Mangos and Kiwi

Ok so I love kiwi. The crunch of the seeds with the sweet/sour fruit itself is just divine!!! It's super easy to peel once you get the hang of how to - I took a knife and cut either end off, then slid a spoon just inside the flesh. I went around the kiwi like that with the spoon, just inside the flesh, and bam I had a skinned kiwi without wasting any yummy fruit. I'm hooked!

I like the mango too, but it was a more tropical flavor for me, so I mixed it with strawberries and bananas and ate a fruit salad of sorts with a bit of cool whip. Mmmmmmm!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Our boys love Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Dad reads it like a rap, and they just eat it up. I read it like I learned to do teaching preK, and they love that too. They read it to each other, in sing song voices, and laugh and laugh. I saw a really cool blog that inspired me - both about the Ikea bookshelf and making a tree on the wall! So now we have our own version of a coconut tree on the wall - and it's a big hit! I ordered it online and laminated it with contact paper. I love it!

Bookshelf in the school room!!

I drove all the way to Ikea (ew) and bought the bookshelf I have been drooling over. I had no idea we had so much "school related items" until I had to empty a bookshelf to make room for the new one! This is from just one of our bookshelves...

Who knew three kids could "need" so much for homeschooling? I sure didn't but I promise we use it all or I wouldn't keep it. I have most of Big Kid's curriculum for the next year or two, because I fell across it at a homeschool book store that was closing. That takes up space. I have some K and 1st grade curriculum for the twins, someone gave it to us, and who knows when they will actually start using it, so I keep it handy. Everything else is used on a regular basis - wow!!


I love the new bookshelf - it brightens up the room and stores everything we need in that room! I have a bit of extra space on the shelves, hopefully we can keep it that way. I honestly don't have to buy any curriculum for Big Kid until 9th grade, but I really don't know what I'll need for the twins as they grow because I have never homeschooled a child younger than 6th grade! It's an adventure :)

New Fruits to try

Our family is trying new foods. So far we're taste testing fruits we have never tried, then we'll move on into veggies. I don't like many veggies so this is going to be difficult for me, and I have to set a good example!

Have you ever eaten a pluot? They're really yummy!! A pluot is a mix between a plum and apricot, but is mostly plumlike. It's got a smooth skin and a sweet taste. There are many varieties of pluots, we have tried a few and our favorite so far are the dinosaur eggs and the flavor grenades.

The skin has that bit of tartness to it like plums do, we find these to be a very satisfying treat! We also like to add it to our gluten free chex cereal to jazz up the same old breakfast :)

How about a star fruit? This one didn't go over quite as well as the pluot in our house. It's citrusy, is a bit lemony and doesn't have a burst of flavor like you would expect from fruit. However we all tried it, which is a step in the right direction! To prepare it I washed it, and sliced the brown edges off of the "star points", then sliced it. It has seeds similar to apple seeds, so I flicked them out as you can see in the photo. All in all it wasn't a bad taste, but we probably won't be buying it again... unless we make a citrus salad, then it would be great! Or maybe I'll try it with a little grenadine... I wonder if it has any good vitamins in it?

Easter is coming again!

And here I sit, for the fourth year now with two of my three children hating candy. Big Kid's easter basket is super easy - chocolate, candy, and a few fun gadgets. He's happy. I have a hard time with the twins! Four years old is a little easier than the last few years, but they already have so many toys between Christmas and their birthdays just passing! I just ordered a really fun looking Mickey bowling lane rug from Kohl's on sale, I'll put that in their easter pile, but what else I will want to put in their baskets is a mystery still. They hate candy, have millions of hot wheels (hand me downs!), and have a ton of wooden Thomas Trains (found on craigslist and repainted). They have so many crayons they won't need any until they have children, and have drawers of coloring books. They have three bookshelves bursting with books to read, and have an entire preschool set up in the school room. What the heck can I put in their baskets?? Why is easter all about candy?

*I wanted to update this post. I ended up with the Mickey bowling rug, six of the Mr. Men books they don't have (the boys loooove Mr. Men books), two Vtech digital cameras, and a 3 disc set of children's songs. I think that'll be plenty! Big Kid will still get a pile of candy and a few fun things... maybe a gyroscope? Haven't been to the educational store yet to play with their new offerings!

I got a new car!!!

Ok you saw this coming if you read my blog regularly ;) I just couldn't happily shove the family back into my Pilot once I had a rental van! I traded it in and got a Honda Odyssey. I love it. Surprisingly I even like the looks! The engine is great, powerful, and it feels very much like "home" inside. I was very drawn to the gold color, probably because it has tan leather inside just like my Pilot did. I really liked the light silver exteriors, but the silver leather interior just felt cold. Hard to explain.

I didn't get a brand new one for a few reasons - 1, I feel it's a waste of money to buy brand new. 2, I can't afford a brand spanking new van with all the options I want. 3, the new Odysseys have NOT grown on me. I got exactly what I wanted for a great price, and the kids are beside themselves they are so pleased to have our own "magic car"! I was surprised when I first started looking at used vans, because they all had so many stains all over them! Duh, I'm looking at mommy mobiles and I'm surprised that they are kid ruined? Shame on me - didn't think that one through. Thankfully I found the perfect van - owned by a man working at a dog rescue (left a few items in the trade in!), and he had seat covers on all the seats, Odyssey rubber mats on all the floors, and a "bedliner" of sorts on the back. It looks brand spanking new! No stains, one small scratch on the exterior, otherwise it's perfect. A bird already bombed it, that's not the scratch in the photo! LOL! Absolutely perfect van for me too :)

Curriculum already for 4 year olds?

My twins turned four a month ago. They can read slowly, and have a surprisingly HUGE mental library of sight words they know. Most recently they surprised me when they could both read "interesting" on sight. Huh? They can sound out any word that is basic, without the weird silent letters or the "ought" sounds. Crazy. I have done nothing but read to them and let them "read" to each other. Thank you LeapFrog dvd's! I know I need help teaching them to sound out new sounds and letter combinations, I hope Explode the Code can help with that. I'm going to attempt to keep writing, reading, and spelling separate until they are older - because I don't want one to hold another back.

The twins need direction. They are just DYING to be "at school" like their big brother. I have little workbooks people have given them, with worksheets about colors and counting and such, but they don't follow any real direction and most are just practice for them, they aren't learning anything from them. I have my pre-k curriculum I just love, but it is for the most part direction on "learning through play" and is things they already do daily. I'm still using it for things like ideas on changing their "school room" set up, games to play, songs and crafts, etc.

I decided about two months ago to start looking into kindergarten curriculum for them. I hate the idea of having "organized learning" for such young kids, but they are screaming for it. Weirdos.

Big Kid thrives on Saxon's math program, so I just assumed their elementary program would be amazing. It's not. It's colorless, and not exciting at all. For a 4 yr old it needs to be exciting! After reading reviews again and again and again, then driving to the nearest homeschool book store and touching all sorts of math curriculums I decided to go with BJU Press's Math 1. I know it's for first grade, but they could do every page I showed them in the K book, and I want to teach them not just review! Wow. Most of the reviews I read said BJU is awesome for K-2nd or 3rd grade, then it slows way down and it doesn't include much review. That scares me. So I am going to look at Saxon again whenever we finish with this BJU math book, to see if it looks more appealing by then. I strongly considered Singapore math, but since I couldn't pick it up and look at it anywhere I didn't go with it. I'm not about to buy something this important on the whim of a few reviewers!

I feel like parents are always teaching their children, even if they send them to public school - it's a little scary for me to now be the only official "teacher" in three children's lives... the pressure is ON!

PreK curriculum and a new homeschool room!

I used to teach GA lottery funded preK. My coteacher and friend had purchased some of her curriculum, and when we left teaching she gave it all to me for my boys. I have kept everything up until today. I was online over the weekend and got serious school room envy looking at another homeschooler's blog. It is time to change!

First of all, I realized I love the pathways preK curriculum. It's so in depth and I am used to it and like it. I'm giving away my Scholastic Early Childhood Program. It's hard to let go of! LOL! Second - when we started homeschooling a year and a half ago, I kept thinking we were homeschooling in our dining room (we use our dining room as our school room). For some reason it seemed more important to keep it a dining room... then this weekend I realized we are in there schooling every day, and use it as a dining room three or four times a year. Why the heck isn't it a school room with a table that can be used as a dining table?!! Shouldn't things be geared towards the child that learns in this room every day? Instead of keeping everything tucked away until we need it I'm going to make everything available for more use, and let it all hang out that we are a homeschooling family (in our dining room LOL!).

Today I woke up ready to rearrange the room, hang posters on the wall, get educational items out and visible. The twins have their own "school room", it is set up with centers like a preschool room. They have a chika chika boom boom tree with letters, a reading nook, train table, piano, block area, pretend area (dress up?) and Geotrax set up on the floor. It's awesome. Bulletin boards for daily info and for art projects, posters about reading, just awesome! The dining room looks like a dining room with two stuffed bookshelves in it. Time for change. Big Kid deserves a good schooling classroom!

*Update* I tore a tendon in my right foot while moving furniture and books. It's pain like you can't imagine. I am extremely independent, and stubborn. I had to crawl in tears to my computer to email my husband to please come home and take me to the emergency room :( A word of advice - ask someone for help instead of doing it on your own when you choose to rearrange a room full of heavy furniture! The "new" school room flows so nicely, the apple red walls are an awesome background for our posters and such, and the twins now have a bookshelf and Big Kid has a bookshelf, each dedicated to just school items. I love organization. I know, I'm strange. At least the room looks nice, and I can now walk with an ace bandage and a boot on my foot. With a lot of pain.

Homemade Flowers

The twins really loved making these flowers, they made one for their aunt, one for their nahnah, and one for themselves. It was really easy to do, and look so amazing! To do these yourself, here's the steps:

-layer ten to twelve tissue papers together (we used red, white, and pink shades)

-trace and cut out a four to five inch circle, keeping the layers together

-gently fold the circle in half and punch a hole near the center of the circle, so when you open the circle you will have two holes next to each other in the center of the circles

-loop a green pipe cleaner through the holes and twist onto itself

-one layer at a time wrinkle up the tissue paper, and voila! Beautiful flowers!

We had such a good time making these, I hope you do too :)

I'm such a car snob... who knew?

I was given a Dodge Grand Caravan as a rental while my poor pilot gets repaired. I have always hated vans, because to me they were the epitome of reaching "middle aged". I also just don't like the way they look. They aren't feminine in any way, they're honestly rather bulky and slow. They aren't manly looking at all. This is my first time driving a van and I am so unimpressed it's sad. The thing can't speed up to save it's life, it has a horrible turning radius, and the visibility sucks. This particular van I am renting has transmission issues and I mean major, it feels like someone has bumped into the rear end every time you attempt to start moving from a dead stop. It has 2800 miles on it. It feels cheap inside, cloth seats are awful when you're used to leather. It has no heated seats, which I have apparently become very accustomed to, and it took me 20 minutes and a phone call to figure out how to even tilt the steering wheel.

No more fussing. I hate the van. The strange part is the space it has inside is amazing! The kids call it the magic car because the doors open and close automatically. Cracked me up! They are in love with how much more room each of them has, not to mention we all fit with room to spare as a FAMILY in it. Big Kid has an entire back row to himself THAT HE FITS IN when hubby and I go somewhere together. In the pilot Big Kid has to literally climb into the back row, because we have two carseats in the second row preventing the one seat that folds down to do so. Once he's in the third row he is so smooshed if I ever had an accident he could lose use of his legs. Thankfully he doesn't have to ride back there very often!

I want a van. Not this one for sure, and thanks to this hoopty I will never buy a Dodge or Chrysler, but I'm seriously considering trading in my good ol pilot for an odyssey or something similar. I still can't stand how vans look, or handle, but the roominess inside is extremely tempting. I considered an SUV with the same set up inside, two rows of captain chairs and a back bench seat, but really what would that be - a full sized truck turned into an SUV. Tires would be stupidly expensive and I would get 10 miles to a gallon at best. I get 16mpg now, and I think that sucks. No humungasaur SUV for me, thank you. I'll have to do my best to like the inside of my future van, and I'm considering something light on the outside, maybe silver... I will still want all my "snob" amenities - heated leather seats, dvd player, A WORKING TRANSMISSION, and that tinted strip across the top of the windshield. I didn't even know cars came without that until this rental, and let me tell you it is very missed. Yep, total car snob :)

Gluten Free Guacamole and Ribs YUM!

I decided to try some new recipes today, and got mixed results. The potato bake we tried was horrible, we found the recipe in the newspaper and figured we would try it. It was a waste of potatoes, cheese and sour cream. Everyone has flops! We made bbq ribs and guacamole with tortilla chips. All gluten free! Thought I would share my inspiration in the kitchen :)

BBQ Ribs

pork baby back ribs - as many as you want to serve, cut into 5 to 6 inch racks

your favorite seasonings

your favorite bbq sauce

-Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

-Place rib racks on aluminum foil sheets, sprinkle with seasoning, and wrap foil around rack, making a pouch for each to cook in.

-Place packets on a baking sheet. Bake for one and a half hours.

-Remove from oven, and cover with bbq sauce. Return to oven leaving foil open at top and bake for another 30 minutes. Ribs will be super tender and oh so tasty!

*we made ribs for three, and hubby put italian seasoning, salt and pepper on them initially. We used Sweet Baby Ray's honey bbq sauce and it was just divine!

Guacamole with a bite

1 ripe avocado

4 pepperoncini

3 baby texas pete dill pickles

sprinkle of garlic powder and chili powder

Run pepperoncini and pickles through a food processor first, then add cut up avocado and powders. Once it's smooth grab some tortilla chips and stop when you can't fit any more down!

Glutened at PF Changs :(

My mom took my entire family out to a wonderful meal at PF Chang's last night. I ordered gluten free lettuce wraps, gluten free egg drop soup and gluten free chicken fried rice - I mean why not, it was my birthday dinner. Everyone shared the lettuce wraps and soup, at that point there was nothing on our table that contained gluten. We finished the appetizers and the meals came out, mine first and it was delivered as "gluten free fried rice" by the server. I was fine for about an hour after we ate, then right in the middle of an amazing foot rub from my husband I had to go get sick... for an hour. I'm making myself yogurt and fruit shakes today to make sure I don't get the lovely side effects I usually do after eating gluten, hopefully it works. I have no clue how I got gluten, I must assume someone thought they made a gluten free dish but used gluten by mistake. This type of sick was more than just a crumb, it was empty your body now lady type of sick :( I have a nasty backache this morning but otherwise am fine. Oddly enough I got a pounding headache right after I ate, but I thought it was just because the restaurant was loud. Now I'm thinking it was the warning light coming on... ugh. No more PF Chang yummies for me :( I'm running out of restaurants I can eat at!!!!

Oops

Today's word of advice is ALWAYS GET CONTACT INFORMATION from a witness, no matter what the details of how an accident happens. I was shopping in Michael's and heard "will the owner of a black honda pilot parked near the front of the store please come to the cashier station". I was shown someone's iphone with a photo of my car's license plate on it, and was told the person who hit me isn't going anywhere. I gave my mother the few items I had in my hands and my twins in their stroller, and walked out to find a crowd around the back of my car, and dents in my bumper and rear door.

A 21 year old woman hit my car with a mitsubishi mirage and totaled her car.

I couldn't figure out how someone could do so much damage backing out of a parking space until I realized she must have smashed the gas instead of the brake. Wow. She did the right thing, she called the police and they came and filled out an "accident exchange of information" sheet, but no report since we were in a parking lot. My insurance company said I should have gotten some contact information from the witnesses, there were a lot of them. I assumed I wouldn't need any witnesses since I wasn't even in the car, but right now it's my word (and photos) against hers. I am sure she can't fight it, it's very obvious she hit my car - it's just frustrating to not have done the right thing. My pilot took the hit like a champ, minimal damage and whoa did her car crumple. I am proud to drive a pilot today, this is why they are expensive - they are worth every penny!!!

Wow, my boys are four years old!!

I can't believe my twins are 4 already. Seems like a year ago they were babies learning how to walk and say their letters! Now they're reading words, building with blocks, and have such personalities. Yesterday was their birthday, we celebrated as a family. Hubby took the day off of work (how awesome is that?!) and we took the boys out for chocolate pancakes for breakfast, then we all played glow in the dark mini golf. It was so fun! We used their birthday coupons to get free scoops of ice cream for them, then they went to Publix and were each given a birthday helium balloon and a cookie, free of charge. Publix rocks! We had taken them to Toys R Us over the weekend, and as always they didn't have what we went for in stock, but they did find some awesome Mario pull back racers and were very happy. They got balloons there too!

What surprised me the most was that both boys took the time to read each tag on their presents, to find out who they were from (they only opened ours, the rest are for their party this weekend). They said thank you to the gift giver before opening each present, I was shocked! They are such sweet boys. We have done something right :) Now if I could just figure out how to get more time in each day to share with my family... ha!

Cat Scratcher renewed!

We picked up a huge homemade cat scratching post off freecycle a few years ago, and boy have our cats loved it. We noticed the sisal rope had torn off half of the bottom, so I bought new rope and rewrapped it. Holy cow have our kitties gone after it! Way better than buying a new post for $200+ :)

Dentists - are they car mechanics reincarnated?

I used to go to a very expensive dentist, who was awesome but really expensive. We used to call the office "the dentist to the stars"! He really is amazing, has done wonderful things for my less than perfect teeth situation, but the cost was a ton and then we moved and he was farther away... well, I found one closer to home that has good reviews online. I went about a year ago. He fixed the veneer that fell off my baby eye tooth. Got my teeth cleaned 4 months ago and he immediately started harping on me about when I was going to get my baby tooth pulled and have an implant put in for $4000+, and when I wanted to schedule an implant procedure for my missing molar, which he quoted at around $6,000. Um, never? Let me first say I have had braces twice, retainers and now have a retainer with a fake tooth in it to replace a molar I never formed (gotta love genetics). I have the retainer because I do not want to spend $10,000 just to have two unimportant teeth replaced - just so I have a full set. I have already spent at least half of that just on braces alone, and I know plenty of people who are missing teeth here or there and live perfectly happy pretty lives. Most people don't even notice when someone is missing teeth, unless they're really visible gaps!

Another thing this dentist showed me was the white lines between some of my teeth on my xray. He told me they were cavities forming and I needed to come back in two weeks to have two of the "bad ones" filled, and floss twice a day and use mouthwash daily to try to "reverse the damage" on the others. Said I would most likely have 9 cavities that needed filling, all between my teeth. I was devastated, I don't have any cavities except for in my baby tooth (yes, I'm 32 and still have a baby tooth). I just couldn't stomach that and haven't gone back for my fillings.

Well today I took Big Kid to the orthodontist for a consult, his adult eye teeth have stalled because his baby teeth are in the way. They confirmed they need to be pulled. While there I realized he has white lines between most of his molars - so I immediately asked if they were cavities, because no one mentioned them at last week's cleaning! Both the orthodontist and my son (who shadows a pediatric dentist because he wants to be one someday) told me that white spots are where your teeth touch on an xray, and dark spots are cavities forming.

So is the dentist I went to who wanted to fill "all my cavities" a joke or what? Everyone who wrote reviews of him online said the office was wonderful, I know people who take their families to the same office! I feel like a mechanic just tried to take advantage of me because I brought my car in for an oil change, and they tell me I need a transmission. The difference is I know cars very well, don't know dentistry at all. Now I need to worry about crooks in our health care industry?! Greeeaaaat.

Freecycle.org ROCKS again!

I have been using a little tikes picnic table in the twins' school room, for them to use for puzzles, school work, reading etc. Well I thought it was a great idea until I realized they sit next to each other most of the time, not across from each other, and the bench was bowing under their combined weight! Time to put it outside for summer use. The same week I realized the picnic table wasn't working out someone posted an Ikea Mammut table and chair on freecycle! I jumped on it, and now we have a really nice table with two chairs and two stools. It took a little Mr. Clean erasing and some lysol then pledge, but the table and chair look absolutely brand new now. I bought two yellow stools to use when guests come, otherwise the stools work perfectly for reading near our bookcase. I always say it but I'll say it again - freecycle ROCKS!!!!

Publix Apron Meals

My 12 year old loves to make Publix Apron Meals. He grabs new recipes every time we go grocery shopping, and makes them almost every time we have the ingredients and will let him. We always help, he's not up to cutting up chicken and such, but he watches and learns and makes most of the meal. Tonight he made us an amazing Hunter's Chicken with white rice and corn. He hates mushrooms, but as we're figuring out he likes them in Apron Meals! He ate the mushrooms and the diced tomatoes in the dish, happily. I will admit I cannot stand mushrooms of any kind, but once I pushed them aside the meal was amazing - and I mean it, my 12 year old cooked an amazing meal with some help from dad!

I have been so happy that he wants to cook at all, I bought him the little binder to put all the recipes in and he has quite a cookbook now. We put stars on the recipes that taste good and throw away the ones we don't like, and he probably has 70 to 80 recipes in his book already! It's such a nice way to learn how to cook, all of the aprons meals are super easy to prepare and you can watch the Aprons chef make it in the store, and try hers, if you shop around lunchtime.

Granted most are not written as gluten free, but as long as you know your ingredients you can easily make most of them gluten free! Tonight's meal was gluten free by nature, very healthy dish. Can you tell I'm really proud?!

Did anyone else make a New Year's Resolution?

I have always thought resolutions made just because a new year was starting were silly. Well, this season I made one for myself, just because it felt like the right time. I have promised myself I will practice my pilates and yoga ball workout at least twice a week, today was my first day of the new year doing it. I have a great dvd I watch to help me stretch and exercise, but I have never done it with any consistency. It's time! My twins are turning four and while I'm not gaining any weight I'm certainly not losing any, and I want to feel better about myself. I don't have bad self esteem, I just haven't liked my middle too much since having twins. I'm hoping a little toning will help me feel better about looking down :) Happy New Year everyone!!!

On a brighter note I hit Target's toy clearance yesterday and found some great deals for the twins' birthdays. Yay!!! The clearance is all at once this year, last year it was tiered and I had to keep checking back, but got awesome deals at 90% off - not this year!! They threw everything on clearance either 50% or 75% off and said that's it. Must be the economy?

DIY Ikea Ramvik Kid's Lego Table - and a fun Duplo game!

It's finally finished!!!

I used contact cement to glue down the 8 lego bases, ordered on sale from Barnes & Noble with free shipping. I attached the lego bases together using Big Kid's legos on all the seams, to make it easier to handle and assure the seams could be built on. I painted both the lego bases and the tabletop with contact cement, which dried in about ten minutes, and adhered once pressed together. The boys started building as soon as I brought it back inside! Contact cement is rather smelly. The lego bases also fit duplo blocks on them, so we figure they can use them with their duplos and then use the table with legos eventually! They are turning four soon, maybe they'll get legos for their birthdays :)



This is my very first Ikea hack!!! I did paint the two little Rast dressers, but that's not really a "hack" it's just color. This is an entirely new purpose for the table, yay!!! I freecycled the glass tabletop, it's now part of someone else's table :) I love how well freecycle works like that! Freecycle is an awesome organization - it's a yahoo group, every area has one, and it's sort of like a craigslist but everything is free. We have received more items than I can remember over the years - the perfect blinds for our new sliding glass doors, toddler beds, slides and picnic tables, routers, a beautiful set of Christmas dishes, you name it! We have given away tons and tons of items, from a mint condition game boy to a broken gas stove - all were happily received by someone who needed it! Freecycle rocks and I can personally attest to it keeping a huge amount of items out of the landfill, which is it's main purpose.

*Update* The boys and hubby have created a game with the Duplos and some dice they found - reinforcing counting skills and taking turns ;) They roll the dice, move ahead the rolled number of blocks, and the winner is the duplo character who reaches the pyramid first! I love seeing my family being so inventive - using their noggins!