Menu for August 9-15

We repeat the same breakfast and lunch menus each week for 2-3 months or until we get sick of them. Here is our current rotation:

Monday
B: Puffy Pancake
L: Bean and Cheese Burritos, tortilla chips

Tuesday
B: Muffins
L: Sandwich, carrots, wheat thins

Wednesday
B: Bagels w/Cream Cheese
L:Fast English Muffin Pizzas

Thursday
B: Cereal
L: Hot Dogs, peaches

Friday
B: Apples and Oatmeal
L: PB Honey Tortilla Roll ups, apples

Saturday
B: Eggs, Toast
L: ***Leftovers***

Sunday
B: Pancakes
L: Soup/Salad/Sandwich

Here are the dinners I have planned for this week:

Monday: Slow Cooker Barbecue Chicken Sandwiches
Tuesday: BBQ ribs, Crockpot Baked Potatoes, coleslaw, baked beans
Wednesday: Chicken W/ Black Beans and Cream Cheese, brown rice
Thursday: Spaghetti, meatballs, green salad, green beans
Friday: **Pizza Night**
Saturday: Maui Grilled Chicken Sandwiches, Potato Skins
Sunday: McGriddles, fruit

I use Plan to Eat to do all my meal planning. Plan to Eat is a simple meal planning website that helps you keep all of your recipes in one place, and plan your meals and shopping lists so you can eat well and save time and money. It takes a little time at first to get your recipes entered, but it is well worth it. Once the initial work is done, you can drag and drop your meals, create your shopping list and you're done.

For other great menu ideas, check out OrgJunkie.

Summer Fun List

These are all the activities we want to try this summer.

I've added the list to the sidebar so I can cross them off as we do them.

go camping

go fishing

go swimming

ride bikes

go to beach

ride motorcycles

concert in the park

movie in the park

free movie

make sundaes

climb spencer’s butte

climb skinner’s butte

play mini golf

wii tournament

go to the library

go to the museum

go to the zoo

play tennis

slip n slide

go to the lake

go to the water park

have a garage sale

24 hours of reading

blow bubbles

use sidewalk chalk

water balloon toss

run in sprinklers

dine outside

go to em’s game

picnic at the park

go to saturday market

go to a car show

make rootbeer floats

make s’mores

sit by campfire

movie in backyard

stay in hotel

go gold panning

watch a parade

go to ruckus

go bowling

seed spitting contest

got to farmers market

go to vbs

sleepover at grandma’s

watch monster trucks

Books Read in 2009

* Confessions of a Shop-a-holic
* Finger Lickin' Fifteen
* LA Candy
* My Bible
* Shop-a-holic Takes Manhattan
* The Shack
* The Yada Yada Prayer Group
* The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Down
* The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Real
* The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Tough

Backyard Habitat

In order to tie science in with our studies of the globe, we are looking at the different ecosystems that correlate with each country. This includes a weekly nature walk. For our first nature walk, we were to examine the habitat in our backyard. Since we haven't watered all summer, it was looking a little barren. We walked down the street to the lushly watered apartment complex and explored their habitat instead.

The goal: to become aware of different elements in your surroundings/habitat.

First we roped of an area and took a look, recording our observations.











Then we got an even closer look.

As the Orange Turns

We began our study of the world by comparing globes and maps.
The goal: to help the kids understand how the world is distorted in a flat map.

They drew the world onto an orange











then peeled it and tried to lay it flat.














And then we ate it.

My Father's World

We are using a new curriculum this year, called My Father's World. I love, love, love it. I had looked at it in the past, but the price really scared me off. Well, after a few years of doing all the planning myself (which meant being tied to stacks of papers and books on a Sunday afternoon when I'd rather be hanging with my family), I decided it was worth a little moolah to buy a teacher's manual that had done all the thinking already. I am hoping this will open up a little more time for the fun things, like crafts, cooking, science experiments, and nature walks.

I decided to use ECC (Exploring Countries and Cultures) this year. We are taking a trip around the world, studying diverse countries, learning geography, and reading about missionaries.

We watched a movie over the summer, called The Other Side of Heaven. It is the story of a missionary in the Tongan islands. It gave them a real picture in their mind of what it is like for a missionary to enter a strange culture and land and spread the word of God.

On the first day of school, Z and E filled out their "passport applications" and are anxiously awaiting the arrival of their new "passports". Since we are studying North America first, they won't be needing them for a few weeks...........

Let the adventure begin!

Back to School

We started a back to school this week.

Z (3rd grade) and E (2nd grade) are still home with me.



M (7th grade) and B (6th grade) headed out to middle school.