Right Wing Mom

Whew! Been a long, looooong time since I’ve participated in meal plan Monday. I’ve been doing fairly well with cooking every night and feeding the family fairly decent, but I’ve been flying by the seat of my pants and really want to get a bit more organized. So… here goes!

Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and a daily snack are included.

Monday:
(B)Baked Oatmeal
(L)Pasta w/ Sauce, Veggie sticks
(D)Baked Chicken, sauteed Rutabaga, Broccoli
(S) Grapes, Cheddar Cheese and Crackers

Tuesday:
(B)Bacon and Eggs, Toast
(L)Panini’s with Lunchmeat and Cheese, salad, Crackers
(D)Italian Lentils, Salad
(S)Hummus and Carrot Sticks

Wednesday:
(B)Chocolate Waffles and Strawberries
(L)Italian Lentil Leftovers and Salad
(D)Pot Roast, Potatoes, Carrots, Onions and Celery
(S)Tortilla Chips, Salsa and Guacamole

Thursday:
(B)Pumpkin Pie, Toast
(L)Hot Dogs, Veggie Sticks,
(D)Maple Glazed Salmon, Rice and Broccoli
(S)Cheese Tortillas

Friday:
(B) Hashbrowns and Eggs
(L)Panini’s with Lunchmeat and Cheese, Veggie Sticks
(D)Mexican Night
(S)Apples and Peanut Butter

Saturday:
(B)Zucchini Bread and Protein Shakes
(L)Grilled Cheese, Veggie Sticks (Girls and I: Out with Friends)
(D)Homemade Pizza
(S)Hummus and Carrots

Sunday:
(B)Baked French Toast
(L)Panini’s with Lunchmeat and Cheese, Salad
(D)Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Green Beans
(S)Tortilla Chips, Salsa and Guacamole

One addendum, I will be having eggs and grapefruit every morning and big salad with beans or salmon for my daily lunch. As much as I love baked oatmeal and pancakes and stuff like that I just can not have that many carbs in the morning and still function.

Make sure to stop by I’m an Organizing Junkie for more Meal Plan Monday posts and inspiration!

Wow - did I fall off the blogging bandwagon or what?

I am blaming it all on Facebook! Seriously, It’s just so easy to jump on and write out a quick note, that I have become lazy.

But, as much as I love facebook, I miss blogging. Blogging had been a nice way to get my thoughts down and ramble a bit… and as we all know, I can ramble!

So, what has been going on?

A part of me wants to say not much… but saying I have been taking it easy and relaxing is so far from my reality! I guess it would be more appropriate to say a whole bunch of everything.

As I had mentioned in my last post, gymnastics meet season started. Kaitie and Mandy have been doing wonderful and making Marc and I so proud! They have improved so much over last year and have placed high at every meet so far this year! I am still truly amazed at the awesome things they can do. Last month we had 3 meet weekends in a row - which took its toll. Most of the meets so far we havent been getting home till 11pm, way too late for this Momma! But, as quickly as it started, it is going to be winding down soon. We have districts next weekend and then (hopefully) South State and States will follow!

Homeschooling has been going well too. Although I have hit the October slump. We were running hard for about 6 weeks and then anemia induced fatigue hit me hard! Although the anemia is now in check, its been difficult to get back in into our routine. We’ve been doing what needs to be done, but it feels more like the minimum - you know? We are missing out on some of the fun stuff.

The pregnancy is going well too! Not sure if I shared, but we are having another boy Jake is one happy big brother! We are still thinking about names, although at this point we have settled on Luke Daniel. Nothing carved in stone, but everyone seems to like it.

The other big news is that we have decided to forgo a hospital birth this time in favor of homebirth. We have hooked up with a wonderful midwife, Cathy, who I am really loving and she is keeping me accountable with my diet and supplements, something I usually weasel my way around. Not this time

I hope to get some pictures up and some more details about our goings on Just hang in there - I have not abandoned my blog!

I promise!

If you ever get angry at one of your kids cause they just whacked you in the head after being told to pick up their shoes and socks, make sure you don’t storm out of the room. If you do decided to storm out of the room, don’t kick a wall really hard. And if you do decide to kick a wall really hard, make sure you don’t kick the wall in the exact place that a stud is.

I’m just saying.

first off, bare with me, I’m actually typing this post on my iphone.

We made it to the airport and on our flight with no probe. Emma and Jackson both did real well on the flight.

Once we got to Florida, we checked in and tried to take a nap. We all got a bit, with Emma and I getting only an hour and a bit.

I was a tired Mommy! I was looking at about 3 hrs of sleep in a 36 hour period… That really stunk! Thankfully we pulled in about 8 hours last night.

It’s been a little crazy trying to keep the baby entertained in the room. Just not enough room to play freely.

Hopfully I will be able to post a little more I info later. We are still waiting to hear how everyone fared back home, but the phones seem to be out still.

Yep - it’s that time of year again - school’s about to start. In my little world this time of year is filled with stress and anxiety, even more so this year!

Why all the stress and worrying? Well, its about this time every year that I start questioning everything. It usually starts with curriculum choices: Is there something bigger and better? Should I really be using this (or that) curriculum. Is this really working?

Then we move to doubting: Oh, man - are my kids learning anything? Am I make them stupid? Should I even be doing this? Why am I doing this?

Then it moves to stress: ACCCK! How far “behind” are we now!?! What are you going to do for (insert subject here) this year!?! Are they learning anything?

This year it got a little worse. Jake is “officially” starting school. Now, let me say, that this is our, ummm… 6th official year of home schooling(that sounds about right.) Which, let me say is really sad, cause I still feel like I have no clue what I’m doing have the time. Anyway.. I digress. The problem here is that We didn’t really find out what worked for us till 1st grade. Poor Kaitie and Mandy went through at least 3 different curriculum choices during Kindergarten - and yet I still taught them to read! (small miracle there.)

So… here I am with a Kindergartner and looking in a few different directions. On a good note I do know 2 curriculums that I will not be using. Abeka (ewwww! sorry if you are an Abeka family) and KONOS (I really wanted to love KONOS - but a unit study Mom, I am not.)

I think we are probably going to wind up with Sonlight (which is what we used for 1st grade with the girls) Its great, its pretty simple, its all there and it has a schedule! I like that.

Interested in what we will be doing this year?

Here’s what’s planned for for Kaitie and Mandy:

History - Story of the World (Great books!) We will be finishing up Volume 2 and hopefully getting all the way through Volume 3

Language Arts - Rod and Staff 4

Latin - Prima Latina We tried doing Latin last year, but the curriculum was just too darn hard and went too fast - so we are giving this one a whirl!

Writing - Institute for Excellence in Writing I have heard such good things about this program and can’t wait to try it out!

Science - Considering God’s Creation. I really love this book. But, sadly science always seems to get out on the back burner. So - hopefully we will finish this book sometime this year!

Math - Math-U-See

And here’s what we are planning on doing with Jake:

Math - Math-U-See

Reading - continuing with learning to read with a combo of Hooked on Phonics, The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading, and The McGuffey Eclectic Readers.

Language Arts - Language and Thinking for Young Children

Writing - Worksheets for somewhere on the internet Just working on strokes and hand-eye coordination

History - Sonlight ( hopefully)

And lots and lots and lots of reading

I am going to put up a little schedule on the blog somewhere to talk about what we are studying that week and what everyone is reading.

Let me know if you have any questions or any suggestions!

Sorry I am getting this up kind of late today. We didn’t get home from the movies till 1:30! Do you know how much past my bedtime that is? I have been dragging a little all day

For everyone who voted last week - thank you! I’ll get the new poll up this evening. This week is all about the Animal Kingdom Lodge, which is our FAVORITE place to stay. I seriously love this hotel! When I walk into the lobby, especially from a full day at the parks… I take a deep breath and I am instantly calm, cooled and relaxed. Oh yeah, its good :)I had so many great pictures that I wanted to share, I thought I would do a little slideshow. I hope it turns out ok. Hopefully next week I will have my act a little more together! Enjoy!

a little info: All the animal photos were taken from the balcony in our rooms. The pictures with the kids in them are from the fantastic kids program in the hotel that runs throughout the day with a bunch of different activities.

What a week. Marc has finally beaten the ickies! So - we are all back to being healthy! Finally!!! I don’t think we, as a family, have been sick for that long… ever. Seriously, one or more of us were sick for like 3 weeks. That is insane for us!

I finally got my tooth all fixed. Very thankful for that. I go back in about 2 weeks for a cleaning. I know my dental health is so very exciting for you. So - does anyone know (Bronie) do they give nitrous at cleanings? That would be totally swell!

“Swell” - what a word. Reminds me of something funny. The girls have gotten into reading old Nancy Drew books. So, yesterday Kaitie says to me “Jeepers!” Jeepers?

Buster has pink eye. Oops - guess I lied about everyone being healthy. Hmm - wonder if I can give him my eye drops? I don’t think I will chance it. Last thing I need is a half blind dog. Its bad enough I’ve got two dumb-dumbs, one a really fat dumb-dumb.

Jake wants a fish. How much you want to bet I cave in and buy him one. I’m a sucker for pets, and my kids… bad combo!

The homeschool conference is nest weekend. Very excited! We aren’t actually going to the confernce. Marc will be getting back from Canada Friday night, but we are going down for the curriculum fair. That has to be my favorite part of the year. I love shopping for school stuff! I mean, I really love it!!!

I have discovered that we will finish our English, Math and History by September! Woo-hoo! Not too bad considering I had a baby this year! I would have liked to have finished in May, but not too bad.

I have a lot more to ramble about, but I am now holding a hungry baby and as we all know, blogging and hungry babies do not mix

You know, I was going to post some pics and info about this weekend, but because of your little smarmy comment… I am going to make you wait till tomorrow.

Well, that and the fact that the camera is in the car and I am too darn lazy to mess with it right now!

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow….

Too bad sarcasm doesn’t come across all that well in just a few words. But, that is how I feel today. Blah.

I’ve been in a funk the last few days and I am finding it hard to get back into the right frame of mind. I was determined to have a really good day today, but of course it’s raining. I really love the rain, but only if I have zero plans to do anything but sit and read a book or watch some tv. Not very productive.

Hopefully I can force myself to get my butt in gear and stop moping around.

No need to pity - just needed to get it off my chest.

Because I have nothing better to do (LOL!!!) I was surfing for a few minutes and I came across this: What Punctuation Mark Are You?

So, like the silly little girl that I am, I took the quiz and I came up with this:

You Are An Exclamation Point

You are a bundle of… well, something.You’re often a bundle of joy, passion, or drama. You’re loud, brash, and outgoing. If you think it, you say it.Definitely not the quiet type, you really don’t keep a lot to yourself.You’re lively and inspiring. People love to be around your energy.(But they do secretly worry that you’ll spill their secrets without even realizing it.)You excel in: Public speakingYou get along best with: the Dash

What Punctuation Mark Are You?

Hmm, What do you think? Am I really an Exclamation Mark?

BTW - I am just kidding, I know myself well enough to know, that I am totally an Exclamation Mark!