Confessions of a SAHM January 10, 2012

Every once in a while (oh, who am I kidding…EVERY DAY), I worry that I have screwed up atleast one of my kids.  Take this, for example: 

On Friday, my almost-six-year-old came home from kindergarten, giddy with excitement.  For those of you who know him in real life, you can picture this, and it’s quite a scene to behold.  For those of you who don’t know him, people often tell me that he is like a cartoon character.  He’s very animated and dramatic in both his facial expressions and his body movements.  So when he is giddy, his whole body oozes with energy.  Anyhow, he runs up to me and says, “Mom!  Guess what Jack told me?!?  He had this in his lunch and it sounds so good!”

As you know, my kids are good eaters.  We try hard to expose them to different foods.  Jack’s parents are pretty healthy, well rounded eaters, so I am quite intriged by what might be so fascinating.

“It’s a sandwich!  And it’s on white bread and it has jam…or jelly, I can’t remember which is which.  And that white stuff that is on our counter on the white plate with a cover!”

“Um, you mean butter?”

“Yeah!  That’s it!”

Oh lordy.  The most exciting part of my kid’s day is that he learned about bread and butter and jelly sandwiches?  And how has he gotten to days shy of his sxith birthday and not heard of this?  What have I done to this poor kid?  Have I really denied him this comfort food? <<Insert…poor third child!>>

In the spirit of rectifying this appalling situation, here is Monday’s lunch:

The Contents – carrots, blueberries, Asian Pear slices, a cooky and of course, a jelly and butter sandwich on white bread.

The Details – I bet you are all rolling your eyes by now.  Of course you all know about jelly and butter sandwiches on white bread.

For those of you wondering about Asian Pears.  If you haven’t had one, go get one.  Or two or three.  Maybe more.  They’re that good.  Some say they are a cross between an apple and pear.  They’re crunchy and juicy at the same time.  They’re sweet but not overly so.  They are covered in a tough yellowish skin that is best removed.  I usually slice them, but I suppose you could eat them whole, like an apple.  I’ll warn you, they are expensive.  They are more readily available right now as some Asian countries celebrate their new year the same calendar as the US, and they are often given to visitors.

The Verdict - Here’s where the story gets a little sad.  My little guy got sick yesterday and didn’t get to enjoy his special lunch   My older two said it was the best lunch ever.  I did make my little one a small butter and jelly sandwich today and he gobbled it right up (and kept it down, even better yet). 

Sheesh.  What have I done.  There really is nothing better than white bread and butter…sometimes with a little jam!

Friday’s Hot Lunch January 8, 2012

I take care of a little baby a few days a week.  Usually he arrives around 6:30, but sleeps until about 8:00 so I’m actually really on top of things since I’m FORCED to be up so early.  But on Friday, he decided to come awake so my morning was a little more chaotic that usual.  Making a “hot lunch” was actually easier so here is what the kids got:

The Contents -  wheat thins, carrots, green beans, apple slices, asian pear slices, and fruit snacks.  The thermos contained mini ravioli. 

The Details – Obviously I did not make the ravioli from scratch…these were the little freeze dried (?) version from Trader Joes.  I personally think they’re quite disgusting, but my kids really like them and it’s one of those packages that are handy to have in the pantry for days like today.

 

Look, Another Day of 2011 Wrapping Up! January 5, 2012

See what happens when I decide to clean up?  Today, when cleaning old pictures off my phone, I realized I had taken pictures of a few lunches in December.  Here you go:

 This lunch was for College Day at school (I think, it’s been a month).  We are huge UW Husky Fans in this house, so it is no surprise that my kids opted to support the Purple and Gold that day.  Lunch consisted of some sort of sandwich (two quarters, stacked), purple and gold goldfish and a fruit salad made of purple grapes, pineapple and pear chunks.

Here is another lunch.  A hunk of crusty bread, salami and cheese, apples and pears.  My favorite part of this lunch is represented by the dessert:  an oreo truffle.  My friend normally makes these with her husband, but we decided it’d be fun to make them together on our “date” day*.  Spending the afternoon surrounded by chocolate, candy and one of my best friends.  It was definitely one of my favorite days of December.

*Yes, my friend and I have a date day.  We set aside a minimum of one Monday afternoon a month to go do something together.  It’s too easy to let the month get away without seeing each other, and I love it!  Sometimes we do lunch, sometimes we run errands together, we have grand plans to go to the movies in the middle of the day!  In December we made truffles

 

Here’s one more December lunch.  Meatballs skewered on holiday picks, marinara sauce, apples, oranges and a sugar cookie.  I haven’t done cookie exchanges in a long time, but this year, I got to go to three.  So fun and I loved having the huge variety of yumminess.

And finally, just to keep on top of things, here is TODAY’s lunch.  More clean up:

Chicken nuggets, wheat thins, apples, carrots, celery and green beans.  A cake pop for dessert.  My friend made the cake pops, I haven’t been able to master these.  Mine turned out a royal mess, but that’s okay, because I have good friends who share. 

What I did want to say about this lunch though, is that I have a lot of people comment that my kids eat a good variety of fruits and vegetables.  This lunch is actually my daughter’s…the boys have a slightly different version that only included one celery stick and the equivalent of 2 green beans.  I have found these lunch boxes a good way to offer less desired foods (in this case, the celery and I wasn’t sure about the green beans).  I can offer a very small portion and since they are often hungry by lunch, they’ll just eat it because there are no other choices.  And, as you can see in this picture, I will sometimes “hide” the favored foods (ie, the carrots) under the greens just to make them dig a bit in hopes that if they touch it, they’ll eat it. 

Both boys ate all the greens.  Only one complained about the celery.  Appearently, I need to send green beans again.

And yes, I know I am lucky that they will eat versus starve.  I know there are plenty of kids out there who would rather starve   I count my non-picky eaters among my greatest blessings!

More Clean Up and Wrap Ups January 4, 2012

Here is another lunch that was made from leftovers:

The Contents:  Deli chicken slices and cream cheese wrapped in a tortilla, orange and apple slices, cheese booty, something from the hodge podge of leftover Christmas cookies.

The Details:  In my almost-6 year old’s case, his cookie included the belly and one leg of his massive gingerbread cookie.  He calls these his “man cookies.”

And as part of my 2011 wrap up, I wanted to show you a project that my husband and daughter worked on over the holiday break.  It’s another one of those projects that I find online and sign him up for, but he didn’t mind this one too much.  My daughter likes to work with him in the “shop” and it wasn’t so hard that they didn’t kill each other.  He built the table for her and then printed the directions and wrapped them up for Christmas.  Together, they built the benches and painted it in the color of her choice.

Here are the directions if you’d like to build your own.  He built it to spec, except for lengthening the benches a bit…I guess so her dolls could have a bit more space.  It was a very inexpensive project…about $5 for the wood, $6 for specific nail gun nails plus paint. (of which he has most of the package left).  He had wood glue on hand.

And speaking of wrapping, here is the wrapping that intrigued my kids to no end:

I made each of them a pillowcase using this pattern.  Looks complicated with the three different fabrics, but it was really so easy.  As in each pillowcase probably took less than 30 minutes.  I think I’ll be making a few more as a fun gift wrap for upcoming birthdays.  They were great for wrapping the odd shaped present, like the table.  Or the really heavy present, like the ream of paper and paper airplane folding book for my almost-6 six year old.  And the best one was the one in the middle that was stuffed with 24 unwrapped socks (courtesy of our puppy, who got into the original nicely wrapped package) for my eight year old who feels the need to rip holes in atleast two socks a week. 

In addition towatching my kids get giddy with anticipation, this made me smile too:

Loved seeing my almost-6 year old stuff almost his entire body into his pillow case!  Oh, and notice his jammie pants.  Wish I had a better picture to show you, but those were a result of my Christmas-moment-of-insanity when I decided that my kids needed matching jammie pants.  Their daddy loves the Rudolph movie, so when I found fleece with all of the characters from the movie, I just had to add that to my list of things to do too

RACK Wrap Up and Leftovers January 3, 2012

Well, 2011 is over…which means RACK’ing is also over.  What an experience that turned out to be.  Like most experiences, there were good things, bad things, things learned, things that were dismal failures.

Here’s what I learned:

• When we do this again, I need to rename it.  Perhaps I just adopted the wrong title, because in retrospect, our intentions never matched the more generally accepted concept.  There was hardly anything RANDOM about our acts.  In fact, most of the recipients we chose were intended, and that was by design.  Here’s why…Approaching strangers (ie, random people) is really hard for my kids.  I mean really hard.  And it’s not necessarily one that I wanted to teach right now.  Second, while this may be controversial, I wanted my kids to receive positive feedback.  And by that, I simply mean that I didn’t want anyone snarling at them and turning down their acts, and sad as it is, I know that this happened to a few kids out there.  And finally, a lot of my friends struggled this past season.  I wanted my kids to be part adding to the holiday spirit and to know how good it feels to help a friend.  So next year, we’ll rename this – it won’t be Random Acts of Christmas Kindness.  I don’t know what it’ll be, but it won’t include the word RANDOM.
• I also learned that everyone  needs to be on board for this to work.
• I learned that you have to be flexible.  Or have a list of smaller acts for those really busy days when no one gets home until 5:00.
• I learned that when reminded, my kids have good hearts.  Perhaps what I really learned, is that as their mom, it’s my job to constantly remind them to be good to their friends.  To look for an act of kindness everyday, until it becomes part of their daily habits.

Not surprisingly, RACKing didn’t go perfectly.  Nothing ever does with kids   We didn’t get to hand out all of our homeless kits because I didn’t realize how aggressive the city is about hiding homelessness during the holiday season.  How sad is that?  So we have one more in our car that we just keep there for the next time we see someone who needs it.  My kids loved taking cards down to the local firestation.  They got a tour of the station and they loved that they could see their card hanging on the bulletin board from the front window.  They really enjoyed packing meals for the needy through our church, and they were surprised at how close to home some of those bags stayed when we delivered them later that afternoon.  They had fun leaving candy canes on cars and buying bags of popcorn for their friends at school.  I loved hearing how my littlest one just kept finding little things to do to make someone smile.

All in all a good experience, even though I was about ready to throw in the towel about half way through.

It’s been awhile, but here is a lunch.  I don’t know that I took any pictures of lunches in December.  Mostly because my kids haven’t getting much variety and I wasn’t in the mood to pack any creative or fun holiday lunches.   Today’s lunch was all about cleaning up the random leftovers:

 The Contents - Pita wedges, apple bits, carrot and celery sticks, summer sausage and spritz cookies.  Not shown, a small container of hummus.

Finally, a very heartfelt word of thanks to all of you who stop by to read my blog.  Whether you are a subscriber or someone who just stops by on occassion (or even once), I do very much appreciate your readership!  I hope your 2012 is off to a good start!

 

 

RACK’ing Day 8…Is it Working? December 8, 2011

I’ll be the first to admit, part of the goal of participating in RACK’ing is that I want being kind to become a way of life for my kids.

Our “planned” activity was to assemble bags to deliver to the homeless, and we did do that, but what is really share-worth today are my kids’ reports of things that they did on their own, without my prompting:

*My kindergartener helped a classmate open his carton of milk. I love that he was so excited to come home and tell me all about it!

*He also made a card for a schoolmate battling leukemia.

*My daughter helped a teammate on her jump rope team who is working hard to accomplish several new tricks. This is a big deal for my daughter because she has a hard time in a “teaching role.” It was made more special because we got an email from the girl’s mom thanking my daughter!

*My daughter also set the table without being asked. Hey, it’s the small things that count!

*My middle son asked if we could decorate the entrance of our division as an RACK…hoping we can get to this before someone beats us to it!

A reader asked what we were going to put into our homeless kits, and it took me a bit to figure this one out. Here’s what we ended up compiling:

*Hygiene kits, including a toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, shampoo/conditioner, hand sanitizer, Kleenex, a razor, bars of soap – all packed into a ziplock bag

*Food, including a couple apples, tuna, green beans, granola bars, apple sauce, peanut butter, crackers, Christmas candy, ramen noodles, a couple packets of cocoa

*Survival supplies, including a large plastic bag and a stocking cap

*We also have a special bag of dog food/treats if we run into someone that has a dog

Most everything from the hygiene kits came from my linen closet. Most of these are sample sized items or overstock (like the toothbrushes and floss that we seem to get in bulk from the dentist…or maybe we just don’t have good dental hygiene J). I did buy food, but I bought things that could be divided. And the dog stuff we just had from a dog “party” that we went to and got a ton of samples that we are sharing. Trying to figure out how we could pack a warm meal too, but I’m not sure if our schedule will allow it…

RACK’ing Days 5, 6, and 7 December 7, 2011

Day 5 has been my personal favorite day of RACK’ing so far. It was really my day to RACK based on the chosen act, but it was the kids’ idea, and on a less busy day, they could have been much more involved. Our family opted to deliver a meal to a family who could use a helping hand…and by this, they meant they wanted to help someone who is just plain ‘ol busy! We chose a family together: this family is of course, insanely busy. Three active kids, two working parents. Mom teaches piano, which means the busiest part of her day is after school and through dinner time. They are also good friends of ours and so it made them an easy choice. It happened that another friend and I were baking that morning, so dessert was a slam dunk. And making a dinner for them? Wow, it actually made MY life easier because I just doubled a recipe that meant I had dinner ready to go too, on our busiest night of the week! Gotta love that!

Day 6 ended up being, well, random. The kids wrapped gifts for the girl we adopted through our school. They made cards for the same girl and a school-mate battling cancer. My daughter reports that she cleared away her friends’ lunch garbage too J

Which brings us to Day 7. We were supposed to clear drains but ended up with playdates that ended up to be dinner-dates. Sometimes it’s just good to hang out and have a good laugh (or in this case, wrestle match) with your buddies!

What have you been up to?

RACKing Days 2, 3 and 4 December 4, 2011

I am happy to report that RACK’ing is working! My little guy was thrilled to hear that the recipient of his poinsettia had RACK’ed someone else after being touched by his actions. Yay!

On Day 2, my kids each chose a friend and did something kind for them. My kindergartener reported that he told their substitute that he liked her necklace (unfortunately, he thinks that she didn’t hear him). My second grader said he took his pod’s (deskmates’) chairs down in the morning before they got to the classroom. And my fourth grader struggled with this one, but she reported that she volunteered to get up in front of the class to work out a division problem when no one else wanted to. This one made me laugh a little, but since getting up in front of a crowd and taking risks is really hard for her, I’ll give it to her.

On Day 3, we visited a local community light show. We got there early, so my kids walked the parking lot picking up large sticks and garbage. The volunteers who were patrolling the parking lot were so nice to thank them for helping out! Later in the night, they held doors for families with strollers.

On Day 4, they headed to the mall to “do an errand” with their dad, but I hear they raided their piggy banks before they left to make a donation to the Salvation Army.

 

RACK’ing: Day 1 December 1, 2011

Today’s act was to bring poinsettias to three different staff members at school. I figured this was a cheery way to kick off the Christmas season! I also wanted to do this in an environment where my kids would be well-received as I wanted Day 1 to be completely successful.

I asked my kids to each think of someone at school who may not be the recipient of a lot of thanks. Not that I don’t think that their teachers don’t deserve an infinite amount of gratitude, but I wanted them to remember that there are so many other people at school who make their days memorable and happy. My kids picked their PE teacher, the janitor, and one of the paraeducators. Unfortunately, I was not with my kids when they handed over their flowers (it was one of those kinds of mornings) but two of my kids reported that the flowers were received with big thank yous and surprised smiles. The third pot of flowers was left on a desk, and hopefully well-received by the very busy janitor J

 

What I am loving best about this project is that it is turning out to be HUGE! Lots of families have done it in the past and continue to carry on the tradition. But I know that there are many, many more families who have been inspired to join us this month, and that makes my heart happy. I know that some of our neighbor friends cleaned up in our division this afternoon. And another set of school friends picked up two HUGE and BURSTING bags of garbage on their walk home from school. Another set of friends delivered mittens to a local elementary school. Those are just the ones I know of. I know that several other families had activities planned too.

I also love that this is making my kids be more aware of each other: my daughter has been much more pleasant all of us and has readily agreed to help out with tasks around the house when asked. My youngest carried in his sister’s HUGE jump rope bag from the car today without being asked. Yesterday, he had his hands full of his backpack and coat, my coat and his sister’s notebook, again without being asked.

Anxious to see what Day 2 brings us…

Countdown to Random Acts of (Christmas) Kindness November 30, 2011

My kids are ready to go. I love it. So ready that we ended up starting today. Which is maybe a good thing since this weekend is forecasted to be a bit busier than I originally planned.

Today was mostly about preparing. We made tags that we’ll use throughout the month. I’m not a fancy girl so this is what our tags say:

You’ve been RACK’d! This Christmas season, our family is counting down the days by performing 24 Random Acts of Christmas Kindness. Kindness is contagious ~ pass it on!

We printed these out on our computer and mounted them onto red or green cardstock.

We also did a bit of shopping for the little girl that we adopted through my kids’ school. It breaks my heart when these kids NEED shoes, socks, hats and mittens. We also found her a baby doll and a soccer ball for her older brother.

And we did a bit of RACK’ing. Is that a verb? My little guy has always had a big heart and he’s also always had his own version of English. Today is a good example of this. He woke up and said, “Mama, today I want to bring fruit to the houseless!” So that we did. We packed up a bag of fruit (and crackers and peanut butter) and planned to distribute fruit when we were in the city visiting Santa this afternoon. When we got into the city, he found a woman sitting on a stool surrounded by bags – in a posh mall. He asked if he could approach her but my middle son was quite insistent that she was not homeless. We talked about how it is not up to us to determine if someone needs an extra bit of food…and that if she didn’t really need it, she’d hopefully pay it forward or say “no thanks.” After we had that settled, my almost-6-year-old pulled out some fruit and walked up to her and asked if she would like it. You should have seen the smile on this woman’s face. “Are you sure you don’t want it?” she asked. “No, you can have it,” he replied.

Our second stop was also a woman, this one with a dog at her side. She was offered the rest of the bag and again, my little guy was rewarded with a big smile and a huge thank you. As I suspected she might do, the woman immediately showed her dog the contents of the bag. “Look, Precious! Fruit!” she said to her. If her dog likes apples as much as our, both of them will have slightly fuller bellies tonight.