Menu Plan Monday...and a recap..

First I will do a recap of us lately and then I will post the menu...I know I know I am linked to a menu plan blog so I should only be posting my menu lol. If you only care to read that instead of about us go ahead and scroll down. I am just going to type my jibberish first. :)

This weekend was nice! Very relaxing! The Cheerio King (hubs) went to the opening weekend fishing derby here in town late Friday night and did not get home until very early Sat morning and of course since he has not stayed out that late in over 12 years it hit him pretty hard lol. He slept in and I got up with the kids. I took them out to our local pool and took them swimming for an hour or so. I heard from another sensory parent that the water is great for sensory kids because there is resitance and they can kick and splash around ...plus it did something else for my kids..it wore them out!! After that we did an errand or two and got home in time for Hubs famous bbq or as Trix says "Daddy's barbequke" he is so cute!

Sunday we went to church and then over to Grandpa's for awhile and the boys got to hang out in Grandpa's garage which is their favorite place to be.

Today it is back to our schedule and back to schoolwork. Honey Nut and I have been reading Little house the the prairie and she is loving it. When we are done with the first book I will rent the movie for her from Netflix. We are studying pioneers and will also make a lapbook as well. The boys are still working on their Handwriting without Tears unit and doing well with it. I am so excited to be attending my first curriculum fair in June! I have my eye on some different curriculum for next year and this will be the place I can see it first before buying. On a quick note no Hubs is not working yet...however he is keeping the fish population down in our local lakes with our friend and neighbor across the street. But he did have a good phone interview on Friday and then he has an in person interview for a diff company both today and tomorrow so hopefully soon. Thanks for all the prayers we have recieved lately! God has kept us afloat and really protected us through all this. :)

Till next time!

The cheerio queen

Menuplan:

Monday: Chicken Kiev and Twice baked potatoes, green beans

Tuesday: spaghetti pie, salad, garlic bread

Wednesday: crockpot pork roast, mashed potatoes, broccoli

Thursday: bbq pork sandwiches, seasoned fries, carrot sticks

Friday: homemade pizza (family movie night at the Cheerio household)

Here is a great tip I got from another blogger today. and I wanted to share it under Frugal Fridays. It is for a website called "Spelling Time" I love it because it is FREE to sign up and it has the kids spell words, then they have to write with a pencil and paper each one of their spelling words . When they are done and for every word they spell correctly the kids get game points to play a game...but they must do their spelling first. The concept is easy the more the kids spell correctly the more game points they get! Best of all as I said above this site is F-R-E-E I don't know how much more frugal you can get then that. The words are all age and grade appropriate. As a homeschooler who has a daughter who is still struggling with some spelling this is a fun way to help her out. It would be good review for kids in public and private school as well. :) Here is the link: http://www.spellingtime.com/

The Cheerio Queen

WFMW!!

My works for me wednesday tip today is this:

I don't know if i posted it before or not but if I did I will post it again because it is a good tip and frankly it is 6am and I have not had my smoothie yet! lol (yes I know most people have coffee...I live in the coffee capitol of the world S-E-A-T-T-L-E and I hate coffee, love the smell hate the taste, and yet still out of towners look at me like I should turn over my citizenship)

Anyway here it is: Menu Planning!

When I do my every two week grocery shopping I plan menus, however I don't plan them for each day of the week. When I used to do that I would get to say "wednesday meatloaf day" and everyone would say they did not want that. So what I do instead is I make out a list of 12 meals (yes I am aware there is 14 days in a two week period but I allow for dinner out , or dinner at friends etc.) When I make out the list of 12 meals this includes snacks, breakfast, lunch and dinner! Then at the beginning of the week when I pick out a tentative menu for the week. I say tentative because as anyone with a family knows plan change quickly. Either way I have the ingredients for 12 lunches, dinners, breakfast, snacks on hand at all times and then I don't have to run to the store for those 35 dollar "quick bag of noodles" runs. I also took it one step further and if it is a new recipe we have not had on the menu yet..I mark down the name of the book, magazine, or internet article I found it in and what page it is..it saves a ton of time trying to remember where I saw the recipe. :)

Works for me!

The Cheerio Queen

menu plan monday!

Hey it is time for menuplan again??? wow! Time flies. lol

Quick update school today went great! The kids started earlier then usual. I have a new baby in the daycare that is a little more "high maintenance" but oh so cute! But it does affect my teaching time with the kids and my original plan was to teach at night on those 3 days a week she is here but by then I am just too tired and it runs into dinner, bathtime, laundry, pickup, and bedtime routine. So today Honey Nut was less then thrilled when I made her start her routine a little earlier but she will appreciate it when she finishes earlier...however...this has been an issue lately with her. A lot of "dawdling and waiting till the last minute" so today she learned that we work on Mom and Dad's time not on hers right now. It is a whole "re-establish guidelines" thing. So today you can imagine she was not thrilled that she missed lunch because she dawdled and played around instead of finishing her math, and so she could not eat until it was done (she had spent an hour doing nothing...it is not hard for her she just was wasting time) and unfortunately she took too long and lunch time ended. Finally after 2 hours she had her math done. We also implemented the "time limit" for chores and etc. because the kids were taking too long. Basically what happens is...you have a time limit to get stuff done (age appropriate of course) every minute that your over that time finishing it is what is shaved off your bedtime. It has been working well!

ok so this turned into a novel but here is my menu for the week!

Monday: tater tot casserole, salad, and fruit

Tuesday: spaghetti, salad, and whole wheat garlic bread

Wednesday: Crockpot Pork Roast , fruit, and green beans (wednesday is a busy day so it always crockpot)

Thursday: french toast, scrambled eggs, bacon

Friday: chicken Kiev, twiced baked potatoes, and corn

till next time,

The Cheerio Queen

Birthday Fun and update....

So this weekend was Honey Nut's birthday party with her friends. Her actual bday was last week and we finally peeled her off the ceiling from the excitement of receiving her first saddle! This weekend she had 10 of her little girlfriends over for an "ice cream social" party. Anyone who knows me knows that kid parties are my thing. It is what I love to do so I try and be unique but not break the bank. Last year for her bday we did a "spa party" . Anyway this year the girls got to make their own Sundae's and then if you look to the left they had this bday cake. Then luckily we have a huge trampoline outside that the girls were able to jump off a lot of that sugar high. They also had fun playing with the "littlest petshop","polly pockets", and "my little pony toys" that Honey Nut received. All in all it was a lot of fun and hardly any work on my part. The parents were thrilled that their little ones went home and crashed.

Otherwise our family is doing ok. We have done a lot of praying over the last few weeks with the recent unpleasant changes that have gone on but I do believe God puts us through this with a purpose. We have had some good things come out of it, we appreciate each other more, in tougher times we find out who our real friends are and we had a lot more then we though we did! Hubs still has not found a job yet but he is out there every day interviewing and hopefully soon he will get the best job for him. I personally have been praying for a job that not only pays well but is one he absolutely loves. I understand that God works in his own time but I personally have been asking him to step it up a bit lol. In the mean time it has been a blessing in the following ways:

Number one : hubs is trained in emergency response and was home at the hour when trix had that major seizure a couple weeks ago.

Number two: He is finally seeing just how much work I actually do during the day both as a daycare provider and homeschooling mom, oh and don't forget family CEO.

Number three: he has been able to spend some real quality time with the kids one on one which he did nto have has much time for before.

So even though we have been tested some really good things have come out of this. Oh and for those who have asked YES Trix is doing much better now! He is on his meds, and he is thriving in his OT appts as well.

Well that is all for this weekend!

Take Care!

Cheerio Queen

WFMW

This weeks tip is not long because I have a couple daycare kids coming early. Lately things have been hectic with spring break last week and trying to get homeschooling back on track. I will write a post on that later. :)

My tip this week is a simple but extremely useful one. BABY OIL. Keep a bottle on hand at all times. It is usefull for getting markers (permanent sharpies) off little chubby arms that kids want to decorate. It also is helpful for getting crayon off of walls, and my favorite thing about it is that it also gets those "temporary wash off" tattoos off of kids. You know the kind they swear will wash off but neglect to tell you that they will wash off eventually about 4 months and 1200 baths later? As someone recently pointed out in my comments I forgot to add..that it shines stainless steel sinks, and appliances!

Be sure to check out Rocks in my dryer hosted by Shannon for more great tips! http://http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/shannon/
Works for me!
The Cheerio Queen

Real Moms...

This is a Meme that I copied from another blogger and I loved the idea. Here is the truth about real moms. I tag anyone who reads my post to do it too. :)





Real Moms:





Real Moms cannot sit down without their pants automatically unzipping...thank God for large sweatshirts.



Real Moms consider sweats and pony tails part of their "mommy uniforms"

Real Moms only shower every couple of days (come on admit it you know it is true)

Real Moms put themselves in a timeout when they make mistakes just to teach their little ones that adults are not perfect





Real Moms don't have time to get sick





Real Moms cry...a lot! we cry when we are happy, sad, angry, elated, etc. (remember the episode of Everybody Loves Raymond when Debra wanted time to herself just to cry to feel better?)





Real Moms stay calm in scary situations with their children (i.e. child gets lost, breaks a bone, gets a deep booboo etc.) then later when they are safe and sound...throw up and call their moms and freak out.





Real Moms call the doctor only when junior has been coughing like a seal for 4 days and we finally decide maybe it is not "just the sniffles". (this is for more experienced moms on their second or more child)





Real Moms Call the doc every time the baby blinks because they are just sure their baby is the one who has the new blinking disease no one has ever diagnosed yet. (this is for brand new first time moms.)





Real Moms were all neurotic new mommies at one point in their motherhood life.





Real Moms look at their child who insists on eating his cereal with a fork and only wearing their clothes inside out because it is "cool" ...as highly intelligent and creative instead of weird the way the rest of the world may see them.





Real Moms are letting their children eat popcorn with m&m's in it while watching a movie that they have already watched 3 times today...just so they can fill out this meme!





Good luck I cannot wait to see others. :)





till next time


The cheerio queen!