Box Day

We had box day this past week!  Well, we've been getting small boxes here and there the last few weeks, but we got our biggest box of stuff this past week.  G was most excited about it!  We are still waiting on a couple more smaller boxes to arrive, but for the most part we are ready to start school this week.  =)

Best Banana Pudding...EVER!

We had a luncheon at church this morning, so last night I made my banana pudding to bring.  This is the yummiest banana pudding ever!!  How do I know?  I just do!  =)  You need to make it...right now...go ahead...and you'll see what I'm talking about!  It's so delicious and creamy and banana-ey and pudding-ey!  You'll love it, I promise!

Best Banana Pudding Ever:
1 small box of instant banana pudding
1 small box of instant vanilla pudding
3 cups of milk
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
6-7 bananas (I usually get bigger ones)
3-4 Tablespoons of lemon juice
16 oz of cool whip
1 box of vanilla wafers (I actually use like a box and a half)
A really big pan or bowl (A 9x13 pan is not quite big enough)

1. First whisk together your 3 cups of milk and both boxes of pudding.

2. Next add your sweetened condensed milk.

3.  Now put that in your refrigerator for a few minutes while you slice your bananas.

4. Slice your bananas, not too thick now, and then drizzle your lemon juice on the bananas. Don't worry! You won't taste the lemon juice, it's just going to keep them from turning brown. Then give it a good stir to get all your bananas coated in it.

  5.  Now take your pudding mix out of the refrigerator and mix in the whipped topping.  Mix it up really good!!  Make sure you taste a little, too!!  =P

 6.  Now line the bottom of your pan or bowl with vanilla wafers.  You don't have to make it look pretty either, you can just dump them in and spread them out if you want. 

 7.  Next, you will spread your sliced bananas on the cookies.

 8.  Now, you will pour your pudding mix on top of the bananas.

 9.  And then if you like, you can put more cookies on top.  Also, if you are using a big bowl, you may want to alternate your layers more, rather than just putting all of it in at one time.

 That's it!  Now refrigerate it until you are ready to serve.  Enjoy!!  It's so good!  And it makes a LOT so make sure you have plenty of people around to help you eat it.  =P 

My Garden

I love vegetable gardens!  There is just something so amazing to me about growing your own food.  Now, with that being said, growing a garden in HOT, DRY west Texas is not an easy thing to accomplish.  I have tried all but one year since we've lived out here.  And every year has been a FAIL.  This year, I have tried extra hard.  I actually had to re-plant THREE times.  It's growing great now (most everything is still a baby, though), and I just got to pick my first vegetable this week (at the end of July, no less!).  A zucchini!  We were (ok, I was!) super excited!!  I got two more zucchini a couple days later.  :)  So, now I want to share pics of my beloved garden!!  It's not much, but to me, it's great!  I'm happy to have gotten this far this year!! 

As you can see, all but my zucchini plants are still babies!

 It's about to be picked!  =)

My one and only watermelon...so far!  I do hope that we will get a lot more!



My boy!  Just as excited as his mom about our first harvest!  Lol!  He wanted to be the one to pick it. 



So the one on the top is the one that grew in our garden, and the one on the bottom is a store bought one. 



My boy again!  Helping me cook up our zucchini!!





Our menu this week!

I wanted to share our weekly menu for this week, maybe someone needs some inspiration!! =) I know I do sometimes!!

I am trying to incorporate Meatless Monday's, too.

I will put up some of the recipes, too. But, let me know if you want a recipe for anything specific on here. Or there's always Pinterest... =)

Also, for our snacks that are fruit & veggie sticks, I cut up a bunch of fruits and veggies at the beginning of the week and keep them in the fridge so they are ready to go when they need them. Makes life easier, ya know?!?!

Have a great week, everyone!

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Breakfast	Baked Oatmeal	Cream of wheat & smoothie	Cheerios & smoothie	Breakfast cookies & yogurt	Oatmeal &smoothie	Grits & eggs	Pancakes
Lunch	PB&J &yogurt	Corn dogs, carrot sticks, and fruit	Chicken nuggets, applesauce, &; corn	Leftovers	Homemade lunchables: Ham, cheese, crackers &; carrot sticks & fruit	Hot dogs, chips, & celery sticks	Grilled cheese, fruit & cucumber slices
Dinner	Rice & Beans &fruit	Grilled chicken, squash, fresh fruit	Taco Soup	Tater tot casserole, peas & carrots, & garlic bread	Crunchy chicken bites, couscous & salad	Sticky chicken, broccoli, & quinoa	Chicken tenders, mashed potatoes, & green beans
Snack #1	Muffins	Peanut butter toast &milk	Muffins	Cheese sticks &applesauce	½ small bagel w/ cream cheese	Breakfast cookies	Yogurt
Snack #2	Fruit &veggie sticks	Fruit & veggie sticks	Fruit & veggie sticks	Fruit & veggie sticks	Fruit &veggie sticks	Fruit & veggie sticks	Fruit & veggie sticks
Snack #3	Cookies	Graham crackers and yogurt	Popcorn	Chocolate banana snack squares	Rice Krispy treats	Pretzels	Cheese & crackers

Tasty Treats

I made these delicious little treats today. They are so yummy, and I thought I would share them with you all (the recipe that is, cuz my crew already ate them all)!!  I've actually been making these for years and  they're really easy to make.  Be prepared though; they won't last for long!!  At least, they never do in my house.

Chocolate Banana Snack Squares

Ingredients:

3 medium bananas-mashed

3/4 cup packed brown sugar (I've even used less before)

1/3 cup oil

1/4 milk

2 eggs

1tsp baking powder

1tsp cinnamon

2tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4tsp salt

1&3/4cup flour (I've done this with half the flour as whole wheat)

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Grease an 11x15 cookie sheet.

2. Beat all ingredients; EXCEPT flour and chocolate chips; with an electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. 

3. On low speed, beat in the flour just until it's blended.

4. Stir in the chocolate chips.

5. Spread batter into your prepared pan.

6. Bake 15-20 min until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

That's it!  They are delicious!  I hope you guys enjoy them.  Let me know what you think!

A New Year!

Ok, so it's that time of year again...planning for our new school year!  I can't believe this will be my 10th year homeschooling!  Phew!  Time has gone by so quickly!  And to top it all off I will have a high schooler this year!!!  Holy cow!  How on earth do I have a high school kid already?!?!  Wasn't he just in kindergarten...like last month, or something?!?!  I will also have one in middle school and one more still in elementary. 

My planning this year has been a little different and trickier, with having to plan for high school.  It feels like starting over again.  There is so much to keep track of, so much to make sure is covered, credits, electives, etc., etc.  Thankfully, I did start planning the high school stuff a couple months ago.  J and I sat down and started working out his 4 year hs career on paper.  It looks good!  He is a little more ambitious than I thought he would be, which is great!  He's chosen some great electives, and is planning on starting dual enrollment classes at the community college in 11th grade (maybe 10th; we'll see).  All in all, we have a great 4 year plan set out!  It's the beginning of the end here.  So bittersweet. 

Planning has also been different for me this year, as in, I actually set specific goals for each child and have them written down on paper.  You're probably thinking just finishing up our years curriculum is goal enough, right?  Well, it's not!  There is so much more for us to make sure gets done, on top of just finishing up our curriculum.  You know, specific things for each kid, like making sure that G child fully memorizes his multiplication tables.  I even went so far as to make goals for MYSELF!!  I plan to look at our goals every couple of months and make sure that we are on target for completing them.  It's gonna be a fantastic year for us...I can just feel it!!

Ok, I thought I would go ahead and share our 2012-2013 school year curriculum.

J 9th Grade:
History: Biblioplan Ancient History
Math: Saxon Algebra I
Spanish: Live Mocha & Destinos; both online
English:
     1. Spelling: Spelling Workout & Apples Spelling Drills
     2. Writing: Writing with Skill & Rod & Staff (this boy has a really difficult time in spelling and     writing)
     3. Reading: Literature books listed in Biblioplan and a few other great literature books
     4. Grammar:  Rod & Staff
PE: He'll play basketball for the homeschool team
Science: Apologia's Physical Science
Electives:
     1st Semester: 1. Drawing: A Complete Course & 2. Family Life Skills
     2nd Semester: 1. Health & 2. Home Repair & Maintance

B 7th Grade
History: Sonlight and Biblioplan (combined) Early American History
Math:  CLE Lightunits 7
Spanish: La Clase Divertida I
Art: 1.2.3 Draw books
Typing: Free stuff online like this one here,  here , and here!
English:
     1. Spelling: Spelling Workout, Sequential Spelling, & All About Spelling (another struggling speller here)
     2. Handwriting: A Reason for Handwriting
     3. Writing: Writing with Skill & Jump-In
     4. Reading: Sonlight and Biblioplan reading lists
     5. Grammar: Saxon 6
PE: Workout videos & play basketball for the homeschool team
Science: A Beka 7: Order and Reality
Health: A Beka 7
Piano: A computer program that came with our keyboard
American Sign Language: This site right here (this boy requested to learn this)
Latin: Getting Started with Latin

G 4th Grade
History: Sonlight and Biblioplan (combined) Early American History
Math: CLE Lightunits 4
Spanish: La Clase Divertida I
Art: 1.2.3 Draw books
Typing: Free stuff online like this one here, here , and here!
English:
1. Spelling: Spelling Workout, Sequential Spelling, & All About Spelling
2. Handwriting: A Reason for Handwriting
3. Writing: Writing with Ease
4. Reading: Sonlight and Biblioplan reading lists
5. Grammar: Rod & Staff & I'm gonna throw in some Primary Language Lessons for good measure!
PE: Workout videos & play basketball for the homeschool team
Science: Considering God's Creation
Health: A Beka 4
Piano: A computer program that came with our keyboard
American Sign Language: This site right here
Latin: Getting Started with Latin

That's it!  It's gonna be jam packed and fun year!!  They're gonna learn a lot and it's gonna be good!!!  =P  Let me know what you think.

Meal planning

Ok, so its been a while...AGAIN...since I last wrote anything on here. Sorry! We have gone from a family of 5 to a family of 8 in the last 10 weeks. =) All is good though!

I thought I would share a little bit about budgeting and menu planning in this post. The grocery budget is the one area in the total budget that I feel I can make a big impact on. Also, menu planning just helps my tired brain at the end of the day to know what to have for dinner. I can just look and see what I planned and know that I have all the ingredients to make it already. We have a certain amount of money for groceries each pay check, so I need to make sure that I plan meals accordingly, and use our money wisely. So meal planning is important in our house.

For me it's a fun "challenge" to see what kind of new, budget friendly, healthy (ok, so they may not always be healthy) meals I can come up with. I also like things that are from scratch, as well as quick and easy, too. I menu plan prior to going shopping, so that I can come up with a complete grocery list, as well as, see what I can plan based on what's on sale. I do not always do that part though. I don't use coupons, either. I just don't have the time or resources for using them right now.

It's very important for me to have a detailed grocery list. It saves me from going "Do I need this? Is this almost gone?" etc. I sit down on the Wednesday before pay day (we get paid every other week, so I plan my menus for 2 weeks at a time; starting on Thursday and ending on a Wednesday.) So, on Wednesdays, I get my menu planning sheet; which is just a simple table I created in Word, that has all the days of the week listed across the top, and 3 big boxes under each day of the week, and I get a blank piece of notebook paper for writing my list. I then start filling in the blanks on my menu with meals, and I write down on my list any ingredients that I need. It's a very simple process and it doesn't take me more than an hour.

So now I thought I would share with you my current 2 week menu as well as recipes. Hopefully it will give you some new ideas; as some of these are our favorites!! =) And please feel free to share your family favorites with me too. I LOVE new recipes. I also, am always looking for good and frugal ideas for breakfast and lunch.

Thursday-
B-Cereal
L-Sandwiches
D- Hamburgers, tator tots, and fresh fruit

Friday-
B-Egg & cheese burritos
L-Mac & cheese
D-Honey chicken, brown rice, & green beans
Honey chicken-4T butter, 1/2 cup honey, 1/4 cup mustard, 1t curry powder, 1t garlic salt, In a sauce pan melt the butter, then stir in the rest of the ingredients. Put chicken in a baking dish, & por the sauce over it. Cover with foil & bake at 375 for 30 min. Remove foil, stir chicken, and bake uncovered for 30 more min. Serve over rice. I usually make one and a half of the sauce recipe for my group.

Saturday-
B-Waffles
L-Hot dogs & fruit
D-Lasagna, salad, garlic rolls (so delish, btw)

Sunday-
B-Cereal
L-Cheese roll ups
D-Eat out for bday dinner

Monday-
B-breakfast burritos
L-sandwiches
D- Eat out (we have to take a couple of the kidlets to visit their siblings & mom, and since it's right at dinner time we have to eat out on Mondays)

Tuesday-
B-Cereal
L-Sandwiches
D-Sloppy Joe's, carrot sticks, chips
Sloppy Joes- 2lbs ground beef, 1/2 c finely chopped onion, 1/2 c finely chopped celery, 2 cloves garlic;minced, 1 can condensed tomato soup, 1/4c ketchep, 2T BBQ sauce, 1T mustard, 1T white vinegar, 1/4c brown sugar, 1 1/2 t Worcestershire sauce, 1/2t salt, 1/4t garlic powder, hamburger buns
Brown ground beef, onions, celery, & garlic until meat is browned. Drain, and place back in pan. Stir in the rest of the ingredients, and cook until heated through, stirring frequently to prevent it from burning. Serve on hamburger buns.

Wednesday-
B-Cereal
L-Hot dogs
D-Butter chicken, rosemary potatoes, brocoli
Butter chicken-2 eggs;beaten, 1 cup crushed buttery crackers, 1/2t garlic salt, pepper to taste, 1 1/2 pounds chicken breast cut into chuncks, 1/2c butter cut into peices
Preheat oven to 375. Mix cracker crumbs, garlic salt and pepper. Dip chicken pieces in the eggs, then dredge in the cracker mix to coat. Arrange chicken in a 13 x 9 baking dish. Place pieces of butter around the chicken. Bake for 45min to an hour.
Rosemary Potatoes-2lbs red potatoes cut into 1in chunks. 4T zesty italian dressing, 1t rosemary, & 1/2t pepper. Toss ingredients together to coat potatoes well. Bake in a baking dish for about an hour.

Thurday-
B-Cereal
L-Mac & cheese
D-Hashbrown soup, salad, & rolls
Hashbrown Soup-1 small onion finely chopped, 3 cans chicken broth, large bag of hashbrowns, 1 can cream of celery, 1 can cream of chicken, 1 1/2 cups milk, 1 lb. velveeta
Sautee onion in a little butter. Add broth, & bring to a boil. Add hash browns and bring to a boil again. Add the soups and milk and bring to a boil. Add cheese and heat till it melts. I have served this soup in bread bowls before, it's delicious!!!

Friday-
B-Egg & cheese burritos
L-Sandwiches
D-BBQ smoked sausage, brown rice, & green beans
BBQ Smoked sausage-2lbs smoked saugage, 3/4c BBQ sauce, 1/3c water. Slice and brown sausage. Mix water and BBQ sauce and pour over sausage. Stir to coat, and simmer on low 20-30 min. Stirring frequently. Serve over rice.
Green beans-2 15oz cans green beans, 2 beef bouillon cubes, 1T worcestershire sauce, 1t soy sauce, 1T butter, 1/4t garlc salt. Mix and bring to a boil. Turn heat to low and simmer about 15min.

Saturday
B-pancakes
L-Hot dogs
D-Sticky chicken, rolls, & broccoli
Sticky Chicken- whole chicken, 4t salt, 2t paprika, 1t chili powder, 1t onion powder, 1t thyme, 1t white pepper, 1/2t garlic power, 1/2t black pepper, & 1 whole peeled orange OR onion.
Mix all seasonings, and cover your cleaned and dried chicken with the rub, inside & out. Place your orange OR onion inside of the chicken, place the chicken in a bag, and let it sit in the fridge overnite. Bake in a shallow baking pan the next day at 250 for 5 hours.

Sunday-
B-Cereal
L- Nachos
D-grilled marinated chicken, butter garlic noodles, salad
Chicken marinade- 1/2 cup red wine vinegar, 1 cup soy sauce, 1/2c oil, 2t oregano, 1t basil, 1t garlic salt, 1/2t pepper. Whisk ingredients together, and place in a gallon ziploc bag with chicken and marinate overnight.

Monday-
B-breakfast burritos
L-sandwiches
D-Eat out

Tuesday-
B- Cereal
L-Cheese roll ups
D-Taco soup (1 can petite diced tomato's, 1 can corn, 1 8oz can tomato sauce, 1/2lb ground beef; browned & drained, 1 can black beans, 1 pkg. taco seasoning (I use homemade). Don't drain any of the cans, pour everything into the pot after you have cooked the ground beef, bring to a boil, and simmer for a few min. Serve in bowls, topped with crushed tortilla chips, & sour cream), salad

Wednesday-
B-Cereal
L-Mac & cheese
D-Hamburger helper, green beans, salad