Crazy day today…  isn’t it always though?!?!  We are always on the go making it harder and harder to get in a decent healthy lunch.  I have been trying really hard to eat more raw veggies lately, mostly because they are just so good for you.  I read all the new year resolution on veggies (yeah I know, I know!  You are all sick of hearing about new year resolutions), but the fact that eating large quantities may reduce your risk of cancer is awesome and gave me a raw veggie kick.  The problem is that I don’t really like raw veggies and either do my kids!

We are learning though!  I have found that it is all in the presentation.  For example, try buying carrot chips instead of regular carrots.  I don’t know what it is, but something about calling it a chip and the thinner crinkle cut is more enticing than a thick carrot stick.  My kids will gobble it up!  Throw in some interesting and yummy Hummus and we will all down and tray of raw veggies. 

So I am a little obsessed with Hummus lately since being on my veggie kick.  It is such an easy and healthy lunch.  I have been keeping a different variation of it along with fresh cut veggies in the fridge for the last several weeks.  If is is ready and you just have to pull it out… you will eat it!  It is easy to grab and when you just want a quick snack for you or the kids it is a great healthy way to go.

So here is the latest Hummus variation I have made lately… So good!

AVOCADO HUMMUS
From www.edibleperspective.com

• 1 can garbanzo beans
• 1/4 – 1/3 cup of cooking liquid if you use dry beans or chicken stalk (I actually just used water here)
• 2 medium cloves of garlic
• 1/4 cup of tahini
• 1/2 tsp salt
• fresh ground pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 avocado
• 2-3 cups fresh spinach
• I like to garnish with Tomatoes and cilantro

Add the ingredients to a food processor or blender and mix well.  I needed to add more liquid to get the right consistency.  Serve with a variety of raw vegetables (I recommend carrot chips for kiddos).  I am sure this would be great with a yummy pita as well.  Enjoy… I sure did!

This works great!!!  Here is what you need!

Ingredients:

1 cup borax
1 cup baking soda
1/4 cup salt
2 lemonade kool-aid packets (I used store brand, almost half the price as kool-aid brand)
30 drops of lemon juice

Directions:

Mix together in a sealed container and wahlaaaaaaa.

I had to run to Wal-Mart to return something for my daughter, so I decided to pick up the ingredients there.  They had all the ingredients and it cost about $8.00 and I can probably make it 10 times for that total.  I would say it cuts your price to about 1/10th of  the average dishwasher soap.  It is SO easy!  It made me feel great and my dishes turned out just as clean or even cleaner than if I used Cascade or Finish.

Couple of side notes:
Borax is found with the laundry detergent.
I also found the big baking soda in the laundry detergent aisle.
Must use lemonade kook-aid mix, other flavors could stain your dishes.
Use about a tablespoon in each compartment.

Have fun and get happy when you’re saving so much money!!!!!!

Yep, my turn to teach preschool again.  We had a lot of fun learning H!  There are a lot of things you can do with the letter H since Hand print starts with H.  However, I feel like I have done the hand print projects to death lately so I went another direction.

We talked about our Hearts and how to take care of our bodies.  The kids seemed to enjoy it.  We did a couple different projects this week.

Decorating the letter H with hearts

This was really simple, but is great for fine motor development.  The hearts are small so they had to work to pick them up and glue them on.  I used a heart hole puncher sort of like this one to make the hearts.  I got mine at Michaels for a under $5 though.  I scrap book a lot and slowly like to build up my stash of supplies.

The kids are in the process of making their own alphabet book.  Each week we learn a new letter and do a couple crafts to represent that letter.  They all have their own binders full of plastic sleeve protectors to store their projects in alphabetical order.  When we finish all our letters they will have their own little book to review their letters.

Preschool Letter H Activity – Paint A Heart

Here is the other project we did for the alphabet book for letter H.  It is pretty self explanatory.  They kids loved it… really anything involving paint is a big hit with the kids.

It’s only taken me two scares in the past week for me to buckle down and see exactly what I should do if a child is choking.  My daughter is so tiny, we often have to force her to eat.  This week we told her she couldn’t put her nightgown on until she finished her dinner (yes, she’s totally obsessed with her princess nightgowns), so she stuck a huge portion of a cheese stick into her mouth and started gagging and threw up.  Even for that less than a second when I thought she was choking, I was freaking out.  I YouTubed choking right away and I came across this video:

This sums up the video a little of what you should do:

• If child is sitting, make them stand
• Explain to child that you are going to use the Heimlich Maneuver
• Make a fist and put above pelvic line
• Do an upward thrust rapidly and forcefully trying to release what is stuck and to get air
• If this doesn’t work, lay victim over hand
• Deliver back blows with the other hand
• If this doesn’t work and child becomes unconscious, lower victim to ground and straddle victim and place hands on belly and drive up and place hands on belly upward forcefully towards head

Even if you aren’t a parent, you should watch this. Recently, we had friends
watch our kids that don’t have children yet, therefore it would have been
useful for them too!

Pinterest has caught  my attention again!  I can’t get enough of it!  It has the best of everything!  I saw these cookies and cream cookies floating around on pinterest a lot lately so when we got invited over to a friends for dinner I immediately thought of these cookies as something fun and different to bring along.  They were yummy and fluffy, but I must admit that the dough was just as good as the baked cookie!  So good… I am such a sucker for cookie dough!  It was a great compliment when I had no cookies to take home at the end of the night…  I think that speaks for itself.

Cookies and Cream Cookies
(makes about 30 cookies)
From Ericassweettooth.com

1/2 cup butter, at room temp.
6 Tb sugar
6 Tb. brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
12 Oreos broken into pieces

***Preheat over to 350 degrees.  Cream together sugars and butters.  Add egg and vanilla. Wisk dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, then slowly add to sugar mixture.  Mix slowly until just combined.  Gently stir in oreo bits.  Line baking sheet with parchment paper and bake 8 to 10 minutes.

I have to give credit where it’s due.  I got this amazing recipe here from Pinterest (if you haven’t joined pinterest, do it like NOW).  My in-laws were in town this past weekend and this is a great meal to serve.  It’s easy, quick and delicious.

It’s very easy!!  Here is what you need:

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, I cut them through the middle to make them half the thickness
• seasoning salt
• 6 slices bacon, cut in half
• ¼ cup regular mustard
• ¼ to 1/3 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 2 teaspoons dried onion flakes
• 1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
• 2 cups shredded Colby/Jack cheese

This is it, check out the video below.  You DON’T want to miss this!

Okay, I can’t believe this.  Are we living in the future?!?!?!  If I didn’t already have three and I had close to a thousand dollars to spend on a stroller, I would buy this, like NOW.  This is an awesome single stroller.  Check out this video!

In case you want the basic info:

4 Moms Origami Stroller
It retails around $850

Info at the bottom of the video:
Strollers are all the same and haven’t changed for decades. That’s why 4moms developed the Origami power-folding stroller. At the touch of a button, it folds itself. It’s also a cell phone-charging, mileage-counting, LCD-sporting stroller, with generators in the rear wheels that charge it as you walk. Plus, the Origami has daytime running lights, pathway lights for low-light conditions, and sensors that detect when a child’s in the seat (so it’ll never fold by accident).
From power folding to cell phone charging, the Origami is what strollers should be.

Brrrr!  We really had fun painting with ice cubes! This is such a fun little project!  I even enjoyed participating! All you have to do is fill up your ice tray and put a drop of food coloring in each one.  No need to mix or stir.  Just put in your drop and wait for them to freeze.  Pull the cubes out and let them sit for a few minutes before starting.

We are learning the letter Ii this week in preschool so painting with ice cubes was a perfect project!  This is also a great sensory and science activity.  Make sure to have the kids describe how the ice feels in their hands.

The kids also made igloos to learn about ice and the letter Ii as well.  Just cut out a bunch of white squares and let them create their igloo house!

You may have noticed from a number of the posts on this site that I participate in a pre-school program with a few of my friends and their children.  We each take a week and teaching our 3 – 5 year old children a lesson that includes circle time, crafts, writing practice, and fun activities.   This year we’ve focused on the alphabet and had a great time teaching our children.

Interestingly enough I cam across an infographic recently that talked about the time and money that goes into preparing a single hour of learning for adults.  You can check out he specifics here.  I’ll admit that I wasn’t too surprised to see that a single hour of advanced elearning takes up to 490 hours of preparation and can cost $50,000.  I know I took a few college courses online and their one hour course sessions were often pretty intense.

Seeing this infographic made me think about the time that goes into preparing for a simple lesson for our preschool.  There is no doubt that there is a significant difference between creating a short 30 minute lesson to introduce someone to the letter Q but there is no doubt that a lot of time and effort goes into each lesson.

Here are some of the things that go into each weeks lesson:

• Find a craft for a letter of the alphabet
• Find and prepare the materials for the craft
• Identify a children’s book that can help the children learn more about the letter
• Think of and prepare a treat or snack that helps reinforce the letter for the week

There a plenty of other loose items that go into each weeks preparation for a 30 minute period of instruction.  I would estimate that for a full hour of instruction I would need almost 2 hours of preparation.    That’s a lot of time for a concept as simple as a letter of the alphabet.  I can only imagine how much time it would take to prepare an hour of a full course.

What do you think?  Does it surprise you to see how much time and money goes into preparing an hour of course instruction and learning?

If you didn’t already know this, I’ve spent the last 10 months living outside my own home. You probably remember my posts about moving to Florida, and maybe you saw me mention how much I love summer all year round (78 degreees in January?! Yes Please). Our original plan was to find a house quickly to buy and move in to it in September, but as we started our look for a home for our family we decided that the best option for us was to build one that had the floor plan and lot size that we liked best.

While they’re making progress on our home, it has taken a bit longer than we originally expected. My sister has been kind enough to let us stay with her while we build the house. We do like to give them their space every now and then and to do so we’ll go to a hotel for a weekend with the boys. We’ve been staying at a bunch of hotels, all seem to be pretty nice, but there was one thing I wasn’t doing when we checked in that I will be doing in the future… Checking the room for Bed Bugs!

I got the idea from the infographic below. I hate bugs, and the idea of bringing home bed bugs from a hotel is just gross! To make sure my sister’s home and our future home is bed bug free, I’ll be following the steps below:

Graphic by Moxie Pest Control of Raleigh, NC