My daughter is one of those that likes to same thing everyday, but I’m the kind of mom that doesn’t like the same thing all the time. So she makes it easy because I don’t have to change it up a lot, but I do like to throw in surprises. Let’s start with sandwiches:
Peanut butter and honey (or jelly if you are ol’ fashioned)
Lunch meat and cheese
Fruit and Nut butters like this one
Tuna or Chicken Salad
BLT (if you are into bacon)
Egg or Ham salad

Or change it up a bit and use pita bread or tortillas. Throw in a quesadilla or a veggie pita. We also do tortilla roll ups and the kids love them.

The simplest Tortilla Roll Up

Spread tortilla with cream cheese. Sprinkle with herbs of choice (basil, dill, or lemon pepper are favorites). And roll. Slice tortilla into rolled up bites and your kids will eat them up fast!

Now we like to add a few things when we have them. You can fix it up with lettuce, tomato, meat, onion, etc. Another fun way is to spice up the cream cheese. Place the cream cheese and some yogurt into a blender or food processor. Add cilantro, black olives, a jalapeno, cumin, salt and pepper. Blend together and spread on tortilla. Yum!

We also include a water bottle in her lunch box so we can just refill it everyday. This is much cheaper and better for her than using juice boxes or sodas.

And you have to have snacks in the lunch box. We have included homemade cookies, chips (buy a big bag of chips and then pack them in baggies each day), pickled okra, pickles, cheese sticks, fruit (use real fruit and not fruit packs, these are cheaper and healthier), carrot sticks (or other chopped raw veggies), raw nuts, and fruit roll ups (there are all natural kinds or make your own).

We just decided that feeding her lunch everyday was a much better alternative to eating cafeteria food everyday. I’m all up for fresh ideas, so start sharing!

Beet Salad

Prepared beets (do this by boiling beets until soft, then drop in cold water and peel)

Dressing:

1/4 c apple cider vinegar
1 t maple syrup
1 t onion powder
1 T prepared horseradish
1/4 t ground cloves
1/2 t salt
1/4 t pepper
5 T olive oil

Chop the beets and place in salad bowl. Mix with feta cheese and appropriate amt of dressing to your taste. Yum!
hint: Let this soak for an hour or overnight, it will soak up the dressing.

Squish Squash

Wash and slice yellow squash. Cook in 2 T water until soft. Then using a slotted spoon, pick up squash and place in serving bowl. Smash the squash with a fork with some butter (amt varies on how much squash you are using). Add salt and pepper to taste and serve. So easy, yet so yummy.

That’s all for today. I would LOVE to hear your recipes for beets, zuchinni, swiss chard, and romaine. Oh and what do you do with all those radishes??

Even the wheat berries used for making homemade flour, has been genetically modified to contain more gluten. No wonder so many can’t tolerate gluten anymore. We weren’t meant to digest so much of it! Diabetes and Hypoglycemia run rampant in our country, even among youth, but almost everything under the grocery store lights contains refined sugars! Margorine is disgusting, I want butter made from real cream! Even our fresh fruits and veggies are sprayed with so many chemicals either to make the bugs not eat them or to make them ripen on the shelves or to prevent them from rotting on their way to the store. Corn and soy products are being genetically modified so that deer even pass thru the fields without taking a bite. And then taking that same corn and soy and turning it into every conceivable “food” product. Go read your labels in the pantry. How many things in your pantry contain either soy or corn? Soy is a great food and all, but contains estrogen. Why are we raising our young ones on such a food? Boys are becoming more feminine (which I know is not only due to soy but the lack of real men today) and girls are starting puberty earlier than ever before.

I’m sorry I got on my soapbox today, but I’m just so frustrated every time I hear of another strict diet or health concerns. Eat real food!! Most of us aren’t going to be able to erase our previous eating mistakes, but we can prevent it from getting worse. We can demand healthier food by shopping wisely (and locally). We CAN make a difference. Need some more convincing? Watch Supersize Me for the effects of this SAD (Standard American Diet) food and then watch Food, Inc. (you can get both from Netflix) for the reality of the food industry.

Stepping down now and hoping I got you thinking about exactly what you are putting in your mouth.

We also got some large beets last week, so I tried my hand at pickling them. I studied some recipes and then created my own.

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Pickled Beets

Boils beets until tender. Then cool and remove ends and skins.
I then sliced them with a crinkle cutter so they would be pretty.

In a saucepan, boil:
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup white vinegar
3/4 t canning salt
1 cup apple juice

Slice some onions and throw those and the beets into saucepan with vinegar solution. Let cook for about 3 minutes.
Place beets in hot jars and pour brine over the beets. This was enough brine to do 3 pint jars.

Water bath for 30-45 minutes depending on your altitude. I did it for 45 because we are at 6000 feet.
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We are getting cherries this week for pie making. Yum! I’m ready for another week of enjoying the harvest!

My first was horrible. Not only was I learning what to do, but she is deaf and the communication was just not there. She did finally figure out what she was supposed to do, but we also later learned that she has neurological problems that delayed messages to her brain. So her biggest problem was getting to the bathroom fast enough once her brain got the message that she needed to go! I say all this to let you know that I understand having children that have other issues surrounding their potty training.

My second born, and only son, was one of those that potty trained himself. I can take very little credit for this one. He decided around his second birthday that going potty on yourself was disgusting. He cried if he ever had an accident. So I have had one of these too.

My third, we did the whole wait-until-your-ready philosophy. Ugh! She is 8 years old now and we are still working on it. I do have to admit that I think she has some autistic-type behaviors that have contributed to this, but I also think that if I had started earlier she would have had a better chance of figuring things out a little earlier. This child needed detailed instructions EVERY time she used the potty. (And she still has her chart in the bathroom.) Using the potty is baby steps for her. First it was going IN the potty. Next it was learning to wipe oneself. After that was mastered we moved on to flushing. Finally we moved onto washing hands. It was a real process!

So when the fourth child was born, I was determined to do a better job! I got to thinking . . . when you want to break a toddler’s habits you do it at age 1. If you want to say bye-bye to the pacifier, you make it disappear around 12 mo. If you want to transition from a bottle to sippy cup, you do it at 12 mo. Why? Well a child’s memory isn’t fully developed yet, so they easily forget these habits and it makes transition easier for everyone. But just waiting six months and you have a hard habit to break. So I figured I could potty train at 12 mo too! Why get them into a habit of going potty in their pants? A habit that would become acceptable and comfortable.

So at 12 mo, I introduced my baby to the potty chair. At home we let her run around naked and when she started dripping, we ran her to the potty to finish her business. If anything landed in the potty, she got a reward (we have used M&M’s, choc chips, goldfish, and stickers). It only took 2 months for her to really get the hang of it. She was still having accidents but she was trying to get to the potty. I have to note in here that we also used cloth diapers on this child, which I think helped. The wetness was truly wet and encouraged a great dislike for being wet. By 18 months she was potty trained. Very few accidents, if any. She could hold it until we got to the potty, even at the store. We do still carry a portable potty in the car for those emergencies when there isn’t a nearby potty. Now she does have moments of regression, but not physically. Just by choice. Just recently we had a lot of company over and she started peeing on the floor. But it wasn’t because she was too busy to notice. She noticed and wanted everyone else to notice too! Ugh! But on these regressions, it never takes much to get her back in the act. I also want to note, that this is not parent training. I do not take her to the bathroom on a schedule. I do not ask her if she needs to go all day long. She tells me when she needs to go. And now at age 2, she can tell me what she needs to do in the potty.

So many people ask me how I got my toddler so well potty trained, so I thought I would share my stories. I hope I gave you some ideas. If your child is already past that 12 month stage – don’t fret! Consistency is key and try to keep frustration at a minimum. And let them feel wet! Pull-ups create a drier environment and make it comfortable for the child to go potty on themselves. We use pull-ups only when in town to reduce embarrassment issues, but we only go to town twice a week. I tried using the cloth diapers in town, but found it really difficult to put them on and off quickly in public restrooms.

Since we are currently harvesting our cold weather crops, I had a lot of spinach to work with! The day I brought it home, while it was still crisp, I made a Spinach Strawberry Salad with it.

Spinach Strawberry Salad

Chop spinach leaves into bite-size pieces. Place in big bowl.
Slice Strawberries and place on greens.
Drain one can of mandarin oranges and place on greens.
Sprinkle with pecans.

Sprinkle salad with salt and pepper to taste.
Then pour a little olive oil and vinegar over the salad.
And eat up! It’s so simple, yet so yummy! You can even add some grilled chicken if you have some.

The rest of the spinach I cooked. I ended up with 10 cups cooked spinach! That’s a lot of spinach. So I made Spinach Balls and Spinach Lasagna. I froze the remainder in 2 cup portions.

Spinach Balls

In a large mixing bowl, mis together:
2 cups cooked spinach
3 cups bread crumbs
1/2 cup finely chopped onions
6 eggs
3/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1-2 cloves garlic
1/4 t black pepper
2 drops pepper sauce
1/4 t nutmeg
2 t soy sauce (I use Braggs Amino Acids)

Cover and place in refrigerator for at least 1 hour. Then shape into 1-inch balls. I chose to freeze my balls by placing them on cooking sheets not touching. Once frozen I placed them all into a zip-loc freezer bag. Or you can proceed to bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Spinach Lasagna

In bowl mix:
1 pound Ricotta cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan
2 1/2 cups cooked spinach
3 eggs

Cook Lasagna noodles according to package.

Spread spaghetti sauce on bottom of casserole dish. Then layer noodles, spinach mixture, Mozzarella cheese, and sauce until all ingredients are gone. Be sure to cover the top of noodles with sauce.

I chose to freeze mine at this point, but you can follow thru and bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes.

I also had some rhubarb to experiment with. I’ve never had rhubarb before, so this was fun.

First I made a Strawberry Rhubarb Crunch and the kids LOVED it! It was yummy. But I do suggest eating it all up while its warm.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix these ingredients together in a casserole dish:
4 cups chopped rhubarb
1 pint sliced strawberries
1 T honey

In a bowl mix together:
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 t cinnamon

Pour oat mixture over fruit. Bake for 40 minutes. Your whole house will smell like strawberries!

This week I’m gonna try Strawberry Rhubarb muffins. I’ll let you know how they turn out.

But it does contain my homeschool teacher brain! I am going to share with you my simple set-up in hopes it will help you simplify your homeschool year.

I start with a pencil pouch. Right now I only have a few markers and a pencil in it, but it is also a great place to store flash cards, index cards, paper clips, white-out, ruler, or any other little gadget you may need at the tips of your fingers.

I use dividers to . . . well . . . divide my stuff. I have a section for my master schedule, lesson plans, records (test results, grades, etc), master copies, forms (homeschool groups, cover schools, etc), and chores. You could make these to fit your needs, but this is what I needed. I have room to add more if the need arises.

I start my book (and the beginning of each year) with my goal sheet. It includes the name of our school, our motto or Bible verse, colors, song, purpose, philosophy and goals. I don’t fill them all out, but it is nice to have at the front of my book so that I can stay focused.

For lesson plans I made my own form to help me plan one month at a time. It gives me a great overview of what is ahead and I just mark things off as they get done. This has worked great with me since I use unit studies. It is my lesson plans and records all rolled into one. You may use my form if you like.

For the chores section I keep a list of chores and who is responsible for them. I also keep a baseball holder pages to slide in the chore cards. This keeps me a little more organized because they are all in one place.

Check out Keeper of the Home for this giveaway. She wrote an excellent article about the Excalibur so I really don’t have much more to say about it . . . other than its awesome!

Turning unused items into something useful is fun and rewarding. We do this all the time, but never really considered it art. For example, my husband took unused wooden pallets and made beautiful barn doors for our barn. We take empty milk jugs and use them for water jugs. We use old clay pots for pencil holders. And I love cutting up old denim and using it for new creations such as gift bags, sand bags, and purses. But there is so much more you can do with old things. The old adage, “One’s junk is another’s treasure,” takes on a whole new meaning for me!

I picked up Big Green Book of Recycled Crafts ( Leisure Arts #4802) at the library today. What an inspirational book! So many fun ideas and most of them pretty simple. Altered Art for the first time is another book I have that is fascinating! This one requires a bit more effort, but for those of us that like a challenge and giving unique gifts, this one is for you!

But don’t feel like you have to limit yourself to a book. See what ideas you can come up with. I love to use books as my jumping board. It fills me with ideas and then I take what I have on hand and create my own art. My girls like to make homemade paper from construction paper scraps. And if you think about it, using leftovers creatively is recycled art too! I am anxious to hear your ideas too!

These two shots are two different barn doors my hubby has built. I just love them!

Another favorite part of spring is homeschool book shopping. As one school year ends and another begins, all the homeschoolers come out from their busy schedules and start the hunt for next years curriculum. I love this hunt! We hit used book sales, state book fairs, catalogs, teacher supply stores and online retailers. We spend time planning out next year and then try to fit all we want to do in our schedule and our budget. This is my favorite time of year!

And with warmer weather brings out the desire to clean up outside. So we have setup the BBQ pit and porch swing and take advantage of it whenever we can. I love picnic tables, potato salad, hamburgers, and watermelon. They all scream of summer!

Although I don’t get to garden this year, I am looking forward to all the farmer’s markets and fresh produce available! There is nothing better than a vine-ripened tomato. And farmer’s markets have more to offer than just produce. You can find fresh breads, fresh cut flowers, homemade items, jams and jellies, and so much more. I even found homemade tamales one time.

Summer also has to offer many fun events. There are summer reading programs, fairs and carnivals, summer camps, field trips, and family reunions. Take advantage of this wonderful time of year. I hope I have inspired you to get moving and enjoy the weather and the many opportunities around you!