Menu Monday, What to Eat?

Welcome to my first ever Menu Monday! Let's see what my family is going to eat this week! I do all of my menu planning and grocery shopping only twice a month, so this shouldn't be too hard for me. All i have to do is type out what I already have planned, right? We will see.

Something I like to do is plan on certain days to make extra meat and then turn the meat into something else the next night. This saves time, money, and food. You will notice I did that this week with the pot roast, and again with the chicken.


Monday

Breakfast: Raisin bran crunch

Lunch: Grilled Cheese and tomato soup

Dinner: Biscuits
Gravy

Snack: low fat laughing cow cheese and almond wheat thins

Tuesday

Breakfast: oatmeal

Lunch: black beans, rice, and corn

Snack: almond wheat thins, apple sauce

Dinner: Orange Chicken
Crab Rangoon

Wednesday

Breakfast: Low Fat Dark Chocolate muffins

Lunch: Quesadillas, peas

Snack: oatmeal, applesauce

Dinner: potatoes, carrots, pot roast I also add a package of onion soup mix and a can of beef broth to my pot roast.


Thursday

Breakfast: Low Fat Dark Chocolate Muffin

Lunch: PB & J, milk, orange

Snack: Oatmeal, applesauce

Dinner: Burritos made from leftover pot roast - Burrito meat

Friday

Breakfast: Low Fat Dark Chocolate Muffin

Lunch: Turkey Sloppy Joes

Snack: almond wheat thins, applesauce

Dinner: Baked potatoes, green beans, Sticky Chicken

Saturday

Breakfast: Low Fat Dark Chocolate Muffin

Lunch: Turkey Sloppy Joes

Snack: oatmeal, oranges

Dinner: Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo made with leftover sticky Chicken
Alfredo Sauce

Sunday

Breakfast: Low Fat Dark Chocolate Muffin

Lunch: leftovers

Snack: oatmeal, applesauce

Dinner: Manicotti with Marinara Sauce

So, that's what we are eating this week. How about you? Got any tips for saving time or money in the kitchen you would like to share? Have a great recipe? Feel free to comment, I would love to hear it!

Organization - Art Projects

For my first blog on organization I decided to tackle the topic of art projects. As home schoolers, we will help our kids create thousands of art projects in our lifetime, and we don't even get the advantage of them being forgotten on the bus!

So, what do we do with all of these treasures? I tried putting them on my refrigerator for about the first month that I home schooled. That was just ridiculous. They kept sliding down to the floor and making me frustrated. Plus, they seemed to be copulating up there or something. Every time I went to get the milk there were 4 more finger-paintings! Finally, after much trial and error, I have come up with a system that works for my family and I am going to share it with you.

1. Don't bother making it if you think it sounds like junk to begin with.

It is one thing to do a coloring sheet or a painting, but if a project is going to be large, bulky, take up shelf space, AND sounds unattractive, don't make it. Every idea isn't a good one, or at the very least, every idea isn't for your family. Only use the ones that are.


2. Display a limited amount of art work for a brief amount of time, then file it away.

In our house we have a designated area where we display our kids art. I use construction paper in a complementary color to mat it, post it on the wall, and leave it up there for awhile until it is time to replace it with the next project.

I eventually want to implement a system of displaying photos like the one that my friend Vera uses. I saw this at her house one day and fell in love:

What Vera did was bought an old frame at a thrift store and decorated it using decopage. She then mounted it on her wall and tapes her kids' art in the middle of it. This particular frame is behind her dining room table, she has more in her school room. She was super nice about letting me use pictures of her frames since I haven't made any of my own yet. Every time I go to her house I see something I want to copy (and usually do).

3. When we are done displaying, we pitch it our file it.

If the project is particularly bulky or otherwise un-storable I will take pictures and file that instead so that I can toss it out. How I store our art is in big three ring binders with clear top-loading sheet protectors. I then trim the art if needed and slide the artwork (or picture of it) into the sheet protectors so that the kids can flip through and see all that they have done, without it being messy or cumbersome. Each child has his own binder, and it has worked out fabulously for us so far!

So, there it is. Do you have any tips on how to keep art work more organized? I would love to hear them!