School Lunches

Some of you that read my blog are friends of mine on Facebook and you know that I have been looking for new ideas for Daniel's lunch that he takes to school.  He was taking a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with 2 fruit/vegetable snacks, and a dessert.  He recently asked me: "Mom, why do you always pack peanut butter and jelly for me?"  and I replied "Because that is what you told me you wanted."  This short conversation started a whole big search for school lunch ideas and my asking friends on Facebook what kinds of things they pack for their kids.  I got a few ideas from friends but mostly, I found some sites through Pinterest that offered up many suggestions for school lunches.  A LOT of them included a bento box of some sort.  So, I started looking for something like that.  I found these boxes made by a mom for packing lunches called Easy Lunchboxes from www.easylunchboxes.com   .  I am in love with these boxes! They have made packing lunches for him a breeze.  This is a short week of school this week - only Monday through Wednesday but I got his lunch packed for all three days last night.  I didn't get a picture of today's lunch (SORRY).  I did get the tomorrow and Wednesday's lunches though.  I love how easy they are to use.  Here is tomorrow's lunch:

He has a morning snack - the fruit, an afternoon snack - the celery (or vice-versa),  a Dole Fruit Squish 'ems apple sauce, goldfish crackers, a roast beef and cheese roll-up sandwich, a fun sized Hershey bar for dessert and a Capri-Sun Super V juice box.  The goldfish crackers are in one of their little containers that you can get - they come in a pack of 8 for $7.95 called Mini Dippers and the large containers come in packs of 4 in all different colors for $13.95.  I bought 2 sets of 4 in the 2 color collections and 1 set of the mini dippers.  They are great! They are not leak-proof (the mini dippers are though) so don't put loose yogurt in them unless you get their cooler bag they sell to put them in and that will keep them upright.  Daniel has a pottery barn lunch box and it stands up in his back pack so I won't be putting a yogurt parfait in there but for something like the above lunch - PERFECT and yes a sandwich does fit!

Here is a view of it closed up:

Daniel's favorite color is purple so we used that one first. 

Here is Wednesday's lunch:

For Wednesday, he's getting a ham and cheese roll up, mixed berries for snack, celery for snack, a frozen Go-gurt that should be thawed by lunch time, goldfish crackers, a Meijer Naturals fruit twist and 3 York Peppermint Patty minis along with his juice box.  He gets plenty to eat this way and he can open it by himself which is great! 

I'm kind of obsessed with these boxes.  I'm a dork, I know.  I can't explain it but the organization of it, just makes me happy!  I love having things organized.  LOVE it!  Being able to get all of his lunches done for the week Sunday night makes me happy and relaxed because I'm not having to do it every night anymore. 

We can also use them for our road trips to visit Chris's family that live out of state.  I can pack a lunch for each person and pull it out of the cooler and each person has their meal all neatly packed.  It almost makes me excited for the next 9 hour drive! LOL  We can use these for picnics over  the summer or if we have someone that doesn't like having their foods touch.  Chris can also use these for work and then in the fall, I can use them to pack lunches for Daniel and Nathan who will be taking his lunch 4 days a week too.  YAY!  They also stack nicely.  Here are the above 2 stacked in my fridge (please disregard the burnt out light bulb!).

My mom expressed concern with things not staying fresh being packed in there all week.  I found that the berries kept better in these containers that in their original packaging and everything else kept great too!   I just wanted to share my latest find with you!  Hope you enjoyed!

First Tooth Loss!

No, I didn't lose a tooth but my big boy son, Daniel did!  Friday night, 10 minutes after his dad left to go out with his friends, he came running out of his bedroom with his tooth in his hand.  "Mommy!  My tooth came out!!" 

Daniel just turned 6 in February.  He's in Kindergarten.  A lot of his friends have already lost some of their teeth.  This was making me wonder why he hadn't lost one yet.  One his top front teeth has been a little bit loose for a while now but hasn't gotten much looser since I noticed it was loose a couple weeks ago.  Tuesday, Daniel was playing outside on recess.  It was a nice day - meaning not snowing or raining and the sun was out.  While playing outside on his first recess, he fell off of the play scape and hit his mouth on a bar on the way down to the ground.  The school called me and told me what happened and that Daniel was OK and went back to class but that I might want to check on his teeth.  Sure enough, his bottom 2 front teeth were super loose!  One was downright crooked.  It made me think that he would lose that one at any minute.  So, when he came out and showed me it was the other tooth, I was surprised.  That crooked one's roots are still holding on! 

You can see how crooked the remaining tooth is after his fall and the spot where the other tooth was. 

He was very excited to come out and show me his tooth.  He asked me to take a picture and send it to Daddy.  We did and then we called his grandparents (both sets) so he could tell them himself.  Everyone was very excited for him.  :)  Of course, the Tooth Fairy came and brought him a prize too! The following night, we had a new babysitter coming to watch the boys for us so we could go to a wine tasting fundraiser.  She is the daughter of Nathan's preschool teacher (she was also Daniel's teacher too) - Mrs. Sweet.  We have a magnetic calendar in the hallway for them to look at and we have a magnet for lost a tooth so I put it on Friday for him to see.  When Mrs. Sweet and Danielle came over for Danielle to babysit, he had to take Mrs.Sweet and show her the magnet on the calendar.  He's very proud!

I can't believe we are at that stage already.  Time really does fly by.  I still remember back when we were trying so hard to have our first child and how excited I was when we finally conceived Daniel.  Now, he's 6 and such a big boy.  I'm so proud of him and the great person he's becoming.  Love him to pieces!  Thanks for reading :)

Thank You Notes for a Teacher

Today, I'm sharing the thank you notes I made for my friend Tabatha Whittaker who is a teacher in Tennessee.  She asked me to make 20 for her.  I came up with 6 different cards.  She chose 3 of them.  Here the lucky 3 she chose:

These are small 3X3 note card thank you's for her to send her students for little gifts they give her (at least this is the impression I got from her.. LOL) I used a stamp set I bought a while ago for scrapbooking the kids' school years.  It's called Recess.(All products used are Stampin' Up!) I used one other set called Sprinkled Expressions for the "thanks" sentiment.  The card stock used on the one with the girl is Whisper White, Pretty in Pink, and Melon Mambo.  I used my chevron embossing  folder to give the light pink layer some texture and then punched out a large scalloped circle in the melon mambo and added some doodle dots with my white gel pen.  I used Stampin' Up markers to color the image and black Staz-On to stamp the image.  The image is on a 2 1/2" circle punch.  The "thanks" is stamped in melon mambo and cut out, attached with a silver mini brad. I used dimensionals to give it dimension (haha!  I'm so clever right?)

For the boy versions, I used Whisper White again for the card bases, Real Red and Midnight Muse card stock.  Same gel pen with the doodle dots. The inks used were Real Red and Midnight Muse for the "thanks sentiments".  The images again were stamped in black Staz-On ink and I used the same mini brads to attach the little flags.  I used the stripes and woodgrain embossing folders for their color layers. 

Ok... enough of the run down...  I think these cards came out pretty cute and I think I just MIGHT make more of them for Nathan's preschool teacher as a thank you gift for her and I also just MIGHT make some to sell in my Etsy store.  I will share a link to my etsy store as soon as I get it up and running!  In case you were wondering what the "rejected" samples were, I'll share those too.  I think I might make some of these to sell too.  I think they are cute and would be cute for kids to give their friends and also for some adults to send for a little thank you note.    Here they are!

 I thought this would be cute to give a girl.  It's certainly cute for a kid and fun with the "thank you, human" sentiment!  I used a set called Best Bots Forever for these 2 cards.  I also added some bling with the rhinestone... what girl doesn't like a bit of sparkle?  The girl card is all Whisper White and Melon Mambo.

 The boy robot card is in Whisper White and Midnight Muse (one of my new favorite Stampin' Up colors!)  I used the Word Window punch for the sentiment for this one because this robot turned out a lot taller than the girl one... had to improvise and I like how it turned out.  :)  Somtimes an oops turns into a great thing, I think!  The background embossing folder is the honeycomb - another new favorite of mine!

This one is super cute for anyone!  Whisper White and Midnight Muse with a touch of Tangerine Tango card stock on the flower.  The inks used were Pool Party and Old Olive.  I also used that pesky white gel pen again and a rhinestone for some of that sparkle again.  The embossing folder used on this is a new one that is available as a freebee in the Sale-a-bration catalog. If you spend $50, you can get it free!  It's called Vine Street and it coordinates awesomely with the Sycamore Street Designer Series Paper, ribbon and buttons.  The paper and the ribbons and buttons are all available as sale-a-bration items for free.  YAY!  If anyone is intersted in any of these items to make your own cards, you can leave a comment.  If you'd like to order anything you've seen, leave a comment... or you can wait for the etsy store to be up!I can and will do custom orders for anyone too!  Thanks for reading!!!

My New Recipe Compilation

Hi friends!  It's been a while since I last posted on here.  Sorry about that!  I've been keeping busy with the kids, the house, the activities, working on starting an etsy shop and my new love- cooking.  I used to absolutely HATE cooking.  I dreaded making dinner and I used to make Chris do most of it.  He enjoyed cooking all along and he's a great cook.  He's more of the experimental type of cook where I am all about the recipe.  That is why I always loved baking - there's no guesswork or estimating.  There are absolute rules about how much vanilla extract or baking powder to use.

I joined Pinterest a while ago and started pinning recipe ideas on a few different boards.  That made me start thinking about cooking some of those recipes.  There were a lot of them piling up in there.  The main thing I always dreaded about making dinner every night was that I never had a plan and I would stress about it all day until I figured something out.  UGH - not fun!  So, I decided to start making a weekly menu.  I choose 6 or 7 recipes for dinners for the week, figure out what we don't already have and then make a list, send Chris shopping (hee hee!) and then I'm prepared for the week.  We can choose which thing we want for that night and then I'm set to go.  This method of planning has worked out GREAT for us.  We also don't buy too much fresh ingredients that often anymore and things don't go bad as much.  Another win! 

I compiled quite the list of recipes on pinterest and decided I should print them out so that I don't have to have my computer in the kitchen with me all the time when I cook.  For Christmas, I got an amazon.com gift certificate from my in-laws so I decided to use it toward making my own recipe compilation of my favorite things to make.  Recipes we really like make it into the book.  I just got this stuff a couple weeks ago because it took me a long time to decide on the book and style I liked best.    Here is the one I chose:

It's called the: "Create Your Own Collected Recipes Cookbook - Turquoise & Gray"  It comes in other colors but I have turquoise in my house and it's one of my favorite colors. :)   I liked that it came with the dividers and that I could choose the labels for the tabs that I wanted to use and there were some that were blank for custom sections.  I had to purchase the page protectors separately but that's ok.  I can get more if/ when I outgrow the initial 2 packages I bought.  I like using the page protectors because they are wipe-able if something spills or splatters on them!  Here's a shot of a few of the tabs:

 

Building this book has been a decently long process and it's still ongoing.  I find new recipes to add to it a lot.  I wanted to find a cool font to use in it so I did a few searches for free fonts and found some really cute ones.  I ended up going with one called KG Strawberry Limeade.  It's got some cute curls and it's fun but still easy to read for me.  I copied some of the recipes straight from the internet and when I pasted them I had the program change them into my format so it was quite easy.  I'm sorry these pictures aren't the best but here's a sample:

  

 I also like having the freedom of being able to spread a recipe over 2 pages and not having to cram into a small space like I was trying to do with another program I have.  I like this too because I can just keep adding more until the book is full.    The above recipe is one I have made a few times by the Pioneer Woman - Ree Drummond.  I've kind of become obsessed with her cooking.  I even bought her cook book with that amazon.com gift certificate too! 

Here's the recipe I made for dinner last night.  Sorry the picture quality isn't great!  It's Chicken Cordon Bleu Roll-Ups.  I like the pattern on the dividers too.  Cute stock pots, right? 

Over all, I'm super excited about this recipe book and the convenience it will provide me in finding favorites and having them within arms reach.  Chris is pretty psyched about it too and wants me to put some of his favorites in there as well. 

This morning, I found a new recipe on Pinterest on my Breakfast recipe board called Bacon Egg and Cheese Breakfast Ring.  Here is the link to it if you'd like to try it:
http://www.navywifecook.com/2012/01/bacon-egg-and-cheese-ring.html

Here are some pictures of it.  It came out pretty awesome!

Above:  Just out of the oven.

 A cross-section view

 And my lovely (yet slightly blurry (SORRY)) paper plate with yummy breakfast goodness on it.  mmmMMmm  This was a great recipe and not hard to make at all.  I think total it took me about half an hour to make it and that included cooking the eggs and bacon, shredding cheese and baking it for 16 minutes.  Not bad!  We happened to have all of  the ingredients for it and I was hungry so I decided to go for it.  It paid off!  Thanks for reading and happy cooking!!!

Bullying

About 2 weeks or so ago, Daniel got off the bus upset.  He didn't say anything but I could tell something was wrong.  I tried to cheer him up and told him we were going to his Dika's (Grandma) to get his hair cut.  He was really in need of a hair cut. He didn't cheer up at all. When we got to my mom's for the hair cuts, he still seemed down so I asked him how school was and he said it wasn't good.  He didn't want to elaborate though.  I had to pry it out of him and he told me what happened. First, a boy from his class poked him in his mouth with the pointy end of a stick.  The teacher talked to that boy and everything was fine there but on the playground, Daniel was playing on the play scape bridge and a boy came up and pushed him from behind causing Daniel to flip over the side and fall, landing on the top of his head.  I was outraged that no one would call me when he fell on the top of his head like that. Apparently, no one saw this. He didn't tell anyone either.  I was very upset and concerned for him and poor Daniel was crying about it for a while that evening because he was scared to go to school the next day.  I emailed his teacher and she said she wasn't aware of it and would bring up at the staff meeting that morning that that area needs to be watched more closely and that she would have Daniel show her who the boy was that pushed him so he could be dealt with.  I couldn't believe that my son, only 3 weeks into Kindergarten, could be going through his first bullying experience.  After talking about this with a friend, she made me realize that it probably seemed very deliberate to Daniel and by all means scared him but that boy probably didn't hurt him on purpose.  It was probably an accident but the boy didn't know he knocked Daniel down... he was probably just pushing him out of his way while he was running across the bridge.  Never the less, the boy should be talked to about the proper way to play.

I received a lot of feedback about this topic on Facebook.  Many friends said I should speak with the boys' parents.  Some said I should march into the principle's office and demand something be done, etc, etc...  I chose to talk to his teacher (via email and in person) and ask her to keep an eye on Daniel to make sure nothing like this happens again.  I chose not to go in to the principle's office this time because his teacher told me she would handle it.  I trust that she will. This was a one time thing as of this point.  The boy that poked him in the mouth was  from his class.  Daniel came home a couple days later with a card from him  that said "I'm sorry Daniel".  That was really nice of him to do that. (I'm sure his mother made him though,  ha ha)  The boy that pushed him was a first grader that Daniel didn't know.

This whole thing really hit home for me because I was bullied as a child too.  Although mine wasn't physical bullying, it made me dread going to school too so I completely understood how Daniel was feeling.  I had low self esteem for a very long time because of my bullying experiences.  Kids can really be very mean.  I really hope and pray that we can be the generation that teaches our kids NOT to be that way.

One thing I realized as I was going through how bad I felt for Daniel and how upset he was, was that the boy that bullied him (if he was intentionally bullying him) is probably being bullied at home or by someone else in his life.  He needs to be shown love and acceptance to encourage him to stop being a bully.  So, I plan to build Daniel up as much as we can and tell him what an amazing kid he is and not to worry about bullies. They only do that stuff to try to make themselves look or feel better because they don't feel good about themselves.  So, in closing, I pray for those bullies that someone will love them and show them acceptance, build them up and make them feel worth while so the bullying will stop.

Thanks for reading. Comments are appreciated.

Weight Loss Journey Update

Hey friends!  It's been a while since I shared on my blog what's going on.... Sooo a bunch has happened since I last wrote.  Let me start by saying that I have officially lost 8 pounds so far, several inches and 2 dress sizes!  I also went down drastically in bra size which I know for some might seem sad but for me it was fantastic!  My back pain is almost gone now compared to where it was before.  HUGE difference!  I'm doing pretty well so far.  I had a little time in there where I wasn't able to work out or didn't have the drive for it so I wasn't as good for a bit.  I'm getting back into it though. 

Earlier this month, Chris had a business trip to Las Vegas for a week which meant I'd be home alone with the boys for a week straight - no break or help.  Normally, my mom would help me out or at least keep me company.  My parents happened to be in Italy at the same time and when they got home, they had to move!  So, she was not available - needless to say.  Chris's mom asked if the boys and I would like to come out stay with them for the week.  After thinking about it and contacting her best friend, Mary (who lives in Garden City, MI) and asking her if she'd like to drive out with me, we decided to go.  There was no way I was driving 9 hours with the kids alone.  I'd be insane!  They need way too much attention and help in the back of the car to not have an adult back there with them.  It worked out really well having here with us. I love Mary to death!  She's awesome!

On our way out, while Mary was driving ( she took over for me after I drove for about 5 hours),  we ran out of gas.  She had forgotten to pay attention to the gas gauge since she was driving my car and she's not used to it.  HA!  Amazingly, God was watching out for us and we ran out of gas right in front of a house (in the middle of the sticks in PA).  We pulled into the driveway coasting and the nice man that lived there named Ed told us he had just filled up his 5 gallon gas can the day before.  He offered us the gas.  We were so grateful for this!  We took his gas can, after putting the 5 gallons in the van's tank and went up to the gas station that was another 4 1/2 miles away and filled up the van and his gas can and returned it to him.  Praise God that He was watching over us that day.  That situation could have been so much worse and set us back hours on our drive time.  Instead, we got in at the expected time!

So, while we were visiting, I kind of slacked off on the working out.  I was on vacation!  I still ate pretty much according to my diet and ended up losing 1/2 pound that week which was amazing since the day before we came home, I had pizza twice.

After we got home, things went sort of back to normal.  My parents were moving so we were helping them a bit and there was one thing after another.  I had to get my birth control shot and for some reason the nurse put it in my butt instead of my hip.  My butt was sore for 3 days!  I also aggravated my tear in my left shoulder again and strained my tennis elbow helping my parents move.  So, I was kind of out of commission for working out for a few days.  Then, I had a night where I only got 3 hours of sleep because stupidly, I took a Claritin D in the evening and it gave me insomnia.  UGH

This past week, I lost another 1/2 pound even though I didn't do much working out at all.  So, I'm relieved.  This week, I'm back at it!  I did time on my elliptical running at full tilt and I'm getting back into doing my Zumba for Wii video.  Nathan wants to do it with me. 

I have to say it's a great feeling when I have to roll the tops of my shorts because they are close to falling off of me!  Clothes I haven't been able to wear in a long time fit me again too.

This weekend I'll be on a break though.  We are going out to Massachusetts because Chris's aunt Danielle passed away from pancreatic cancer.  We are going to the funeral.  My parents are keeping the boys for us.  I'm so glad about that because they would be super bored and wouldn't really understand what's going on at the funeral home.  I'm also looking forward to a brief break from being "Mommy"... A LOT.

We are really sad about losing Auntie.  She was always so sweet and welcoming to me.  I met his whole family after we'd been together only a few months ( I met his mom at the same time).  I have to say they are the most wonderful group of people I could ever ask for in a family. Auntie treated me like I was her own niece and after we had the boys, she would always send them presents for Christmas.  So nice of her!  I know this weekend will be hard and sad and tough to say good bye.  I feel so horrible for her kids.  Losing an aunt is nothing compared to losing your mom.  I am blessed to still have my mom and Chris's mom still around and in good health.  I would be devastated if I lost my mom.  She is my best friend.  I can only imagine how Andrea and B.J. feel and the imagination is bad enough.  I wish there was something I could do to comfort them more.  I've been praying for them and asking my bible study group to pray for them.  I hope the Lord gives them comfort in knowing she is in Heaven with Him now... no longer in pain and happier than we could ever imagine being.

Well, I'm starting to cry, so I'm going to leave it here.  May God bless you today and every day.

Hugs,
Lyndsey

Weight Loss Journey Update

So, I've been on the Weight Watchers plan for a week and a half so far.  I weighed in this morning and I've lost 5 pound so far and I've lost an inch from my arms, thighs, waist, hips and 2 inches from my bust!  I'm so happy about all of this!  The best part is how I've been FEELING since I started this journey.  The only one I can give credit to is God for giving me the strength and determination to stick with this and achieve my goals. 

He's given me the drive I need for sure!  I made the decision to start doing this and I have found it pretty easy to stick to.  I'm not saying it's been effortless.  There have been times when I really just want a snack and after waiting for as long as I can, I break down and have a small snack even if I am going over my points target for the day.  The good thing is that I haven't once touched my activity points .  Only the weekly flex points they give me to use.  I still had 30 of those left at the end of the week out of 45.  I also earned about 40 activity points throughout the week.  I'm finding a lot of different ways to earn activity points.  I love that housework counts!  I do a lot of that so I can earn points just doing what I normally do and then I get more when I actually specifically exercise.  I got a bunch of points for going for a long walk with my husband and kids last night.  I walked fast the whole time and half of the time I pulled the wagon with at least Xander in it and part of the time I had both him and Daniel in it. 

I'm feeling more confident and better about myself. I have been feeling pretty down for a long time about how I looked and felt.  It was hard to look in the mirror.  I really didn't like what I saw.  My stretched out belly from having 3 big babies doesn't help.  I'm really targeting that area hard because I want to be able to wear whatever I want like I used to be able to when Chris and I first met.  I used to be a size 2.  Right now, I'm between a 16 and a 14.  I'm not proud of this one bit.  I can't believe I let it get that bad. 

I do have a struggle with stress eating.  Yesterday I slipped up and snacked a lot because I was having a bad day.  I was mad at myself even more for that which only made it worse.  I had a tough morning trying out something new.  It didn't go as I thought it would.  I had a challenge that made me really upset. I won't go into what that was but I will say it was tough.  I also had a harder time because I couldn't talk to my mom about it and we are super close.  She was on a plane to Italy with my dad.  It's hard not getting to talk to her.  We talk almost every day normally.

So, today, I'm back on it and I'm planning to do my new pilates DVD. Or I might pull out the Wii fit and do some yoga or step aerobics.  I like having variation to my work outs and ways to fit it in throughout the day around my chores and taking care of my kids.

My kids are the main reason I'm doing all of this.  I want to be healthier and stronger so I'm not tired and wanting to just sit on my butt watching them play.  I want to play WITH them and enjoy it.  I also don't want them to be embarrassed because their mom is fat or ask me why I have a big belly any more.  I also want to be sexy for my husband again and for me.  I want to feel pretty and sexy again. I'm really looking forward to that and I already feel better with only 5 pounds lost.  I still have a long way to go but I'm half way to my first goal of 10 pounds lost so that is awesome!

If you're in a similar situation where you're struggling with your weight and how you feel about yourself,  Weight Watchers is a great plan for anyone. It's easy to keep up with and very flexible.  I started right around the July 4 holiday which was hard. The food offerings at the party we went to was hot dogs, hamburgers and chicken legs with chips and watermelon.  Moderation was HUGE for me.  I also made some flag cupcakes because we had the mix and it was great place to use those up (or so I thought).  We ended up bringing most of them back home and they've been calling to me - "Eat me! I'm so yummy!"  I gave in a couple of times.  I want them to get eaten and not wasted. My kids would rather eat cookies.  HA!  Oh well. There are only 2 of those tempting little cupcakes left. 

My best advice is to ask GOD to help you and TRUST in HIM.  This was really very hard for me to really place my trust in HIM.  I did that after discussing it and praying about it with my bible study group.  It's working!  I'm enjoying working out and loving feeling the burn from exercise!  I don't mind at all being sore from working out.  I hated feeling sore from doing nothing.  That is going away so I am THRILLED!!!!!!   God is working in me and my life is getting so much better for it! 

May God bless you on your journey - whatever it might be!