Christmas Card

GREAT IDEA!!

When doing your Christmas cards this year, take one card and send it to this address. If we pass this on and everyone sends one card, think of how many cards these wonderful special people who have sacrificed so much would get.

When you are making out your Christmas card list this year, please include the following:

A Recovering American Soldier

c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center

6900 Georgia Avenue

NW Washington, DC 20307-5001

Meal Planning

After talking with Heather today at gym classs and checking out Amy's blog about menu planning, I thought I'd share what I've been up to in this area.

I made a menu plan for a month including breakfast, lunch and snacks. I'm having a contest with myself to see how low I can get our grocery bill without sacrificing nutrition and still making meals my family will eat (they're not big on soup or beans).
It has general categories that has flexibility. I don't have to go by which day, but I try and spread these categories out over a week so we don't eat up all our favorites first.

M - mexican (I bought mexican ingredients, but depending on what we have left on-hand and what we feel like it could be Tacos, Burritos, Nachos, Taco Salad, Chicken soft tacos, etc.)
T - SOS (i.e. creamed dried beef on toast or variations on that theme)
W - hamburger casserole (shepherd's pie, home-made hamburger helper...)
R - chicken dish (chicken & noodles crock pot, chicken & rice)
F - tuna meal (tuna & noodles, tuna & broccoli mac & cheese, tuna sandwiches)
S - meatball meal (meatloaf & mashed potatoes, meatball sandwiches...)
S - snacky dinner (baked potatoes w/ all the toppings, left-overs, lunch food, etc.)

THEN, and this is the exciting part, I took my receipt from Aldi's and averaged how much it was going to cost me to make each meal. I didn't get weird about it (figuring in 1/4 tsp salt), but eyeballed it. My average cost for dinners was $3.85 for 6 people. This doesn't include side dishes (they averaged .95 per meal) or beverages (they averaged .65 per meal) This is how it looked :

Baked Pot. $2.25
6 potatoes .20
Broccoli $1.00
Cheese .30
Sour Cream .50
Butter .25

Chkn Casserole $4.80
1# Chkn $2
2 cans Cream of Mushroom Soup .80
Pasta $1.00 OR Rice .45
Frozen Vegetables $1.00

Shep. Pie $4.30
1# Hamburger $2
2 cans Cream of Mushroom Soup .80
6 potatoes .20
2 cans Vegetables $1.00
Cheese .30

SOS $3.45
12 eggs 1.30
1/2 loaf of bread .25
2 ½ C Milk .85
5 pc sliced Ham .80
Butter .28

Meatloaf $5.30
2# Ham $4
2 eggs .30
1 Tom. Paste .40
Bread .10
Onion .25
Seasoning .25

Tuna & Noodles $2.95
2 cans Tuna @ .57ea
Pasta $1
2 cans Cream of Mushroom Soup .80

Here are some pretty templates for your meal planning session.

Recipes - SOS

I double this recipe for my family of 6 -

S.O.S. (Cream Dried Beef on Toast) 15 minutes
5 T Butter
5 T Flour
2 C Milk

5 or more Hard Boiled Eggs

1 pkg Dried Beef (or ham slices or cooked ground sausage or...)
6-8 pieces of bread (or torn up bagels or biscuits or...)
Salt & Pepper

Melt butter, add flour to saucepan. Cook on low heat 30-60 seconds. Add 1 1/2 - 2 cups of milk a little at a time whisking so there's no lumps (once they're in, they're pretty hard to get out). NO LUMPS. Stir constantly cooling on medium high until thick (anywhere between 7 and 15 minutes), you don't want it gloppety thick.. Cut up dried beef and eggs & mix in. Salt & Pepper to taste. Serve on toast. ~~ Use more butter & flour to make it rich.

Recipes

Shepherd’s Pie 45 minutes @ 350


1 lb. Hamburger, cooked
1-2 can Green Beans
1-2 can Cream of Mushroom Soup
6 C Mashed Potatoes
2 C Shredded Cheddar, or Mozzarella Cheese


Layer, in order, in a casserole dish. Bake 30 minutes at 350 until bubbly. Sprinkle cheese to cover. Bake additional 15 minutes until cheese is melted.
This is one of my all-time favorite dishes.

Earth Science

Earth Science has been a huge struggle for us for the 1st - 5th grade crowd. I just couldn't find curriculum that was complete enough, or interesting enough, or not too challenging, or explained things well enough....those things all seemed to compete in every book I opened. As a last ditch effort, I borrowed Geology Rocks!: 50 Hands-On Activities to Explore the Earth by Cindy Blobaum from the library.
This was a FANTASTIC find!! It had everything I needed. I will definately buy this book for the next time through Earth Science. It covers minerals, gems, rocks, crystalization, Mohs' scale, streak test, meteorites, Earth's make up, plate tectonics, volcanos, earthquates, water table, weatherization, glaciers, fossils, caves...there's a lot you could pull out of this book -- plus a few historical scientists tossed in for good measure.

In addition, I borrowed Rainbow Resource's Classroom Collection of Rocks and Minerals (Item #: 002263 Retail: $41.25 Rainbow Price: $33.75) from a friend *Thanks, Tina!* This turned out to be just what we needed. The elementary kids REALLY enjoyed their work and they learned ALOT in a REALLY short time!

In addition to the above work, I also had some weather books that I'd picked up used (weather books were super easy to come by and we found some great websites, too!)

For my middle school girl, we used Prentice Hall's Dynamic Earth, Exploring Earth's Weather, & Exploring Planet Earth. I had a lot of reservations about it and it was a compromise -- it came as close as I could find to what I wanted, but I didn't really find ANYTHING that I thought would be great for that age. It wasn't as bad as I had feared, but not as interesting as I'd hoped. She can handle material that's not as interesting, so it worked out...but I can't exactly recommend it. Just wanted to let you know about our experiences!!

Fight FOCA - go sign the petition and keep the Freedom of Choice Act from passing in congress. That is the piece of legislation that would throw away all the protections against abortion people have worked for in the last 35 years. It's the one Obama said he'd sign his first days in office. It's the one I blogged about here.

I don't know if signing a petition would make a difference, but every little bit helps and it took me 30 seconds.

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY, BABY!!

He took one step the day of his birthday party, but noone saw it but me.

We went to his Godparent's house and they threw a Birthday Brunch for our beautiful boy!

He can say more, please, cookie & kiss in sign language (well, his version of it). With words, he can say nurse, more, bye, bath, Daddy, Sissy, Mama, Jesus and kiss and he says one of his sister's names.

He can blow a kiss and he said "Mama kiss Jesus" (because we have him kiss Jesus each time we walk by the crucifix).

When anyone sings or he hears music he dances by bouncing up and down and swaying his head back and forth.

Basically, he's the most adorable baby anyone could ever have -- and we're so in love with our wonderful gift from God!