Menu Planning

I had gotten into the habit of making out a weekly menu including lunches and dinners and their ensuing grocery lists.  This worked out great, and as I got into the habit of it I found I didn't necessarily need to write it down each week.  Well, then and there began the downward spiral into chaos!  Its' been a few months now since I've used my handy "menu planner template", and boy do I feel it.  I've gotten so low that I've actually had to *gasp* ask my husband what he would like for dinner!  We all know the answer to that question.... yep, it wasn't pretty.

So I printed out a few sheets of this menu planner and since it's Friday, it's THE day for menu planning. Why?  Because we do our grocery getting over the weekend.  Costco, grocery, and halal meats.  Three stops.  It pays to be organized.  This morning I sat my kids down in front of me at the kitchen table and had them go through my stack of 'authorized family dinner meals' to pick what sounded good for the week.  We made the lists, and off we went to the grocery store and to the halal meat store!  All that's left now is Costco which is usually saved for my dear husband because he just loves going there (for real).

What is an 'authorized family dinner meal' you also wonder?  Well, some time last year I got this idea from the blog Litte Nanny Goat to make our 30 meal plan.  I now keep those 30 cards in the front of my recipe card box (yes, I'm old fashioned and have a card box), and when it's time to meal plan I can grab that stash and browse the meals I know are winners.  In theory, this is fabulous, however, as the kids change, so does their taste in food. Hmmph.

Without further ado, here is next week's plan. (I've skipped breakfast b/c in our house it is either cold cereal,  hot oatmeal, or eggs.  Also, everyone can get their own breakfast, so I don't really need to plan that out!)

Monday: Lunch: Tacos; Dinner: Chicken Paprika
Tuesday: Lunch: Pimiento cheese sandwiches and pasta for kids; Dinner: Chili w/ fixings
Wednesday: Lunch: Mexican Chicken Skillet; Dinner: Leftovers
Thursday: Lunch: Mujaddara (rice and lentils w/ caramelized onions); Dinner: Chicken Stew
Friday: Lunch: leftovers; Dinner: Memaw's Casserole

Menu Planner Template can be found here along with dozens of other goodies.

Read, Read, Read

Oh the guilt.  I've been reading The Well Trained Mind the past few days to figure out what I want to do next year.  I use this book as my guide for method and curriculum.  It is a guide to classical education, and it is very thorough and rigorous.  And full of READING.  Not just the kids reading, no, parents reading TO the kids.  And now I feel so delinquint!!!  Do you know people actually read to their children for like a long time each day! An hour or two or three???  It's true; I read daily entries from fellow homeschoolers reassuring me that they spend some good chunk of time (45 minutes up to 3 hours) reading to their children.  I mean, with all the things we have to get done in any given day, how  how how do we sit down and read each day? 

After giving it some thought, I realized it's just like any one of the those other things we do actually in any given day.  We make time for it.  If it is important enough, we fit it in.  No matter what.  And I think I need to do that.  I need to evaluate where some of my time is spent (or wasted) and rearrange a thing or two to ensure my little ones (all of them) get a read-aloud from me.  The benefits are immeasurable, apparently, and according to older children it is a highly cherished memory.  I like to spend some time finishing the kitchen in the evening. It's a hectic time, but what if I just make sure that I'm all done by a certain time and go up to the littlest ones bedroom and read for 20 minutes.  Or maybe after lunch?  All I know is that it won't happen unless I free myself up and do it.  I have done it off and on over the past school year, and they've loved it so much when I have read.  I pick books they normally wouldn't read on their own, some types of classics usually, and they really like it.  Insha'Allah, I can get on board with this and put it on the calendar to read out loud.  These are my musings this evening, and I do hope I can get into this new habit.

Babylon and the Hanging Gardens

Assalamu alaikom

Studying Ancient History has been so much fun for my two older childen (ages 10, 8) this year!  The stories about the leaders, the nomads, the pyramids, and the wonders of the world have easily piqued their curiousity and sparked some creativity. 

When we read about King Nebuchadnessar of Babylon and how he gathered plants, bushes, and flowers from all his land to make a beautful garden for his wife, we immediately thought of an art project.  I pulled out two empty shoe boxes, and the two older kids instantly went to work depicting the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.  I was really amazed at the initiative they took.  I'd never seen this type of enthusiasm before, and I was even further amazed when I saw them race upstaris to the school room after dinner that night!  The ideas kept rolling in until they finally felt like they had done enough to make the gardens.  Here are the finished projects, masha'Allah:

Happy March Everyone!!

Assalamu alaikom wa rahmatullah!

Phew, February is ALL GONE!!! Not that it was so horrible, alhamdulilaah, but it's nice to have that last stretch of the winter months behind us! 

I'm looking forward to an active March. 

I've started with telling my kingdergartener about the saying about March "In Like a Lion, Out Like A Lamb".   This old saying refers to the weather in March, so I made a small little poster (without using a normal poster board rather I used a large piece of construction paper 12*18").  I used templates from DLTK's site to make the board and chart to track the weather daily.  This site has lots of nice coloring pages and other printables.  They're organized by month, by topic, or season, and by holiday!  Cute stuff.

This is a picture of what ours looks like.  I don't have room for a large bulletin board, and that's why I made mine small.  Even if you don't homeschool, this could be a fun on-going project for March that you and your children can do.

We're taking one week off towards the end of March to receive some old friends who will be visiting.  Looking forward to some fun outings with them, too.  Hope you have some fun things planned for the beginning of Spring and the growing season!  I'm also thinking to start some bean seeds in little cups of pots to show them kids up front a personal how they sprout.  My kids aren't new to gardening, as I've been doing it as long as they've been around, but it's still nice to see the bean sprout!  So InshaAllah I'll get on that and make a post about it.

Have a great day!