged into a nice little rectangle of veg. She decided to buy some and pass it off to her family as cole slaw. I read the suggested recipe on the back and decided to give that a go. They suggest mixing the broccoli veg mix with a chopped apple, a can of pineapple bits and some vinaigrette dressing. I'm making that for tonight and calling it "tooty fruity salad".

Maybe I should go back into bloggy hiding if the best I can do is make up stinkin' jokes...

I Should Be The Healthiest Woman in America

All the laundry I do must be for my health. At least my family must think so. And I'm glad they're looking out for my best interests because you know what I found in the dirty laundry pile this morning. A clean shirt. STILL ON THE HANGER!!! Come on people, at least take it off the hanger if you're going to try to pass of a clean shirt as dirty! Even better would be to bunch it up a bit so I think it's dirty! :)

Another Toby gem showed up yesterday. We were watching PBS when Toby asked, "Mom, why can't I see my eyes?"

Works For Me Wednesday

Today's Works for me Wednesday is about a personal decision that all parents must make. Some of us start before that little line on the pee stick turns pink, some don't even give it a thought until little junior is two or three. Yup, we all have to consider how, where and when we're going to educate our children! :)

I am part of a MOPS emailing group. Recently the question was raised "what preschools do you recommend? My son is three and not yet potty trained. Where can he go?" Several mommies praised their own choices of schooling, this preschool does this, this preschool does that, I couldn't be happier with my choice etc etc etc. I entered the conversation with the following response:

Evan went to preschool at a local church. The
price was right and it fit our needs. Aidan is doing "homeschool
preschool" this year because I didn't like the options in [my rural] area
and commuting to town just wasn't financially responsible. I think we'll
continue on this track even when we move back to town. The experience of
preschool just isn't worth it for our family. Also, the kindergarten teacher Evan had says she can't tell the difference between
kids who go to preschool and those who don't after about a week in
kindergarten.

So, there's another option for you! :) As for his "social needs" he
gets them during MOPPETS, Sunday School and plenty of other play dates
not only with kids his own age but of various ages as well.

In a nutshell, homeschool preschool works for our family!

I'm not even really good at homeschool preschool. I had grand visions of Aidan and me sitting at the dining room table with crayons, scissors and glue during the littler siblings' naptimes. Nope, I kick his heiney to bed with the rest of them right after lunch! And you know what? He still knows his letters, can count past thirty, voluntarily gets out his spelling and penmanship books to work on throughout the day and can even tell you which direction you're headed! So, my theory is that there isn't really such a thing as "pre-school getting them ready for kindergarten". He can stand in line, wait his turn, wipe his own heiney, use scissors correctly, and share. I know many children in older grades who can't do those things! I think he'll be more than ready to go to kindergarten next fall by doing his preschool work at home!

So, homeschool preschool works for me and my family. Click here to go find out some other things that work for some other families!

Why I'm a Bad Blogger: A List

Hello, my name is Tara and I blog here sometimes. Since I haven't blogged in a really long time I thought I'd catch you up in a quick and easy format...the list.

1. We had relatives come from SD. My mom and dad, brother, sister and her three kids all came for the September birthdays! Yeah for relatives coming! It was a great time helping Evan turn 8 and Aidan turn 5. Mom and Dad stayed at the Herb Hotel (thanks!) while Adam, Wendy, Logan, Savannah and Makenah stayed here. Where di we put six extra people? Well, Avery moved into our room in the pack and play which freed up her room. Wendy and her three kids slept in there while Adam slept on the couch! Easy peasy. :)

2. No sooner did they arrive than I caught the plague. My voice? Shot. My lungs? Gone, I think I coughed them up sometime last week. Oooo, it was a terrible time to be the mommy. I still had to corral three kids at home all day, cook and make sure all the people who live here with me had clean underwear! Now? Residual cough, but everything else is pretty much up to speed.

3. We bought a house! Despite the fact that I was surely dying of the plague we managed to write an offer (and it was accepted!) on what I consider to be the perfect house for our family. It is a FIVE bedroom house much closer to work and school for Jim and Evan, two living areas so I can have a pretty living room and a separate play room for the kids. It has a double garage with actual working garage doors. And the best thing? It sits on a full acre of fenced in yard. Perfect for growing children who need to run and romp! Provided that about three dominoes ahead of our own domino fall, we're moving in on November 7th.

4. So, I've been packing like a crazy woman. Jim took a full trailer of junk to the dump this morning. SP who lived here before us left us a tremendous amount of "debris" aka: junk. So, we hauled it all out of here lest Jay and Emily who are buying our house curse us for leaving them SP's junk. :)

5. I'm sure there are other reasons for my not blogging, but I can't think of them right now. Tonight Evan and I got to start building a dioramma of Little House on the Prairie in a shoebox. He's so excited about it! "After all, Mom, it's not everyday you get to build a model of a house!" Can I save it for Aidan to use when he's in third grade??? Sadly, I did not get to buy new shoes in order to get a shoebox for this project. Sigh. What a responsible Mommy I am that I had one and even knew where it was. I guess when Aidan's in third grade I'll have to do better!

So, that's what I've been up to. How have you been?